Through this revisits I've noticed a trend starting to arise and that is the hidden strength of each year in a second ending with 9 (i.e. 39, 99) being one of the strongest if not the strongest year for cinema in that given decade. Maybe this is artists wanting to get their brilliance just before the change of a decade which is always game changing due to it being a difference of 10 years. Anyway 69 was a special year to consider especially with the choice made by the academy which was one of the oddest choices in the awards history. Their winning choice was the X rated Midnight Cowboy which in retrospective which is a rare and exciting choice given the films content and unapologetic nature in it's storytelling. Starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman it was easily the breakout of Voight and really a game changer for Hoffman. The film set the two actors on the track they would follow for the decades following. The film is truly great and quite out there even nowadays in it's approach to sexual content and everything that surrounds that. The choice is especially confusing considering the other films considered which included Anne of the Thousand Days, Butch Cassidy, Hello Dolly and Z. The Anne Boylen films is good from an actors perspective but like the many British royal films that were filmed before and since there is nothing new to discover even if Genevieve Bujold is unapologetically brillIant. Butch Cassidy is an american classic and easily one of my favourites of the year. Like Cowboy it stars two big movie stars with the two of them almost being effortless in their work. Z my favourite of the list and a truly landmark feature film in both american and foreign cinema. The film is tense, thrilling and a quick watch like no two our foreign language film I've ever seen. The film that sticks out like a sore thumb is Hello Dolly. Oh boy was this film a chore and time I'm never going to get back. So really it was a strong enough lineup with one major outlier but the choice still stands good and a film the academy should embrace more but sadly does not.
Now moving onto what I consider the great cinema of this year it starts and ends with They Shoot Horses, Don't They? One of the biggest surprises that this film given 9 nominations was left off the picture lineup. The film really stands out and is easily one of Pollack's great films. The film is non stop like the dance hall. The cast is on fire the entire time being led by Pollack in such a strong leading voice that this film will stay with me surely for such a long time to come. As I mentioned I love Z and it plants itself as my runner up for the year. As a very modern film watcher it was fun to see Amour's Jean-Louis Trintignant almost 45 years earlier being as great as I consider him in 2012. My third choice is The Wild Bunch. Sam Peckinpah was one of the masters of his time but Wild Bunch stands above all his work for me. The film is such an influential effort on the film industry through it's many forms of shooting. The cast is also a great sight at the top talent performing to the best of their abilities. Following this is Paul Mazursky's Bob & Carol & Alice & Ted. The name may be a mouthful to say but it's worth it when this film of relationship is Mazursky at his most powerful. The main quartet are good and the film almost non-linear is about how one maintains relationships between partners and if people are willing to change them to stay in them. Dyan Cannon was the find of the century in the role and Alice to make another point about this great feature. My final choice for my top 5 is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Like I mentioned before it is a distinct american classic amount the american experience almost. The film is enjoyable and endlessly watchable and unlike most modern successful film the film is unafraid to challenge it's audience and is aiming for everyone while not singling anyone out. So really this was an impressive year that is well represented by the academies choice even if I'd rank it third in the lineup but it just misses my top 5 so I have no issue with the choice.
34 is the amount of films I was able to see from this year and I was very impressed by the list put together. It was a rather great year. Below is the list of winners and nominees I would've prefered.
OUTSTANDING PICTURE:
1. They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (Produced by Robert Chartoff & Irwin Winkler)
2. Z (Produced by Jacques Perrin & Ahmed Rachedi)
3. The Wild Bunch (Produced by Phil Feldman)
4. Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (Produced by Larry Tucker)
5. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Produced by John Foreman)
6. Midnight Cowboy
7. Easy Rider
8. The Round-Up
9. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
10. Pierrot Le Fou
OUTSTANDING DIRECTOR:
Costa-Gavras for Z
Paul Mazursky for Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
Sam Peckinpah for The Wild Bunch
Sydney Pollack for They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
George Roy Hill for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTOR:
Dustin Hoffman as Enrico Salvatore "Ratso" Rizzo in "MIDNIGHT COWBOY"
William Holden as Pike Bishop in "THE WILD BUNCH"
Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy in "BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID"
Jean-Louis Trintignant as The Examining Magistrate in "Z"
Jon Voight as Joe Buck in "MIDNIGHT COWBOY"
OUTSTANDING LEADING ACTRESS:
Genevieve Bujold as Anne Boleyn in "ANNE OF THE THOUSAND DAYS"
Jane Fonda as Gloria Beatty in "THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY?"
Shirley Knight as Natalie Ravenna in "THE RAIN PEOPLE"
Maggie Smith as Jean Brodie in "THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE"
Shirley Stoler as Martha Beck in "THE HONEYMOON KILLERS"
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Red Buttons as Harry Kline in "THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY?"
Elliott Gould as Ted in "BOB & CAROL & TED & ALICE"
Jack Nicholson as George Hanson in "EASY RIDER"
Robert Ryan as Deke Thornton in "THE WILD BUNCH"
Gig Young as Rocky in "THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY?"
OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Dyan Cannon as Alice in "BOB & CAROL & TED & ALICE"
Pamela Franklin as Sandy in "THE PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE"
Mary Jane Higby as Janet Fay in "THE HONEYMOON KILLERS"
Brenda Vaccaro as Shirley in "MIDNIGHT COWBOY"
Susannah York as Alice LeBlanc in "THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON'T THEY?"
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Paul Mazursky & Larry Tucker for Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
William Goldman for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper & Terry Southern for Easy Rider
Haskell Wexler for Medium Cool
Screenplay by Sam Peckinpah & Walon Green; Story by Walon Green & Roy N. Sickner for The Wild Bunch
OUTSTANDING ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Screenplay by Bridget Boland, John Hale & Richard Sokolove; Based on Anne of the Thousand Days by Maxwell Anderson, Anne of the Thousand Days
Screenplay by Waldo Salt; Based on Midnight Cowboy by James Leo Herlihy, Midnight Cowboy
Screenplay by Jay Presson Allen; Based on The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Screenplay by Robert E. Thompson & James Poe; Based on They Shoot Horses, Don't They? by Horace McCoy, They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Screenplay by Jorge Semprún & Costa-Gavras; Based on Z by Vassilis Vassilikos, Z
OUTSTANDING ART DIRECTION:
Production Design by Maurice Carter; Set Design by Peter Howitt & Patrick McLoughlin for Anne of the Thousand Days
Production Design by John De Cuir; Set Design by Raphael Bretton, George Hopkins & Walter M. Scott for Hello, Dolly!
Set Design by Jack D. Moore for Sweet Charity
Production Design by Harry Horner; Set Design by Frank McKelvey for They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Production Design by Jacques D'Ovidi; Set Design by Jacques D'Ovidio for Z
OUTSTANDING BREAKTHROUGH/DEBUT:
Genevieve Bujold (Anne of the Thousand Days)
Dyan Cannon (Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice)
Pamela Franklin (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie)
Shirley Stoler (The Honeymoon Killers)
Jon Voight (Midnight Cowboy)
OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Conrad L. Hill for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Laszlo Kovacs for Easy Rider
Philip H. Lathrop for They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Lucien Ballard for The Wild Bunch
Raoul Coutard for Z
OUTSTANDING COSTUME DESIGN:
Margaret Furse for Anne of the Thousand Days
Moss mabry for Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
Ann Roth for Midnight Cowboy
Joan Bridge & Elizabeth Haffenden for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
Donfeld for They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
OUTSTANDING DOCUMENTARY:
In the Year of the Pig (Directed by Emile de Antonio)
OUTSTANDING ENSEMBLE OF THE YEAR:
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (Natalie Wood, Robert Culp, Elliott Gould, Dyan Cannon, Horst Ebersberg, Lee Bergere, Donald F. Muhich, Noble Lee Holderread Jr., K.T. Stevens, Celeste Yarnall, Lynn Borden, Greg Mullavey, Linda Burton, Leif Garrett)
Easy Rider (Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Antonio Mendoza, Phil Spector, Mac Mashourian, Warren Finnerty, Tita Colorado, Luke Askew, Luana Anders, Sabrina Scharf, Sandy Wyeth, Robert Walker, Jr., Robert Ball, Carmen Phillips, Ellie Walker, Michael Pataki, Jack Nicholson, George Fowler, Jr., Keith Green, Hayward Robillard, Arnold Hess, Jr., Buddy Causey, Jr., Duffy Lafont, Blasé M. Dawson, Paul Guedry, Suzie Ramagos, Elida Ann Hebert, Rose LeBlanc, Mary Kaye Hebert, Cynthia Grezaffi, Colette Purpera, Toni Basil, Karen Black, Lea Marmer, Cathé Cozzi, Thea Salerno, Anne McClain, Beatriz Monteil, Marcia Bowman, David C. Billodeau, Johnny David)
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (Maggie Smith, Robert Stephens, Pamela Franklin, Gordon Jackson, Celia Johnson, Diane Grayson, Jane Carr, Shirley Steedman, Lavinia Lang, Antoinette Biggerstaff, Margo Cunningham, Isla Cameron, Rona Anderson, Ann Way, Molly Weir, Helena Gloag, Heather Seymour)
They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (Jane Fonda, Michael Sarrazin, Susannah York, Gig Young, Red Buttons, Bonnie Bedelia, Bruce Dern, Allyn Ann McLerie, Robert Fields, Michael Conrad, Al Lewis, Madge Kennedy)
The Wild Bunch (William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien, Warren Oates, Jaime Sánchez, Ben Johnson, Emilio Fernández, Strother Martin, L. Q. Jones, Albert Dekker, Bo Hopkins, Jorge Russek, Alfonso Arau, Dub Taylor, Rayford Barnes, Paul Harper, Chano Urueta, Elsa Cárdenas, Bill Hart, Stephen Ferry, Fernando Wagner, Jorge Rado, Aurora Clavel)
OUTSTANDING FILM EDITING:
John C. Howard & Richard C. Meyer for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Hugh A. Robertson for Midnight Cowboy
Frederic Steinkamp for They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Louis Lombardo for The Wild Bunch
Françoise Bonnot for Z
OUTSTANDING FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Pierrot Le Fou (Directed by Jean-Luc Godard)
The Round-Up (Directed by Miklós Jancsó)
Z (Directed by Costa-Gavras)
OUTSTANDING MAKEUP:
Irving Buchman & Dick Smith for Midnight Cowboy
Frank McCoy & Maggie O'Connor for They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Al Greenway & Keester Sweeney for The Wild Bunch
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL/ADAPTATION SCORE:
Burt Bacharach for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
John Barry for Midnight Cowboy
John Green for They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Jerry Fielding for The Wild Bunch
Mikis Theodorakis for Z
OUTSTANDING ORIGINAL SONG:
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head" (Music by Burt Bacharach; Lyrics by Hal David)
Cactus Flower, "The Time for Love Is Any Time" (Music by Quincy Jones; Lyrics by Cynthia Weil)
Midnight Cowboy, "Everybody's Talkin'" (Music and Lyrics by Fred Neil)
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, "Jean" (Music and Lyrics by Rod McKuen)
The Sterile Cuckoo, "Come Saturday Morning" (Music by Fred Karlin; Lyrics by Dory Previn)
OUTSTANDING PERFORMER OF THE YEAR:
Richard Burton (Anne of the Thousand Days, Staircase, Where Eagles Dare)
Irene Papas (Anne of the Thousand Days, A Dream of Kings, Z)
Robert Redford (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Downhill Racer, Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here)
OUTSTANDING SOUND MIXING:
David E. Dockendorf & William E. Edmondson for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Le Roy Robbins for Easy Rider
Tom Overton & Tex Rudloff for They Shoot Horses, Don't They?
Robert J. Miller for The Wild Bunch
Lionel de Souza & Alexandre Popovic for Z
OUTSTANDING VISUAL EFFECTS:
Bud Hulburd, Ralph Ayres & James Rugg for The Wild Bunch
Next I'm moving onto 1945 the year when a little unknown called Billy Wilder came in and dominated with The Lost Weekend. Did this film deserve it all come back on the 30th and you'll see.
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