Although the film has been critically praised – it currently boasts a not-unimpressive 82% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes – Alejandro González Iñárritu’s The Revenant is being discussed more frequently for its troubled production than it is for its dramatic or aesthetic or cultural impact. The Revenant experienced a troubled shoot, often filming in freezing weather in remote locations. Leonardo DiCaprio almost caught hypothermia, and many crew members either quit or were fired when they complained about the conditions.
The Revenant has been nominated for 12 Academy Awards, and seems to be the front-runner for the Big Win. When faced with the knowledge of the film’s production, it’s tempting to be cynical; one could perhaps declare that The Revenant is being lauded less for its status as a great film, and is instead garnering recognition for how much hard work went into it.
Check Out: #OscarsSoWhite | Academy Award-Worthy Actors of Color from 2015
Of course, this is not the first time a film would be fetching attention from the Academy due to its interesting or troubled production history. Looking over the history of the Awards, one finds that Academy voters often nominate – and just as often actually award – films and actors whose exterior struggles make for more interesting tales than the ones depicted in the films they eventually made. Publicity can be an insidious machine, and when it comes to the following films, the publicity managed to become far more potent a public narrative than any sort of critical analysis.
Slideshow | When Oscar Buzz Eclipses the Movies
Top Photo: 20th Century Fox
Witney Seibold is a contributor to the CraveOnline Film Channel, and co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. He also contributes to Legion of Leia, and Blumhouse. You can follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
14 Times The Oscar Buzz Eclipsed The Movies
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Argo
In 2012, Argo did indeed win the Academy Award for Best Picture, despite the fact that the film's director, Ben Affleck, was not nominated for Best Director. It's been a long-held truth of the Oscars that the "real" Best Picture nominees are the ones that share Best Director nominations. In the case of Argo, all the stories were about Affleck's infamous which made a win for Argo seem like a sure thing.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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Good Will Hunting
While Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting, one of the more notable indie dramas to emerge during the indie boom of the 1990s, was often lauded by critics, not a review would slide past without a vocal reminder that the screenplay was written by the film's two young stars, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. A screenplay by actors? Preposterous! And young ones at that? What what what? When the two actually won the Oscar, every aspiring young actor took to their typewriters immediately.
Photo: Miramax
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The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
The first three films in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings series were nominated for Best Picture, but it seemed unlikely that any of them would win; It was clear that Hollywood was merely patting the series on the back, congratulating their ambition, rather than praising their storytelling acumen. When the third film rolled around, every thinkpiece began referring that year's Academy Awards as the LAST CHANCE to give an award to this series (which was loved by audiences). Perhaps the thinkpieces worked. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King won 11 Oscars. Dang.
Photo: New Line Cinema
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Selma
Wow! Selma had a great song, didn't it? It's a good thing it did, because that was only one of two Oscars it was nominated for. No acting nominations, no directing nominations, no writing nominations. Just Best Picture and Best Song. This was a gross oversight in the eyes of many, and spawned accusations of racism in the Academy (it's a big part of where #OscarsSoWhite came from). The snub of Selma is all many people can mention know about the film. Is it good? I heard it was...
Photo: Paramount
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The Crying Game
Neil Jordan's The Crying Game had a big, big secret. The ad campaign surrounding the film encouraged audiences to keep that secret. This was before the word "spoiler" was used as commonly as it is today. But when Jaye Davidson was nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category, it essentially ruined the surprise for everyone. Thanks a lot, Academy, you blew the surprise. While The Crying Game is a decent film, its secret - and the exposure thereof - is still more talked about.
Photo: Miramax
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The Killing Fields
Roland Joffé's 1984 Oscar winner is a hefty and all-too-real drama about the genocide in Cambodia in the early 1970s. While you may find reviews here and there, the one detail that is always mentioned first is that Dr. Haing S. Ngor, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, was a non-professional actor who could claim the most chilling form of authenticity: Ngor actually lived through Pol Pot's oppressive regime where he bore witness to innumerable atrocities.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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Boyhood
Richard Linklater's Best Picture nominee (and winner for Best Supporting Actress) is a moving and realistic and conversational drama about 12 years in the lives of an average Texan family. Did you know that the film took twelve years to shoot? You do know this because that's all anyone talked about when the film was released. The extended shooting schedule designed to watch people grow is not new – watch the Up series sometime – but it was considered novel at the time, and it's all anyone could talk about. It turns out, it's also a good movie.
Photo: IFC Films
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Syriana
Before Syriana was released, I began hearing odd stories of production troubles. Most notably, recognizable star George Clooney worked himself so hard that he collapsed from exhaustion. The one odd detail I heard repeated through the press at the time was that Clooney began leaking spinal fluid out of his nose, a symptom of extreme exhaustion that I was not familiar with. It may have been worth it, as Clooney ended up winning the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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Apocalypse Now
The bottomlessly acclaimed surreal war epic from Francis Ford Coppola was, prior to its release, the subject of a media firestorm. The film, which was shot in the jungles of the Philippines, housed a notoriously long production, and the budget was reported to balloon out of control. It was seen as a potential disaster for the studio, and its famously bloated production was the center of the conversation. Part of what makes the greatness of Apocalypse Now so towering is that it managed to remain in the public consciousness beyond its production woes. It was nominated for 8 Oscars (including Best Picture) and won two (for sound design and cinematography).
Photo: United Artists
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Cleopatra
The 1963 production of Cleopatra is still better known – even to this day – for its lavish and overwrought production than it is for its story or performances. The film was, at the time, the most expensive production in Hollywood history, and it remains the longest studio picture ever made (it runs 248 minutes). Liz Taylor also wore more costumes than any other actress in any other film – a fact noted by The Guinness Book of World Records. And there was the well-publicized debacle of the giant litter they had to rebuild when production staff realized it wouldn't fit through the archway they built for it. The film is indeed overwrought, although that kind of lavishness can be a delight in itself. Cleopatra was nominated for 9 Oscars (including Best Picture) and won 4.
Photo: 20th Century Fox
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Dersu Uzala
Akira Kurosawa is one of the great masters of cinema, so all film school students know about the comeback of Dersu Uzala. In 1970, Kurosawa made a film called Dodes'ka-den, which was his first color film, but also his biggest flop. Indeed, the failure of Dodes'ka-den was so damning to the maestro that he was thrown into a deep depression and even attempted sucide. How does one return to film after that? Why, with a lavish color production shot on 70mm film, shot entirely outdoors, with an all-Russian cast. Dersu Uzala saved Kurosawa. Ask a film student about Dersu Uzala, and few will note how great it is (although it is great, and it won the 1976 Oscar for Best Foreign Langauge Film). All of them, however, will recount the above story.
Photo: New World Pictures
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The Wrestler
Another comeback story hangs over Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler. There was a time when Mickey Rourke was a dashing young sex symbol of 1980s Hollywood. He was handsome, sexual, and talented. Then he flamed out, burnt by the Hollywood machine. He returned to his original profession of boxing where his face was pummeled beyond recognition. The return of Mickey Rourke was the biggest story of the year, and The Wrestler would still be notable for that reason, even if no one saw it. The film ended up, luckily, receiving overwhelming acclaim, and Rourke was nominated for an Oscar. He lost to Sean Penn in Milk.
Photo: Fox Searchlight
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The Dark Knight
Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight was, if the shroud of publicity was to be trusted, the Best Movie of All Time in 2008. I think more ink was spilled in service of Batman than any other figure that year. The loudest clamor came for the off-kilter performance of Heath Ledger as The Joker. Several months before the film was released, however, Ledger died of a drug overdose. While Ledger's performance is terrifying and impressive, the fact that it was posthumous allowed The Dark Knight to grow and become embellished by tragedy. Heath Ledger won an Academy Award for his performance.
Photo: Warner Bros
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Blue Sky
I saw Blue Sky, and I only remember two things about it: Jessica Lange's Oscar-winning performance as the dotty, alcoholic wife of a nuclear engineer, and the fact that the film sat on a shelf for three years. I don't recall the film much, but I recall this interesting backstory vividly from 1994. Blue Sky was put on a shelf in 1991 following the bankruptcy of Orion Pictures. It was finally released after the director had died. The Academy gave an award to Lange, and every conversation thereafter was one of “thank goodness it was finally released!”
Photo: MGM
