1976 Oscar Nominees

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.

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