The Smackdowns. A History
Thursday, April 2, 2015 at 9:40AM Yes, it's true. The Smackdowns will return. StinkyLulu was gracious enough to let us reboot the series here. In our one bifurcated season thus far (Aug 2013 thru Sept 2014) we covered 1941, 1952, 1964 (which special guest Melanie Lynskey) 1968, 1973 (with special guest Dana Delany) 1980, 1989, and 2003. So... where to now?
Let's look at our options after the jump...
The Smackdown will return on Sunday May 24th but which film years should we cover? StinkyLulu's original site covered over 30 years of Supporting Actress competitions so unless we switch categories (which we might start doing to spice it up every so often) only these years remain:
AVAILABLE YEARS
Let us know which of these contests you think would make a great smackdown. We're still trying to line up special guests but hopefully we'll nab an actress or two. Whether or not we do you'll get a panel of great critics.
1943 - Cooper | Goddard | Paxinou | Revere | Watson
1947 - Barrymore | Grahame | Holm | Main | Revere
1948 - Bel Geddes | Corby | Moorehead | Simmons | Trevor
1954 - Foch | Jurado | Saint | Sterling | Trevor
1963 - Cilento | Evans | Rutherford | Redman | Skala
1965 - Gordon | Redman | Smith | Winters | Wood
1979 - Alexander | Barrie | Bergen | Hemingway | Streep
1981 - Dillon | Fonda | Stapleton | Hackett | McGovern
1984 - Ashcroft | Close | Crouse | Lahti | Page
1986 - Harper | Laurie | Mastrantonio | Smith | Weist
1987- Aleandro | Archer | Dukakis | Ramsey | Sothern
1991 - Ladd | Lewis | Nelligan | Ruehl | Tandy
1995 - Allen | Quinland | Sorvino | Winningham | Winslet
1997 - Basinger | Cusack | Driver | Moore | Stuart
1998- Bates | Dench | Blethyn | Griffiths | Redgrave
2000 - Dench | Harden | Hudson | McDormand | Walters
2001 - Connelly | Mirren | Smith | Tomei | Winslet
2002 - Bates | Moore | Latifah | Streep | Zeta-Jones
2004 - Blanchett | Linney | Madsen | Okonedo | Portman
2005 - Adams | Keener | McDormand | Weisz | Williams
UNFORTUNATELY WE CAN'T DO
1937 | 1938 | 1944 | 1946 | 1951 | 1957 | 1960 | 1972 | 1977
At least 1 or two films from each of these shortlists is either a) too costly to obstain or b) totally not available anymore *sob*... 1960 and 1977 would make G-R-E-A-T smackdowns but fall into the latter worst kind of retrospective problem
NO INSTANT REEVALUATION SO NOT YET ON...
2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014
Reader Comments (91)
I would be most interested in 1947, 1986, 1987, and 2000.
The older year Smackdowns are great for incentivizing me to seek out some movies I probably wouldn't have watched otherwise, but I always get more into the more modern ones! Out of the late 90's/early 2000's lineups, 2005 is the most interesting. I suspect Adams would win, but there were really 3 worthy winners that year. As stated above, Kenner should have been nominated for 40 Year Old Virgin and I can't remember a thing about McDormand (was that nomination for North County?).
oh please do 2005. I feel like this will be a year with a real horserace. everyone seems to have their own favorite and each woman would be a good potential winner. I look forward to readiing everyone's opinion about the contenders of that year.
2001.
DrewB: By Nat's standards, only two (Adams and Williams), due to Rachel Weisz being fairly clear cat fraud.
(I heart Smackdown!)
1979 would be a good year, as it has La Streep, and Hemingway is back in the news over the Woody Allen issue. And a rare double nominee / one film shot.
(I heart Smackdown!)
'86 would be good. Weist deserves the award running away, but I don't really remember any of the other performances except Laurie, who was excellent.
I agree that Cate Blanchett wouldn't have been my choice for 2004, but I don't quibble too much because I don't really know who I would have voted for instead. It was kind of a surprisingly anemica lineup in retrospect, given the names. I think Virginia Madsen was very good and affecting in Sideways but I don't really think more than that. Sophie Okonedo was okay, but an Oscar nomination was more than overstating the case. Laura Linney does her best, but Kinsey strands her with a stock spouse character and not much to do. I guess I would have voted for Portman, if we're strictly speaking qualitatively, but I think she was totally in the wrong category, so I would have felt weird voting for her in supporting.
1997,1998 and 2002. The ones I followed closely.
TPKIA: My ballot for 04 in order of quality is Madsen, Sideways, Watts, Huckabees, Daryl Hannah, Kill Bill Vol 2, Sandra Oh, Sideways, Sienna Miller, Layer Cake.
2005
1986
2002
1981
1998
1995
2001
What percentage of that 1960 lineup is out of print? I've been trying to find Sons and Lovers.
I'm only 22 so of course I'm partial to the more recent years, but I'm most interested in...
2000 - Because I think I would've given Julie Walters the win, but as someone else pointed out, it was a five-way race and the only one to not get nominated anywhere else (so, it can be assumed that people probably thought she was not going to win) won.
2002 - Mostly because I thought Queen Latifah did strong work in Chicago, but I remember each time it was brought up over the years, they were hating on her work. (Side note: Who else is super excited for Bessie on HBO?!)
2005 - Love Rachel Weisz, but I know I also love Michelle Williams, and though I'm not usually a huge Amy Adams fan, I thought her best work was in Junebug.
1997 and 2004 are also interesting. 1995 too with Oscar's one-hit wonder Mira Sorvino. 87 with a foreign language nominee in the supporting category. And 79 with Streep.
Love these so any year would be fine but my preferences are: 43, 84, 86, 98, 01 and 05. I'd say 1995 as well but I've been trying to catch Mighty Aphrodite for years and short of buying it I haven't had any luck.
Drew C-Keep an eye on TCM for Sons and Lovers, that's where I saw it and they do run it occasionally.
There are zero bad choices and I cannot WAIT!!!!!!!!!
(that said NINETY-SEVENNNNNNNNNN)
May 24 is my birthday and I can think of nothing better than a Smackdown for a present.
I was born in 1979 so that would be funny. But 1987 is one of the weirdest shortlists I've ever seen. It gets my vote (1997 would be my second choice).
1991, please!
My votes are 54, 81, 91 (the year that the Oscars hooked me!), 95, and 97.
Maybe I am a wizard? I've seen all of the nominees from three of the unavailable years (1937, 1957, 1977 - boy, that worked out neat).
But in the realm of the possible, I'd love to see 1979 or 2005. Next up would be 1947 (though I can't imagine anybody but Celeste Holm winning), and then 1987, which is a mixed bag in terms of memorable performances, but maybe the overall weirdest slate in this category's history.
2005! I'm always angry when I remember that Amy or Michele didn't win but go back and worth between which one I wish would have won.
I'd love either 2001 (Connelly sucked up so much of the oxygen that the discussion of the also-rans would be interesting) or 2005 (I love all of the actresses).
At the risk of sounding like an uncultured fool, I'd encourage a relatively recent slate simply because there will likely be fewer blind spots in your readers' viewing - for me, at least!
Having said that, these are so enjoyable that you can hardly go wrong.
1954 - cause Eva is so the obvious winner and the competition is weak, weak, weak!
1965 - let's see how good the girls from Othello are, plus Maggie Smith's first nom.
1981 - interesting lineup, and could Fonda really win for the third time back then?
1997! - I still can't believe that Basinger has an Oscar!
2005 - Weisz is sublime, but did she really deserve it?
RE: 1948.
The nominees are stellar: Claire Trevor, Barbara Bel Geddes, Ellen Corby, Agnes Moorehead, Jean Simmons.
You need to have seen the four films that contain their performances, for various reasons:
I Remember Mama: this is one of those chestnuts that you'll be happy you watched. It's George Stevens' precursor to A Place in the Sun (hmm), Irene Dunne's final Best Actress nomination, and you get to see Grandma Walton and Miss Ellie's younger selves.
Key Largo: the fourth and final Bogart-Bacall vehicle; never a bad idea to watch a John Huston flick.
Johnny Belinda: this has Moorehead's third (of four) nominations; it stars the Best Actress winner of that year; Lew Ayres is in it (!); it was directed by Jean Negulesco, someone rarely discussed here (not without reason), but he had a few classics in the late '40s and '50s that included this movie, How to Marry a Millionaire, River of No Return, Titanic, Three Came Home, Three Strangers and Humoresque.. They say some actors are only good with the right director. Negulesco was kind of a hack without the right stars and/or material.
Hamlet: it's Olivier's Hamlet, hello.
Why is 1988, also known as The Bloodbath, not an option?
peggy sue -- any year not listed above under those three categories has already been done.
Oh no! I missed that!
Yay! I adore the Smackdown. I'd love to see 1995 and 1997 get the special treatment.
1979, 1987, & 1997
My choices would be 1965, 1997, 2001, 1979, 1984, in order of preference. If someone can let me know (by email) which films from those 10 years are not readily available, I might be able to dig some of them up for everyone.
1979
The early aughts years in particular would be great, but honestly any of them will be great, because The Smackdown is the best thing in pretty much all of everdom.
Pete 'n' Tillie and Looking for Mr. Goodbar are on YouTube in their entirety, in case those were two of the movies from their respective years that are hard to find ...
Please Please Please do 1995 and 1981 !!!!!
Wow, Will h is right: Looking for Mr. Goodbar is on YouTube - time to see that again!
I love the Smackdown! I was a panelist for the year Penelope Cruz won and it was an honor and a highlight.
I would be most fascinated by 1997. I had the "70 Years of Oscar" book FOREVER before getting the updated version (they do a new one every five years), and I was always particularly obsessed with that year. At 11, I had seen every performance except Boogie Nights (no way my parents were gonna let me see that!), and I remember Gene Siskel writing in TV Guide, "Repeat after me: After last year [when Binoche won over Bacal], there is no possible upset in this category. Gloria Stuart is a shoo-in." And then Kim Basinger won! Plus, I love how a comedy performance is in there.
1997!!!!!!!!! Julianne Moore Boogie NIghts!!
Did we ever do 1957? I remember it was the next planned year and I watched 4/5 performances. Let me know if that will be done and I’ll rent Sayonara to finish up!
2001!
My top 5 would be: 1947, 1979, 1991, 1998, 2004.
Anyone from the 80's
How have we not done 1997 and 2002??? Must!
I'm all for 95 but could swear that was done? And I swear 43 and 48 (with lots of I Remember Mama jokes) were too? Maybe my quarantined mind is losing it.
Can't do all newbies... 47 would be fun!
1997, 2002, 2005