Willkommen, Bienvenue, Oscar

Sacheen Littlefeather Refusing Oscar
on Behalf of Marlon Brando:
Best Actor for
The Godfather

TUESDAYS WITH OSCAR: 1972

The 45th Academy Awards is remembered not so much for who won (though one of the greatest films of all time did manage a surprise win), but for who came for one of the winners.  This is the Oscar where an obscure Indian actress and activist became forever linked to the Academy Awards, to her eternal infamy warranted or not.  Sacheen Littlefeather went in the place of Marlon Brando, nominated for his 'comeback' role of The Godfather.  Proxies had accepted for others before, but leave it to the mercurial actor to upend things on this night.

The story of Sacheen Littlefeather is a fascinating one.  Having formed a curious relationship with the eccentric Brando, she had been summoned to go on his behalf, with all sorts of odd moments.  Brando had written out a very lengthy speech decrying the portrayal of Native Americans onscreen and on recent Native American activism such as Wounded Knee.  The speech would have been far too long to deliver even if Brando had appeared, but there was no way the producers would have allowed it to have been made, Brando or no Brando.  Ultimately, Littlefeather was forced to wing it, and the grief she has received over it has not abated.

Richard Roeper, with whom I maintain a one-sided feud, made a most interesting point about all this.  He said something along the lines of what exactly Brando playing a gangster has anything to do with Native Americans has yet to be explained.

This sadly would not be the last time the Academy Awards would be used to promote a political viewpoint, though given what would occur in the future, this brouhaha would be rather tame by comparison.

In other Academy news, Cabaret would set a record for the most Oscar wins without winning Best Picture, eight versus The Godfather's mere three.  Four of Cabaret's wins were in categories where it bested The Godfather. 

As always this is just for fun and should not be taken as my final decision. I should like to watch all the nominees and winners before making my final, FINAL choice. Now, on to cataloging the official winners (in bold) and my selections (in red). Also, my substitutions (in green).

1972 Academy Awards

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

Ben: Ben
Come Follow Me, Follow Me: The Little Ark
Marmalade, Molasses & Honey: The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
The Morning After: The Poseidon Adventure
Strange Are the Ways of Love: The Stepmother

And we're back to the most square of square choices as our official nominees.  Out of all these, The Morning After seems to be the best one.  It's a curious, almost comic juxtaposition: this gentle, optimistic song to one of the great disaster films, one that kind of set the model for all other future disaster films. The Morning After also fits the hope the survivors of the Poseidon hold as one by one they meet a grisly fate. 

From Super Fly, Freddy's Dead.  Music & Lyrics by Curtis Mayfield.

Ben: Ben
Marmalade, Molasses & Honey: The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
The Morning After: The Poseidon Adventure
Strange Are the Ways of Love: The Stepmother
Freddy's Dead: Super Fly

Perhaps it was because Shaft had won last year that the powers that be opted not to go 'urban' again.  All the pity, as Freddy's Dead is, perhaps not the equal to Theme From "Shaft", at least far more memorable than Strange Are the Ways of Love. 

BEST DIRECTOR

John Boorman: Deliverance
Francis Ford Coppola: The Godfather
Bob Fosse: Cabaret
Joseph L. Mankiewicz: Sleuth
Jan Troell: The Emigrants

Having seen three of the nominees, I can vouch for the strong directing in Sleuth, Cabaret, and The Godfather.  Fosse did a fantastic job in his musical film, where the songs weren't integrated into the story but performed on stage as they would in a real cabaret club.  However, I still hold out that Coppola's masterwork was a stronger effort, the mix of family loyalty and business into that toxic mix of tragedy.

Francis Ford Coppola: The Godfather
Bob Fosse: Cabaret
Werner Herzog: Aguirre, The Wrath of God
Joseph L. Mankiewicz: Sleuth
Robert Neame: The Poseidon Adventure

Having said that, I believe that Herzog's exploration into the dark recesses of a madman as he goes into his own Heart of Darkness is a much more astonishing achievement.  I was stunned by Aguirre, The Wrath of God visually and emotionally, and is one of those films that haunts you long after you see it.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Jeannie Berlin: The Heartbreak Kid
Eileen Heckart: Butterflies Are Free
Geraldine Page: Pete 'n' Tillie
Susan Tyrell: Fat City
Shelley Winters: The Poseidon Adventure

I have nothing against Heckart, but I still have a soft spot for the nice Jewish fat lady who is in her words, 'a very skinny lady in the water'.  It isn't just the kvetching that Winters did in The Poseidon Adventure (curiously, the only cast member in an all-star cast to be nominated from the film), but her final scene, as she gives her all for the sake of others, is genuinely moving. 

Eileen Heckart: Butterflies Are Free
Diane Keaton: The Godfather
Susan Tyrell: Fat City
Talia Shire: The Godfather
Shelley Winters: The Poseidon Adventure

I'm starting to lean towards Keaton's WASP in Italian nightmare, but for the moment, I'm sticking with our dear Mrs. Rosen. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Eddie Albert: The Heartbreak Kid
James Caan: The Godfather
Robert Duvall: The Godfather
Joel Grey: Cabaret
Al Pacino: The Godfather

Normally, the fact that three actors nominated in the same category for the same film would be enough for me to say why none of them won and another grabbed the Oscar.  However, while Caan, Duvall, and Pacino were all brilliant in The Godfather (as was everyone in the film), it is Grey's turn as the somewhat gleeful, somewhat demonic Master of Ceremonies that is to me the clear standout performance.  Recreating his stage role as the frightening yet impish MC from the original stage production of Cabaret, Grey's performance, if you look at it technically, is built entirely around song.  Not once does he utter one word of actual dialogue. 

Every time he is on screen, it is to perform a number (starting and ending with Willkommen), and every time you see him, he sings.  However, the impression he leaves as this merry figure of mirth as the world he lives in slips from the decadence of the Weimar Republic to the horror of Nazi Germany is so strong, I simply cannot give it to another of the nominees.

Sorry, Eddie. 

Despite the brilliance of Grey in Cabaret, if I were given a choice, I'm going to go for another musical performance.

James Caan: The Godfather
Howard Da Silva: 1776
Robert Duvall: The Godfather
Joel Grey: Cabaret
Al Pacino: The Godfather

As the wise, worldly Benjamin Franklin, Howard Da Silva stole the show in 1776.  His Founding Father was not a monument, and he knew it.  He was a man, one who advised the more temperamental John Adams into the ins and outs of forming these United States.  Shrewd, slightly manipulative, with a twinkle in his eye and yet as serious as anyone when needed, it is as strong a performance as I've seen.

Kind of makes one wonder how it would compare to the more hip-hop oriented Hamilton.

BEST ACTRESS

Liza Minnelli: Cabaret
Diana Ross: Lady Sings the Blues
Maggie Smith: Travels With My Aunt
Cicely Tyson: Sounder
Liv Ullmann: The Emigrants

Minnelli now is pretty much a sad parody of herself.  I've yet to recover from the horror of seeing her in Sex and the City 2, doing her own whacked-out version of Single Ladies...and wondering which of the three was the REAL Liza Minnelli and which of the others were impersonators.  However, give credit where credit is due: Minnelli is iconic as that chanteuse Sally Bowles, embodiment of Weimar devil-may-care who deep down has a heart.  Her mixture of worldliness and naïveté is brilliant and a bit heartbreaking.  She can sing, and she can dance, but in Cabaret, she shows she can act: a true successor to her mother, Judy Garland.

Perhaps in any other year, I would have leaned towards Ross' turn as the somewhat real-life Sally Bowles, Billie Holliday in Lady Sings the Blues.  However, this year I'm going for LIZA!  Curiously enough, when Ross lost Best Actress she reportedly wept, and if I understand it correctly, someone (perhaps a fellow nominee, perhaps not), told her there would be other chances.  "Not for a black actress", was Ross' sad reply.

It would be 30 years before Ross would be proven wrong (although since 2002, there has yet to be another minority actress to win Best Actress).   

No Substitutions

BEST ACTOR

Marlon Brando: The Godfather
Michael Caine: Sleuth
Laurence Olivier: Sleuth
Peter O'Toole: The Ruling Class
Paul Winfield: Sounder

I would have been pretty happy to see any of the nominees win, a rare moment when we got a good slate of Best Actor nominees.  Here, however, we have another case of two actors in the same category cancelling each other out.  Curiously, with the nominations of both Caine and Olivier, we have a rare film where the entire cast of a film was nominated.  However, it is clear that Brando's mob boss, a man who loves his family yet has damned them to disastrous lives, is the dominant, standout performance.

Then we get to this...

One feels for Sacheen Littlefeather, an obscure figure dragged into a worldwide platform where she will be scrutinized, condemned, mocked, reviled, and held up as a heroine. 

Listening to her speech, I found it remarkably composed and elegant given the very intense pressure she faced as an ordinary woman thrust into the spotlight.  I agree with my one-sided nemesis Richard Roeper about how Brando's gangster having anything to do with Indian rights is yet unexplained, and I'm not a fan of the Academy Awards being used to push a political agenda (even if I agree with it).  Having said that, Brando deserved the Oscar and Littlefeather deserves praise for her dignity...even if perhaps I would have been displeased at Brando's actions.

The best reply was given by John Wayne, who flat-out refused to make any comment about it.  I think he was elegantly angry about it, saying that this was the one time of the year that the industry presents itself to the public...and if they wanted to talk to anyone, they should go get Brando.

I love Brando in The Godfather, but he wouldn't be my choice.

Marlon Brando: The Godfather
Michael Caine: Sleuth
William Daniels: 1776
Klaus Kinski: Aguirre, The Wrath of God
Laurence Olivier: Sleuth

There is no doubt for me as for who was the Best Actor of 1972.  Klaus Kinski is frightening as the evil, perhaps deranged conquistador Aguirre (skipping over the fact that they're all speaking German or English, as Kinski spoke both).  His performance is intense and powerful, an evil man slipping into total power-madness (if not madness itself), one who will take his fellows into the true heart of darkness, left alone to rule the monkeys with his unhinged plans to commit incest and necrophilia simultaneously.   Kinski was not the easiest or most rational of actors (in another Herzog/Kinski collaboration, Fitzcarraldo, the actor so terrified the natives they offered to kill him for Herzog...and one wonders whether Herzog was tempted to take them up on the offer).  However, few performances have been as searing and as brilliant as his in Aguirre, The Wrath of God.  For that one performance alone, his legacy as a great (albeit slightly bonkers) actor is assured.

It is among the most powerful and greatest performance in film, testament to Herzog's vision, Kinski's craft, and the strange power of their collaboration, one which had Herzog refer to Kinski in a documentary about their work as My Best Fiend.

BEST PICTURE

Cabaret
Deliverance
The Emigrants
The Godfather
Sounder

Well, when The Godfather managed to stop Cabaret's march to final victory it was a bit of a surprise.  Let's keep in mind that Cabaret had already taken eight Academy Awards and four of those at The Godfather's expense: Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing,  Best Supporting Actor and Best Director.  Let's also keep in mind that Best Director and Best Picture usually correlate.  Finally, let's remember that by the time we got to the Best Picture category, Cabaret had eight Oscars while The Godfather had struggled to get two (the declined Best Actor, for which Cabaret did not get a nomination in, and Best Adapted Screenplay, the only category at that point for which they had been in competition).

Therefore, when The Godfather pulled it off in the end, it was if not a surprise at least one that came at a particular cost.  It should be remembered that The Godfather, with its three Oscars, is only one Oscar more than two other Best Picture winners: The Greatest Show on Earth and Spotlight, which managed only two Oscars including Best Picture. 

In any other year, I probably would have gone with Cabaret, but since I've got one of the greatest films ever made here, I would name The Godfather the Best Picture of 1972.

That being said, if push came to shove I would go down another path.

1776
Aguirre, The Wrath of God
Cabaret
The Godfather
The Poseidon Adventure

The Godfather is a brilliant, extraordinary film, among the greatest ever made.  However, I cannot shake the haunting, terrifying, extraordinary work that is Aguirre, The Wrath of God.  Few films equal its power and brilliance, and stay with you long after the film ends.

I stand by The Godfather, but I would name Aguirre, The Wrath of God as The Best Picture of 1972.

Next Time, the 1973 Academy Awards.

Still among the most frightening things I've ever seen.  It's scarier than Aguirre, The Wrath of God.