Our culture is obsessed with round numbers and Hollywood has no problem exploiting this strange phenomenon. Every five or 10 years, we expect an “Ultimate Edition” DVD commemorating a movie’s anniversary with special features and a new transfer. This marketing scheme has become so common, Disney even took the initiative to release its 70th anniversary DVD for Pinocchio a year early.
This year, many great movies have cause to celebrate. It has been 70 years since 1939 and 10 since 1999, marking milestone anniversaries for two years considered to be the greatest in movie history. Look no further than 1939 for the height of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Michael Giltz of The Huffington Postwrites, “Films buffs have declared 1939 as the greatest year for movies so many times that it’s seen as historical fact.” A prime example of exploitation: Warner Home Video pulled all the stops for a The Wizard of Oz deluxe DVD set, selling it at a list price of $84.99.
Then there is 1999, a year that prepared us for a new millennium with a variety of cult favorites. MTV News has spent this past year honoring the films released in 1999 that have made an impact on the world of contemporary movies. There was everything from Paul Thomas Anderson’s sprawling Magnolia to the infinitely quotable Office Space, celebrated earlier this year with a special screening and cast reunion.
So which year was truly the best? Let’s break it down in a best-of-five series.
Stick It to the Man — Mr. Smith Goes to Washington vs. Office Space
Thanks to AP Government, you’ve probably seen James Stewart’s masterful performance as a United States Senator in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. The young statesman goes to the nation’s capitol as an idealist but finds himself battling corruption in a classic filibuster. Mr. Smith is still powerful, but it is often over-the-top. Boy scouts being attacked by Washington cronies? This is the sort of self-congratulatory sentiment that has dated a lot of “classic” Hollywood movies.
The ultimate onscreen rebel is the mumbling, pathetic and oft-ignored Milton in Mike Judge’s workplace satire Office Space. The man only wants his red stapler, but the powers that be stick him in the basement and cut off his paycheck. How much can one man take before burning the workplace down? This movie is uncompromisingly hilarious, a tale of white-collar rebels swaggering to some serious gangsta shit. For anyone who has ever felt like work is truly hell, this is the ultimate anti-establishment movie. Sorry if you think I may have jumped to this conclusion.
Verdict: While Mr. Smith has lost much of its bite over the years, Office Space reveals itself to be richer and funnier with each subsequent viewing.
1939: 0
1999: 1
There’s a snake in my boot! — Stagecoach vs. Toy Story 2
The legendary silver screen cowboy John Wayne had his first great role as the Ringo Kid in John Ford’s Stagecoach. This Western follows a group of strangers riding across the West in a stagecoach, having to deal with (highly-stereotyped) American Indians and each other. Director Orson Welles supposedly watched this cornerstone of film-making 40 times during the making of his classic film, Citizen Kane. Honestly, the thought of watching this movie 40 times makes me cringe. Although Stagecoach is massively influential, it lacks the thematic sophistication of Ford’s other Westerns like The Searchers.
Yes, Toy Story 2 is 10 years old. This sequel to the original groundbreaking computer-animated film once again features cowboy toy Woody, this time faced with an existential crisis. What is his purpose as a toy? Will he risk becoming obsolete in the eyes of his owner Andy, or will he join the Roundup Gang to be preserved in a toy museum? Because of its beautiful images and surprising emotional depth, Toy Story 2 is one of the all-time great animated films. It is a delicate balance of humor and sentiment, one of the rare sequels that manages to equal, if not better, the original.
Verdict: This town isn’t big enough for two sheriffs, and I am giving the badge to Woody.
1939: 0
1999: 2
It’s All In Your Mind — The Wizard of Oz vs. Fight Club
Some might be surprised upon learning The Wizard of Oz is 70 years old. This absolute delight of a movie never seems to age. In order to return home from the colorful world over the rainbow, Dorothy must travel to see the Wizard. Along the way, she meets a brainless scarecrow, a heartless Tin Man, a cowardly lion and the Wicked Witch of the West. Featuring songs all of us should know, this Technicolor musical is a moving fable about looking inside for what we want. It all turns out to be a dream in the end, but we never question the truth Dorothy finds in the vivid world brought to life by director Victor Fleming.
Like Office Space, David Fincher’s cult favorite Fight Club, adapted from Chuck Palahniuk’s novel of the same title, is an entertaining take on repressed rage. Infamous for its violence, it holds up because of its sarcastic indictment of corporate America and mind-binding look at the subconscious. Edward Norton is bored with life, but everything changes when he and Brad Pitt start an underground fight club to express their frustrations. Although the plot twist is effective upon each viewing, the subliminal shots of the penis made me feel the movie was sometimes too clever for its own good.
Verdict: When Norton is asked whom he would fight if he got the chance, he is lucky he did not say Dorothy — she would knocked him out in no time. As much as I love Fincher’s ultraviolent satire, it will never have the universal appeal and enduring magic of The Wizard of Oz.
1939: 1
1999: 2
Bizarre Love Triangles — The Rules of the Game vs. Being John Malkovich
Jean Renoir’s French-language The Rules of the Game has been voted by critics to be the third best movie of all time. When it comes to social satire, no movie tops the sophistication and grace of this biting look at the French bourgeoisie. Its use of deep-focus photography masterfully illuminates the different strains in the film’s network of affairs and social battles. Most of the characters act despicably, yet director Renoir handles them with a genuine sense of humanism, never hateful or condescending.
I hesitate to say puppeteer Craig Schwartz (John Cusack) is caught in your typical love triangle. After all, his wife (Cameron Diaz) cheats on him when she is in the body of actor John Malkovich (John Malkovich). In Being John Malkovich, a portal allows the characters to be Malkovich for 15 minutes, after which they are dropped onto the New Jersey Turnpike. In spite of the film’s original take on identity and obsession, it does not have the emotional resonance of writer Charlie Kaufman’s later efforts. The conceit of the portal seems like an empty game rather than a mechanism for revealing some greater truth.
Verdict: It just seems a bit too ironic that we get more into the heads of the characters in Renoir’s seemingly effortless masterpiece.
1939: 2
1999: 2
And the Oscar for Best Picture Goes to… — Gone With the Wind vs. American Beauty
One of the few truly deserving Best Picture winners, Gone With the Wind is still breathtaking after 70 years. Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) is a Southern belle whose life changes after experiencing the devastation of the Civil War and meeting Rhett Butler (Clark Gable), the first man to put her in her place. The sheer scale of this historical epic has set a standard for American movies that has been rarely matched. What makes this production all the more impressive is that it was directed by Fleming, the man behind The Wizard of Oz. No one releases two masterpieces of such scale in the same year these days.
In Sam Mendes’ directorial debut, Kevin Spacey gives a movie-making performance as a middle-aged man whose life has turned sour. This plunges him into a hysterically liberating mid-life crisis with tragic consequences. Although this 1999 Best Picture winner does a good job of mixing comedy and tragedy, American Beauty’s satirical look at suburbia becomes redundant and didactic by the end of the film. It simplistically attempts to tells us to look closer for truth in life with a climax in which characters are not revealed to be complex, but merely the exact opposite of what we thought them to be.
Verdict: Gone With the Wind is twice as long as American Beauty, but I would rather watch the Civil War epic any day.
Final Score
1939: 3
1999: 2
When it comes down to it, there is something to be said for the cliché, “They don’t make them like they used to.” 1939 was a rare year that gave the world a great number of classics. I do not even have the space to acknowledge others like the Greta Garbo vehicle Nintochka or director Howard Hawks’ Only Angels Have Wings. Unnecessary DVD re-releases to commemorate milestones are troublesome, but 1939 is a year admittedly worth celebrating.