The Two Towers breaks US$300 million!

[Tsyr]

Just because a film didn't win an oscar doesn't mean it wasn't worth seeing....but a film that DID win an oscar almost always IS.

Not really... Most of those were at best mediocre movies for me, downright boring at worst. A couple good ones (Braveheart, for example), but...

Godfather is a particular one for me... Everyone loves it. Except me. I honestly don't "get it", I guess. It's just really not enjoyable[/b] for me. And I can like long, slow movies... Loved Shindler's List (SP?)... Godfather, though, or any of the sequals... can't hardly sit through them.

 

[Henry]

I saw something very hopeful today in the theater, and rather than start a new LOTR thread I will place my thoughts here.
It is a Tuesday afternoon, and still large numbers of people are coming to see the film.
The vast majority of them are OLDER people. Older than 40, and mostly older than 50.
Not teen-agers, not those in their twenties, not people like me in their thirties. I saw people in their seventies and eighties in that theater.

Hate to break it to you, Edena - but the ones in their 40's and 50's would have been in their teen's and 20's when Tolkien had the big splash in the U.S. back in the 60's and early 70's. Likely, you are seeing some ORIGINAL fans as the majority of movie goers. However, this is not to say that TTT does not have multi-generational appeal, given evidenced by the septegenarians and octagenarians in the theater you saw. Given the current state of world affairs, the 1980's comic-book and fantasy nostalgia currently becoming popular, and the general appeal of a movie where the good guys win, and the fact that Tolkien writes a damned good story, TTT is bound to draw many, many people under its banner.

 

[Mark]

Hate to break it to you, Edena - but the ones in their 40's and 50's would have been in their teen's and 20's when Tolkien had the big splash in the U.S. back in the 60's and early 70's. Likely, you are seeing some ORIGINAL fans as the majority of movie goers.

Hell, I turned forty this year and I've been a fan for roughly three decades, if that gives perspective to any of this. Some of the earliest Tolkien fans have been dead for longer than that.

Here's a list of the Oscar winners since the beginning...

2001 A BEAUTIFUL MIND
2000 GLADIATOR
1999 AMERICAN BEAUTY
1998 SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE
1997 TITANIC
1996 THE ENGLISH PATIENT
1995 BRAVEHEART
1994 FORREST GUMP
1993 SCHINDLER'S LIST
1992 UNFORGIVEN
1991 THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS
1990 DANCES WITH WOLVES
1989 DRIVING MISS DAISY
1988 RAIN MAN
1987 THE LAST EMPEROR
1986 PLATOON
1985 OUT OF AFRICA
1984 AMADEUS
1983 TERMS OF ENDEARMENT
1982 GANDHI
1981 CHARIOTS OF FIRE
1980 ORDINARY PEOPLE
1979 KRAMER VS. KRAMER
1978 THE DEER HUNTER
1977 ANNIE HALL
1976 ROCKY
1975 ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST
1974 THE GODFATHER PART II
1973 THE STING
1972 THE GODFATHER
1971 THE FRENCH CONNECTION
1970 PATTON
1969 MIDNIGHT COWBOY
1968 OLIVER!
1967 IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT
1966 A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS
1965 THE SOUND OF MUSIC
1964 MY FAIR LADY
1963 TOM JONES
1962 LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
1961 WEST SIDE STORY
1960 THE APARTMENT
1959 BEN-HUR
1958 GIGI
1957 THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI
1956 AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS
1955 MARTY
1954 ON THE WATERFRONT
1953 FROM HERE TO ETERNITY
1952 THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH
1951 AN AMERICAN IN PARIS
1950 ALL ABOUT EVE
1949 ALL THE KING'S MEN
1948 HAMLET (1948)
1947 GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT
1946 BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
1945 THE LOST WEEKEND
1944 GOING MY WAY
1943 CASABLANCA
1942 MRS. MINIVER
1941 HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY
1940 REBECCA
1939 GONE WITH THE WIND
1938 YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU
1937 THE LIFE OF EMILE ZOLA
1936 THE GREAT ZIEGFELD
1935 MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY
1934 IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT
1933 CAVALCADE
1932 GRAND HOTEL
1931 CIMARRON (1930/31)
1930 ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT
1929 THE BROADWAY MELODY
1928 WINGS

 

[Assenpfeffer]

I have to tell you, if you can't remember the names of previous Oscar winners of the past, then you're in the minority. Especially since those three films you just mentioned are ALL Oscar winners (GWTW= 10 oscars, Fantasia=Honorary Achievement, Raiders=Won 4/9 nominated). If films like "Forrest Gump", "Braveheart", "Silence of the Lambs", "Gandhi", "Chariots of Fire", "Rocky" "The Godfather", "My Fair Lady", "Lawrence of Arabia", "The Bridge over the River Kwai", "An American in Paris", "Casablanca", and "All Quiet on the Western Front" don't sound familiar to you, then I think you owe it to yourself to go see what you're missing. And these are just a sampling of the WINNERS of the Best Picture nod.

Just because a film didn't win an oscar doesn't mean it wasn't worth seeing....but a film that DID win an oscar almost always IS.

Unlike, say, the Grammys, which tend to almost invariably go to albums and artists that are forgotten within two years, the Oscars get it right... well, not all the time, but more often than most other awards.

But worthy movies are always overlooked, and sometimes the award goes to what is just the wrong movie. There's no way to stop that from happening. My favorite example is 1969, in which Best Picture was won by Oliver! and Best Actor went to Cliff Roberton for Charly.

Sure, sure... notable stuff, and Robertson's performance was terrific. But there was a movie nominated that year called The Lion in Winter which is not only by far the superior film, but which contains one of the greatest performances in film history... Peter O'Toole as Henry II. He's utterly unrecognizable, and completely spellbinding.

In contrast, both Oliver! and Charly have pretty much been forgotten.

 

[Assenpfeffer]

Here's a list of the Oscar winners since the beginning...

Of the last 10 Best Picture winners I've seen them all, except for American Beauty. They're all good movies, though I didn't like The English Patient, which literally put me to sleep before the opening credits had finished rolling. Still, you could quibble with most of them:

For 2001, FOTR should have won over A Beautiful Mind
For 2000, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon could have beaten out Gladiator
For 1999, The Sixth Sense could have beaten out American Beauty
For 1998 Saving Private Ryan should absolutely have beaten Shakespeare in Love
For 1997 L. A. Confidential should certainly have beaten out Titanic
For 1996, either Fargo or Jerry Maguire could have beaten out The English Patient
For 1995, Apollo 13 should have beaten out Braveheart
For 1994, Pulp Fiction should have beaten out Forrest Gump
For 1993, no argument with Schindler's List
For 1992, no argument with Unforgiven
For 1991, no argument The Silence of the Lambs
For 1990, Goodfellas should have won over Dances with Wolves

And so on. The point is, there's always room to argue about it later. But whether or not a film wins a lot of Oscars has no bearing at all on whether it will be considered a "great film" or whether it will be remembered years later. It may give a film a heart start, but that's about it. The Maltese Falcon didn't win any Oscars, as far as I know. Citizen Kane, almost universally considered one of the greatest films ever made, didn't win Best Picture. It lost to - get this - How Green Was My Valley.

 

[Storm Raven]

In contrast, both Oliver! and Charly have pretty much been forgotten.

I don't know. I suspect that if I were to talk to 100 people and inquire about the movies in question, most people would be more familiar wih Oliver! than The Lion in Winter. Don't get me wrong, I love Lion, but it has fallen from most people's memories (because of it's somewhat esopteric subject matter,mthe succession of the throne of England during a conflict most people are not familiar with), and movie musicals seem to stick better with people.

 

[Assenpfeffer]

I don't know. I suspect that if I were to talk to 100 people and inquire about the movies in question, most people would be more familiar wih Oliver! than The Lion in Winter. Don't get me wrong, I love Lion, but it has fallen from most people's memories (because of it's somewhat esopteric subject matter,mthe succession of the throne of England during a conflict most people are not familiar with), and movie musicals seem to stick better with people.

You may be right. Still, I could counterargue that up until last year the entire movie musical genre was effectively dead. If you ask 100 people under age 30 what musicals they'd actually seen, I'd venture to say that Grease would be one of the only titles you'd get back - it was about the only memorable or noteworthy musical between 1970 and 2000.

Of course, there are people who are "into" musicals and go out of their way to watch them... just as there are Sci Fi fans who go out of their way to watch Sci Fi. It's the same with any genre.

 

[Storm Raven]

You may be right. Still, I could counterargue that up until last year the entire movie musical genre was effectively dead. If you ask 100 people under age 30 what musicals they'd actually seen, I'd venture to say that Grease would be one of the only titles you'd get back - it was about the only memorable or noteworthy musical between 1970 and 2000.

Not dead, just mostly pushed to the field of animation.

Of course, there are people who are "into" musicals and go out of their way to watch them... just as there are Sci Fi fans who go out of their way to watch Sci Fi. It's the same with any genre.

Musicals (at least in my experience) seem to be very popular with women of all ages. The "classic" movie musicals (a category that Oliver! is in) are quite popular in my experience. I know of very few people who have not seen films like White Christmas, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, and On the Town.

 

[Assenpfeffer]

Not dead, just mostly pushed to the field of animation.

Good point.

Musicals (at least in my experience) seem to be very popular with women of all ages. The "classic" movie musicals (a category that Oliver! is in) are quite popular in my experience. I know of very few people who have not seen films like White Christmas, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, and On the Town.

My experience is somewhat different. I have one - male - friend who's into musicals and know nobody else who's interested in them at all. I may be atypical in that I've not only never seen any of the 4 films you name, I've never even heard of two of them.

I readily admit that this is anecdotal and wholly unscientific. But there were very, very few musicals done in the "classic" style (i. e. non-animated) for thirty years. And a good number of those (all but one, as far as I can recall) were not successful.

 

[Storm Raven]

My experience is somewhat different. I have one - male - friend who's into musicals and know nobody else who's interested in them at all. I may be atypical in that I've not only never seen any of the 4 films you name, I've never even heard of two of them.

Stop now. To be a properly culturally educated person you must have some sort of grounding in the movie musicals of the past. It is imperative that you run, not walk, to your nearest video store and rent (and watch) the following movies: White Christmas, On The Town, Singing in the Rain, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Gigi, West Side Story, and Oklahoma!.

This is imperative. You must do this. After the extended movie marathon you can come up for air.