Top Ten of 1997

Finally, after much writing, rewriting, and thought, my Top Ten of 1997. It almost included Alien Resurrection, Cop Land, Deconstructing Harry, The Postman, and The Sweet Hereafter, but ultimately does not. In alphabetical order:

1997 Oscars: Best Director

We now start our journey through the 50th Academy Awards, celebrating the films of 1997. Next week we'll do Best Picture, this week we'll do the Acting categories, but today: Best Director.

Now, if you recall, it was a director who set me on this path of 1990, 1997, and 2003: Kevin Costner. Readers voted the years in which he directed a film as the project to follow my The Winner Is John Ford series. Sadly, as we noted yesterday, The Postman was little appreciated in its time, though Costner did "win" Worst Director at the Razzies and its overseas equivalent, Spain's Yoga Awards. Unfair and unjust.

Two directors who missed the Oscar lineup: James L. Brooks for Best Picture nominee As Good As It Gets and Steven Spielberg for Amistad, both nominated at the Directors Guild of America Awards and at the Golden Globes. The Boxer's Jim Sheridan was also nominated at the Golden Globes while missing out at the Academy Awards. And then there's Baz Luhrmann, whose 1996 Romeo + Juliet was no awards favorite in the States but qualified for the next year's BAFTAs, where he was nominated for Best Director against Curtis Hanson, Peter Cattaneo, and James Cameron...and won. 

But there can be only one King of the World at the Oscars: 

Here's how I'd rank 'em:

1997: Good Will, Great Success

Ten movies we get into today, all released between November 7 and December 10, 1997.  December 5th, though, saw the release of our next Best Picture nominee: Good Will Hunting.

Peter Biskind’s Down and Dirty Pictures does a good job of placing us in Matt Damon’s and Ben Affleck’s shoes, two good-looking young actors who haven’t quite hit yet and are waiting for that One Great Part that will showcase their talents. Together, they collaborate on an expansion of a short script Damon wrote in college, a thriller about a Southie math genius recruited by the government. Castle Rock Entertainment buys the script, Rob Reiner and William Goldman make some suggestions about what to take out (the thriller aspect) and what to build up (these therapist scenes…), but the movie doesn’t get made. There’s interest from studios, but no one wants to buy the script due to the writers’ requirement: that they be cast in the roles they wrote for themselves. Fortunately, by this time, they’re friendly with indie success Kevin Smith, who convinces Miramax to make the film and cast the guys…and you know the rest. Movie’s made, released, and is a huge hit, ending up on Top Ten lists, grossing $225.9M on a $10M budget, winning Oscars for Damon & Affleck’s screenplay and for Robin Williams’ against-type performance as the therapist, and cementing the young men’s status as Stars.

And this is what was out in theaters as it started it’s run: