Oscar Flashback: Broadcast News

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It was a particularly disastrous Academy year in 1987 when Broadcast News lost to The Last Emperor.¬† It’s probably so much easier to look back now and see how little impact The Last Emperor has had on cinema in the past twenty years than to acknowledge the other truth, that it’s more about how much more meaningful Broadcast News has become.

The Last Emperor is the kind of film that was, and maybe still is, too big to ignore. The costumes, the cinematography, its epic sweep – how could it lose? It was, in truth, a beautifully looking film, and at the time I remember it having quite an impact. It was one of the few Oscar best picture winners to have won without the force of its actors. It always follows with best picture frontrunners that it must have equal amounts of great writing, directing and acting and most of the time, each of these is represented in the various categories. In the Oscar world we call this “broad support.” One clue that Sandra Bullock was winning for The Blind Side last year was that the film was also nominated for Best Picture. Since this a vote across the various branches, representation in the major categories is always essential. Usually, actors rule.

But not in 1987. We know that Broadcast News has had a lasting impact simply because it was right on the money with regard to how the news business was changing and has now changed. Jim Brooks had it nailed. Look at what has become of it. One thing that isn’t present so much is corporate influence – that is probably better delineated in another forgotten treasure, Michael Mann’s The Insider, which also pins to the wall this idea that corporations and their deep pockets, control the output of information to the American public.¬† What a tragedy that the simple fact of tobacco’s kill factor had to be suppressed because CBS news had to buckle to corporate interests. We saw an even more frightening suppression of information after the invasion of Iraq, when the Bush administration prevented certain kinds of reporting — this year’s Fair Game takes this on. All three of these films deal directly with the American ideal that we supposedly value and uphold freedom of the press.

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But none of this was really that immediate when The Last Emperor came around and won. It was business as usual at the Oscars. I’m not saying the wrong film won. I’m just saying one film has had more lasting impact than the four was nominated with.

Fatal Attraction has some value in that it still features one of Glenn Close’s best performances. It made a lot of money and was the talk about town that year. Moonstruck has zero staying power. It is funny enough, but that was a one night stand if there ever was one. It came, it saw, it left. At the time it was a big favorite. And this may have been Broadcast News’ undoing; splitting the vote with another comedy, one that had Cher in it. There was a time when Cher was kind of a big deal at the Oscars.

Hope and Glory was, I’m sure, a great movie. A British story. I don’t remember it very well, which means I’ll need a second viewing to decide whether it has had any sort of lasting impact.

The wins were decided this way.

The Last Emperor: 9/9 – Picture, Director, Screenplay, Art Direction, Cinematography, Editing, Costume, Score, Sound.
Moonstruck: 3/6 – Actress, Supporting Actress, Screenplay
Fatal Attraction: 0/6
Hope and Glory: 0/5
Broadcast News: 0/7

1987 was a sweep year – one film mostly sucked up all of the awards. Taking the romantic comedy slot away from Broadcast News was the simple fact that Jim Brooks had already won big. The worst thing that happened that year was Albert Brooks lost Supporting Actor to Sean Connery for The Untouchables. Really, Academy? Really?

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Holly Hunter lost to Cher because Cher finally made good on all of those fancy dresses she’d been wearing to the Oscars year after year. She was okay in the part. But more, it was good for Cher. Holly Hunter or Glenn Close would have been a better choice.

1987 is a great way to reflect forward to this year. It was a strong year for leading actress-driven films. While we are still looking at the top three contenders right now (five if you count True Grit and/or The Fighter) as being male-driven, thanks to a ten picture slot category we have the opportunity to see female-driven stories finding their way into the race. Those would be The Kids Are All Right, Winter’s Bone, Fair Game, maybe Conviction, Black Swan.

We will probably not see a female-driven story feature as prominently into the race as Jim Brooks’ fine Oscar run: Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News and As Good as it Gets. We will see if he adds another great one to that list when How Do You Know opens (hate the title; love the man.)

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