1 00:00:00,400 --> 00:00:04,600 And the winner is... Film-makers love awards. 2 00:00:04,600 --> 00:00:06,480 They love handing awards out. 3 00:00:06,480 --> 00:00:09,120 They even love making films about awards. 4 00:00:09,120 --> 00:00:11,680 But above all, they love winning awards, 5 00:00:11,680 --> 00:00:13,720 and the most coveted are those given 6 00:00:13,720 --> 00:00:16,760 by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, 7 00:00:16,760 --> 00:00:18,240 the Oscars. 8 00:00:18,240 --> 00:00:20,720 The highest award within our power to bestow. 9 00:00:20,720 --> 00:00:23,760 2019 sees the 91st Academy Awards, 10 00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:26,040 and speculation is as fevered as ever 11 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:27,840 as to which of this year's contenders 12 00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:30,240 will scoop the big prizes. 13 00:00:30,240 --> 00:00:34,280 # It's too late to turn back now... # 14 00:00:35,400 --> 00:00:38,280 BRAKES SCREECH, HORN HONKS 15 00:00:38,280 --> 00:00:40,160 Throw! 16 00:00:40,160 --> 00:00:41,160 GUNSHOT 17 00:00:42,960 --> 00:00:48,320 # I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all. # 18 00:00:49,880 --> 00:00:51,560 Stop worrying and think how nice 19 00:00:51,560 --> 00:00:53,720 that statuette's going to look on your mantelpiece. 20 00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:55,840 Over the course of nine decades, 21 00:00:55,840 --> 00:00:59,200 patterns have emerged in Oscar's tastes. 22 00:00:59,200 --> 00:01:02,520 He prefers some kinds of films to others. 23 00:01:02,520 --> 00:01:05,760 They add up to a set of mini genres in their own right, 24 00:01:05,760 --> 00:01:08,800 with their own rules and hidden structures. 25 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:12,360 Are you not entertained? Are you not entertained? 26 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:14,520 And if you can nail those, 27 00:01:14,520 --> 00:01:17,400 well, then, it's time to start practising your acceptance speech. 28 00:01:17,400 --> 00:01:18,960 Thank you for believing in me. 29 00:01:18,960 --> 00:01:22,080 So, ladies and gentlemen, roll out the red carpet 30 00:01:22,080 --> 00:01:24,480 and take your seats because, tonight, 31 00:01:24,480 --> 00:01:27,720 I'll be revealing the secrets of winning an Oscar. 32 00:01:27,720 --> 00:01:29,840 And the Oscar goes to... 33 00:01:31,800 --> 00:01:33,480 Yes! 34 00:01:34,600 --> 00:01:41,560 This programme contains very strong language 35 00:01:50,600 --> 00:01:52,120 Good evening, Mr Kane. 36 00:01:52,120 --> 00:01:53,800 # There is a man! There is a man! 37 00:01:53,800 --> 00:01:55,360 # A certain man! A certain man! 38 00:01:55,360 --> 00:01:58,840 # And for the poor, you may be sure that he'll do all he can... # 39 00:01:58,840 --> 00:02:02,600 Now, bear with me for a moment, while I get a few things off my chest. 40 00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:07,360 All awards are essentially foolish, but none more so than the Oscars. 41 00:02:08,400 --> 00:02:10,400 For proof, consider this. 42 00:02:10,400 --> 00:02:14,800 In 1942, Citizen Kane didn't win the Oscar for Best Picture, 43 00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:18,320 but in 1990, Driving Miss Daisy did. 44 00:02:18,320 --> 00:02:19,920 Just think about that for a moment, 45 00:02:19,920 --> 00:02:22,560 and try to imagine a world in which Driving Miss Daisy 46 00:02:22,560 --> 00:02:26,320 was the very best film you were going to see that year... 47 00:02:26,320 --> 00:02:30,800 What are you doing? I'm trying to drive you to the store. 48 00:02:32,040 --> 00:02:35,400 ..or even the best Morgan Freeman film of the year. 49 00:02:35,400 --> 00:02:38,800 In fact, when it first opened in the US in December 1989, 50 00:02:38,800 --> 00:02:40,440 Driving Miss Daisy wasn't even 51 00:02:40,440 --> 00:02:42,600 the best Morgan Freeman film of the week. 52 00:02:42,600 --> 00:02:44,000 Amen! CROWD: Amen! 53 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:45,680 That was Ed Zwick's Glory, 54 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:47,520 a drama about the American Civil War's 55 00:02:47,520 --> 00:02:49,720 first all-black volunteer company, 56 00:02:49,720 --> 00:02:52,120 but Oscar thought otherwise. 57 00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:55,280 # My Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord... # 58 00:02:55,280 --> 00:02:59,320 Ask any film fan how seriously you should take the Academy Awards, 59 00:02:59,320 --> 00:03:02,360 and chances are they'll remind you that Charlie Chaplin, 60 00:03:02,360 --> 00:03:03,760 Orson Welles... 61 00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:06,640 They've been making statues for 2,000 years 62 00:03:06,640 --> 00:03:08,840 and I've only been buying for five. 63 00:03:08,840 --> 00:03:10,120 ..David Lynch... 64 00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:13,440 Arrangements are being made and I will meet you 65 00:03:13,440 --> 00:03:16,320 at the private Portland airport. 66 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:17,640 OK, Gordon. 67 00:03:17,640 --> 00:03:20,160 ..and most famously, Alfred Hitchcock, 68 00:03:20,160 --> 00:03:23,200 never won a Best Director Oscar. Thank you. 69 00:03:23,200 --> 00:03:25,520 Nor did Howard Hawks, Stanley Kubrick, 70 00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:27,960 or so far, Jane Campion. 71 00:03:27,960 --> 00:03:32,120 In 2014, Steve McQueen became the first black film-maker 72 00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:36,120 ever to bag a Best Picture Oscar, with 12 Years A Slave, 73 00:03:36,120 --> 00:03:38,240 although he was beaten to Best Director, 74 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:40,080 as was Barry Jenkins, 75 00:03:40,080 --> 00:03:43,080 so if Spike Lee wins this year, that'll be a first. 76 00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:46,160 Women have traditionally been shut out of the festivities, too. 77 00:03:46,160 --> 00:03:48,680 It wasn't until 2010 that Kathryn Bigelow 78 00:03:48,680 --> 00:03:51,520 finally broke the glass ceiling in the Best Director category 79 00:03:51,520 --> 00:03:52,880 with The Hurt Locker. 80 00:04:01,080 --> 00:04:05,800 This year, the Best Director list is once again all-male. 81 00:04:05,800 --> 00:04:08,560 Worth noting, too, that no animated feature 82 00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:10,600 has ever won Best Picture. 83 00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:12,840 And if Roma gets the top prize this year, 84 00:04:12,840 --> 00:04:16,080 it'll be the first film made entirely in a foreign language 85 00:04:16,080 --> 00:04:17,640 ever to do so. 86 00:04:17,640 --> 00:04:20,640 The Academy Awards are hardly cutting-edge. 87 00:04:20,640 --> 00:04:22,640 And yet, in the past few years, 88 00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:25,640 I've found myself cheering Oscar Best Picture winners, 89 00:04:25,640 --> 00:04:27,160 like Moonlight, 90 00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:29,520 and most recently, The Shape Of Water, 91 00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:31,560 suggesting that either I'm getting soft 92 00:04:31,560 --> 00:04:34,200 or the Oscars are getting better. 93 00:04:34,200 --> 00:04:37,920 And like it or not, the Oscars do mean something, 94 00:04:37,920 --> 00:04:41,000 not least because they've created a canon of films 95 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:44,280 about which we can have a good old-fashioned argument. 96 00:04:44,280 --> 00:04:49,320 And underpinning that canon is a whole set of secrets of cinema, 97 00:04:49,320 --> 00:04:52,120 because certain kinds of films, certain themes, 98 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:56,440 particular types of character, win again and again. 99 00:04:56,440 --> 00:04:59,040 So, let's take a look at Oscar's favourites, 100 00:04:59,040 --> 00:05:01,360 beginning with the oldest of all. 101 00:05:10,240 --> 00:05:12,400 At the 1979 Academy Awards, 102 00:05:12,400 --> 00:05:14,240 the two most talked-about nominations 103 00:05:14,240 --> 00:05:16,360 were for Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter 104 00:05:16,360 --> 00:05:17,880 and Hal Ashby's Coming Home. 105 00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:19,120 I'm not a child, man. 106 00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:21,720 Both took on the most painful and divisive event 107 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:24,480 in recent American history - the Vietnam War. 108 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:28,400 Now, while there'd been a whole raft of violent movies, 109 00:05:28,400 --> 00:05:30,320 like Deliverance and Straw Dogs, 110 00:05:30,320 --> 00:05:33,000 that could be read as thinly veiled allegories, 111 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:35,960 honouring films like Coming Home and The Deer Hunter, 112 00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:38,480 which faced the traumas of Vietnam head-on, 113 00:05:38,480 --> 00:05:41,760 looked like a daring move on the part of the Academy. 114 00:05:41,760 --> 00:05:45,960 But in fact, they were variations on a favourite Oscar formula - 115 00:05:45,960 --> 00:05:48,560 the "war is hell" film. 116 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:50,960 It was a film about World War I, 117 00:05:50,960 --> 00:05:52,280 William Wellman's Wings, 118 00:05:52,280 --> 00:05:53,920 that triumphed at the debut ceremony 119 00:05:53,920 --> 00:05:55,800 in 1929. 120 00:05:55,800 --> 00:05:58,040 And while it may be 50 years older, 121 00:05:58,040 --> 00:06:00,920 Wings has a lot in common with The Deer Hunter. 122 00:06:00,920 --> 00:06:03,760 Both films begin by establishing their main characters 123 00:06:03,760 --> 00:06:06,240 in their pre-war civilian lives. 124 00:06:06,240 --> 00:06:08,800 Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken and John Savage 125 00:06:08,800 --> 00:06:10,680 work at a steel plant. 126 00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:13,480 For all the drinking and swearing, in their own way, 127 00:06:13,480 --> 00:06:16,560 they're as untested and innocent as Charles Rogers 128 00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:19,360 and Richard Arlen's love rivals in Wings. 129 00:06:20,440 --> 00:06:23,080 What unites these characters is that they have no idea 130 00:06:23,080 --> 00:06:24,680 what's about to hit them. 131 00:06:26,960 --> 00:06:29,480 The carnage and suffering of their military service 132 00:06:29,480 --> 00:06:31,560 is depicted in unflinching detail. 133 00:06:32,640 --> 00:06:35,680 These films have much in common with rites-of-passage movies, 134 00:06:35,680 --> 00:06:38,720 tapping deep into the idea of loss of innocence. 135 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:43,240 That isn't the kind of theme that preoccupies 136 00:06:43,240 --> 00:06:45,080 the makers of popular war films, 137 00:06:45,080 --> 00:06:47,960 like The Guns Of Navarone or Where Eagles Dare, 138 00:06:47,960 --> 00:06:50,480 but Awards winners have to deliver more 139 00:06:50,480 --> 00:06:52,760 than men-on-a-mission thrills. 140 00:06:52,760 --> 00:06:55,640 They have to say something about the human condition - 141 00:06:55,640 --> 00:07:00,120 usually, that war IS hell and even its heroes are martyrs. 142 00:07:00,120 --> 00:07:04,280 Note how many Oscar winners climax with the death of a protagonist 143 00:07:04,280 --> 00:07:06,800 or a significant major character. 144 00:07:11,880 --> 00:07:14,040 Look at All Quiet On The Western Front, 145 00:07:14,040 --> 00:07:17,680 which won the third-ever Best Picture award in 1930. 146 00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:24,000 BULLET RICOCHETS Lew Ayres' young hero 147 00:07:24,000 --> 00:07:26,360 is almost casually potted by a sniper 148 00:07:26,360 --> 00:07:28,360 as he reaches for a butterfly. 149 00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:31,320 It's tragic and symbolic. 150 00:07:31,320 --> 00:07:33,920 In The Deer Hunter, Cimino makes great play 151 00:07:33,920 --> 00:07:37,760 of the titular veteran lining up but then sparing his prey 152 00:07:37,760 --> 00:07:40,360 because of his traumatic experiences in battle - 153 00:07:40,360 --> 00:07:42,680 another symbolic moment. 154 00:07:42,680 --> 00:07:45,600 GUNSHOT ECHOES 155 00:07:50,600 --> 00:07:51,760 OK? 156 00:07:51,760 --> 00:07:55,800 So, for all its supposedly edgy and challenging subject matter, 157 00:07:55,800 --> 00:07:59,440 The Deer Hunter draws on reliable Oscar-winning precedents, 158 00:07:59,440 --> 00:08:01,360 as does Coming Home. 159 00:08:01,360 --> 00:08:02,560 Luke? 160 00:08:05,640 --> 00:08:07,240 Can I come in? 161 00:08:07,240 --> 00:08:10,800 On the surface, this looks like a very different kind of film. 162 00:08:10,800 --> 00:08:12,120 How are you doing? 163 00:08:12,120 --> 00:08:17,440 # Living is easy with eyes closed... # 164 00:08:17,440 --> 00:08:20,960 It centres on the romance between Jane Fonda's military wife 165 00:08:20,960 --> 00:08:24,840 and Jon Voight's paraplegic veteran, and it's set in California, 166 00:08:24,840 --> 00:08:28,000 but it also echoes an earlier Oscar-garlanded film 167 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:30,600 that was a huge hit with audiences, as well. 168 00:08:34,280 --> 00:08:38,080 Well, the old hometown hasn't changed very much, has it? No. 169 00:08:38,080 --> 00:08:40,640 William Wyler's The Best Years Of Our Lives 170 00:08:40,640 --> 00:08:44,440 is the story of three servicemen returning home after World War II. 171 00:08:44,440 --> 00:08:46,880 Although it's set entirely on civvy street, 172 00:08:46,880 --> 00:08:49,320 like Coming Home, it's a powerful study 173 00:08:49,320 --> 00:08:51,440 of the cost of war. 174 00:08:51,440 --> 00:08:54,800 Cheers! Fredric March's infantryman-cum-banker Al 175 00:08:54,800 --> 00:08:56,920 struggles with alcohol. 176 00:08:56,920 --> 00:08:58,400 Aren't you drinking? 177 00:09:00,400 --> 00:09:03,080 Gadorsky! Get out of that plane! 178 00:09:03,080 --> 00:09:06,360 And the post-traumatic stress of Air Force captain Fred, 179 00:09:06,360 --> 00:09:07,880 played by Dana Andrews, 180 00:09:07,880 --> 00:09:11,040 is vividly evoked using music and sound effects. 181 00:09:11,040 --> 00:09:13,360 DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS Gadorsky! Wake up! Gadorsky! 182 00:09:13,360 --> 00:09:15,720 It's burning up! Get out! Get out! 183 00:09:15,720 --> 00:09:17,760 I've learned how to take this harness off. 184 00:09:19,800 --> 00:09:23,560 Ex-sailor Homer is the most obvious casualty of the three, 185 00:09:23,560 --> 00:09:27,480 having lost his hands and then had them replaced by prosthetic hooks. 186 00:09:27,480 --> 00:09:30,960 Nonprofessional actor Harold Russell was an actual double-amputee 187 00:09:30,960 --> 00:09:33,800 as a result of his own military service. 188 00:09:33,800 --> 00:09:36,200 The film garnered an extraordinary eight Oscars, 189 00:09:36,200 --> 00:09:38,320 including one honorary award. 190 00:09:38,320 --> 00:09:39,680 Bullshit! 191 00:09:39,680 --> 00:09:41,480 Coming Home scored just three, 192 00:09:41,480 --> 00:09:44,280 with Jon Voight and Jane Fonda scooping Best Actor and Actress, 193 00:09:44,280 --> 00:09:46,760 alongside a Best Screenplay win. 194 00:09:46,760 --> 00:09:48,440 Now, in my opinion, the fact that 195 00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:51,080 Coming Home didn't win Best Picture in '79 196 00:09:51,080 --> 00:09:52,800 and The Deer Hunter did, 197 00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:56,080 is also one of the great injustices of Oscar history. 198 00:09:56,080 --> 00:09:58,600 Say something else, fuck! 199 00:10:04,040 --> 00:10:05,840 I am not the enemy. 200 00:10:05,840 --> 00:10:08,920 But perhaps the victory of The Deer Hunter, 201 00:10:08,920 --> 00:10:11,200 a film which was dogged with allegations of 202 00:10:11,200 --> 00:10:14,280 hysterical racism and exploitative xenophobia, 203 00:10:14,280 --> 00:10:17,560 tells us something else about the Academy Awards - 204 00:10:17,560 --> 00:10:20,720 that flag-waving is always a favourite. 205 00:10:22,680 --> 00:10:26,920 In 1987, nearly a decade after The Deer Hunter's triumph, 206 00:10:26,920 --> 00:10:29,280 Platoon won four Oscars, 207 00:10:29,280 --> 00:10:33,040 including Best Picture and Best Director for Oliver Stone, 208 00:10:33,040 --> 00:10:37,280 who, unlike Cimino, had seen active combat in Vietnam, 209 00:10:37,280 --> 00:10:40,120 earning a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. 210 00:10:44,000 --> 00:10:46,840 Platoon ticks a typical "war is hell" box 211 00:10:46,840 --> 00:10:48,560 by focusing on Charlie Sheen's 212 00:10:48,560 --> 00:10:51,200 newly arrived infantry volunteer Chris Taylor, 213 00:10:51,200 --> 00:10:55,440 a figure of innocence and a clear stand-in for Stone himself. 214 00:10:56,760 --> 00:11:00,160 Chris is quickly caught up in a highly symbolic conflict 215 00:11:00,160 --> 00:11:03,320 between Tom Berenger's brutal Staff Sergeant Barnes 216 00:11:03,320 --> 00:11:07,760 and Willem Dafoe's kindly and humane Sergeant Elias. 217 00:11:07,760 --> 00:11:09,960 You're humping too much stuff, troop. 218 00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:11,680 You don't need half this shit. 219 00:11:13,360 --> 00:11:18,200 I'll haul it for you, but next time, you check with me first, all right? 220 00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:19,440 OK. 221 00:11:19,440 --> 00:11:22,040 In fact, the film is so explicitly symbolic 222 00:11:22,040 --> 00:11:24,080 that when Elias is betrayed, 223 00:11:24,080 --> 00:11:26,760 he meets his death in a cruciform pose, 224 00:11:26,760 --> 00:11:29,600 as if Dafoe was auditioning for his subsequent lead role 225 00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:33,000 in Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation Of Christ. 226 00:11:34,840 --> 00:11:36,760 Unlike many previous winners, 227 00:11:36,760 --> 00:11:39,400 Platoon featured no scenes set back at home 228 00:11:39,400 --> 00:11:41,360 and focused almost exclusively 229 00:11:41,360 --> 00:11:43,560 on the tripwire life-or-death struggles 230 00:11:43,560 --> 00:11:45,320 of its male characters. 231 00:11:45,320 --> 00:11:47,560 And although they're very different movies, 232 00:11:47,560 --> 00:11:51,280 Stone's film laid the ground for a much more recent Oscar winner. 233 00:11:53,280 --> 00:11:56,320 The Hurt Locker swaps the jungles of Southeast Asia 234 00:11:56,320 --> 00:11:58,800 for dusty, bleached-out Baghdad. 235 00:12:00,280 --> 00:12:03,880 Unlike Platoon, it's not a movie about loss of innocence. 236 00:12:03,880 --> 00:12:06,720 The explosive ordnance disposal team it follows 237 00:12:06,720 --> 00:12:09,400 are experienced, highly trained soldiers, 238 00:12:09,400 --> 00:12:12,640 and much of the film's fascination lies in the detail 239 00:12:12,640 --> 00:12:16,240 of how they disarm a range of deadly devices. 240 00:12:19,880 --> 00:12:21,360 Oh, boy. 241 00:12:23,800 --> 00:12:26,080 But see how, like Stone's movie, 242 00:12:26,080 --> 00:12:29,720 The Hurt Locker vividly evokes the day-to-day job of a soldier, 243 00:12:29,720 --> 00:12:32,520 the daily grind of dangerous assignments. 244 00:12:33,880 --> 00:12:36,640 And despite Bigelow's documentary-like approach, 245 00:12:36,640 --> 00:12:38,640 the film is still peppered with moments 246 00:12:38,640 --> 00:12:40,840 of familiar cinematic symbolism. 247 00:12:42,120 --> 00:12:46,040 Is this fiery inferno reminding us that war is hell? 248 00:12:48,400 --> 00:12:51,840 We've already seen that the first and third Best Picture Oscars 249 00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:56,080 went to war films, but the second winner, in 1930, 250 00:12:56,080 --> 00:12:58,920 established a very different Academy favourite. 251 00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:13,800 Not only was The Broadway Melody 252 00:13:13,800 --> 00:13:16,240 the first musical to win Best Picture, 253 00:13:16,240 --> 00:13:18,880 it was also the first talkie to do so. 254 00:13:18,880 --> 00:13:21,320 Queenie, I don't want you to answer me like that again. 255 00:13:21,320 --> 00:13:23,160 Then keep your nose out of my business. 256 00:13:23,160 --> 00:13:25,160 Well, your business is my business. 257 00:13:25,160 --> 00:13:27,480 The Broadway Melody proved the perfect vehicle 258 00:13:27,480 --> 00:13:30,720 to showcase the possibilities of full-sound pictures - 259 00:13:30,720 --> 00:13:34,240 a talking, singing, dancing, dramatic sensation. 260 00:13:34,240 --> 00:13:36,880 # Look at them in their places Look at the fancy laces 261 00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:43,040 # Look at them as they smile all sorrow away... # 262 00:13:45,000 --> 00:13:49,560 Since then, the musical has remained a firm favourite with the Academy. 263 00:13:49,560 --> 00:13:51,560 Over the years, the Best Picture award 264 00:13:51,560 --> 00:13:53,640 has gone to such splashy, super-produced hits 265 00:13:53,640 --> 00:13:55,920 as Gigi, West Side Story, 266 00:13:55,920 --> 00:13:59,440 The Sound Of Music, Oliver!, and Chicago. 267 00:13:59,440 --> 00:14:01,960 APPLAUSE 268 00:14:08,640 --> 00:14:10,840 Now, it's worth reminding ourselves 269 00:14:10,840 --> 00:14:13,120 that the actual subjects of these films were, 270 00:14:13,120 --> 00:14:17,160 respectively, sexual grooming, juvenile gang violence, 271 00:14:17,160 --> 00:14:21,880 Nazi oppression, child slavery, and a murder trial. 272 00:14:21,880 --> 00:14:25,240 But let's be honest, we tend to forget all that heavy stuff 273 00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:29,280 and concentrate instead on the delights of musical winners - 274 00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:32,600 the songs and dances, and often the cutting-edge 275 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:35,800 and even experimental cinematic techniques. 276 00:14:35,800 --> 00:14:37,400 Like the 20-minute ballet 277 00:14:37,400 --> 00:14:39,720 featuring homages to Impressionist painters, 278 00:14:39,720 --> 00:14:42,240 which Gene Kelly cooked up in Vincente Minnelli's 279 00:14:42,240 --> 00:14:43,800 An American In Paris... 280 00:14:48,880 --> 00:14:51,120 ..or the superb on-location choreography 281 00:14:51,120 --> 00:14:54,760 of Jerome Robbins in Robert Wise's West Side Story. 282 00:14:54,760 --> 00:14:58,440 And of course, that dizzying mountain shot 283 00:14:58,440 --> 00:15:01,280 from the opening of The Sound Of Music. 284 00:15:02,480 --> 00:15:10,000 # The hills are alive with the sound of music... # 285 00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:12,040 It doesn't matter that many of these winners 286 00:15:12,040 --> 00:15:13,800 were originally created for the stage. 287 00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:15,480 Translated to the big screen, 288 00:15:15,480 --> 00:15:18,440 they become a showcase for what cinema can do. 289 00:15:18,440 --> 00:15:20,240 How can the Academy resist? 290 00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:22,880 Because the Oscars are an industry award, 291 00:15:22,880 --> 00:15:26,160 it's no surprise that films set within the entertainment business 292 00:15:26,160 --> 00:15:27,720 appeal to voters. 293 00:15:27,720 --> 00:15:30,920 Now, of course, musicals are the very definition of show business, 294 00:15:30,920 --> 00:15:32,920 which in turn provides the perfect material 295 00:15:32,920 --> 00:15:35,120 for a song and dance film. 296 00:15:35,120 --> 00:15:37,520 The Artist, which triumphed in 2011, 297 00:15:37,520 --> 00:15:39,960 followed in the footsteps of Singin' In The Rain 298 00:15:39,960 --> 00:15:43,320 by taking us back to the birth of sound, 299 00:15:43,320 --> 00:15:45,760 using the techniques of silent cinema 300 00:15:45,760 --> 00:15:49,160 to create a drama in which the key language is music. 301 00:15:53,040 --> 00:15:56,280 Among the film's five Oscar wins, including Best Picture, 302 00:15:56,280 --> 00:15:58,440 was one for Ludovic Bource's score. 303 00:16:00,200 --> 00:16:03,720 Sometimes, the dancing in cinema isn't done by the actors, 304 00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:05,000 but by the camera. 305 00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:07,440 SOARING MUSIC 306 00:16:07,440 --> 00:16:10,000 MUSIC STOPS ABRUPTLY You OK, man? 307 00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:12,920 Take Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Birdman, 308 00:16:12,920 --> 00:16:15,400 the Best Picture winner in 2015. 309 00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:17,720 Do you know where to go? 310 00:16:21,680 --> 00:16:24,960 Yeah, I know where to go. 311 00:16:24,960 --> 00:16:27,360 Here, Michael Keaton plays Riggan Thomson, 312 00:16:27,360 --> 00:16:30,320 a washed-up actor struggling to reinvent his career 313 00:16:30,320 --> 00:16:34,520 years after his prime playing a superhero in the 1990s. 314 00:16:34,520 --> 00:16:36,240 Sound familiar? 315 00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:39,240 Although there are no song and dance numbers in Birdman, 316 00:16:39,240 --> 00:16:41,840 the camera is choreographed with a dexterity 317 00:16:41,840 --> 00:16:44,520 that would put a spring in Gene Kelly's step. 318 00:16:44,520 --> 00:16:46,600 The film uses digital technology 319 00:16:46,600 --> 00:16:51,320 to create what looks like a seamless and often spectacular single shot, 320 00:16:51,320 --> 00:16:53,960 twirling around the set from scene to scene 321 00:16:53,960 --> 00:16:56,600 with the grace of a ballerina. 322 00:16:56,600 --> 00:17:01,720 Ladies and gentlemen, I owe my entire success 323 00:17:01,720 --> 00:17:05,160 to beef, iron and wine. HE BLOWS A RASPBERRY 324 00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:08,200 At the heart of so many of these showbiz pictures 325 00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:10,720 is the fickle nature of fame and the sense that, 326 00:17:10,720 --> 00:17:12,440 almost like a law of physics, 327 00:17:12,440 --> 00:17:16,240 for new stars to rise, others have to fall. 328 00:17:16,240 --> 00:17:20,200 In 1932, a film about movies - What Price Hollywood? - 329 00:17:20,200 --> 00:17:22,840 scored a nomination for Adela Rogers St Johns 330 00:17:22,840 --> 00:17:26,760 and Jane Murfin in the category of Best Writing, Original Story. 331 00:17:26,760 --> 00:17:30,520 It didn't win, but that story was fairly quickly recycled 332 00:17:30,520 --> 00:17:32,320 in a more elaborate form, 333 00:17:32,320 --> 00:17:36,840 and went on to be remade three times over the next eight decades. 334 00:17:36,840 --> 00:17:39,880 And now we arrive at the climax of the annual dinner 335 00:17:39,880 --> 00:17:42,760 of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 336 00:17:42,760 --> 00:17:46,680 It's been a magnet for nominations in every one of its incarnations. 337 00:17:46,680 --> 00:17:50,160 We have already applauded with our hearts as well as our hands, 338 00:17:50,160 --> 00:17:51,760 Miss Vicki Lester. 339 00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:54,240 Ladies and gentlemen, 340 00:17:54,240 --> 00:17:56,960 when something like this happens to you 341 00:17:56,960 --> 00:17:59,800 and you try to tell how you feel about it, 342 00:17:59,800 --> 00:18:03,240 you find that, out of all the words in the world... 343 00:18:03,240 --> 00:18:08,640 Just two stick in your mind - thank you. 344 00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:13,680 And all I can do is to say them to you from my heart and... 345 00:18:13,680 --> 00:18:16,360 AUDIENCE MEMBER APPLAUDS LOUDLY 346 00:18:19,480 --> 00:18:21,880 Hey, let go of my goddamn arm! 347 00:18:21,880 --> 00:18:24,000 Hey, let go of my arm! 348 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:26,280 Christ! I'm sorry, baby, I can't find my place. 349 00:18:26,280 --> 00:18:28,320 They don't seem to have a place for me down here. 350 00:18:28,320 --> 00:18:33,080 Interestingly, the first incarnation of A Star Is Born was not a musical. 351 00:18:33,080 --> 00:18:36,480 It was set in the world of acting and didn't feature songs. 352 00:18:36,480 --> 00:18:40,240 Those arrived in the second version, directed by George Cukor 353 00:18:40,240 --> 00:18:42,720 and starring Judy Garland and James Mason, 354 00:18:42,720 --> 00:18:44,920 which took this behind-the-scenes tale 355 00:18:44,920 --> 00:18:46,960 and added the musical element - 356 00:18:46,960 --> 00:18:51,000 a theme that was picked up in the 1976 Barbra Streisand version, 357 00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:54,280 in which the heroine changed from being an actor to a singer. 358 00:18:54,280 --> 00:18:58,320 Evergreen duly won the Oscar for Best Song. 359 00:18:58,320 --> 00:19:02,160 CHEERING AND APPLAUSE 360 00:19:02,160 --> 00:19:05,000 The latest incarnation, directed by Bradley Cooper, 361 00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:07,680 who stars alongside pop icon Lady Gaga, 362 00:19:07,680 --> 00:19:11,280 also stays in this musical world, and once again, 363 00:19:11,280 --> 00:19:13,920 it's attracted a clutch of Oscar nominations. 364 00:19:13,920 --> 00:19:16,480 # Tell me something good 365 00:19:19,160 --> 00:19:22,760 # Are you happy in this modern world? 366 00:19:24,040 --> 00:19:27,360 # Or do you need more? # 367 00:19:27,360 --> 00:19:30,400 What's significant is that a story that began life 368 00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:33,200 as an expose of the truth about Hollywood 369 00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:36,680 turned almost organically from a drama into a musical, 370 00:19:36,680 --> 00:19:41,280 as if any film about Hollywood would eventually break into song. 371 00:19:41,280 --> 00:19:44,400 # Gonna give America the English Derby cup 372 00:19:44,400 --> 00:19:47,920 # He's gonna give America the English Derby cup 373 00:19:47,920 --> 00:19:51,280 # I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy 374 00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:54,000 # Yankee Doodle, do or die... # 375 00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:57,240 It's no coincidence that the Best Actor and Best Actress awards 376 00:19:57,240 --> 00:20:00,040 have often gone to stars playing other stars, 377 00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:02,200 whether real or fictional. 378 00:20:02,200 --> 00:20:06,200 Such roles provide the opportunity to do a song and dance onstage 379 00:20:06,200 --> 00:20:09,480 and demonstrate heartache and tragedy offstage. 380 00:20:09,480 --> 00:20:11,560 Using his own hoofing and warbling skills, 381 00:20:11,560 --> 00:20:14,000 James Cagney won in 1943 382 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:17,000 as real-life song and dance man George M Cohan 383 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:18,760 in Yankee Doodle Dandy, 384 00:20:18,760 --> 00:20:23,200 while Barbra Streisand shared the only ever joint Best Actress award 385 00:20:23,200 --> 00:20:26,240 as vaudeville legend Fanny Brice in Funny Girl. 386 00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:29,320 # Don't tell me not to live Just sit and putter 387 00:20:29,320 --> 00:20:32,000 # Life's candy and the sun's a ball of butter 388 00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:37,640 # Don't bring around a cloud to rain on my parade... # 389 00:20:37,640 --> 00:20:39,680 What did you get me a guitar for? 390 00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:41,920 Cos I like the way you sing. 391 00:20:41,920 --> 00:20:46,960 # Well, I was born a coal miner's daughter... # 392 00:20:46,960 --> 00:20:49,000 Sissy Spacek and Reese Witherspoon 393 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:51,320 both triumphed playing country stars, 394 00:20:51,320 --> 00:20:54,240 respectively Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter 395 00:20:54,240 --> 00:20:57,440 and June Carter in Walk The Line. 396 00:20:57,440 --> 00:21:01,480 # I dropped a nickel in a jukebox just to hear it play... # 397 00:21:01,480 --> 00:21:04,560 And 2019 has seen Rami Malek nominated 398 00:21:04,560 --> 00:21:06,720 for his portrayal of Freddie Mercury, 399 00:21:06,720 --> 00:21:09,680 with Bohemian Rhapsody in contention for five Oscars, 400 00:21:09,680 --> 00:21:11,560 including Best Picture. 401 00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:13,760 # Mama 402 00:21:15,400 --> 00:21:17,400 # Just killed a man... # 403 00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:21,480 But you don't always have to play a big name to win big. 404 00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:24,120 Sometimes, small can be beautiful. 405 00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:31,560 Let's call this genre "ordinary people" 406 00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:34,560 in homage to Robert Redford's debut film as a director, 407 00:21:34,560 --> 00:21:37,200 which won a handful of Oscars in 1981, 408 00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:40,840 including Best Picture and Best Director. 409 00:21:40,840 --> 00:21:44,080 It's a weighty examination of how a family reacts 410 00:21:44,080 --> 00:21:48,120 to the death of one son and the attempted suicide of another, 411 00:21:48,120 --> 00:21:51,080 the film that American critic Roger Ebert astutely praised 412 00:21:51,080 --> 00:21:54,560 for sidestepping the sophisticated suburban soap opera 413 00:21:54,560 --> 00:21:56,640 it could easily have become. 414 00:21:57,920 --> 00:21:59,320 It's cold out here. 415 00:22:02,080 --> 00:22:05,800 You should put that on, or do you want a sweater? 416 00:22:05,800 --> 00:22:07,240 Do I need one? 417 00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:12,680 Key to its success are some great performances, 418 00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:14,520 not least Mary Tyler Moore, 419 00:22:14,520 --> 00:22:17,600 one of the biggest TV stars of the '60s and '70s, 420 00:22:17,600 --> 00:22:20,920 known previously for playing lovable, ditzy city girls, 421 00:22:20,920 --> 00:22:24,880 but here cast against type as an uptight, middle-class mother 422 00:22:24,880 --> 00:22:26,960 frozen by grief. 423 00:22:26,960 --> 00:22:30,320 You know, erm, that animal next door, 424 00:22:30,320 --> 00:22:33,200 that Pepper or Pippin - whatever his name is... Pippin. Pippin. 425 00:22:33,200 --> 00:22:35,600 Pippin. ..is not a very friendly dog. 426 00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:37,520 I don't care what Mr McGreery says. 427 00:22:37,520 --> 00:22:39,840 What he really wanted was the retriever down the street. 428 00:22:39,840 --> 00:22:42,600 Every time that dog comes into this back yard and I try to get him out... 429 00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:45,440 HE BARKS LIKE A DOG 430 00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:51,280 In some respects, Ordinary People fits neatly 431 00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:54,000 into that group of films in which the Academy, 432 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:57,560 whose membership is disproportionately weighted toward actors, 433 00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:01,640 rewards an actor for their debut stint behind the camera 434 00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:06,000 because, as we all know, what all actors really want to do is direct. 435 00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:10,480 Think of Kevin Costner's triumph directing Dances With Wolves... 436 00:23:10,480 --> 00:23:13,680 But they'll never take our freedom! 437 00:23:13,680 --> 00:23:16,760 ..or Mel Gibson winning big with Braveheart. 438 00:23:20,600 --> 00:23:23,160 I came here to take my son home. 439 00:23:27,600 --> 00:23:29,720 And I realise he already is home. 440 00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:33,720 Ordinary People followed another dysfunctional family saga, 441 00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:37,560 Kramer Vs Kramer, which had scooped Best Picture the previous year. 442 00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:40,080 Social dramas have often been rewarded 443 00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:42,080 in the acting categories, 444 00:23:42,080 --> 00:23:45,880 with Oscars going to performers like Halle Berry in Monster's Ball 445 00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:48,040 or Mo'Nique in Precious, 446 00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:53,080 both of which deal with tough issues in a gritty, realistic manner. 447 00:23:53,080 --> 00:23:57,720 But to win Best Picture often takes something a little lighter. 448 00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:03,240 If you ask me real nice, I might put that bag up there for you. 449 00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:06,720 In 1935, Frank Capra's It Happened One Night 450 00:24:06,720 --> 00:24:10,080 became the first movie to sweep the board at the Oscars, 451 00:24:10,080 --> 00:24:12,240 winning Best Picture, Best Director, 452 00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:15,600 Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay. 453 00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:17,640 The film's success was a surprise. 454 00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:20,400 Claudette Colbert was so convinced she wasn't going to win 455 00:24:20,400 --> 00:24:22,600 that she was heading off on a cross-country rail trip 456 00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:24,160 on the night of the ceremony. 457 00:24:24,160 --> 00:24:26,200 Studio boss Harry Cohn had to send someone 458 00:24:26,200 --> 00:24:28,960 to drag her off the train when it turned out she'd won. 459 00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:30,800 Cleverly, It Happened One Night 460 00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:33,520 deftly combined sharp social commentary 461 00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:35,920 with crowd-pleasing screwball comedy, 462 00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:38,760 in much the same way that Capra's It's A Wonderful Life 463 00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:41,440 mixed film noir with sentimental drama. 464 00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:44,640 HE SNORES LOUDLY 465 00:24:52,720 --> 00:24:54,600 Gable plays a working-class reporter, 466 00:24:54,600 --> 00:24:56,720 and Colbert, a spoiled socialite. 467 00:24:56,720 --> 00:24:58,880 When they're thrown together on a bus journey, 468 00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:02,480 their two worlds collide and sparks fly. 469 00:25:02,480 --> 00:25:05,120 Why, you ungrateful brat. 470 00:25:05,120 --> 00:25:08,160 All aboard! All aboard! 471 00:25:08,160 --> 00:25:10,240 It may have become a rom-com classic, 472 00:25:10,240 --> 00:25:13,280 but It Happened One Night was made at the height of the Depression 473 00:25:13,280 --> 00:25:15,680 and the anxieties of the time are clearly on show 474 00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:19,680 in the hardship of the people in trailer parks and bus depots. 475 00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:22,280 You know, there's something about your manner. 476 00:25:23,960 --> 00:25:27,960 It's like you...you're trying to toy with me. 477 00:25:29,720 --> 00:25:31,480 That's right, Aurora. 478 00:25:31,480 --> 00:25:33,360 I'm playing with you. No, this is the element. 479 00:25:33,360 --> 00:25:35,320 This is exactly... Do you want to play, Aurora? 480 00:25:35,320 --> 00:25:39,680 50 years later, we find a similar interplay between comedy and drama 481 00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:43,280 in the 1984 Best Picture winner Terms Of Endearment. 482 00:25:43,280 --> 00:25:46,200 Here, the uptight heroine, played by Shirley MacLaine, 483 00:25:46,200 --> 00:25:48,600 and the cheeky, straight-talking ex-astronaut, 484 00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:50,240 played by Jack Nicholson, 485 00:25:50,240 --> 00:25:53,480 spar in a manner which echoes Gable and Colbert. 486 00:25:53,480 --> 00:25:56,200 The characters are older, but the banter is, at times, 487 00:25:56,200 --> 00:25:57,920 strikingly similar. 488 00:25:57,920 --> 00:25:59,400 Like its predecessor, 489 00:25:59,400 --> 00:26:02,120 Terms Of Endearment won a clutch of big awards, 490 00:26:02,120 --> 00:26:05,680 including Best Picture, and Director for James L Brooks, 491 00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:09,760 Actress for Shirley MacLaine, and Supporting Actor for Nicholson. 492 00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:11,640 # Fly me to the moon! # 493 00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:19,800 Compare these bedroom scenes from the two films. 494 00:26:19,800 --> 00:26:22,480 It Happened One Night was a pre-Hays Code comedy, 495 00:26:22,480 --> 00:26:25,680 meaning this was racy for the time. 496 00:26:25,680 --> 00:26:28,840 Perhaps you're interested in how a man undresses. 497 00:26:28,840 --> 00:26:33,960 Well, I was just sitting here realising... 498 00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:36,400 Realising that I have never shown you my Renoir. 499 00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:38,120 What are you talking about? 500 00:26:38,120 --> 00:26:41,080 First, the right. Then, the left. 501 00:26:42,960 --> 00:26:46,440 After that, it's every man for himself. 502 00:26:47,880 --> 00:26:50,520 # Who's afraid of the big bad wolf? 503 00:26:50,520 --> 00:26:53,360 # The big bad wolf, the big bad wolf 504 00:26:53,360 --> 00:26:56,320 # She's afraid of the big bad wolf 505 00:26:56,320 --> 00:26:58,840 # Tra-la-la-la-la. # 506 00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:03,080 Hi. Don't you realise I am a grandmother? 507 00:27:07,840 --> 00:27:10,280 Would you mind, please, putting out the light? 508 00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:11,720 No, not at all. 509 00:27:18,280 --> 00:27:22,720 I like the lights on. Then go home and turn them on. 510 00:27:22,720 --> 00:27:26,240 In 1960, the midway point between these two pictures, 511 00:27:26,240 --> 00:27:29,960 MacLaine appeared in Billy Wilder's brilliant comedy The Apartment - 512 00:27:29,960 --> 00:27:32,800 a classic Oscar-winning tale of ordinary people. 513 00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:34,720 In one way, it's an embittered look 514 00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:37,960 at the cruel, brutal exploitation of the corporate world, 515 00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:40,880 but it's also an irresistible romantic comedy 516 00:27:40,880 --> 00:27:44,920 that trumps an attempted suicide with a sweet, tough, tart, 517 00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:47,440 but essentially optimistic resolution. 518 00:27:49,960 --> 00:27:51,440 Cut. 519 00:27:54,040 --> 00:27:56,480 I love you, Miss Kubelik. 520 00:27:56,480 --> 00:27:58,320 Three. 521 00:27:58,320 --> 00:28:01,120 Queen. Did you hear what I said, Miss Kubelik? 522 00:28:01,120 --> 00:28:03,280 I absolutely adore you. 523 00:28:06,600 --> 00:28:07,960 Shut up and deal. 524 00:28:10,840 --> 00:28:13,120 Our own king of the socially conscious drama, 525 00:28:13,120 --> 00:28:14,720 is, of course, Ken Loach, 526 00:28:14,720 --> 00:28:17,840 whose films have earned major awards' recognition in Europe, 527 00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:20,600 but have never been seen as Oscar contenders. 528 00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:24,720 Loach's countryman Mike Leigh has been Oscar-nominated seven times 529 00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:28,160 but never won, even though his films are shot through with humour. 530 00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:29,680 Enrahah! 531 00:28:31,160 --> 00:28:34,920 Other British directors, however, have found that sweet spot 532 00:28:34,920 --> 00:28:38,480 between social realism and movie magic. 533 00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:41,080 John Schlesinger made Midnight Cowboy, 534 00:28:41,080 --> 00:28:44,880 the first Best Picture winner to earn a US X rating. 535 00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:48,080 The final scenes depict a man dying of emphysema 536 00:28:48,080 --> 00:28:50,640 on a bus ride with a male prostitute, 537 00:28:50,640 --> 00:28:53,640 but the performances of Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight, 538 00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:55,920 and the combination of music and image, 539 00:28:55,920 --> 00:28:58,960 make this a transcendent moment of cinema. 540 00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:01,080 And that sense of sweetness is heightened 541 00:29:01,080 --> 00:29:03,440 by John Barry's memorable harmonica theme, 542 00:29:03,440 --> 00:29:05,480 which I once had the privilege of playing 543 00:29:05,480 --> 00:29:07,480 with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra 544 00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:10,360 and which never fails to melt an audience's heart. 545 00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:13,520 MUSIC: Midnight Cowboy Theme by John Barry 546 00:29:23,840 --> 00:29:25,760 40 years later, 547 00:29:25,760 --> 00:29:28,360 Danny Boyle's Best Picture winner, Slumdog Millionaire, 548 00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:31,520 loosely adapted from Vikas Swarup's novel Q & A, 549 00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:34,600 took the poverty-stricken plight of street kids in Mumbai 550 00:29:34,600 --> 00:29:36,960 and turned it into an uplifting human drama 551 00:29:36,960 --> 00:29:40,200 coloured by the lively inflections of Bollywood movies. 552 00:29:40,200 --> 00:29:43,080 MUSIC: O... Saya by A R Rahman and MIA 553 00:29:54,760 --> 00:29:57,800 MUSIC: The Middle Of The World by Nicholas Britell 554 00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:04,920 Give me your hand. 555 00:30:06,600 --> 00:30:10,240 OK, let your head rest in my hand. Relax. 556 00:30:10,240 --> 00:30:13,600 I've got you. I promise. I'm not going to let you go. 557 00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:16,560 Hey, man, I got you. There you go. 558 00:30:16,560 --> 00:30:19,640 And most recently, Barry Jenkins' sublime Moonlight 559 00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:22,360 proved that an indie film with potentially niche appeal 560 00:30:22,360 --> 00:30:24,080 could win Best Picture 561 00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:27,520 when universalised by unexpectedly dazzling visuals 562 00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:29,560 and a superb use of music. 563 00:30:29,560 --> 00:30:32,800 No wonder it beat La La Land to the top prize. 564 00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:37,600 And speaking of outside contenders, 565 00:30:37,600 --> 00:30:40,760 there's one small but important group of Oscar winners 566 00:30:40,760 --> 00:30:43,760 that reveals key clues about the narrative tropes 567 00:30:43,760 --> 00:30:46,960 and character types that the Academy hold most dear. 568 00:30:52,720 --> 00:30:56,760 In March 1975, a little-known Italian-American actor 569 00:30:56,760 --> 00:30:59,400 called Sylvester Stallone watched a boxing match 570 00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:01,800 between Muhammad Ali and Chuck Wepner. 571 00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:04,080 Ali was heavyweight champion of the world. 572 00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:07,400 Wepner, a minor fighter with little hope of finishing the bout - 573 00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:11,000 the classic underdog. In the event, Wepner was only seconds short 574 00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:15,000 of going the full distance when he lost on a technical knockout. 575 00:31:15,000 --> 00:31:17,920 Stallone, himself a Hollywood outsider and underdog, 576 00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:20,680 whose roles had included the soft-core romp 577 00:31:20,680 --> 00:31:24,440 The Party At Kitty And Stud's, aka Italian Stallion, 578 00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:26,840 and the cult film The Lords Of Flatbush, 579 00:31:26,840 --> 00:31:29,960 immediately started work on a script about a boxer, 580 00:31:29,960 --> 00:31:33,960 which he then sold on the condition that he starred in it. 581 00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:38,440 Against the odds, the studio agreed, provided the budget was kept low. 582 00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:42,480 The result was Rocky. 583 00:31:42,480 --> 00:31:45,280 In Stallone's story, the hero loses the fight, 584 00:31:45,280 --> 00:31:48,480 but crucially, is still standing at the end. 585 00:31:48,480 --> 00:31:53,600 A huge box-office hit in 1976, Rocky picked up both Best Picture 586 00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:55,800 and Best Director the following year. 587 00:31:58,520 --> 00:32:00,560 Here, it's chaos. Rocky, you went the distance. 588 00:32:00,560 --> 00:32:02,640 You went the 15 rounds. How do you feel? All right. 589 00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:05,800 What were you thinking about when that buzzer sounds and... 590 00:32:05,800 --> 00:32:08,560 Adrian! What did you think about when the...? Adrian! 591 00:32:08,560 --> 00:32:10,160 You've got to get mad. 592 00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:13,160 You've got to say, "I'm a human being, Goddammit! 593 00:32:13,160 --> 00:32:14,800 "My life has value!" 594 00:32:14,800 --> 00:32:18,040 In doing so, it knocked out a couple of big hitters - 595 00:32:18,040 --> 00:32:20,440 Network, a razor-sharp media satire... 596 00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:22,920 "I'm as mad as hell 597 00:32:22,920 --> 00:32:25,440 "and I'm not going to take this any more!" 598 00:32:25,440 --> 00:32:29,360 Forget it. We don't want you to do anything that would embarrass you 599 00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:31,280 or that you don't feel right about. 600 00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:33,680 Forget it. 601 00:32:33,680 --> 00:32:37,720 ..and the acclaimed Watergate drama All The President's Men. 602 00:32:37,720 --> 00:32:41,600 Like so many sports movies, Rocky features a training montage - 603 00:32:41,600 --> 00:32:43,800 the transformative, stirring sequence 604 00:32:43,800 --> 00:32:45,640 that's a staple of the genre. 605 00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:54,960 It ends with one of cinema's most iconic shots 606 00:32:54,960 --> 00:32:57,080 as our hero dances at the top of the steps 607 00:32:57,080 --> 00:32:59,160 to Philadelphia's Museum of Art. 608 00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:01,880 Ever since, they've been called the Rocky Steps. 609 00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:14,920 28 years later, we find a very similar training sequence 610 00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:16,640 in Million Dollar Baby, 611 00:33:16,640 --> 00:33:20,440 Clint Eastwood's tale of underdog female pugilist Maggie Fitzgerald, 612 00:33:20,440 --> 00:33:22,440 and Frankie Dunn, the grizzled trainer 613 00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:25,160 who helps give her a shot at glory. 614 00:33:25,160 --> 00:33:29,320 It's the only other boxing film to win Best Picture and Director, 615 00:33:29,320 --> 00:33:32,720 but unlike Rocky before her, Maggie isn't left standing. 616 00:33:45,160 --> 00:33:49,200 A profoundly downbeat ending brought criticism from some groups, 617 00:33:49,200 --> 00:33:51,600 prompting Eastwood to say that the film was about 618 00:33:51,600 --> 00:33:56,320 the American Dream, albeit expressed in the arc of a Greek tragedy. 619 00:33:58,320 --> 00:34:00,760 You remind me of my daddy. 620 00:34:03,480 --> 00:34:08,440 Well, he must've been a very intelligent, handsome man. 621 00:34:09,720 --> 00:34:13,200 Million Dollar Baby netted Hilary Swank a Best Actress Oscar, 622 00:34:13,200 --> 00:34:17,000 putting her in a tradition of Academy Award-winning-movie boxers, 623 00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:21,320 which includes Wallace Beery, for The Champ, way back in 1932, 624 00:34:21,320 --> 00:34:24,120 Marlon Brando, for On The Waterfront, 625 00:34:24,120 --> 00:34:26,840 Christian Bale, for The Fighter, 626 00:34:26,840 --> 00:34:31,000 and, perhaps most famously, Robert De Niro, for Raging Bull. 627 00:34:32,200 --> 00:34:33,920 SHOUTS OF ENCOURAGEMENT 628 00:34:33,920 --> 00:34:37,360 COMMENTATOR: He wobbles into the ropes, and goes down! 629 00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:41,440 One last bout, one last shot at redemption. 630 00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:44,680 The point is not about winning, but going the distance. 631 00:34:44,680 --> 00:34:47,480 Now, it should be noted that the plucky underdog theme 632 00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:50,640 isn't restricted to boxing pictures. 633 00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:54,720 The wonderfully funny and moving script by Steve Tesich, 634 00:34:54,720 --> 00:34:56,840 for the cycling movie, Breaking Away, 635 00:34:56,840 --> 00:34:59,280 was rewarded in the 1980 ceremony. 636 00:34:59,280 --> 00:35:02,840 The Cutters, a motley crew of working-class small-town boys, 637 00:35:02,840 --> 00:35:06,720 face the wealthy and privileged university team in a cycle race, 638 00:35:06,720 --> 00:35:09,440 and succeed in triumphing against the odds. 639 00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:11,040 WILD CHEERING 640 00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:14,000 INDISTINCT COMMENTATOR 641 00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:18,440 And of course, the most celebrated British sporting entry 642 00:35:18,440 --> 00:35:20,640 is 1981's Chariots Of Fire. 643 00:35:20,640 --> 00:35:22,880 The story of not one, but two underdogs, 644 00:35:22,880 --> 00:35:27,440 who overcome prejudice and class snobbery to win Olympic gold. 645 00:35:27,440 --> 00:35:31,800 Chariots Of Fire has a blend of music and image imitated ever since. 646 00:35:31,800 --> 00:35:34,800 Vangelis' theme tune laid down the perfect track, 647 00:35:34,800 --> 00:35:37,800 and Chariots ran away with four big awards. 648 00:35:45,960 --> 00:35:49,000 Simple Jack, the story of a mentally-impaired farm hand 649 00:35:49,000 --> 00:35:50,640 who can talk to animals... 650 00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:53,680 Ben Stiller's Hollywood satire, Tropic Thunder, 651 00:35:53,680 --> 00:35:57,640 reinforces the most-oft-repeated canard about the Oscars. 652 00:35:57,640 --> 00:36:00,600 In a weird way, I had to sort of just free myself up 653 00:36:00,600 --> 00:36:03,680 to believe that it was OK to be stupid or dumb. 654 00:36:03,680 --> 00:36:05,160 To be a moron. Yeah. 655 00:36:05,160 --> 00:36:08,160 To be moronical. Exactly. To be a moron. 656 00:36:08,160 --> 00:36:12,120 An imbecile. Yeah. Like the dumbest motherfucker that ever lived. 657 00:36:12,120 --> 00:36:14,880 It's the claim that the easiest way to win an acting award 658 00:36:14,880 --> 00:36:17,920 is to play someone facing, and often overcoming, 659 00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:20,160 a physical or mental challenge. 660 00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:23,840 Be it illness, injury, addiction or disability. 661 00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:28,080 Now, look at the last 30 years alone, and by my reckoning, 662 00:36:28,080 --> 00:36:30,680 well over a quarter of Best Actress awards 663 00:36:30,680 --> 00:36:33,960 and a third of Best Actor awards have gone to people 664 00:36:33,960 --> 00:36:37,200 playing characters who would broadly fit into this category. 665 00:36:38,400 --> 00:36:41,640 But the idea that these are somehow easy wins is nonsense. 666 00:36:41,640 --> 00:36:43,120 Far from it. 667 00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:45,600 In fact, they're often very demanding roles 668 00:36:45,600 --> 00:36:49,520 and they encompass a wide range of characters and performances. 669 00:36:49,520 --> 00:36:52,640 The role that seems to have embedded the theme of disability 670 00:36:52,640 --> 00:36:54,240 in the Academy's consciousness 671 00:36:54,240 --> 00:36:58,400 is Dustin Hoffman's autistic Raymond Babbitt in 1988's Rain Man. 672 00:37:00,720 --> 00:37:02,640 A-A-A-A-A-Argh! A-A-A-A-A-Argh! 673 00:37:02,640 --> 00:37:05,600 Hey-hey-hey! A-A-A-A-A-A-Argh! 674 00:37:05,600 --> 00:37:07,680 A-A-A-A-A-Argh! A-A-A-A-A-Argh! Ray! Ray! Ray! 675 00:37:07,680 --> 00:37:10,320 While Rain Man was praised in some quarters 676 00:37:10,320 --> 00:37:12,800 for raising public awareness of autism, 677 00:37:12,800 --> 00:37:17,400 it's a spectrum, of which Raymond's form is highly unusual. 678 00:37:17,400 --> 00:37:19,080 He's an autistic savant. 679 00:37:19,080 --> 00:37:22,520 And although he's withdrawn, some of his mental skills, 680 00:37:22,520 --> 00:37:24,880 including memory and counting, 681 00:37:24,880 --> 00:37:28,160 function at an almost-superhuman level. 682 00:37:28,160 --> 00:37:30,000 You watching that? Yeah. 683 00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:35,520 You seeing that? You catching that? 684 00:37:35,520 --> 00:37:37,640 Yeah. Falling on the ground. Yeah? 685 00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:44,840 OK, now, what...what do I have left? 686 00:37:44,840 --> 00:37:46,920 Two jacks, one eight, one king, one six, 687 00:37:46,920 --> 00:37:50,720 two aces, one ten, one nine and one five. 688 00:37:50,720 --> 00:37:52,680 One five? Yeah. 689 00:37:52,680 --> 00:37:54,800 You are beautiful, man! Yeah. 690 00:37:59,080 --> 00:38:01,120 Rain Man won a handful of awards, 691 00:38:01,120 --> 00:38:05,080 including Best Actor and Best Picture in 1989. 692 00:38:05,080 --> 00:38:08,920 A feat repeated in 1995 by Forrest Gump. 693 00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:11,840 Congratulations. How do you feel? 694 00:38:11,840 --> 00:38:13,480 I got to pee. 695 00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:15,960 I believe he said he has to go pee. 696 00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:19,720 Tom Hanks' Forrest faces very different challenges to Raymond. 697 00:38:19,720 --> 00:38:24,280 He has a somewhat unspecified learning impairment, reflected in a low IQ. 698 00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:29,560 But Forrest also has exceptional athletic skills, 699 00:38:29,560 --> 00:38:32,440 which see him become a top American footballer... 700 00:38:32,440 --> 00:38:35,720 He must be the stupidest son of a bitch alive, 701 00:38:35,720 --> 00:38:37,840 but he sure is fast! 702 00:38:39,040 --> 00:38:41,280 ..a world-class ping-pong player, 703 00:38:41,280 --> 00:38:43,720 and a transcontinental runner. 704 00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:53,480 This is a recurrent theme for the kind of roles that win Oscars. 705 00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:56,160 The portrayal of a character who has a disability, 706 00:38:56,160 --> 00:38:59,200 but who is also blessed with a special gift. 707 00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:03,920 In 1990, the year after Dustin Hoffman won Best Actor for Rain Man, 708 00:39:03,920 --> 00:39:05,480 Daniel Day-Lewis triumphed 709 00:39:05,480 --> 00:39:08,840 with his own extraordinary transformative performance. 710 00:39:08,840 --> 00:39:12,200 My Left Foot is the story of Christy Brown. 711 00:39:12,200 --> 00:39:16,960 Born with cerebral palsy, he grows up in poverty in 1930s Ireland. 712 00:39:19,280 --> 00:39:20,840 THEY CHEER 713 00:39:20,840 --> 00:39:22,920 WOMAN GIGGLES 714 00:39:22,920 --> 00:39:25,800 Christy's life is the very definition of struggle, 715 00:39:25,800 --> 00:39:28,920 and, in Day-Lewis's remarkably physical performance, 716 00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:31,200 you can see Christy's rage and frustration 717 00:39:31,200 --> 00:39:33,640 all but bursting out of his body. 718 00:39:34,760 --> 00:39:37,240 A turning point in his life comes when he demonstrates 719 00:39:37,240 --> 00:39:40,640 that he can write and draw with his left foot. 720 00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:44,280 Christy goes on to become a talented painter and an author. 721 00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:48,240 A story all the more inspiring because it's based on real events. 722 00:39:54,240 --> 00:39:57,280 As, of course, was 2014's The Theory Of Everything, 723 00:39:57,280 --> 00:39:59,880 featuring Eddie Redmayne's Oscar-winning portrayal 724 00:39:59,880 --> 00:40:02,880 of the late Professor Stephen Hawking. 725 00:40:06,280 --> 00:40:08,760 The Oscar-friendly elements are all in place. 726 00:40:08,760 --> 00:40:12,600 Real-life story, mental brilliance, physical disability, 727 00:40:12,600 --> 00:40:16,800 but playing Hawking presents its own unique challenges. 728 00:40:16,800 --> 00:40:19,840 While Daniel Day-Lewis portrays a man disabled from birth, 729 00:40:19,840 --> 00:40:24,120 Redmayne has to capture how Hawking's motor neurone disease develops 730 00:40:24,120 --> 00:40:27,880 after it's first diagnosed when he's studying at Cambridge. 731 00:40:27,880 --> 00:40:29,560 What about the brain? 732 00:40:31,520 --> 00:40:33,360 The brain isn't affected. 733 00:40:33,360 --> 00:40:37,000 Your thoughts won't change, it's...just that... 734 00:40:40,680 --> 00:40:43,800 Well, eventually, no-one will know what they are. 735 00:40:47,280 --> 00:40:49,800 I'm ever so sorry. 736 00:40:49,800 --> 00:40:54,280 There's a parallel strain of Oscar-winning films about real-life characters 737 00:40:54,280 --> 00:40:57,720 whose mental brilliance is accompanied by mental illness. 738 00:40:57,720 --> 00:40:59,320 Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind 739 00:40:59,320 --> 00:41:02,240 centres on Russell Crowe's mathematician John Nash, 740 00:41:02,240 --> 00:41:05,520 a man who developed paranoid schizophrenia. 741 00:41:05,520 --> 00:41:08,880 Unusually, while the film itself won awards for Best Picture, 742 00:41:08,880 --> 00:41:10,840 and Best Director in 2002, 743 00:41:10,840 --> 00:41:13,760 Crowe left the ceremony empty-handed. 744 00:41:13,760 --> 00:41:16,120 Perhaps as a result of negative campaigning, 745 00:41:16,120 --> 00:41:19,320 which claimed that the real-life Nash was an anti-Semite, 746 00:41:19,320 --> 00:41:21,920 and a vote for Crowe was somehow a vote for Nash. 747 00:41:24,040 --> 00:41:26,960 Well, on the bright side, you've invented window art. 748 00:41:28,880 --> 00:41:31,720 This is a group playing touch football. 749 00:41:31,720 --> 00:41:34,560 This is a cluster of pigeons fighting over breadcrumbs. 750 00:41:37,240 --> 00:41:39,960 And this here is a woman who is chasing a man who stole her purse. 751 00:41:41,720 --> 00:41:44,840 John, you watched a mugging. That's weird. 752 00:41:44,840 --> 00:41:47,760 In competitive behaviour, someone always loses. 753 00:41:47,760 --> 00:41:51,720 However, the following year, Nicole Kidman won Best Actress by a nose 754 00:41:51,720 --> 00:41:55,200 for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in The Hours. 755 00:41:55,200 --> 00:41:59,360 Suffering from bipolar disorder, but still writing a masterpiece. 756 00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:02,040 This is my right. 757 00:42:02,040 --> 00:42:05,280 It is the right of every human being. 758 00:42:05,280 --> 00:42:08,880 I choose not the suffocating anaesthetic of the suburbs, 759 00:42:08,880 --> 00:42:12,760 but the violent jolt of the capital. That is my choice. 760 00:42:14,800 --> 00:42:19,080 Meanwhile, Geoffrey Rush and Jamie Foxx combined piano virtuosity 761 00:42:19,080 --> 00:42:22,920 with schizoaffective disorder, as David Helfgott, in Shine... 762 00:42:22,920 --> 00:42:25,360 PIANO RECITAL 763 00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:28,000 ..and blindness, as Ray Charles, in Ray. 764 00:42:28,000 --> 00:42:31,040 # Well, now, ol' Mary Ann 765 00:42:32,560 --> 00:42:35,040 # You know, you sure look fine 766 00:42:35,040 --> 00:42:38,400 # Well, now, oh 767 00:42:38,400 --> 00:42:40,640 # You know you sure look fine. # 768 00:42:42,280 --> 00:42:46,200 While these kind of roles have long attracted Oscar attention, 769 00:42:46,200 --> 00:42:49,120 more recently, it's been argued, with some force, 770 00:42:49,120 --> 00:42:52,000 that characters with disabilities should be played 771 00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:55,280 by actors who have similar disabilities. 772 00:42:55,280 --> 00:42:58,960 So, for example, if a character uses a wheelchair, 773 00:42:58,960 --> 00:43:03,280 who better to play them than an actor who uses a wheelchair? 774 00:43:03,280 --> 00:43:06,920 After all, in a world in which talented actors with disabilities 775 00:43:06,920 --> 00:43:09,840 are necessarily restricted in their role choices, 776 00:43:09,840 --> 00:43:12,080 why should roles for which they're uniquely qualified 777 00:43:12,080 --> 00:43:14,280 be taken away from them? 778 00:43:14,280 --> 00:43:16,720 If Coming Home were remade today, 779 00:43:16,720 --> 00:43:19,000 would Jon Voight be the first choice 780 00:43:19,000 --> 00:43:21,760 for the sexy wheelchair-using Vietnam veteran 781 00:43:21,760 --> 00:43:23,400 who gets the girl? 782 00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:25,040 WHISPERS: Don't wake him up. 783 00:43:25,040 --> 00:43:27,280 Hey, Doc? 784 00:43:27,280 --> 00:43:32,000 In 1987, Marlee Matlin, who is deaf, made Oscar history 785 00:43:32,000 --> 00:43:35,160 by winning Best Actress for her role as a deaf character 786 00:43:35,160 --> 00:43:37,840 in Children Of A Lesser God. 787 00:43:37,840 --> 00:43:42,000 A remarkable victory, which seemed to offer real hope for change. 788 00:43:42,000 --> 00:43:45,400 But this year, the Academy notably failed to nominate 789 00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:47,680 rising star Millicent Simmonds, who is deaf, 790 00:43:47,680 --> 00:43:50,560 for her standout role in A Quiet Place, 791 00:43:50,560 --> 00:43:53,280 despite several nominations elsewhere. 792 00:43:54,440 --> 00:43:58,840 When it comes to the Oscars, change happens very slowly. 793 00:44:06,720 --> 00:44:08,360 I meet you today... 794 00:44:08,360 --> 00:44:11,600 In 2010, Colin Firth combined disability with royalty 795 00:44:11,600 --> 00:44:15,160 as the stammering George VI in The King's Speech. 796 00:44:15,160 --> 00:44:17,120 ..in circumstances which are... 797 00:44:24,960 --> 00:44:29,360 Great men and women of history is another solid acting-awards bet, 798 00:44:29,360 --> 00:44:31,920 and it's a category where the Brits, in particular, 799 00:44:31,920 --> 00:44:35,520 have delivered some majestic performances. 800 00:44:35,520 --> 00:44:37,800 Good morning. I'm so sorry to disturb you. 801 00:44:37,800 --> 00:44:40,040 I'm just expecting a phone call to be put through here. 802 00:44:40,040 --> 00:44:41,920 BARKING Out! 803 00:44:41,920 --> 00:44:43,960 PHONE RINGS Oh, there it is. 804 00:44:48,040 --> 00:44:49,960 Thank you. 805 00:44:52,520 --> 00:44:56,000 Helen Mirren's Oscar in 2007 placed her in a line 806 00:44:56,000 --> 00:44:58,800 of Academy Award-winning British kings and queens 807 00:44:58,800 --> 00:45:01,760 that includes Charles Laughton's Henry VIII 808 00:45:01,760 --> 00:45:03,760 and Judi Dench's Elizabeth I. 809 00:45:06,320 --> 00:45:11,080 And in 2019, Olivia Colman is hotly tipped for a memorable performance 810 00:45:11,080 --> 00:45:13,320 as one of Britain's least-memorable monarchs, 811 00:45:13,320 --> 00:45:15,360 Queen Anne, in The Favourite. 812 00:45:16,920 --> 00:45:18,400 Make them stop. 813 00:45:18,400 --> 00:45:20,240 What? Stop! 814 00:45:21,920 --> 00:45:24,280 Enough! Stop! 815 00:45:24,280 --> 00:45:27,480 Be gone! I command it! 816 00:45:27,480 --> 00:45:29,520 Leave! 817 00:45:31,320 --> 00:45:33,880 But what about some of our other national treasures? 818 00:45:35,880 --> 00:45:39,120 In 2018, the Best Actor award went to a British star 819 00:45:39,120 --> 00:45:41,760 playing a British Prime Minister. 820 00:45:41,760 --> 00:45:43,760 Gary Oldman as Churchill. 821 00:45:43,760 --> 00:45:48,480 How many more dictators must be wooed, 822 00:45:48,480 --> 00:45:51,320 appeased, good God, given immense privileges, 823 00:45:51,320 --> 00:45:53,760 before we learn?! 824 00:45:53,760 --> 00:45:56,800 You cannot reason with a tiger 825 00:45:56,800 --> 00:45:59,680 when your head is in its mouth! 826 00:45:59,680 --> 00:46:04,520 It's the kind of serious, showy role for a serious, showy thespian 827 00:46:04,520 --> 00:46:07,960 who knows how to deliver a serious, showy speech. 828 00:46:09,720 --> 00:46:13,800 I am the President of the United States of America, 829 00:46:13,800 --> 00:46:17,480 clothed in immense power! 830 00:46:17,480 --> 00:46:21,560 The Brits also have a nice sideline playing American leaders. 831 00:46:21,560 --> 00:46:25,640 Daniel Day-Lewis won an unprecedented third Best Actor award 832 00:46:25,640 --> 00:46:29,360 in 2013, for his Abraham Lincoln. 833 00:46:29,360 --> 00:46:33,640 Anthony Hopkins' Nixon was nominated back in 1996. 834 00:46:35,440 --> 00:46:39,440 I promised the American people peace with honour in Southeast Asia. 835 00:46:41,320 --> 00:46:43,120 Now, that may take time. 836 00:46:43,120 --> 00:46:45,640 And in 2019, Christian Bale is a nominee 837 00:46:45,640 --> 00:46:48,320 for his portrayal of Vice President Dick Cheney, 838 00:46:48,320 --> 00:46:52,680 a man just a heartbeat away from the Oval Office. 839 00:46:52,680 --> 00:46:57,160 Now, maybe I can handle some of the more mundane jobs, 840 00:46:57,160 --> 00:46:59,960 overseeing bureaucracy, 841 00:46:59,960 --> 00:47:02,520 managing military, 842 00:47:02,520 --> 00:47:05,520 energy, foreign policy. 843 00:47:11,760 --> 00:47:13,280 That sounds good. 844 00:47:13,280 --> 00:47:15,520 One of the challenges of making a historical film 845 00:47:15,520 --> 00:47:17,440 is to create suspense and drama, 846 00:47:17,440 --> 00:47:21,360 despite the fact that the audience knows how the story will end. 847 00:47:21,360 --> 00:47:23,280 Churchill may be Prime Minister, 848 00:47:23,280 --> 00:47:25,720 but he also has to be a sympathetic underdog. 849 00:47:25,720 --> 00:47:28,560 Darkest Hour emphasises his political weakness 850 00:47:28,560 --> 00:47:31,560 as Hitler advances in Europe. 851 00:47:31,560 --> 00:47:34,720 I need not impress upon you that... 852 00:47:35,960 --> 00:47:39,480 ..a trouble faced by the Western Hemisphere... 853 00:47:41,280 --> 00:47:45,280 ..without your support in some fashion... 854 00:47:45,280 --> 00:47:47,160 I know, I know. 855 00:47:47,160 --> 00:47:49,840 You are on my mind day and night. 856 00:47:49,840 --> 00:47:51,960 It's interesting to compare Darkest Hour 857 00:47:51,960 --> 00:47:54,600 to the story of another Prime Minister, The Iron Lady, 858 00:47:54,600 --> 00:47:56,200 directed by Phyllida Lloyd, 859 00:47:56,200 --> 00:47:59,600 which secured Meryl Streep her third Oscar, in 2012. 860 00:48:01,120 --> 00:48:04,360 You've got it in you to go the whole distance. Absolutely. 861 00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:08,160 What...Prime Minister? 862 00:48:09,600 --> 00:48:11,440 Oh, no. 863 00:48:11,440 --> 00:48:14,200 Oh, no. No, no. 864 00:48:14,200 --> 00:48:18,840 In Britain, there will be no female Prime Minister. 865 00:48:18,840 --> 00:48:22,600 Here, not in my lifetime, no. 866 00:48:22,600 --> 00:48:26,960 While the film isn't afraid to present Margaret Thatcher as a flawed figure, 867 00:48:26,960 --> 00:48:30,240 it still requires us to invest in her as a character. 868 00:48:30,240 --> 00:48:34,120 So she's depicted as bravely taking on the male public school establishment 869 00:48:34,120 --> 00:48:36,920 in the course of her rise to power. 870 00:48:39,400 --> 00:48:42,920 Underdog figures are often at the heart of the grand historical epics 871 00:48:42,920 --> 00:48:46,040 that sometimes sweep the board at the Academy Awards. 872 00:48:46,040 --> 00:48:48,280 Gandhi and Braveheart's William Wallace 873 00:48:48,280 --> 00:48:51,960 may have ever-so-slightly different views about the use of violence, 874 00:48:51,960 --> 00:48:55,840 but they're both fighting to secure justice for their people. 875 00:48:55,840 --> 00:48:58,640 You can see underdogs in fictional epics, too. 876 00:48:58,640 --> 00:49:01,840 Maximus, in Gladiator, is a former Roman general 877 00:49:01,840 --> 00:49:03,840 reduced to fighting in the arena. 878 00:49:03,840 --> 00:49:06,200 Father to a murdered son... 879 00:49:07,440 --> 00:49:09,800 ..husband to a murdered wife. 880 00:49:09,800 --> 00:49:12,000 And I will have my vengeance, 881 00:49:12,000 --> 00:49:13,440 in this life or the next. 882 00:49:15,720 --> 00:49:18,840 But Oscar also has a fondness for the little guy 883 00:49:18,840 --> 00:49:22,360 fighting a small battle that embodies a more eternal conflict 884 00:49:22,360 --> 00:49:24,640 between freedom and repression. 885 00:49:24,640 --> 00:49:28,520 In 1976, the big winner was One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, 886 00:49:28,520 --> 00:49:31,960 in which Jack Nicholson's psychiatric patient, Randle McMurphy, 887 00:49:31,960 --> 00:49:36,000 comes to represent an everyman struggling against the system, 888 00:49:36,000 --> 00:49:38,760 personified by Louise Fletcher's Nurse Ratched. 889 00:49:38,760 --> 00:49:40,720 Chief, he's got his hand up! Look! 890 00:49:40,720 --> 00:49:42,120 No, Mr McMurphy. 891 00:49:42,120 --> 00:49:45,800 When the meeting was adjourned, the vote was nine to nine. 892 00:49:45,800 --> 00:49:48,160 Ah, come on, you're not going to say that now! 893 00:49:48,160 --> 00:49:50,000 You're not going to say that now! 894 00:49:50,000 --> 00:49:52,480 You're going to pull that henhouse shit now when the vote... 895 00:49:52,480 --> 00:49:54,480 The Chief just voted, it was ten to nine. 896 00:49:54,480 --> 00:49:57,520 Now, I want that television set turned on right now! 897 00:49:57,520 --> 00:50:01,800 These struggles can be against forms of oppression and evil so vast 898 00:50:01,800 --> 00:50:05,160 that it's impossible for a single film to capture them. 899 00:50:05,160 --> 00:50:08,040 Some other Oscar Best Picture winners, like Schindler's List, 900 00:50:08,040 --> 00:50:10,280 have been criticised, wrongly, in my opinion, 901 00:50:10,280 --> 00:50:12,680 for focusing on stories of survival 902 00:50:12,680 --> 00:50:16,600 rather than on the millions more who died or were murdered. 903 00:50:21,800 --> 00:50:24,000 WHISPERS: I could have got more out. 904 00:50:26,200 --> 00:50:28,040 I could have got more. 905 00:50:28,040 --> 00:50:30,040 I don't know, if I'd just... 906 00:50:31,840 --> 00:50:34,480 You luxuriate in... I survive! 907 00:50:35,720 --> 00:50:37,760 I will not fall into despair! 908 00:50:37,760 --> 00:50:39,680 I will offer up my talents to Master Ford! 909 00:50:39,680 --> 00:50:42,640 I will keep myself hardy, till freedom is opportune! 910 00:50:42,640 --> 00:50:45,880 When it comes to the great historical injustices, 911 00:50:45,880 --> 00:50:48,680 it's perhaps hard to imagine that anyone in the audience 912 00:50:48,680 --> 00:50:51,680 really needs to be told how terrible they are. 913 00:50:51,680 --> 00:50:55,720 As Amy Poehler joked from the Golden Globes stage in 2014, 914 00:50:55,720 --> 00:50:57,280 "I loved 12 Years A Slave, 915 00:50:57,280 --> 00:50:59,880 "and I can honestly say that after seeing that film 916 00:50:59,880 --> 00:51:03,160 "I will never look at slavery the same way again". 917 00:51:03,160 --> 00:51:07,080 In fact, director Steve McQueen does a brilliant job of finding a new way 918 00:51:07,080 --> 00:51:10,880 to tell an old story, to avoid stating the obvious. 919 00:51:10,880 --> 00:51:14,000 He resists the temptation to burden his film, 920 00:51:14,000 --> 00:51:16,440 and Chiwetel Ejiofor's Solomon Northrup, 921 00:51:16,440 --> 00:51:20,440 with repeated outbursts about injustice and hope. 922 00:51:20,440 --> 00:51:24,520 Sometimes, the realities of our hero's struggle are told through music. 923 00:51:26,760 --> 00:51:28,320 Like this. 924 00:51:28,320 --> 00:51:31,680 A striking counterpoint is established between Paul Dano's 925 00:51:31,680 --> 00:51:35,720 weaselly, taunting rendition of a song heard in the plantations... 926 00:51:36,800 --> 00:51:39,240 # Nigger run, nigger flew. # 927 00:51:39,240 --> 00:51:42,320 # Everybody say Roll, Jordan, roll...# 928 00:51:42,320 --> 00:51:46,960 ..and the slaves' defiant graveside rendition of Roll, Jordan, Roll. 929 00:51:46,960 --> 00:51:49,120 # My soul arise in heaven, Lord 930 00:51:49,120 --> 00:51:52,120 # For the year when Jordan roll...# 931 00:51:52,120 --> 00:51:54,720 The latter becoming an epiphanic moment 932 00:51:54,720 --> 00:51:58,800 that pierces to the very heart of Northup's predicament. 933 00:51:58,800 --> 00:52:01,520 # My soul arise in heaven, Lord 934 00:52:01,520 --> 00:52:03,880 # For the year when Jordan roll. # 935 00:52:05,120 --> 00:52:06,840 PHONE: Hey, Robby. Everything OK? 936 00:52:06,840 --> 00:52:08,840 I need you to tell me something, Jim. 937 00:52:08,840 --> 00:52:10,440 Could it be 90 priests? 938 00:52:10,440 --> 00:52:13,480 What? Could it be as high as 90? 939 00:52:13,480 --> 00:52:17,080 A recent Oscar winner about another horrific injustice, 940 00:52:17,080 --> 00:52:19,080 avoids showing the crime altogether. 941 00:52:19,080 --> 00:52:21,920 Spotlight, which won Best Picture in 2016, 942 00:52:21,920 --> 00:52:25,280 concerns the widespread sexual abuse of children 943 00:52:25,280 --> 00:52:27,960 by Catholic clergy in Massachusetts. 944 00:52:27,960 --> 00:52:29,440 Rather than depicting the abuse, 945 00:52:29,440 --> 00:52:31,520 Spotlight concentrates instead 946 00:52:31,520 --> 00:52:34,040 on the painstaking work of investigative reporters 947 00:52:34,040 --> 00:52:37,680 from The Boston Globe to bring the scandal to light. 948 00:52:37,680 --> 00:52:40,200 HE SIGHS 949 00:52:40,200 --> 00:52:43,840 We need to focus on the institution, not the individual priests. 950 00:52:43,840 --> 00:52:45,920 Practice and policy. 951 00:52:45,920 --> 00:52:48,120 Show me the Church manipulated the system 952 00:52:48,120 --> 00:52:50,360 so that these guys wouldn't have to face charges. 953 00:52:50,360 --> 00:52:54,200 Show me they put those same priests back into parishes time and time again. 954 00:52:54,200 --> 00:52:57,080 Show me this was systemic, that it came from the top down. 955 00:52:58,600 --> 00:53:01,560 Spotlight also examines how a wider community 956 00:53:01,560 --> 00:53:04,280 may become complicit in an unspoken crime. 957 00:53:09,760 --> 00:53:12,920 This is how it happens, isn't it, Pete? What's that? 958 00:53:12,920 --> 00:53:14,320 Guy leans on a guy, 959 00:53:14,320 --> 00:53:18,040 and suddenly the whole town just looks the other way. 960 00:53:18,040 --> 00:53:19,400 The irony, of course, 961 00:53:19,400 --> 00:53:22,840 is that Spotlight won Best Picture in 2016, just 962 00:53:22,840 --> 00:53:26,760 a year before the #MeToo movement accused Hollywood itself of turning 963 00:53:26,760 --> 00:53:31,120 a blind eye to persistent sexual abuse within the movie industry. 964 00:53:31,120 --> 00:53:34,880 When the Academy awarded Frances McDormand Best Actress in 2018 965 00:53:34,880 --> 00:53:37,720 for her portrayal of a furious grief-stricken mother 966 00:53:37,720 --> 00:53:40,800 in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, 967 00:53:40,800 --> 00:53:43,440 it seemed to reflect the mood of the moment. 968 00:53:45,720 --> 00:53:46,840 Hey, fuckhead. 969 00:53:46,840 --> 00:53:48,080 What? 970 00:53:48,080 --> 00:53:50,800 Don't say "what", Dixon, when she comes in calling you a fuckhead, 971 00:53:50,800 --> 00:53:52,120 and don't you come in here... 972 00:53:52,120 --> 00:53:53,880 Shut up! 973 00:53:53,880 --> 00:53:56,560 Mildred Hayes, whose teenage daughter was raped 974 00:53:56,560 --> 00:54:00,440 and murdered, blames the police for failing to solve the crime, 975 00:54:00,440 --> 00:54:02,680 and incurs the wrath of her local community. 976 00:54:03,720 --> 00:54:05,800 In her uniform of a boiler suit, 977 00:54:05,800 --> 00:54:08,800 Mildred is quite literally a blue-collar warrior. 978 00:54:08,800 --> 00:54:13,200 I don't think those billboards is very fair. The time it took you 979 00:54:13,200 --> 00:54:15,760 to get out here whining like a bitch, Willoughby, 980 00:54:15,760 --> 00:54:18,560 some other poor girl's probably out there being butchered right now, 981 00:54:18,560 --> 00:54:21,400 but I'm glad you got your priorities straight, I'll say that for you. 982 00:54:21,400 --> 00:54:24,280 She has predecessors in other working-class female 983 00:54:24,280 --> 00:54:26,040 characters seeking justice. 984 00:54:26,040 --> 00:54:27,880 Julia Roberts won Best Actress 985 00:54:27,880 --> 00:54:30,120 for playing campaigner Erin Brockovich... 986 00:54:30,120 --> 00:54:33,280 Second of all, these people don't dream about being rich. 987 00:54:33,280 --> 00:54:36,440 They dream about being able to watch their kids swim in a pool 988 00:54:36,440 --> 00:54:38,560 without worrying that they'll have to have 989 00:54:38,560 --> 00:54:40,040 a hysterectomy at the age of 20. 990 00:54:40,040 --> 00:54:42,800 ..as did Jodie foster for portraying rape survivor 991 00:54:42,800 --> 00:54:45,480 Sarah Tobias in The Accused. 992 00:54:46,520 --> 00:54:49,280 If that's the best you can do, then your best sucks. 993 00:54:49,280 --> 00:54:52,080 Now, I don't know what you got for selling me out, 994 00:54:52,080 --> 00:54:54,840 but I sure as shit hope it's worth it. 995 00:54:54,840 --> 00:54:58,120 But writer-director Martin McDonagh raises the possibility that 996 00:54:58,120 --> 00:55:00,360 Mildred's rage predates the tragedy, 997 00:55:00,360 --> 00:55:03,920 and that anger was already tearing her family apart. 998 00:55:03,920 --> 00:55:07,920 So how come, a week before she died, she comes around asking 999 00:55:07,920 --> 00:55:10,720 if she could move in with me at my place cos she couldn't stand the 1000 00:55:10,720 --> 00:55:13,640 two of you bitching at each other no more, fighting with each other... 1001 00:55:13,640 --> 00:55:15,760 I don't believe you. And I said, "No, stay at home. 1002 00:55:15,760 --> 00:55:17,280 "Your mom loves you." 1003 00:55:17,280 --> 00:55:21,280 Fuck 'em. CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYS 1004 00:55:28,040 --> 00:55:31,280 There is an uncomfortable ambiguity at the heart of 1005 00:55:31,280 --> 00:55:34,400 Three Billboards, which is maybe why the Academy found it easier to 1006 00:55:34,400 --> 00:55:38,000 celebrate the performances than the film as a whole. 1007 00:55:38,000 --> 00:55:41,320 When it comes to the Best Picture award, Oscar still prefers 1008 00:55:41,320 --> 00:55:45,040 the moral clarity of films like 12 Years A Slave and Spotlight. 1009 00:55:59,720 --> 00:56:03,440 Master must go inside the tunnel. 1010 00:56:03,440 --> 00:56:08,200 In 2004, Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King 1011 00:56:08,200 --> 00:56:12,120 gained access to an elite club - the third and most recent film 1012 00:56:12,120 --> 00:56:14,560 to win 11 Academy Awards. 1013 00:56:14,560 --> 00:56:17,360 No picture has ever topped this number, 1014 00:56:17,360 --> 00:56:20,800 which was first achieved by William Wyler's Ben-Hur in 1960, 1015 00:56:20,800 --> 00:56:24,840 and then by James Cameron's Titanic in 1998. 1016 00:56:24,840 --> 00:56:26,760 So, does this elevate them 1017 00:56:26,760 --> 00:56:30,440 to an exclusive tier of artistic excellence? 1018 00:56:30,440 --> 00:56:34,440 Well, it's worth noting that they are all a certain kind of film. 1019 00:56:34,440 --> 00:56:36,680 Spectacular epics. 1020 00:56:36,680 --> 00:56:40,200 I nearly said historical epics, but of course, Lord Of The Rings isn't 1021 00:56:40,200 --> 00:56:44,280 historical, unless you are somehow watching this in Middle Earth. 1022 00:56:44,280 --> 00:56:46,960 All three won awards for Best Picture and Best Director, 1023 00:56:46,960 --> 00:56:51,000 but only Ben-Hur took home any acting awards. 1024 00:56:51,000 --> 00:56:54,160 And it's interesting to note that all three are classic 1025 00:56:54,160 --> 00:56:58,000 underdog stories, with slaves, penniless artists 1026 00:56:58,000 --> 00:57:00,720 and hobbits at their respective hearts. 1027 00:57:00,720 --> 00:57:04,080 And if there is one big lesson when you look back at the history 1028 00:57:04,080 --> 00:57:08,200 of the Academy Awards, it's that Oscar loves an underdog. 1029 00:57:08,200 --> 00:57:10,480 Just look at this year's nominees. 1030 00:57:10,480 --> 00:57:13,440 A Star Is Born and Bohemian Rhapsody are classic 1031 00:57:13,440 --> 00:57:17,800 all-singing, all-dancing tales of outsiders making it big in showbiz. 1032 00:57:19,920 --> 00:57:22,880 Roma is an ordinary people tale, featuring an extraordinary 1033 00:57:22,880 --> 00:57:24,960 performance from screen first-timer 1034 00:57:24,960 --> 00:57:29,360 Yalitza Aparicio, as a struggling housemaid in 1970s Mexico. 1035 00:57:31,560 --> 00:57:33,960 BlackKklansman and Green Book explore racial 1036 00:57:33,960 --> 00:57:37,040 prejudice in America in the '60s and '70s. 1037 00:57:37,040 --> 00:57:38,640 You know what I'm trying to say. 1038 00:57:38,640 --> 00:57:41,680 Chief, some of us can speak King's English, others speak jive. 1039 00:57:41,680 --> 00:57:44,480 Ron Stallworth, here, happens to be fluent in both. 1040 00:57:46,960 --> 00:57:52,000 Ryan Coogler's Black Panther also has strong social justice themes. 1041 00:57:52,000 --> 00:57:54,000 It may be a superhero fantasy, 1042 00:57:54,000 --> 00:57:57,920 but everything from the design to the narrative to the soundtrack 1043 00:57:57,920 --> 00:58:03,160 has an empowering anti-colonial, anti-racist, anti-sexist edge. 1044 00:58:03,160 --> 00:58:07,280 There is even an underdog element to drive the drama forward. 1045 00:58:11,240 --> 00:58:14,400 Whether or not you think it's the best film of the year, 1046 00:58:14,400 --> 00:58:17,600 Black Panther is certainly one of the most ground-breaking. 1047 00:58:17,600 --> 00:58:21,200 A bona fide blockbuster made by an African-American director, 1048 00:58:21,200 --> 00:58:23,480 with a largely black cast. 1049 00:58:23,480 --> 00:58:27,080 I also think, most importantly, that it's just a bloody good film. 1050 00:58:27,080 --> 00:58:30,360 Exciting, adventurous and unexpected. 1051 00:58:30,360 --> 00:58:34,480 No wonder it's been a hit with audiences and critics alike. 1052 00:58:34,480 --> 00:58:37,120 As for Oscar, we'll have to wait and see.