Vintage '91
Sunday, July 19, 2020 at 2:18PM The Supporting Actress Smackdown of 1991 is just a week away so get your votes in! Before we get there it's time for more context of that year in showbiz history. Ready?
Great Big Box Office Hits:
The year's biggest hit by an enormous margin was James Cameron's Terminator 2 Judgment Day (which has aged spectacularly well). The other major blockbusters were Kevin Costner's hit Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and Steven Spielberg's Hook. The big sleeper hit of the year was The Silence of the Lambs. Other hits that year included City Slickers, Backdraft, Sleeping With the Enemy, The Addams Family and the remakes of Father of the Bride and Cape Fear.
Oscar's Best Picture Nominees:
Most people remember 1991 as the year of Silence of the Lambs (7 noms / 5 wins) but many Oscar fanatics remember it just as clearly for another milestone...
When Beauty and the Beast (6 noms / 2 wins) became the first animated movie ever nominated for Best Picture, you could hear gasps and cheers in the room from the assembled press. Sadly you can no longer here reactions since they've sinced changed the way they do nomination morning. The other nominees were JFK (8 noms / 2 wins), The Prince of Tides (7 noms) and Bugsy (10 noms / 2 wins). Bugsy isn't discussed much 29 years on but some pundits believed it would win the top prize given a) Oscar's aversion to horror and b) because it was the nomination leader and a biopic (Oscar's favourite genre). But it was not to be. Silence of the Lambs was too big to ignore... though we've long maintained that the horror hit would have lost had it premiered in December and not truly settled in yet as a new American film classic.
Obviously the year's most unfortunate snub was Thelma & Louise (6 noms / 1 win) which had been a major possibility for the top nomination since its much discussed debut in the summer. But as we've seen countless times in history, Oscar voters are very focused on last minute releases so the Academy went with the hokum of The Prince of Tides instead, a Christmas release and bigger hit. Still that seminal feminist adventure was, we'd argue, most definitely in the dread 6 spot.
But what would have been numbers 7-10 in an expanded Best Picture field? That's surely where the debate comes in. Some possibilities: Terminator 2 Judgment Day (6 noms / 4 wins... a huge hit with the craft categories but Oscar voters were much stingier with genre films back then), The Fisher King (5 noms /1 win), Hook (5 noms), Barton Fink (3 noms). And though they only received 1 or 2 nominations they probably had solid voting blocks, too: Boyz n The Hood (2 noms), Europa Europa (1 nom... but not eligible in foreign film where it undeniably would have won), Grand Canyon (1 nom) and The Commitments (1 nom)
WHICH FILMS DO YOU THINK IT WOULD HAVE BEEN?
Films That Endured (in some way) That Were Neither Oscar Nominees Nor Blockbusters:
Kathryn Bigelow's action classic Point Break, Gus Van Sant's queer classic My Own Private Idaho, slow to collect their fanbase comedies Soapdish and Defending Your Life, Krzysztof Kieslowski's The Double Life of Veronique, Aussie critical darling Flirting (very early roles for Nicole Kidman, Noah Taylor, Naomi Watts, and Thandie Newton's debut!), Spike Lee's Jungle Fever, Jacques Rivette's La Belle Noiseuse, David Cronenberg's adaptation of Naked Lunch, and family friendly favourites like The Rocketeer, My Girl, and Reese Witherspoon's hugely charismatic debut Man in the Moon.
Notable films listed as 1991 at IMDb that didn't actually play for US audiences until 1992 or later: Enchanted April (nominated for the 1992 Oscar race), cult favourite Delicatessen, Jim Jarmusch's Night on Earth, and the wild French classic Lovers on the Bridge (which we didn't get it in the US until 1999!)
Nathaniel's Top Ten of 1991
- Thelma & Louise
- T2 Judgment Day
- Raise the Red Lantern
- Silence of the Lambs
- Beauty and the Beast
- The Fisher King
- Cape Fear
- My Own Private Idaho
- Point Break
- Grand Canyon
Magazine Covers for Context...
(You can click to enlarge)
Madonna at her most world-dominating, ailing and then departed Michael Landon, the sexual harassment case of Anita Hill, the hot new actors from Beverly Hills 90210, Julia Roberts, Jodie Foster, Keanu Reeves, Susan Sarandon, Michael Jackson, and Farrah Fawcett were frequent covergirls that year.
Mix Tape (Select Hits of '91):
"(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" by Bryan Adams was the top selling single of the year and also an Oscar nominated Best Original Song. Other random hits included "Gonna Make You Sweat" and "Things That Make You Go Hmmm..." by C+C Music Factory, "I Wanna Sex You Up" by Color Me Badd, "Losing My Religion" by REM, "Motownphilly" by Boyz II Men, "Unbelievable" by EMF, "More than Words" by Extreme, "From a Distance" by Bette Midler, "Love Will Never Do (Without You)" by Janet Jackson, "Groove is in the Heart" by Deee-Lite, "Justify My Love" by Madonna, "I Touch Myself" by The Divinyls, "Joyride" by Roxette, "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaak, "Get Here" by Oleta Adams, "Something to Talk About" by Bonnie Raitt, and "Tom's Diner" by DNA featuring Suzanne Vega.
More Music: Mariah Carey and Wilson Philips' eponymous debuts, Garth Brooks' "No Fences", The Black Crowes' "Shake Your Money Maker", Vanilla Ice's "To the Extreme," and Madonna's "Immaculate Collection" were the six biggest selling albums of the year. Other hit albums included Bette Midler's "Some People's Lives", Amy Grant's "Heart in Motion" and Whitney Houston's "I'm Your Baby Tonight" and toward the latter part of the year and the top selling album as the year ended and the next began was Nirvana's "Nevermind".
TV: Cheers (Season 9) and LA Law (season 5) took the Comedy and Drama prizes at the Emmys in August. It was the fourth non-consecutive and final win for Cheers and the third consecutive and final win for LA Law. The lead acting Emmys went to Burt Reynolds (Evening Shade), Kirstie Alley (Cheers), James Earl Jones (Gabriel's Fire) who won a second Emmy that night for a miniseries as well, and Patricia Wetting (thirtysomething), and the supporting trophies went to Timothy Busfield (thirtysomething), Madge Sinclair (Gabriel's Fire), Bebe Neuwirth (Cheers) and Johnathan Winters (Davis Rules). Meanwhile China Beach and Thirtysomething, 21 Jump Street and Twin Peaks aired their final episodes. Debuting that year were the sitcoms Blossom, Home Improvement, and Step by Step, as well as the dramas Sisters and I'll Fly Away, and the cable series Clarissa Explains it All (Nickelodeon) and Aeon Flux (MTV).
Literature: Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears, Josephine Hart's Damage, Diana Gabaldon's Outlander, John Grishman's The Firm, and Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho were all first published that year and went on to become major motion pictures or TV series.
Stage: Lost in Yonkers took Best Play beating Shadowlands and Six Degrees of Separation (all three would become movies within a few years). How The Will Rogers Follies beat (are you ready for this?) Miss Saigon, Once on This Island, and The Secret Garden for Best Musical, though, is a complete headscratcher from our vantage point in 2020. Like, what? HOW?!?
Nigel Hawthorne, Mercedes Ruehl, Jonathan Pryce, Lea Salonga, Kevin Spacey, Hinton Battle, Daisey Eagan, and Irene Worth won acting Tonys. (Yes, that's right, Ruehl won both the Tony and the Oscar within 9 months of each other -- what a year for her). Meanwhile, across the ocean, Vanessa Redgrave and Lynn Redgrave made their only stage appearance together in Chekhov's Three Sisters on the West End.
Showtunes to Go:
Here's a Miss Saigon medley from the Tony Awards that year with a fun intro from Jeremy Irons, who co-hosted that year's awards with Julie Andrews.
Reader Comments (35)
Happy Times.
I'm actually finding this crop of Smackdown films to be quite the slog thus far, despite all of the nominees' performances being good. Interestingly, the sequence in which I watched them first became a mini Nick Nolte film fest (Prince of Tides, then Cape Fear),which then morphed into a series of films in which Southern locations and/or culture are a major theme (Rambling Rose, then Fried Green Tomatoes). I've started The Fisher King and we'll see if that ties in to anything else. Anyway, my votes coming soon!
Love this post. But FYI, Will Rogers Follies is brilliant. Follies- and vaudeville-style musical comedy at it's very best. Spectacle at its best. Tommy Tune and Cy Coleman know how to tell a story. Once on This Island and Secret Garden are both excellent as well, but Miss Saigon is too long and musically unremarkable, easily the least of the group. Perhaps the three dramas helped cancel each other out? I'd have been ok if OOTI or SG had won, but Will Rogers earned it, no question.
They were more interesting then. Even things like Vanilla Ice - whatta perfect stage name!
About Best Pictures, It was a surprise when Fried Green Tomatoes wasn't there - a sleeper hit with all the elements the academics go for, two Academy Award Winners starring and nominations in acting and screenplay.
This year marks the directorial debut of Alfonso Cuarón with the comedy Solo Con Tu Pareja starring by Daniel Giménez Cacho who has a breakout year with that film and Cabeza de Vaca.
Two other films that I love from this year are Delicatessen and In Necuepaliztli in Aztlan,(Retorno a Aztlán)
My top 10 films of 1991:
1. Lovers on the Bridge
2. A Brighter Summer Day
3. My Own Private Idaho
4. The Fisher King
5. The Double Life of Veronique
6. A Brief History of Time
7. Boyz N the Hood
8. Barton Fink
9. Until the End of the World
10. Europa
Top 10 Albums of 1991:
1. My Bloody Valentine-Loveless
2. U2-Achtung Baby
3. Massive Attack-Blue Lines
4. Primal Scream-Screamadelica
5. This Mortal Coil-Blood
6. Talk Talk-Laughing Stock
7. Nirvana-Nevermind
8. A Tribe Called Quest-The Low End Theory
9. Spacemen 3-Recurring
10. Slint-Spiderland.
I disagree that the recognition of The Silence of the Lambs was Oscar giving in to "a film too big to ignore."
I contend AMPAS voters were actively interested in changing the tired, staid rubber stamp of Oscar. There was great movement to recognize Beauty and The Beast. The scores of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman had been credited with revitalizing the Broadway musical format albeit in animation. The death of Ashman from AIDS in 1991 gave further impetus to recognize the film since Ashman was gone.
Equally strong was a desire to bring horror to the forefront of Oscar. The failure to ever award an Oscar to Alfred Hitchcock was problematic. Horror flicks considered deserving such as Psycho and Rosemary's Baby were always shut out of the Best Picture nominations. The sole recognition of horror movies in the top prize was the greatly discredited The Exorcist (director William Friedkin misrepresented the contributions of young Linda Blair in an effort to gain respect for the film and the resulting scandal was ignored by the movie going public but cost the film a number of expected Oscar wins). The Silence of the Lambs was regarded as an opportunity to put forth an elegant feature from the horror genre.
Both films landing in the top category was seen as a revitalization of the 64 year old award. Ashman's husband accepted his posthumous Oscar with moving remarks.
"Howard and I shared a home and a life together and I'm very happy and very proud to accept this for him. But it is bittersweet. This is the first Academy Award given to someone we've lost to AIDS. In working on "Beauty and the Beast" Howard faced incredible personal challenges but always gave his best. And what made that possible was an atmosphere of understanding, love and support. That's something everyone facing AIDS not only needs, but deserves. There's an inscription at Howard's grave in Baltimore. It reads, "O, that he had one more song to sing." We'll never hear that song, but I'm deeply grateful for this tribute you've given to what he left behind. For Howard, I thank you."
The surprise victory of The Silence of the Lambs was a remarkable unexpected victory and put new energy into what was being regarded an an exhausted exercise.
One thing 1991 has in common -- LONG FILMS!
From my 91 binge list....
Over two hours: Thelma and Louise, The Fisher King, Prince of Tides, Fried Green Tomatoes, Buglsy, For the Boys, Raise the Red Lantern, City of Hope, Night on Earth, Van Gogh
Over three hours: JFK
Almost four hours: The Brighter Summer Day
Nearing five hours: Until the End of the World
1991 is a great year for Asian cinema. A Brighter Summer Day, Days of being Wild by Wong Kar-wai, Center Stage with Maggie Cheung, and Pushing Hands by Ang Lee. Don't miss these great films!
One major omission: Mike Leigh's Life Is Sweet.
As for A Brighter Summer Day: Unfortunately, at the time all we non-Tiawanese got to see was a heavily edited "international" version (almost two hours missing!), which I remember as making absolutely no sense. It wasn't until about 20 years later that we got to see the uncut version
In the foreign film field, there was also La Femme Nikita, High Heels, Madame Bovary and The Vanishing.
And really, the musical event of the year was the release of Nevermind by Nirvana.
Yes, I suspect that Nathaniel's preferred musical styles were the first to come to mind when listing the music moments of 1991 (which is perfectly excusable when compiling a large article like this). But missing "Achtung Baby" and "Nevermind", two of the most influential albums of history, was an oversight. Pretty sure they were huge sellers as well (they probably didn't feature heavily in the research since they were late 91 releases but, just like late film releases shouldn't be awards magnets, late album releases shouldn't be measured on sales volume alone).
I don't agree with the categorization of The Silence of the Lambs as horror at all. It would be more like a dramatic thriller. Yes, horrific things happen, but why would it be horror?
For me it was the year when I became aware of cinema, not only as entertainment, but some movies and performaces got stuck on my mind.
My top 10:
1.The silence of the lambs
2.JFK
3.Raise the red lantern
4.Thelma and Louise
5.Barton Fink
6.The doubel life of Veronique
7.Lovers on the bridge
8.Europa
9.Naked lunch
10.Beauty and the beast.
I still have The Immacullate collection in cassette, so that's my favorite album.
Travis -- i was just going off billboard charts. which is a short way of saying i wasn't ignoring them due to "taste". U2 was actually the first band i ever saw in concert and I also love Nirvana.
@Liam - I agree - I have never considered Silence of the Lambs a horror film. If I had to guess, it would be because the scenes that linger the most from that film tend to be the more horrific ones.
For me, Best Picture is an easy Beauty and the Beast win - I still consider it the greatest animated film of all time. And I kind of consider its Best Picture nomination more of an achievement than Toy Story 3 or Up's - I feel that neither of them would've made a five-wide list.
As far as the Smackdown is concerned, I wish the Academy had been even more adventurous in its nominees so that we could be discussing Christina Ricci for The Addams Family and Brooke Smith for Silence of the Lambs.. or even Angela Lansbury for Beauty and the Beast - I always felt a bit miffed that only Robin Williams got recognized for vocal work during the Disney Renaissance.
@Liam and PoliVamp
I think movies about cannibals qualify as horror.films
That's the first appearance of the red ribbon for AIDS awareness on live TV.
PoliVamp -- i agree with you that neithr of the other animated features would have made the Best Picture lineup in a field of five.
Nathaniel R - yep, that's what I figured.
I did the Oscar announcements thing that year and I did a great job.
Love these year recaps!! Appreciate all the work you put into it.
Great collection of magazine covers. The before and after of Joan Rivers is a bit sobering and shows how much character disappeared from her face once she became addicted to plastic surgery.
My top 12 favorite movies of 1991-not necessarily the "best' but the ones I have the most affection for.
1. Enchanted April
2. Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead
3. Soapdish
4. Dead Again
5. The Rocketeer
6. Deceived
7. Proof
8. If Looks Could Kill
9. Doc Hollywood
10. Toy Soldiers
11. JFK
12. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
No mention of POISON, one of the quintessential New Queer films and easily among the year's most astonishing achievements?!
i saw that production of the three sisters in london with vanessa and lynn; their niece jemma was the third sister
I also think Thelma & Louise is the best film of that year. I still can’t believe the Academy chose The Prince of Tides and Bugsy over this masterpiece by Ridley Scott.
Am I the only one that LOVES "L.A. Story", which should have won in a heartbeat the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Steve Martin? It is one of my top 5 favorite films of 1991...
1. JFK
2. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
3. L.A. Story
4. Grand Canyon
5. Silence of the Lambs
Jesus -- I also love it. It's like just outside this top ten list.
Jonathan -- that ws a weird oversight, i admit. It must be way down the list of 1991 movies at imdb. pity that. I usually look at about the top 200 or so films when doing these.
Nathaniel — have you considered including festival winners/line-ups in these write-ups? 1991 was particularly extraordinary for American independent cinema at festivals. To Jonathan's point above, Poison and Paris is Burning both won Grand Jury prizes at Sundance that year, which b. ruby rich writes ignited the New Queer Cinema movement. Dash's Daughters of the Dust, Kopple's American Dream, and Linklater's Slacker also played that Sundance.
Later at Cannes, Barton Fink unanimously won the Palme d'Or, along with best director for Joel Coen and best actor for John Turturro. As a result, Cannes changed their rules to limit films to two awards after that festival. Barton Fink was also an historic third consecutive American feature to win the top prize after Soderbergh's Sex, Lies, and Videotape and Lynch's Wild at Heart.
Anyway, thanks for writing these!
Blame IMDB as usual
Those TIME covers of Thelma & Louise and Jodie Foster made such a huge impression on me back when the cover of TIME was a milestone. Achtung Baby and Anita Hill's testimony made a huge impression on me as well.
1991 has some of my favorite sleepy little character driven movies: Curly Sue, The Doctor, Dying Young, Regarding Henry, What About Bob. I believe that this was the first full year of E! and I still remember these movies' trailers from the "Coming Attractions" show, which was the only place I can think of outside of movie theaters where you could watch previews one after the other. What a simpler time.
Phenomenal year in entertainment!! We also had Michelle Pfeiffer in “Frankie & Johnny” in 1991
E! was! I remember staying up late to catch up on (news that had already happened hours ago) the latest!
1991 was the year I moved from St. Louis to Los Angeles, and changed my life in many, many ways. A big year for me, and a big year for the movies.
Top 10
Thelma and Louise
Boyz N the Hood
Beauty and the Beast
JFK
L A Story
Terminator 2
Dead Again
Soapdish
Fried Green Tomatoes
Poison
SO MANY GOOD MOVIES!!!
This was a definite trip down memory train to one of the best years in movies outside 1939. I'm not a personal watcher of horror films, but I am a fan. "Silence of the Lambs" remains in my top 5 films of all time alongside "Beauty and the Beast." Again what a year. "Body Heat," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," and "Pretty Woman" round out my personal top five, but the fact two of faves comes from one year is pretty crazy 30 years later.