The 1993 Oscars: Part 2
The Acting Nominees
A splashy debut with her first Oscar nomination in 1987 quickly put Holly Hunter in a wasteland of good roles in instantly forgotten films, until she had what is still the best year of her career in 1993: beginning with a prize at the Cannes Film Festival, she went on to win every single Best Actress prize throughout awards season for The Piano. Those who today see it as an upset win against Angela Bassett don’t understand what an upset is; I was there, and no one expected anyone but Hunter to win. What was a surprise, however, was that she was nominated twice, and wasn’t the only one. Actors being cited in both leading and supporting categories had happened before, but this was the first time it happened to two people in the same year, Hunter sharing the Best Actress category with Emma Thompson (for The Remains of the Day), and the Best Supporting Actress category, in which she was nominated for Sydney Pollack’s The Firm, with Thompson for In The Name of the Father. It almost stole the thunder away from the Best Actor race, though between Liam Neeson starring in what was sure to be Spielberg’s sweep of the night and Tom Hanks first proving his skills in drama, that was also one that had gamblers guessing.
Ratings are out of 5.
In The Name of the Father
Jim Sheridan, 1993
Rating: BBBB
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Pete Postlethwaite, Emma Thompson, John Lynch, Corin Redgrave, Beatie Edney, John Benfield, Paterson Joseph, Marie Jones, Gerard McSorley, Frank Harper, Mark Sheppard, Don Baker, Tom Wilkinson, Anthony Brophy
True story of Gerry Conlon (Daniel Day-Lewis), an Irish man who moves to London and ended up being blamed for an IRA bombing. He and his father Giuseppe (Pete Postlethwaite), two of his friends and his aunt are put in prison for years before a determined and sympathetic lawyer (Emma Thompson) comes along to point out the holes in their case and in the country’s justice system. This excellent, volatile drama highlights a shameful chapter in British legal history with very little editorializing, highlighted by exciting performances and an unfettered recreation of the time period. I prefer Day-Lewis in The Age of Innocence the same year, but his scene-chewing here, while more in line with the kind of performances that get nominated, is undeniably excellent, and beautifully played in counterpoint to Postlethwaite’s more grounded and controlled work. Thompson only has a few scenes, the majority of her performance is in the film’s conclusion, but her passion walks away with the experience.
Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis); Best Supporting Actor (Pete Postlethwaite); Best Supporting Actress (Emma Thompson); Best Directing (Jim Sheridan); Best Film Editing; Best Writing (Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published)
What’s Love Got To Do With It
Brian Gibson, 1993
Rating: BBBB
Cast: Angela Bassett, Rae’Ven Larrymore Kelly, Cora Lee Day, Khandi Alexander, Laurence Fishburne, Jenifer Lewis, Phyllis Yvonne Stickney, Penny Johnson Jerald, Vanessa Bell Calloway, Chi McBride, Sherman Augustus, Terrence Riggins, Bo Kane, Terrence Evans, Rob LaBelle, James Reyne, Richard T. Jones, Shavar Ross, Damon Hines, Suli McCullough, Elijah B. Saleem
Tina Turner’s volatile relationship with Ike Turner is brought to the screen with exceptional skill, thanks mostly to the two brilliant performances in the leads. Laurence Fishburne is charismatic as the equally charming, equally acidic Ike, whose abuse of Tina (a sensational Angela Bassett) led her to divorce him after years of marriage and many successful hit records together. Never exploitative, and certainly never boring, this film is chock full of substance, passion, and in the end, compassion. I think about that scene of her checking into the motel all the time, and I first saw this movie thirty years ago.
Nominations: Best Actor (Laurence Fishburne); Best Actress (Angela Bassett)
The Remains of the Day
James Ivory, 1993
Rating: BBBBB
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, James Fox, Christopher Reeve, Peter Vaughan, Hugh Grant, Tim Pigott-Smith, John Haycraft, Michael Lonsdale, Brigitte Kahn, Jeffry Wickham, Paula Jacobs, Ben Chaplin, Rupert Vansittart, Patrick Godfrey, Peter Halliday, Peter Cellier, Pip Torrens, Frank Shelley, Peter Eyre, Wolf Kahler, Lena Headey, John Savident
Reteaming the main stars of their Edwardian masterpiece Howards End, director Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala tell a first-rate tale of suppressed love and lifelong duty based on the novel by Kazuo Ishiguro. Anthony Hopkins, in one of his greatest performances, plays Stevens, the head butler of an English country manor who is driving to the West Country to meet with the woman who formerly worked as housekeeper during World War II. Stevens is hoping to invite Mrs. Benn, formerly Miss Kenton (Emma Thompson) to come back to work now that the house has been taken over by an irreverent American Congressman (Christopher Reeve) and possibly restore it to a glory that it hasn’t seen in years. While on the road, stevens flashes back to the years that he and Miss Kenton worked together (the film moves this up to the war years, from the 1930s setting of the novel) and the development of his relationship with Miss Kenton against his own devotion to his work. Obsessed with being the perfect servant, Stevens blinded himself not only to his feelings for this vibrant and endearing woman but also the activities of his Oswald Mosley-esque employer (played by James Fox), believing that his lot in life was not to interfere with the actions of the great men who outrank him. The project was originally meant to be directed by Mike Nichols from a screenplay by Harold Pinter, reuniting Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons from their collaboration on The French Lieutenant’s Woman a decade previously, but when that version fell apart, Nichols remained as producer and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala incorporated Pinter’s script into her own adaptation (which he graciously insisted she do without sharing credit). The result is a work so fine-tuned to its every element, visually and emotionally, that it’s easy to believe that a supernatural element is involved in movies finding their intended destiny.
Nominations: Best Picture; Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins); Best Actress (Emma Thompson); Best Art Direction; Best Costume Design; Best Directing (James Ivory); Best Music (Original Score); Best Writing (Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published)
Six Degrees of Separation
Fred Schepisi, 1993
Rating: BBBB
Cast: Stockard Channing, Will Smith, Donald Sutherland, Ian McKellen, Mary Beth Hurt, Heather Graham, Bruce Davison, Richard Masur, Anthony Michael Hall, Daniel von Bargen, Eric Thal, Kelly Bishop, Anthony Rapp, Oz Perkins, Catherine Kellner, J. J. Abrams, Kitty Carlisle, Cleo King
New York society couple Flan and Ouisa Kittredge (Donald Sutherland, Stockard Channing) are entertaining South African millionaire Geoffrey Miller (Ian McKellen) in their swanky Manhattan apartment and are hoping he will make their big money dreams for their art dealing business come true. They are ungraciously interrupted by a young man named Paul (Will Smith), who claims to know their kids from school and is the illegitimate son of Sidney Poitier, bearing a stab wound that he says he got while being mugged in Central Park. After asking to be let in to use their phone, Paul enchants his hosts with marvelous conversations about art and inspiration, delights them even more with a dinner he makes, then happily accepts their invitation that he sleep the night in their apartment before meeting his father at his hotel the following day. The next morning, however, Flan and Ouisa discover that Paul was just a hustler who was conning them out of fifty bucks and a place to stay. Or was he? In telling her story to her friends, and having her acquaintances relate similar incidences to her, Ouisa eventually discovers that this young man was looking for more than just quick cash. In a world where we are all tied much closer to each other than we realize, as close as six degrees of separation according to one particularly interesting theory, we all feel like strangers, and Paul is quite possibly looking to bridge the gaps that could lead to something so much more meaningful. That he’s looking for it in the world of those who are wealthy and connected with upward success is not lost on Ouisa, but the odd sincerity at the heart of his con artistry makes her wonder just how valuable her privileges are. Schepisi brilliantly cuts John Guare’s play up and spreads it around the various event of New York’s highest high society while retaining his provocative dialogue, managing to make a cinematic version of a play without knocking out all of its most potent theatrical qualities. Channing, who was nominated for a Tony award for her performance on Broadway, is magnificent on screen, and despite stunt casting and a reportedly homophobic response to the requirements of the role, Smith is surprisingly good, a positive (if compromised) start to what would soon be a very successful career as a movie star. Kelly Bishop, who replaced Channing on Broadway, makes a brief appearance, and much of real New York’s glittering figures populate the party scenes, including Kitty Carlisle Hart and Madhur Jaffrey.
Nomination: Best Actress (Stockard Channing)
What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
Lasse Hallström, 1993
Rating: BBB.5
Cast: Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Juliette Lewis, Darlene Cates, Laura Harrington, Mary Kate Schellhardt, Kevin Tighe, Mary Steenburgen, John C. Reilly, Crispin Glover, Penelope Branning, Libby Villari
Touching family drama about the young man of the title (an excellently subdued Johnny Depp) growing up in his strange family in a strange small town. His mentally challenged younger brother (Leonardo DiCaprio) can’t stop getting into trouble, while his incredibly overweight mother (Darlene Cates) has become so reclusive as to never leave the house under any circumstances. A free-spirited young woman (Juliette Lewis) arrives and gives him a break from his mundane existence in this memorable exploration of a quirky small town.
Nominations: Best Supporting Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio)
In The Line of Fire
Wolfgang Petersen, 1993
Rating: BBBB
Cast: Clint Eastwood, John Malkovich, Rene Russo, Dylan McDermott, Gary Cole, Fred Dalton Thompson, John Mahoney, Gregory Alan Williams, Jim Curley, Sally Hughes, Tobin Bell, William G. Schilling, Cylk Cozart, Clyde Kusatsu, Steve Hytner, Patrika Darbo, John Heard, Joshua Malina, Walt MacPherson
Clint Eastwood plays a near-retired Secret Service agent who never got over the fact that President Kennedy died on his watch. Old demons have returned to haunt him when a psychotic madman (John Malkovich) is planning an assassination of the current president, giving ample warning before doing so. Skillfully directed from a marvelous screenplay by Jeff Maguire, this is a cut above the usual Hollywood blockbuster. Rene Russo shines in a supporting role as one of Eastwood’s colleagues, though their little battle-of-the-sexes banter wears out quickly.
Nominations: Best Supporting Actor (John Malkovich); Best Film Editing; Best Writing (Screenplay Written Directly For The Screen)
Shadowlands
Richard Attenborough, 1993
Rating: BBBB.5
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Debra Winger, Edward Hardwicke, Joseph Mazzello, James Frain, Julian Fellowes, Michael Denison, John Wood, Peter Firth, Tim McMullan, Robert Flemyng
After years of writing letters to author C.S. Lewis (Anthony Hopkins), American writer Joy Gresham (Debra Winger) finally makes the trip out to England to meet him, and something wonderful happens: love blooms between a Jewish woman and the very Christian author, forming a bond that holds them together before tragedy strikes. This warm, witty and intelligent film, adapted by William Nicholson from his own play (and inspired by Lewis’s book A Grief Observed) beautifully captures the relationship between the two leads without ever becoming maudlin. Winger is brilliant and energetic in the lead, while Hopkins equals The Remains Of The Day with another towering performance of impressive strength.
Nominations: Best Actress (Debra Winger); Best Writing (Screenplay Based On Material Previously Produced or Published)
The Firm
Sydney Pollack, 1993
Rating: BBB
Cast: Tom Cruise, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Gene Hackman, Holly Hunter, Ed Harris, Hal Holbrook, Jerry Hardin, David Strathairn, Terry Kinney, Wilford Brimley, Sullivan Walker, Gary Busey, Barbara Garrick, Steven Hill, Margo Martindale, Paul Sorvino, Joe Viterelli, Jerry Weintraub, Tobin Bell, Dean Norris, Karina Lombard, John Beal, Paul Calderon
The first film adaptation of a John Grisham novel is still the most financially successful. Tom Cruise plays a green lawyer who is hired to work at an awe-inspiring law firm led by the powerful Gene Hackman. All seems to be perfect until he realizes that his superiors got up as far as they did by getting their hands dirty in all sorts of nasty affairs (they’re lawyers, for God’s sake); if he wants to keep his super salary with all the fringe benefits, he’s going to have to turn a blind eye or else get out of there quickly. Pollack’s lethargic directorial style never did suit action films very well, and Cruise’s character is so blandly moral threatens to be boring. Holly Hunter has a brilliant supporting turn as a whistle-blowing employee who wants to make sure that her friend comes out okay.
Nominations: Best Supporting Actress (Holly Hunter); Best Music (Original Score)
Fearless
Peter Weir, 1993
Rating: BBB.5
Cast: Jeff Bridges, Isabella Rossellini, Rosie Perez, Tom Hulce, John Turturro, Benicio del Toro, Deirdre O’Connell, John de Lancie, Spencer Vrooman, Robin Pearson Rose, Debra Monk, Kathryn Rossetter, Rance Howard, Anne Kerry Ford, William Newman, Kevin Brophy
Jeff Bridges plays a crash survivor who believes that getting out of the plane without a single scratch means that he is invincible, and now even foods he was allergic to no longer bother him. While his concerned family ponders the serious implications of what he is becoming, he counsels a fellow crash survivor, a young woman (Rosie Perez) who lost her baby in the accident. Throughout this affecting drama, Bridges is constantly looking for the opportunity to become human again, and finds it in the hands of those closest to him. Isabella Rossellini shines as Bridges’ wife in this memorable, touching film.
Nominations: Best Supporting Actress (Rosie Perez)