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MERYL STREEP as Karen Blixen OUT OF AFRICA (1985, dir. Sydney Pollack) HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE QUEEN OF QUEENS   👑 📌  Here is the list of all the Meryl films I’ve seen, ranked in order of preference: letterbox. I’m curious, which are your favourites?

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Out of Africa (1985) | dir. Sydney Pollack

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Picking an upset was fun for this year! Everyone had a different opinion but all agreed that Out of Africa was OUT.

Between The Color Purple, Prizzi's Honor, and Witness, I probably could have picked any one of them. There seemed to be a bit more chatter for The Color Purple, plus I had some personal bias because I really enjoyed the 2023 version.

Ultimately though, we're only here to destroy Out of Africa. Put it on my Top 5 worst Best Picture winner list. It's overwhelmingly too long and too boring, which is unfortunate because I love both Meryl Streep and Robert Redford.

It might be moving if it spent less time on this love triangle and more on her actual accomplishments. I also can't entirely speak to if the depiction of colonial Africa is problematic, but the combination does leave a weird taste in my mouth.

The Color Purple was Steven Spielberg's first dramatic project and introduced both Whoopi Goldberg (in her first major role) and Oprah Winfrey (in her first acting role).

The drama is overly sappy, and the pacing is a bit weird, but it's understandable with the amount of Celie's life to get through. Whoopi Goldberg completely transforms into Celie, and you can't take your eyes off of Oprah as Sofia. The 2023 musical version gives Sofia a bit more screen time, so I wish some of those storylines could have been drawn out to give us more of Oprah.

It's a standard feel good movie. The production is nice, the score is nice. No major complaints.

Out of Africa and The Color Purple were the most nominated films at the 58th Academy Awards, with 11 nominations each. Tied with The Turning Point, The Color Purple has received the most nominations to date without a single win.

The Color Purple was recognized by the National Board of Review as the top film of the year, with Out of Africa listed as #2 and picking up the Golden Globe Best Drama win. Whoopi Goldberg won her first Golden Globe for Celie.

Out of Africa won a considerable number of awards for its cinematography, so I made sure to include that on that slide as well.

This year had some of the lowest Rotten Tomato critic reception we've seen in decades. It's the lowest we've seen from a winner since The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) and the lowest from an upset since In Old Arizona (1928). Granted, I partially chose the upset, so that might be my fault. Prizzi's Honor and Witness both have higher critic but lower general audience reception. Go figure!

The Color Purple is part of the OFTA Hall of Fame, but that's all you'll get for these two. Out of Africa was listed #13 on AFI's 100 Passions list and #15 for score. The Color Purple was listed #51 on the 100 Cheers list.

Unofficial Review: Anything is an upset against Out of Africa. If you enjoy it, I'm sorry for my harsh words.

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Sally Field as Edna Spalding / Places in the Heart (1984)

Academy Award Winner as Best Actress

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Happy 77th birthday Danny Glover (° July 22, 1946) 🎂

He played Moze in Places in the Heart (1984)

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Amadeus, 1984, dir. Miloš Forman

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AMADEUS (1984) + IMDb trivia

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1984 was a tough year to settle on an upset for. Can anyone compete with Amadeus?? Two of my critic lists mentioned Places in the Heart as a notable alternative. None of the other sources could muster up a better Best Picture winner.

It's important to note first that basically everything in Amadeus is fake. You shouldn't watch this expecting to learn anything more about Mozart than you already know. But that should not deter you from watching it.

As a violinist, I LOVE Mozart's music. The soundtrack, composed primarily of Mozart's own pieces, is my favorite part of the whole movie. I played the opening number, the first movement of Symphony No. 25, in my community orchestra last spring. I keep the soundtrack CD in my car!

That's not to say that the acting is anything less than. Tom Hulce brings an unhinged, giddy quality to Mozart that I cannot get over. I'm in love with him. F. Murray Abraham plays an equally unhinged, sinister Salieri. They will both be nominated in the Lead Actor category, and it's sad it couldn't go to both of them!

Places in the Heart looked decent from the premise and the cast list. And that being said, it wasn't terrible. It was just clear from the start that it was Oscar Bait-y.

Sally Field does a great job playing a determined, yet grieving, widow. But I worry that the rest of the cast and the storyline were never given a clear path. Are we upset at the racism? The Depression that put them into this mess? The banker for being a complete dick to Sally Field on multiple occasions? It's hard to tell. Everyone gets a quick scene of character development and calls it a day.

Ed Harris is in a significant part of this movie with no purpose other than to have an affair with Sally Field's sister?? It's almost as if they were making a 90 minute TV-movie and decided to add that storyline to bring it to the big screen. It doesn't fit.

Neither made it onto the top 10 highest grossing for 1984, led by Beverly Hills Cop, Ghostbusters and Temple of Doom.

At the 57th Academy Awards, Amadeus won 4 of the Big 5, with Abraham and Hulce's nominations being the most recent time that two of the Best Actor nominees were from the same film. It also won the typical awards for a period piece - Costume Design and Makeup (no hair yet) - and a couple others.

Thanks to my new favorite resource Screen Time Central, I was amazed to see that Lindsay Crouse was actually in almost 17 minutes of Places in the Heart, despite her character having almost no purpose.

Amadeus was favored at the Golden Globes and with the Los Angeles Film Critics Circle, but surprisingly didn't make the National Board of Review Top 10 list. It was nominated for 9 BAFTAs, winning 4 (for cinematography, editing, make-up, and sound).

Places in the Heart received one Golden Globe from 3 nominations, but had zero nominations at the BAFTAs. Best Film went to Woody Allen's The Purple Rose of Cairo.

Amadeus placed #53 on the original AFI list, but was absent from the 10 year anniversary list. Places in the Heart was listed as #95 on the "100 Cheers" list.

Unofficial Review: Places in the Heart didn't stand a chance. Sorry this post is just me shitting on it. Go (re)watch Amadeus!

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The Right Stuff (1983) dir. Philip Kaufman

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THE RIGHT STUFF (1983), dir. Philip Kaufman

They had many names, these rockets, Atlas, Navaho, Little Joe, Jupiter, but they all blew up.

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Terms of Endearment (1983)

“It makes sense that people continue to come back to Terms of Endearment after all these years. Rather than attempt to distort real life for the purposes of entertainment, it sees the beauty in even the most fatiguing of happenstances and relationships. We can see so much of ourselves in these characters and the situations they face. If we don’t, we plain and simply like them. And that’s enough.”

http://bit.ly/2rFzhjc

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Terms of Endearment (1983) | dir. James L. Brooks

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1983 felt like an underwhelming year of film for me, on top of an already bland start to the decade. I worry it'll only get worse.

Terms of Endearment, like Kramer vs. Kramer and Ordinary People, is a relatively FINE familial drama. The costumes are so wonderfully dated and the cast was stacked top-to-bottom (DANNY DEVITO?), but it's really nothing to write home about. The relationship between MacLaine and Winger is ~complex~. It'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry, etc. It's probably your mother's comfort movie and we won't fault her for that.

The Right Stuff was also FINE. The production value was insane and the archive footage was neat. The attention given to the wives and their stories was refreshing. But as with many of these "look at us, we did it!" documentary/dramas, you have to be conscious of how much of this is fictionalized.

It's probably your father's comfort movie (my dad picked it up from the library for me and lingered around while I watched it at his house), and we won't fault him for that either.

The part I had the most problem with is actually Sam Shepard's entire storyline. This whole film is wrapped up so tightly with a bow that's it's corny, and his storyline in particular acts as unnecessary bookends. They could have shaved his section to a 5 minute intro, used that time for more of the Mercury 7, and it would have felt more complete.

Terms of Endearment was the 2nd highest grossing film of 1983 (behind Return of the Jedi), while The Right Stuff was a box office bomb, only recovering through future home video sales.

This begs the question: Where's the excitement of 1983 that I'm missing?? Flashdance??

The 56th Academy Awards seemed to have as much excitement as I had for its nominees. Little.

Terms of Endearment was awarded what I call the "Medium 5", with wins for Picture, Director, Screenplay, and 2 of 4 Acting categories.

The Right Stuff excelled for sound and editing at the Oscars, but lacked in any big wins during the rest of the awards season. It only gained one nomination at the Golden Globes, zero at the BAFTAs, and lost both the DGA and the WGA.

Terms of Endearment was successful almost everywhere else, especially at the Golden Globes and with the New York and Los Angeles critic associations. The BAFTAs weren't as giving, with both Winner and Upset absent from the Best Film category.

Both can be found in the OFTA Hall of Fame (The Right Stuff was a 2024 inductee) and the Upset is in the National Film Registry, but that's about it for them. No films from 1983 made it into the AFI 100 Films list.

Unofficial Review: Terms of Endearment set this bar pretty low, but this could still go either way. I think it's better to just forget 1983.

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E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (1982) dir. Steven Spielberg + IMDb trivia

happy birthday, @leofromthedark!

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Happy 40th Anniversary, “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” (Released June 11th, 1982)

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Gandhi (1982) | dir. Richard Attenborough

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Gandhi (1982)