Shakespeare in Love > Saving Private Ryan (your periodic reminder)
Tuesday, March 21, 2017 at 6:00AM On this day in movie history...
1617 Though the exact date of her death is unknown, Pocahontas's funeral was held on this day. She died on a ship with husband John Rolfe (played by Christian Bale in The New World but he wasn't a character in Disney's Pocahontas because that woulda been hella depressing). She was only 21 or 22
1880 "Bronco Billy" Anderson, the original movie cowboy star (he made hundreds of silent shorts) is born
1941 The Sea Wolf starring Edward G Robinson and Ida Lupino is released. Director Michael Curtiz is warming up for his rather incredible peak decade (Captain of the Clouds, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Casablanca, Mildred Pierce and more are next)
1949 Slavoj Zizek of The Perverts Guide to Cinema (2006) is born
1956 The 1955 Oscars. Marty becomes both the shortest film to ever win Best Picture and the first indie to do so.
1958 Gary Oldman is born...
1962 Matthew Broderick and Rosie O'Donnell are both born in New York
1963 Barbra Streisand and Elliott Gould marry.
1967 It's the 50th anniversary of wacky musical comedy Thoroughly Modern Millie. The 20s spoof was another big hit for Julie Andrews, queen of the mid 60s. If you missed it, please click on over to Daniel Walber's piece on the movie's Oscar nominated Production design which went up yesterday.
1968 Jaye Davison, the only person to ever "spoil" a movie merely by getting an Oscar nomination for it (Best Supporting Actor, The Crying Game) is born.
1975 Escape to Witch Mountain arrives in theaters
1982 Stage and screen actor Santino Fontana (Hans in Frozen, and Tony nominated as Prince Topher in Cinderella on Broadway) is born. I'm so behind on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend! (I'm at this part where his character Greg has exited Rebecca's life.)
1986 Scott Eastwood, one of Clint's many children, is born. His last name at birth was Reeves and according to Wikipedia it said "Father declined" on his birth certificate. Scandal!
1994 Schindler's List (7 wins), The Piano (3 wins), and Jurassic Park (3 wins) divvy up the 1993 Oscars.
1997 Selena and Liar Liar both open in movie theaters
1999 Shakespeare in Love (7 wins) and Saving Private Ryan (5 wins) fight it out all night at the 1998 Oscars before Harrison Ford finally announces that Shakespeare has prevailed. People like to bitch about this (another reminder that comedy and female-focused films are rarely properly respected) but it's totally the better of the two films.
Exit Video
Also on this day in 1987 we lost musical star Robert Preston to lung cancer. Wasn't he wonderful in Victor/Victoria?
Reader Comments (28)
He was wonderful and robbed with a capital R. I strongly recommend the Tony Awards he hosted in the 80s (available in Youtube).
-How is this to end?
-As stories must when love's denied: with tears and a journey.
I will always defend Shakespeare and Judi's wins. What a wonderful movie!
Another remainder: Gwyneth Paltrow > Cate Blanchett that year
Thank you! Shakespeare in Love is a fantastic movie and certainly deserved that win.
The Sea Wolf is a wonderfully eerie, atmospheric film with brilliant performances by Edward G. Robinson, Ida Lupino, John Garfield and Alexander Knox. Once again EGR was robbed of an Oscar nomination.
Co-sign Shakespeare In Love > Saving Private Ryan.
SiL is just a great, great film. I also have no beef with Gwyneth's win.
Pocahontas was my fave Disney when I was a kid (OK my fave Disney that wasn't B&tB) That film is so damn underrated in the Disney cannon.
I actually saw Shakespeare in Love for the first time a few weeks ago and liked it A LOT; incredibly entertaining. I'm surprised Joseph Fiennes didn't become a bigger star after that movie (or even get nominated at the Oscars).
But in terms of the 1998 Oscars; both movies you mentioned pale in comparison to The Thin Red Line.
I feel neutral in the SiL vs. SPR debate since I honestly don't care much for eitther. Personally, I think that 1998 was a very good year for movies, but the Oscar nominations didn't reflect that. Both '98 and '99 fall into the "you had THESE, but you chose THOSE?" category for me.
Thank you- I've always thought Shakespeare in Love deserved ALL the wins, including Best Picture, it's a great film that people love to bitch about, and Gwyneth Paltrow may not have deserved her Best Actress win over Cate Blanchett that year, but she's a great actress ( the same year she was just terrific in Great Expectations) and she continued to deliver effective performances in Ripley, Tenenbauns, Possession, Sylvia and awards worthy ones in Proof ( I really have no clue how she managed NOT to get nominated here) and Two Lovers. Just hope that other "undeserved" Oscar winners ( Lawrence over Watts; Stone over Portman or Huppert) can build the same body of work that Paltrow has done.
It is surprising how well Shakespeare in Love has aged relative to Saving Private Ryan. Both really good movies but the controversy about its win has all but died off by now.
About Gwyneth over Cate.... not really. Cate is the obviously superior performance. And that win stung for a while but overall picture I think Cate benefitted quite a bit by not peaking early and dare I say Gwyneth got harmed quite a bit by that win. I agree that all performances mentioned above were good but they lived in the shadow of that controversial win and she has not enjoyed the perks of being an Oscar winner. It is very amusing to look at both hers and Cate's careers now given how close together they looked at the time - I mean just look at how the casting for The Talented Mr Ripley went (a movie full of young talent who all moved on to become megastars)
A thousand times yes to SiL >>>> SPR. Such a delightful, cleverly crafted, and beautifully acted movie that only improves on multiple viewings. It succeeds precisely because it's not striving to be a Great Movie (lookin' at you, Spielberg), but only to bring joy. And what joy it brings!
It's also a fantastic tribute to Shakespeare - I've no doubt he would have thought so.
MDA: I'm one of the few that still prefers Ryan to Shakespeare, but agreed that Thin Red Line would have been the worthiest winner anyway. So GORGEOUS.
#shakespeareinlove4eva
And yes, The Thin Red Line was also a great movie (that score! that cinematography!) but unfortunately, due to its editing (hello, distracting movie star cameos!), isn't quite as fluidly coherent as SiL.
The Crying Game is a fantastic film, best of its year (though admittedly its year was not the greatest in the history of cinema). And I never got why, out of all the twists and turns this movie is taking (and the film is changing its direction more than once), this particular scene is considered *THE* big twist. It certainly comes as a surprise when you watch the film without "knowing its secret", and it's certainly presented to play as a shock (and this was 1992, after all), but by now people really should be able to discuss it in terms other than "that chick has a dick".
And I hope you don't mind if I throw in a few more names: iconic directors (if for very different reaons) Eric Rohmer (*1920) and Russ Meyer (*1922), Oscar-and-Razzie-trivia-oddity James Coco (*1930), Best Actress nominee and last wife of Roger Vadim, Marie-Christine Barrault (*1944), and Bond #4 Timothy Dalton (*1946).
Fernanda Montenegro should have win.
Shakespeare in Love is so much better than Saving Private Ryan. Joseph Fiennes should have been nominated.
I think either Shakespeare in Love and Saving Private Ryan would have been worthy winners, but I'm particularly glad that a romantic comedy won for once over the serious film.
*won
MrW -- totally! But at the time the nomination itself was a giant spoiler to people since the movie had not yet fully blown up. It was platforming from November to February
I will go to my grave passionately defending Shakespeare in Love's (and Gwyneth Paltrow's) Oscar win(s). No offense to Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, etc., but Shakespeare in Love is just so damn *original* and inventive. The film's clever, imaginative and simply magical screenplay and overall production values are not to be quibbled. Controversy or no, everyone was bringing their A-game to the picture, and it showed.
Shakespeare In Love is one of my favorite films. It is rare that my favorite movie of the year wins best picture (let alone gets nominated). Even though it isn't the most serious film in comparison to Saving Private Ryan, it is the smarter of the two.
... and El Milagro de P. Tinto >>>> Shakespeare in Love >>>>> Saving Private Ryan (I film I hate with passion).
Regretfully Javier Fesser's "El Milagro de P. Tinto" can only be fully aprecciated if you're a spaniard, and born before 1980. Think of Looney Tunes mixed with Capra mixed with Spielberg and you come somewhat close to what Fesser - the biggest spanish genius since Buñuel, filmmaking wise - achieved in his film debut. It's an open surgery to Spain's soul, as sharp as a Goya painting from his dark age, or Picasso's Gernika. It's a film I can't recommend enough, and always have to forewarn my foreign friends, they're not going to get 10% of its actual power, because they're not their prime target.
Fesser went later to be an Oscar nominee - short film, live action - for another gem, "Binta y la gran idea", and made the impossible adapting TWICE the unadaptable iconic comic-book "Mortadelo y Filemón", once in live action, and a second time completely free of chains, using CGI to bring the comic to life... plus he swept the Goyas with his sharp and multilayered destruction of the Opus Dei, with "Camino", a film that many people misinterpreted abroad, thinking it was "bland"...
Fesser is a humankind treasure...
Robert Preston was a amazing talent
Love that song & Victor/Victoria.
Also, Shakespeare in Love is WAY better than Saving Private Ryan. SIL is funny, charming, wicked, and loving. SPR is mediocre, hero-worshipping bullshit.
Shakespeare in Love is a perfect film and one of my all time favorites. Thank you for defending it, even if Private Ryan totally deserved its director win.
Victor/Victoria is an underrated gem. Hate the fact that not enough people know about it.
Chuck, cosign. Pure joy.
Agree about SIL>>>>SPR, but disagree with an Academy that would forget to celebrate The Truman Show,Out Of Sight, and The Big Lebowski that year. They blow the other nominees away IMHO