I watched all the winners of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film that I hadn't seen yet over the last year, well all but the four I couldn't find. I sort of stumbled into this exercise by accident, having gained access to a lot of titles unexpectedly. Also, the controversy around the most recent winner, "No Other Land" made me curious about the past winners. There has been an awful lot of fuss raised over the years about an Oscar category that has been consistently terrible at recognizing great work, to the point where people feel obliged to keep track of all the great documentaries, like "Hoop Dreams" and "The Thin Blue Line" that weren't even nominated.
However, I don't hear much mention of the films that were recognized, or how they show the evolving attitudes of audiences and the Academy toward documentary films over time. None of the films I watched were bad, though many are significantly dated. Among them are some of the documentary all-timers, including Peter Davis' "Hearts and Minds," Barbara Kopple's "Harlan County U.S.A" and Errol Morris' "The Fog of War."
The Best Documentary categories have existed since 1942, and all the winners from that decade were WWII and military propaganda pictures. The US Navy won twice for "The Battle of Midway" and "The Fighting Lady." The 50s were dominated by stirring portraits of historical figures, and nature films. Three of the Disney True-Life Adventure series won, including the notorious "White Wilderness" that staged a lemming mass suicide. Jacques Cousteau's underwater adventures won twice - and watching those filled in a big cultural blind spot for me.
However, from fairly early on the nominees included films trying to address current social ills, like "The Quiet One" and "On the Bowery." A major turning point was the 1967 winner, "The War Game," Peter Watkins' depiction of a fictional nuclear war and its aftermath. In the '60s, the nominees became more eclectic and diverse, including documentaries about sports, contemporary life, scientific innovations, and social activism. The 1970 winner was the concert film "Woodstock," which had also been a box office smash. There was an interesting run of nominees promoting greater environmental consciousness in the early '70s, including winner "The Hellstrom Chronicle," supplanting the cutesy Disney True-Life Adventures. The Best Documentary Feature Film category by this point looked more or less like it does today. Nominees almost always fit into certain categories - biographies, histories, nature films, sports films, music and performing arts films, corruption exposés, and attempts to shed light on present day social issues.
Watching the winners of the '70s, '80s, and early '90s often felt like watching an alternate history of the United States, trying to add to and correct common misconceptions about the American experience. "Hearts and Minds" tackled the American government's involvement in the Vietnam War, while "The Panama Connection" was an exposé on their actions in Panama. "Broken Rainbow" detailed the history of abuses of Native Americans, and "Harlan County U.S.A" and "American Dream" covered contentious labor strikes. "Common Threads" addressed the AIDS crisis, "Down and Out in America" targeted Reagenomics, and "Just Another Missing Kid" spotlighted the sorry state of American law enforcement. The biopics were of unusual figures like gay politician Harvey Milk, revivalist preacher Marjoe Gortner, a mentally challenged man named Philly Wohl, and children's dance teacher Jacques d'Amboise. The films may not have always been great, but they reflected issues of the day that Academy voters were concerned with. The wildest winner of the era was probably "Scared Straight!" about the infamous program where prison inmates would attempt to terrify juvenile delinquents into better behavior.
Even though "The Thin Blue Line" and "Roger & Me" failed to win nominations, their influence on the documentary form was clear. However, the film I feel had the most impact on the Best Documentary Feature Film category in the '90s wasn't a documentary. WWII films remained popular during this period, including winners like "Genocide" and "Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie." However, it wasn't until after "Schindler's List" brought renewed interest in the Holocaust that we had a run of four Holocaust documentaries winning in six years, from 1995 to 2000, plus "One Day in September" winning in 1999. None have won since.
I'll refrain from putting forth too many generalizations about the more recent winners, except to say that I found the quality of the films generally got better. 1994 was when the big controversy over "Hoop Dreams" happened, and the documentary nominating process was overhauled. The awards have always been a platform for various causes - the category started out awarding propaganda films, remember - but we still get the occasional musician biopic or inspirational sports story winning the statuette. "No Other Land" is far from the most politically charged or controversial winner, and its win will probably be viewed extremely well in retrospect.
I'll have a Top Ten of my favorites posted in a couple of days.
---
No comments:
Post a Comment