Other Movies That Should Have Been Considered: Sayles’ Baby, It’s You, Allen’s Zelig, and Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander
What Should’ve Won and Did Win: Terms of Endearment
How Hard Was the Decision: Very hard because Terms of Endearment is not an all-time classic, but it was a weak year. It came down to this or Tender Mercies, so I just watched both, and I surprised myself by picking this one. Tender Mercies is very good, and Robert Duvall gives a legendary performance, but the movie just felt too slight compared to this.
How Hard Was the Decision: Very hard because Terms of Endearment is not an all-time classic, but it was a weak year. It came down to this or Tender Mercies, so I just watched both, and I surprised myself by picking this one. Tender Mercies is very good, and Robert Duvall gives a legendary performance, but the movie just felt too slight compared to this.
Director: James L. Brooks
Writer: James L. Brooks, adapted from the novel by Larry McMurtry
Stars: Debra Winger, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, John Lithgow
Writer: James L. Brooks, adapted from the novel by Larry McMurtry
Stars: Debra Winger, Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, John Lithgow
The Story: Houston teen Emma Greenway gets away from her hyper-critical mother Aurora and marries hapless English professor Flap Horton, moving first to Iowa then Nebraska. They raise three kids, but eventually Emma dies of cancer and Flap agrees to have Aurora raise the kids back in Houston. (Aurora also has an fling with the astronaut next door.)
Any Other Nominations or Wins: MacLaine and Winger went up against each other for Best Actress and MacLaine won. Nicholson and Lithgow went up against each other for Supporting Actor and Nicholson won. It also won Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay. It lost Art Direction, Editing, Score and Sound.
How It Won: The movie was a surprise hit (second only to Return of the Jedi at the box office), the Academy loves a good whole-tissue-box tearjerker, and, let’s face it, the picking were slim.
How It Won: The movie was a surprise hit (second only to Return of the Jedi at the box office), the Academy loves a good whole-tissue-box tearjerker, and, let’s face it, the picking were slim.
Why It Won:
- I’ve recently took away the Oscars of two other family-drama tear-jerkers, Kramer vs Kramer and Ordinary People. This movie isn’t as good as those two, but I’m letting it keep its Oscar because the competition is weaker. Of course, I didn’t rewatch those movies, and maybe I was scared to, trying to protect myself emotionally. This time I had no choice but to rewatch, and it wrecked me. I hadn’t seen it since I had cancer and I had kids (not at the same time, thankfully). This time, the movie’s sentimentality felt well-earned, closely-observed, and emotionally-devastating.
- Duvall is great in Tender Mercies, but this one has not one but two all-time-great roles for its two lead actresses, creating a tragic circumstance where only one could win Best Actress. For the record, they got it wrong. MacLaine is deeply moving a problematic mother turned middle-aged lover, and she was overdue for an Oscar, but Winger is called upon to show more emotional range. She proves that she was one of the great actresses and her too-short career feels like a tragedy. I would love it if she had kept working for the next forty years.
- I also reluctantly passed over The Last Picture Show, which was also based on a Larry McMurtry novel (and also featured Polly Platt as more-than-just Production Designer). And “Lonesome Dove” was a miniseries, not a movie, so this is my one remaining chance to honor him. The fact that one person could turn out three such wildly different versions of Texas’s story (rural, urban and inbetween, historical to modern-day, male-led and female-led) and break your heart with all three, shows a massive talent.
- James L. Brooks was a master television maker (from “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” to “Taxi” to “The Simpsons”) making his film debut here as both writer and director. He brings some TV habits over (the heart-tugging score is laid on a little thick) but he proved that he could do great work in this medium as well. He maintains his special gift for making you laugh and cry (and before you claim “The Simpsons” doesn’t make you cry, remember the note saying “You are Lisa Simpson.” Tearing up, aren’t you?)
- When Emma tells her mom she’s marrying Flap, her mom tells her “You are not special enough to overcome a bad marriage.” It is to Brooks’ and MacLaine’s great credit that they can still get us to root for her after that and other criticisms. Acid-tongued characters are frequently compelling, and they can even become sympathetic if handled with great delicacy.
- Emma keeps catching herself starting to do the same things to her kids that her mom did to her. I’ve never seen a movie better at showing how much work it is to police yourself from doing that, something I know something about.
