Looking back with 2024 hindsight, which film should have won Best Picture for 1991?
To me, it's very clear: JFK.
Agreed. I've never felt compelled to rewatch Silence of the Lambs.
shareSilence, easily.
JFK is good but it’s a bloated marathon of a film. SOTL is a perfect thriller with mindblowing performances.
I haven't seen "JFK", but "Silence of the Lambs" seems like a network tv Movie of the Week. Astronomically overrated.
shareIt was funny that year.
Producer-star Warren Beatty had sought studio support to bring "Bugsy" a lot of noms, and he was hoping for a win for Best Picture, and maybe one for Best Actor(him.)
Director-star Barbra Streisand had sought studio support to being her "Prince of Tides" a lot of noms, She was hoping for a Best Picture win, and a Best Actor win for Nick Nolte(Babs wasn't even up for Director OR Actress -- but Nolte was pretty much the favorite for Best Actor -- he'd put in his dues.)
JFK was an outlier --a lot of DEMOCRAT politicians hated it(and so did Walter Cronkite) And they had power in Hollywood.
Beauty and the Beast was (the first?) animated feature to be so nominated (since Snow White maybe?)
And everybody thought Anthony Hopkins had been wrong to campaign for Best Actor -- rather than Best Supporting Actor -- given his short screen time in Silence. Hopkins knew better -- see: Marlon Brando in The Godfather.
As I recall, the race was between Silence of the Lambs(which had come out all the way back in February of 1991 -- over a year before the Oscar ceremony) and Bugsy(prestige gangster movie) with Nolte favored for Best Actor.
Nope.
Silence of the Lambs swept: Best Picture. Best Actor(Hopkins for his new, iconic screen villain). Best Actress(Jodie Foster, just three years after winning Best Actress for the The Accused in 1988. Also Best Director(Jonathan Demme and Best Adapted Screenplay(Ted Tally, from Thomas Harris's SECOND novel about Hannibal.)
I always saw the "Silence of the Lambs horror thriller sweep" as the sweep that Psycho SHOULD have gotten in 1960, and The Exorcist SHOULD have gotten in 1973 , and Jaws SHOULD have gotten in 1975.
Finally, in the 90s', psycho thrillers MATTERED. Indeed, Kathy Bates had won Best Actress the year before for the psychotic killer in Stephen King's Misery -- and Robert DeNiro competed against Anthony Hopkins for Best Actor as the psycho in the remake of Cape Fear (Robert Mitchum had had the role in 1962 -- better than DeNiro.)
CONT
Put it all together and the "Silence of the Lambs" sweep made a special kind of history in 1991 --"the redemption of the horror thriller as Oscar-worthy" and -- its my favorite movie of 1991, too. Hannibal Lecter was an incredible creation -- a brilliant, erudite genius who was also an animalistic homicidal maniac -- with a taste for human flesh to go with his wit. "Hannibal the Cannibal."
But I certainly liked JFK next in that Oscar bunch. Like everybody seems to have said: "Who cares if it was factually correct or true? It was a helluva "what if?" thriller -- and to see JFK's grab his throat right before his head blew up -- over and over and over -- was to feel the true horror of the event, no matter WHO killed him.
Neither Bugsy nor The Prince of Tides seemed important enough to win.
I always saw the "Silence of the Lambs horror thriller sweep" as the sweep that Psycho SHOULD have gotten in 1960, and The Exorcist SHOULD have gotten in 1973 , and Jaws SHOULD have gotten in 1975.
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I return to "self correct":
I think the only actual sweep that COULD have happened under the "Silence of the Lambs" example would have been Psycho:
Best Picture. Best Actor(Anthony Perkins.) Best Actress(Janet Leigh.) Best Director: Alfred Hitchcock. Best Adapted Screenplay: Joseph Stefano from the novel by Robert Bloch.
As it happened, of those, Psycho was only nominated for Best Director(Hitchcock-- lost to Billy WIlder for The Apartment) and Best SUPPORTING Actress(Leigh -- who lost for Shirley Jones in Elmer Gantry , but WON the Golden Globe for Psycho, supporting.)
What of The Exorcist?
It WAS nominated for Best Picture. And Best Actress(Ellen Burstyn) and Best Director(Wllliam Friedkin) and Best Adapted Screenplay(William Peter Blatty from his own bestselling novel.) Only the Adapted Screenplay win came through(such LANGUAGE.) But who might have merited a Best Actor win? Which exorcist? (The answer is in reality: Jason Miller WAS nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Move him up to actor and maybe you get a sweep. If he beats Art Carney. Doubtful.)
What of Jaws:
It WAS nominated for Best Picture. But Spielberg was NOT nominated for Best Director (two years later Spielberg was nominated Best Director for "Close Encounters' - but the MOVIE wasn't nominated for Best Picture! Steve was bugged, both times.
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There's no Best Actress candidate in Jaws. Maybe Lorraine Gary(Mrs. Police Chief) for supporting? (She wasn't nominated in real life.) So no sweep even if Spielberg could magically win Best Director and the adapted screenplay won too. (Jaws did win SCORE -- which Psycho should have won too, but it wasn't even nominated.)
Jack Nicholson won Best Actor in 1975 for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Could Robert Shaw CONCEIVABLY won Best Actor towards a "Jaws" sweep? Doubtful.
Consequently, perhaps Silence of the Lambs only validated Psycho as the OTHER possible horror thriller sweep passed by in Oscar history.
Of the two, JFK. I've never been a fan of Silence of the Lambs.
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