An old-fashioned western with a modern twist led the fractured 1992 Oscar race.

Veteran Clint Eastwood’s revenge western, Unforgiven received nine nominations and four wins for Best Picture; Director; Supporting Actor (Gene Hackman) and Editing. Eastwood had also been nominated for Best Actor. The film’s rather low number of wins would seem to suggest that it was not an overwhelming favorite, but as only the third western in Oscar history to earn the Academy’s top honor, its win was indeed impressive, especially since it came only two years after the last one.

Eastwood’s toughest competition was probably James Ivory’s film of E.M. Forster’s Howards End, which also received nine nominations, albeit just three awards for Best Actress (Emma Thompson); Adapted Screenplay and Art Direction. The previous year’s Best Actor winner, Anthony Hopkins, failed to receive a Best Actor nod but the legendary Vanessa Redgrave was nominated for her brief but effective supporting turn as his dying wife in the opening reels.

The year’s most intriguing Best Picture nominee was Neil Jordan’s The Crying Game which captured six nods and won one for Jordan’s original screenplay. The film is about an Irish Republican Army soldier who falls in love with the girlfriend of a British soldier who was captured and killed by the IRA, with the film’s poster showcasing that alluringly beautiful woman played by screen newcomer Jaye Davidson. Although great efforts were made to conceal the film’s central conceit, the jig was up when the Academy nominated Davidson for Best Supporting Actor. Stephen Rea had been nominated for Best Actor and Jordan received a second nod as Best Director.

Nominated for four Oscars each, the Best Picture slate was filled out with Rob Reiner’s military courtroom drama, A Few Good Men and Martin Brest’s Scent of a Woman, a remake of the Italian film nominated for Best Foreign Film of 1975. Jack Nicholson received a Best Supporting Actor bid as an obnoxious Marine Colonel for the former and Al Pacino won for Best Actor as a romantically inclined blind man in the latter.

Other films that Oscar liked this year included The Player; A River Runs Through It; The Last of the Mohicans; Malcolm X; Chaplin; Glengarry Glen Ross; Lorenzo’s Oil; Indochine; Passion Fish; Love Field; Enchanted April; Damage; Husbands and Wives; My Cousin Vinny; Basic Instinct and Aladdin.

Robert Altman received his fourth nomination for Best Director for his wry dissection of modern Hollywood in The Player. Also nominated for Adapted Screenplay and Editing, the all-star cast film would fail to win anything despite having been awarded Best Picture and Director by the New York Film Critics and having picked up several other precursors.

Former Best Director winner Robert Redford’s nostalgic A River Runs Through It won an Oscar for Best Cinematography while nabbing two other nominations. The film gave Brad Pitt his first major acting challenge.

The twelfth film version of James Fennimore Cooper’s classic novel, The Last of the Mohicans was the first to be recognized by Oscar. The film, which starred once and future Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis won for Best Sound.

The stars of two biographical films filled out the Best Actor race. Former winner Denzel Washington was nominated for portraying controversial Black Nationalist leader Malcolm X and first time nominee Robert Downey, Jr. was up for bringing silent screen star (Charlie) Chaplin back to life.

Left off the list was the highly acclaimed performance of two-time winner Jack Lemmon as a tired salesman in Glengarry Glen Ross. Lemmon’s co-star Al Pacino was given a second nomination this year instead, albeit this one in support.

The Best Actress race was rather dull this year, with only winner Emma Thompson sparking much interest. If anyone else had a chance it was probably Susan Sarandon as a desperate mother in the real life story of Lorenzo’s Oil. Catherine Deneuve in Indochine; Mary McDonnell in Passion Fish and Michelle Pfeiffer in Love Field were merely along for the ride.

Left off the list was Miranda Richardson whose delightful turn as a bored wife in Enchanted April had to factor in with her equally memorable turns as a spiteful ex-girlfriend in The Crying Game and a spurned wife in Damage. She was nominated in support for the latter.

Richardson’s co-star, Joan Plowright, received her first and to date only nomination as one of her traveling companions in Enchanted April. The three British stars – Richardson, Plowright and the previously mentioned Redgrave were competing with Australian Judy Davis in Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives. While the race seemed fairly tight between the four of them, surprise nominee Marisa Tomei as Joe Pesci’s girlfriend in My Cousin Vinny snuck up and won the category causing at least one critic to wonder if presenter Jack Palance hadn’t read the wrong name. The Academy quickly denied that he did.

The controversial thriller Basic Instinct didn’t seem like Oscar fodder, but it did manage to be nominated for two awards: Best Editing and Score.

Disney’s domination of the Hollywood musical continued with its latest animated musical, Aladdin, which won two Oscars for Best Score and Best Song (“A Whole New World”).

All films discussed have been released on DVD in the U.S.

This week’s new DVD releases include The Adjustment Bureau and The Eagle.