The Vietnam War was the backdrop for both Best Director Michael Cimino’s Oscar winning Best Picture, The Deer Hunter, and Hal Ashby’s also nominated Coming Home. Other nominees were Alan Parker’s Midnight Express, Paul Mazursky’s An Unmarried Woman and Warren Beatty and Buck Henry’s Heaven Can Wait. Overlooked were Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven, Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata, and Woody Allen’s Interiors.

Oscar’s 1979 lineup included Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, Peter Yates’ Breaking Away, Martin Ritt’s Norma Rae, Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz, and Best Director Robert Benton’s Kramer vs. Kramer which won. Among those ignored were Milos Forman’s Hair, Woody Allen’s Manhattan, and Hal Ashby’s Being There.

Oscar’s 1980 Best Picture winner was Best Director Robert Redford’s Ordinary People which won over Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull, David Lynch’s The Elephant Man, Michael Apted’s Coal Miner’s Daughter, and Roman Polanski’s Tess. Lewis John Carlino’s The Great Santini, Jonathan Demme’s Melvin and Howard, and Richard Rush’s The Stunt Man were left out in the Cold.

For 1981, Oscar decided to go with Hugh Hudson’s Chariots of Fire while giving Best Director to Warren Beatty for fellow nominee Reds. Also nominated were Mark Rydell’s On Golden Pond, Louis Malle’s Atlantic City, and Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. Among the missing were Peter Weir’s Gallipoli, Sidney Lumet’s Prince of the City, and Karel Reisz’s The The French Lieutenant’s Woman.

Oscar’s 1982 Best Picture was Best Director Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi over Steven Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Sydney Pollack’s Tootsie, Sidney Lumet’s The Verdict, and Costa-Gavris’ Missing. The egregiously ignored included Blake Edwards’ Victor/Victoria, Alan J. Pakula’s Sophie’s Choice, and Taylor Hackford’s An Officer and a Gentleman.

For 1983, Oscar chose Best Director James L. Brooks’ Terms of Endearment for Best Picture over Bruce Beresford’s Tender Mercies, Lawrence Kasdan’s The Big Chill, Philip Kaufman’s The Right Stuff, and Peter Yates’ The Dresser. Among the unnominated were Ingmar Bergman’s Fanny and Alexander, Lynne Littman’s Testament, and Mike Nichols’ Silkwood.

Oscar’s 1984 Best Picture was Best Director Milos Forman’s Amadeus over David Lean’s A Passage to India, Robert Benton’s Places in the Heart, Roland Joffé’s The Killing Fields, and Norman Jewison’s A Soldier’s Story. Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas, Glenn Jordan’s Mass Appeal, and Alan Parker’s Birdy went unnominated.

Oscar’s 1985 Best Picture was Best Director Sydney Pollack’s Out of Africa over Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple, John Huston’s Prizzi’s Honor, Hector Babenco’s Kiss of the Spider Woman, and Peter Weir’s Gallipoli. Among that failed to be nominated were Terry Gilliam’s Brazil, Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose of Texas , and Susan Seidelman’s Desperately Seeking Susan.

Oscar’s 1986 Best Picture and Best Director awards went to Oliver Stone’s Platoon over James Ivory’s A Room with a View, Woody Allen’s Hannah and Her Sisters, Randa Haines’ Children of a Lesser God, and Roland Joffé’s The Mission. Not Nominated were David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, Neil Jordan’s Mona Lisa, and Rob Reiner’s Stand by Me.

Oscar closed out the decade with 1987 awards going to Best Director Bernardo Bertoccci for Best Picture winner The Last Emperor over James L. Brooks’ Broadcast News, Norman Jewison’s Moonstruck, John Boorman’s Hope and Glory, and Adraian Lyne’s Fatal Attraction. John Huston’s The Dead, Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, and James Ivory’s Maurice were overlooked.

FILMS THE ACADEMY SHOULD HAVE NOMINATED BUT DIDN’T

DAYS OF HEAVEN, directed by Terrence Malick (1978)

Malick’s follow-up to his widely heralded 1973 film, Badlands, was completed in 1976, but took two years to edit during which star Richard Gere made Looking for Mr. Goodbar which became his breakout film instead of this as was intended. He plays the drifter who convinces his new girlfriend (Brooke Adams) to marry the dying rancher (Sam Shepherd) they work for so that she will inherit his money. Linda Manz, who narraes, played Gere’s 15-year-old sister. Malick’s would not make another film until 1998’s The Thin Red Line and has only made six films since.

HAIR, directed by Milos Forman (1979)

This was Forman’s first film since winning the Oscar for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest four years earlier. He would a second Oscar for Amadeus five years later, but this expansive adaptation of the loosely put together 1967 Off-Broadway musical may well be his greatest achievement. With a 90% Rotten Tomatoes rating, it is one of the best regarded musicals of the modern era. John Savage, Treat Williams, Beverly D’Angelo, Annie Golden, Dorsey Wright, Don Dacus, and Cheryl Barnes have the principal roles as the G.I. on his way to Vietnam and the hippies he meets in New York.

VICTOR/VICTORIA, directed by Blake Edwards (1982)

This remake of a 1930s German film was delayed for several years while star Julie Andrews and her husband, director Blake Edwards, worked on other projects. Andrews had her most appealing role since The Sound of Music as a woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman to make her way in show business. James Garner as a low level gangster who falls for her, Robert Preston as a drag queen, and Lesley Ann Warren as Garner’s floozie are also first rate with Andrews, Preston, and Warren all receiving Oscar nominations for their performances. Andrews also starred in the 1995 Broadway adaptation.

BLUE VELVET, directed by David Lynch (1986)

Second only to Lynch’s iconic TV series, Twin Peaks in the director’s list of vaulted accomplishments, he was the only Oscar nominated director whose film was not nominated for Best Picture of 1986. The strange but credible thriller starred Kyle MacLachlan as the young man who finds a severed ear in the grass as he walks through the neighborhood. Laura Dern is the detective’s daughter who helps him solve the mystery. Isabella Rossellini is the mysterious woman who draws him into her bizarre world dominated by a crazed Dennis Hopper and his equally bizarre friend played by Dean Stockwell.

THE DEAD, directed by John Huston (1987)

Huston’s last film was an appropriate one for the director who outlived contemporaries Hitchcock, Ford, Wyler and Hawks and others. Taken from the final story in James Joyce’s Dubliners, it was filmed in Ventura, California with 2nd unit photography in Dublin, Ireland with an all-Irish cast in this tale of celebration and remembrance on the Fest of Epiphany or Little Christmas at the turn of the 20th Century. Huston’s daughter, Anjelica, stars as the central character whose long ago romance with a long dead young man is recalled by the chance singing of a song he sang to her. Exquisite from start to finish with many fine performances.