Kramer vs Kramer

 And this week's Friday night movie has been... Kramer vs Kramer!

Original image located here. Accessed 4th November 2024

Best Picture Oscar winner no.: 52 (1979)

Actually forget what I said about The Sting: This has a more compelling case for being the 'forgotten' movie of 70s Best Picture winners. So while everyone props up the other eight, The Sting and Kramer vs Kramer are left fighting over the table scraps.

Still, this movie has plenty going for it: Firstly it is showing a divorce in process which is already a ballsy move.
Secondly, we are seeing a lousy dad slowly improving himself to become a better dad.
And thirdly there is a degree of nuance that would be foreign to modern audiences: Both the mother and father are treated well and not made out to be the bad guy. 
Its certainly a bold move to show divorce on screen and how it effects the people involved, socially and psychologically. Certainly it seems that a lot of people can relate to the situations being put forth on the screen - so if the film has resonated in such a manner, it must be doing something right.

It seems to me that other people are annoyed that this won Best Picture over Apocalypse Now. But to me, there's something to be said for the long, bombastic film losing out to smaller film. 

And with that, we leave the 1970s, it's cynicism and the era of New Hollywood behind. Ahead lies.... *checks schedule*....Hoo boy....

The Sting

 And this week's Friday night movie has been... The Sting!

Original image located here. Accessed 5th July 2024

Best Picture Oscar winner no.: 46 (1973)

Given the 1970s are regarded as one of, if not the, strongest decades of Best Picture winners, it does raise an interesting question: Which of the ten winners is the weakest? 
Such a question is by no means a slight against the movie in question. It just sits besides some titans that would easily overshadow it. So would The Sting be the weak point of the 70s? 

Well I will admit it certainly stands on it's own. Whereas 70s cinemagoers embraced the New Hollywood movement and cynicism, The Sting is a deliberate throwback to the 1930s style of film-making. And it's not just in the aesthetic: the structure and direction is undeniably lifted from an earlier, long-gone era of film-making. If anything this seems to be a flipside to The French Connection: if that movie embodies the realism and cynicism of New Hollywood, then The Sting seems oddly resistant to them.  
But that is by no means a bad thing: This is a solid crime caper based around building up a con-game to take down a crime boss. Certainly the narrative is bogged down by multiple double-crosses but I do admire the effort gone into making this movie. After all, it has the most compelling poker game I have ever seen on celluloid.