Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Original Screenplay 1989

The Contenders:
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Dead Poets Society (winner)
Do the Right Thing
Sex, Lies and Videotape
When Harry Met Sally

What’s Missing

I’ll admit straight off that this is probably the most difficult part of this today—there are plenty of good screenplays from this year, but I’m not 100% sure what’s original and what’s adapted. I’ve done my best here. Say Anything and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade are the two that jump out at me the most as being worthy of mention. Uncle Buck and Parenthood are longer shots but are both excellent in the script department. The longest shot is Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, which would never have earned a nomination, but could have in an alternate universe. If you were waiting for me to suggest Road House, keep waiting.

Weeding through the Nominees

5: Sex, Lies and Videotape is an interesting film, but beyond the immediate prurience of the subject matter and the evident limitless sex appeal of Laura San Giacomo, there’s nothing I find terribly interesting or appealing. I’m perhaps biased against it because this film made me want to take a shower to wash off the icky feeling, but it really did very little for me. If we needed a movie about love and sex, I’d have rather had Say Anything show up here.

4: I feel like I stick the eventual winner in the fourth slot pretty often, but that’s going to be the case here, too. I don’t hate Dead Poets Society, but I also don’t love it, and the screenplay is part of the reason for that. For starters, there’s way too much damn Walt Whitman when we get to the poetry. I’ve never loved Whitman that much and I especially don’t love having him presented to me as some sort of guide for living. Beyond that, Dead Poets Society vastly overplays its emotional hand. The manipulation is too obvious for me to take it that seriously.

My Choices

3: I am very much a fan of Woody Allen’s writing and always have been, so it feels odd for me to place the excellent Crimes and Misdemeanors third. It’s a good film, and in a weaker class, I have little doubt I would place it higher. It’s problem here stems from two things. First, it doesn’t have the cultural resonance of one of the two higher-ranked films. Second, it doesn’t spark discussion the way the other film does. It’s excellent, but it doesn’t lead anywhere beyond itself, and that’s not going to cut it for this year.

2: Deciding between the two remaining films took a lot of time for me and a lot of going back and forth. Essentially, anything below the “My Choices” line is something I’d be happy with winning, but I still like to have them ranked. Ultimately, When Harry Met Sally falls a whisker short, losing in a photo finish. This is a marvelous screenplay, the sort of script that resonates for years afterwards. This film added to the American lexicon—anyone referred to as “high maintenance” has this film to thank for it. Only the rarest films can achieve that sort of status. I’d be mildly suspicious of anyone who didn’t enjoy this film.

1: But the winner in my mind is Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, which is still his best film in my opinion. The story itself is an engaging one and interesting, but this film really shows its value as we get further into the film. Lee manages to break the fourth wall with some subtlety, but it’s also his actions that touch of the trouble in the third act. So is he showing us the story or participating in it? How are his actions to be interpreted when he is the filmmaker beyond the character? Do the Right Thing brings up interesting issues of race and of respect. These were worth talking about in 1989, and they’re still worth talking about.

Final Analysis