OVP: Best Director (2006)
The Nominees Were...
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Babel
Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Clint Eastwood, Letters from Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears, The Queen
Paul Greengras, United 93
My Thoughts: We are cruising to a conclusion this week! Though we had a brief hiatus for a few weeks, we have been pushing full-steam through 2006 and we are going to finish up our season with both Director & Picture (and our new feature, the My Oscar Ballot category). At this point, you'd think we'd have talked about these movies so much I'd have run out of things to say, but weirdly one of these movies it feels like Oscar under-loved (despite such a high-profile citation), so we're going to start with the only movie that didn't get a Best Picture nomination, United 93.
I remember at the time that there was conversation over whether it was too soon to make a movie about 9/11, some five years after the fact (we will have similar criticisms to both the Trump administration and the pandemic, though both are going to have a plethora of movies in the next decade). Twenty years after-the-fact, though, it's easier to dismiss some of the controversy (art is a reflection of society-no subjects are off limits), and to instead focus on the genius here. Greengrass does the near impossible with his quick editing & sharp direction-he makes a story we all know the ending to feel like a proper thriller. Carefully-constructed, with obvious commentary about the political situation as a result of 9/11 but also one that feels invested in telling stories with non-famous actors, Greengrass gives us a brilliant, all-too-real thriller.
But Greengrass didn't win the Oscar-that instead went to Martin Scorsese. Scorsese's win was so inevitable in 2006 that it's hard to even think of it in retrospect without the clear "obligation" (Scorsese didn't just win this for The Departed-he won it because the Academy had learned a lesson after skipping Hitchcock & Kubrick). That said, The Departed is a terrific movie, one that unfolds with sly economic commentary, solid mirroring in its story structure, & never reads as a particularly long movie (even though it is). Scorsese's excellence lies in the way that he clearly has a tunnel vision in a sprawling story, bringing two men to their ultimate collision (and destinies).
Scorsese had two years earlier lost his Oscar to Clint Eastwood, who in a different year might've been looking at a third Best Director trophy. Eastwood's reputation in recent years has been sullied not just by his political views, but also that he seems to keep making the same movie over-and-over, his libertarian belief system seeping into every tale. This is what makes the straight-forward approach of Letters from Iwo Jima so compelling-after his "rah rah America" failure with the dreadful Flags of Our Fathers, he brings a more human compassion to the story of the "other side" of a conflict (Eastwood being American & a former Army veteran, though not of World War II), and also an artistic sensibility to the cinematography. I really liked Letters from Iwo Jima, more than I have any Eastwood since then, and it's a good reminder of the vision that he's capable of if he can keep some of his baser political tendencies at bay.
I also quite liked The Queen, though this isn't on-the-surface as much a "director's film" as the first three movies we profiled here. Stephen Frears' takes a relatively off-hand approach with his actors, letting the story & their performances tell-the-tale. This is the correct approach for The Queen, it's worth noting-a movie that has a lot of specific vision wouldn't allow Helen Mirren's work to puncture the story in some of the later moments of the movie, and Frears deserves credit for not heavily telegraphing the movie's inevitable conclusion. That said, this is not a movie that feels like it has so much great direction as it does "the right amount of direction" and while that's fair, this isn't really a category meant for "didn't screw up the movie."
But it's worth remembering that a director can screw up a movie, which is what happens in Babel. The movie is too convoluted & its messages too broad to really work (it doesn't have the thriller-like synergy of Traffic, the best of this style of picture), but Gonzalez Inarritu's tendency toward pain & anguish, even when it doesn't serve his movie, makes the picture overbearing. Every angle of Babel is suffering, and when that happens where you don't have light with the dark, your larger points aren't underlined. Yes, some parts of life are just bad, but art is supposed to be reflexive of the whole human experience, at least when you want to make a profound statement, and just watching people suffer for a couple of hours is less a movie & more a lesson in patience.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes started the Marty train with a win for The Departed, over Clint (for both Letters and Flags), Frears, & Gonzalez Inarritu. The BAFTA's threw a curveball in giving the trophy to Greengrass (Scorsese already had a trio of BAFTA's for his work on GoodFellas, it's worth noting) over Gonzalez Inarritu, Frears, Scorsese, & Jonathan Dayton/Valerie Faris (Little Miss Sunshine). The BAFTA Awards went with Scorsese for their win, here over Dayton/Faris, Frears, Gonzalez Inarritu, & Bill Condon (Dreamgirls). At the time Condon was the logical sixth place, which isn't a bad argument, but considering how Dreamgirls underperformed with Oscar, I think Dayton/Faris might've been closer than him.
Directors I Would Have Nominated: On Thursday, we will be doing our My Ballot, and since that's close enough to this conversation that you might actually remember some of these spoilers, we're going to skip this...let's just say that I'll definitely be introducing some names that none of the precursors mentioned all season.
Oscar's Choice: Scorsese's coronation might've been unanimous-you get the sense even Clint Eastwood was rooting for him.
Oscar's Choice: Scorsese's coronation might've been unanimous-you get the sense even Clint Eastwood was rooting for him.
My Choice: I am going to buck that trend, though, and give this statue to Paul Greengrass. I love living in a world where Marty has an Oscar, but the OVP is about picking the best of the five nominees in a vacuum, and in that case I think what Greengrass does is slightly more impressive. Behind these two, I'd give Eastwood the bronze, then Frears & Gonzalez Inarritu.
Those were my thoughts-how about yours? Are you all Team Marty or does someone want to stand with me supporting Greengrass? Do you think this will end up being Clint's last stand with the Oscars, or does he have another nomination in him? And was it Condon or Dayton/Faris who was just out-of-reach in sixth place? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Also in 2006: Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2006
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