BEST PICTURE
The Artist (Thomas Langmann, producer); The Descendants (Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor); Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (Scott Rudin); The Help (Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan); Hugo (Graham King and Martin Scorsese); Midnight in Paris (Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum); Moneyball (Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt); The Tree of Life (Sarah Green, Bill Pohlad, Dede Gardner and Grant Hill); War Horse (Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy)

PREDICTION: The Artist. With both the Producers Guild of America award and the Directors Guild of America award, The Artist looks poised to win Best Picture. If there’s an upset here it will likely be Hugo.

BEST ACTOR
Demián Bichir for A Better Life; George Clooney for The Descendants; Jean Dujardin for The Artist; Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy; Brad Pitt for Moneyball

PREDICTION: Jean Dujardin. If you’d asked me a month ago, I’d have been certain this is Clooney’s year to win. But The Artist and its star are gaining momentum, especially with Dujardin’s win at the Screen Actors Guild awards. As many SAG members are also Academy members, I’m going with Dujardin.

BEST ACTRESS
Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs; Viola Davis for The Help; Rooney Mara for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady; Michelle Williams for My Week With Marilyn

PREDICTION: Viola Davis. The notion that “Meryl Streep wins every year” is pretty much not true. She’s only won the leading actress Oscar one time, for Sophie’s Choice (1982) and she also took home the supporting actress Oscar once for Kramer vs. Kramer (1979). A more accurate observation would be “Meryl Streep gets nominated every year but hardly ever wins.” In fact she currently holds the record for acting nominations with 17, second to Jack Nicholson with 12. While Streep’s chances of winning are better than normal this time, I still think Viola Davis will take home the Oscar. And with her recent win at the SAG awards, it’s even more likely that this is Davis’s year to win.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Kenneth Branagh for My Week with Marilyn; Jonah Hill for Moneyball; Nick Nolte for Warrior; Christopher Plummer for Beginners; Max von Sydow for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

PREDICTION: Christopher Plummer. Plummer has won many of the supporting actor awards this season and will probably win the Oscar as well. If anyone gives him a run for his money here, it will be Max von Sydow — but don’t count on it.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Bérénice Bejo for The Artist; Jessica Chastain for The Help; Melissa McCarthy for Bridesmaids; Janet McTeer for Albert Nobbs; Octavia Spencer for The Help

PREDICTION: Octavia Spencer. With several other supporting actress awards this season, plus the all-important SAG win, Octavia Spencer looks to be the frontrunner.

BEST DIRECTOR
Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist; Alexander Payne for The Descendants; Martin Scorsese for Hugo; Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris; Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life

PREDICTION: Michel Hazanavicius. The DGA award went to Hazanavicius and thus he’ll very likely win the Oscar. Does Scorsese have a shot here? Sure — this could be one of those rare years in which the Picture and Director awards are split, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Descendants (Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash); Hugo (John Logan); The Ides of March (George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon); Moneyball (Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin, Story by Stan Chervin); Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan)

PREDICTION: The Descendants. I’ll be on a cruise when the Writers Guild of America awards are announced (Feb 19), but my instinct tells me the Oscar is going to The Descendants. The outcome of the WGA winner might change my mind and if so I will post any last-minute changes in the comments section below (assuming of course I can find a decent internet connection — I know, I know, poor me).

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius); Bridesmaids (Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig); Margin Call (J.C. Chandor); Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen); A Separation (Asghar Farhadi)

PREDICTION: Midnight in Paris. Again, the results of the WGA awards are not known at “press time,” but I think Woody Allen is due for another win in this category. The Artist also has a very solid chance of winning here, but I’m betting on Woody.

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
A Cat in Paris (Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli); Chico & Rita (Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal); Kung Fu Panda 2 (Jennifer Yuh Nelson); Puss in Boots (Chris Miller); Rango (Gore Verbinski)

PREDICTION: Rango. With nothing by Pixar and no Tintin nominated, this is a tough call. Part of me wonders if they’ll go with old-school hand-drawn animation this year (A Cat in Paris or Chico & Rita, two films I admittedly hadn’t heard of before the nominations were announced). Ultimately, I say Rango has the slight edge.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Bullhead (Belgium); Footnote (Israel); In Darkness (Poland); Monsieur Lazhar (Canada); A Separation (Iran)

PREDICTION: A Separation. It’s the only nominee that also has a screenplay nomination so that’s the one I’m going with. I’m not sure how much that matters in this category — it certainly didn’t help Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) when The Lives of Others took home the Foreign Language Film Oscar.

ART DIRECTION
The Artist (Laurence Bennett, Robert Gould); Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan); Hugo (Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo); Midnight in Paris (Anne Seibel, Hélène Dubreuil); War Horse (Rick Carter, Lee Sandales)

PREDICTION: Hugo. A tough category to predict. The Artist could take the prize because generally the Best Picture winner will sweep a few more categories, whether deserved or not. Harry Potter also has a decent shot of winning. But I have to go with Hugo and the amazing team of Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo (both have won two Oscars together in this category).

CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Artist (Guillaume Schiffman); The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Jeff Cronenweth); Hugo (Robert Richardson); The Tree of Life (Emmanuel Lubezki); War Horse (Janusz Kaminski)

PREDICTION: The Tree of Life. This is Emmanuel Lubezki’s fifth nomination and he’s never won, so he’s probably due. He also won the American Society of Cinematographers award this year, which makes his Oscar win even more likely.

COSTUME DESIGN
Anonymous (Lisy Christl); The Artist (Mark Bridges); Hugo (Sandy Powell); Jane Eyre (Michael O’Connor); W.E. (Arianne Phillips)

PREDICTION: The Artist. I will be at sea on February 21 when the Costume Design Guild awards are announced. This category seems to be a three-way race between The Artist, Hugo and Jane Eyre, but ultimately I’m thinking The Artist will sweep a few of these categories.

EDITING
The Artist (Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius); The Descendants (Kevin Tent); The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall); Hugo (Thelma Schoonmaker); Moneyball (Christopher Tellefsen)

PREDICTION: The Artist. The American Cinema Editors awards (to be presented Feb 18) haven’t been awarded at time of publication, but my instinct tells me this is one of the categories that The Artist will sweep along with its Best Picture win.

MAKEUP
Albert Nobbs (Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnston and Matthew W. Mungle); Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight and Lisa Tomblin); The Iron Lady (Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland)

PREDICTION: The Iron Lady. Strong contenders, but it seems to me that old-age makeup is generally favored in this category.

ORIGINAL SCORE
The Adventures of Tintin (John Williams); The Artist (Ludovic Bource); Hugo (Howard Shore); Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Alberto Iglesias); War Horse (John Williams)

PREDICTION: The Artist. Because it’s a silent film, music plays a larger than normal role and that is why it will win. That doesn’t mean it should win, but it will. War Horse is the score that should win, but unfortunately it won’t. I’ll be very happy if I’m wrong.

ORIGINAL SONG
“Man or Muppet” from The Muppets (music and lyrics by Bret McKenzie); “Real in Rio” from Rio (music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown, lyrics by Siedah Garrett)

PREDICTION: “Man or Muppet.” How can I possibly bet against Muppets?

SOUND MIXING
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Bo Persson); Hugo (Tom Fleischman and John Midgley); Moneyball (Deb Adair, Ron Bochar, Dave Giammarco and Ed Novick); Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Peter J. Devlin); War Horse (Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson and Stuart Wilson)

PREDICTION: Hugo. With some exceptions (like last year), this Oscar has a history of being awarded to the Best Picture winner, rather than the most deserving nominee (Slumdog Millionaire over WALL-E is the most glaring example that comes to mind). Since The Artist isn’t nominated in this category, the award will probably go to the second Best Picture frontrunner which is Hugo.

SOUND EDITING
Drive (Lon Bender and Victor Ray Ennis); The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Ren Klyce); Hugo (Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty); Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl); War Horse (Richard Hymns and Gary Rydstrom)

PREDICTION: Hugo.

VISUAL EFFECTS
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler and John Richardson); Hugo (Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman and Alex Henning); Real Steel (Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, Dan Taylor and Swen Gillberg); Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White and Daniel Barrett); Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Matthew Butler and John Frazier)

PREDICTION: Rise of the Planet of the Apes. This Oscar will be awarded, in part, due to the film’s aggressive “For Your Consideration” campaign which tried to get Andy Serkis a Best Supporting Actor nod for his amazing motion-capture performance as Caesar. But aside from the politics of it all, the film’s combination of CGI artistry and motion-capture acting is pretty seamless.

DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)
Hell and Back Again (Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner); If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman); Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky); Pina (Wim Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel); Undefeated (TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas)

PREDICTION: Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory. The previous two highly-regarded Paradise Lost installments generated awareness about the West Memphis Three and thus quite possibly played a role in the eventual release of the three men. This third film debuted as a theatrical release, so it is the first of the films to be eligible for an Oscar nomination (the other two premiered on HBO and therefore did not quality for a nomination).

DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)
The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement (Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin); God Is the Bigger Elvis (Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson); Incident in New Baghdad (James Spione); Saving Face (Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy); The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom (Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen)

PREDICTION: The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom.

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
Dimanche/Sunday (Patrick Doyon); The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg); La Luna (Enrico Casarosa); A Morning Stroll (Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe); Wild Life (Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby)

PREDICTION: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. The Pixar entry, La Luna, has a decent shot here, but ultimately I’m placing my bets on The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. My Popdose colleague Bob Cashill recently posted an excellent review of all the films nominated in this (and the next) category.

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
Pentecost (Peter McDonald and Eimear O’Kane); Raju (Max Zähle and Stefan Gieren); The Shore (Terry George and Oorlagh George); Time Freak (Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey); Tuba Atlantic (Hallvar Witzø)

PREDICTION: Raju.

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Citizen Kane (1941)
The actual winner: How Green Was My Valley.
The other nominees: Blossoms in the Dust, Here Comes Mr. Jordan, Hold Back the Dawn, The Little Foxes, The Maltese Falcon, One Foot in Heaven, Sergeant York, Suspicion.
Listen, I love How Green Was My Valley, one of the many great movies from director John Ford, but it’s hard to argue with the fact that throughout the years, Citizen Kane repeatedly shows up as number one on many lists of the best films of all time. In addition to its non-linear storytelling, Orson Welles’s directorial debut is visually groundbreaking cinema in terms of its use of low camera angles and most importantly its use of lighting, in-camera techniques and optical printing to keep the foreground and background all in sharp focus.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
The actual winner: My Fair Lady.
The other nominees: Becket, Mary Poppins, Zorba the Greek.
It’s a crime that Stanley Kubrick never won an Oscar (other than for Visual Effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey) and this is the year it probably should have happened. One can also make a good case for A Clockwork Orange (1971) but the competition that year, namely The French Connection, was tough. Incredibly, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) wasn’t even nominated for Best Picture, though Kubrick was nominated for Best Director that year, in which Oliver! took home the top prize. I’ll admit I’m biased because I don’t personally care much for musicals, but — getting back to 1964 — Strangelove is iconic Kubrick and one of the greatest satires of all time.

The Graduate (1967)
The actual winner: In the Heat of the Night.
The other nominees: Bonnie and Clyde, Doctor Dolittle, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.
Don’t get me wrong, In the Heat of the Night is a solid movie that introduced the world to the unforgettable line “They call me Mister Tibbs!” But thinking in terms of which film became classic American cinema, it really should have been between The Graduate and Bonnie and Clyde, with the slight edge going to the one with the Simon & Garfunkel tunes and that instantly recognizable leg pose on the movie poster. The film’s director Mike Nichols did win the Best Director Oscar that year, so at least the Academy got that one right.

Star Wars (1977)
The actual winner: Annie Hall.
The other nominees: The Goodbye Girl, Julia, The Turning Point.
Because I love Annie Hall so much, I almost didn’t include Star Wars on this list. But how can I argue against the movie that changed the course of film history? In terms of substantiating the summer blockbuster and using epic visual effects to tell a tale of pure escapism, the influence of Star Wars never went away. In terms of total number of Oscars won, Star Wars was actually the winner of the evening with six wins total (Art Direction, Costume Design, Film Editing, Original Score, Sound and Visual Effects, plus a special achievement award for Sound Effects Editing), compared to the four won by Annie Hall.

Raging Bull (1980)
The actual winner: Ordinary People.
The other nominees: Coal Miner’s Daughter, The Elephant Man, Tess.
This should have been Martin Scorsese’s first Oscar. Taxi Driver, you say? Well, 1976 was a tough year with Network also in the field and Rocky winning. The actual Best Picture winner Ordinary People is a very good film, but at the end of the ’80s, Raging Bull was selected best film of the decade by many film critics, including Roger Ebert — so even after only ten years Raging Bull was already demonstrating it would better stand the test of time.

Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
The actual winner: Chariots of Fire.
The other nominees: Atlantic City, On Golden Pond, Reds.
Nothing against Chariots of Fire — it’s a good movie — but come on! This was one of very few instances where the Best Picture winner went to a film in which the director (Hugh Hudson) did not receive a directing nomination. The award for Best Director that year went to Warren Beatty for Reds, leaving me to think that Raiders wouldn’t have even been the Academy’s second choice for Best Picture. At best it likely placed third, which shows just how much the Academy doesn’t consider pure escapist cinema to be Best Picture material, no matter how perfect it is. The Academy did manage to get something right that evening: with a total of five Oscars won, Raiders actually took home more statues than any other film that evening. Chariots and Reds won four and three, respectively.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
The actual winner: Gandhi.
The other nominees: Missing, Tootsie, The Verdict.
So how did it come to be that a serious historical three-hour drama will automatically be the frontrunner for Best Picture? Aside from Citizen Kane losing, this might be the best example of the Academy getting things seriously wrong. Even back in ’82 I knew that E.T. would become an endearing classic and that Gandhi (while a very good movie) would never be remembered in such a way. E.T. is simply filmmaking perfection by a director making the kind of movie he was put on the earth to make.

Goodfellas (1990)
The actual winner: Dances with Wolves.
The other nominees: Awakenings, Ghost, The Godfather Part III.
At the time, my friend Bill summed it up like this: “To say Kevin Costner is a better director than Martin Scorsese is like saying I’m a better quarterback than Joe Montana.” No disrespect intended to the excellent Dances with Wolves, but Goodfellas is Scorsese’s masterpiece — and the second film of his that should have won.

Apollo 13 (1995)
The actual winner: Braveheart.
The other nominees: Babe, The Postman (Il Postino), Sense and Sensibility.
This is the film that should have earned Ron Howard his first Oscar, not A Beautiful Mind (2001). Come to think of it, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) should have taken Best Picture over A Beautiful Mind that year, but at least that was sort of made right when The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) took home all 11 Oscars for which it was nominated. But getting back to Apollo 13, Ron Howard was famously not even nominated for directing this near-perfect film that manages to create considerable tension even though the story’s outcome is known. The Directors Guild of America gave Ron Howard its prestigious DGA award that year, but the Oscar went to Mel Gibson — who Howard happened to making the movie Ransom (1996) with at the time.

Fargo (1996)
The actual winner: The English Patient.
The other nominees: Jerry Maguire, Secrets & Lies, Shine.
Not unlike Elaine on Seinfeld, I find The English Patient an excruciating experience to sit through. The winner that year clearly should have been Joel and Ethan Coen’s perfect blend of crime and dark humor, which at 98 minutes is precisely as long as it needs to be. Fargo was also, in 1998, the only 1996 film to make the American Film Institute’s original 100 Years … 100 Movies list.

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For the second half of the day, Goldsmith was joined by newcomer David Anspaugh, whose name I recognized from producing and directing episodes of one of my favorite television series, Hill Street Blues (1981- 1987). The movie screened was Anspaugh’s feature film debut: Hoosiers. From the opening sequence of Gene Hackman’s character driving across 1950s Indiana, beautifully photographed by Fred Murphy, I pretty much knew I was going to love the film.

The excellent screenplay by co-producer Angelo Pizzo is inspired by a true story about the underdog Milan High School basketball team, who won the Indiana state championship in 1954.

Gene Hackman is perfect as Norman Dale, a former college basketball coach of the Ithaca Warriors who was given a lifetime suspension for physically assaulting one of his own players. He is given a clean slate by his old friend, Cletus (Sheb Wooley), the principal of Hickory High School in need of a new basketball coach. The tone is set for Dale his first night in town when he meets some of the locals at the barber shop and he is told outright, “This town don’t like change much.” Indeed. Dale, of course, has his own plans for the team.

Barbara Hershey is great as the protective neighbor of one of the school’s best players Jimmy Chitwood (Maris Valainis). Dennis Hopper shines in one of his greatest roles as the town drunk who begins to confront his alcoholism when he is given a chance by Dale to be the assistant coach. But really, the entire cast is perfect, right down to every citizen of Hickory and every single boy on that basketball team.

What comes down to is this: even if you don’t give a rat’s ass about basketball, if you have a pulse you’ll probably like this movie.

Getting back to that UCLA screening back in 1986, it was the only time in my life I’d been in the same room with so many Goldsmith fans at the same time. There was a moment during the climax of the final game when the music was so wonderful everyone around me looked at each other excitedly in utter amazement.

There was a Q&A after the movie, but the only question I could think of had fortunately been asked early on. Yes, there would be a soundtrack album.

Later that day was the first of two times in my life where I had the opportunity to meet Jerry Goldsmith. I was able to tell him how much I loved The Omen (1976) and how it got me interested in soundtracks. He shook my hand and said, “Thanks. I had a great time doing it.” I’m sure I was shaking from the magnitude of the moment. I mean, how many people get to actually meet their favorite composer and tell them in the briefest of moments how much their music means to them? It was one of those moments I’d like to capture forever and play it over in my head again and again.

Hoosiers opened November 14, 1986, in limited release. When it finally opened wide February 27, 1987 — despite my best efforts telling everyone I encountered what a wonderful movie it was — Hoosiers did not win the box office, opening number five. It did earn two well-deserved Oscar nominations for Dennis Hopper’s performance (in the Supporting Actor category) and for Jerry Goldsmith’s music.

Over the years, I was happy to see that this little film that I loved eventually found its audience.

In 2004, ESPN voted Hoosiers the best sports movie of all-time in their list of the 25 Best Sports Movies. As much as I love Rocky (1976, which didn’t even make their list), Field Of Dreams (1989) and The Natural (1984), it’s hard for me to argue with Hoosiers as their number one choice.

Like Jimmy Chitwood says before he makes his final shot, “I’ll make it.”

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1984 was one hell of a summer for movie nerds like me. May 23 brought us the highly anticipated Raiders prequel Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, while the following week allowed us to discover what happened after the death of a beloved character in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Back in the day when a film wasn’t considered “dead on arrival” if it didn’t open in the #1 spot, June 8 saw the arrival of two big summer films, Ghostbusters and Gremlins — but that didn’t stop both movies from breaking $100 million at the box office that year.

In the weeks before these four films opened, I remember sitting in my high school Calculus class attempting to draw the logo lettering of all of them with the exception of Ghostbusters, which to be honest I wasn’t anticipating as much as the others. But as it turned out, even though it was a comedy, Ghostbusters (thanks to help from the excellent special effects by Richard Edlund) was as epic in scope as the other films in the summer of ’84.

Ghostbusters is directed by Ivan Reitman, who at the time had previously directed Meatballs (1979) and Stripes (1981), in addition to serving as a producer on National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978). The screenplay is written by Dan Aykroyd (who also wrote 1980′s The Blues Brothers) and Harold Ramis (co-writer of Animal House, Stripes and 1980′s Caddyshack; director of Caddyshack and 1983′s National Lampoon’s Vacation).

Bill Murray’s comedic talent shines as Peter Venkman, a role that was originally conceived for Aykroyd’s Blues Brothers pal John Belushi. Murray is wonderfully deadpan here, reminding me at times of the great silent comedian Buster Keaton, especially his reaction to his would-be girlfriend transforming into a “dog.” Aykroyd and Ramis are also perfect in their respective roles, Raymond Stantz and Egon Spengler, forming a great comedic trio. They are joined later in the film by Ernie Hudson, who ends up having one of my favorite lines in the movie (see title of this article).

Sigourney Weaver, known mainly at the time for Alien (1979) and The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), displays a solid aptitude for comedy as Dana, a woman seeks the help of the Ghostbusters when she discovers a demigod named Zuul in her refrigerator (“Generally you don’t see that kind of behavior in a major appliance.”) Her dweebish neighbor Louis is played to perfection by Rick Moranis. And let us not forget the comedic talent of Annie Potts who plays the Ghostbusters’s occasionally acerbic receptionist, Janine.

There are so many great quotable lines in Ghostbusters, it was actually hard to pick just one for the title of this piece. One of my favorite throwaway lines, when Egon matter-of-factly states “print is dead,” is kind of prophetic now. Let us also not forget such goodies as “He slimed me,” “We came, we saw, we kicked it’s ass,” and of course “Human sacrifices, dogs and cats living together … mass hysteria!”

Pretty much the entire cast reunites for Ghostbusters II (1989), along with director Ivan Reitman, with another screenplay by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. What could go wrong, right? The disappointing results indicate just how difficult (and lucky) it is to capture lightning in a bottle — even with the aid of Proton Packs and an Ecto-Containment Unit.

And by the way, despite my daydreaming back in 1984 about upcoming summer movies in that Calculus class, I still managed to get an A.

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In 1982, one of my favorite Stephen King books Different Seasons was published, consisting of four novellas that each correspond to a season of the year. I love this book so much because three out of the four tales do not have anything whatsoever to do with the supernatural — a bit of a departure for King. One of his strengths as a writer is his ability to create real flesh and blood people who populate his stories, no matter how crazy things get. This ability especially shines in Different Seasons, and anyone who doubts the writing talent of Stephen King should read at least one of the stories from this book.

Three of the four stories, the same three that do not rely on anything supernatural, have been made into films — the first being Stand By Me which was adapted from The Body. The second film to come from this source was The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Frank Darabont’s flawless adaptation of Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. Unfortunately my favorite of these stories, Apt Pupil, failed as a film (released in 1998), mainly due to the fact that director Bryan Singer and screenwriter Brandon Boyce changed the ending so significantly that they pretty much rendered the rest of the story pointless.

The screenplay for Stand By Me, by Bruce A. Evans and Raynold Gideon (who also wrote 1984′s Starman) is remarkably faithful to its source, right down to the moment where Gordie encounters the deer — one of my favorite little incidents from King’s story that I couldn’t believe made it into the movie. Future adapters of Stephen King material take note: it’s the small character moments like this that make me an admirer of the author’s work, and leaving such moments out of the movie — even though they might not advance the plot — is utterly stupid.

Something else that is generally lost in other King adaptations is his wonderful prose. Fortunately, since The Body is told in the first-person, it lends itself well to using voice-over, and the screenplay beautifully depicts an older version of Gordie, played by Richard Dreyfuss, narrating the story. Thus, we get to keep such observations of friends drifting apart over the years such as, “Friends come in and out of our lives like busboys in a restaurant.“

It is a testament of Rob Reiner’s directing skills that he was able to not only so successfully cast the four young leads, but also that he managed to get such honest performances out of each of them. Corey Feldman has never been better as the crazy, bitter, angry Teddy Duchamp. Jerry O’Connell is perfect as Vern Tessio. And of course River Phoenix shines in the role of Chris Chambers, the kid who believes he was born with no chance in life, who in one heartfelt moment confesses to Gordie that he wants to move away to a place where no one knows him.

Playing Gordie Lachance is a very young Wil Wheaton, in what I was certain at the time was a star-making performance. He’s so downright perfect in this role, it will always remain a mystery to me why his acting career never quite took off the way I imagined it would, especially after demonstrating his ability to carry a movie like he did. Of course all of us nerds are well aware that Wil Wheaton grew up to become — not unlike the adult version of his character — a great writer.

25 years ago, I sat in the theater pretty much stunned by what a solid adaptation this was. I couldn’t believe the entire Lardass Hogan story even made the cut. I had snuck a bottle of Mickey’s Big Mouth into the movie theater, and by the end, with a little buzz going, was profoundly effected by the ending, which I found even more emotional than the book — probably because of the way Chris Chambers disappears from the frame, or the way that the older Gordie looks back on his childhood while at the same time watching his own young son interact with his friend.

Ultimately, Stand By Me is my favorite film about kids beginning the transition into adulthood, a coming of age story that made me reflect the most about my own childhood and the friends that I had when I was twelve. I just don’t understand how this movie is now older than I was when I first saw it. Jesus, does anyone?

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It was in 1983 when James Cameron met with Alien producer David Giler to discuss possibilities for a sequel. Giler had been impressed with Cameron’s screenplay for The Terminator, which had come across his desk. Cameron, about to complete pre-production on The Terminator, began writing a treatment for Alien II. A scheduling conflict with Terminator star Arnold Schwarzenegger caused a production delay, affording Cameron the time to begin writing his screenplay. Although he wasn’t able to complete the script, it was enough to impress the heads at 20th Century Fox — so much so that they actually waited until Cameron was available again and told him he could direct the Alien sequel if The Terminator (1984) turned out well.

When Ripley is rescued after 57 years of hypersleep, her account of events on the Nostromo is met with extreme skepticism and she looses her space flight status as a result. She is also informed that colonization has already begun on LV-426, the very planet where her ship’s crew had first encountered the face huggers, only one of which managed to wipe out everyone on board.

Later, when contact is lost with the colony on LV-426, Ripley is visited by corporate suit Carter Burke, played to slimy perfection by comedian Paul Reiser. The company wants to send a team of marines to investigate, with Ripley along as an adviser — and if she agrees to go, Burke says he will restore her flight status.

The tension established by Cameron the director is a very high level that few films achieve, a major factor of which is the fact that each marine is outfitted with a helmet camera that Cameron and editor Ray Lovejoy can cut to whenever they want to demonstrate just how claustrophobic and dire the situation is.

But more important is the suspense created by Cameron the writer by focusing more on the human elements, notably the relationship between Ripley and Newt (Carrie Henn), a young girl who is the only colonist that managed to survive. The most terrifying moment in the movie, at least for me, occurs later in the film when Ripley hears Newt faintly screaming from somewhere inside the complex and we all know that Ripley is left with no choice whatsoever other than to go after her. Compare this to the original film in which no less than three times, someone goes off looking for Jones the cat. Now don’t get me wrong, I love cats and I love the original Alien, but to be used as a plot device three times is a bit weak. By having a little girl in danger, one that we know Ripley feels responsible for, Cameron elicits gasps from the audience, not groans.

The screenplay also does a great job of establishing things early on — such as the cargo-loader and speculation over just what the hell exactly is laying all those eggs — and paying them off later.

The film is perfectly cast with great actors like Terminator co-star Michael Biehn as Corporal Hicks (who gives a perfect non-enthustiastic acknowledgement of leadership when it’s pointed out that he is now the man in charge), Jenette Goldstein as the badass Vasquez, and of course Bill “Why don’t you put her in charge?” Paxton as Hudson.

Lance Henriksen portrays Bishop with a perfect balance of android and humanity. There’s a great moment in the film when Bishop volunteers to go through a claustrophobic pipe, saying “Believe me, I’d prefer not to. I may be synthetic, but I’m not stupid.” Another great Bishop moment comes when he’s being sealed into the pipe and he cautious the others, “Watch your fingers.” Also the character is wonderfully written with an arc that is a very fitting juxtaposition to Ash, the android character from the original film played by Ian Holm.

Sigourney Weaver received a Best Actress nomination for this film, which is an astounding feat considering the Academy generally doesn’t acknowledge acting in genre films. But here we have a sci-fi horror action film that also happens to be a sequel — that’s a lot going against her and yet the Academy couldn’t ignore this amazing performance.

Composer James Horner certainly had a challenging task, considering he was following in the footsteps of Jerry Goldsmith, who wrote a score for the original that many film music fans (including myself) hold in very high regard. Horner ended up writing a score that has become an action staple of its own — one particular cue called “Bishop’s Countdown” was used in just about every single action film trailer for a couple of years. It’s interesting that Cameron ended up playing around so much with Horner’s score that there’s very little music in the film that was actually written specifically for the moment it’s being used. Yet still, Horner also ended up getting an Oscar nomination.

As great as the theatrical release is, an even superior “Special Edition” version was released on laserdisc in 1992, featuring several great additional character moments, notably the revelation that Ripley had a daughter who had died by the time she had returned to earth from her hypersleep, making Ripley’s bonding with Newt all the more compelling. Fortunately, the Special Edition has made its way to various DVD releases and is also on the latest Blu-ray — and this is the version you need to watch tonight, especially if it’s been a while since you’ve seen it. In the meantime, enjoy the trailer.

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And so here’s the “problem” of sorts: these filmmakers set out to make a pure escapist adventure film and wound up setting the marker and making the best of its kind. They set the bar so high that no other film (including any of the sequels) have come close to matching it. All this happened 30 years ago on June 12, 1981 when Raiders of the Lost Ark was released.

It has one of the funniest gags ever of its genre. At one point our hero Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is confronted by a incredibly skilled swordsman, in what seems to be a build-up to an amazing fight. But then Indiana Jones calmly pulls out his pistol and shoots the guy dead. Around the fourth time I saw the movie in the theater, I dragged my Grandma Webb to see it with me. She always had a nice hearty laugh and after this particular gag I could hear a good one coming from down deep. After her laugh finally subsided, I could still hear her chuckling about it for the next couple of reels.

The genesis of Raiders began in the early ’70s when George Lucas had a desire to make an adventure picture which would be an updated version of the film serials of the ’30s and ’40s. Friend and fellow filmmaker Philip Kaufman collaborated on the idea, with the understanding that Kaufman would direct, about an archaeologist in the 1930s (at the time named Indiana Smith) trying to find the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis. When Kaufman was hired to work on The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) for Clint Eastwood, the project was shelved and Lucas focused his attention on Star Wars — another idea inspired by old film serials.

Years later, during the opening weekend of Star Wars in May 1977, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg were vacationing in Hawaii together when Spielberg mentioned to his pal that he’d always wanted to direct an action picture that was pure escapism like James Bond. Lucas pitched the idea of Raiders and suddenly, with Spielberg’s enthusiasm, the project was reinvigorated.

In my write-up for The Empire Strikes Back (1980), I gave major props to Lawrence Kasdan for his screenplay and the same props definitely apply here. Spielberg, Lucas and Kasdan would meet regularly and brainstorm scenes that they’d like to see in the movie. It was Kasdan who took the hodgepodge of crazy ideas and managed to work many of them into a coherent screenplay. A few ideas that didn’t make it, such as a mine cart chase and an escape from an airplane on an inflatable raft, would show up in the 1984 sequel. (I guess technically Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is a prequel, even though it references the aforementioned funny gag from Raiders — whatever, just go with it.)

Right from the start, when the Paramount logo dissolves into a shot of an actual mountain, we know we’re in for something different. The amazing opening sequence plunges us headfirst into the world of Indiana Jones, as we witness the finale to an unseen previous adventure involving a quest for a golden idol in the jungles of South America 1936. I consider myself fortunate that I first saw this sequence — like everyone else in the theater — with no idea whatsoever who Indiana Jones was. This was just some guy in a fedora with a bullwhip who emerges dramatically from the shadows and is really good at detecting spike traps, but who clearly has bad luck in the loyal henchman department.

One of the things I absolutely love about John Williams’s score is the way he refrains from using the theme right away. Lesser composers would have come right out of the gate with this great theme they’ve written, but Williams builds to it. About 12 minutes into the film, while escaping from Peruvian natives, our hero swings out on a vine (missing his plane and splashing into the water) and the Indiana Jones theme finally begins to emerge. I still remember sitting there in the theater during that moment, hearing that theme for the first time and being overcome with major chills. To this day, that memory is the sole reason why I never listen to a soundtrack album of a John Williams score to a Spielberg film before I see the movie.

There’s lots of great action sequences in the film. Some of them, like Indy being chased by the giant boulder, have even become iconic. But my favorite action sequence ever put on film is the truck chase, a technical marvel of great editing, perfect music and spectacular stunt work. The part where Indy climbs underneath the truck, a variation on an old stunt originally performed by Yakima Canutt in John Ford’s 1939 version of Stagecoach, is executed masterfully here by stuntman Terry Leonard — even if they did have to dig a small trench in the truck’s path to pull it off. Leonard had previously attempted a variation on the Stagecoach stunt in The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981) and was badly injured when he got pulled underneath and his legs were run over.

It’s practically common knowledge now that Tom Selleck was offered the Indiana Jones role but couldn’t do it because of his TV series Magnum, P.I. While I’m certain Selleck would have been great in the role, it’s very difficult to imagine anyone else besides Harrison Ford wearing that fedora. In addition to being able to come across as a believable action hero, Ford manages to bring a vulnerability to the role as well. Somehow there’s still an everyman quality to Ford’s Indy, even when he’s punching Nazis in the face.

The excellent cast also includes Karen Allen as the refreshingly feisty Marion Ravenwood, Paul Freeman as Indy’s rival Belloq who’s been hired by the Nazis, Ronald Lacey as Toht who chuckles at the very thought of tossing women into snake pits, John Rhys-Davies as Indy’s old friend and sidekick Sallah, and of course the great Denholm Elliott as museum curator Dr. Marcus Brody.

As I mentioned already, it is my opinion that no other action-adventure flick has ever come close to matching the perfection of Raiders of the Lost Ark, not even any of its sequels (or prequels). But as far as those sequels go, I know I’m in the minority when I say that my favorite is Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom — mainly because it’s so audaciously different from the first movie. I assume most Indy fans prefer the third in the series Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) because it brought the story back closer to Raiders — Indy fighting Nazis again in a race to find another holy relic. It’s certainly fun, but feels more like a rehash to me. Clearly it’s a difficult task to catch lightning in a bottle twice.

Happy 30th, Raiders! To quote Indy himself, “It’s not the years, it’s the mileage.” And the mileage here holds up splendidly.

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About a year later, in the summer of 1977, we had just gotten this new contraption called Showtime which allowed you to watch movies uncut with no commercials in your living room. It was a little box that sat on top of the TV. To turn on Showtime you tuned your television channel to 3 and turned the dial on the box over to “premium.” Back then, the day’s programming generally began early evening. They showed two movies, followed by the same two movies repeated, and that would be it.

The Omen was the second R-rated film my parents let me see — the first being the Roger Corman produced classic Death Race 2000 (1975) directed by Paul Bartel. Of course I had no idea who Roger Corman was yet, but I would soon learn that if I watched a decent action flick with some cool car crashes, chances are Corman had a hand in it.

I was a couple of months shy of my 12th birthday when I sat down one evening to watch The Omen. That’s right, I said evening. It was 10 o’clock, my parents had gone to bed, and I was up by myself. From the first bars of Jerry Goldsmith’s main title music, I was scared.

The story involves the rise of the Antichrist, as young Damien Thorn (Harvey Stephens) winds up in the care of U.S. Ambassador to England Robert Thorn (Gregory Peck) and his wife Kathy (Lee Remick).

At the time, what I found most frightening about the movie were all of those violent on-screen “accidents” that befell anyone who stood in Damien’s way — it’s certainly what all of my fellow 5th-graders couldn’t stop talking about. While that’s definitely a big part of the gruesome appeal, over time I started to wonder why none of the film’s many imitators, including all of the sequels, could ever achieve the same level of fright as the original. Eventually I realized that many of the movie’s genuine scares come from those creepy darkroom scenes involving a photographer, Jennings (David Warner), who discovers strange blemishes in his pictures that seem to foreshadow how someone will die. When Jennings presents a photograph of himself which has a large streak going through his neck — and Goldsmith nails the moment — my 11-year-old self had chills from head to toe. To this day, that scene still gives me chills whenever I watch it.

That said, the deaths in The Omen are spectacularly awesome, particularly the priest impaled by the lightning rod and of course the famous beheading — there’s something terrifically gruesome about the way that the severed head rolls along the glass.

The imitators and sequels all sought to give us more of the grisly accidents, losing sight that it was really the story and compelling characters that drove things along in the original. Director Richard Donner rooted the film firmly in realism, just as he would also do two years later with Superman (1978). In Donner’s commentary track he says it was his intent to make a film that could be interpreted as Robert Thorn going mad and that all of those deaths could be nothing more than a series of strange coincidences. While I’ve never interpreted the film that way, I have always appreciated the fact that there is nothing overtly supernatural beyond the premise of a child who might be the Antichrist. Writer David Seltzer certainly knows how to write believable characters — he would go on to write and direct the excellent coming-of-age drama Lucas (1986) starring Corey Haim.

I’ve written excessively about Jerry Goldsmith’s amazing score, specifically about how the piece “Ave Satani” got me into film music. In our apartment complex there was a girl my age and we would listen to the soundtrack album together over and over again. Sorry, Dynese — surely our parents must have found this odd.

Goldsmith won his only Oscar for this score — and in fact “Ave Satani” was actually nominated for Best Song, but it lost to Barbara Streisand and Paul Williams’s “Evergreen,” from A Star Is Born. I suspect the lyric “Love, soft as an easy chair” is a little easier to take than Satanic Latin choral chanting.

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Outland opened 30 years ago on May 22, 1981 and I clearly remember my dad and I going to a matinee showing opening day. This ranks right up there among my memorable moviegoing experiences with my dad, which also includes seeing Caddyshack (1980) opening day and spending the rest of the day laughing about our favorite bits — such as rocking the phrase “Oh, but it looks good on you though,” whenever it made any kind of sense. I also remember getting a kick out of seeing just how much he loved Superman (1978).

There was also the time my dad drove my friend Eric and I to see The Black Hole (1979) and when the lights came up at the end my dad was actually sitting in the theater a few rows behind us. It turns out he actually wanted to see the movie too, but didn’t want to “cramp our style” by having “the old man” hang around. It wasn’t the greatest movie, but we all thought the voyage through the black hole at the end was interesting and it lead to a fun discussion in the car. In short, my dad is cool.

The thing I remember us both enjoying about Outland is while it’s clearly set somewhere in the future, released during a time when studios were scrambling to release Star Wars knockoffs, there is not one laser gun blast in the film. The law enforcement’s weapon of choice is the good ol’ trusty shotgun. And while the saloons of the old west have been replaced by futuristic strip clubs, there’s still a scene where a guy gets punched in the face there.

Peter Hyams at that point had co-written (with Stirling Silliphant) the screenplay for the Charles Bronson thriller Telefon (1977). He had also written and directed the films Hanover Street (1979, with Harrison Ford) and another one of my favorites, the awesome conspiracy thriller Capricorn One (1978).

In Outland, Sean Connery plays O’Niel, a Federal Marshal assigned to a one year tour on the Io mining colony. He’s pitted almost immediately against Sheppard (Peter Boyle), the general manager who wants him to look the other way when the workers want to let off a little stream now and then. Also on hand are great underused actors like James B. Sikking (a Hyams regular) and Frances Sternhagen as Lazarus, the outpost’s doctor who becomes one of the few people O’Niel can trust.

The relationship between O’Niel and Lazarus is one of the more interesting elements. Early in the film, O’Niel’s wife Carol (Kika Markham) had left him, taking their young son Paul with her, unable to cope with the fact that Paul has never once set foot on earth. In the hands of other filmmakers, a romance could have easily blossomed between O’Niel and Lazarus — it is after all what movie audiences have been conditioned to expect. But it doesn’t happen here. It’s clear that O’Niel still loves his wife and hopes to work things out with her. The closest Lazarus and O’Niel ever come to expressing any feelings for one another is one great moment where she says to him “Your wife is one stupid lady.” The best part of this is not knowing whether she actually has feelings for him or if she’s just saying this as a good friend.

Fans of Peter Hyams no doubt recognize that the corporation behind the mining outpost is Con-Amalgamate, which is also the name of the company responsible for the faulty life-support system in Capricorn One, and is also referenced in Hyams’ first screenplay, T.R. Baskin (1971).

Outland was the second collaboration between Hyams and composer Jerry Goldsmith, who also scored Capricorn One (which features “Break Out,” one of my six favorite soundtrack cues of all time). For Outland, Goldsmith wrote a very dark score, with rhythmic motifs that build with an overwhelming feeling of dread, especially in several of the early scenes that depict some of the miners going crazy.

The Stravinsky-influenced cue called “Hot Water,” written for an exhilarating chase sequence through the outpost, is one of the highlights of Goldsmith’s career. This particular piece of music also kept my friends and I awake in the middle of the night once during a road trip.

30 years ago, it was a great day at the movies with my dad. Now Outland has become one of my favorites, a movie that’s really hard to turn off once it gets started.

Thanks Dad, for being so cool.

Related articles

• Revival House: Seven Great Rejected Film Scores (popdose.com)
• Revival House: Nine Great Scores From Bad Movies (popdose.com)

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Carmina Burana

Excalibur

Director John Boorman at the time was best known for the brilliant and disturbing Oscar-nominated Deliverance (1972). Boorman had been trying to make a film about the Arthurian legend since the late sixties and at one point was even preparing a film version of The Lord of the Rings instead — in fact he and Excalibur co-writer Rospo Pallenberg had collaborated on a Lord of the Rings screenplay which would have condensed all three of J. R. R. Tolkien’s novels one movie. When that project fell through, Boorman turned his thoughts back to King Arthur.

The screenplay for Excalibur, adapted by Boorman and Rospo Pallenberg from Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, focuses more on allegory and myth than historical accuracy. But, as strange as the tale is at times, it never strays too far from realism. It also manages to cover the major moments of the legend — the betrayal of Lancelot and Guinevere, the rise of Mordred, the quest for the Holy Grail — without seeming rushed.

I think what stood out for me the most when I saw it opening weekend was that the film portrayed medieval combat unlike anything I had ever seen before — with brutal realism. A knight in full plate armor can barely move, let alone fight, and the swords they use are so heavy that a sword fight is less like a fencing match and more like ferociously slashing away at your opponent’s armor until eventually you hack your way through.

The cast assembled here is outstanding. Noted character actor Nicol Williamson, at the time best known for his bold and brilliant take as Sherlock Holmes in The Seven-Per-Cent Solution (1976), gives a wonderfully eccentric performance as Merlin, who weaves in and out of the story, setting things in motion with great wisdom and confidence, yet showing genuine shock when events occur that he did not foresee (an example of which is seen at the end of the clip below).

Nigel Terry, known primarily for his stage work, is a perfect King Arthur, playing him convincingly through a wide range of years. And the stunning-at-any-age Helen Mirren is captivating as Morgana, Arthur’s half-sister and also his son’s mother (yes, you read that right). Also flawless in their roles are Nicholas Clay as Sir Lancelot and Cherie Lunghi as Queen Guinevere. These are all easily my favorite portrayals of these mythic characters ever filmed.

Excalibur was the film debuts of Gabriel Byrne (as Arthur’s father Uther Pendragon), Liam Neeson (as Sir Gawain), and Patrick Stewart (as Leondegrance, who is the first to overdramatically attempt to draw the sword from the stone and is also the first ally of the boy king).

The gorgeous Oscar-nominated cinematography is by Alex Thomson, who went on to shoot Ridley Scott’s Legend (1985). For Excalibur he uses a striking green lighting effect whenever the titular sword of power is featured. The film also contains unforgettable background imagery such as the the massive flames of the fire during the night Arthur is conceived and the red glow of the sun during the climactic confrontation between Arthur and Mordred.

I’ll leave you with this small bit from John Boorman’s DVD commentary track as Perceval (Paul Geoffrey) begins his quest for the Holy Grail: “This scene of finding the dead knight … I really stole this idea from The Seventh Seal, from Bergman. He did it much better.”

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