8) Apocalypse Now
I guess I can’t blame people for not doling out awards to movies I didn’t like the first time, like Fargo, and like Apocalypse Now. In my defense, the first time I saw it, I watched the 3 ½ hour version and couldn’t make it through, but when I saw the original theatrical release for the first time, I was completely blown away. Maybe it took some priming from the first viewing. Maybe the original shorter version plays better. Maybe Kramer vs. Kramer was crazily important in 1980 (I’ve seen it; it’s great). But today, considering Apocalypse Now anything but the best film of 1979, let alone one of the best ever made, is downright heretical.
It seems like the rule goes accordingly: awards bodies like the Academy tend to reward movies that everybody likes very much rather than movies that many love deeply but others have issues with. Work that is too controversial will sometimes garner a nomination but the press that would accompany a winner like Zero Dark Thirty would reflect too poorly on the Oscar reputation. What they don’t realize is that while trying to protect their status as a reputable, wholesome organization, they’re simultaneously solidifying opinions that insist the group is historically irrelevant, rewards the safe over the ballsy, and prefers populist fluff rather than enduring pieces of truly fine art.
Granted, it’s nearly impossible to determine what movies will have staying power, but it’s usually safe to assume that films that take real risks ultimately influence future work more than stuff that plays off the usual conventions of their period, because those eventually fade away. I think the numerous movies that have gone unappreciated by the Academy and other recognition bodies of their era prove this.
