Nominees:
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
Gandhi
Missing
Tootsie
The Verdict
Winner:
Gandhi
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
Gandhi
Missing
Tootsie
The Verdict
Winner:
Gandhi
Story: The story of Mahatma Gandhi (Ben Kingsley), and his rise from struggling lawyer in South Africa to famous leader of India. He returns to India, deciding the British have made the Indians second class citizens. He gets the people of India to rise up against the British, initially with non-violent protests... Hilarity ensues.Trivia: 300,000 extras appeared in the funeral sequence. About 200,000 were volunteers and 94,560 were paid a small fee (under contract). The sequence was filmed on 31st Jan 1981, the 33rd anniversary of Gandhi's funeral. 11 crews shot over 20,000 feet of film, which was pared down to 125 seconds in the final release.
So, tell me what you think? Did you like Gandhi? Would you have picked another movie as Best Picture? Why?
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6 comments:
The movie Gandhi spanned the lifetime of the Indian Leader and it seemed to last that long too. Don't get me wrong, it is a very good movie. Ben Kingsley gave a masterful performance as Gandhi. He would later gave as masterful a performance as Itzhak Stern in another best picture winner, Shindler's List (coming soon to a blog near you).
Missing has Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek and tells the real life story of Ed Horman's search for his missing son.
The Verdict has Paul Newman as a lawyer.
Again, I have to say these two movies, didn't stand the test of time. I had to look them up to see what they were about. And now for two movies that just about everyone can tell you a little about...
Tootsie...Dustin Hoffman in drag...Need I say more?
and E.T. that lovable alien with the unhealthy infatuation with Reese's Pieces (By The Way, Reese's Pieces sales tripled after the movie opened, now that is the power of product placement).
I guess I would have picked Gandhi, although E.T. would be a very close second.
the Verdict was good. I beleive that it was thought to have given Gandhi a close run. It is about an older attorney that has fallen on hard times and takes on an extremely hard case, emotionally as well as legally. But it was a little slow too. But Paul Newman was great.
I remember staying up watching the Oscars that year to see if ET would win...I've hated Gandhi ever since and refuse to see it. Damn you Gandhi! Damn you! (Well, at least Ben Kingsley)
Out of all the nominees, Ghandi was the only Oscar-worthy film, despite E.T.'s popularity.
As with all other years, the high dramatic movie will always win out. I think Ghandi deserved the win, but as I was reading through the list my first instinct was to say that E.T. won. But I guess that goes from knowing how popular the movie was and still is. I'd pick Ghandi if I were the snobs in the Academy, but for Peoples Choice, E.T. hands down.
Wow, Kim, you rock. I looked it up and E.T. did indeed win the People's Choice Award that year, and Raiders of the Lost Ark won the year before.
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