Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 14, 1991 TAG: 9102140392
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB STRAUSS LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Long
With 12 nominations - the biggest number since "Reds" in 1981 - Kevin Costner's three-hour western epic galloped way out in front of its closest competitors, Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather Part III" and Warren Beatty's "Dick Tracy," which garnered seven nods each.
Having already swept the preliminary Golden Globe and American Movie Awards bouts, and with more than $100 million grossed since its release last November, "Wolves" appears to have the Best Picture Oscar in the saddlebag when the 63rd Academy Awards are presented on March 25 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles. The ceremony will be televised live on ABC (WSET Channel 13 in the Roanoke viewing area).
Of its four competitors in that top category - "Awakenings," "Ghost," "The Godfather Part III" and "GoodFellas" - only "Ghost" was more popular, and the hit romantic fantasy did not receive anywhere near "Wolves' " degree of critical praise.
The acting categories shook out pretty much as expected. Some would quibble that Gerard Depardieu did better with his first English-language role in "Green Card" than with the one he was nominated for in the French rehash of "Cyrano de Bergerac." Others would question Richard Harris' showy turn in the little-seen "The Field." But these are the kind of bravura performances that Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences voters usually admire.
Luckily, the academy is not blind to genuine excellence in the Best Actor category, as their recognition of Robert De Niro's technically superb encephalitis victim from "Awakenings" and Jeremy Irons' darkly witty portrayal of "Reversal of Fortune's" Claus von Bulow attests.
As many observers have remarked, 1990 was not a great year for actresses. "Misery's" Kathy Bates, "The Grifters' " Anjelica Huston, "Pretty Woman's" Julia Roberts, "Postcards From the Edge's" perennial Meryl Streep and "Mr. and Mrs. Bridge's" Joanne Woodward all made the most out of slim pickin's.
Lead Actress, then, is the most unpredictable horse race among the major categories, and all five of the actress nominees, it's safe to say, have a reasonable chance.
If first-time nominee Costner wins for Best Actor, he will be the only actor other than Laurence Olivier to direct himself to an acting Oscar (Olivier did it with his 1948 version of "Hamlet"). If he takes the Best Director award for which he is nominated, he'll be the fifth person to win a directing Oscar for his feature filmmaking debut.
If "Wolves" wins the Best Picture Oscar, it will be the only western other than the 1931 "Cimarron" to do so.
Like a number of recent winners, such as last year's "Driving Miss Daisy" and "Platoon" in 1986, "Wolves" was initially considered a bad box-office bet. The doomsayers pointed to its long-unfashionable genre, its extended running time and Costner's insistence that the film's many American Indian characters speak in Lakota Sioux dialect. A bad bet, that is, until it opened to overwhelming critical and popular support.
"Wolves' " domination of the academy nominations spearheaded an extended list that bore few surprises. Though some observers thought the academy's choice of "Ghost" surprising, it's not if you believe that the film was the classiest and nominally most serious of 1990's audience-pandering megahits. "Pretty Woman" earned one nomination for Julia Roberts' moneymaking title role, while "Home Alone" was charitably tossed two music nominations - like it really needed them.
More low-intensity surprises: Al Pacino getting a Supporting Actor nomination for his hammy mob boss in "Dick Tracy," but not getting a Lead Actor one for his grandly tragic Mafia patriarch in "Godfather III."
Then there's the popular but wildly overproduced "Dick Tracy" earning one more nomination (though most of them were in design categories) than Martin Scorsese's suburban Mafia tragicomedy, "GoodFellas," which topped a majority of year-end critics' lists and aced all their organizations' group votes.
As usual, there was some grumbling that the Best Director nominees did not match up with the Best Picture pack. Besides Coppola, Costner and Scorsese, Stephen Frears and Barbet Schroeder landed their first-ever nods - for "The Grifters" and "Reversal of Fortune," respectively.
In the process, they froze out "Awakenings' " Penny Marshall and "Ghost's" Jerry Zucker.
Another non-surprise: the strong showing by aesthetic and box-office disappointment "Godfather III." Snubbed by both the critics' groups and the preliminary awards shows, the third installment of the cinematic crime saga is running on sheer pedigree - both the 1972 and 1974 editions won Best Picture Oscars, the only films in the same series that have ever done that.
So, what got undernominated?:
"Avalon," by "Rain Man" director Barry Levinson's (four, due more to its minor popular appeal than to any lack of creative accomplishment).
"Awakenings" (only three, low for a movie whose every frame was painstakingly crafted to please Oscar).
"Edward Scissorhands" (one - most deserved - for Makeup, but everything else that was unique about Tim Burton's comic-horror fable was too weird for academy tastes).
"Hamlet" (two minor ones, perhaps in recognition of the fact that, with Olivier available on video, we don't need Mel's Mad Dane).
Just so you don't get the impression that there was nothing to celebrate in the academy's 1990 choices, here's a cheer for the positive little surprises that the voting members always manage to slip through. These include the recognition of newcomer Whit Stillman's ultra-civilized script for his directing debut, "Metropolitan," and the across-the-board high quality evident in the Adapted Screenplay category.
by CNB