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May 26, 2008
Oscar Challenge: 1939
In 1939 there were ten movies nominated for Best Picture. You think the Academy might have had a tough time choosing. There was The Wizard of Oz, Wuthering Heights, the sweet and patriotic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and Stagecoach, which is nearly a perfect film.
I'd never seen Stagecoach before, and I was unprepared to love it as much as I did. It's one of the best movies I've ever seen. It should have won Best Picture. Too bad it was up against Gone With the Wind.
Gone With the Wind sort of defines "Best Picture". It's huge and colorful and arouses the passions (either you love it or you hate it), and it's what all Best Pictures should be measured against. I love it. I've seen it a million times and I always cry when Melanie dies. (When I was a kid, I loathed Melanie, but, as Rhett says, it's to my credit that I appreciate her now.) It might not have been the best movie made in 1939, but it was absolutely Best Picture.
p.s. I can't not talk about Thomas Mitchell. He won Best Supporting Actor in '39 for playing the drunk doctor in Stagecoach. If that wasn't enough to be proud of, he also played the differently drunk reporter in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and the even differently drunker Gerald O'Hara in Gone With the Wind. Dude was a freakin' god.
Comments
GWTW, my all time favourite big film, must rewatch sometime soon
Posted by: SweetP at May 26, 2008 11:59 PM
Wow - I had no clue about Thomas Mitchell! That was quite an achievement. One year, three movies - all nominated for best picture - and he plays a drunk [a different kind of drunk] in each. . . . Wouldn't it have been funny if he had been nominated for all 3 roles, and the question being which drunk characterization would win?
I know what you mean about Melanie. . . . ditto, for me. Now, I rather dislike Scarlet. There was another story I read recently - and can't think now what it was - where I realized the same thing had happened: I found I admired the 'good', steady, sweet character and was rather impatient with the 'heroine', who was a royal selfish pain in the a**.
I'll think of it. It's an age thing. . . . grin! (forgetting stuff, and seeing a change in values)
Posted by: prophet at May 27, 2008 6:27 AM
Oh Stagecoach!! Such a good film!! The western of westerns!!! And that zoom shot of John Wayne!! They didn't have auto adjusting focus, so there is a guy manually pulling the focus as tehy move in closer, it's a technically marvelous shot!! For the bookend, watch "The Shootist." The Duke, Katherine Hepburn and Ron Howard, an amazing film.
Posted by: Rachel T at May 27, 2008 9:55 AM