There was no beating the Titanic juggernaut for Best Picture, not in 1997:
But here's how I'd rank 'em:
5. The Full Monty
Uberto Pasolini, producer
only nomination; BAFTA Award winner for Best Film, PGA Award winner for Most Promising Producer; Golden Globe nominee for Best Picture - Musical/Comedy, National Board of Review's Top Ten Films of 1997
A very nice movie, goes down easy, good performances all around, a tribute to the working class and the tragedy of what happens when an industry becomes a relic. I don't know why I didn't click with it as much as I have other such films, but what can you do?
4. L.A. Confidential
Arnon Milchan, Curtis Hanson and Michael Nathanson, producers
first of two nominations for Milchan; only Best Picture nomination for Hanson; only nomination for Nathanson; LAFCA Awards winner for Best Picture, National Board of Review's Best Picture of 1997, NYFCC Awards winner for Best Film; BAFTA Award nominee for Best Film, Golden Globe nominee for Best Picture - Drama, PGA Awards nominee for Outstanding Producer
You can feel the passion for this genre and LA history in every frame, every performance, every note of the score. As I said before, director Curtis Hanson isn't interested in pastiche or "a modern take" but in continuing the tradition; were this in black-and-white, you could take it for the real thing. That said, as much as I admire the movie, it has never stuck with me. I disliked it in college but could only recall James Cromwell's performance in the years following; I saw it for the first since back in September and liked it a lot more but it's still a vague memory except for Cromwell and Guy Pearce (I guess that's growth?).
3. As Good As It Gets
James L. Brooks, Bridget Johnson and Kristi Zea, producers
fourth and final Best Picture nomination for past winner Brooks; only nomination for Johnson; only Best Picture nomination for Zea; Golden Globe winner for Best Picture - Musical/Comedy; National Board of Review's Top Ten Films of 1997, PGA Awards nominee for Outstanding Producer
The architecture is more than a little sloppy. I wouldn't say its characters don't develop so much as they are written inconsistently while its narrative stitching together rom-com, odd couple neighbors dramedy, road trip flick, and statements about This Is America Now (gays, healthcare, desperate hookers) is, well, just that, stitched together. Sloppy, sloppy, stuff. So thank goodness Brooks gathers a trio of performers with enough talent and charm to make it work as much as it does, starting, of course, with a terrific Helen Hunt. Individual scenes work, the performances work, and there are some great lines. So yeah, pretty good, memorable stuff.
2. Good Will Hunting
Lawrence Bender, producer
second of three nominations; Golden Globe nominee for Best Picture - Drama, National Board of Review's Top Ten Films of 1997, PGA Awards nominee for Outstanding Producer
Genuinely floored by this movie. Every character is written and performed with depth of feeling, respect for human complexity, no condescension or patronization towards the working class while still able to see that there are ways of applying oneself that Will has refused, and able to recognize that not all those ways are fulfilling emotionally or morally. There's respect for education alongside healthy skepticism for institutions whose promotion of higher learning is in service of government ops and the war machine. First and foremost, it's a story about confronting your pain and understanding your worth.
1. Titanic
Jon Landau and James Cameron, producers
their first of three shared nominations for Best Picture; Golden Globe winner for Best Picture - Drama, PGA Awards winner for Outstanding Producer; BAFTA Award nominee for Best Film, National Board of Review's Top Ten Films of 1997, NYFCC Awards runner-up for Best Film
A historical epic, a romance, and a disaster film, the perfect marriage of some of Hollywood's greatest genres. And one that - yes, spent hundreds of millions of dollars to do so but - challenges us to remember history beyond data, beyond the treasures/souvenirs connected to the event that can be sold, horded, or displayed, and to instead remember that there are actual people in the middle of these events. Even Rose’s dismissive rundown of the first class passengers reveals individuals with hobbies, passions, losses - entire stories that we could follow, as we do the third class passenger and her children. History is always happening; too, the stories of those who lived it are always dying (“He exists now only in my memory…”). Also one of the most fully entertaining films in the history of cinema: suspenseful, romantic, funny, even musical.
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