Siskel & Ebert - If We Picked the Winners (1991)

[@SuiGenerisAbbie]

Thank you for sharing. Thank you for uploading the Siskel and Ebert content that you have. These two men mattered so much to America! Anything that you care to upload about these two men being interviewed will be so appreciated by me.

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

My votes for that year, if they're worth anything: Best Picture: "Goodfellas" Best Director: Martin Scorsese for "Goodfellas" Best Actor: Jeremy Irons for "Reversal of Fortune" Best Actress: Anjelica Huston for "The Grifters" Best Supporting Actor: Joe Pesci for "Goodfellas" Best Supporting Actress: Lorraine Bracco for "Goodfellas" Best Original Screenplay: Whit Stillman for "Metropolitan" Best Adapted Screenplay: Pileggi and Scorsese for ""Goodfellas" Best Foreign Film: Ju Dou (China) Best Art Direction: "Dick Tracy" Best Cinematography: Dean Semler for "Dances With Wolves" Best Costume Design: "Dick Tracy" Best Makeup: "Dick Tracy" Best Film Editing: "Goodfellas" Best Documentary Feature: "American Dream" Best Original Score: John Williams for "Home Alone" Best Original Song: "Sooner Or Later" from "Dick Tracy" Best Sound Mixing: "Dances With Wolves" Best Sound Effects Editing: "Total Recall"

[@darrinconroy4232]

Amen to Angelica Huston & Metropolitan

[@jakethesnakeofficial]

Not counting the Worst Nomination, I think this was the only time they agreed on all their choices for a "If We Picked the Winners" special. Still find it funny when the audience boos them for not arguing more haha

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

The audience booed them for their specific selection, not for the general absence of argument. That crowd hated the song from Postcards given the superior options!

[@jamesmitchell8922]

​@Flaccidus Minimus Next year, the audience choice was introduced but Gene wasn't happy with the supporting actress choice when the public wanted Tandy to win.

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

It looks like someone may have beat me to this posting by a week, but my video is better for three significant reasons: 1) my thumbnail game is top drawer, 2) I engage with commenters, and 3) I give chapter jumps: Best Actor - 1:52 Best Supporting Actress - 7:30 Best Actress - 13:48 Best Original Song - 21:41 Best Supporting Actor - 26:27 Best Picture - 31:31 Worst Nomination - 37:54

[@joshuayork9547]

Bonus points for 'pricked the winners' too

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

At 24:37 Roger actually negates his position from 5 years earlier (see the 1986 episode) where he claimed that his Best Original Song choices were based on which song he liked the most, rather than which one complemented its film best. I guess Gene's criteria for this category ultimately persuaded him. And if he truly thinks that Madonna had been singing "torch songs" similar to Sooner or Later "for 10 years" he simply didn't know what he was hearing and evidently didn't know much about Madonna's career either. She'd never sung jazz prior to Dick Tracy or had witty Broadway-caliber lyrics to work with before. It was new territory for her. I think they preferred "I'm Checkin' Out" because they were surprised and delighted to hear that Meryl Streep could sing. And she can. But not with the range and emotional panache required to convince me that she really means the words she's singing. Besides, it's a routine, derivative honky tonk tune that rips off several hundred classic country songs. More provocatively, I'll go as far as to say that Sondheim's "Sooner Or Later" is by far the most intricate song in terms of both composition and lyrics, and anyone who can't tell that doesn't deserve ears! ;) "Promise Me You'll Remember" and "Somewhere In My Memory" are quite good as well, and this was an uncommon year where at least 3 of the songs were distinguished.

[@lasagne23]

They really pricked some winners

[@FirstNameLastName-kt3zn]

I like Kuato in the thumbnail 😂

[@mjgyrosdude484]

Whoopi should have won the Oscar for Best Actress in The Color Purple in 1986!

[@sha11235]

Ghost got the BP nomination due to its popularity at the box office.

[@kd17Burger]

It did , but it was a very good film

[@branagain]

Dances with Wolves is still a masterpiece.

[@sleong]

I agree. I think it's better than Goodfellas

[@kd17Burger]

@@sleong I respectfully Totally Disagree

[@WEK-kh8gd]

History, as always is the final judge. And while people still fondly remember Dances with Wolves, it's far from a masterpiece and hasn't aged well. Why do the Native Americans need a white savior? On the flip side Goodfellas legacy has only grown with time. Routinely gracing lists of the best films of the 90's.

[@A_M_P_]

Goodfellas is a masterpiece, and Bracco was great. But we dont care about her character at all when she is not on screen. IMO, the mark of a great supporting character is that you're preoccupied with them when they're not on screen.

[@deckofcards87]

You mean you didn't care about her off screen.* I thought she was a constant pressence. The entire cast is amazing.

[@A_M_P_]

@sofacat-ob7bt A character can be "off-screen" and still be involved in the scene. I should have said you dont care about her character as much as Tommy DeSimone when Karen is not in a scene. We were all preoccupied with Joe Pesci's character when he wasn't in a scene. That's what a great supporting role does, IMO.

[@redadamearth]

I disagree. I think she's a huge part of the film, as her role showed how the life corrupts and destroys someone who begins the film as a hopeful young woman. By the end, she's destroyed. She had a genuine arc.

[@rosario508]

The fact that Goodfellas got robbed out of Best Picture is the biggest stain in Oscars history.

[@9114SouthCentralAv]

Raging Bull is Biggest Stain #2

[@linkbiff1054]

I gather you don't know Double Indemnity, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Right Stuff, Raging Bull, Citizen Kane, Hoop Dreams, Al Pacino, Denzel Washington, etc, etc. I get you liking Goodfellas more, but Dances With Wolves is much too great a film to be considered a major travesty.

[@spencerhensley5495]

Definitely one of them for sure but I think Shakespeare in Love winning over Saving Private Ryan was worse.

[@cliffhoover7606]

Indeed

[@sha11235]

This was the year they matched all six times. And where are the musical songs?

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

copyright restrictions, most of my videos require such edits to evade the blocking algorithms.

[@jal2550]

Dances with Wolves without a doubt was the best picture. So glad it won!

[@SuperWhofan1]

So YOU, were the one?

[@BradLee-z1v]

To be fair Goodfellas is a movie that people still watch and holds the test of time. The only time someone watches Dances with Wolves is if they're subjects in an mk ultra experiment or something and it's used as a torture device where the subject is forced to watch it.

[@scottmccurdy6493]

That kid with the "[Ghost] was too imaginative!" complaint is depressing. Imagine a kid hating a movie because "it couldn't happen." I pity people like that.

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

Some people are simply put off by tales of the supernatural and can't suspend disbelief sufficiently to accept the premise. I'm not there, but I empathize.

[@redadamearth]

The "competition" between "Dances With Wolves" and "GoodFellas" that year shows just how absurd the entire idea of the Oscars is. You couldn't have two more DIFFERENT films - different genres, different tones, etc. But honestly, if objectivity has anything to do with art, "GoodFellas" was obviously the best of the year for sheer filmmaking.

[@SorendeSelbyBowen]

And why no Best Director?

[@brandonedge]

yeah wtf

[@kd17Burger]

They never picked a Best Director

[@sha11235]

And remember, they didn't like Home Alone enough to recommend. I didn't like it either.

[@deckofcards87]

Ahh the 90s when every movie had to have a soundtrack single

[@branagain]

In the thumbnail photo, why is Ebert holding the Japanese flag and why is Cuato coming out of his chest?

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

Why wouldn't they?

[@SorendeSelbyBowen]

Can't either of them credit the original story? Jim Thompson wrote =The Grifters=; the movie doesn't exist without him. And why no original script? Surely that award is more important than Best Song!

[@Jamthecoolerator]

Ebert's right--Ghost sucked.

[@blatty2646]

The Academy whiffing two years in a row on Do the Right Thing and Goodfellas is just all time bad

[@sha11235]

Wonder why after 1996, they did the show on a private set?

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

Either the audience became an unwanted distraction, or Disney wouldn't book them in their auditorium knowing other acts would draw more revenue.

[@Grandizer8989]

You can tell that Gene is slowing down here 😢

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

No. He wasn't ill at this time, or for a long time after. Maybe tired on this particular day, but Gene was in his career prime in the late 80s and early 90s.

[@Grandizer8989]

@@flaccidusminimus2170 he slurs several words… maybe the beginning stages of his Illness.

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

Not at all. Gene had a speech impediment throughout his life, and often mixed up word order. Roger ripped him for that throughout his partnership almost as often as Gene ripped him for being fat. I recommend the video "Siskel & Ebert 1987 - Rated R" for some examples of this.

[@Grandizer8989]

@@flaccidusminimus2170 will do!

[@massi6528]

What about best director or writer? Just fuck'em, eh?!

[@flaccidusminimus2170]

It's a TV show dependent on ratings. The producers likely chose categories the audience would care most about. Besides, there isn't an often a difference in voting preferences between Best Director and Best Picture.