Best Writing (Adapted) – 1979

Official Nominations: Kramer Vs Kramer. Apocalypse Now. La Cage Aux Folles. A Little Romance. Norma Rae.

Kramer Vs Kramer continues its winning streak by picking up the Adapted Screenplay Award. I’m not much of a fan of films which spend a considerable amount of their running time in Court, but the intensity, integrity, and emotion of the performances keeps things interesting. Time has passed so the legal stuff is hit and miss and the dialogue is plain rather than quotable. Apocalypse Now is the very definition of quotable, with a number of speeches and one-liners becoming iconic, definitive moments of Cinema, turning yet another school-kid-hated-text into something monumental. La Cage Aux Folles is a funny enough story but it seems strange it was ever nominated here given some of the ‘crass’ material. Norma Rae is a much more credible nomination – The Academy loves a heart-warming underdog story, and if it’s a biography – all the better. Finally, A Little Romance is a little seen film with a terrific cast which almost never works, a saccharine script which probably only works on a specific person at a specific place in their life.

My Winner: Apocalypse Now

My Nominations: Apocalypse Now. Escape From Alcatraz. Nosferatu The Vampyre. Quadrophenia. Scum. The Warriors.

Only my choice of winner makes it over to my own nominations where I add five films which never stood a chance of picking up a genuine nomination. Quadrophenia may be the most interesting of these seeing as the film is adapted from the album of the same name. I generally enjoy when bands are so overblown that they decide to branch into film – it almost never works well, and it works even less when it’s the story of an album rather than some standalone story which just happens to feature the band. Quadrophenia works so well because it is a time-honoured tale of adolescence, a coming of age story set against the Mods vs The Rockers and featuring music from The Who’s best album. The dialogue, while trenched in the era and place, is not a barrier to modern or foreign viewers and features the gritty realism you would expect from British cinema but as a whole it is less kitchen sink drama and more an energetic quest of rebellion and purpose.

Escape From Alcatraz is one of the finest prison break movies, dispensing with such tired devices such as love interests and exhaustive dialogue, and instead doubles down on the bare essentials – clever inmate decides to escape from inescapable prison. An odd choice for this category then, but the screenplay takes the core details from the true life story and transforms it into a taut and streamlined action thriller. Keeping on the topic of streamlining – the original novel of The Warriors deals more heavily in the main characters’ motivations while also exploring modern notions of family, sexuality, machismo, and the very nature of the gangs themselves. Hill and Shaber’s film is more minimalist in theme and plot and instead succeeds as a quotable proto-Western, a road movie on foot, a cross-country chase from one end of a city to another, and the fantasy of a possible future of laws based on codes of honour rather than ticker tape, bureaucracy, and entrenched white ideals.

Scum doesn’t make for pleasant viewing, but that’s precisely the point. It’s as hard hitting as it needs to be, with a gavel thud of violence and language which raises the bar over the original BBC version. Nosferatu adds precious dialogue and characterisation over the original and while the general outline of the Dracula story should be familiar to all viewers, there are enough changes to satisfy experienced fans of that story, from the portrayal of the lead characters, to their respective conclusions.

My Winner: Apocalypse Now

Let us know your winner in the comments!

Best Cinematography – 1979

Official Nominations: Apocalypse Now. 1941. All That Jazz. The Black Hole. Kramer Vs Kramer.

While there are notable films here, it’s not even close – the winner is Apocalypse Now. Even disregarding the conditions and hardships which went hand in hand with the shoot, the film stands alone as maybe the most stunning looking war film of its era. From the hyper-real napalm flames against the ghastly greens, to Kurtz and Willard’s shadow encased scenes at the other end, Vittorio Storaro vision perfectly encapsulates the madness and horror of that particular war. 1941 is an altogether different war movie, a forgotten ensemble comedy directed by Steven Spielberg. It’s memorable for certain action and effects sequences and feels like a worthy nomination for Fraker who continued his late 70s run of nominations. All That Jazz looks authentic, The Black Hole throws a lot of tricks into a fancy 2001 esque ending, while Kramer Versus Kramer probably doesn’t warrant a nomination alongside the more uniquely shot films here.

Official Winner: Apocalypse Now

My Nominations: Apocalypse Now. Alien. All That Jazz. Dracula. Mad Max. Nosferatu. Star Trek. The Warriors.

Two of the official picks make it over to my list where I add a few brazen oversights. Alien is one of the most visually stunning films of the year, and of the decade. Derek Vanlint didn’t work on many movies in his career, but his work on Alien has stood the test of time, offering a tasteful impression of true isolation and the terror which can creep from such. Gilbert Taylor’s work on Dracula serves to highlight the enticing and seductive nature of the character with brighter splashes of decadent colour stepping away from the more Gothic or bleak visuals of past adaptations.

As I’ve mentioned on other posts regarding Mad Max, the film holds a unique place in my mind as being this bizarre assault on the senses and an unnerving, crazed look at a potential future. David Eggby’s work is one of the central forces behind the atmosphere this film instils and exudes, with the film existing in this strange place between epic and low budget grime. Nosferatu does more than ape the original, with long-term Herzog collaborator Jorg Schmidt-Reinwein heightening the contrast between darkness and shadow and the misty, dying light. Star Trek repeats the trick Star Wars pulled a couple of years earlier, while The Warriors elevates a B movie action story to cult status thanks in part to Andrew Laszlo’s filming notable for the subway lighting and haunted street imagery which for years made me think that’s exactly what New York looked like.

My Winner: Apocalypse Now

Best Picture – 1979

Official Nominations: Kramer vs Kramer. All That Jazz. Apocalypse Now. Breaking Away. Norma Rae.

1979. You have the film fan’s favourite; the other film fan’s favourite; and the audience favourite. Then two other ones no-one cares about. Apocalypse Now is the winner here for me, and it’s not even close. I like Kramer Vs Kramer but it feels too much like a TV movie – I’ve always felt that way about court movies, no matter how cinematic they may be. Of course it isn’t strictly a court movie, but you understand my meaning. All That Jazz  – you can already anticipate my feelings on this one given that it’s a musical. Surprisingly though, it’s not as distasteful to me as other musicals and a fine end to Fosse’s career, with as much darkness as any of his other work. It’s just a pity it has all that singing and dancing crap. Roy Scheider has rarely been better, and yet the film’s attempts at the surreal don’t always work.

The final two films are Norma Rae  – Erin Brockovich for the 70s in which Sally Field stands up to The Man, and Breaking Away, in which a bunch of friends leave school and have no clue what to do with their lives. It’s fantastic, and probably my second favourite here, but then I’ve always had a thing for coming of age movies. So two undisputed classics, and three very good movies to round off the decade. Still though, only one winner.

My Winner: Apocalypse Now

My Nominations: Apocalypse Now. Alien. Mad Max. Scum. The Warriors.

I add four personal favourites to my list. Of these, Alien is the only one who could have genuinely seen The Oscars nominate. It made a tonne of money, critics loved it, and was nominated for two Oscars – winning one. It’s every bit as chilling and epic now as it was then, with a set and sound design few films since have rivalled. It’s the perfect streamlined horror plot – people are trapped with an unknown and seemingly unstoppable killer – with just enough mystery to let our imaginations create a wider world and internal horrors. Unfortunately the Prometheus side of things has taken the mythology in ludicrous directions and slightly soured the impact of the original. As it stands, it’s undoubtedly one of the best horror movies ever made.

Mad Max is a film which, as I’ve mentioned before, has an unearthly atmosphere which I’ve rarely encountered in Cinema. Part of that is what I bring to it as a viewer, but much of it is just the weirdness of it all – it truly does feel ugly and apocalyptic and genuine – a world away from most modern Cinema’s attempts at depicting a world in collapse. The Warriors also takes place in a world, or a city, in a state of decay and acts like a road movie without cars – a chase movie on foot, a siege movie where the besieged are constantly moving. Finally, Scum is the least likely of my picks to ever have been nominated – it’s a British movie filled with gritty violence and peppered with controversy to the extent that it was one of famous needless busy body Brit Mary Whitehouse’s personal crusades – she wanted it banned and never spoken of again. Featuring future stars giving terrific performances – Ray Winstone, Phil Daniels, Julian Firth, it’s neither a pretty nor pleasant watch as it follows the glamour-free Scarface-esque rise of one troubled youth within the walls of a Borstal (pretty much a prison for kids).

My Winner: Alien

Let us know in the comments which film you would choose as the Best of 1979!