Just to give you all a sense of the challenge of the Supporting Actress Smackdowns, I thought I'd share some behind-the-scenes notes. A lot of prep work went into the years we've covered (1952, 1968, 1980, and 2003). Only one of them was difficult to stick with (that'd be 2003 because the movies stunk). Of the years not yet covered (StinkyLulu hosted a lot of them) there are 39 years still aching to be Smacked Down!
1937 • 1938 • 1941 • 1943 • 1944 • 1946 • 1947 • 1948 •
1951 • 1954 • 1957 • 1960 • 1963 • 1964 • 1965 • 1970 •
1972 • 1973 • 1977 • 1979 • 1981 • 1984 • 1986 • 1987 •
1989 • 1991 • 1994 • 1995 • 1997 • 1998 • 2000 • 2001 •
2002 • 2004 • 2005 • 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2013 •
But here's where it gets tricky....
I generally start with Netflix and Amazon and iTunes to see what's available and the years in red all have at least one film that is quite difficult to come by, either because it's available for purchase only (sometimes at high prices like Looking For Mr Goodbar from 1977) due to the death of video stores or the rapid decline of Netflix's mailing wing or it's just not offered by anyone. That's a lot of red and it just shows you how little the studios care about making their archives accessible or keeping their less popular films in circulation. I've said it a million times but it horrifies me that an Oscar nomination doesn't automatically guarantee that your film stays available to the public. Rest assured: some of those years in red would make for AWESOME smackdowns. My heart yearns for Smackdowns on '60, '64 and '73 especially because the movies are interesting/good. But I'm also super curious about '46 and '72 which are very rare years in terms of my complete unfamiliarity (I've only seen 1 performance from each lineup... and it aint even the winning one! That's strange in the case of 1972 especially since I've seen a lot of movies from that year due to my Cabaret obsession). But alas...
The years in blue are just me being fussy because I just don't have an interest in revisiting them any time soon. I'm sure 1997 would be a fun Smackdown but those movies are impossible to escape (I've seen 4 of the 5 quite recently again) and Julianne would win in a crazy landslide anyway.
The age of streaming has made so many movies instantly accessible but it's also killed variety because streaming only works if you're okay with a few corporations curating your entire film experience for you or waiting to accidentally catch something on TCM. Me, I've never been okay with someone else determining what I can watch and when I can watch it. I hate to rail against progress because the streaming technology has come a long way but it's still deeply unsatisfying if you're a purist (the image is rarely great) and if you love anything made 20 years before the now. Every new technology change seems to kill huge swaths of cinema history.
Anyway. Enough miserabilism. I'll decide on the next year soon and the fun begins anew.