Originally posted by: TheCassidy
Star Wars not winning Best Picture or Best Director or Best Screenplay makes perfect sense to me given the attitudes and social mores of the time. Think of another escapist fantasy film not starting with Lord or ending in Of The Rings that won Best Picture. It's just the way it goes. Films of no substance, despite popularity, don't fare well with Academy voters.
Star Wars not winning Best Picture or Best Director or Best Screenplay makes perfect sense to me given the attitudes and social mores of the time. Think of another escapist fantasy film not starting with Lord or ending in Of The Rings that won Best Picture. It's just the way it goes. Films of no substance, despite popularity, don't fare well with Academy voters.
I agree that the academy has that 'snobby' attitude towards many films especially fantasy films, but the fact that SW was nominated for 10 Academy Awards that year is still what astounds me. Before 1977, I have looked back and I can't find any 'fantasy' film that was even nominated, and correct me if I am wrong, was 2001 even nominated in 1968 for Best Picture?
The fact that Lucas got nominated for Best Screenplay, Guiness got nominated for Best Supporting Actor, and SW the movie got nominated for Best Picture is still a feat even though it didn't win cause before LOTR, NO film like that ever won. But I think SW changed the way even the Oscars nominated movies after that. Think of Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981 getting 8 nominations, 1 for Best Picture. Think about it, a 2 hour action/serial adventure is nominated for a fucking academy award.
If you look at the winners of the Academy Awards throughout the SW years, SW never had a chance:
1976: Rocky
1977: Annie Hall
1978: Deer Hunter
1979: Kramer vs Kramer
1980: Ordinary People
1981: Chariots of Fire
1982: Gandhi
1983: Terms of Endearment
1984: Amadeus
1985: Out of Africa
Anybody notice a trend here? SW never had a chance, and I believe the only reason Return of the King won in 2003 was because it was more a salute to the 3 year journey that LOTR was able to produce and not because the movie was some classic. I believe if LOTR were just one movie instead of 3, it wouldn't have won an Academy Award. I do still think Lucas deserved Best Director, cause I think the academy ties that TOO much with Best Picture, and doesnt' take account the merits of how a director could make a movie different. 95% of the time Best Movie and Best Director are the same.