Category THE OSCARS

          ‘The English Patient’ won in the Best Picture category at the 69th Academy Awards. It is a British-American film, directed by Anthony Minghella. It stars Juliette Binoche as Hana, and Ralph Fiennes as ‘The English Patient’.

          The movie was based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Canadian author Michael Ondaatje. The highly successful movie was produced by Saul Zaentz.

          The movie plot, set in the years before and during World War II, opens in an abandoned villa in Italy. It tells the story of Hana, a Canadian army nurse, who cares for a man referred to as the English patient. He refuses to reveal his identity, but his speech and mannerisms indicate that he is an Englishman.

          The film was released to critical acclaim, and received 12 nominations at the 69th Academy Awards, eventually winning nine, including Best Picture, Best Director for Minghella, and Best Supporting Actress for Juliette Binoche. The British Film Institute ranked ‘The English Patient’ the 55th greatest British film of the 20th century.

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          ‘Braveheart’ won the Best Picture title at the 68th Academy Awards. The film, directed, produced, and starred by Mel Gibson, was written by Randall Wallace.

          The story was inspired by Blind Harry’s epic poem ‘The Actes and Deidis of the Illustre and Vallyeant Campioun Schir William Wallace’. ‘Braveheart’ tells the extremely fictionalized story of the legendary Scottish rebel William Wallace, and his rebellion against King Edward Longshanks of England, in which he battled for the freedom of Scotland.

        ‘Braveheart’ was nominated for ten Academy Awards at the 68th Academy Awards, and won five: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Makeup, and Best Sound Editing. The major battle scenes were shot in Ireland, using members of the Irish Army Reserve as extras. Critics especially praised the massively scaled and extravagantly violent battle scenes.

       The music score was composed and conducted by James Horner. The score has gone on to be one of the most commercially successful soundtracks of all time.

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          ‘Forrest Gump’, is a 1994 film starring Torn Hanks, and directed by Robert Zemeckis. It is based on the best-selling 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film differs substantially from the novel, including the lead character’s personality, and several events that were depicted.

          The story depicts several decades in the life of its lead character Forrest Gump (Hanks), a simple-minded and athletically prodigious man from Alabama. The story begins with Gump telling his life story to other people while waiting at a bus stop. As the story continues, you find Forrest touching important events and people from the 1950s to the 1980s (ranging from Elvis Presley to several Presidents of the US), rising to his own measure of fame and fortune in the process, mostly by just being himself.

        The movie had thirteen nominations at the Academy Awards and won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Visual Effects, and Best Film Editing. Winston Groom published a sequel to the original novel, ‘Gump & Co.,’ in 1995.

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         ‘Schindler’s List’ is a 1993 historical film. The movie was directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by Spielberg, Gerald R. Molen, and Branko Lustig, and written by Steven Zaillian.

          The film features music composed by John Williams, and it was shot almost entirely in black and white.

          The movie is based on the novel ‘Schindler’s Ark’, by Australian novelist Thomas Keneally. The film relates to a period in the life of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman.

          The movie is set during World War II, and is about the horrors of the holocaust in which millions of Jews were murdered. It relates how Schindler rescues over 1100 Jews from the Nazi concentration camps of World War II.

          At the beginning of the film, Schindler just wants money. By the end, he has turned his heart to saving all the Jews that he has employed. The film finishes on a powerful note.

               The movie won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Editing, and Best Art Direction.

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          ‘Unforgiven’ is a film produced, directed, and starred by Clint Eastwood and written by David Webb Peoples. Eastwood plays a weakened, once violent, but reformed gunfighter – and an aging pig farmer. The story is in fact, a violent tale of retribution in the lead character’s life. The film also stars Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman and Richard Harris.

          The film won four Academy Awards (and was nominated for five others), garnering Best Picture and Best Director for Clint Eastwood, Best Supporting Actor for Gene Hackman and Best Film Editing for Joel Cox.

         A Japanese remake starring Ken Watanabe was released in September of 2013.

        ‘Unforgiven’, was added to the United States National Film Registry of the Library of Congress as being deemed “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.

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          ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ won in the Best Picture category at the 64th Academy Awards. This horror-thriller film was directed by Jonathan Demme. The movie starred Jodie Foster as Clarice and Anthony Hopkins in a career-defining performance as Lecter. The film became the third, and to this day, the last film ever to win all five major Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

          The screenplay was written by Ted Tally, based on Thomas Harris’s 1988 best-selling novel of the same name. ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ was one of the most successful and widely popular films of the modern era, blending the merits of detective thriller and art film.

         It was released on 30th January 1991, and grossed 272.7 million US dollars world-wide. It is also the only Best Picture winner considered to be a horror film till date, and the third such film to be nominated in the category, after ‘The Exorcist’, and ‘Jaws’.

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          ‘Dances with Wolves’, is a 1990 epic film. The movie starred Kevin Costner, who was widely appreciated for his performance.

          ‘Dances With Wolves’ was honoured with twelve nominations, and seven Oscar wins – Best Picture (Costner), Best Director (for Costner’s directorial debut film), Best Adapted Screenplay (Michael Blake), Best Cinematography (Dean Semler), Best Sound, Best Original Score (John Barry), and Best Film Editing. It also received the Golden Globe Award for best drama.

         The movie was adapted from the 1988 book of the same name by Michael Blake. It was the saga of a Civil War Union officer, Lt. John J. Dunbar, who travels to the American frontier to find a military post.

          Much of the dialogue is spoken in Lakota with English subtitles. ‘Dances With Wolves’ won a number of additional awards, making it one of the most honoured films of 1990.

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          ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ is a 1989 American film directed by Bruce Beresford and written by Alfred Uhry, based on Uhry’s play of the same name. The film stars Jessica Tandy, Morgan Freeman, and Dan Aykroyd.

          The movie shows 25 years in the life of an elderly Jewish widow named Daisy Werthan, and her chauffeur, Hoke Colburn. He’s hired by her son, Boolie, when she can no longer drive herself. At first, Miss Daisy objects to the changes in her life. But eventually, the two transcend their differences to become lifelong friends.

          At the 62nd Academy Awards, ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ received nine nominations, and won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Actress (Jessica Tandy), Best Makeup, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

         At the age of 81, Jessica Tandy became the oldest actress to win an Academy Award. The movie was well received by critics, with particular emphasis on Morgan Freeman’s and Jessica Tandy’s performances.

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           ‘Rain Man’ is a road comedy-drama film directed by Barry Levinson and written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass. This Oscar-winning film stars Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. The main character is loosely based around real-life autistic savant Kim Peek.

          The movie tells the story of Charlie Babbitt (Cruise), a self-centred, spoilt brat. On the death of his father, Charlie doesn’t receive the huge inheritance he was expecting. This offends Charlie, who is used to a luxurious life-style. Moreover, Charlie finds that the money is being sent to a mental institution in Cincinnati. It’s only when he visits the hospital that Charlie finds the truth: the money is going to his previously unknown brother Raymond, who has severe autism. The story takes a turn from there.

          The film won four Oscars at the 61st Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Hoffman.

          Its crew received an additional four nominations. Apart from all this, Hoffman’s performance as an autistic man is immensely lauded even after years.

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               ‘The Last Emperor’, directed by Bernordo Bertolucci, was the biopic of Pu Yi (the last emperor of China). The screenplay was written by Mark Peploe and Bernardo Bertolucci. The movie, based on Pu Yi’s autobiography, tells how he ascended to the throne at the age of three. In his brief reign, he was confined to the Forbidden City, not knowing of the world of his people. He was forced to renounce his throne at the age of nine. Pu Yi leads the rest of his life in desolation and impoverishment. After serving as the ruler of a Japanese puppet government of China during World War II, he becomes a political prisoner of the Soviets and then of the Communist Chinese.

               This was the first Western feature film authorized by the People’s Republic of China to film in the Forbidden City in Beijing. At the 60th Academy Awards, the film won all nine Oscars for which it was nominated, including Best Picture and Best Director.

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