Best Picture: 1977

[Eric]

The more things change.

[FilmFan720]

I found evidence of their Top 10. According to the Washington Post, they had a list of 50 from which the Top 10 were chosen. In alphabetical order, here is their top 10:

The African Queen (1951)
Casablanca (1942)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Gone With the Wind (1939)
Grapes of Wrath (1940)
One Flew Over the Cuckoos's Nest (1975)
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Star Wars (1977)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Wizard of Oz (1939)

And here is the 50 films those were chosen from:

African Queen (1952), All About Eve (1950), All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), All the President's Men (1976), Ben Hur (1959), The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), Birth of a Nation (1915), Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid (1969), Cabaret (1972), Casablanca (1942), Chinatown (1974), Citizen Kane (1941), City Lights (1931), Dr. Strangelove (1964), Fantasia (1940). The General (1927), The Godfather (1972), The Godfather, Part II (1974), Gone with the Wind (1939), The Graduate (1967), The rapes of Wrath (1940), High Noon (1952), Intolerance (1916), It Happened One Night (1934), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Jaws (1976), King Kong (1933), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Matese Falcon (1941), Midnnight Cowboy (1969), Modern Times (1936), Nashville (1975), On the Waterfront (1954), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Psycho (1960), Rocky (1976), Singin' in the Rain (1952), Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs (1938), The Sound of Music (1965), Star Wars (1977), The Sting (1973), At Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Sunset Boulevard (1950), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), West Side Story (1961), The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Wuthering Heights (1939)

[FilmFan720]

The AFI did its first Top 100 in Fall of '77; Star Wars finished in the Top 10.

I never realized they did a list before the 1998 one. Does anyone have a copy of it? I would love to see their thoughts back then.



Edited By OscarGuy on 1256492257

[Mister Tee]

I just want to confirm for you, Sabin, what an unbelievable sense of elation Annie Hall's best picture win produced for many of us.

I was 26 when it won; I'd been watching the Oscars for just over 15 years, and had come to accept that, for the most part, best picture went to films that didn't excite me. In the 60s, the winners were generally perfectly respectable, middlenbrow efforts like A Man for All Seasons or In the Heat of the Night; in the 70s, the calibre of winner could be higher (the two Godfathers, Cuckoo's Nest), but the films that lost (Chinatown, Nashville) were even more essential, and that made even the better victories seem a bit like stale beer. And don't even get me started on The Sting and Rocky -- two execrable choices that stick out like sore thumbs from the otherwise solid list of 70s winners.

I've skipped one film, of course: Midnight Cowboy, whose victory in Spring '70 jolted us. Hubbub at the time was that Academy president Gregory Peck had purged the membership list of some of the deadwood, leading to the win; this gave us hope we'd have a string of such daring choices in the years ahead. But such was not, really, the case...by the time Rocky won in Spring '77, I'd come to the conclusion the Oscars were stuck in a mediocrity rut from which they'd never emerge.

In that context, I was certain Star Wars would win best picture for 1977. It was basically the same as Rocky: a retro entertainment whose box-office was beyond Hollywood's wildest expectations. The AFI did its first Top 100 in Fall of '77; Star Wars finished in the Top 10. And, besides, there was simply no credible competition. Julia and The Turning Point got 11 nominations apiece, but neither did much business or had much excitement about them. Goodbye Girl --a loathsome nominee -- was missing a directors' nod. And there seemed absolutely no way a film as hip, as NY-centric as Annie Hall could possibly win. Remember: up till then, Woody had been persona non grata with the Oscars -- despite serious campaigning (and box-office success), none of his "early, funny" films even got screenplay nods. (It's amazing, given that start, he eventually became the all-time category champ). And Annie Hall, while a blockbuster by Love and Death standards, barely registered in the emerging blockbuster culture.

I can still remember picking up the NY Post (not yet fully a right-wing rag, though on its way), and reading the startling news that Woody had won the Directors' Guild Award. I already knew that award was a near-sure ticket to an Oscar; I literally couldn't believe what I was reading. Even after that, though, in the days leading up the Oscars, pundits who normally rode the DGA in their predictions hedged bets: Woody would win best director, they declared, but industry-friendly Star Wars would pull out best picture in the end. And, early in the evening, Star Wars' tech sweep made that seem a real possibility -- even after Annie took screenplay, director and actress. Not till Jack Nicholson opened the envelope and pronounced Annie the winner could we believe our good fortune. Still one of the best wins in Oscar history.

[Sabin]

I recently revisited 'Hannah and Her Sisters' and 'Husbands and Wives', and went on to 'Manhattan' and 'Annie Hall'. Despite having a very uneven career, Woody Allen has developed some lasting portraits of human relationships. Revisionist history is correct is citing 'Manhattan' as Woody Allen lasting masterpiece, but 'Annie Hall' is such a terrific comedy. I can't imagine what it might be like to watch a truly great film win Best Picture.

'Braveheart' winning Best Picture was a pretty happy night for me, even though I see now it's mediocre filmmaking at best. I was on the bandwagon for 'American Beauty' at the time, but it was pretty much a foregone conclusion going into February. I can't muster up any animosity for 'The English Patient, 'Shakespeare in Love', or 'Million Dollar Baby', and really, really enjoyed the hell out of 'The Departed'...so I'd imagine I'm an awful lot happier on Oscar night than most of you, but I've really never gotten the privilege of watching something formative win Best Picture.

I can only imagine what a night The Hip Crowd had when 'Annie Hall' beat its lackluster competition, 'Star Wars' especially. I will admit to enjoying 'Julia', but the rest I can't really muster any degree of good will for. Watching 'Star Wars' with the sound off is one of the ugliest experiences you can have.

[Big Magilla]

I don't know about Marilyn Chambers, but I'd definitely support the others.

[rain Bard]

I suppose I'd be alone in my desire to add to the list Marilyn Chambers in Rabid, Ángela Molina and Carole Bouquet in That Obscure Object of Desire and practically the entire casts of Suspiria and Desperate Living...

[Big Magilla]

Good catches, guys.

[Reza]

Add to the list Gena Rowlands in Opening Night, Lily Tomlin in The Late Show, Liza Minnelli in New York, New York, Geraldine Chaplin in Cria, Barbara Harris and Jodie Foster in Freaky Friday, Julie Christie in Demon Seed, Jenny Agutter in Equus, Isabelle Huppert in The Lacemaker, Irene Papas in Iphigenia and Simone Signoret in Madame Rosa.

[Mister Tee]

I remember 1977 not as the year of Annie Hall and Star Wars, but as the greatest year for actresses since the 40s. We not only had Bancroft and MacLaine in The Turning Point, Fonda and Redgrave in Julia, Keaton in both Looking for Mr. Goodbar and Annie Hall and Marsha Mason in The Goodbye Girl, but Sophia Loren in A Special Day, Ann-Margret in Joseph Andrews, Martha Scott in The Turning Point, Tuesday Weld in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Lilia Skala, Teresa Wright and Joan Copeland in Roseland and Joan Blondell in Opening Night. It doesn't get much better than that.

Throw in Shelley Duvall and Sissy Spacek in 3 Women, and Kathleen Quinlan in I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, to show how far the list reached that year -- only two years after the infamous no-candidates 1975.



Edited By OscarGuy on 1256492268

[Big Magilla]

OK, I admit it, I cast the single vote for The Turning Point. It may be high gloss soap opera but I love the performances of Anne Bancroft and Shirley MacLaine. I may also be the only one left who still thinks Diane Keaton was better in Looking for Mr. Goodbar than Annie Hall. Annie Hall may be the best film of the year, but it is only marginally so IMO and I wanted to keep it from a near unanimous win.

I liked Star Wars, hated Close Encounters, thought The Goodbye Girl was amusing but not best picture material and found Julia, though often quite moving, to be less than the sum of its parts.

I remember 1977 not as the year of Annie Hall and Star Wars, but as the greatest year for actresses since the 40s. We not only had Bancroft and MacLaine in The Turning Point, Fonda and Redgrave in Julia, Keaton in both Looking for Mr. Goodbar and Annie Hall and Marsha Mason in The Goodbye Girl, but Sophia Loren in A Special Day, Ann-Margret in Joseph Andrews, Martha Scott in The Turning Point, Tuesday Weld in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, Lilia Skala, Teresa Wright and Joan Copeland in Roseland and Joan Blondell in Opening Night. It doesn't get much better than that.

[dws1982]

I need to watch Julia before voting. As it is, Annie Hall is the best by a long shot.

[Mister Tee]

I thought The Turning Point was soap-opera swill; the Golden Globe win really scared me it was going to be my least favorite best picture winner ever. (I had no idea what later decades would bring) The Goodbye Girl started off amusingly enough, but got worse and worse as it went along. I'd argue it just about destroyed Dreyfuss as a serious actor by indulging his worst, most audience-hugging instincts.

It's not revisionism: I thought Star Wars was vapid even when I saw it opening day. I'd so loved American Graffiti, I expected Lucas to create something truly new and thrilling. Instead, he pretty much ended the 70s creative boom all on his own. Close Encounters wasn't exactly deep either -- and had significant flaws (like that horrible digging-up-the-garden sequence) -- but I found it a far more transporting experience, and thought it utterly disheartening it was the film omitted from the best picture list.

Julia is a lovely film once it finally reaches its story (Hellman's mission) but it takes a long, wobbly time getting there. Everything looks great, and there are wonderful actors everywhere you turn, but that first hour still asks the nagging question, What are we supposed to be following? However...all is washed away in the perfect restaurant encounter, a scene so well-acted it merits comparison with the taxi-cab in On the Waterfront.

But Annie Hall is the best choice, and one of the most startlingly unexpected ever made by the Academy (it probably helped that it was so in-the-moment, while the other four all had degrees of retro). It's not quite as great, or flawless, as Manhattan, but it's full of wonderful moments, and it stands as testament to why, despite the disappointments of the last two decades, Woody Allen remains a culture hero to some of us.

[flipp525]

That beautiful celebration of friendship and idealism and courage: Fred Zinnemann's masterpiece, Julia.

I'll never forget that scene where Lillian and Julia meet for the final time in the cafe. Incredible film.

[Damien]

That beautiful celebration of friendship and idealism and courage: Fred Zinnemann's masterpiece, Julia.