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melissaryanconner

Best Picture Movie Marathon, Part 2

Updated: Nov 17, 2022

Part 2: 1976


MOVIES:

  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (winner)

  • Barry Lyndon

  • Dog Day Afternoon (hidden gem)

  • Jaws

  • Nashville

Jaws

Director: Steven Spielberg

Starring: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton, Carl Gottlieb, Jeffrey Kramer, Susan Backlinie, Lee Fierro, Peter Benchley

Oscar Wins: Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound

Other Nominations: Best Picture


I’ve seen this movie I don’t even know how many times and it still holds up as an awesome horror film. Such a great summer blockbuster that still gets me every time! Also, I have never wanted Saltine Crackers so much as I do when I watch this movie…

 

Dog Day Afternoon

Director: Sidney Lumet

Starring: Al Pacino, John Cazale, Charles Durning, Chris Sarandon, Penelope Allen, Sully Boyar, Susan Peretz, James Broderick, Lance Henriksen, Carol Kane, Beulah Garrick, Sandra Kazan, Estelle Omens, Marcia Jean Kurtz, Amy Levitt, Gary Springer, John Marriott

Oscar Wins: Best Original Screenplay

Other Nominations: Best Actor (Al Pacino), Best Supporting Actor (Chris Sarandon), Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Picture


In a movie about cops and robbers, the amazing thing about Dog Day Afternoon is that there really aren’t any bad guys here. Everyone from the burly NYC cops to the robber who needs money to finance his boyfriend’s sex change operation (YUP – in 1975!), is extremely likable and sympathetic. This was a stellar performance from Al Pacino (no surprise) and was surprisingly funny at times. Definitely recommend!

 

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Director: Milos Forman

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Will Sampson, William Redfield, Brad Dourif, Sydney Lassick, Christopher Lloyd, Danny DeVito, Dean Brooks, William Duell, Vincent Schiavelli, Michael Berryman, Alonzo Brown, Mwako Cumbaka, Nathan George, Marya Small, Scatman Crothers, Phil Roth, Louisa Moritz, Peter Brocco, Delos V. Smith Jr., Josip Elic, Mimi Sarkisian, Ted Markland

Oscar Wins: Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher), Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Picture

Other Nominations: Best Supporting Actor (Brad Dourif), Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score


This is easily one of my favorite movies of all time. If I stumble upon it while watching TV, I’ll stop and watch it through to the end. This movie takes you through a gauntlet of emotions, leaving you laughing in some scenes and crying in others. It’s truly no wonder this movie took home all 5 of the top Academy Awards (Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Directing, Best Picture) and watching it again for this project made me love it and appreciate it even more. Also Billy Bibbit will always and forever have my heart and no one can convince me otherwise.

 

Nashville

Director: Robert Altman

Starring: David Arkin, Barbara Baxley, Ned Beatty, Karen Black, Ronee Blakley, Timothy Brown, Keith Carradine, Geraldine Chaplin, Robert DoQui, Shelley Duvall, Allen Garfield, Henry Gibson, Scott Glenn, Jeff Goldblum, Barbara Harris, David Hayward, Michael Murphy, Allan F. Nicholls, Dave Peel, Cristina Raines, Bert Remsen, Lily Tomlin, Gwen Welles, Keenan Wynn, Thomas Hal Phillips

Oscar Wins: Best Original Song ("I'm Easy")

Other Nominations: Best Supporting Actress (Ronee Blakley, Best Supporting Actress (Lily Tomlin), Best Director, Best Picture


Well, that was 2 hours and 40 minutes of my life that I’ll never get back. The best part of this movie was watching Jeff Goldblum do a magic trick. In this exact amount of time, I could have flown to Nashville, squeezed into Robert’s Western World and be enjoying some cold brews and good music. I had high hopes for this one, but, like any good country tune, it just left me broken-hearted.

 

Barry Lyndon

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Starring: Michael Hordern, Ryan O'Neal, Marisa Berenson, Patrick Magee, Hardy Krüger, Gay Hamilton, Godfrey Quigley, Steven Berkoff, Marie Kean, Murray Melvin, Frank Middlemass, Leon Vitali, Dominic Savage, Leonard Rossiter, André Morell, Anthony Sharp, Philip Stone, David Morley, Diana Koerner, Arthur O'Sullivan, Billy Boyle, Jonathan Cecil, Peter Cellier, Geoffrey Chater, Wolf Kahler, Liam Redmond, Roger Booth, Ferdy Mayne, John Sharp, Pat Roach, Hans Meyer

Oscar Wins: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Adapted Score

Other Nominations: Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Picture


Though this movie clocks in at almost 3.5 hours, it strangely doesn’t feel that long. A stunning painting in motion, Barry Lyndon is a cynical, sarcastic and ironic character movie about a poor man who marries into money, then falls into ruin. Based on a novel published in 1844, this Stanley Kubrick classic won four Oscars in 1976, including two rightly deserved awards for Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design, respectively. This movie uses a narrator to help guide the audience through the story and I gotta say, MUCH APPRECIATED. The narration not only explains the story as we move along, but also is our key to understanding a lot of the action that happens off-screen (and there’s a lot of it). This movie really has a little something for everyone: romance, revenge, fighting, happy times, sad times, family drama, basically everything a human can go through in a lifetime because, at its core, Barry Lyndon is really about people – our flaws, our fears and, perhaps most of all, our vanity.

 

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