After watching Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, "Spartacus", it is hard to believe that this tremendous film lost out to winning the Best Picture award in 1961 to "The Apartment".
As good as film as "The Apartment" is, it certainly didn't deserve the merits of best picture. Especially since "Elmer Gantry" was also nominated. What's also shocking to discover is that "Spartacus" was not even nominated for best picture by the Academy. How can that be?
Simple.
After doing a little research on imdb.com, it's apparent that the Academy wasn't about to let another epic film win best picture after "Ben-Hur" took home the honors in 1960 and that's just a shame. "Spartacus" certainly deserved to be nominated. Even Kirk Douglas got the shaft in 1961 as the Academy didn't even nominate him for best actor. Douglas was riveting as the lead role in this film, even if the flick is over 3 hours long, it's three hours of the greatest filmmaking in the history of Hollywood.
Maybe the Academy chickened out once the Golden Globes awarded "Spartacus" with its best picture award?
While watching the film, I glanced at the DVD container and read winner of four Academy awards. I was thinking the awards must have been best picture, best actor, best director...Forget. The Academy clearly blew out back in 1961 by not giving "Spartacus" the full credit it deserved. Thanks, Esteeb for allowing me to borrow this fine film from your DVD library.
1 comment:
You are a f'n a**. The Apartment is Billy Wilder's best film (period). And Billy Wilder stands head and shoulders above talentless "40+ take" hacks like Kubrick. You were obviously turned on by Kirk Douglas' bare chest and shiny sword. Go back to watching John Wayne movies!
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