1998's Oscar Nominees

I vote Malick.

I'd vote TTRL over basically any oscar best pic nominee ever

But ... All About Eve!

Sorry, but Shakespeare in Love >>>> The Thin Red Line. Not that SIL is a fantastic movie -- I've no tolerance for Malick's voice-over twaddle and the truncated character arcs on display here (maybe in its four-hour form I'd accept it).

Not sorry, but John Madden the football mogul would direct a defter romantic comedy than John Madden the movie director.

And twaddle is a pretty good word for Tom Stoppard's work here.

yeahhhhhh I really doubt that someone who didn't like a malick movie would actually just prefer a longer version of that malick movie

The Thin Red Line BEYOND easily (although, right, All About Eve).

Shakespeare in Love is the most okay movie ever made, supplanting the previous most okay movie ever made,
Sliding Doors released the same year with the same star, Gwyneth Paltrow, the Queen of Okay. It's perfectly apt that Paltrow married Chris Martin, leader of Coldplay, the most okay band ever. Who could possibly love Shakespeare in Love/Sliding Doors/Gwyneth Paltrow/Chris Martin/Coldplay? But then who could possibly love SIL/SD/GP/CM/C? They're the porridge Goldilocks chose. They stand so precisely at the midpoint of all culture that they serve as a sort of unindexicable ground to the figures of genius and repulsion surrounding them. So the only truly shocking thing about Shakespeare in Love's win was that Academy even remembered it at all.

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ugh fucked that up...that should read:

Who could possibly love Shakespeare in Love/Sliding Doors/Gwyneth Paltrow/Chris Martin/Coldplay? But then who could possibly HATE SIL/SD/GP/CM/C?

Yeah, I don't hate SIL. If anything, I hate that I can't side with it in the whole grace-vs-gravity dialectic. (Of course, TTRL has both more grace and more gravity than, respectively, SIL and SPR.)

Still think SPR is the only thing here with large patches of greatness; criticism of its sentimentality are eh-whatever at this point.

ugh these weren't very good were they. Elizabeth I guess.

TTRL is pretty, though. needs less flowing curtains.

I have actually seen all of these, though none since 98-99. Hated LIB and like all the other ones, but I voted for SIL beause it's too fun and bcz g. paltrow's tits. Affleck comes close to ruining it though.

SPR has patches of greatness, but not in the spots that are usually cited as such. Call me sentimental, but Tom Hanks' second-act breakdown in solitary alone justifies old-timer Matt Damon doing the same at film's end.

yeahhhhhh I really doubt that someone who didn't like a malick movie would actually just prefer a longer version of that malick movie

― iatee, Saturday, October 10, 2009 11:57 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

The movie would probably feel a lot less repetitive though; I feel like we ended up with 100 percent of Caviezel and Penn's narration and 100 percent of Malick gazing at trees, while losing great stuff from Brody, Harrelson, Rourke etc.

Still one of the greatest movies ever made though.

I guarantee you there would be more trees

Really all I want to see is if Life is Beautiful gets so much as one single vote.

ugh what a year

Really all I want to see is if Life is Beautiful gets so much as one single vote.

It'll get one - it's one of only two of these I would even entertain watching again. It's not good, but I like Begnini's cheesy performance slightly more than Malick's trees.

Of course, I obviously don't like Benigni's performance enough to spell his name correctly.

I sort of liked "Life is Beautiful" at the time for its total perversity, which I (mis) read(?) as a sort of meta statement on the subject at hand. But "Thin Red Line" is one of the most remarkable movies ever made. I recall someone pointing out how it's the rare film you can drop into at any time, like a mobius strip. In fact, part of that I think stems from its refusal to flesh out every one of its many characters. It's like the story of the humans is being told from the fleeting perspective of the flora and fauna, with war presented as an affront to nature/God itself. Or something like that. I've always found all those shots of swaying grass and branches between the shooting and killing as kind of ... judgmental.

thin red line, as if theres a choice

Extra day bump.

I think I saw all of these in the theater, which is an Oscar Best Picture rarity for me. Thin Red Line is the only one I want to watch again. First sequence of SPR is obviously incredible -- would've been interesting if Spielberg tried to sustain that feel throughout the movie, but he sure didn't. Shakespeare I thought was fine, if super-light. I think I was going through a heavy Shakespeare phase at the time, so I enjoyed all of the various references. Don't know what I'd think of it now, other than that Gwynnie sure was purty. Don't really remember Life Is Beautiful. Elizabeth looked good, but was generally silly. Thin Red Line, as someone remarks above, is one of the most remarkable movies ever. Do you think we'll ever see the long version? I want more trees.

there are parts of thin red line that i like better than any parts of any of the other movies here, but on the whole alfred's otm about its deficiencies. it's funny that the two war movies on the list are the ones most afflicted with soft-headedness. either of them could have used a little of elizabeth's tuffness (tho elizabeth is way too cartoony to be great, cate notwithstanding). i was actually glad shakespeare in love won, not because i loved it or anything but just as a triumph of well-executed trifle over malick poesy and spielberg oscar-baiting.

that said, i can't really muster the enthusiasm to vote for any of them. as long as life is beautiful doesn't win, i won't complain.

i left after about 30 minutes of TTRL which was surely some of the most unwatchable garbage i've ever experience. so i will vote SiL.

btw just so you all know I am registering 500 sockpuppet accounts and voting "Life Is Beautiful"

Awesome.

Though I'd really rather you did that for the forthcoming 2005 Oscar Nominees poll.

oh, okay! nvr mind then

kuh-rash

I thought the first part of Life Is Beautiful was quite good, but once the serious stuff kicked in, it was pretty obvious Benigni had no idea how to balance the drama and the comedy. Based on other movies I've seen he is a great comedian, so he should've just stuck to his strengths.

I suppose if you can register 500 sockpuppets, what's 500 more?

CAH-POH-TAY

Have you guys read the Wikipedia plot summary for "Life Is Beautiful"?

Guido is a Jewish, on the way he met Dora the explorer who is a teacher in a school. Guido is a smart man, he wants to have a bookstore. He loves Dora very much, later on they decided to have a child named Boots ... neh.. just kidding ... the boy named Joshua, like his father he is smart too. one day on the birthday of Joshua the barbaric tribes sent Guido, his uncle and Joshua to a prison like place... Joshua need to hide so he will not be killed ... Dora decided to go woth there ... Guido was killed ... Joshua stayed alive after the Americans save them ... And the tank lived happily ever after... it was a sad story

That's a pretty good summary of what I remember about the movie.

"Ringo Starr cheerfully rode Thomas the Train into Auschwitz, with cattle cars filled with Jewishes."

ha.

aiding and abetting roberto benigni is really the only thing i hold against jim jarmusch.

But Benigni was good in the three Jarmusch films he appeared in, how was Jarmusch to know what he would do later on?

The Thin Red Line by like 100 million miles.

aiding and abetting roberto benigni is really the only thing i hold against jim jarmusch

I hold Jarmusch's new movie against him.

yeah, not seen it. it does sound dicey.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Thin Red Line>Elizabeth>>Saving Private Ryan.

I haven't seen the other two.

If the first twenty minutes of Ryan had been a short film things might be different.

what if SPR was just two hours of the audience getting sledgehammered like they did in the first 20?

Probably preferable.

Getting bored of everyone calling SPR's first twenty minutes as Best Movie Ever. The Thin Red Line contains as many moments of lachrymose he-man posturing, and terrible voice-over too.

band of brothers made saving private ryan irrelevant. the thin red line was better anyway, gets my vote. shakespeare in love is totally average and completely forgettable. elizabeth is good. never saw life is beautiful.

Somehow, I have seen none of these!

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Elizabeth outvotes SPR?! Fuck you, ILE.

Like ILE's feelings on Spielberg are some big surprise?

saw zero of these movies tbh

Not missing much J0hn.

Switch Life is Beautiful and Elizabeth and I could see this being the inverse of the actual results.

i'm just sorry SPR wasn't last.

An oral history: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/harvey-weinstein-steven-spielberg-nastiest-oscar-campaign-ever-1187125

LIB doing better than SPR or TTRL is the motherfucking biggest of troll responses

this was also the year of Flowers of Shanghai, one of my favorite films ever

xp you mean SIL, not TTRL, right?