The nominees are…
and the Oscar went to….Oliver!
The 1969 Oscars hurled us through history and whipped us across the world. From small town country America, to WWI era New York, to 19th century Dickensian London, to Shakespearean Verona, and 12th century medieval France.
It would be Carol Reed’s Oliver! that charmed the Academy this year, the second musical in 4 years to do so, and also the only G-rated film in history to win the award. Oliver! finds a musical counterpart in fellow nominee Funny Girl and with history’s greatest romance, a cat-and-mouse hunt for Kingship, and a morbid look into a repressed spinster’s mind rounding out the field, the list of nominees makes for a diverse collection.
It is difficult to pinpoint which of the films has best endured in the years since. Rachel, Rachel certainly seems to have faded in memory the most, but is it a forgotten treasure that should have stayed prevalent for longer with the Academy’s help? Maybe the voters would’ve been better served backing one of the other nominees? Or perhaps they got it right with the Charles Dickens favourite. One thing is for certain, if 2001: A Space Odyssey couldn’t make it on the Academy’s list of nominees for the year, than the film’s that did make it are going to have to be quite something
Let’s find out if the record books need to be tampered with.
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