Courtesy of Emily Zavada
In this second part of my retrospective Oscar Outlook, I’ll be eliminating a couple of films that simplify the complicated, and a monstrosity from the 1950s that amounts to very little.
92. “Driving Miss Daisy” (1989)
You see, all it takes to solve racism is sitting in a car together. It’s 1989, and racism is fixed! If that’s the case, it’s strange that they decided to make this same movie about 30 years later and call it “Green Book”. As it turns out, race relations are more complicated than those depicted in “Driving Miss Daisy,” a film made with so little flair it hurts. The fact is that you can feel empathy for someone even if you can’t relate to the prejudice they endure. The stink of racism can’t be diminished by two people understanding each other. “Driving Miss Daisy” is not concerned with lasting change or retrospection. It wants you to feel good about something deeply unsettling.
91. “The Life of Emile Zola” (1937)
Once described to me as an essential watch for a journalist-to-be, “The Life of Emile Zola” fails to be as bold as that precursor led me to believe. It’s a forgettable effort, and those who remember it more clearly have noted its toothlessness in relation to the real Zola’s work, not to mention the context in which the film was produced. My main takeaway from it these days is that it scored a writing Oscar for Luzerne County’s own Norman Reilly Raine. Paul Muni is strong in the title role, but this is a Best Picture winner you can comfortably skip.
90. “The Greatest Show on Earth” (1952)
Had “The Greatest Show on Earth” been half of its eventual runtime, it might have been alright. Instead, it’s a weak Best Picture winner because there’s hardly any movie packed into its 152 minutes. Nothing on this list has more filler, as “Greatest Show” overwhelms with extended circus action. The non-theatrics aren’t much better, save for Jimmy Stewart’s Buttons the Clown. As the dramatic centerpiece of the story, Buttons should have been more present. Instead, the flaccid love triangle/square/pentagon plot takes the air out of the picture. Unfortunately, this is not close to the greatest show on Earth.
89. “The Great Ziegfeld” (1936)
“The Great Ziegfeld” is extremely reliant on its musical sequences, but they don’t happen often enough. And even when they do pop up, there’s a chance that you’ll have to deal with an awkward blackface performance. Listen, the highlights are Ray Bolger and Frank Morgan. See the pattern? The closer “The Great Ziegfeld” sticks to “The Wizard of Oz” cast, the better. In the early days, the Academy’s Best Picture award, with few exceptions, often went to the biggest picture. “The Great Ziegfeld” is an example of a massive production with very little heart. If Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. ever reenters the public consciousness, perhaps this film will come along for the ride.
88. “Crash” (2005)
Oof. “Crash” can’t manage to get through a scene without tying back to race, which is just not how the world operates. I get the point, but for a cast as large as the one in “Crash,” it’s incredible that none of these people are given anything insightful to say. The racial conversations boil down to the easiest stereotypes, and say very little as to how any conflict can be solved – not in a complicated way, but in the way of it not having much of a point in the end. The script also seems to suggest that racial behaviors are uniform across all of society, which is a truly insulting thought. Trust the audience by introducing just the smallest hint of nuance.
87. “Green Book” (2018)
What is this? 1989? “Green Book” was a weak Best Picture winner in 2018, and it still looks weak today. It’s incredibly lucky that there were not any all-time classics in the lineup that year. “Green Book” is as soft of a comment on race as there is. For more details, check out my “Driving Miss Daisy” commentary from just a few entries back. The family of Don Shirley – who is honorably portrayed by Mahershala Ali in the film – denounced the film. Controversy aside, the overly simple approach of “Green Book,” on both a storytelling and technical level, is far from being Oscar-worthy.
Sam Zavada is counting down his ranking of every Best Picture winner in the history of the Academy Awards in the lead up to this year’s ceremony on March 2. Participate in the Times Leader Readers’ Ballot for the 97th Oscars by filling out the form at https://bit.ly/4hd8n6F. The Readers’ Ballot will close on Friday, Feb. 27, at 8 p.m. and will be revealed in the Saturday, March 1, edition of the Times Leader.
Sam Zavada is counting down his ranking of every Best Picture winner in the history of the Academy Awards in the lead up to this year’s ceremony on March 2.
