Stanko's Stance

A new version of the draft! I like this. This is going to humble me and make me think, big-time.

So here we go, this is going to be the reflection on The Big Picture‘s 1990s Oscar Winners movie draft.

• Best Original Screenplay
  • I mean, these are all unbelievable movies. This is going to be so hard. How many times will this be really hard for me to decide among the eight categories. Short answer, a lot. Picking between The Usual Suspects (1995), Pulp Fiction (1994) and Good Will Hunting (1997), I am going to have to lean toward Quentin Tarantino’s bloody robbery tale. It has numerous memorable characters and moments. What I will say puts it over the top from me is how often I quote it and look up scenes from it. It is between SAY WHAT and HOW ABOUT D’EM APPLES, and I have quoted SAY WHAT far too often.
  • Chris Ryan gets the point. He is up 1-0.
• Best Adapted Screenplay
  • So this one is easy, and humbling. I have only seen L.A. Confidential (1997). Yell at me if I deserve it.
  • Chris Ryan gets a second point, he is up 2-0.
• Best Supporting Actress
  • Well, this is becoming a trend? I again have only seen My Cousin Vinny (1992), and Marisa Tomei is worth every vote.
  • Chris Ryan has a commanding 3-0 lead over Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins.
• Best Supporting Actor
  • Some very solid choices from this trio. For me it comes down to Joe Pesci in Goodfellas (1990) and Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive (1993). There are two iconic scenes here. There is Pesci playing Tommy DeVito tormenting Henry Hill, and there Lee Jones as Samuel Gerard confronting Dr. Richard Kimble in the dam tunnel. For me I have to go with Pesci because he is the best character in that movie, while Gerard does take a back seat to Kimble.
  • Sean Fennessey is on the board, but he trails 3-1. Amanda Dobbins still being shut out.
• Best Actress
  • So this is an easy category as well, and there is nothing like The Big Picture to humble me. I have only seen one movie from the three selected by the trio, and that is Fargo (1996).
  • Chris Ryan has four category wins. Sean Fennessey has one. Amanda still has zero…but looking ahead that will change.
• Best Actor
  • NO BRAINER ALERT. Mr. Fennessey has Anthony Hopkins as the one and only Hannibal Lector. Silence Of The Lambs (1991) is one of my favorite movies of all-time, and that character is iconic. Tom Hanks is heartbreakingly good in Philadelphia (1993). I am not the biggest fan of Forrest Gump (1994), though I can admit that Hanks is good in it.
  • Is Sean Fennessey giving himself a chance. Chris Ryan still has the lead 4-2-0.
• Best Director
  • I have not seen The English Patient (1996), so that one is out. I really liked Dances With Wolves (1990), but it does not have the rewatchability and the propulsion of Saving Private Ryan (1998). When you make what is widely considered the greatest war movie of all time…and get gipped out of Best Picture…I will cast my vote for you in my random reflection on the random The Big Picture.
  • Amanda Dobbins gets on the board and secures the victory for Chris Ryan! The scoreboard tally reads 4-2-1, Ryan-Fennessey-Dobbins.
• Best Picture
  • In terms of Best Picture, I have to go with a movie that is both respected for what it is, but also under-appreciated for its genre. If that makes any sense? I am going with Fennessey and Unforgiven (1992). Is this Clint Eastwood’s last absolutely remarkable movie? It is the classic one last job motif, but the performances from all the men in this movie are all insane. Eastwood himself, Gene Hackman and Morgan Freeman are all in their bag of tricks.

So Chris Ryan gets his first win in my reflections. He wins the scorecard 4-3-1. This is the first of the reflections where I really hampered myself by not seeing a lot of the movies. It is sad, but that just means my watchlist grows more and more.

An important note on these results. According to voices on the Internet, there was an error on the original graphic put out on Twitter with the poll that confused Sean and Chris’s directorial choices. The graphic was corrected, but the poll was not.

Something to clarify here with my picks. When I am not picking from Sean, Amanda or Chris’s picks, that means I am just not picking what movie in that category. For example, I can’t pick Anthony Hopkins for Best Actor, but I can for any other category. I think this is fair because that is the way they did the draft themselves…and also I haven’t seen as many movies as they have…so it’ll help me.

My Draft

Best Original Screenplay

• I DARE YOU TO SAY WHAT ONE MORE GOD DAMN TIME! I DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU! Pulp Fiction deserves a rewatch from me. It should happen soon. This is me talking to myself.
• Philadelphia is one of any movies on this list (or this decade I guess) that I watched in school. The thing with Philadelphia is a that it is an important story. What I remember most about this movie is the transformation of Joe Miller’s character. With Denzel Washington playing the part, I remember his growing as a person. It sounds corny, but he went into defending Andrew Beckett with a bit of bias in his eyes, and by the end he learned at least a little of what has happened. Their relationship is not the most cohesive, but it is a metaphor for how society is growing to understand the AIDS epidemic and those involved in it.

Best Adapted Screenplay

• I mean Schindler’s List is going to make you cry. This is a major epic story that takes very few positive turns. From a screenplay aspect, I can not get the final scene out of my head. The realization that even if you make a difference for some people, it can still be small i the greater scope of things. Liam Neeson acting out this anguish as Oskar Schindler will stick with your mind.

Best Supporting Actress

• Watch the courtroom scene with Marisa Tomei. That enough puts My Cousin Vinny and Tomei over the top. Or watch the deer scene talking about what to wear when hunting. Much like how Joe Pesci was the stand out performance in Goodfellas despite being a secondary character, Tomei is the biggest spoon doing the most stirring in My Cousin Vinny.
• So I have to go with Kim Basinger from L.A. Confidential due to the rules I have set out for myself. Her performance was good, but I don’t recall it as anything utterly breathtaking. She is breathtaking in herself and her beauty, but that is not what Oscars go for.

Best Supporting Actor

• Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting was the first time I saw him play a character that was not anchored in comedy or a big smile. Or maybe it was Dead Poets Society (1989)? Regardless, everyone one of Williams and Matt Damon’s scene are remarkable. There is the fart story (which he made up on the spot if you didn’t know but you probably did) and then the end. “He Stole My Line.” Williams just nailed that reading.

Best Actress

• This is the only selection I could make to make this whole enterprise work. I have only seen three performances that won from the 1990s; Silence Of The Lambs, Dead Man Walking and Fargo. And this may be blasphemy, but I remember Susan Surandon more for Dead Man Walking than I do Frances McDormand and her Minnesota accent. I remember watching Dead Man Walking in high school and being very invested compared to the rest of the cast.

Best Actor

• Tom Hanks had himself a decade, didn’t he? In Philadelphia, you do not think of him as Tom Hanks, you remember him as Andrew Beckett. I know that this movie is from 1993 so that is before the Hanks wave really swept the world, but this movie still marks a moment. This is the run that Tom Hanks went on in the 90s: A League Of Their Own (1992), Sleepless In Seattle (1993), Philadelphia (1993), Forrest Gump (1994), Apollo 13 (1995), Toy Story (1995), That Thank You Do! (1996), Saving Private Ryan (1998), You’ve Got Mail (1998), and The Green Mile (1999). Every single one of those movies is well renowned.
• Okay, yes. Kevin Spacey is a terrible person. Yes, American Beauty (1999) is a supremely weird movie. I have limited myself with this category because I have not seen all the winners from the decade, but one has to admit that the voiceover for American Beauty is one of the best and least expected.

Best Director

• The opening D-Day scene is a master class in film making, and the final battle of Saving Private Ryan is paced perfectly. Also, it is very hard to make audience members care about all of the characters of their rescue mission, but Spielberg makes that possible.
• Braveheart gets a bad wrap. I will say it. I had a grand old time watching the movie and I still do to this day. It has the romance, it has the heart break, it has all the bloody violence and it has an ending that is unforgettable. Gibson, for all of his faults now, starred and directed this movie. That is no easy task.

Best Picture

• Silence Of The Lambs is ONE OF, if not MY FAVORITE movies of all time. I will rewtach it at any moment. In 1992 it won Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. It is an all-time classic in its own right, and it is a Mount Rushmore member of the thriller genre.

Reflection On “The Big Picture” 1990s Oscar Winners Movie Draft – Chris Ryan Victory
Reflection On “The Big Picture” 2003 Movie Draft – Joanna Robinson Victory
Reflection On “The Big Picture” 2010 Movie Draft – Sean Fennessey Victory
Reflection On “The Big Picture” 2011 Movie Draft – Sean Fennessey Victory
Reflection On “The Big Picture” 2018 Movie Draft – Sean Fennessey Victory

“Stanko’s Stance” Podcast Feed (Apple)
“Stanko’s Stance” Podcast Feed (Spotify)

Stanko Excel Lists | Movies, Books, Podcasts. TV Shows
Stanko Letterdbox Account

The Mandalorian Chapter 22 (S3E6) Reaction | Guns For Hire

I am really sorry to say that The Mandalorian has turned into Halo for me. Season three has been a slog for me and I am sad to report that it has been over a month since I have watched an episode of Din DJarin and Grogu traversing the universe. And the saddest part? I…

by jstanko99 May 31, 2023

A Taylor Swift Concert, Or 1 Million Dollars? Easy Answer.

Call me crazy. Call me an idiot. Call me moronic. You can call me whatever you want, but most importantly, call me a Swiftie. Last week John Rich put out this hypothetical tweet out there talking about the price of reselling Taylor Swift tickets. I immediately replied saying that the Taylor Swift Eras Tour concert…

by jstanko99 May 30, 2023

Ranking The “Scream” Movies

No. 6Scream 3 (2000) Horror movie franchises tend to jump the shark at some point. Scream 3 (2000) pokes fun at this nature…but also falls into the same trap itself. The setting for Scream 3 is right up my alley. It is set on the set of a horror movie. It is on the set…

by jstanko99 May 30, 2023May 29, 2023