Best known as the author of the three-volume Cult Movies series and Guide for the Film Fanatic, Danny Peary has also published a guide that appeals to the taste of every single film buff. In Alternate Oscars, he takes what he calls a “National past time” (Second guessing the Academy Awards) and puts it into print. ‘Although it was declared that [The Academy Awards] would be bestowed based on merit only’ Peary writes in the introduction, ‘…it is hard to imagine that members [of the Academy]…have not sometimes been swayed by other factors, such as politics, sentiment, guilt, spite and an obsession with “prestige”’.
Peary second guesses Oscar selections from 1927/28 (The Academy didn’t do full calendar years until 1934) to 1991. Of course, he doesn’t second guess every single award: Just the big three, which are Best Picture (English language, although he does consider Grand Illusion a runner-up in 1938, since it was the first foreign movie actually nominated by the Academy), Actor and Actress. With a majority of selections, while he finds some quality in them, Peary thinks that the movie or performance has dated or weakened over the years and, in some cases, was clearly not the best even at it’s time. In the case of quite a few performances, Peary claims that the award given was a compensation prize for a previous loss (Paul Newman’s Oscar for The Color of Money, for instance) or was swayed by political or sentimental biases. Peary says that some of Oscar’s choices weren’t really that bad, just not the best movie or performances of that year (For instance, The Best Years of Our Lives was a great, worthy Oscar selection, but happened to also be in the same year as the now more renowned It’s a Wonderful Life) On a rare occasion, he agrees with the Academy’s selection(s) (Although he never agrees with two winners in the same year). He also rarely says that his chosen movie or performance is perfect (In some cases, he awards an actor’s performance in a movie that he actually thought was quite lousy, which also shows that he isn’t obsessed with prestige or image) and, in a few cases, has to split hairs to decide between a movie or performance (He does tie twice, like the Academy has done).
Like the "100 years..." lists published by the American Film Institute, you can agree or argue with Peary’s opinions all you want. However, he certainly backs them up very well. Peary is a highly underrated critic- he was never given the platform like Ebert, Kael or Maltin to express his work- and his books are now out of print, which is too bad. His opinions in this book are among the finest I have ever read. His reviews of The Searchers, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, King Kong and others are fascinating and insightful, even for movies that have been reviewed countless times before. Like everybody, Peary obviously has a few biases (One can only assume that he’s a huge fan of both Charlie Chaplin and Woody Allen). However, he is not afraid to challenge the status quo (His reviews of the movie On the Waterfront for instance, although he does agree with Marlon Brando’s Oscar, and also on Taxi Driver and Silence of the Lambs). He also goes as far as to list runners-up that he thought were also Oscar worthy, and says that he won’t debate too much with anybody that feels one of those films or performances is more worthy (He does admit that he regrets not being able to award some actors or actresses for their work). Finally, like the AFI, he encourages people to see movies that they might have missed. As a result of this book, I was given the initiative to see movies such as They Were Expendable, Night of the Hunter, The Man Who Would be King, The Killing Fields and many others. I am also greatly interested in seeing Sunrise, The Wind, Monsieur Verdoux, Gun Crazy, Salt of the Earth, Ride the High Country, Repulsion, Cul-De-Sac, Once Upon a Time in the West, Five Easy Pieces, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, American Graffiti, Miller’s Crossing…heck, even New Jack City!
Every movie and performance awarded receives a photograph from the movie. One has to applaud the editors for assembling all of these photos, especially for movies that are hard to find or even out of release. The photos also are diverse and, if a movie received multiple awards, try to keep things fresh and interesting.
How could this book be improved? While Peary backs his opinions up well, the fact is it remains just his views on the awards (He does state in the introduction that he wouldn’t put up much of an argument in a debate over other choices and “I wouldn’t even mind getting a lot of hate mail”). I think a style with two or three critics doing their selections would have provided a broader base, although the Academy functions the same way as well. Also, perhaps due to the fact that he never got a fan base beyond a cult status, Peary didn’t do an update of this book after it was published in 1992, which means that only the awards up to the year 1991 are covered. I would like to see a second edition, or another critic write a similar book, that covers up to the present awards. Personally, I would be interested to read what Peary has to say about such winning films as Forrest Gump, Braveheart, The English Patient, Titanic, Shakespeare in Love, Gladiator, Chicago and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, along with several winners for actor and actress. Finally, I would have been interested to see a second guessing of awards for Supporting Actor and Actress, but I suppose the volume of fine performances that one would find in both categories was deemed overwhelming.
Many times in this book, I was fascinated and quite in agreement with Peary’s selections. Of course, like everybody, I had my differing opinions, but that’s what makes them fun, right? Peary doesn’t exactly always speak for me or for every other film buff (His refusal to award a movie in 1963, in particular, is a little consternating), but his selections definitely stand the test of time better, and are more representative of the basis of merit. Peary probably also intended for this book to stir up debate: As he says in the introduction, “This book isn’t so much a vehicle for me to give my own arbitrary Oscar choices as it is a catalyst for living-room wars in which everyone takes an emotional stand for his or her choices”. In that case, Mr. Peary, you’ve succeeded with one of the quirkiest and most original film guides out there.
Recommended:
