HollywoodLights

Pulp Fiction won out for the crucial first view. I love this film I really do. Quentin Tarantino uses some interesting storytelling methods, and even managed to scoop up and award for best screenplay. The real holograph for me though is the entire first sequence from the at ride conversation all the way to the end of the apartment scene. Brilliant.

mrcellophane

I went to see Beauty and the Beast when I realized that my local theater had one 2D showing. Then I switched gears with The Divorcee which was a great little drama that definitely poked at the gender double standards of the day. Not quite sure how I feel about the ending. Time will tell.

gp1086

First watch for me, a MAJOR classic I have never seen until now - The Godfather.

indiephantom

Great starter pick! You would do well to see the other two also.

gp1086

Might be on my list as well.

HollywoodLights

I might have to watch the godfather as part of my challenge as well. Never seen it, only a few mins of the 3rd one.

davidh777

As far as picking the first selection, it depends a lot on the challenge. TV I have such a backlog and eligibility is so easy to determine. With Oscars, it takes more research to figure out qualifiers. One that's been on my list for a long time is Doctor Zhivago, but I need the right amount of time and the right mood to watch that. Another I know I want to rewatch is Inception. Other than that, I'm not totally sure. I'm still smarting from last year, when I finally watched Rio Bravo only to find out that it didn't qualify.

Ash Ketchum

You're both better off skipping the 3rd one entirely. Except as a textbook example of how a once-great filmmaker can ruin his own franchise. (Coppola's protege George Lucas then followed up with his own textbook example of that.)

Indy24LA

Nothing could ruin Godfather I and II. Coppola could have used Jar Jar Binks as Michael Corleone in part III and it still wouldn't tarnish I and II.

I started out with The Philadelphia Story and absolutely loved it. I will save the Sound of Music for this weekend, since there's no real football on.

MrTerrific

Watched War Horse last night. Thought it was just as sappy as reviews have said, but I did enjoy it.

Watching The Help now. So far so good. The nominated performances have been great.

Gonna try and catch Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Moneyball to complete the Best Picture nominees from this year.

Darth Maher

Because unlike Lucas, Coppola left the originals alone. Make all the crappy sequels/prequels you want, just leave what's already done... done.

It's been a few years since I've watched the Godfather movies. Now seems like a good time to revisit them.

Another awesome thing this year is that my wife is more on board with watching Oscar winners/nominees this year than in the past. So I might be able to get some decent viewing in this year.

Mao

Anyone find any of this year's shorts anwhere online yet? I'd gladly make another post like last years...

Gobear

Yeah, same for me last year when I watched A Face in the Crowd and Sweet Smell of Success, only to find that both films had been passed over by Oscar, yet a potboiler like Peyton Place received multiple nominations.

HollywoodLights

wasn't there the Coppola restoration though? Or was that literally just restoring a film and not re-editing it?

orlmac

I'm going to begin my viewing with Underworld from 1927 by Director Josef Von Sternberg. I love these criterion dvds, they have a lot of good historical information for these movies that were made 30+ years before I was born. My favorite part of this challenge is watching something that I wouldn't normally watch, I usually find something new (whether genre or actor/actress or producer) that sets me off to find other things to enjoy.

Ash Ketchum

I like all three of those movies, but while FACE and SMELL were artistically stronger, PEYTON PLACE was more entertaining in a grand melodrama way and struck a stronger chord with the public than either of the other two. (It was also based on a scandalous semi-autobiographical best-seller.) This was at a time when films that were both popular and critical favorites got more play from the Academy. Lots of films from the '50s that became big film school favorites in later decades were overlooked by the Academy (and most critics) in the '50s, while things like THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH and AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS actually won Best Picture. (In '56, THE SEARCHERS didn't get any noms either.)

I've actually revisited PEYTON PLACE more often than I have FACE or SMELL, including for last year's Oscar Challenge. I love that movie.

Gobear

I love SHOWGIRLS, but I sure wouldn't have nominated it for Best Picture.

I will probably get in some of the usual classics, but for now, I'm focusing on off-beat, obscure films that got one or two nominations, which is why I started with Poltergeist II, a semi-crappy film that actually received a Best Visual Effects nom, although by 2011 standards the FX suck.

popcorn

I didn't even know the 26th was the start date and discovered it on accident. Watched The King's Speech to kick it off. Next thing I know I was "trying" to watch Last Tango in Paris. That one is a hard watch.

Going for around 75 this year. It's my favorite challenge.

orlmac

I thought that Underworld was quite good, I am planning to watch his next movie The Last Command to start off next year's challenge, it won for the Best Actor in a Leading Role in 1929. I prefer sound but it was fun to watch what appears to be the first influential gangster movie. Movies like this aren't as powerful when their scenes have been imitated many times but they are still quite good when watched in the proper context.

lisadoris

So far so good in terms of the films. King Solomon's Mines and Joan of Arc were a bit dry but the first one was very pretty to look at. The Goodbye Girl and My Favorite Year were a lot of fun and Peter O'Toole played an excellently funny drunk. It was fun to see how young all the actor's in The Dirty Dozen looked.

gp1086

For anyone interested in checking it out, this past week they released a fully restored "Wings" (the first-ever Best Picture winner) on blu ray / DVD.

Mao

It is a thing of beauty!

Plan on watching it in the next couple of days. Watching the first 5 minutes and the extra on how it was restored makes you want them to restore everything!

You owe it to yourself to seek it out (the restored DVD was just released on Netflix, as well, but I'll gladly covet my Blu-ray for years to come!)

gp1086

Nice! Yeah - I hope they do this for additional titles going forward.

Ash Ketchum

Half of that cast were actual WWII veterans--22 years after the war had ended! Lee Marvin was wounded in the Battle of Saipan. Also vets: Bronson, Savalas, Jaeckel, Borgnine, Ryan, Meeker, Kennedy, and Webber. Clint Walker was in the Merchant Marine during the war at the age of 17! The only key cast members too young for WWII were Brown, Cassavetes and Sutherland. Still alive as of this post: Borgnine, Kennedy, Walker, Brown and Sutherland, all of whom, except for Walker, are still active!

darkhawk

Could the moderators make the list thread into a sticky just for the month?