Analysis: The Films the Won 11 Oscars - Deserved/Undeserved?

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Wins for Ben Hur (1959) - deserved or undeserved?

Best Picture

Deserved. It may not be my favourite film of all-time, of the year, or even of the Best Picture nominees (I preferred Anatomy of a Murder which is actually win for the year), but I can't deny that Ben Hur is a powerful and splendid, technically and emotionally, epic film that's both a crowd pleaser, and fascinating meditation on faith and religion. I'll admit I've only seen it once, but even that one time was a rather great experience, especially that ending.

Best Director - William Wyler

Deserved. Wyler's become a strangely underrated director as the years have gone by. His range extended from interesting little satires like Dodsworth to intimate, amazingly well-acted but also splendidly crafted character studies like the Henry James adaptation The Heiress (a film that's also become somewhat underrated in recent memory), and could handle a breezy but deeply sincere rom com like Roman Holiday (plus, introduced Audrey Hepburn to the world, bonus points!) as well as he could a deeply disturbing thriller like The Collector. And that's not even mentioning some of his more underrated unnominated films like The Desperate Hours and Come and Get It. And it's strange that despite him and his film, The Best Years of Our Lives, winning the Oscars over my all-time favourite It's a Wonderful Life, I don't see anything wrong with that objectively. Anyway, what about his work on Ben Hur. Well it's really splendid stuff, and wholly deserving of the win. He takes a grand big story and milks it for all its worth, but never neglects the more intimate aspects of the protagonists more internalized journey in contrast to his more literal one.

Best Actor - Charlton Heston

Deserved. I like this win. Heston was actually a bit of an underrated actor. He didn't have the biggest range, but he did well within that gruff action hero type. He could carry a film like few could, and that's essential to him carrying Ben Hur on his shoulders. He makes for quite the striking lead and takes us to each point of Judah Ben Hur's path from vengeance to forgiveness rather compellingly. It's a pretty memorable performance that's kind of like Russell Crowe in Gladiator, in that it's not the most complex role ever, and the supporting cast is more colourful, but he really makes for a great epic hero, and out of the nominees (having not seen Paul Muni), I only prefer James Stewart in Anatomy for a Murder, really.

Best Supporting Actor - Hugh Griffith

Undeserved. I'll hold off the red because I genuinely do enjoy this performance, it's a nice bit of comic relief to the film. Him, Robert Vaughan, and Ed Wynn are all pretty solid nominees, but I really do think the award should have gone to either of the Anatomy of a Murder men that year. Also, as enjoyable as Griffith was, another member of the ensemble really deserved to not only be nominated as well, but also win - Stephen Boyd.

Best Cinematography, Colour - Robert Surtees

Deserved. Interesting to note how back in the day the technical categories were divided up into 'black and white' and 'colour'. Any who. This is an easy decision to justify. The other nominees, from what I have seen, are all well shot films, but Ben Hur is really something else. Those scenes on Arrius's ship, and the scenes with Christ, all have particularly vivid colour schemes that really imprint themselves in your mind so eloquently, and of course the chariot races have dynamic camerawork. Should also note that the black and white winner this year, Diary of Anne Frank, was also beautifully shot.

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Colour - William A. Horning, Edward C. Carfagno, Hugh Hunt

Deserved. This is the equivalent of Best Production Design, back in the day, and anyone who says Ben Hur doesn't have nice sets does not deserve to appreciate films. It was filmed in everywhere from Rome to California, and everywhere feels so fitting to Jersualem, Judea etc. And of course, the actual sound sets themselves, from the ship to the grand arena, are all immaculate.

Best Costume Design, Colour - Elizabeth Haffenden

Deserved. Just look as those garbs, those armour, Sheik Ilderim's garments, my gosh.

Best Sound - Franklin Milton

Deserved. The sound design on this film by Franklin Milton is positively Miltonic in its epic scope (sorry, couldn't resist). I keep bringing up the chariot race, but really that's just a great sounding sequences from head to toe, with a particular highlight being the bloody, traumatic way it concludes that is truly harrowing; and the ship battles, of course. Then in the quieter moments like the ending it works so well in creating a sense of comfort and rehabiliation.

Best Editing - Ralph E. Winters, John D. Dunning

Deserved. Again, I don't think the whole film is equally compelling, but for a three-plus hour film it moves along very well, not quite at a Lawrence of Arabia level, but few films do.

Best Special Effects - A. Arnold Gillespie (visual), R.A. MacDonald (visual), Milo B. Lory (audible)

Deserved. Still need to see Journey to the Centre of the Earth but this film certainly has many merits in this regard, particularly in Judah Ben Hur's rousing rescue of the shipmen, a truly great combination of sound and visuals effects.

Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture - Miklós Rózsa

Deserved. The Love Theme and overture in themselves are deserving of acclaim. They're fittingly epic scores, but there's also something more to them. The score modulates betwen the lighter and darker, inspirational and tragic scenes of the film with such aplomb, and though I'm torn between this and Diary of Anne Frank in terms of which score is my 'favourite', this is very easily a worthy winner.

Verdict: I support 10/11 of Ben Hur's Oscar wins. 

Wins for Titanic (1997) - deserved or undeserved?

Best Picture 

Undeserved. And I really, really do like Titanic, and find it to be effortlessly re-watchable. I also do prefer it to the other film that might have won this year, As Good as it Gets, and though I also really like The Full Monty and Good Will Hunting, it's close between these three films in terms of which one I prefer. Titanic is a grand example of old-fashioned styles of storytelling with (back then) technological innovations to heighten a melodramatic love story to epic proportions. A wonderful film, but it won over L.A. Confidential, one of the greatest films of all-time, period. Titanic is a lot of fun and very passionate filmmaking that warrants admiration in (most) regards, but it's no masterpiece which L.A. Confidential undoubtedly is.

And on that note, it's outrageous that L.A. Confidential was snubbed of acting nominations for all but Kim Basinger for her decent but not particularly great performance. Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe, James Cromwell, hell even Danny Devito, and especially Kevin Spacey, all deserved to win. And since someone's probably going to ask me about the acting in Titanic, I'll say it's largely very good outside of Billy InZane. DiCaprio and Winslet have great chemistry that is every bit as vividly realized as the next big romantic film that might well sweep the Oscars, although unlike that film, I think the male lead is superior to the female lead. Kate has a few slightly iffy moments to begin with though her final scenes are pretty great, DiCaprio carries the first half so charmingly and winningly with his boyish charisma and ends it so poignantly, I'd say it's close to being among his top 5 performances.

Best Director - James Cameron

Undeserved. He may have been king of the world back in the day, and his craftsmanship of Titanic as an epic romance may still be untouched. But his work on the film, though in the big aspects quite amazing, is not quite on Curtis Hanson levels of amazing. Hell, I might even prefer Atom Egyoan's work on The Sweet Hereafter out of the nominees (and where the hell was Paul Thomas Anderson for Boogie Nights? Blasphemy). Cameron's work is impressive, but not all-time great which Hanson's craftsmanship of L.A. Confidential was.

Best Cinematography - Russell Carpenter

Deserved. I can support this. Though I still might prefer L.A. Confidential (I mean, come on man, that shot with Exley walking with his badge held up to oncoming police cards deserves an award unto itself), the appeal of Titanic's more sweeping, magestic seaviews, and the taut and thrilling camerawork in the disaster sequences, is all remarkable, and very worthy of the win it garnered.

Best Production Design - Peter Lamont, Michael Ford

Deserved. Hate to keep bringing L.A. Confidential up, which recreates 1950s Los Angeles in such a stunning neo-noir light, but it deserved to win, but Titanic also deserved to win. Its art direction and set decoration of the titular ill-fated ship is marvellous in every regard that's not SFX, and it's quite sad to see it get torn apart.

Best Costume Design - Deobrah Lynn Scott

Undeserved. It's all very lovely period dress, but I've actually never found the costume design to be all that memorable. It's good, but I think the dresses and shirts worn by Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio look nice largely because they're worn by Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio. Is it good work? Yes. Did it deserve to win over The Wings of the Dove and Kundun (haven't seen it but the costumes look fab)? Probably not.

Best Sound - Gary Rydstrom, Tom Johnson, Gary Summers, Mark Ulano

Deserved. Just for the action sequences alone, which are so immersive and memorable, it deserved its win.

Best Film Editing - Conrad Buff IV, James Cameron, Richard A. Harris

Undeserved. It's good, and occasionally quite great particularly in its emotionally explosive finale, but the crisscrossing between the present Bill Paxton scenes and the past scenes hurts the momentum a bit at times. It still flows very well for such a long film, and is better than most of the nominees in its editing process, but again, L.A. Confidential.

Best Sound Editing - Tom Bellfort, Christopher Boyes

Deserved. The sound editing is every bit as good as the sound mixing, which is to say that it is incredibly stellar. On a seperate note, Face/Off was an inspired nomination.

Best Visual Effects - Robert Legato, Mark A. Lasoff, Thomas L. Fisher, Michael Kanfer

Deserved. What Titanic did with special effects back in the day is something to be heralded again and again in years to come, and is certainly far more worthy of praise than Avatar. So much of the film is SFX, but you don't realize it till you watch behind the scenes features. Its showy but never draws attention to its artifice, and everything computer generated about the ship just looks like part of the ship, and the disaster sequencestoo are filled with so many different effects shots that remain unnoticeable till this day.

Best Music, Original Song - 'My Heart Will Go On', James Horner, Will Jennings, Celine Dion

Deserved. Man, I love 'My Heart Will Go On'. It's all very cheesy, schmaltzy romantic stuff and not exactly John Donne in levels of cleverness, but it works so well at tugging the heartstrings, which is its sole purpose.

Best Original Score - James Horner

Deserved. MVP of the film. Horner deserved to win way more times than just for this, I mean come on, Braveheart is gradually finding its way into my top 5 scores of all-time. But his work on Titanic is great, great, great (that tricolon in asyndeton was entirely necessary) stuff that brings the awe-inspiring power of the ship and the terror of disaster, and above all the power of the central romance, to life so wonderfully. Great work by a great composer.

Verdict: I support 7/11 of Titanic's Oscar wins.

Wins for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) - deserved or undeserved?

Best Picture 

Deserved. What is this madness? A fantasy film, winning Best Picture? Oh, what tripe, what a travesty, what a disaster. Eugh! Nah, I'm joking. This was actually a decent year for the Best Picture nominees. Seabiscuit is an excellent old-fashioned sports biopic, Mystic River is a solid crime thriller, Lost in Translation is an interesting character study, and Master and Commander is actually my runner-up overall for the year, a rather great seafaring adventure. Having said that, Return of the King easily takes this. It's a perfect end to an amazing trilogy of films, and one of my favourite films of all-time. I even think that ending (s) is flawless, it makes sense to gradually build down the intensity with the bittersweet depiction of a Frodo who lives a peaceful life, but one haunted forever by his time with the Ring.

Best Director - Peter Jackson

Deserved. Come on, you can't not support this win after he was beaten by Ron Howard (undeservedly) and Roman Polanski (deservedly) for his work on the last two Lord of the Rings films. His work here is perhaps the most prominent amongst all films in the series in terms of spectacle, amibition, and also the fact it's the most 'ensemble'-y of all the films in the series. Jackson may not have proved to be the most consistent director after this Oscar win, but it's a completely deserved win, no questions asked. His work on Pelennor fields itself is worthy of mention along the all-time greats, as he creates such a big battle with so much focus on everything and everyone.

Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay - Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson

Deserved. The writing is an overarching aspect of the series that is very strong, here in terms of moving a lot of the Sam/Frodo stuff from The Two Towers to here with the spiders, and the added intensity of the conflict between Sam/Gollum, is rather great. That's the main meat of the creative licence of the screenplay, the rest of the stuff is very much a straightforward adaptation and distillation of the novel, and in that regard it's as perfect as always. 

Best Production Design - Grant Major (art director), Dan Hennah (set decorator), Alan Lee (set decorator)

Deserved. I don't need to explain this, do I? Whenever I discuss Lord of the Rings with people, it's just so easy to quickly pinpoint specific scenes we love because the set design for absolutely every frame is so memorable. This film is no different to any of the other films.

Best Costume Design - Ngila Dickson, Richard Taylor

Deserved. I might prefer Master and Commander ever so slightly, but Return of the King's win is completely deserved, particularly if you see it as an award for the overarching brilliance of the costumes throughout the series. 

Best Sound Mixing - Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges, Hammond Peek

Deserved. The combination of score and sound is just perfect in each of the battle sequences, but I think Return of the King deserves most mention for its quietest moments. As Frodo and Sam await an inevitable death before the eagles a'coming, you feel the onslaught of destruction through the background sounds, the combination of it with the score and dialogue is so perfectly moving. Then beforehand as Aragorn leads the charge at Black Gate, all goes silent bar, 'For Frodo', it's such a restrained and perfect moment. 

Best Film Editing - Jamie Selkirk

Deserved. Again, I can never get over how well all three of these 11-win films flow along for such long, long movies. Return of the King is the best of the lot simply because beyond just feeling like such a swift watch, it also intercuts between the multiple plot lines with such aplomb, even if you don't find some particularly compelling, say if you don't really fancy knowing what Merry and Pippin have been getting up to, or you'd prefer not to watch Denethor eating his tomatoes, you can't deny it's some fabulous editing involved. Particular mention, now that I mentioned tomatoes, to that 'Edge of Night' sequence that so hauntingly edits its way into your mind. 

Best Visual Effects - Jim Rygiel, Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook, Alex Funke

Deserved. Not quite the high point of the series, that'd be The Two Towers, but everything from the battle scenes, the Oliphaunts, Gollum of course avec Andy Serkin, and even if those eagles are deus ex machinas, they're the nicest looking ex machinas you'll ever see, until Alicia Vikander and Sonya Mizuno came onto the scene, that is. 

Best Makeup - Richard Taylor, Peter King

Deserved. One only needs to contrast those unappealingly ugly looking orcs in The Hobbit trilogy to the wonderfully ugly looking orcs in the Lord of the Rings trilogy to see just how brilliant the makeup work in these films is. Particular mention too, to old Bilbo at the end of the film by how convincingly worn-out they managed to make fairly youthful and sprightly-looking for his age Ian Holm look.

Best Original Song - 'Into the West', Fran Walsh, Howard Shore, Annie Lennox

Deserved. Perfect end to a perfect trilogy, the lyrics bring everything to such a tenderly felt journey's end, the lyrics have to be particularly commended. And the way it so understatedly builds up to a crescendo of emotion is quite something. 

Best Original Score - Howard Shore

Deserved. Another sort of win for the series overall, which is fine because you can't have Lord of the Rings without the music, and I've mentioned it before and I'll mention it again, it amplifies the films from great films to masterpieces. 

Verdict: I support 11/11 of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King's Oscar wins.

Conclusion:

I won't hesitate in calling Return of the King my favourite of these three films, I fully support not only all of these wins, but wouldn't have minded if it won in a few other categories, though I will say I'm happy they gave Cinematography and Sound Editing to the amazing and deserving work of Master and Commander. Also, the fact that Sean Astin wasn't nominated for his amazing poignant work as Samwise Gamgee is a travesty - he should have won, in my opinion. Ben Hur, though, was also completely deserving of all it won, and then some, and even Griffiths' win I don't mind since it is a fun performance. Titanic may be the weakest of the lot, but I still like it a lot. It doesn't help it came out in the same year as L.A. Confidential I guess, but hey, by its own merits it's still a pretty great film.

My ranking of these films:

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (5/5)

2. Ben Hur (5/5)

3. Titanic (4.5/5)