Tuesday
Oct312017
124 days until Oscar...
Tuesday, October 31, 2017 at 3:36PM 
Just 124 days until Hollywood's High Holy Night, now. Time for a little silly trivia. Only two Best Picture winners have ever been exactly 124 minutes long. Curiously enough, those titles were back-to-back winners: Ordinary People (1980) and Chariots of Fire (1981) both of which beat critically-obsessed-over competition in Raging Bull (1980) and Reds (1981).
Admit it: You heard the Chariots of Fire theme song in your head and visualized Mary Tyler Moore's ice cold mom as soon as you read the titles.
Where else did your mind's eye take you?
Reader Comments (16)
It's a shame that we don't get the proper shot of the runners jewels bouncing around in their shorts.
Does 1982 count? Immediately thought of Slava Tsukerman's little-seen sci-fi gem, Liquid Sky.
Funny that, in retrospect, Chariots of Fire might be the first Oscar-bait film I've seen without knowing what "bait" was or English at all:))
However, Vangelis earworm was the first theme song for a film that sound ahead of film's time I think I've heard, predating Sofia Coppola and Tarantino's idiosyncratic use of incidental music which not necessarily matches the time/age the film is depicting.
So bonus point for that, I guess.
PS: There's not frontrunner for this year's race. Which leads me to thin Dunkirk really is the one to beat.
I relish any opportunity to say Mary Tyler Moore was ROBBED of that Oscar! :)
Not really. Gena Rowlands, that was the one who was robbed, specially because she was still Oscarless after the best performance of all time and anotner serious contender for a top 10 ever best performances. Mary Tyler Moore was just a tv celebrity that used against-type in her favor. Terrific, but nomination was enough.
Rowlands lived long enough to receive the honorary. In fact, she's still alive and well.
<Ordinary People> was an outstanding Best Pix winner. And I agree, MTM got robbed!
Ian Charleson playing Hamlet. Good night, sweet prince.
Chariots of Fire deserved to beat Reds.
I saw Ordinary People and bawled my eyes out. Read the book and bawled my eyes out. Saw Ordinary People again a week later....and yep I bawled my eyes out again. Years later bought the VHS tape and bawled again. And I bawled again when I watched it on DVD. This is one of the best Best Picture winners ever. And although Chariots of Fire is a worthy best picture winner , I love the soundtrack more than the movie. What a brilliant movie soundtrack - and worthy Oscar winner. Sigh - they don't make films like these 2 anymore.
Spirited Away is 124 minutes long and that won the Best Picture award in the Japanese Academy Awards, but I guess that didn't count.
Ordinary People is a superbly acted adult melodrama, just like Kramer vs Kramer. But both movies defeated CINEMATIC masterpieces. KvK won over All That Jazz (and Apocalypse Now!!); OP defeated Raging Bull.
I agree that Mary Tyler Moore was robbed. And Ordinary People deserved its Best Picture Oscar.
I'll be happy to join the fray--Yes, Mary should have won, and Ordinary People deserved Best Picture.
I think of Chariots of Fire every time I run to catch a flight.
"Mothers don't hate their sons." Even she doesn't believe it. One of the very best lead actress performances, ever. Yeah, MTM was robbed!
While I'm glad Sissy has an Oscar, the MVP of Coal Miner's Daughter is the not nominated Tommy Lee Jones.