Readers' Ranking: Our Streep Fixation

It's our first "Reader Ranking" project. The subject was the one and only Meryl Streep. Recently I gave you a little bit of a statistical tease about reader ballots including little tidbits like Ironweed (1987) being the least seen and Prada (2006) the most. Since it's too early to know where The Iron Lady (her 17th Oscar nomination) will fall in long term evaluations of her career, I asked readers to rank all 16 of her previous Oscar nominations (only the ones they'd seen) and I weighted the ballots so that the more you'd seen the stronger your voice in the final tally. This would give the little seen movies a fighting chance if the people who'd seen them loved them. For the readers who had seen everything, I contacted them to hear more about their Streep fixation.

Wanna hear some of their stories? 

I thought so.

We'll start the countdown tomorrow with #16-#11 but here is a prologue to get you in the mood. Not that you need a mood setter for Streep. You're always in that mood. I'm saving some of the quotes for the countdown but here are a baker's dozen discovery stories...

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ERIK
When did you first discover Streep?
"Kramer vs. Kramer, 1979. It opened on my birthday and at the time my parents were on the verge of divorce. I didn't know anything about Streep at the time but I was transfixed immediately. It was amazing that I could be watching something about a situation I was actually going through but instead of dwelling on that I was so absorbed by her and her performance." 

Top of his ballot?
Bridges of Madison County. "I could have a different 1st place almost any day of the week." 

Hey, couldn't we all?

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BEAU
When did you first discover Streep?
"My first memory of watching Meryl is Death Becomes Her (1992).  I was 11 when it came out and my mom and I watched it in the theatre.  It was just so much fun. My fascination with her and her career came a few years later when I was shown Holocaust (1978) at school.  I will never forget how I felt watching her dedication to James Woods and her eyes telling such a heartbreaking story.  It was after that, at age 13 or 14, that I became a Streep devotee." 

Top of his ballot
Sophie's Choice. (I always forget that it was her second Holocaust related movie. I've never seen Holocaust!)

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MARTIN
When did you discover Streep?
"Silkwood, blown away immediately buy her performance. Movie poster was up on my wall next to Duran Duran. I was always addicted to the Oscars and Meryl quickly became one off my favorites next to Katherine Hepburn, Jodie Foster & Doris Day (yeahh I know, but I still think she delivered some great performances - she's my Sandra). I love the way her acting mind works...

MORE READER ♥ STREEP AFTER THE JUMP

Click to read more ...

Readers' Ranking Meryl Streep ~ All Next Week!

Hello? Hello? Is anyone out there?

Well, yup. A lot of fans picked up our call to rank the sixteen Meryl Streep Oscar nominations thus far with number seventeen just around the corner. It was the best response ever outside of our typical prediction contests. We'll begin to reveal the breakdown after Golden Globe Madness (live blogging tonight... even though I'm sick. be here!) but I thought I'd share a little teaser.

UNDERSEEN
While The Film Experience readership who chooses to participate in polls is a self-selecting sample, according to our very scientific research (we asked you rank everything you'd seen) these are the golden ones that the least of you have laid eyes upon...

01. IRONWEED (1987) missing from 40% of ballots
02 (tie) THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN (1981) and MUSIC OF THE HEART (1999) were both missing from 30% of ballots
03. A CRY IN THE DARK (1988) missing from 28% of ballots
04. ONE TRUE THING (1998) missing from 25% of ballots

All the other films showed up on more than 75% of the ballots though The Deer Hunter and Silkwood didn't have nearly the viewership numbers I'd expected given the reputation of the films.

WIDELY ABSORBED
It's perhaps no surprise that one of Streep's all time biggest hits -- and a recent movie -- is the most seen. The Devil Wears Prada was only missing from 2% of the ballots.

TABULATING THE RESULTS...
I weighted the polls to favor those readers who had seen everything. This way underseen work, like, Ironweed as it turns out, wouldn't necessarily lose out to performances that everyone saw but nobody screamed "BEST!" about.  The more you'd seen the more your vote was worth, though everyone's votes counted.

NO ONE'S FAVORITE / NO ONE'S LEAST FAVORITE
Though some performances lived up to their reputation as hugely divisive (hi Sister Aloysius Beauvoir in Doubt!) there were three performances that managed no first place finishes and two that managed to avoid last place on any one ballot. 

No one's BEST: Ironweed (1987), Music of the Heart (1999) and Julie & Julia (2009)
In other words, once every 10 years Meryl does something that a lot of people like but no one absolutely cherishes above everything else she's ever done. Literally every other performance was someone's favorite #1.
No one's WORST: Sophie's Choice (1982) and Silkwood (1983). Literally every other performance was someone's least favorite among her nominated turns.

STAY TUNED... care to make any predictions?