My choices are noted with a ★. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔. Best foreign-language picture winners are noted with an ƒ.
Four Western heroes and a couple of midnight cowpokes up for best actor this year. I nominated Redford and Newman as a pair because (1) they were so often mentioned together in the same breath, and because (2) it's my blog and there's nothing you can do about it.
In the supporting category, Sergio Leone cast Henry Fonda against type in Once Upon a Time in the West and the result was one of the greatest villains in movie history. But I've already handed Fonda an alternate Oscar for The Grapes of Wrath, the best performance of his career, so I opted instead for Jason Robards' wonderful comedic bandit, Cheyenne, in the same movie.
Lot of juggling in the alternate Oscar business.
1969 was maybe the last great year for Westerns. Some really good Westerns still to come, for sure, most of them starring Clint Eastwood, but as a whole the genre crests the hill in 1969. Or maybe when you have a year with The Wild Bunch, Once Upon a Time in the West, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, True Grit, Support Your Local Sheriff! and literally a hundred more, it only seems that way.
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2 comments:
Melville.
Melville Melville Melville.
MELVILLE MELVILLE MELVILLE MELVILLE.
Even if only 2% really was his experience, the notion that he lived through that to then become the director and writer that he became is
mindblowing, dude
PS
I forgot that I left the earlier comment. I was revisiting this year because I wanted to note that Lino Ventura's lead performance as Philippe in Army of Shadows was top-fucking-notch. I voted fer the cherces that I had, but recommend Ventura's performance to all. It sits nicely with Holden's: in Army of Shadows, the kids are all yapping chihuahuas circling the too-old-to-be-doing-the-resisting Philippe (Ventura) and Mathilde (Simone Signoret). Just a bangup film.
I thank ye for prompting me to visit AFI for Bob Le Flambeur and kicking off my Melville obsession. . . . .
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