Other Movies That Should Have Been Considered: Little Big Man is a little problematic but mostly excellent. In Europe there was The Conformist, The Red Circle and Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
What Did Win: Patton
How It’s Aged: I rewatched it, and it’s a brilliantly made movie, but Nixon infamously screened the movie twice before deciding to secretly and illegally expand the Vietnam war into Cambodia, lest America finally lose a war. And I can easily see how it pushed him in that direction. Pauline Kael nailed it when she said “The Patton shown here appears to be deliberately planned as a Rorschach test. He is what people who believe in military values can see as the true military hero—the red-blooded American who loves to fight and whose crude talk is straight talk. He is also what people who despise militarism can see as the worst kind of red-blooded American mystical maniac who believes in fighting; for them, Patton can be the symbolic proof of the madness of the whole military complex. And the picture plays him both ways—crazy and great.” For willingly and knowingly inspiring jingoistic madness, I have to take away this movie’s Oscar.
What Should’ve Won: The Ballad of Cable Hogue
How Hard Was the Decision: Tremendously hard. As opposed to 1971, when I will have to make an almost impossible choice between five masterpieces, 1970 had very slim pickings indeed. First I was tempted to stay with Patton, before dismissing it for the reasons listed above. Then I rewatched MASH for the first time in 35 years and Hoooo-boy has that movie aged badly (These countercultural cut-ups are “sticking it to The Man”, by which I mean that what they’re actually doing is treating women like crap.) So I was stuck. Should I go with Five Easy Pieces, which does at least bother to look askance at its hero’s mistreatment of women? Should I invoke the Parasite Rule yet again and go with The Conformist or Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion? (Undoubtedly the best two movies of the year, but I couldn’t convince myself either could win an Oscar.) Then the answer hit me like a bolt out of the blue. This is certainly an unconventional pick, but it’s a great movie, and gets the award for being the best non-problematic movie of 1970.
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Writers: John Crawford and Edmund Penney
Stars: Jason Robards, Stella Stevens, David Warner, Strother Martin, Slim Pickins, L. Q. Jones
How Hard Was the Decision: Tremendously hard. As opposed to 1971, when I will have to make an almost impossible choice between five masterpieces, 1970 had very slim pickings indeed. First I was tempted to stay with Patton, before dismissing it for the reasons listed above. Then I rewatched MASH for the first time in 35 years and Hoooo-boy has that movie aged badly (These countercultural cut-ups are “sticking it to The Man”, by which I mean that what they’re actually doing is treating women like crap.) So I was stuck. Should I go with Five Easy Pieces, which does at least bother to look askance at its hero’s mistreatment of women? Should I invoke the Parasite Rule yet again and go with The Conformist or Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion? (Undoubtedly the best two movies of the year, but I couldn’t convince myself either could win an Oscar.) Then the answer hit me like a bolt out of the blue. This is certainly an unconventional pick, but it’s a great movie, and gets the award for being the best non-problematic movie of 1970.
Director: Sam Peckinpah
Writers: John Crawford and Edmund Penney
Stars: Jason Robards, Stella Stevens, David Warner, Strother Martin, Slim Pickins, L. Q. Jones
The Story: A laid-back outlaw is abandoned by his no-good buddies in the middle of the desert. Wandering until he’s on the verge of death, he finally finds water, right where the stagecoach companies happen to need a watering hole. Teaming up with a randy preacher and big-hearted sex worker, he follows an arc that mirrors the rise and fall of American capitalism, (all while pursuing the world’s laziest quest for revenge.).
Any Nominations or Wins: Nothing
Why It Didn’t Win: It was unconventional, but so were other nominees in 1970. But this one, unlike those, was a big old flop, and that still eliminated most movies from consideration.
Why It Should Have Won:
Any Nominations or Wins: Nothing
Why It Didn’t Win: It was unconventional, but so were other nominees in 1970. But this one, unlike those, was a big old flop, and that still eliminated most movies from consideration.
Why It Should Have Won:
- This is a “blank check movie.” Peckinpah had a huge hit with The Wild Bunch, and Hollywood presumably wanted more of the same, but he wanted something gentler. He had earned himself a blank check and he was going to cash it. The only thing the two movies have in common is that they’re both about the death of the Old West, for both good and ill.
- In his rare chances like A Thousand Clowns and this, Robards proved himself to be a great leading man, but Hollywood only caught up to his kind of characters when he was already getting a little old. If America had embraced his brand of shambling cynicism ten years earlier, he would have been one of our biggest stars. He's absolutely magnetic here.
- After finding water on public land, Robards buys it cheap and then shoots dead anyone who won't give him ten cents to drink it. Business is usually portrayed as a malevolent evil or an abstract good, but this movie shows it to be no different from any other institution: something we create to serve us until we wind up serving it. As Thoreau said "We do not ride on the railroad, it rides upon us," a truth that Robards finally realizes a little too late. His ambition drives his society forward until he slows down just enough for it to run him over.
- Even in the "free love" early '70s, there was a stark divide between the actresses who engaged in naked shenanigans and those who got taken seriously. Stevens was a former playboy bunny who got lots of "go-go girl" roles but didn't get anything serious until Peckinpah saw something great in her. The worst crime of this movie's lack of success was that not enough people saw what should have been a breakthrough performance. This is one of the sweetest on-screen love stories you'll ever see.
- Like other movies I’ve promoted over the years, including Blast of Silence and Brother From Another Planet, this is a modestly-budgeted movie that isn't ashamed to extrapolate one small journey into a grander parable about the stages of man. It's surprising to see something this funny and laid back quietly accrue so much meaning. It sneaks up on you.
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