Oscarblogging II

Yet another look at some Oscar history and folks that were either robbed or just missed due to the competition.  Today, let's look at:

Martin Scorsese

Marty is among the finest directors to ever grace us with his talent and yet, he has never won an Academy Award.  Part of that is due to his unfortunate history of running up against incredible films from first time directors, and part is due to some not respecting his work as much as they should, in my opinion.  First let's look at thos films he was nominated for (and I will also note who he lost to):

• Raging Bull (lost to Robert Redford for Ordinary People)
• The Last Temptation of Christ (lost to Barry Levinson for Rain Man)
• Goodfellas (lost to Kevin Costner for Dances With Wolves)
• Gangs of New York (lost to Ron Howard for A Beautiful Mind)
• The Aviator (no winner yet)

And now those he was not nominated for:

• Mean Streets
• Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
• Taxi Driver
• The King of Comedy
• The Age of Innocence
• Casino
• Kundun
• Bringing Out the Dead

Now, at least after 1980, he has a fairly solid record for being nominated for the films that truly deserved it.  Casino did not deserve a nomination, and the others were possibly not as good to warrent one when compared to what else was out there for the year.  But prior to 1980, both Mean Streets and certainly Taxi Driver are among his finest and it seems a total miss that he did not get the nod.

But to gain some perspective, let's look at what was nominated in 1976 instead of Taxi Driver - John G. Avildsen for Rocky (the winner), Ingmar Bergman for Face to Face, Sidney Lumet for Network, Alan J. Pakula for All The President's Men and Lina Wertmuller for Seven Beauties.  I might have dropped Bergman or Wertmuller to give Marty the nod but he may still have lost to Avildsen.

But his poor luck is mainly in coming up against former actors turning director.  If you look at all of these that beat him, they all are, though only Costner and Redford were directing for the first time. (And before you ask, Levinson was an actor first - see High Anxiety and the infamous "shower scene" of that film.)  Of those, I would have to say that as good as Ordinary People was, Marty deserved the win that year.  I would love to say the same about Goodfellas and Dances with Wolves, but the latter is so darn good that I can concede the win.  So will he have luck this year against yet another actor turned director?  Only time will tell.  That is all.

Comments

[Keiper]

He'll probably get gypped again, unfortunately. A shame, he's one of my favorite directors of all time. I just recently got the special edition DVD of "Goodfellas."