MovieChat Forums > The Alamo (1960) Discussion > Psycho pushed aside for this?

Psycho pushed aside for this?

posted 17 years ago by mbphilly
16 replies | jump to latest

Psycho got a best director nomination, yeah. But this movie pushed it aside for Best Picture Nominee? If you are a serious self-respecting film player or participant, and you even suppose nominated a movie like this, then it should virtually illegal to not nominate a far better movie like Psycho. Just because John Wayne bullies people over their patriotism if they don't like his movie doesn't mean he knows what the hell he is talking about or that he was right. Just because I have taste and didn't like Pearl Harbor, it doesn't mean I hate my country and ignore the service and sacrifices of those who served in WW2 or those service people who actually experienced Pearl Harbor. Just because I have mixed feelings about the Passion of Christ, I still respect and admire the life and work of Jesus. I may not be sure of the immaculate conception or that he lived in complete bachelorhood, but a man doesn't have to be exactly wrought from God himself for him to be a hero. In fact, I like a guy like Jesus so much I think he deserves to find some loving companionship. If the jerks get to have girlfriends and boyfriends, why not the good guys, too? Not trying to get into a theology debate. Big Jim McLain was a big pile of stupid propaganda, but I still feel we had a right to fight the Soviets. The Blacklist was a horrendous idea, that is if you actually like the U.S. Constitution. I was mixed about The Patriot, but I still love studying the history and reading stories about the American Revolution. (The Crossing, with Jeff Daniels as Washington, was actually a better Am. Rev film, imo) Gods And Generals was certainly not the best Civil War film, but I still love studying and honor the history of the American Civil War.

What doesn't kill you, can make you stronger or leave you crippled.
--Brenicus

[–] porfle 16 years ago

PSYCHO, like so many other great movies, only began to be critically appreciated in hindsight.

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[–] edlitz36 14 years ago

Spartacus also got gypped. I mean seriously, The Alamo?? It's not even critically acclaimed:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1000560-alamo/

54% "Rotten" with an average score of 5.4/10

According to the Alamo's wikipedia article (source by AMC Filmsite.org):

"John Wayne had tirelessly campaigned for the tepid film (The Alamo), suggesting with ads that it would be unpatriotric not to vote for the film - 'the most expensive picture ever made on American soil'."

"It was appalling that Best Picture-nominated The Alamo edged out Hitchcock's superior thriller Psycho (with four unsuccessful nominations) and Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus for Best Picture nominations. This was Hitchcock's fifth nomination as director (from 1940-1960) - he would never be nominated again for Best Director."

Source: http://www.filmsite.org/aa60.html

Wiki artcle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Alamo_(1960_film)#cite_note-16

Seriously, f-ck John Wayne and his right-wing, flag waving propaganda horsesh-t.

NO, YOU IS DEFINITELY SUCK!
See? I can type like a moron, too.

[–] Sash5034 14 years ago

Unpatriotic? LOLOLOLOLOLOL What an idiot.

As far as I'm concerned, there still hasn't been a proper Alamo film. People who love this film are blinded by nostalgia of "the good old days"

[–] edlitz36 14 years ago

Exactly, even though "the good old days" was only an illusion of the past.

NO, YOU IS DEFINITELY SUCK!
See? I can type like a moron, too.

[–] wtl471629 14 years ago

Someday these will be "the good old days." :)

[–] dannieboy20906 10 years ago

OMG I hope not. I hope there comes a time when our descendants look back and wonder, "How did we survive that?"

[–] Jason_Radley 13 years ago

According to John Wayne's son in the featurette 'John Wayne's Alamo', publicist Russell Birdwell was the man responsible for the advertising campaign that he describes as 'in unbelievably poor taste.' John Wayne, apparently, was off in Africa, presumably blameless.

[–] brefane 14 years ago

Psycho, Exodus and Spartacus were all released in 1960 and left off the short list of Best Picture nominees. Those films hold up better than The Alamo which had an elaborate OSCAR campaign behind it.

[–] pocomarc 13 years ago

mbphilly has diarrhea of the mouth.

Drugs?

[–] sirstiffie 12 years ago

Psycho is an overrated piece of trash...not scarey and certainly not Hitchcock's best movie or even in his top 5 for that matter. Spartacus was way overrated as well with Kirk Douglas chewing the scenery faster than a goat in a trash pile. The Alamo is a western classic and John Wayne an AMERICAN icon! Left wingers need not apply.

"The first one of you moves, and I'm gonna kill the whole lot of ya."

[–] theshootist40 12 years ago

The Alamo is my favorite film of all time. That being said, It is not at all the best movie ever made, John Wayne's best film or the best film of 1960. It is my favorite because it is the film that made me a movie fan. I waited years to see it. I scanned TV Guide every week till it finally made it's debut over 40 years ago.
I frankly never agree with Oscar. In my mind it's wrong almost every year. Psycho, in my mind was 1960's best picture. It was a joke (in my opinion) that The Apartment won that award. ...but thats just my opinion.

A lot has been said that The Alamo was only nominated because John Wayne "bullied" people by telling them it would be un-patriotic not to nominate the film. It is funny that nowadays it would be near impossible to get anything patriotic nominated or even made in Hollywood.
I know there are acceptions to this... I also no that many people sure do miss the days of Big John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Fonda, Stewart, Heston and on and on. Those were men who acted like men... Hollywood is now filled with men acting like boys.
sorry... I started to rant! :)

When the legend becomes a fact... print the legend.

[–] phillipsdan83 11 years ago

"Psycho" was a horror film, a genre that still hardly ever makes appearances in the Best Picture Oscar race, and a quite controversial one (that naked woman getting stabbed to death in the shower, you know) at the time. Epics were common for the era, and this one was directed by and starring one of the biggest names in the industry. Though I'll bet money that people in 1960 thought a best picture nomination for "The Alamo" was insane. Hitchcock may have wondered why he got nominated for "Psycho", by the way, and not "Vertigo".

[–] spookyrat1 10 years ago

@ Porfle above is quite correct in stating

PSYCHO, like so many other great movies, only began to be critically appreciated in hindsight.

Some of the above posters above shouldn't be getting their collective knickers in a knot too much about an allegedstudio/publicity campaign leading up to the 1960 Academy Awards. That sort of thing has been going on since Time Immemorial and it is rather difficult to categorically state Wayne was the supposed instigator of all the "publicity".

Some of them may be getting mixed up with Chill Will's ill-advised personal campaign for best supporting actor, from which Wayne divorced himself.

One other pertinent point. With this film costing as much as it did, there was always going to be some sort of push for inclusion in the Academy Awards in a desperate attempt to secure "more bums on seats", however "crass" that campaign might appear to us now.

[–] ccoombs-1 10 years ago

I don't know about all this stupid political content of these posts... I hear terms like 'right wing', well, there's a 'left wing' too with its own agenda. In other words there are nuts on BOTH sides.

As for the anger about The Alamo being nominated over Psycho, I don't know why all the hate is directed at The Alamo. It didn't win. There were 5 other nominees. Almost every year there are films overlooked, and winners many people feel shouldn't have won. Rocky over Taxi Driver and Network, Ordinary People over Raging Bull, Shakespeare In Love over Saving Private Ryan...

As for campaigning,I hate to break it to you but many movies have Oscar campaigns, and it is usually handled by the studio. As for the Alamo, John Wayne was actually upset at Chill Wills self promoting for best supporting actor.

John Wayne made The Alamo because he was very moved my the story and its themes. He spent many years trying to bring it to the screen and backed the production with his own money. It was his most personal film.

As for calling him a 'bully', you are completely wrong! Everyone who worked with him said he was a perfect gentleman. Despite being one of the biggest stars in the history of film he was self deprecating. He was always first on the set and last to leave. Kate Hepburn (very Left herself) loved working with him.

If you don't believe me read about his visit to Harvard Lampoon - they dared him to come, he did, they were ready to hate him but he was genial and self deprecating and humorous and in the end, he won the crown over. Harvard!! A bastion of the Left.

So lighten up. The Oscars has flubbed things too many times to count. Don't get your knickers in a twist over a nominee that didn't even win!

[–] ecarle 10 years ago

Psycho didn't get a Best Picture nomination, but Hitchcock in getting a Best Director nomination helped knock John Wayne out of a Best Director nomination...so its kind of even. (But Jules Dassin -- a Communist-leaning Blacklist victim, got a Best Director nomination too -- that probably made Wayne madder than Hitchocck's nomination.)

That Hitchcock managed to nail a Best Director nomination for Psycho even if it didn't get one for Best Picture reflects that fact that the cheap horror movie was a HUGE box office blockbuster...the Academy could take note of Hitchcock's artistry when he made that much money.

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Here were the actual five Best Picture nominees

The Alamo
The Apartment(winner)
Elmer Gantry
Sons and Lovers
The Sundowners

I"d say that both Sons and Lovers AND The Sundowners could have been tossed overboard to let Psycho and Spartacus in ...but Hollywood old-timers thought Psycho was a very sick film and that Spartacus had too much Commie influence(Dalton Trumbo's screenplay and the original novelists' leanings.)

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The test of time has proved Psycho to be the best movie of 1960 in terms of its landmark place in film history(blasting past the censors and undercutting Hollywood's reliance on epic big-budget films) and its influence on literally hundreds of films that came after it.

But the Academy could not see that in 1960.

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All that said, The Alamo earned its Best Picture slot.

[–] 10 years ago

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