What do you want....Awards or Iconic?

In a little over a month the 86th Annual Oscars will be awarded and this year, I am taking part in a 

31 Days of Oscar Blogathon 2014

To coincide with...

 Turner Classic Movie Channel's 31 Days of Oscar

Hosted by...

Once Upon A Screen...

Paula's Cinema Club... 

Outspoken and Freckled...

This weekend's theme, OSCAR SNUBS....

WINGS (1927)

Since the very first statuettes were handed out at the Roosevelt Hotel in 1929 when movies couldn't even talk yet and the too gorgeous for words Gary Cooper grabbed the interest of America in only a few minutes before plummeting to his death in a fiery crash...

There has been a discrepancy between what the Critics have valued and recognized and what  the Public has talked about, paid to go see and remembered. Everybody, well, guaranteed every woman was talking about Gary Cooper, he still make my heart go pitter- patter that year.

Case in point, guess what picture won in 1933?

A film called CAVALCADE, kind of a GROUNDHOG DAY but for English  New Year's spanning 1899-1933. What film was looked over for the win, though it was nominated...

A FAREWELL TO ARMS and Gary Cooper. wasn't even nominated. Before you think I am just on a rant about giving Gary Cooper his due, I am, but am actually saving most of it for his own blog posting, so lets move on to 1939, arguable the greatest singular year in movie history. Of course...

GONE WITH THE WIND won and....

WIZARD OF OZ didn't. But neither did...

MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON with Jimmy Stewart...

 or STAGECOACH, still considered an iconic Western, director John Ford using the Epic backdrop of Monument Valley for the first time and a young John Wayne.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS, didn't win either that year....

though I think Laurence Olivier's Heathcliff is by far the best of all the other performances to come. He lost to Robert Donat

who must of been big stuff in 1939, because his name is bigger than the movie's title and he won over Olivier, Clark Gable, Jimmy Stewart and Mickey Rooney, ever hear of them?

Now you might be saying, well at least these films and actors had the privilege to be nominated. Let's look at the American Film Institutes list of the 100 greatest movies, in their opinion...

# 10 on their list, SINGING IN THE RAIN, wasn't even nominated. It lost out to...

a well deserve win to one of my favorites, THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH...

 But Gene Kelly wasn't  even  a blip on the screen for a nomination the year Gary Cooper took his second Oscar home for... 

                                                      

 HIGH NOON

The #11 spot on the AFI's Greatest 100 movies goes to....

IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)

Unarguably one of the most iconic Christmas movies of all time had five nominations for an Academy award including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor. What did it win? A technical award for the new technique of assimilating fake snow on movies sets! Yup, that is why we watch it every Christmas.

Jimmy Stewart was nominated five times in all for the Best Actor award in  movies such as MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON and...

HARVEY, where Stewart had act to nothing, long before anyone had even thought of CGI or green screen, but no win for Best Actor...

Jose Ferrer won for CYRANO DE BERGERAC.

Stewart's co-hort,  in another film that was up for an Academy award but lost....

THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (194O)

Cary Grant, has to be at the top of the list for the Snubbed awards, only being nominated twice in his long film history and none for any of his Iconic movies such as the above mentioned or for movies such as..

THE BISHOP'S WIFE though it was nominated for best picture in 1947. Nor did he get nominated for any of his later work with Hitchcock, though in 1959 Grant starred in...

NORTH BY NORTHWEST which holds the #40 spot on the AFI list of the Greatest Movies. Unfortunately for Grant...

BEN-HUR

kind of raked in about all the awards in 1959, with twelve nominations and eleven wins.
Which brings up the question of if an iconic movie like NORTH BY NORTHWEST came out a year before or after, would it have done better? Or are there actors like Grant, or  directors, producers that just never are taking home that golden statuette unless it is a life time achievement award?

Which brings up Paul Newman who in...

CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF

lost to David Niven in....

SEPARATE TABLES. Have you seen it?

Newman's 1962 nomination for...

THE HUSTLER

 Considered on of his greatest films lost to....

Maximilian Schell in JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG. 

Newman would win in 1986 for ...

THE COLOR OF MONEY (1986)

But many see this as a re-recognition to Newman's Academy Award worthy previous role of "Fast Eddie" Felson in  THE HUSTLER. I have to agree, THE HUSTLER  is a piece of artistry to watch as is Newman's other over looked performance in...

HUD, which just happened to be up against another worthy performance, with the Best Actor nod going the first time to an actor of color, 

Sidney Poitier in LILIES OF THE FIELD. Sometime's, more then sometimes, timing is everything!

Are you seeing my point, that there is a difference between Award worthy in one given year, where only One Shall be names and Iconic whose only judge is the test of Time?

What is more Iconic than Newman's portrayal of....

COOL HAND LUKE (1967)

or do we....

Have a failure to communicate?

Do you need to go in the box?

Are you shaking the bush?

And how many eggs can you eat?

Well, such words might be quoted about as much as....

As you wish

Mostly dead

I don't think that means what you think it means

Maaaaaarige

and My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die.

by a younger set and the movie they got all that from is AFI's #88 Best Movie of all Time...

Now what Academy votee would check THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1987) as the best movie of the year, even though they, their children, their grandchildren were probably walking around all year quoting quipping lines from it and still are! 

THE LOST EMPEROR won that year, I kind of remember that award winning movie, do you?

But more times then not Iconic takes a little bit more time to get in the hearts and minds of us earthlings...

\

 In 1977, though STAR WARS won many technical awards, it lost Best Picture to...

ANNIE HALL

But so did Spielberg's...

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND

Woody Allen beat out both Spielberg and Lucas for Best Director that year.

The Sci Fi snub continues with...

 E.T. losing out to...

 GANDHI in 1982.

But in my biased opinion the greatest SNUB from the powers that be, completely ignoring the reactions of the public would have to go, hands down to...

AVATAR (2008), directed by James Cameron.

The Academy gave the Best Picture and the Best Director honor in 2008 to his X wife, Kathryn Bigelow for...

HURT LOCKER

After Cameron was a little bit on the "cocky side", I have heard that from many a news reporting,  after his sweeping win for...

TITANIC in 1997, with fourteen nominations and eleven wins including Best Picture and Best Director. 

Then the next time one of his monumental  movie-AVATAR  is up for consideration, its up against his X wife?

Can I hear a collective....Hummmmmm? 

Bet both of them wished for a year apart on their release dates?

But back to AVATAR, which TIME magazine in their Top 10 Greatest Movies of the Millennium, lists at #3 and HURT LOCKER at #6....just saying.

It's late and I could go on and on perusing the Wikipedia's list of the winners and nominations for Best Picture and Best Actor, sorry I rarely watch movies for, uhmm, the actresses so do not have a vast and worthless knowledge of the patterns across the ages for them, but here is that list too, Best Actress. 

Let me leave you with one more Iconic movie, that the mere mention of will send some into a chorus of quip y quotes and giggles...

 I am sure THE HOLY GRAIL was not a consideration for anyone's list, especially since it was British, but that is besides the point...

It came out the same years, 1975,  as the eligible US movie JAWS, which  did get an Academy Award nomination,- Da,Da,Da, Da, Daaaaaaaaaa!
But the Oscar went to a well deserved, but not as iconic of a movie as the above two...

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST

Next Weekend in...

"Music, Costumes, Cinematography, Writing, Etc.

Catch my Friday, Feb. 8th post for it and go to the above Host's pages to read more from other Movie lovers and haters, who post will all be linked there!
Plus keep tabs on Turner's Pre Oscar Activities!

A Tale of Four "Ryans"...

In this era of prequels and sequels, the "Jack Ryan" franchise takes the cake for the most convoluted. Based on the hugely popular espionage  series by best selling author Tom Clancy , the first wildly popular Movie to feature Clancy's medically discharged Marine turned analyst Jack Ryan was...

 THE HUNT OF RED OCTOBER (1990)

starring a very young and kind of innocent and sweet Alec Baldwin...

the movie beginnings with Ryan making a deal to bring back a stuffed animal from his business trip and ends with him taking a well deserved rest on the plane, next to the promised stuffed animal, after negotiating the defection of a Soviet Nuclear Sub and saving the world. Thus has always been the lovable-ity of Clancy's character.

Coming out faster then most trilogies these day, the next  Jack Ryan adventure to come to theaters only took two years, but the story line took a leap of over a decade...

PATRIOT GAMES (1992)

Ryan, now in his mid to late forties and now played by Harrison Ford. If all James Bonds will forever be compared to Sean Connery, then all Jack Ryans shall always be compared to Ford, who would do one more "offical" Ryan movie two years later...

CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER (1994)

So far, so good, three hugely popular movies, with an iconic character. But then Hollywood got all....Hollywood and well reason went out the window....again.

So, if you know anything about the original story line in the Tom Clancy Jack Ryan novels, he eventually becomes president of the Untied States. Well,  three years later, almost like clock work, Harrison Ford goes on to star in...

AIR FORCE ONE (1997)

The story of a honorably discharged military aviotor who is now president and uses his previous "skill set" to foil the bad guy's plans of taking over the flying White House. Has Jack Ryan written all over it, right? Wrong...... Ford's character this time is James Marshall and though he is a "special forces" kind of guy and has a smart wife and cute daughter at his side, Tom Clancy's character has nothing to do with the movie.

The real Jack Ryan won't make another showing at the box office until 2002 and this time it is a prequel. Maybe the first prequel attempt, before the reboot attempts of....

 BATMAN BEGINS (2005)

or my all time favorite "how it all got started movie...

 CASINO ROYALE (2006)

or the "not really a reboot", more of a "heres' another one" restart...

 BOURNE LEGACY (2012)

Then moving out of the "spy game" the reboots continue in Faraway places...

STAR TREK (2009)

A reboot in differnet space time continum, blah, blah, blah, giving us all  of the iconic characters without the late 1960 's backstories. We'll come back to Star Trek in a moment, but let me mention first the first attempt at a reboot, ever....if you can think of one before 2002, let me know. To my memory, this is the first.

THE SUM OF ALL FEARS(2002)

Ryan is back to being in his late twenties, just starting as an anylast, working for the CIA with a hot girl friend who is in her residency to be a eye surgeon. Yup, all the facts are there. Except, there is no way that Ben Affleck grows up to be Harrison Ford. 

And where is James Earl Jones! Don't get me wrong Morgan Freeman is great, but really again with the only slightly changing Ryan's handler? Fine, Jones is not available, then make his handler very white and Jewish. Instead of a Jone-espue character who isn't Jones! 

Back to Affleck, he is also a good actor. Loved him in.......I'm thinking...now I'm IMDB.com-ing him. Actually don't see anything thing that I would say he was Wow in. Affleck is what they call a "sticky" actor- you watch his stuff, but it ain't exactly memorable. Sticky is actually a term they use in radio, for the songs or singers people declare they do not like, but never change the channel on, like Celine Dion. 

Back to Affleck, again. He is no more Jack Ryan then he is well.....Batman. He just does not portray tough. In the SUM OF ALL FEARS he comes off as wimpy, whining all the time when he is called upon to jump in the fray. His girl friend, Cathy Muller, played by Bridget Moynahan, is more bad ass then he is. 

I hadn't seen the movie in a long time, so watched it the other day, thinking that maybe my recollections of it were not accurate. Nope, they were, Affleck is no Jack Ryan and is certainly not a younger Harrison Ford's Jack Ryan. 

Who is? Chris Pine...

JACK RYAN: SHADOW RECRUIT (2014)

This is a "redo" I am glad Hollywood got around to doing. The first scene Ryan is studying for his PHD in London, the next after 9/11 he is in a helicopter that goes down and the third he is on fighting the pain and learning to walk again with a sexy medical student....

played by Keira Knightley, a perfect younger but just as tough Cathy Muller as....

Anne Archer was next to Harrison Ford in the two most iconic Jack Ryan movies. But the  very first Mrs. Ryan, who for some reason was not called Cathy Muller from the books, but was named Caroline Ryan was played by Gates McFadden and was maybe on screen for two minutes, portraying a rather cranky Brit mother to Alec Baldwin's gushing father in THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER.

McFadden is better known as Dr. Beverly Crusher on Star Trek's TV reboot of the NEXT GENERATION. And we are still not done with STAR TREK in this discussion. 

Sadly, how Ryan meets Admiral Greer  is not in this installment, but Kevin Costner is...

as Thomas Harper, the guy in the CIA who recruits him. Nothing there that is not feasible in the Harrison Ford's Ryan past. 

Neither is Ryan's first "kill"...

Though It is very reminiscent of another "first kill in a bathroom"....

Humm, the writers couldn't think of another place for Ryan's initiation in to spy-dom? Did they sit in their writer's room and agree to do the same kind of kill scene or did it just happen?

Pine and Knightley do hold true to their "older" egos, in the roller coaster ride to thwart the bad guys, this time led by the icy Russian Viktor Cherevin, played by Kenneth Branagh, who happens to also be the movie's director. 

Okay, it can't always be dark and dreary in Russia and winter time. The sun does have to shine sometime and well, it isn't always snowing, or in the dark of  night, but apparently those conditions make things just feel more....Russian. As does executions in a deep dark forests. Jack Ryan Franchise and Jason Bourne, you know who I am talking too. The next espionage movie Hollywood makes needs  to have some sunny shots in Russia and chirping birds, enough with overcast skies and dark suits, the great deep Russian choral music can stay, cause that is cool. 

So can Chris Pine. As far as I'm concerned he is Jack Ryan and I really hope we will see him again, soon, very soon... 

Problem is, he is also James T Kirk...

of the Star ship Enterprise, can you hear the music in your head too? That's okay I guess, his "older ego" Harrison Ford was Han Solo, Indiana Jones and Jack Ryan.