"the-deer-hunter"

The 2014 Oscar nominations are just out, and once again, this year’s Best Picture nominees demonstrate the connections that great movies have to each other. To illustrate, here’s a list of the current nominees matched with previous winners that share some common themes.

It’s hard to believe it’s been over half a century since Hollywood experienced a creative renaissance. Just what happened back then? Starting in the mid-sixties, the film industry underwent a dramatic transition as the major studios realized their approach to moviemaking was no longer working. Too many big-budget releases were falling flat at the box office; the losses were staggering.

Just last month, Robert De Niro turned eighty, a milestone that came and went without much fuss. It may well be that famously private actor didn’t want any. However, this moment reflects another milestone, marking a half century since De Niro broke out as a screen actor with two indelible performances, first in “Bang the Drum Slowly” playing a terminally ill baseball catcher, second as the unhinged Johnny Boy in “Mean Streets.”

Though movies have often fueled our country’s propaganda machine in times of war, for me personally those films that expose war’s folly are more interesting simply because they feel more authentic and honest.

I can vividly recall the first moment I saw Meryl Streep on-screen. The film was “The Deer Hunter” (1978). Her part was relatively small — she played the stateside love interest of two men shipped off to Vietnam — but I was immediately struck by her presence. 

We had a varied crop of great movies in 1978. Some I saw right away; I vividly recall, for instance, being traumatized by “The Deer Hunter.” Others I missed and only experienced years later.