1976 Oscar Nominees

jesus, that list. for me it's between president's men and taxi driver, and the latter is so fucking indelible. i love '70s urban paranoia movies.

Damn you for usurping my duties! (Spookily enough, I was probably going to go with this year next. This or 1974.)

Me 10 years ago never would've thought it possible, but me now is putting my vote toward AtPM. Would've been Network easily back then.

Network does rival JFK for the most pleasurably batshit political best picture nominee ever.

No clunkers here, tho I saw Bound for Glory again a couple years ago and might rate it below Rocky.

ATPM over Taxi Driver.

Network is reactionary, although it did anticipate the ways in which TV would get even worse in the last 30 years.

Taxi Driver

first Academy Awards I ever watched!

taxi driver def

i love '70s urban paranoia movies.

^^^^^ This. What an exciting decade for films. Tough choice between All The President's Men, Taxi Driver and Network for me.

i love '70s urban paranoia movies.

one of the fall's best song titles is "paranoia man in cheap shit room" -- if i ever make my gritty urban crime drama, it's so gonna be on the soundtrack.

Taxi Driver by an enormous margin. I like the other four (Rocky by far the least), but All The President's Men is a little too self-congratulatory and Network a little too histrionic for my tastes.

I agree with all of that.

I've always found TD's madonna/whore thing a tad problematic (Schrader's, not Bickle's).

Yeah it's not a perfect script, but it seems strikingly original in a way that few films are (although Schrader sort of mined it again and again so yeah) and great directing, great acting, and a great score really put it over the top for me. And one of the all time headfuck endings.

I mean, really, all Oscar years should have me reluctantly casting Taxi Driver and Network into the runner up positions.

"Network." I think even Sidney Lumet drew breaths filming this shit.

I cast the obvious vote for Taxi Driver, but ATPM has to be one of the decade's strongest runners-up--fantastic film. (I guess whichever you choose as the lesser of Nashville/Cuckoo's Nest from the previous year would be its equal; ditto Godfather II/Chinatown/The Conversation from '74.) I'm not a fan of Network, and Rocky's Rocky; haven't seen Bound for Glory.

no, the '75 pair is Nashville & Barry Lyndon.

If you want you extend the grouping to include Barry Lyndon, sure--I wouldn't, but many would. I wouldn't eliminate Cuckoo's Nest, though. (I'd probably go with Jaws after Nashville anyway...)

Save it for the inevitable '75 poll. (Which is also a pretty miraculous lineup excepting, maybe, the winner if you, like me, read the book first.)

i need to put Bound for Glory on my too see list.

Network sorta dissapointed me after all the good Lumet shit i'd seen before, putting in a vote for Taxi Driver.

I voted for Rocky bcz apparently I forgot how to read the word NETWORK. ;_;

Network is the only Lumet movie I like outside of The Wiz. Even 12 Angry Men is just 12 great performances locked in a room.

at that point i thought Dog Day Afternoon was the best movie ever. (it's definetely among the best) though ranking movies seems even more useless than ranking records. dunno why.

Have you seen Prince of the City, tho? Maybe best American dirty-cop movie ever.

xp

(I'm pretty sure even Lumet wouldn't defend The Wiz, you perv)

someone with time give me a couple of more Hal Ashby recommendations, i mean are there any more after Bound for Glory, Harold and Maude, Being There and The Last Detail?

Judging the evidence on display in his movies, Lumet wouldn't know a good movie it if hit him in the eye. (And in any case, Quincy Jones is the auteur behind The Wiz, not Lumet.) Haven't seen Prince of the City tho.

Treat Williams suuuuuuucks.

oh E, you and bad movies.

Ludo: Shampoo, and Coming Home for the acting.

thx.

All of these are crappy to varying degrees save for Bound for Glory which I haven't seen. So I'm voting for it cuz it has the potential to be great.

Yeah, this lineup does sort of approach the apotheosis of new hollywood, isn't it.

er, doesn't it

It does indeed. Also, this was the year of Hitchcock's last film, Family Plot which, prolly needless to say, I'll take over any of these.

Family Plot is great too. I don't see why I can't have both that AND Taxi Driver/Carrie/Assault on Precinct 13/et al.

I've always been fascinated by the perfect symmetry of Ashby's '70s career: the six films mentioned above, plus The Landlord--seven for seven, without a single misstep. Obviously there's some variance in quality among them, but most every other major director of the era had at least one high-profile debacle on his resume: [i]1941, Quintet, New York, New York, Sorcerer, etc. (And the three exceptions that come to mind--Coppola, Kubrick, and Lucas--directed fewer than 10 films between them.) Ashby basically emerges as the secret hero of A Decade Under the Influence, Ted Demme's documentary on American film in the '70s.

Yeah, I noticed that too. I'm not as crazy about Shampoo as I used to be, and I haven't seen The Landlord, but Ashby had a helluva streak.

taxi driver for me

network

New York, New York is not a debacle. Jesus you people have awful taste.

Of course I like Sorcerer better than Coming Home so maybe I'm the one with the problem.

TAXI DRIVER, c'mon!

Alex otm re NYNY! Must be that time of year. ;)

Scorsese perfected Taxi Driver with its superior remake, The King of Comedy.

12 Angry Men is just 12 great performances locked in a room.

Even Armond White, your colleague in the Hate Lumet Treehouse, sees value in his putting great acting on the screen, as in Long Day's Journey into Night. If de Palma ever manages it, do give a call.

"Scorsese perfected Taxi Driver with its superior remake, The King of Comedy."

Wowthisisgettingeerie. ;)

I saw the Hill recently. Even Lumet haters might really like that one.

Def TaxiDriver.

If de Palma ever manages it, do give a call.

No.

Which is to say, it's impossible for me to call you in 1976, when De Palma put at least four of them in just one film.

Ooooh burn. That's kind of DePalma's exception though. I'd agree with Morbs that acting is an afterthought in a lot of his movies (which I often love.)

No argument from me there. I do think the performances typically work for his films just fine.

I like Spacek and Laurie -- Amy Irving is great in that? in a Fast Times at Ridgemont High kind of way?

No, I mean, you know, great, as in Jason Robards as Jamie Tyrone great. (an Oscar winner in '76 as Ben Bradlee, to steer back on topic.)

(I also can't imagine you really really could be calling Betty Buckley's efficient performance as the friggin' gym teacher great. Oh, you are a card.)

A poll of the '76 acting nominees would be fab: every nominee came from Network anyway. I think it's still the only movie to earn three acting Oscars.

Efficient hardly describes her cautiously optimistic chat with Spacek at her prom table.

My second-favorite 1976 de Palma-directed performance is probably Genevieve Bujold in Obsession. Good year for him.

Bujold was great in Coma. What ever happened to her?

Bujold is good in Obsession, but the movie is the one true bummer in that mid-70s spread.

Unless you are humorless and go for that type of thing.

you know me!

oh, if you take The Fury as pure burlesque, your love is slightly fathomable. :)

Bujold hit a new peak w/ Croney in Dead Ringers.

How I'd have voted on the '76 acting awards: De Niro, Spacek, Robards, Laurie.

Pretty IMDB of me, but it's that kinda year.

"Cut out 'her tit.' This is a family newspaper."

How I'd have voted on the '76 acting awards: De Niro, Spacek, Robards, Laurie

If I were voting now, I'd let Dunaway keep her Oscar knowing that Spacek would win in '80.

Between it and Coal Miner's Daughter, Carrie's the better picture, but she's great in both.

Liv Ullmann should've won at some point. Marion fucking Cotillard....

Sorely missing nominees: Walter Matthau in The Bad News Bears, John Wayne in The Shootist and Shirley Stoler in Seven Beauties

Knowing that I'd give my Oscar to Faye in '81, I'd give Spacek her due in '76.

...President's Men by a country mile. self-congratulatory? i don't see that at all, but maybe the film can come over that way because the real guys were (and i sorta think they had every right to be), as detailed by Goldman in ...Screen Trade etc.

Let me clarify something from upthread. I shouldn't have used debacle to describe New York, New York--I've only seen it once, but I remember there were some things I liked about it. (One of the supporting performances, De Niro's manager or agent, was especially good.) But I'm pretty sure that, after a certain amount of anticipation, it was jumped all over by most critics, and also that it lost a fair amount of money at the time. It was one of many smaller-scale Heaven's Gates (before the real Heaven's Gate arrived) that helped bring about the end of the unlimited freedom that many leading '70s directors more or less enjoyed for the first half of the decade: NY, NY, 1941, At Long Last Love, The Missouri Breaks, Quintet (Altman had more than one), Cruising (maybe a better choice than Sorcerer), Stardust Memories, a few others. These films are inevitably viewed more favorably over time; even Heaven's Gate gets some votes in Sight & Sound's greatest-ever poll nowadays. But they were perceived as flops at the time, and Hal Ashby was a rarity in that he managed to escape the decade without one.

Well yeah, but Hall Ashby was also a more restrained director than those guys were so it doesn't shock me that he wouldn't create something that was perceived as being an over-ambitious flop (or in the case of 1941 just a plain flop.) He also didn't direct anything as good as NY, NY or Stardust Memories (let alone most of those directors' best efforts--although I think now away from the expectations of the time NY, NY is maybe my favorite 70s Scorsese.)

NYNY was certainly a commercial debacle -- Scorsese was so destroyed by its failure he moved in with Robbie Robertson and nearly coked himself to death.

I think The Last Detail is significantly better than Stardust Memories, though I mostly have a cool admiration for all Ashby's other stuff (and for his ability to make a posturing, offensive, cutesy nothing like the Harold & Maude script into something watchable).

Even Armond White, your colleague in the Hate Lumet Treehouse, sees value in his putting great acting on the screen, as in Long Day's Journey into Night. If de Palma ever manages it, do give a call.

Great acting is so 2008.* Who cares? What good did it ever do Malcolm Le Grice, a better director than almost anyone mentioned on this thread? And gimme something like Femme Fatale, which demonstrates movies as the best set of electric trains a boy ever had, over a tomb for great acting like 12 Angry Men or that pesky Taxi Driver any day.

* Ok I don't really believe this exactly. I love Joan Crawford's great acting in Rain and Possessed (1947) (both quite uncampy, I should add) and Helen Mirren's in The Queen. But great acting has done almost as much damage throughout film history as severe edits by The Man. Also great acting almost never means comedy nor Eric H's Oscar to Dunaway in 1981 for arguably the greatest film performance of all-time.

Feel like I should say Taxi Driver but Network's batshit glory gets me every time. The more that people point out its flaws the more I seem to like it.

"I think The Last Detail is significantly better than Stardust Memories"

I kinda forgot about that one. Yeah it is better.

t was one of many smaller-scale Heaven's Gates (before the real Heaven's Gate arrived) that helped bring about the end of the unlimited freedom that many leading '70s directors more or less enjoyed for the first half of the decade

Peter Biskind is responsible for spreading this risible notion. The good movies may have been better than during the Hollywood studio heyday, but there were just as many bad movies. Because the seventies films were taking greater risks their failures seem more grotesque. Every one of the poll options is significantly flawed – and this is one of the better years.

*omit "than"

agrteed KJB, if you're reinventing the medium or doing comedy "great acting" is not likely in your toolbox, but then I like to see films after the reinvention is complete, ie Godard bores the living shit outta me 70% of the time. I'll look up Malcolm Le Grice though.

I still may like Seven Beauties more than any of those 5 movies.

Also, a well-drawn 4-hour compilation of Watergate-related news footage would kick AtPM's ass. Especially with at least 30 minutes of Nixon denials.

Even 12 Angry Men is just 12 great performances locked in a room.

so you get Sidney Lumet

Who is visionary genius.

Also, a well-drawn 4-hour compilation of Watergate-related news footage would kick AtPM's ass. Especially with at least 30 minutes of Nixon denials.

Truth talking. It'd probably be more compelling stylistically too.

Network is great but come the fuck on its Taxi Driver in a walk

Taxi Driver will win, but Network is a better movie.

actually I like Pakula's style just fine. I thought it was a GREAT film when I first saw it, but I was a 14-year-old Nixon hater.

A stylistic genius would really have fucked up 12 Angry Men, or Network. Can we not understand, class, that some material requires middlebrow craftsmanship?

the middlebrow craftsmanship in Network, esp. as regards the personal relationships involving Max actually make a strong counterpoint to the television sequences ... it reinforces their alien quality.

Most of Lumet's successful films are dominated by the writer's sensibility. (Some of the bad ones too, like that last crappy Hoffman-Hawke-Finney tragicrimedy.)

(Some of the bad ones too, like that last crappy Hoffman-Hawke-Finney tragicrimedy.)

yeah, that one was pretty meh. On the other hand, it was better than almost every one of the movies on that PG movies thread.

A stylistic genius would really have fucked up 12 Angry Men, or Network. Can we not understand, class, that some material requires middlebrow craftsmanship?

This is really smart and I'm not sure it's altogether true. But apart from Amadeus and The Queen (2006), and, um, I can't think of anything else, do any middlebrow films (including 12 Angry Men and Network) hold a candle to the work of a stylistic genius (emphasis on genius)?

Oh and I forgot to respond to this:

Family Plot is great too. I don't see why I can't have both that AND Taxi Driver/Carrie/Assault on Precinct 13/et al.

Who's stopping you? Have away at them all.

there are plenty of movies directed by a "stylistic genius" with crappy or mediocre scripts and acting, that result in blah movies.

And their titles?

Here's Dave Kehr on Murder on the Orient Express suggesting that maybe no material requires middlebrow craftsmanship:

"Agatha Christie's novel is nothing more than a sleight-of-hand trick, but you can see how a real artist might have turned it into something interesting: latent in the plotting are the possibilities for a probing critique on the mystery formula and the assumptions that support it. Sidney Lumet isn't that artist: he uses the material only as a pretext for star turns, most of which turn much too heavily and much too slowly (1974)."

But apart from Amadeus and The Queen (2006), and, um, I can't think of anything else, do any middlebrow films (including 12 Angry Men and Network) hold a candle to the work of a stylistic genius (emphasis on genius)?

Mitchell Leisen, Joseph Ruben, and lots of films by Wyler come to mind.

I'll never forgive the Cahiers crowd (abetted by the enfants terribles of seventies cinema) for creating the Cult of the Director.

I'll give you Leisen although I'm not sure how middlebrow his films are but definitely not Wyler. And I had to look up this Joseph Ruben character. Hmmmm...

And don't blame Cahiers. Iris Barry, Jay Leyda, Harry Alan Potamkin, etc. were on to it well before them.

How is Wyler not middlebrow? An adapter of intelligent, sometimes "classic" novels, consistent A-list casts, four Best Director trophies...

Oh he is. I just don't think any of his flicks hold a candle to the work of a stylistic genius.

i can't wait to meet this stylistic genius!

Oh he is. I just don't think any of his flicks hold a candle to the work of a stylistic genius.

The Heiress >>>>>> Welles' Othello

Eh I'll just have to go ahead and disagree with you there. But that is one of my fave Wylers. Andy Milligan dug it too.

Stylistic geniuses can be SO boring.

TAXI DRIVER owns this. Haven't seen Bound For Glory, but I doubt that matters.

I don't really feel like picking among Network, ATPM and Taxi Driver because I dig them all quite a bit. Haven't seen Bound for Glory, and Rocky is surprisingly good for a traditional sports movie.

KJB, I read the Agatha Christie book around the time Murder on the Orient Express came out, and the only director who would've been able to make that work in '74 might've been Mel Brooks. (hence the MAD parody is one I still remember)

you are such a doctrinaire auteurist, you old-fashioned boy. ;)

(also Amadeus is one of the worst Forman movies I've ever seen; Hair is better)

xp kjb: whom do you consider a stylistic genius?

Well the burden of proof's on you there.

KJB, I read the Agatha Christie book around the time Murder on the Orient Express came out, and the only director who would've been able to make that work in '74 might've been Mel Brooks.

Now that would've been worth seeing!

you are such a doctrinaire auteurist, you old-fashioned boy. ;)

It's true. But then there's Curse of the Cat People, The Seventh Victim, Xanadu, The Apple, Marci X, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, Crazy in Alabama, Twilight, The Gay Deceivers, Joan Crawford, Adrian, etc.

OK, sometimes I exaggerate for effect with you Morbs, but no fucking way Hair is better than Across the Universe (which i haven't seen but looks like ass), much less Amadeus.

Oh look, there are results.

That's odd. How come there wasn't one of those automatic "poll results are in" posts?

All the President's Men over Network, which is no more reactionary and a lot more civilized than Taxi Fucking Driver

Even 12 Angry Men is just 12 great performances locked in a room.

― nu hollywood (Eric H.), Sunday, May 24, 2009 2:49 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It may be a tribute to Lumet that you don't notice how much more than that it is

Showed Network to a crowd last night and it was surprisingly well received.

Didn't hurt that the crowd was very full of the core "they don't make them like that anymore" demo.

https://media.giphy.com/media/aEcujXyziE8qk/giphy.gif

Many bathroom breaks during Beatrice Straight's monologue?

Every good word in the English language is in that script.

"wainscoting"?

Crusty ... but benign.

Owen Roizman's nomination doesn't make a lick of sense tho.

Two previous nominations... and got one later for Tootsie. They just liked him.

He did the urban grime thing well, as in French Connection and Pelham 123.

Word is that cinematography guild was the most insular boys club backscratching branch in that era.

Didn't hurt that the crowd was very full of the core "they don't make them like that anymore" demo.

Good news for your audience: Hollywood never stopped making plenty of shrill tirades on "what's the matter with society."

well Wexler won in '76 for Bound for Glory, gotta give em credit for that. xp

Every good word in the English language is in that script.

― "Minneapolis" (barf) (Eric H.

"cocksmanship"

Nine years later, I would change my vote from Taxi Driver to All the President's Men.

It's cool, I just changed my vote from All the President's Men back to Network and now the two are tied for second place!

It's been a busy day.

wd now write in Mikey and Nicky

I wasn't here 9 years ago, but Taxi Driver is still the best and Network still sucks.

were there ever consecutive Best Actress winners who played soulless villains besides Louise Fletcher and Dunaway?

Closest case I could determine was Natalie Portman in Black Swan and Streep's Margaret Thatcher.

Depends on what you think about Katherine Hepburn in On Golden Pond and Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice

Bette Davis '38/Vivien Leigh '39? Maybe they weren't entirely soulless.

I wasn't here 9 years ago, but Network is still the best and Taxi Driver still sucks.

you can deconstruct Scarlett O'Hara myriad ways, but she is clearly the heroine of GWTW

(and so is BD in Jezebel from what i can recall)

btw I have come to the realization that Holden was about 18 months older than I am now when they shot Network, and no one yet has impugned my cocksmanship.

Date more loquacious programming directors with father complexes.

Basically X agrees

Just curious, which of these should've won against ROCKY?

— Eric Henderson (@ephender) February 14, 2024