The nominees were ...
... when they should have been ...
And the Oscar went to ...
Unforgiven. A strongly written (David Webb Peoples), tautly directed (Clint Eastwood), finely acted (Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman) Western, with a solid antiviolence message, although it has to resort to a conventionally cathartic scene of revenge against the bad guys to make its point that revenge is never sweet. It was only the third Western (after Cimarron and Dances With Wolves) to win the best-picture Oscar, although it's perhaps the only real Western of the bunch, since the other two seem to be preoccupied with their "epic" visions.
... when it should have gone to ...
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| Malcolm X |
Shamefully neglected by the Academy, with only nominations for costume design and Denzel Washington's towering performance (which lost to Al Pacino's blind-man shtick in Scent of a Woman). A searing, stirring, first-class biopic, heads above most representatives of the genre, including such Oscar winners as Gandhi and The Last Emperor. Director Spike Lee tirelessly promoted the film, although not in ways that were inclined to win favor in Hollywood, since he publicized his fights with Warner Bros. over funding and distribution. Nevertheless, the film was a box office disappointment, despite strong reviews. Ernest Dickerson's cinematography, not to mention Lee's direction and screenplay (co-written with Arnold Perl) also deserved nominations.
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