Best Cast – 1976

My Nominations: Voyage Of The Damned. Taxi Driver. Rocky. The Omen. Network. Murder By Death. Marathon Man. The Last Tycoon. The Cassandra Crossing. All The President’s Men.

We close off the 1976 Academy Awards with the category I have most fun with. What’s interesting this year is that we don’t have a single War Ensemble (hello Slayer fans) movie nominated. There were some films of that ilk this year, but I don’t think they merit the nomination. That leaves us with the tail end of the Disaster movie boom, the big Oscar winners, and honestly not too many surprises.

All The President’s Men and Network are the heavy hitters – earning seven performance based Oscar nominations between them and four wins. If either of those is your choice, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone to argue against you. Taxi Driver and Rocky aren’t too far behind in terms of Awards, with De Niro cementing his name as one of the greats, and both Jodie Foster and Sylvester Stallone emerging as stars alongside such stalwarts as Burgess Meredith and Peter Boyle. The Omen continues the 70s trend of putting legitimate stars into horror movies, with Gregory Peck and Lee Remick appearing alongside the devilish Billie Whitelaw and Harvey Spencer Stephens.

Marathon Man is as horrific as anything you’ll see this year, that horror heightened by a great cast including Dustin Hoffman, Lawrence Olivier, and Roy Scheider while The Last Tycoon is another De Niro vehicle pitting him alongside no less than Tony Curtis, Jack Nicholson, Robert Mitchum, Donald Pleasance, Ray Milland, Theresa Russell, Angelica Huston, and Jeanne Moreau. Murder By Death also features an ensemble of respected thespian – Alec Guiness, Peter Falk, Maggie Smith, David Niven, and Peter Sellers all contribute. The Cassandra Crossing is one of several forgotten disaster movies of the era, worth a watch if you enjoy Alida Valli, Ava Gardner, Lee Strasberg, OJ Simpson, Martin Sheen, Sophia Loren, Burt Lancaster, and Richard Harris, while Voyage Of The Damned goes even more European merging Max Von Sydow, Oskar Werner, Jose Ferrer, Fernando Rey, and Maria Schell with James Mason, Fay Dunaway, Malcolm McDowell, Orson Welles, Katharine Ross, Jonathan Pryce and, ahem, Leonerd Rossiter. While the ensemble pieces are impressive purely looking at the names, they’re not as successful as the big hitters this year. I’m going with my gut again.

My Winner: Rocky

Controversial? Let us know your winner in the comments!

Best Stunt Work – 1976

My Nominations: Rocky. The Eagle Has Landed. The Gumball Rally. King Kong. Death Cheaters.

Although there were plenty of war and disaster movies this year, most don’t meet the grade in terms of overall quality or depth of action and stunt work. The Eagle Has Landed has a greater pedigree than most, given that John Sturges (his final film) directs. It follows the format of so many of the British war movies of the era – a big name cast in a loose retelling of an actual event, with the heroism and action pumped to the max. It’s another one of those movies we’re fed over here and it has plenty of running and gunning to satisfy a certain breed of moviegoer (me). Rocky… it’s a toss-up on whether or  not you class the fight scenes as stunts – I tend towards yes, given that they were choreographed and edited to look as gripping and spectacular as possible. King Kong is as large a spectacle as the original and veers between disaster movie and romance smoothly, with plenty of big budget stunts to remember. My final two picks are more straightforward stunt based movies – and two which tend to be forgotten alongside the bigger names of the era. The Gumball Rally has the cars and the stars, and given that its based on the cross country race you can expect fast, dangerous driving between cars and motorcycles with plenty of crashes, screeching tires, jumps, flips, explosions, and general mayhem. If you prefer the lesser Cannonball from the same year, by all means go for it. Finally, the largely unknown Deathcheaters is an excuse to show off by a bunch of experienced industry stuntmen – it’s a little more… dangerous… than most Hollywood efforts, but don’t expect the most realistic story or convincing performances. Expect fights, explosions, dune-buggy chases, guns, and a ridiculously fun opening 10-15 minutes.

My Winner: Deathcheaters

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Best Make-up – 1976

My Nominations: Bugsy Malone. 1900. Carrie. Logan’s Run. The Man Who Fell To Earth.

Not a lot to say on my nominations this year – epics, horrors, musicals, and sci-fi flicks are all standards for this category and any one is a worthy winner.

My Winner: The Man Who Fell To Earth.

Let us know your pick in the comments!

Best Costume Design – 1976

Official Nominations: Fellini’s Casanova. Bound For Glory. The Incredible Sarah. The Passover Plot. The Seven Percent Solution.

On the surface this sure seems like a stinker – if the average movie fan has seen any of these it’ll be Bound For Glory which, set in the 1930s only forty years earlier doesn’t exactly strike the period itch adequately. Fellini’s Casanova got the win this year, scratching that itch in a more satisfying manner being set in the 1700s. It feels like an underrated Fellini entry but it’s probably the best adaptation of the life of Casanova, portraying the character in a less than favourable light. The other three films… they range from passable to interesting but none have a hope of winning here.

My Winner: Fellini’s Casanova

My Nominations: Fellini’s Casanova. Bugsy Malone. Buffalo Bill And The Indians. Logan’s Run.

Although I thoroughly loath the film, Bugsy Malone deserves a nod here – not only getting the period marks but also for fitting all those suits and dresses on the kids. Buffalo Bill And The Indians has some snazzy designs while Logan’s Run may be dated now but still retains a unique enough set of designs for its dystopian paradise/nightmare.

My Winner: Fellini’s Casanova

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Best Writing (Adapted) – 1976

Official Nominations: All The President’s Men. Bound For Glory. Fellini’s Cassanova. The Seven Percent Solution. Voyage Of The Damned.

An obvious front-runner and inevitable winner this year. All The President’s Men – even without a huge number of iconic one-liners or memorable dialogue it’s one of the most famous screenplays of its era – William Goldman adapting Bernstein and Woodward’s game changer. Goldman’s own game-changer in defining how cinematic the film should be, was removing most of the second half of the source material, focusing on the the initial investigation rather than the downfall. Bound For Glory is an engaging enough adaptation of Woody Guthrie’s pseudo-biography while The Seven Percent Solution is a star-studded Sherlock Holmes story based on a book not written by Doyle.

Voyage Of The Damned feels like a ‘we have to nominate this because the book was important’ nomination while Cassanova is Fellini’s adaptation of Cassanova’s autobiography, twisting the character into a more self-obsessed character with tragic traits.

My Winner: All The President’s Men

My Nominations: All The President’s Men. Family Plot. The Last Tycoon. Marathon Man.

Only the official winner follows the money over to my list. Family Plot – it’s not the best Hitchcock movie but it’s still a worthy, and funny, thriller – it wasn’t the best year for adaptations so when I couple that with the fact that this was Hitchock’s final movie, it seems fitting to see one last nomination. The Last Tycoon takes the brave approach of adapting an unfinished F Scott Fitzgerald novel, using the non-ending as an opportunity to convey a disjointed plot. Goldman gets a second nomination, this time adapting his own novel Marathon Man with terrifying results.

My Winner:All The President’s Men

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Best Writing (Original) – 1976

Official Nominations: Network. Cousin Cousine. The Front. Rocky. Seven Beauties.

Two big hitters, two foreign oddities, and a Woody Allen movie that he didn’t write or direct make up the list this year. Paddy Chayefsky won his third Writing Oscar this year (an unbeaten record) for Network, a film known for its impassioned speeches and angry one-liners. More than that, the script is replete with social satire which has only become more prescient over time. Rocky is famously the script that everyone wanted to buy, but Stallone wasn’t selling unless he could star. The gamble paid off and Stallone created one of the most famous, enduring heroes of Hollywood. The story borrows heavily from notions of The American Dream and from early rags to riches stories, but updates it to modern day and does so with such charm that it’s impossible to not love.

It’s not often that foreign movies get nominated in this category, but we got two this year – a sign that the daring indie movement of Hollywood was being mirrored elsewhere. Cousin Cousine has a knack for understanding and representing forbidden and budding romance while Seven Beauties is a dark, long spanned tale of one despicable character living through an even more despicable landscape which both shapes and nurtures him. Finally, The Front is a movie about the Hollywood Blacklist of the 1950s made by people who were blacklisted – while good, while funny, and while an interesting subject, it feels like an apologetic nomination.

My Winner: Network

My Nominations: Network. Rocky. Seven Beauties. Murder By Death. The Omen. Silent Movie. Taxi Driver.

Three Official choices make my list, joining a couple of spoofs, a horror classic, and a hefty snub. If we start with the snub, it seems unusual in retrospect that Taxi Driver was not nominated, given the reverence it has received over the years. I think that it deserves a nod over one of the foreign movies, definitely over The Front. It’s an incisive look into a character’s moral viewpoint of a dirty world and quotable dialogue is scattered from page to screen. Murder By Death is that rare Neil Simon comedy that I fully enjoy, riffing on those mansion mysteries of old while I find that Silent Movie is one of the more clever comedy screenplays of the era despite the fact that only a single word is spoken. Finally, The Omen’s impact on film and on popular culture should not be underestimated, providing successive generations who vaguely preach ignorance from behind the pulpit with misinformation they purport as truth, and fans with a succession of lines to quote at each other.

My Winner: The Omen

Let us know your winner in the comments!

Best Art Direction – 1976

Official Nominations: All The President’s Men. The Incredible Sarah. The Last Tycoon. Logan’s Run. The Shootist.

A clear front-runner and winner this year with All The President’s Men being set in the familiar locations of a bustling workplace and real life DC hotspots. The newsroom was entirely recreated for the film, but you wouldn’t know it given how realistic it all feels, while everything from the lighting to the costumes feel sweaty and tangible and at once closing in and expanding with possibility. Logan’s Run gets the Sci-Fi nod and is one of the more unique (for the time) visions of a possible future. Cheesy now, I’ve always had a fondness for the sets and the overall look. The Last Tycoon is probably famed now more for its authentic setting than the plot or performances while I’m not sure anyone remembers (or needs to remember) The Incredible Sarah. Finally, The Shootist is a now underrated Don Siegel Western featuring John Wayne – his last role – his character bemoaning the end of ‘The Old West’ and the film representing loss in both its look and plot.

My Winner: All The President’s Men

My Nominations: All The President’s Men. The Last Tycoon. Logan’s Run. 1900. Bugsy Malone. Carrie. Marathon Man.

I add everything from musicals to horror movies to the three copied from the Official Nominations. 1900 is an epic in every sense, and if there is one thing most epics have in common it is a painstaking attention to detail, with Bertolucci and co showcasing the skills learned in previous stylized films such as The Conformist. Bugsy Malone, as much as I hate it, has a very specific look and feel which suits the malarkey of the story and its gimmick perfectly. Carrie is an exercise in stylized editing and post-menstrual pressure with both home and school rarely shown to be anything more than different levels of hell, while Marathon Man uses shadow and light to torment the viewer like few other films.

My Winner: All The President’s Men

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Best Original Score – 1976

Official Nominations: The Omen. Obsession. The Outlaw Josey Wales. Taxi Driver. Voyage of The Damned. Bound For Glory. A Star Is Born. Bugsy Malone.

The category is still separate this year – The Omen and Bound For Glory picking up the official wins. What’s that? A horror movie actually winning an Oscar? I know, right? It’s well deserved and it’s easily the most recognizable and iconic film score here, a classic of horror soundtracks. Bernard Herrmann received a posthumous nomination for Obsession – you’d think this was just a nod to recognize a body of work, but it’s another great soundtrack. It’s all the more amazing when you remember he was also nominated for Taxi Driver this year – two terrific scores in his last months on the planet – not bad. The Outlaw Josey Wales has an underappreciated score while Voyage Of The Damned is surprisingly NOT about a ship filled with demonic, hypnotic albino children – the soundtrack is fine.

Bound For Glory appears to have been nominated and won more for what is represents than what it is, I’m surprised one of the other two nominations didn’t get the vote. Bugsy Malone is one of my most disliked films of all time…. I’ve just hated it since the moment I first clasped eyes on it, and the music is a large part of that. A Star Is Born is entirely unnecessary.

My Winner: The Omen

My Nominations: The Omen. Obsession. The Outlaw Josey Wales. Taxi Driver. Rocky. 1900. Assault On Precinct 13. Burnt Offerings. Carrie. The Missouri Breaks. Silver Streak. The Tenant.

How was Rocky not nominated here? It got a nomination for Best Song (and should have won) but was left out here – ridiculous considering it’s probably the only other score from the year that still lives on today. 1900 has some of the great Morricone’s most tender work while Assault On Precinct 13 kick started a terrific run of scores by Carpenter – this one being incredibly influential to later hip hop and synth led acts. In a move that you’ll see increasingly here, we have another horror film getting a nomination for Best Score – Burnt Offerings – with it’s lonesome ‘no-one walks here’ piano lead a world away from the shattering apocalyptica of The Omen. Going in yet another direction for horror soundtracks is Carrie –  I almost wasn’t going to nominate this one as it’s quite twee and cheesy, but upon further reflection I think it’s more like Cannibal Holocaust in that it lulls us falsely. Carrie is essentially a tragedy, and the main theme sounds like it should be from some tear-jerking melodrama instead of scenes of nude showering teens and pig’s blood carnage.

Away from horror and we have John Williams leaving his mark yet again, this time in The Missouri Breaks which has a couple of great pieces featuring guitar and harmonica. Silver Streak sees Mancini in fine form, again working wonders on a zany comedy, while The Tenant is quiet, lurking, threatening. I don’t really know where to go with this one – three undisputed classics and a bunch which aren’t far behind – a great year. You know what? If they can split the category, then so can I, for absolutely no reason at all – The Omen got the win above, therefore…

My Winner: Rocky. Assault On Precinct 13.

Let us know your winner in the comments!

Best Cinematography – 1976

Official Nominations: Bound For Glory. King Kong. Logan’s Run. Network. A Star Is Born.

It’s a strange category this year. I’m probably biased when I think of cinematography as my first thoughts always go to wide shots, long shots, stunning locations – the sorts of work you tend to see in epics, Westerns, David Lean films etc. Obviously I’m dumbing that waay down but that’s my bias though The Academy generally nominates along similar lines of thought. This year there is precious little of that, at least in the official nominees. Bound For Glory isn’t that interesting a film, patriotic and based on a story I’m not really invested in, but it works as another one of those ‘fight for your dreams’ sagas that people love, USA dudes in particular. It does look good though, has a good cast, and probably got the win for its Steadicam work.

King Kong is the big and brash remake of the perfect original. It’s campy and fun but pretty dated now, though the location work still holds up, New York’s drenched neon’s in stark contrast to Kong’s home. Logan’s Run is a film I’ve always enjoyed – more Jenny Agutter is always a good thing in my book, but it’s campy and fun too. It’s interesting that it ever got nominated, even in this category, but it does have its moments. Network I don’t think really needs to be here, while A Star Is Born doesn’t earn a spot in my view either.

My Winner: King Kong

My Nominations: Assault On Precinct 13. All The President’s Men. Kings Of The Road. The Man Who Fell To Earth. The Missouri Breaks. Rocky.

None of the official nominees make my list. We start out with Assault On Precinct 13 – a film which doesn’t get nearly the attention it deserves, and this category would be a good place to start. As dirty, grim, and violent as the film is there are some gorgeous sunset shots and the change in styles from the scorching daylight to the hostile claustrophobic night should not go unrecognized. If you know me then you’ll know I love sunset or sunrise shots in movies – those seem to go hand in hand with a shift in tone or the film’s most poignant, thoughtful moments and the passing of day to night is something personal for me that I’ll always love.

Of all of the films I’ve selected, All The President’s Men seems like the most natural snub – the one which The Academy should have nominated. For a film set largely in one interior setting – not something which usually excites me from a cinematography perspective, Gordon Willis and Alan J Pakula give an intense fluorescent gleam to proceedings. The fact that they are able to overcome the inherent problems of this setting – the draw distance of the background office shots, the many glass and screen surfaces, the maze of floor space and cubicles to work around – is to their immense credit, but to do it with style and authentic voice is something else. Wim Wenders pops up with his nihilistic road movie Kings Of The Road – road movies are again a sub-genre which lends itself to interesting and captivating shots which strike me on a personal level. The Man Who Fell To Earth is one of those movies that you stumble upon late at night having no idea what it is, but get sucked in to and mesmerized by – the Cinematography has a large part in that.

Continuing the theme of personal stuff and bias, The Missouri Breaks offers a depiction of slow death – of a civilization, a place and time, a way of life crumbling away – you’ve guessed it, something which I’ve always had an interest in. Rocky is a bigger budget, bigger scale version of everything I love in Assault On Precinct 13, with the claustrophobia replaced by great in ring work. Taxi Driver you feel is the one film which was most glaringly overlooked in this category – the rain and neon soaked debauched mean streets of NYC never looking more poisonous.

My Winner: Assault On Precinct 13

Let us know your winner in the comments!

Best Visual Effects – 1976

Official Nominations: King Kong. Logan’s Run.

We didn’t quite get official nominations this year, but we did get two separate special achievement awards for the films mentioned above. King Kong isn’t exactly the leap forward in effects that the original was and of course it has dated, as has Logan’s Run. The animatronics give Kong emotive expressions and character while Logan’s Run has lots of anti gravity, flashing lights, and holograms.

My Winner: King Kong

My Nominations: King Kong. Logan’s Run. Carrie. The Omen.

Next year is the biggie, the start of modern effects as we know them, or at least it is the major turning point. There aren’t too many films which rely on visual effects or have something new or unique aside from the official winners this year. Carrie mixes visual effects with De Palma’s editing and directing to make for a powerful ending. The Omen has some of the all time great movie deaths, thanks to some sterling effects work – set-pieces which still retain their power and shock value today.

My Winner: The Omen

Let us know your winner in the comments!