The 1971 Oscars continued the trend of the previous few years in trying to walk a fine line between the innovative and the tried and true. On the one hand, the Best Picture nominees included Stanley Kubrick’s fabulously futuristic A Clockwork Orange and Peter Bogdanovich’s nostalgic, but frank, The Last Picture Show and on the other, the reverential film version of a beloved stage musical, Norman Jewison’s Fiddler on the Roof,and the latest historical epic, Franklin J. Schaffner’s Nicholas and Alexandra. In the middle, we had the exciting modern cops-and-robbers chase film, William Friedkin’s The French Connection, which won.

The tough cops played by Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider in The French Connection were still something of a novelty at the time, making them seem to be no better or no worse than the bad guy, the elusive heroin smuggler played by Fernando Rey, who they were chasing. Whether you sympathized with the good guys here or not, you couldn’t help but be awed by the high energy displayed, especially in the famous car chase on the streets of New York. Nominated for eight Oscars, it won five including Best Picture, Director, Actor (Hackman), Adapted Screenplay and Editing. It lost Supporting Actor (Scheider), Cinematography and Sound.

Intellectually more compelling, Alex, the anti-hero of A Clockwork Orange, played by Malcolm McDowell, was more in tune with the times even if the film was set in a futuristic Great Britain. Based on Anthony Burgess’ acclaimed novel, this was Kubrick at his sardonic best, a message film whose message was at variance with the beautiful, if brutal, world it encapsulated. A scathing satire on society, the film was considered shocking in its day, but the source novel has long since become required reading in many high schools. Nominated for four Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay and Editing, it won none.

The slow death of a Texas town was at the heart of The Last Picture Show, which provided breakthrough roles for newcomers Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd and Sam Bottoms, and attention grabbing ones for an older generation of previously taken for granted actors, notably Ellen Burstyn, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman and Eileen Brennan. Johnson and Leachman won Oscars for their sensitive performances and Bridges and Burstyn were nominated, but the entire cast is unforgettable. The film had been nominated for a total of eight Oscars including Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay and Cinematography.

At three hours, Fiddler on the Roof was a bit longer than it needed to be, but the rousing film version of one of Broadway’s best loved musicals was a satisfying production with a charming central performance by Topol, recreating the role of Tevye, which he had played on the London stage. Norma Crane makes a fine Golde, while Molly Picon is a bit over the top as Yente the matchmaker. Nominated for eight Oscars including Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor (Leonard Frey as Motel the tailor) and Art Direction, it won three for Cinematography, Sound and Scoring.

Slow and ultimately tedious, Nicholas and Alexandra chronicles the lives of the last Czar of Russia and his family as they are besieged, captured and eventually executed by the Communist revolutionaries. The acting, though flawless, is kind of bloodless despite the overwhelming enormity of the characters’ situations. Newcomers Michael Jayston, Janet Suzman and Tom Baker (as Rasputin) had he leads, but Irene Worth was the standout as the Queen Mother. It was Suzman, though, who received the film’s sole acting nomination out of six nods including Best Picture, Cinematography and Score. It won for Art Direction and Costume Design.

Other films on Oscar’s radar included Sunday Bloody Sunday; Mary, Queen of Scots; The Go-Between; McCabe & Mrs. Miller; Klute; The Garden of the Finzi-Continis; The Conformist; Carnal Knowledge; Summer of ’42; Straw Dogs; The Hospital; Death in Venice and Bedknobs and Broomsticks,but not Harold and Maude.

The most high profile film outside of the Best Picture nominees was John Schlesinger’s Sunday Bloody Sunday which earned nominations for Best Actor (Peter Finch), Actress (Glenda Jackson), Director and Original Screenplay. It’s a richly observed character study about a businesswoman and a male doctor who share a bisexual lover (Murray Head) who leaves them both. Finch and Jackson have never been better and Head is perfectly cast as their shallow young lover. Peggy Ashcroft as Jackson’s mother and Besssie Love as the voice of her telephone exchange operator provide solid support.

Jackson was having quite a year after her first Oscar win. She received even greater acclaim for TV’s Elizabeth R in which she played the 16th Century British monarch, and was in three other major films. First up was Ken Russell’s The Music Lovers opposite Richard Chamberlain as Tchaikovsky. Then came Russell’s film version of Sandy Wilson’s The Boy Friend as the leading lady who breaks her foot so Twiggy can go out and become star. On the heels of that came Charles Jarrot’s Mary, Queen of Scots, in which she again played Elizabeth I. That film would be nominated for five Oscars, including Best Actress (Vanessa Redgrave), Art Direction, Costume Design, Sound and Score.

“The past is another country” intones Michael Redgrave as he narrates Joseph Losey’s The Go-Between, about a forbidden love between the proper Julie Christie and rogue Alan Bates, with Dominic Guard as Redgrave’s character at 13 in the title role of the messenger drawn into the illicit romance. Margaret Leighton received her only Oscar nomination for her formidable portrayal of Christie’s disapproving mother. Christie, herself, was nominated instead for Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller; in which she plays a canny bordello madam opposite Warren Beatty. Hers was the film’s only nomination.

Prostitution also paid dividends for Jane Fonda, who won her first Oscar for her soul shattering portrayal of a high priced hooker who is the prey of a stalker in Klute. Donald Sutherland had the title role of the detective who does his best to protect her against her would-be killer. The film was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay.

An Oscar winner Best Foreign Film, as well as a nominee for Best Adapted Screenplay, Vittorio De Sica’s beautifully filmed The Garden of the Finzi-Continis is about an idyllic world shattered by the advent of World War II. Dominque Sanda, Lino Capolicchio and Helmut Berger star in this tale about an isolated Jewish Italian family who refuse to believe that harm will come to them despite events swirling all around them.

A second Italian film nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay, Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist was also about the dark events leading up to World War II as weak-willed public servant Jean-Louis Trintignat becomes a dupe for the fascists. Dominque Sanda was again used to good effect as one of Tringtigant’s lovers, the wife of the dissident professor he is ordered to assassinate.

Generally considered a misfire, Mike Nichols’ Carnal Knowledge, written by Jules Feiffer, starred Jack Nicholson and Art Garfunkel as sexually confused young men in the fifties and sixties. It nevertheless provided Ann-Margret with an outstanding supporting role as one of their conquests. Previously considered something of a lightweight, she not only won an Oscar nomination, but used the role as a springboard to decades of interesting characterizations, mostly on TV.

A box-office sensation, Robert Mulligan’s Summer of ’42,about the sexual awakening of a teenager played by Gary Grimes, made an overnight sensation of former model Jennifer O’Neill as the object of his affection. Nominated for four Oscars including Best Original Screenplay, Cinematography and Editing, it won for Best Score.

Nominated only for its score, Sam Peckinpah’s Straw Dogs was a highly controversial film about a peaceful man, played by Dustin Hoffman, who resorts to violence when his home is invaded and his wife, Susan George, is raped.

Loud and noisy, and more offensive to some sensibilities was Arthur Hiller’s The Hospital, which inexplicably won a Best Original Screenplay for Paddy Chayefsky. George C. Scott, the year after refusing an Oscar, was nominated for another one for lead performance.

Sumptuously filmed with a career high star turn by Dirk Bogarde, Luchino Visconti’s film of Thomas Mann’s celebrated novel, Death in Venice, failed to be nominated for anything other than Best Costume Design.

One of Disney’s best loved mixed media films, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, directed by Robert Stevenson, gave Angela Lansbury a rare starring role in a big budget film. Nominated for five Oscars including Best Art Direction, Costume Design, Score, Song (“The Age of Not Believing) and Special Effects, it won for the latter.

A box-office flop at the time, but a cult sensation soon after, Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude starred Ruth Gordon as the full of life 80 year-old who brings young Bud Cort out of his shell. Both Gordon and Cort were nominated for Golden Globes, but Oscar ignored them.

All filsm discussed except The Go-Between; The Music Lovers and The Boy Friend have been released on DVD in the U.S.

New DVD releases include current Oscar front-runner The Social Network and the 20th Anniversary edition of former winner, Dances With Wolves, both on Blu-ray and standard DVD.