Siskel & Ebert - If We Picked The Oscars (1986)

[@redadamearth]

I absolutely love that so many of these episodes are on KZbin. Growing up in Chicago, these guys were my life. lol

[@chonconnor6144]

Yeah, they were on WGN weren't they? Grew up 8 hours north of Chicago (figure that out lol) and used to watch these guys every weekend.

[@timothygrant7266]

Thank you for posting these programs. I watched Gene and Roger most every weekend throughout the 80s and 90s

[@cosplaytimecapsule]

thank you so much! Feels like going back in time

[@DoncoEntAgain]

At 22:20 Siskel says that usually all 5 Best Picture nominees were also nominated for Best Director. That's actually completely wrong. It was EXTREMELY rare for both categories to match up perfectly. I can find only 3 occasions at the time this special aired where Picture and Director had the same 5 nominees: the awards for 1957, 1964, and 1981. The next time they all matched up was literally 20 years after this special. Even with the expanded Best Picture field we have now, there are occasionally still movies that manage to get a Best Director nomination without getting into Best Picture (namely Foxcatcher, Cold War, and Another Round).

[@distinguishedflyer]

A little surprising to see Siskel pick Jack Nicholson, as he was rather critical of him on first reviewing Prizzi's Honor. Also surprising not to see him pick Out of Africa (for Best Picture) as the worst nomination; usually a negatively-reviewed Best Picture nominee was a shoo-in for that 'category.'

[@markr6812]

How did Out Of Africa beat The Color Purple for best picture 🤯

[@kdohertygizbur]

Forget that, it beat Prizzis Honor , which was more egregious Aside from the Acting, The Color Purple does not hold up, there were so many bad turns in that film

[@auntiechercher4266]

@@kdohertygizbur Like what exactly? What were the bad turns in TCP? I always loved that movie.

[@commanderkeen3787]

@@kdohertygizbur Prizzi's Honor is by far John Huston's most overrated film

[@kane4013]

@@auntiechercher4266 You have no right to like that movie. Any feelings you had whilst watching the film are bunk. Shame on you. I didn’t like it, ergo, neither should you. Wherever you are, drop and do twenty pushups. ⏱

[@auntiechercher4266]

@@kane4013 Kane, oh, Kane you arrogant pompous horse's rear end. You have no right to tell me what to like or not like. Why don't you do a 20 push-ups . . . on your ELBOWS!

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

Chapter jumps: Best Actress - 1:09 Best Original Screenplay: - 5:32 Best Original Song - 10:30 Best Supporting Actor - 13:56 Best Picture - 18:33 Best Director - 22:18 Best Supporting Actress - 25:29 Best Actor - 31:01 Best Visual Effects - 37:18 Worst Nomination - 39:20

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

My votes: Best Picture: "The Color Purple" Best Director: Akira Kurosawa for "Ran" Best Actor: William Hurt for "Kiss Of The Spider Woman" (a surprise win that now looks like the obvious "duh" choice). Best Actress: Whoopi Goldberg for "The Color Purple" Best Supporting Actor: Klaus Maria Brandauer for "Out of Africa" Best Supporting Actress: Margaret Avery for "The Color Purple" Best Original Screenplay: Puenzo and Bortnkik for "The Official Story" Best Adapted Screenplay: Kurt Luedtke for "Out of Africa" Best Foreign Language Film: "The Official Story" Best Art Direction: "Brazil" Best Cinematography: Allen Daviau for "The Color Purple" Best Costume Design: Emi Wada for "Ran" Best Makeup: "Mask" Best Film Editing: "Out of Africa" Best Original Score: John Barry for "Out of Africa" Best Original Song: "Miss Celie's Blues" from "The Color Purple" Best Sound Mixing: "Out of Africa" Best Sound Effects Editing: "Back To The Future" Best Visual Effects: "Cocoon" Worst nomination: "Prizzi's Honor" for Best Picture...but there is so much to choose from this year that I get lost looking any further!

[@littlekingtrashmouth9219]

I’m surprised St. Elmo’s Fire (Man In Motion) by John Parr (St. Elmo’s Fire) or The Touch by Stan Bush (Transformers: The Movie) didn’t get nominated. But the 80s had a ton of perfunctory ballads that were cranked out, slapped onto movies, and the academy ate it up.

[@davidleedutton]

I remember this as the year the Academy made its biggest mistake in not giving the Oscar to Kurosawa.

[@rodrigosebastianpagano8198]

Surprised (not surprised) on how much they loved "La Historia Oficial". A very important (and very good) movie. Highly recommended.

[@cosplaytimecapsule]

Ebert was WRONG for not giving Kurosawa Best Director for RAN. 23:16. Prizzi's Honor was a good not great movie that's been forgotten. Ran is still remembered.

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

Anyone can potentially remember any movie, the broader problem is that most people are mooks and yahoos who treat movies as a utility. Ebert erred because "Prizzi's Honor" flat blows, close to Huston's career-worst.

[@littlekingtrashmouth9219]

Prizzi’s Honor is what Italians think non-Italians think Italians are.

[@redadamearth]

That may be the most brilliant take on "Prizzi's Honor" I've ever read, man. lol

[@ImVee10]

I second that. 😂

[@branagain]

Great description, and I’m not Italian.

[@thankyoujodi]

😂 I tried. I really tried with that movie.

[@carrieheffernan1685]

Nicholson is so good he can act with his back.

[@WheresPoochie]

Siskel being fooled by CGI is a vintage boomer moment

[@JustSomeCanadianGuy]

Back to the Future should have won Best Picture.

[@timgriffin3368]

Not to take away from the great performance of Geraldine Page, But Whoopi Really should have won that year. If not Just for her performance But Also so she would not win for Ghost and Bracco would have gotten her deserved win for Goodfellas!!

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

Unfortunately the Academy Awards are only partially merit-based. Your connections in the industry matter more. There is no other way to account for (as just one example) Jamie Lee Curtis's recent win.

[@stevegeorge6880]

Maybe I'm just a little bit partial to Geraldine Page because of the circumstances of her life and career at that point, but I would say that this is absolutely Oscar-worthy work from her, and if they had to tip one way or another, they certainly didn't honor an unworthy performance. Best possible scenario: the votes are close enough to tie, and both Page and Goldberg receive the honor they each deserved. It's unfortunate that we can't rewrite history thusly.

[@JulieAndrews-ke8vl]

Whoopi 100% DESERVED every inch of her Oscar for Ghost by a long country mile. This one was more of a toss up between Page and Whoopi. Let's stop discrediting comedic performances.

[@MARKELIJIO-i9i]

@@flaccidusminimus2170 Jamie Lee Curtis, who got one Oscar win for Everything Everywhere All at Once in 2023. She would like to dedicated both of her late parents who were Oscar nominated: Tony Curtis - The Defiant Ones in 1959 and Janet Leigh - Psycho in 1961. But that's my only boldest opinion!

[@inmusic-cf6ku]

Siskel and ebert taught me how to watch and appreciate cinema when i was young i liked agreeing and disagreeing with them. I miss them and unfortunately there are no critics like them anymore most critics are to politically correct and thats very annoying. And mostly refer to the film critics on the public radio film week they are always using a mental check list not criticizing the merit of the film but on how politically friendly it should be.

[@Sleepingsparklegirl]

I think the biggest travesty of the Oscar’s that year was Spielberg not winning and being nominated but the biggest mistake was Out of Africa winning over the Color purple.

[@oobrocks]

Ran should have won best picture: c it!

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

Great choice, but it wasn't nominated.

[@zetetick395]

Turns out it was an also-Ran 😐 Ba-Dumm-Tishh! (I really love Dreams (1990) myself, Kurosawa-wise......I have formed an appreciation group, of one) 😔

[@charleswinokoor6023]

Gene and Roger both missed the boat when it came to their nominations for best song. “Power of Love” not only was a great pop rock song, its lyrics perfectly fit the mood and motivation of lead character Marty McFly in “Back to the Future.” The song “Say You Say Me,” on the other hand, not only is lame it sounds as if it was at least partially lifted from McCartney’s/Beatles’ “Let it Be.”

[@starlimitz2]

And if you'll look closely. You'll see my heart breaking because they don't make movies like this anymore.

[@freddyfurrah3789]

I see it!

[@Gitfiddle]

Angelica Houston, what a classic beauty.

[@branagain]

Jack Nicholson is my favorite actor but I did not like Prizzi’s Honor. I really wanted to like it. 1985 was not a good year in film. If I had to pick, I’d pick Witness.

[@freemangriffin4953]

Gene Siskel saying that Jessica Lange ought not have been nominated - once again he is wrong wrong wrong! She was brilliant as Patsy Cline!

[@auntiechercher4266]

I agree. Over time, I think Jessica's performance as Patsy holds up more and more!

[@kdohertygizbur]

Totally disagree, very by the numbers performance in a blah movie, Anne Wedgeworth as Patsy's mother was the acting champ in that movie

[@kdohertygizbur]

@@MARKELIJIO-i9i UMMM, No she wasn't - what are you Talking about !!!! Elaine Stritch is not in Steel Magnolias

[@MARKELIJIO-i9i]

@@kdohertygizbur All right, knock it off, would ya? You want some answers, you got it! Well, the legendary Ann Wedgeworth Martin in one of her final farewell film performances in the Oscar nominated blockbuster, "Steel Magnolias" - a Screen Gems Pictures presentation of a Hallmark Media production of a Hera film, Sony Pictures Releasing. This was the final collaboration between both veterans: producer Ray Stark and producer/director Herbert Ross. After the success of this film, both of them were parted ways in the fall of 1993. Since 1986, Hallmark Media, a division of Hallmark Cards was based in Los Angeles, California purchased Rastar and its entire library of television and movies. By now, the former Rastar logo was now gone in 2000 and folded into "Hallmark Media" - where the logo and name remains the same.

[@kdohertygizbur]

@@MARKELIJIO-i9i what are you babbling about Actually I don't care

[@frankrossi6972]

I didn’t care for “Purple” or “Bountiful,” as I don’t care for weepies and family melodrama/navel gazing---but even I don’t understand how Page beat Goldberg, considering that Goldberg had a circuitous character arc, from victim/submissive to finally assuming an agentic role in her life, whereas Page basically was the same character from start to finish. Ebert made the same argument with “Rain Man" a few years later, lamenting that Hoffman won the Oscar even though Cruise was the character who had to morph from a prick to a loving brother quickly and credibly, which he did masterfully.

[@montysloungetv]

separate lives - stephen bishop

[@sunnybear178]

The NAACP really screwed The Color Purple big time. I don’t care what claimed of “bad depictions of black men” they thought really robbed a good movie of a good win.

[@vinnayt]

Ebert didn't pick his ex girlfriend

[@timothygrant7266]

Not a fan of The Color Purple. Witness was the best film of 1985. Great from start to finish.

[@MGBillionaire]

But you have to admit Back to the future deserved that screenplay Oscar.

[@patrickcondon1]

witness is wonderful. peter weir is always worth a watch!

[@alvilla9659]

@@MGBillionaire yes

[@billnolte8644]

Carlton from Wings in a real movie!!!!!!

[@kdohertygizbur]

William Hickey made many real movies

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

This was a flat out bonkers year for nominations in my view, and I could probably come up with 15 worse selections before even looking at Jessica Lange or Anne Bancroft. Both Voight and Roberts would be more appropriately found on the Razzie shortlist for their annoyingly aggressive overacting in "Runaway Train". Voight nearly chokes to death on the scenery, and Roberts is so irritating I could barely tolerate the sound of him 25 minutes in. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I'd also say that every single nomination given to "Prizzi's Honor" was undeserved. It's an overstuffed package of awkward affectations and histrionic nonsense. Nicholson and Anjelica Huston in particular are way off the mark in what may be the worst performances either of them have ever given. No one in it is the least bit convincing as an Italian-American (except maybe Bill Hickey), and Nicholson's performance is like one of those desperate, lame Humphrey Bogart imitations I used to witness at film student college parties. Only Kathleen Turner's performance is grounded in some recognizable version of reality, but it's like she's acting in a different movie than her castmates. Then we've got Don Ameche (unbelievably, the eventual Supporting Actor winner) in one of the most obvious "Thank You For Your Career!" nominations in Academy history. He was nominated and won because he was a nice guy who made a lot of friends in the business through the decades. His role in "Cocoon" could have been played by any professional actor of a similar age and no one would have noticed the difference. The nod for Robert Loggia is also a wasted nomination. Loggia had already played roles like the one in "Jagged Edge" at least a half dozen times before and continued to be typecast playing similar characters in the years that followed. And to me, Gene and Roger's choices for Best Original Song, as well as the other tune from "White Nights", are little more than generic pop songs that sound like hundreds of other radio-friendly schlock singles that were popular in the 1980s. At least "The Power Of Love" and "Miss Celie's Blues" are distinctive, and evoke some of their film's best and most emotional moments. I don't think Lionel Richie has ever written any music as good as Quincy Jones's worst composition. Although he did contribute to the lyrics of "Miss Celie's Blues", so that's something in his favor.

[@timothygrant7266]

Yeah, I'd pick Power of Love over the Lionel Richie song too.

[@kd17Burger]

I agree with you on Don Ameche .. it's hysterical that his Oscar clip was his breakdancing which wasn't even him - this was as bad a Nomination as Jack Palance in City Slickers - Wilford Brimley was so much more deserving in Cocoon I thought Anne Bancroft was extremely bad in the movie role made famous by her fellow nominee Geraldine Page I thought I was alone in thinking Robert Loggia was not deserving of a Nomination in Jagged Edge - he was Good in it, but it was no acting stretch I hated Surprise Surprise Song But we part BIG TIME over Prizzi's Honor - It was my Best Film of the Year and THE ENTIRE CAST is Brilliantly acted especially William Hickey and Angelica Huston - One of the Best Black Comedies and one that is mostly contained in Tone and it was Brilliantly Directed and Adapted I didn't mind Jon Voight in Runaway Train - I thought his character was well acted, but yes, Eric Roberts .... He was so Brilliant in Star 80 and then had those same Mannerisms on Runaway Train that he was warming up for during the Pope of Greenwhich Village

[@bobbya9722]

Don't You (Forget About Me) from The Breakfast Club should have been nominated that year

[@bobbya9722]

My picks for best original song (in no order) "The Power of Love" from Back to the Future "Miss Celie's Blues" from The Color Purple "Don't You (Forget About Me)" from The Breakfast Club "St. Elmo's Fire" from St. Elmo's Fire "Weird Science" from Weird Science

[@freemangriffin4953]

Jon Voight and Eric Roberts are amazing in Runaway Train, among the best work of their careers. Don't agree with you at all on anything you say.

[@rmurphy440m]

I picked a winner..and then stuck it under my desk

[@timgriffin3368]

And Surprise, Surprise may be a good song, but, Gene (in wherever, heaven), if you know the original Broadway, that song is shameful for taking out Hello 12, ... What a Disgrace. So, for me, no merit here; I couldn't vote for it for That reason alone.