Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Picture 1960

The Contenders:

The Alamo
The Apartment (winner)
Elmer Gantry
Sons and Lovers
The Sundowners

I Think We're Supposed to Remember This...

Film: The Alamo
Format: DVD from personal collection on rockin’ flatscreen.

I like John Wayne, although it’s entirely possible that I like the idea of John Wayne more than the actor. Actually, I don’t think that’s true at all. Wayne made a lot of movies that are pretty socially backward and Wayne is kind of a poster child for reasons for white guilt. The problem with John Wayne is that more often than not, he played John Wayne, or played at least the idea of John Wayne. He was actually a pretty good actor, and a lot of his performances are surprisingly nuanced once you get beyond the John Wayniness of them. The Alamo is particularly interesting not just because it stars the man but also because it’s one of five movies he directed and one of only two that he actually allowed himself to be credited on.

It shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that The Alamo is the story of the massacre at that building by the Santa Anna-led Mexican Army. The movie runs 162 minutes long and it’s more or less an exercise in waiting for the attack that’s going to end up killing everyone. Again, we know what’s going to happen going in. Everyone is going to get killed. There will be plenty of macho moments, a few victories, some arguments and fights, and then the main cast will die heroically and the credits will roll.