1989 - Driving Miss Daisy over Field of Dreams, My Left Foot and Dead Poets Society. (5)
Driving Miss Daisy won the Oscar the moment that the first Oscar voter saw a rough cut of the movie and immediately began telling friends and throwing high fives. I mean, the formula is perfect Oscar catnip. Period piece? Check. Older and much admired Actor/Actress in the leading role? Check. Comedian acting in a serious role? Check. Curing all of America's racial ills in under two hours? Check. I mean...if it hadn't won the Oscar, the Academy would have had to completely revise their checklists on how to vote for the awards which hadn't been revised since...I don't know, probably 1952 with whiteout. Let's face it, that isn't going to happen when there is scotch to drink, and scripts to be stolen and money to be made! (I'm assuming this what most Oscar voters do in their spare time. At least when they're not doing mounds of cocaine and chasing whores.) Driving Miss Daisy is a sweet, nice movie - there's no shame in that. It's just not the best movie made that year (or even close) However we're all at least partially indebted to it for helping to establish Morgan Freeman as a "A" list celebrity, and freeing him from having to be on shows like the Electric Company (even though he was great on that too!)
Looking good Morgan. Looking good.
Field of Dreams and Dead Poets Society are great movies. Neither had a chance to actually win mind you - FOD was way too "weird" for the Academy's tastes, and DPS was too geared towards the younger generation. I envision an 85 year old Oscar voter watching FOD and thinking the voice leading Kevin Costner on his quest was actually coming from the bedroom. ("Who's there? Come out of there!") However, there's no doubt that these are the 2 movies that people still watch, re-watch and re-watch some more today. If I stumble upon Field of Dreams while clicking channels, there are very few situations that are going to keep me from watching the rest of it - even though I own it and can watch it anytime. (wife) "Oh dear god, one of the boys lit himself on fire!" (me) "Shhhh! Costner is about to play catch with his dad!" As for My Left Foot, it checked nearly all the boxes on the Oscar list too, but couldn't quite get there since there was no racial component - despite yet another ridiculously great performance from Daniel Day Lewis. He's so much better than almost any other actor of the past 40 years, they should give him all the awards even if he's not in a movie that year. I want him accepting awards just for breathing and being Irish.
I drink your milkshake!...and whatever else Ireland wants. GIVE ME ALL THE AWARDS!
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