If I Picked the Winners: Best Supporting Actor 1953

     Check out the idea behind this column here

     For the first two editions of my fantasy column, "If I Picked the Winners", I picked the relatively recent category of Best Actor 1997 and the extremely recent category of Best Picture 2009. For my third edition of this column, I thought I would go old-school and pick the oldest Best Supporting Actor category in which I had seen all the nominees, which ended up being 1953. I'm not sure if anyone old enough to remember 1953 reads this blog, but if you're out there, get ready for a trip down memory lane, and for everyone else, this is a good starting point for an education on the history of cinema.

     The year 1953 was all about "From Here to Eternity". The film was based on the popular book of the same name, written by James Jones, but was heavily edited and changed to get the cooperation of the U.S. Military. The changes did not seem to bother the movie-going public or the Academy though, as the film did gang-busters across the nation and the Academy nominated it for an impressive thirteen awards and rewarded it with eight Oscars, which tied "Gone With the Wind" for a record at the time. More pertinent to this column though, it resurrected the career of Frank Sinatra, who was desperate for the part, as his career was in the proverbial crapper at the time. Luckily for Sinatra, he did get the part and the film turned out to be the defibrillator he needed to jump-start his flat-lining career, as he won 1953's Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Did he deserve it though?

Review: The Town

  
     In the world of cinema, the 2000's were to the city of Boston what the 1970's were to New York City. In the 70's, you had a slew of famous films by great directors set in in the Big Apple. "The French Connection" by William Friedkin, "Taxi Driver" by Martin Scorsese, and "Manhattan" by Woody Allen are just a few examples of films where the city itself is practically a character of the movie. In this last decade though (a decade in which the New England Patriots dominated the NFL and the Boston Red Sox finally broke the "Curse of the Bambino"), Boston has taken the reigns from New York City as the auteur's favorite playground. From films such as Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River" and Scorsese's "The Departed" (as well as his last film "Shutter Island" that was set in a mental institution outside of Boston), to films like "Edge of Darkness" and "Gone Baby Gone" (another Ben Affleck film), this has been a golden age of cinema for Boston. It arguably all started though in the last decade, when two unknown actors wrote a screenplay called "Good Will Hunting". The film was a critical and box-office success and made its two writers and stars, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, household names and industry leaders. Thirteen years later, even with all his fame and fortune, it is clear that at least one of the Boston Duo has not forgotten his hometown as his second directorial effort "The Town" uses Boston as its backdrop and continues the Hollywood's recent obsession with all things Boston.

News: 127 Hours Proving Too Much For Some to Handle

     "127 Hours", the newest film from Danny Boyle ("Slumdog Millionaire"), is the movie version of the real incident in 2003 where Aron Rolston got his arm stuck in a rock while hiking in the mountains. The 127 hours that the film is titled after refer to the amount of time Mr. Rolston was stuck there, until he finally freed himself by amputating his arm with a pocket knife. Well, apparently for some, watching a man amputate his own right-arm was a little too gruesome, because on three different occasions where the film has been shown, someone in the audience has fainted. I haven't seen the film myself, so I can't give you my personal warning on how graphic it is, but for the very squeamish, this may be one Oscar hopeful they will have to skip (or at least close their eyes on certain parts).

Retro-Review: The Shining

 
     As I confessed in my in article on five great movies for Halloween, I've been somewhat of a coward in terms of watching horror films. This means there are a lot of very famous films that, simply because they are in the horror genre, I have yet to see. Recently though, I have managed to muster up enough courage to view some of these fright flicks, and it being the Halloween season, it seemed like a perfect time to watch the more famous films of the genre. I still didn't feel like I had the nerve to watch probably the most famous horror film, "The Exorcist", but instead opted for two films I felt wouldn't give me permanent nightmares: the original "Halloween" and "The Shining". Against what would seem like the logical order, I watched "Halloween" the night before the actual holiday (read my review here) and "The Shining" on Halloween night, but even though there would be nothing more appropriately on the nose then to watch "Halloween" on Halloween, it turns out the scarier film was the one without the holiday for its title.