Here are the five nominees: (Winner in Bold)
Biggest Snub:
Peter Hunt – 1776
My Overall Thoughts:
This was a year that there was one powerhouse who led all of the awards and was considered the frontrunner for the Oscar in this category after winning both the Globe and DGA awards. None of the other 4 nominees come even close.
My Rankings:
Directing
5. John Boorman
4. Jan Troell
3. Joseph L. Mankiewicz
2. Bob Fosse
1. Francis Ford Coppola
Movies
5. The Emigrants – Amazing cinematography. Complete borefest. Not sure how this was nominated for BP because the story is so slow and not much actually happens in a film that’s longer than 3 hours. Still, nice to see the perspective of foreigners on the hardship of immigration to America.
4. Sleuth – Caine and Olivier are both excellent here and deliver the very clever script expertly. A bit too long tho and could have been tighter.
3. Deliverance – Great look at how survival instincts can surface when regular businessmen are faced with situations that they never expected to encounter. The music and pacing really helps keep the story thrilling because you never know what will really happen as things move along. Expected this film to have more of a message than it really does. The four stars are all great and eventhough this was the debut of two of them, all have had storied careers in the film industry over the 45 years since this film came out.
2. Cabaret – Has some great songs, excellent performances by all especially Minelli and Grey. Story isn’t as captivating as I thought it could be.
1. The Godfather – Excellent movie. Amazing cast and story. The buildup works so amazingly on numerous levels. Definitely the best of the 3 Godfather movies and among the best movies ever made.
Do I agree with the Oscar winner? – Not really! FFC did a amazing job with TG and he should have won BD for his work over Fosse who did a nice job, but not anywhere in the same hemisphere as FFC (very few directors could even attempt to make such a claim.) The fact that The Godfather only got 3 Oscars overall and Cabaret got 8 says so much about the Academy and their votes that year.
Let me know what you think about these films and my rankings!
MovieRob 
Agree big time. Never liked cabaret as a film (much better as a stage musical) ad Fosse winning over FFC for THE GODFATHER is like a punchline to a bad joke. That being said, cabaret was innovative as a musical and 1776 was NOT – so NO snub there. Bit of trivia – Burt Reynolds- who recently died – was a frontrunner to get the part of Sonny Corleone in the Godfather – but Marlon Brandon was thumbs down on the choice.
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