The Supporting Actress Smackdown 1970 Edition arrives in three weeks (we've moved the date to May 13th) so as we approach and you vote (hint hint), let's talk context in movies and entertainment...
Great Big Box Office Hits: When it comes to box office, there are a lot of competing sources about what films were massive hits prior to the internet era when tracking success became such a cultural activity. But all sources basically agree that there were five true behemoths at the movies in 1970. The top four were the tearjerker Love Story, the all-star disaster flick Airport, the Altman comedy MASH, and the war drama Patton (remarkably they made up 80% of the Best Picture list... though prior to the 1980s it's always worth reiterating that the public had much more Oscary taste in their movies -- it was public taste that changed, not really the Oscar aesthetic... contrary to much of the grousing you here online about Oscar shunning hits and preferring underseen critical darlings). The fifth consensus smash hit was the Dustin Hoffman Christmas release Little Big Man which scored only 1 nomination from the Academy for Chief Dan George in Supporting Actor; he was the first Native American to score an Oscar nomination in any category!
Chief Dan George in "Little Big Man"Beyond that quintet the details about which films were big hits gets fuzzier though various sources also list some, though never all, of these movies: Ryan's Daughter, Tora! Tora! Tora!, Chariots of the Gods, The Aristocrats, Joe, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, the documentary Woodstock, and the musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.
Oscar's Best Picture Nominees: Airport (10 noms / 1 win), Five Easy Pieces (4 nominations), Love Story (7 noms / 1 win), MASH (5 noms / 1 win), and Patton (10 noms / 7 wins). Our theory as to what was just outside the Best Picture shortlist plus more '70 goodies follow...
What would have been nominated Oscar had the 5-10 nominee rule that they have now, with shortlist size determined by the size of each film's voting block? (The system has so far always delivered either 8 or 9 nominees despite mathematically anywhere from 5 to 10 being possible). Women in Love (which received key marquee nods and critical support) and Ryan's Daughter (4 nominations and public enthusiasm) surely would have also been nominated for a 7 wide Best Picture race. Beyond those two films 1970 is a lot harder to call. If there were 8 to 10 nominees who knows. Woodstock won the most nominations ever given to a documentary feature (three) and it was also a hit with the public but Oscar has still never nominated a documentary for Best Picture so there must be a subconscious unwillingness to do so. The craft categories liked the war picture Tora! Tora! Tora! and the now-forgotten family musical Scrooge and the actors branch clearly liked both I Never Sang For My Father and The Great White Hope so perhaps one of those five might have snuck in? But overall 1970 enthusiasms seemed very concentrated on the four blockbusters plus Five Easy Pieces.
Films That Endured in Some Way That Did Not Win Oscars and Weren't Box Office Smashes Either: Myra Breckenridge, Catch-22, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Kelly's Heroes, The Conformist, Boys in the Band, The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, Zabriskie Point, The Owl and the Pussycat, Trog, and Performance
Nathaniel's Top Ten of 1970
To be honest I don't really have one. This is one of my biggest blank spot years. Even the films I like from this year I dont have clear memories of (I saw Women in Love when I was way too young for it in the 1980s), don't truly love (big Altman fan but MASH, is more of a "like"), or I love them more for their historical value or genre personality than for actual quality (Boys in the Band, Aristocrats, Bloody Mama, On a Clear Day You Can See Forever).
ANY SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO FALL IN LOVE WITH 1970? DO SOUND OFF IN THE COMMENTS! WHICH FILMS WOULD YOU LIKE US TO DISCUSS IN THE NEXT THREE WEEKS?
Oh but wait we're not done with the listing...
Magazine Covers for Context:
CLICK TO EMBIGGEN
Frequent cover stars were Raquel Welch, Jane Fonda, and Dennis Hopper. On television "The Mod Squad" made multiple covers. There were also a lot of handwringing cover stories on racial and gender politics across multiple magazine as well as the occasional Oscar controversy side stories (Modern Screen hilariously proclaimed that the Oscars might end in 1970 (!) and TV Guide wondered if you could "buy" an Oscar). It's amazing sometimes to realize how unchanging and cyclical culture and culture wars are. We fight the same fights repeatedly, even as the language around the eternal issues shifts and (some of) the famous faces change.
Mix Tape (Huge-Ass Hits of '70): "Bridge Over Troubled Water," Simon & Garfunkel (which would win the Grammy for Album, Record, and Song of the Year in March of 1971); "(They Long To Be) Close To You," The Carpenters (who would win the Grammy for Best New Artist in 1971); "Aint No Mountain High Enough," Diana Ross; "I'll Be There" and "ABC," The Jackson 5; "Signed Sealed Delivered," Stevie Wonder; "Let It Be," The Beatles
Music: Janis Joplin died. Both the Beatles and Simon & Garfunkel broke up, despite having huge years in 1970. Meanwhile future hit-making bands Aerosmith, ELO, and Jefferson Starship formed.
TV: PBS begins broadcasting; "All My Children" begins its multi-decade run on ABC; "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "The Partridge Family," and "Josie and the Pussycats" all debut; beloved sitcoms "The Flying Nun," "Get Smart," and "I Dream of Jeannie" reach the end of their runs. "Marcus Welby MD" takes its first and only win in Outstanding Drama Series at the Emmys... but the # of doctor/hospital shows to have won that prize in Emmy's 70 years is surely way way too long.
Other Arts: "Applause," the musical adaptation of All About Eve was the Tony winner for Best Musical (with Lauren Bacall taking the Tony in the Bette Davis role) and "Borstal Boy" won Best Play; Famous novels debuting in 1970 included James Dickey's "Deliverance," which was quickly made into a hit movie, and Larry Niven's "Ringworld" which won the Nebula; Famous children's or YA books published that year included "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" by Judy Blume, Roald Dahl's "Fantastic Mr Fox," and Maurice Sendak's "In the Night Kitchen"; Gary Trudeau's popular comic strip Doonesbury debuts in US papers; Andy Warhol debuted several new pieces including "Silver Car Crash" which sold a few years ago for a new Warhol record of "$105.4 million; In comic books, "Silver Surfer" lost his monthly book while "Green Lantern" starts having to share his with "Green Arrow" plus the iconic supporting characters J Jonah Jameson and Agent Nick Fury, and the villain The Vulture made their debuts in The Amazing Spider-Man; Astro Boy became the first manga to go to animated series in Japan.
Tarita, Cheyenne, and Marlon Brando
Natalie Wood and Natasha
Spawn of Celebrity (Born in 70)
Cheyenne Brando, born to actor Marlon Brando and model Tarita Terlipaia who met on Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). Mick Jagger and Marsha Hunt welcomed Karis Hunt Jagger into the world (the first of Jagger's many children). And Natalie Wood had the first of her two children Natasha Gregson Wagner (the father was Natalie's second husband Richard Gregson but they quickly divorced and Natalie remarried first husband Robert Wagner shortly before Natasha turned two).
Vintage '70 (Stars and Film Artists Born in 70)
Oscar Winners: Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind), Matt Damon (Good Will Hunting), Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious screenwriter), Martin McDonagh (Six Shooter), Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty), and Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener)
Oscar Nominated Actors: Minnie Driver (Good Will Hunting), Ethan Hawke (Training Day, Before Sunset, Before Midnight, and Boyhood), Taraji P Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), Queen Latifah (Chicago), Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids), and Uma Thurman (Pulp Fiction)
Still More Actors: Mädchen Amick, Anthony Anderson, Julie Bowen, Lara Flynn Boyle, Bobby Cannavale, Charisma Carpenter, Ben Chaplin, Michaël Cohen (aka Emmanuelle Béart's ex-husband), Clifton Collins Jr, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Anne-Marie Duff, Raúl Esparza, Joseph Fiennes, Will Forte, Heather Graham, Tony Hale, Regina Hall, Jason Butler Harner, Byung-Hun Lee, Ken Leung, Matthew Lillard, Nia Long, Audra McDonald, Niecy Nash, Nick Offerman, Barry Pepper, Martha Plimpton, Michael Rapaport, Tom Everett Scott, Ione Skye, Sarah Silverman, Aisha Tyler, Skeet Ulrich, Vince Vaughn, Constance Zimmer;
Divas: Naomi Campbell and Mariah Carey
Musicians: Beck, DMX, Debbie Gibson, and Glen Hansard
RIP: River Phoenix (actor), Tommy Page (musician), and Tim Hetherington (director/cinematographer)
Vintage '70 (Behind the Scenes)
Writers and/or Directors: John August, Paul Thomas Anderson, Jamie Babbit, Zoe Cassavetes, Stephen Chbosky, Tina Fey, Geoffrey Fletcher, Bart Freundlich (aka Julianne Moore's husband), Alex Garland, Christophe Honoré, Zhangke Jia, Malcolm D Lee, Theodore Melfi, Christopher Nolan, Mark and Michael Polish, Nicolas Winding Refn, Matt Ross, Anthony Russo, Shinsuke Sato, M. Night Shyamalan, Kevin Smith, Apichatpong "Joe" Weerasethakul, Mike White, and Alice Wu
Craftsmen: Michael Barrett (cinematographer), Christopher Blauvelt (cinematographer), Chung-hoon Chong (cinematographer), Corrine Clark (casting), Pau Costa (visual effects), Dean DeBlois (animation biggie), David Hutchison (stunts), Grant Imahara (visual effects), Steve Jablonsky (composer), Karin Justman (stunts), Henry Kingi Jr (stunts), Harvey Lowry (special effects makeup), Trevor Morris (composer), Atli Örvarsson (composer), Adrian Rigby (makeup), Lawrence Sher (cinematographer), MoinGenndy Tartakovsky (animation biggie), Freddy Waff (production designer), Tricia Wood (casting), and Haris Zambarloukos (cinematographer).
Showtune to Go: Dusty Springfield doing "Knowing When to Leave" from Promises Promises on a Burt Bacharach TV special in 1970. Hey wasn't Dusty supposed to get a biopic? I can't remember who was rumored at one point to be playing her. Anyone?