The 411 Movies Top 5 3.05.10: Week 207 - Top 5 Oscar Surprises

Posted by Trevor Snyder on 03.05.2010

To celebrate this weekend's Academy Awards, the 411 crew takes a look at some of the most surprising moments in Oscar history.



This weekend is the Academy Awards - the movie fan's Super Bowl. Whether or not there will be any big surprises remains to be seen, but I'm one of those who always hopes for at least one shocking moment in each telecast. With that in mind, I asked my fellow 411 writers to join me in listing some of the most memorable surprises in Oscar history, whether it be hard-to-fathom snubs or crazy moments on the telecast itself.

THE TOP 5 OSCAR SURPRISES

TREVOR SNYDER

5. Robocop saves Pee-Wee

Now, when I say this moment was surprising, I'm referring more to the fact that I was recently surprised to find out it even existed. If I watched the 1989 Academy Awards, I was sure as hell too young to remember it now, and for whatever reason this moment is not as infamous as I would expect it to be. So it was a fairly recent discovery on my part. Maybe the moment itself wasn't all that surprising back in 1989. Maybe back then it made perfect sense to have Pee-Wee Herman present an Oscar, and to have the ED-209 try to kill him, and to have Pee-Wee magically fly up to rafters, and to have Robocop show up and clumsily take out the ED-209 with a laser gun. Yeah, 1989 was a weird year…I bet this all made perfect sense.



4. That doesn't look like Marlon Brando

There was a time when Marlon Brando was known just for being a great actor, but eventually his eccentricities started to upstage his talent. That's kind of a shame, but then again, you get the sense he didn't really care. After all, would a guy who cares pull a stunt like he did in 1973, when Brando didn't bother to show up to accept the Best Actor award everyone knew he was going to win for The Godfather? Instead, Brando sent a woman introduced as Sacheen Littlefeather, who was dressed in traditional Apache garb and told everyone that Brando rejected the award because of Hollywood's mistreatment of the American Indians. Did this really accomplish anything? Eh, probably not…except for make people think of Brando as even more of a weirdo.

3. Adrien Brody upsets the veterans

At the 75th Academy Awards, the Best Actor race was a great one. You had four former winners – Nicolas Cage, Jack Nicholson, Michael Caine, and Daniel Day-Lewis. Oh, and then you had some young guy named Adrien Brody. In a moment that shocked just about everyone (especially Nicholson, judging by his reaction when Brody's name was called), Brody got the win and a standing ovation, making him the youngest actor (at 29) to win the Best Actor trophy. Everyone remembers the iconic moment when he kissed Halle Berry, but the speech that followed was excellent as well (earning him his second standing ovation). In that moment, Brody became a superstar. OK, sure, maybe he didn't capitalize on that momentum in the way many were hoping. But no matter what you may think of Brody's post-Oscar career, this remains one of my all-time favorite Oscar moments. I wasn't able to find an embeddable version, but check it out here.

2. Woody Allen shows up to pay tribute to New York

Woody Allen doesn't go to the Academy Awards. That's just an accepted fact. Despite multiple nominations and wins, Allen has always preferred to stay in New York rather than actually attend the award show itself. Which is why it was quite the surprise to see Allen stroll out onto the stage at the 2002 ceremony. It actually made sense – Allen was asked to introduce a video-package honoring New York City (this was the first Oscar telecast since 9/11), and of course Allen wouldn't pass up an opportunity to pay tribute to his favorite city at a time like that. His speech was predictably amusing, and gave us a good hint at what great acceptance speeches we had probably been cheated out of over the years.



1. Three Six Mafia wins an Oscar

Just think about it for a second…Three Six Mafia won an Academy Award…for a song called "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp." That they beat the expected frontrunner Dolly Parton is only half as surprising as the fact that their song was even recognized in the first place. I believe it was host Jon Stewart who commented on the oddness of it afterwards, saying something like, "for those of you keeping score, that's Three Six Mafia with one Oscar, and Martin Scorsese with zero Oscars." Sure, that joke doesn't hold up anymore, but it's still funny for the time, and does a nice job showing what a surprise this was.

LEN ARCHIBALD

This will be more in the vein of "snubs" or "WTF?" nominations/non-nominations/wins because the one thing that's fun about the Oscars is how everyone has an opinion over how much they screwed up.

Honorable Mentions: Dances With Wolves awarded Best Picture over GoodFellas; Eddie Murphy blows his Dreamgirls Oscar hopes with Norbit (well, that's not really a surprise.)

Special Honorable Mention: Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (1989) gets NOTHING, despite perhaps being the best film of 1989 amidst hostile race-relations at the time. The winner for Best Picture that year? Driving Miss Daisy – an idealistic, overly sentimental and melodramatic film about an old white lady and her black servant driver.

5. Malcolm X gets NOTHING (1992)

I already mentioned Spike Lee getting the "Richard Roundtree" treatment for Do the Right Thing in 1989. That was spiteful robbery of one kind – this…this left me, and a lot of other critics seething mad. Not to take away anything from Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, as it is a deserving Best Picture – and one of the greatest Westerns and films of all-time - but for me, Lee's sweeping Malcolm X, which spanned the rise/fall/life/death of the famed Nation of Islam activist is the better film. X received a sad two nominations: Denzel Washington for Best Actor, and Costume Design. Al Pacino received the yearly "Oops, we screwed up a long time ago, so here's your sympathy Oscar" Oscar for Scent of a Woman. I don't even know what the Academy was smoking at the time, but I want some of it. Yes, Denzel got his "Oops" Oscar for Training Day, but while he was insanely entertaining and engrossing as corrupt-cop tour de force Alonzo, in this picture he WAS Malcolm X. There are at least…least ELEVEN Oscars this film should have been nominated for: Picture, Direction, Actor, Actress (Angela Basset) Supporting Actor (Al Freeman Jr.), Cinematography, Art Direction, Editing, Adapted Screenplay, Score and Costume Design. I will take this opinion to my grave or with my ashes and no one, no where, at no time will convince me otherwise.

4. Kramer vs. Kramer wins Best Picture over Apocalypse Now (1979):

The 1970's is widely considered to be the last "golden era" of cinema. Nearly every great film that was released (Hollywood and independent) in that decade are still great today. Every major filmmaker that is a direct influence on my generation – Spielberg, Scorsese, Altman, Herzog, Lucas, Rafelson, Ashby, Friedkin and Allen were all GODS of their craft and basically could do no wrong. In my opinon, though, the 1970's was OWNED (or PWNED!) by Francis Ford Coppola. Imagine: You make The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Conversation and Apocalypse Now - all mentioned in circles as four of the greatest motion pictures of all time – in a span of SEVEN YEARS. Look, I think it's pretty simple: the Academy was just tired of giving Coppola hardware this decade, what other reason is there to justify a simplistic, melodramatic film like Kramer vs. Kramer beating out one of the most gloriously haunting and visually stunning movies – war genre or otherwise – ever made?

3. The Color Purple gets NOTHING (1985):

Steven Spielberg should NOT have had to wait until he basically backed the Academy into a corner with making the flawless Schindler's List in 1993 to win his first Best Director Oscar; 1985 should have been his official corination as the best filmmaker on the planet. Roger Ebert's first major foray into popular culture started here, as he famously waged a WAR against the Academy after that years' Academy Awards. See, The Color Purple was nominated for an astounding eleven Oscars, including Best Picture. Do some research and look through the nominations. Notice anything strange? Steven F'n Spielberg was NOT nominated for Best Director, in a year that he very clearly should have won. At the end of the night, Purple went 0 for 11 and Ebert basically told the Academy to f*ck themselves (he named Purple as the best film of 1985…he was also in the majority.) There's a theory that certain "voting members" of the Academy were none too pleased over a Jewish filmmaker making a film depicting African-American life (and spinning it in a triumpant light, no less) – so this was his PUNISHMENT. I don't *think* it's true, but if it is – you can't get any more petty and spiteful than that. Best Motion Picture of the Year should be just that, and no politics or outside "opinions" should sway that. It seems like my venom is directed at another Robert Redford vehicle that won Best Picture, Out of Africa, but I am not angry at him, the producers, or the film's director, Sidney Pollack – I just simply would like to ask how is the guy who WINS the Director's Guild Award not at least NOMINATED for an Oscar in the same year?

2. Ordinary People wins Best Picture over Raging Bull (1980):

I will get this out of the way: Robert Redford is a landmark in the world of cinema and is a pioneer and champion of independent film.

Now that I've gotten that out of my system: HOW IN THE F*CK'S NAME OF EVERYTHING HOLY AND SACRED IN THIS UNIVERSE DID ORDINARY PEOPLE GET CONSIDERED TO BE A MORE LANDMARK ACHIEVMENT IN FILM THAN RAGING BULL, AND HOW IN THE F*CK'S NAME OF EVERYTHING HOLY AND SACRED IN THIS UNIVERSE DID ROBERT REDFORD GET RECOGNIZED AS THE BEST DIRECTOR OF 1980 OVER MARTIN SCORSESE? Yes, I know that GoodFellas got the same treatment in 1990 as Dances With Wolves received Best Picture and Best Director, but at least with Dances, one could make a legitimate argument that there was something special there. There are moments in Dances that warrant recognition as Best Picture. But watch Ordinary People and Raging Bull back-to-back. It isn't even remotely close as to what film has made more of an impact and influence. What makes me twitch is the mere fact that for the *second* straight year the Academy got this DEAD WRONG. It's like they were pissed at all the great filmmakers of the 1970's for some reason.

1. How Green was My Valley wins Best Picture over Citizen Kane (1941):

Yes, the cliché film-snob thing to say is "Oh, Citizen Kane is the greatest film ever constructed". Of course, it is one of those few rarely disputed tidbits – simply because when one truly gets involved with the inner workings and history of cinema, it becomes more and more understandable why Orson Welles' grand magnum-opus is considered to sit atop of the film-pedestal when it comes to quality. One would immediately think that Kane must have had an easy cakewalk towards a Best Picture win, right??? Now, for those unaware – Citizen Kane was the victim of perhaps the greatest Oscar Smear campaign in history, since the screenplay penned by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz was loosely (or not, depending on your POV) based on the life of uber news tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Upon hearing how elements of his life was twisted and skewed in the film (most famously, the iconic "Rosebud", is rumored to be what Hearst referred to the…uh…"promised land" of mistress Marion Davies.) To make a long story short, Kane was the best reviewed film of 1941 (save for reviews in any of Hearst's papers) and was pretty much a lock to win a TON of awards. The smear campaign worked, though – as Kane lost to How Green Was My Valley. I think what's even more shocking: and this isn't a knock on Valley, as it is a great film in its own right, but another undisputed classic, The F'n Maltese Falcon was –also- nominated for Best Picture. How did *that* happen???

BRYAN KRISTOPOWITZ

Honorable Mentions: Academy adds "Best Animated Film" category, Denzel Washington doesn't win Best Actor for Malcolm X, and David Letterman bombs as Oscar host

5. All three Lord of the Rings get nominated for Best Picture

Director Peter Jackson created one of the greatest fantasy movie series ever. All three movies, Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and Return of the King were mega hits with both audiences and the critical establishment. But who would have ever thought that any of the three movies would get nominated for anything outside of the technical awards? I know I didn't see it coming. The first two flicks lost out to A Beautiful Mind and Chicago, but then Return of the King ran the table in 2004, winning eleven statues. Again, who would have ever thought that would happen? It's too bad that FOTR and TTT didn't get the same kind of recognition, because I think they deserved it. But then that's just my opinion and what the hell do I know?

4. Eddie Murphy loses "Best Supporting Actor" to Alan Arkin

Murphy won pretty much every "Best Supporting Actor" award going into the Oscars, and it seemed like a no brainer that Murphy would win the big one, too. But then he didn't. For whatever reason, the Academy voters decided to snub Murphy and give the award instead to Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine. Some people have said that you have to chalk up to Academy voters being unpredictable and that nothing is a sure thing, and some have said that Murphy lost because he made the fat suit comedy Norbit. I'd like to think that Murphy lost because the Academy just figured it was time to give Arkin something, but I have a feeling that the Norbit rumor is the real deal. Serious actors don't make silly shit like Norbit, you know. How uncouth.

3. Beauty and the Beast gets nominated for Best Picture

It never had a chance of winning (it was up against JFK, Bugsy, The Prince of Tides, and eventual winner The Silence of the Lambs) but back in 1992 Beauty and the Beast getting nominated for Best Picture was about the coolest thing in the world. I mean, it was a fucking cartoon. A cartoon! By Disney, the merchandising machine, no less! And yet there the movie was, on the front cover of every magazine in the run up to the Oscars (I could be wrong about this, but didn't TV Guide have the Beast on the front cover in the week before the Oscars?). It really happened. The flick did win Oscars for best song and music, which was expected (Disney movies always seem to get nominated for Best Score and Original Song), but who the heck remembers that? Beauty and the Beast, a cartoon, almost won Best Picture!

2. Star Wars loses Best Picture to Annie Hall

I was reading an interview with James Cameron a few weeks ago (I believe it was in "Entertainment Weekly") where he said that Star Wars should have won Best Picture over Annie Hall because Star Wars had a bigger cultural impact on the movie world than Woody Allen's movie. I never thought of it like that, but it's true. People the world over are still talking about Star Wars, and it's still influencing movie makers to this very day. Who the hell is talking about Annie Hall? No one. I guess the Academy had its reasons back then, but in retrospect, man, they made the wrong choice.

1. United 93 not nominated for Best Picture

United 93 was one of the if not the best movies of 2006 hands down. Director Paul Greengrass crafted a brilliant, fresh suspense thriller out of a true story that everyone in the world knew the ending to. And yet the movie only got nominations for Best Editing and Best Director. How the hell could that happen? I still can't figure out how United 93 got overlooked and shit like The Queen and Babel got nominated. It just boggles the mind. What a bunch of hooey.