of course.
You know, I love rankings and lists as much as anybody, but if there ever was an “apples and oranges” case, this would be it.
However, if a choice must be made, I go with Star Wars.
If he hadn’t won (Woody that is) people might not be so apt to say he peaked early
plus he should have won for Manhattan.
Eraserhead has the best of both.
Huh, look at that. Annie Hall was a very well-written movie but Star Wars was the game changer. This pairing seems…. .familiar….
—PolarisDiB
@Polarisdib what pairing? Hurt locker? I wouldn’t say hurt lockers writing was great. Good, but it’s not what makes the movie like with Annie Hall.
“If he hadn’t won (Woody that is) people might not be so apt to say he peaked early”
He peaked early regardless.
And neither should have won is my answer.
I can’t remember where I heard it, but I heard of all the lowest grossing best picture winners in Oscar history, Annie Hall was the lowest.
I never liked Annie Hall, though the true best picture of the year was Close Encounters.
The only groundbreaking science fiction film for that time only a few years earlier in 1968 never achieve the best picture category: Kubrick’s “2001 A Space Odyssey”…
Re: “Hurt Locker”?
If it’s writing versus technology, then how about A Serious Man? Either way, the precise form is not the comparison I was making, just the feel of technological game-changer versus old-fashioned storytelling, which, yes, The Hurt Locker is in comparison.
“Old fashioned” not meant to be taken literally, is what I mean.
—PolarisDiB
“He peaked early regardless”
I disagree. Every decade he makes very good films.
I agree: Close Encounters was the best picture that year.
Yes
If I were a voter, and given the ballot (Annie Hall, The Goodbye Girl, Julia, Star Wars, The Turning Point), yeah, I would have picked Annie Hall. After I stopped screaming that The Goodbye Girl was nominated.
I still feel the same way, even though I’d rather watch Star Wars 9 times out of 10.
i gotcha dib.
an interesting parallel pair up would be Avatar+Star Wars vs. A Serious Man+Annie Hall. I’d watch that fight.
-Close Encounters was the best picture that year-
There are so many good films from ’77. I mentioned Eraserhead already, also:
Altman’s 3 Women
Charles Burnett’s Killer of Sheep
Peter Weir’s The Last Wave
George Romero’s Martin
Scorsese’s New York, New York
David Cronenberg’s Rabid
Herzog’s Stroszek
Dario Argento’s Suspiria
Luis Buñuel That Obscure Object of Desire
. . .
No.
other than what star wars went on to do (we cant see the future so that is not valid) why should have Star wars won?
The Oscars are bullshit anyway … if best picture meant anything, it wouldnt limit its self to “english language”.
There are reasons Woody Allen really didnt give a shit about his Oscar.
For what’s its worth given the five options the voters had to choose from, I think they made the right decision. Was Annie Hall the best film made in the world that year? Probably not, no.
The Turning Point totally got robbed!
Annie Hall is the movie the critics still talk about, and Star Wars is the movie everybody else still talks about, watches and is an integral part of American pop culture. Of course Star Wars should have won, but the Oscars never pick the right movies for best picture anyway. All about politics and nothing more.
hahaha
Seriously, does anyone nowadays even know what The Turning Point is or what it was all about? Or am I out of the loop and don’t realize that Black Swan is giving it a resurgence?
I think Annie Hall deserves its win, not just for that year but for being one of the best films of the 1970s and, yes, of all time. Star Wars deserves to be in that line-up, as does Close Encounters.
The Goodbye Girl is cute, at best, and really is a travesty that it made it to the list. The Turning Point, too.
Julia, on the other hand, is a really beautiful piece that unfortunately has been forgotten. It should have a resurgence. In it, Fonda and Redgrave do some of the best work of their lives.
For such an amazing decade of American cinema, this is really a weak year. Or, at least it is if judged by these titles, where two of them clearly stick out as not deserving to be there.
The two biggest failures in academy award history:
1.Ordinary People beating Raging Bull. What a joke. who cares about Ordinary People now? Nobody, except for maybe Den ;-)
2.Shakespeare In Love beating Thin Red Line. again, another joke, for generally the same reasons.
I like Ordinary People as do many people that see it.
I would have given the oscar to The Elephant Man
Thin Red Line likely split votes with Ryan and u dont want to know what I would have picked that year (:
Ordinary People is a film that studies the destruction of a family in minute detail. Mary Tyler Moore’s coldness, Timothy Hutton’s confusion and Donald Sutherland’s helplessness are all palpable, as is the sad autumn feel of the film.
Having said that, it is not the timeless stunning masterpiece that Raging Bull is. Having said that, the best picture of 1980 was The Empire Strikes Back (and yes, I’m aware I’m probably the only person on MUBI who thinks this.)
For 1998, I would have gone with The Truman Show. Shakespeare in Love was awfull and even more hated by Shakespeare people than by film people.
Star Wars was the better film.
….as was The Empire Strikes Back in 1980.
What the hell? no love for Annie Hall???
Will Geisler
Should Annie Hall have beaten Star Wars for Best Picture in 1977?
W