City Lights: An Oscar nod doesn’t mean a film will be a classic someday
Talk about a prophetic theme song.
When the Los Angeles Times reported the 30th anniversary re-release of John Hughes’ school-detention drama “The Breakfast Club,” it opened with a rhetorical question that didn’t need explaining: “You didn’t forget about them, did you?” That, of course, is a reference to the Simple Minds song “Don’t You (Forget About Me),” which plays during the film’s credits and underscores its message of unlikely, but possibly lasting, friendship.
Thirty years later, we haven’t forgotten “The Breakfast Club.” When the film came out, though, it didn’t necessarily show hints of longevity. Reviews were mixed: The New Yorker’s Pauline Kael dismissed it as a film “about a bunch of stereotypes who complain that other people see them as stereotypes,” while the New York Times’ Janet Maslin lamented the script’s “unplayable roles” and concluded that Hughes “should have left well enough alone.”
And not only did the movie fail to get a single Oscar nod, but, according to the Internet Movie Database, it has yet to get an award or nomination of any kind. Well, unless a 30th-anniversary re-release counts. And that’s something to keep in mind as the luster fades from Oscar Sunday.
Those who complain about a movie’s perceived slight by the Academy (recall “Shakespeare in Love” over “Saving Private Ryan,” “Crash” over “Brokeback Mountain”) have a legitimate grievance beyond the notion that one film was more deserving than another. When a film is branded as an Oscar-winner, it gets a buffer for its place in history.
Still, awards buffs can be a catty group — Google the words “worst Oscar winners” and see how many matches come up — and they often delight in pointing out the winners that haven’t stood the test of time. Given the number of eyes rolled over the years at “Ordinary People,” “Chariots of Fire,” “Out of Africa,” “The Last Emperor” and “Driving Miss Daisy,” their trophies almost seem like Pyrrhic victories by now.
Are the above movies classics? It’s hard to say. They’re famous, for sure — part of Oscar history, dredged up on countless “rank-the-Best-Pictures-in-order” blogs, no doubt still viewed by filmmakers and students. Like all Oscar-winners, they’re enshrined. Classics, though, remain alive: through catchphrases, re-releases, iconic scenes, even parodies. How do we tell if a film has reached that summit? Here are three surefire indicators:
1. We remember its birthday
If “The Breakfast Club” is 30 years old, what else does that mean? It means that it’s been 30 years since many of us saw it for the first time — probably as teenagers, who identified fiercely with at least one of its forlorn lead characters. It took half that long for “Titanic” to celebrate its 15th anniversary. (My old high school classmate, who saw it in the theater five times, probably took note.) When “The Shawshank Redemption” turned 20 last year, the Wall Street Journal ran a lengthy article on its ongoing popularity, calling it “one of Hollywood’s great second acts.”
“Shawshank,” incidentally, went winless at the Oscars in 1995. So did Robert Redford’s “Quiz Show,” a thought-provoking drama about a 1950s television scandal. How often does that one come up now? History appears to have ruled: “Quiz Show” is a wonderful film and available to anyone who seeks it out, but “Shawshank” is a classic.
2. It enters the lexicon
OK, pencils out. How many films can you identify by the following phrases? “The Dude abides.” “Say hello to my little friend!” “You can’t handle the truth!” “Bueller? Bueller?” “Fava beans and a nice Chianti.” “I’ll have what she’s having.” “Nobody puts Baby in a corner!” Or this exchange: “Make a wish.” “It already came true.”
Very likely, you got most of them. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then we may pay a movie no better tribute than weaving its dialogue into everyday speech. For that matter, how many times have you heard someone complain about a tedious situation by lamenting that it’s “like ‘Groundhog Day’”? By now, the Oxford Dictionaries even offers a second definition of that phrase as “a situation in which a series of unwelcome or tedious events appear to be recurring in exactly the same way.” That ought to compensate for any lack of a Best Original Screenplay nomination.
3. It takes on another form
“The Breakfast Club” might not have gotten any love from the Academy, but at least it didn’t get pounded by the Razzies — which “Newsies,” a 1992 musical about turn-of-the-century newspaper boys, did. That Christian Bale vehicle (anyone forget that he used to be a child actor?) garnered five nominations and won for Worst Original Song. Later, though, “Newsies” won a couple of positive awards: The stage musical version garnered two Tonys in 2012.
One sure sign that a movie has caught on is an adaptation into another medium. “Fargo,” the Coen brothers’ 1996 crime caper, recently inspired a TV series. The Segerstrom Center for the Arts alone has hosted live adaptations of “Sister Act,” “Ghost,” “Dirty Dancing” and “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” in the past few years.
Will “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance),” which took Best Picture on Sunday, have that kind of staying power? I wouldn’t be surprised — it’s one of the most brilliant, daring Oscar-winners of the last decade. And, not unlike “Groundhog Day” (or, if we can drag in novels, “Catch-22”), it centers on a predicament that makes a ready sound bite. Perhaps future psychiatrists, when dealing with patients who feel cowed by their past glories, will diagnose a “Birdman complex.”
And, speaking of the Oscars, I regret to say that my reign as Times Community News South prediction champion has ended. Last year, I nailed all top six categories — but this year, reader Jimmy Orsag pulled off that feat instead, as I guessed a mere three correctly. So the next time you pass Orsag on the street, remember to drop to your knees in adulation and chant, “We’re not worthy!”
Yep, that’s from “Wayne’s World.” We remember that one, too.
MICHAEL MILLER is the features editor for Times Community News in Orange County. He can be reached at michael.miller@latimes.com or (714) 966-4617.