| As a certified magazine nut - the office is overrun with mags - I affirm that PREMIERE magazine is idiotic. We get it because MovieArt donates annually to the AFI. But I would never subscribe to it otherwise. The writing about film in any number of other - even non film-related mags - is better.
Regarding 80 DAYS: In the context of the mid 1950s, the awarding of Best Picture to 80 DAYS is completely understandable. Most young film goers today cannot even imagine a world where people would drive to a city 300 miles away to see a film. But AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS was not so much a film as an entertainment. It's razor-sharp Todd A-O picture, projected at 30 frames per second, was a glorious window-on-a-world experience that had been already recently popularized in the Cinerama films. HiFi was another biggie in the 1950s, and Todd A-O's six track magnetic soundtrack, analog sound at it's most glorious, was an ear-opener that showcased a great score by Victor Young. Film was trying to compete with TV, and 80 DAYS was rewarded with over $40,000,000 at the boxoffice, topped only that year by THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. The other thing was the stars. To see so many personalities from the worldwide film audience in one picture made the film a popular celebrity-spotting entertainment without peer. Many of the cameo performances were done for free because the stars wanted to be in Mike Todd's travelogue. Remember: leisure travel was an experience that most people simply could not afford. Airfare to Europe from the U.S. was for the rich.
It's kinda like this: you had to be there.
Is the film dated? Yes. But so are many of the other nominated films and many of the winners throughout the years.
What is a Best Picture really? The award is for the film most fondly regarded by a plurality by AMPAS. To be nominated is a honor. It's honor enough in my book.
K.
On Mar 5, 2006, at 7:25 AM, Joseph Bonelli wrote: Hi, Zeev, et.al., from Joe Bonelli. I too agree (along with my friend Al) that GIANT is the film that should have won the Oscar for Best PIc that year (or just about ANY year) ; KING AND I would have been most deserving as well. But 80 DAYS is a wonderful entertainment. I saw it twice-- once on each coast-- in 1957 in its original road-show engagement. Todd-AO, gorgeous theatres, big-time stereo sound and.... a parade of the world's top stars in a fun film with (gasp!) REAL locations and people, places and things NOT generated by computer. Teriffic entertainment-- the type that often "pleased" and won awards. Maybe "next year" those who voted it the BP Oscar might regret-- as surely some did. (That's why actors get those "career" awards the year after they gave a great "losing" performance.) And I stopped reading PREMIERE regularly when articles tended to "dish" the quality of films made before 1990 simply because they were considered by the Hollywood-Historically-Impaired writers to be "old fashioned." Hi Alan Sorry, but I have to disagree with you on this one. I'm old enough to have seen 80 Days when it was originally released. At that time ( I was 11 or so) I thought it was just delightful. Less that a year ago it was on TV, and I looked forward to enjoying it once again, however, I foun! d it to be so juvenile as to be embarrassed for the actors. It was pretty bad. Premier mag was right on this one. Comparing 80 Days to Giant ??? Please... Zeev ----- Original Message ----- Sent:! Saturday, March 04, 2006 3:24 PM Subject: [MOPO] premier magazine article-around the world in 80 days
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Hello MoPoers Oscar time is great...provides plenty to discuss and debate...i subscribe to Premier Magazine and you would expect the issue published at oscar time to analyze every last detail...compare! this to that etc....well i wasn't disappointed and as usual found one thing that bothered me..unfortunately i left the magazine at work and can't refer to it as i write this...but as i remember it they list 10 worst wniners for best picture over the years and 10 times when the academy got it right...the one that got me going was 1956's winner around the world in 80 days, which was included in their list of mistakes...the competition that year was Giant, the Ten commandments, the King and I and Freindly persuasion...now i'm not going to debate whether around the world was the best choice, but what got to me (and again i don't have the article in front of me) is they intimated the movie had no redeeming values particularly they mentioned it wasn't funny...now i was 3 yrs old in 1956 and while i doubt my mother took me to the film that year( she loved to go to the movies and shlepped me along all the time) i 'm sure i saw it as an early 60's re-release...and friends i've watched ! the movie many times since then and i think it is very funny...what could be funnier than pairing Cantinflas and David Niven..in my mind the original odd couple...the bullfighting scene just to name one was a bit lengthy but very funny imho...as regard other aspects of the film it introduced me to david niven and shirley maclaine and i became a life long fan of their movies..i also think the subplot of wether fogg stole the money from the bank of england and his persuit by mr Fix was just perfect againt the travelouge an adventures portayed in the movie. Finally and perhaps subtle as summerized by john Vogel in the imdb plot summary...Mr. Fogg has to cope with the fact that he seems to have lost the bet..but gained something he never seemed to have:emotion |
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