In my attempt to have a more prolific repertoire of Oscar Nominated Films, I have taken it upon myself to watch 90 new Best Picture Nominees that I’ve never seen before between 5 Dec 2017 and The 90th Annual Oscars on 4 Mar 2018.
Here is my 56th review of the 90 chosen Films…
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“Lord, what fools these mortals be! ” – Puck
Number of Times Seen – 1 (28 Jan 2018)
Brief Synopsis – Much goes on in the palace and forest as the wedding of the Duke of Athens to the Queen of the Amazons draws near.
My Take on it – I have never been a big fan of Shakespeare’s plays largely due to the fact that I need it to be more visual for me to really comprehend what is going on.
I’m aware that this is one of his most popular works, yet after having seen at least two versions of this, I still can’t claim to quite understand everything that happened.
I found this version extremely boring and overly long.
Two and a half hours for me with a movie is usually quite average, but this one just moved really slowly and didn’t seem to get very far.
The music and the effects are actually quite good, but neither helps make this story more enjoyable.
The cast which includes James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, Olivia De Havilland and William Powell are all fine here but none of them really stand out among the rest.
This film was nominated for 3 Oscars, yet was somehow also able to garner a fourth one via a write-in campaign for cinematography (see Trivia below) which it eventually won along with one for Film Editing.
It lost out on Best Picture and Best Assistant Director.
This is one of the very first Hollywood film adaptations of the work of William Shakespeare despite it being far from being among the best.
Bottom Line – Terribly boring Shakespeare adaptation. Good music but the story has so much to desire. The cast is ok but none of them really stand out.
MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – When the forest that Max Reinhardt designed could not be lit properly, cinematographer Hal Mohr thinned the trees slightly, sprayed them with aluminum paint and covered them with cobwebs and tiny metal particles to reflect the light. As a result, he became the first (and only) write-in winner of an Academy Award. (From IMDB)
Rating – Razzie Worthy
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