TrekBBS Academy Awards: #10 - Best Picture, 1985

[Star Treks]

Tenth in a series examining which movie, of the original nominees, should have won the Oscar. Up next: Best Picture, 1985... which nominee was most deserving? Comments encouraged.

After the excitement of the 1994 nominees, which did indeed engender a lot of discussion, we are back to a set of films which, perhaps, as a group, are not quite as well-remembered as that nominee set from the mid-nineties.

 

[Harvey]

I went with Witness. I haven't seen Kiss of the Spider Woman or Prizzi's Honor, so they're excluded from my choices. Out of Africa is the usual colonial trash about Africa, reproducing the unfortunately typical fantasy, here set in Kenya. The Color Purple suffers from usual Spielbergian difficulties, in addition to reproducing a few upsetting stereotypes of African-Americans. Why Spielberg was handed with the directing duties of this movie I'll never know.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

For comparison, the top-rated English language feature films of 1985 on IMDB are:

Back to the Future (8.3)
Brazil (8.0)
The Breakfast Club (7.8)
The Color Purple (7.6)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (7.6)
The Trip to Bountiful (7.6)
Witness (7.6)
After Hours (7.5)
Kiss of the Spider Woman (7.5)

Out of Africa scores a 6.9 and Prizzi's Honor a 6.8.

Back to the Future should have been nominated for Best Picture in my opinion.

I've seen all of the nominated films, although it's been a long time since I've seen some of them. Out of the nominated films it's between The Color Purple and Witness for me. I'll vote for The Color Purple.

 

[Harvey]

Actually, seeing that Brazil was made that year, I might go for a write-in on that film. And After Hours is delightfully demented, too, even if I don't think it deserved an Oscar for Best Picture.

 

[Daneel]

Back to the Future is definitely my favourite film from all the ones I've seen that were released in that year. As for the nominees... damn. I haven't seen any of them!
Well, just a few more to add to my "to watch" list...

 

[Kira's Mom]

I voted for Witness, but Color Purple would have been a good choice, too. Anything but that overlong Out of Africa!

 

[trevanian]

BRAZIL, easily. Man that was a bad year for flicks. BTTF is a moron movie that looks like a sitcom, while WITNESS, for all the good it does in the first 90min, implodes during the peaceful conclusion. I'm thinking back and groaning, BEVERLY HILLS COP, VIEW TO A KILL ... one POS after another.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

I'm thinking back and groaning, BEVERLY HILLS COP, VIEW TO A KILL ... one POS after another.

Beverly Hills Cop was released in 1984.

 

[JNG]

I can't recall off the top of my head which actually won. I voted for Witness.

 

[Roger Wilco]

The only one of these films I've seen is Witness, which was interesting, but I can't really vote in this poll without knowing the other nominated films.

Brazil is an absolutely brilliant movie, but way too quirky to win an Oscar (I'm surprised after checking in wikipedia, that it was even nominated for two Academy Awards). It's also aged excellently - I just saw it a couple months ago, the trashyness of the 80's special effects actually enhance the movie, and its storyline is as contemporary as ever.

Back to the Future should have probably been nominated also.

 

[stj]

This one was kind of tough. Brazil is a little thin on real ideas but has wonderful imagination. Bact to the Future is a classic comedy, a genre that gets short shrift.

Even the real nominees were kind of tough. Haven't seen Out of Africa but Witness had lovely performances. I suspect the cliches were flying even more furiously in it than in Color Purple. Despite the sentimentality and purple style both had considerable feeling. Kiss of the Spider Woman also was rife with stereotypes but subverted them to a degree in pursuit of it political themes. I almost voted for Kiss but Prizzi's Honor really seemed to be the most original of them all. Yes it was a comedy, and Kiss, Color Purple and Witness were oh so serious, but Prizzi's Honor just did it so well!

 

[Piper]

Not one of the better Best Picture lists by any means, pretty mediocre bunch with nothing standing out. I voted for Prizzi's Honor but could have gone for any of them really.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

With the DGA just giving its award to Danny Boyle, Deadline Hollywood passes along the info that since the DGA Awards began in 1948 there have only been six instances where the DGA winner did not also win the Oscar for Best Director (which usually goes hand in hand with Best Picture).

One of those instances was 1985: the DGA Award went to Steven Spielberg for The Color Purple, while the Oscar for Best Director went to Sydney Pollack for Out of Africa. Spielberg was snubbed by the Oscars to the extent that he wasn't even nominated for Best Director.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Out of Africa, easily.

This was one of the most beautifully photographed films ever made, for one thing - the African landscapes...the cinematography was right up there with Lawrence of Arabia and Dances With Wolves. Positively top notch.

Further, the acting was flawless - it doesn't get any better than Meryl Streep and Robert Redford at their best.

The story was flawless and not trite or all 'happy ending', and the score.....well, the score for this film was positively breathtaking.

One of my top 3 favorite films of all time. I've watched it about 30 times and never tire of it. Just beautiful.

The Witness was an excellent action/thriller. But nothing that was so far above other action/thrillers that it deserved Best Picture.

Not up against Out of Africa, anyway.

 

[Othello]

Honestly didn't really care for any of those movies.

 

[auntiehill]

I have seen and enjoyed all of these films.

I voted for Color Purple, because I think it is all-around the most creatively balanced film.

Witness would be my second choice. The most quiet of the films, it tells a great story about the characters, and the world they live in. The message, however, is a bit heavy handed at times. I think, however, that Harrison Ford gave a fantastically understated and complex performance.

Kiss of the Spider Woman is a wonderful character piece, and incredibly well written, but it is somewhat "stagy" and claustrophobic--a common problem for plays turned into films.

Out of Africa--the epic piece. Big beautiful scenery with romance and woman struggling against her surroundings. The problem here is that the characters are distant and kept at arms length from the audience. We have no idea why she loves her husband--Klaus Maria Brandauer--or even why she married him. It's completely obvious why she preferts Robert Redford. It's Redford, for God's sake. A smarter director would've swapped the actors in the roles.

Prizzi's Honor--a fun, dark-humor story about rival professional killers falling for one another. A wonderful character piece with great performances, and lots of attitude. The story itself is however, fairly forgettable.

 

[trevanian]

I'm thinking back and groaning, BEVERLY HILLS COP, VIEW TO A KILL ... one POS after another.

Beverly Hills Cop was released in 1984.

Sorry, I didn't see it till 1985 (never saw ET till 83) so I misremember the years on those. Chronologically, I saw BHC after VIEW TO A KILL, which i know was 85, hence the mistake. Didn't remember movies stayed in the theaters that long back then.

 

[CaptainCanada]

I've never seen any of these.

 

[Smiley]

I haven't seen any of the nominees, and I have no real desire to see any but Witness. Back to the Future is the best movie from 1985.