Thursday, January 15, 2026

Who Should Have Won The Oscar

 


The year of the movies was 1990 when Dances With Wolves was the big winner ( I am going by the year the films came out, not the year of the Oscars). Despite people hating this film, I still like it very much( except when the dastardly S.O.B.‘S  kill the wolf...I can't see that scene..hurts too much). I am one of a few who just can't stand Goodfellas. I hate Ray Liotta's laugh and the whole film just makes me want to take a shower. It's repellent to me. I know, I’m one of the few. One film that didn't get much love at all was Edward Scissorhands and it should have been up for more Oscars including Best Original Screenplay.

1. EDWARD SCISSORHANDS


Edward Scissorhands should have one Best Original Screenplay because it is such an original fairy tale using the Frankenstein thinking but in a completely unique way. Dianne Wiest, who should have been up for Best Supporting Actress, is an Avon lady who decides to drive way up to this dilapidated castle where she meets a Dr. Caligari type “ monster” with scissors for hands. He is gentle but lonely so she decides to bring him home to live with her and her family, which includes her teen daughter, played by Winona Ryder. All the neighbours are curious about this scarred up young man including the local nympho who lets Edward cut her hair. He becomes the next best thing creating amazing hairdos along with great artistic pieces from neighbourhood bushes. The only one who can’t stand him is the girl’s boyfriend.  The art direction is superb and seeing Vincent Price in a sympathetic role as his “dad” just is the cherry on the top. It should have been up for Best Picture and Best Score, even though I like Dances with Wolves score a Smidget better, but it’s all apples and oranges. Johnny Depp met Winona n the set and they became an item to the degree that he had her name tattooed on his arm. Of course, it didn’t work out so he changed his tattoo which now says Wino Forever.

2. GHOST


This film won Best Original Screenplay and…it shouldn’t have even though I love the movie. I think most of us have seen this film about a loving husband and wife when their lives are destroyed when he is murdered in a mugging. Of course, she is devastated but her dead husband is unsure why he is still roaming the streets. He happens onto a place where, it is claimed, this chick can talk to the dead. He wanders in and starts to laugh at the tactics that are being done to fleece the widows only to find out this gal hears him! Whoopi Goldberg was brilliant as the criminal who can hear the dead, for real. He enlists her help to talk to his wife, who does not believe her…at first. The story takes a dark turn when he finds out he was deliberately murdered for knowing too much and he has placed his wife in harm’s way. It is a sweet love story even though Demi Moore’s character could have been played by just about anyone. It’s a great story but it’s not as original as as Edward S. I always hope that Patrick Swayze is watching over his beloved wife and dancing with her when she is dancing. ( He could really dance and they met while dancing). 

3. ALICE


There was a time that just about every year, Woody Allen was nominated in the Best Original Screenplay category before he had an affair with his step-daughter, the adopted daughter of Mia Farrow and Andre Previn, bringing an end to their marriage and creating  a very vicious and public break-up. I mean, he didn’t do himself any favours when he left Mia for this girl whom he had known since she was, I think, 12 yrs old…maybe younger. This film stars Mia in a boring marriage who longs for some excitement and finds it via her dreams etc.. Woody Allen is brilliant in writing and creating complex characters who all may need a therapist, he should know since he has been going to one for decades. 

Avalon, Green Card and Metropolitan were the other films up for this award. I’ve seen Green Card and not quite sure it should have been here. It’s nice but no match to the others. 

What about you, do you agree with me, agree with The Academy or would you choose another?


6 comments:

  1. Hi, Birgit!

    Like you, I enjoy Dances With Wolves, and Mrs. Shady absolutely loves it. Unlike you, I also enjoyed Goodfellas and the late Ray Liotta. I also would like to plug another film you mentioned, Whit Stillman's Metropolitan, one of my favorite films and part of the Stillman trilogy that also includes another favorite, The Last Days of Disco (1998), along with Barcelona (1994).

    I liked Edward Scissorhands for a number of reasons, one being Vincent Price, my favorite horror actor, and the other being Winona Ryder, a versatile actress that I highly respect and admire. The final season of Stranger Things is utterly spectacular and I urge everyone to watch it. Another reason why I am keen on Scissorhands is because it made my city famous as one of the shooting locations. Scenes were filmed at Southgate Shopping Center in Lakeland, FL, just a couple of miles from where I lived at the time.

    Ghost is too sweet and sentimental to hold my interest through repeat viewings. I love Mia Farrow and loved her mother Maureen O'Sullivan, but I don't recall having seen Alice. I will add it to my list.

    I'm back in beeswax at Shady's Place this week and hope you can join the fun. Stay well, dear friend BB!

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  2. I saw the ballet version of Edward Scissorhands before I saw the film. Both were great, although of course Johnny Depp is also problematic now.

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  3. Saw the first two and they were both very good. However, I confess, I really like Goodfellas despite one actor I no longer care for.

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  4. Ghost always reminds me of going to see it in the theater. My dad took my brother and me and his mom. My grandfather had recently passed away, so my grandmother didn't really like the movie.

    But there was this one scene. You know the one. Where the bad guy was taken away by the bad spirits. And just after... Well, first I need to explain that we were in a very racially diverse part of town. Anyway, this large African-American man, in the quiet after the bad spirits had departed the screen, says loud enough for the whole theater to hear him, "Damn, I gotta go back to church." That scene wasn't meant for laughter, but in that theater on that day, it got it.

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  5. I don't think I ever saw 'Alice', but I saw both of the other films once each... long, long ago.

    'Edward Scissorhands' was a complete "Meh" for me. About 90 minutes of my life that I'll never get back. But I did enjoy 'Ghost', and watching that trailer just now, I gotta say that just might be the best movie trailer I've ever seen!

    Looks like I need to rewatch 'Ghost' pert soon-like!

    ~ D-FensDogG

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