Why wasn't this film nominated for best picture in 1986? I know why, but I'm still asking. It's one of the best films of the 80's.
It's interesting to look back at the films that were nominated that year. The best picture line-up should have been:
Platoon
The Fly
Aliens
Hannah and Her Sisters
Blue Velvet
Actually nominated:
Platoon
Children of a Lesser God
Hannah and Her Sisters
The Mission
A Room with a View
Although thee are exceptions, Horror films don't usually make the cut.
shareI know, but this film is so much more than a horror film. The horror aspect of it could be seen as a metaphor. It is high drama and a tragedy.
Looking at it with 2020 eyes it should definitely have been nominated. With 1986 eyes it was just seen as another horror flick, although with artistic merit.
Possibly. When I browsed IMDb for year 1986, it didn't seem that great year. Name of the Rose and Little Shop of Horrors could replace Platoon and Aliens on my list. Henry - Portrait of a serial killer was too marginal, controversial and small budget.
shareThe Name of the Rose is an interesting choice. I have to see that again.
shareHenry wasn't released into theaters until 89 anyway
shareThe Best Picture award is THE movie that Hollywood likes to showcase to the world.
The Fly and Aliens, while good sci-fi movies, are considered pop corn flicks, not serious.
I loved Blue Velvet, buts it's story is too sexual, and it's characters too strange to make this a showcase movie.
The Mission is a great movie! De Niro's most underrated performance in my opinion.
You make some very good points.
The Fly and Aliens - in particular Aliens - are indeed commercial popcorn films. They just happen to be some of the best of its kind. The 80's had blockbusters left and right, and today we can look back and see which ones were the best. Aliens is definitely a masterpiece. Sigourney Weaver was deservedly nominated for best actress. James Cameron deserved a nod also.
You are on the money when it comes to Blue Velvet. The material was too risque and sexual. Yes, David Lynch was nominated for best director, but the film was too dark. Doesn't mean that it didn't deserve to be nominated.
I look forward to watching The Mission again. Been a long time.
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Both of those Best Picture lineups are pretty solid, though. It was a very good year for movies.
shareA Room with a View was a fine choice, along with Platoon and Hannah. I’d certainly have added Blue Velvet and Aliens before The Fly. Stand by Me, too.
The Mission is magnificently shot and scored - Menges and Morricone make it seem much better than it actually is - but not really Best Picture worthy. Children of a Lesser God is a lame nominee but does fit the dreary profile of the typical ‘80s Oscar contender.
The Fly was never remotely in the running, I’m sure, but Goldblum deserved a nomination.
Stand by Me is an excellent film that was perhaps too crude for the Oscars, but more compatible than The Fly.
The Fly is such a distinctive and powerful film, being successful in taking a B-movie concept (watch the original) and turning it into a profound meditation on existence. It delivers all the cinematic thrills while at the same time makes you think, feel and empathize. All hallmarks of movies being nominated for best picture. But you're right, a strange horror film like this was never close to getting a nomination. But I do think it deserved one.
Jeff for sure deserved a nomination. Actually, had he been nominated, he should have won the award.
If you don't mind, explain how this is "a profound meditation on existence." I'm assuming you're referring to the parallel of people slowly succumbing to age/disease.
shareThe film is an existentialist drama disguised as a horror film.
Firstly, you have the physical decline of the human body when the protagonist, Seth Brundle, is literally turning into a fly in front of our eyes. He happens to be a very philosophical and intelligent person, and he takes us through the mental readjustment of his metamorphosis. Like in this scene:
Seth Brundle: You have to leave now, and never come back here. Have you ever heard of insect politics? Neither have I. Insects... don't have politics. They're very... brutal. No compassion, no compromise. We can't trust the insect. I'd like to become the first... insect politician. Y'see, I'd like to, but... I'm afraid, uh...
Ronnie: I don't know what you're trying to say.
Seth Brundle: I'm saying... I'm saying I - I'm an insect who dreamt he was a man and loved it. But now the dream is over... and the insect is awake.
Thanks. That's a good quote.
About the parallel to AIDS, Cronenberg said:
I don't take any offense that people see that [AIDS] in my movie. For me, though, there was something about The Fly story that was much more universal: aging and death — something all of us have to deal with.
That's an interesting quote from Cronenberg.
It's true that everyone ages slowly but surely (if we are lucky to have a full life). But I think we all have milestone experiences where we realize, for example:
1. "I''m not a kid anymore"
2. "I'm starting to lose my hair"
3. "I have definitely developed ever lasting wrinkles under my eyes" and so fourth.
But in real life you grow old and adjust. You accept it and survive it somehow.
This is not the same as going one way into hell like Seth Brundle is doing in The Fly. He can't "live with it" and it must be a terrible feeling. I would compare this more to inoperable cancer or something like that.
But it's an interesting conversation and one of the reasons why this film is so engrossing.