Why did Robert Redford win an Oscar for Ordinary People?!!!!

Best director oscar. Not acting.

Who else would have won it?

R1 I know but the movie was not special

R2 Martin Scorsese for Raging Bull

r3 I liked Ordinary People more. Much, much more.

Mare was robbed. Robbed!

Buck would never have questioned Robert Redford’s deserving the Oscar for Ordinary People.

Hollywood has a long history of rewarding well-respected and successful actors who turn to directing. Plus the film was better than average middlebrow drama so it was inevitable.

I don't think Redford ever directed a film even this good afterwards.

Even so, Kevin Costner's later directing win is a more egregious example of rewarding an actor-turned-director than Redford's win.

At that point Scorsese was still considered too "New York" by the Hollywood crowd that comprises the bulk of voters. Think of how long it took for the man to finally win, and not for one of his best films.

For corralling Mary Tyler Moore and for being a WASP.

[quote]I don't think Redford ever directed a film even this good afterwards.

Most people never directed a film as good as Ordinary People.

The larger question is why Mary Tyler Moore didn't win the Oscar? Mary deserved it over Sissy Spacek for Coal Miners Daughter.

I thought Jonathan Demme deserved it for Melvin & Howard--not even nominated.

Ordinary People is so good. It's still a rare thing for the movie version to match the quality of a well-loved book.

I saw it and it WAS a very good movie so yes, Redford deserved the Oscar for directing it.

It was a brilliant movie. Mary was robbed of an Oscar because she was considered a TV actress. There is no one who beat her performance that year.

R7 he was nominated again for Quiz Show which I thought was just as good if not better than OP.

It's an excellent movie and he did a fantastic job directing it. My 13 year old self was profoundly affected by this movie and I would always fall into heaping sobs by the end of it whenever I watched it. I think it holds up. Did Timothy Hutton ever match that performance again? MTM was amazing.

Then I finally saw Raging Bull 25 years later. I was a pretty big Scorsese fan but I'd always avoided RB for some reason. Maybe I didn't want to betray OP and its impact on me. But it was probably the most emotionally devastating movie I'd seen in a long while. I can't go back and watch it too often because it just hurts, but man, definitely Marty's and Bobby's best.

R10 Strongly disagree. Sissy Spacek absolutely owned the role of Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter and also did her own singing. She worked much harder in this movie than Mary did in hers.

A once in a lifetime performance and Sissy richly deserved the Oscar she got for her standout role.

I was never able to watch Raging Bull again, partly because I hate boxing.

Did not love Coal Miner's Daughter. It was okay. Not as devastating as Ordinary People.

I loved Coal Miner's Daughter but pretty much anyone could have done that performance. Looking back it is kind of a Lifetime movie.

If Moore had been put into Supporting, would she have won?

Timothy Hutton was pretty great in American Crime S1. He was nominated for the Emmy but lost.

Because he deserved it.

Ordinary People > Raging Bull.

Dew. Dew.. Dew. Baloney makes me horny.

The cinematographer directed the film. Redford is a sham as a director.

1980 was a strong year in film. I loved Tess by Roman Polanski. I know there is still criticism that Raging Bull and Marty Scorsese deserved Best Pic and Best Director over OP and Robert but I think OP is a great film.

I don't know if Moore would have won in Supporting r21. Wasn't Mary Steenburgen a front runner?

I agree that Melvin and Howard is a great film. I think it's more relevant now than back then.

Timothy Hutton may have never become an A-list star but he's worked steadily, and seems to be getting stronger work in the last decade. As r21 stated, he was excellent in American Crime (and Emmy-nominated). And he's in a supporting role on How To Get Away with Murder.

It's a shame Moore's film career never took off after this film. She really was amazing in it.

Also a shame Donald Sutherland was not nominated for Best Actor.

I don't remember the next time I liked a movie as much as Ordinary People.

Did You Fuck My Brother?

Oscar decided to reward Robert Redford for being more than a handsome, dumb blond with adequate acting skills.

Martin Scorsese was pissed off, he didn't even try to hide it

He should have won

It’s a vastly successful film to RAGING BULL.

[quote] It's a shame Moore's film career never took off after this film. She really was amazing in it.

No matter how many times she tried to “transgress” her tv persona, and no matter how good she was, she would forever be seen as the wife from The Dick Van Dyke Show and as her character on the MTM Show.

John Bailey, the cinematographer on Ordinary People, has done some extraordinary work but never been nominated for an Academy Award. Flashy special effects movies or scenic historical epics tend to win the cinematography award, but Bailey captures the light and colors of suburban Chicago beautifully and hauntingly (as he does with suburban Baltimore in The Accidental Tourist). Some of the images are like great paintings.

Raging Bull and Scorsese weren't really in contention. Redford and Ordinary People were heavy favorites. The acclaim for Raging Bull and Scorsese only grew over the years. At the time people praised DeNiro but the film itself was too violent and bloody and profane for Academy tastes. (This was the days of Bob Hope etc.)

Scorsese may seem stressed in the video where he lost because he had a lot more on his mind than just the Oscars. The day before the ceremony on what was supposed to be the day of the ceremony Hinckley shot Reagan and cited a Scorsese film as the inspiration.

I wanted Raging Bull to win but I wasn't disappointed when Ordinary People won, because while it was a very different film, it was comparably good.

The thing about Ordinary People, whether you wanted to admit it or not, everybody understood Beth. More than they wanted to.

R35 I never understood Beth or parents like her

HI BETH!

This.

I recall also the acclaim for RB grew over the years. I consider the film a masterpiece in terms of production, acting and writing but it’s strange how it wasn’t recognized as such in 1980-1981 at the time of the Oscar voting. It really must’ve been the violent boxing scenes, wife abuse and liberal use of profanity that turned voters off to at least a directing win. Redford was the first high profile actor to win for directing even though some directors are known to dabble in it (John Huston for example).

It wasn’t even a certainty that DeNiro would show up that night due to the attempt on Reagan’s life but ended up collecting it.

Mary Tyler Moore Talks About Robert Redford

Timothy Hutton absolutely deserved to win.

I love how bitter so many actresses got when they found out they didn't get the part of Beth. Redford made a lot of promises just in case he didn't get Mary for the role.

who r42?

I've heard Mary on youtube say Redford came to her house and told her she was who he pictured when he read the script but then he proceeded to audition every actress around. Timothy Hutton has said Ann-Margaret was Beth at his audition.

Hutton has also said that if Elizabeth McGovern had turned down the role Redford was thinking of giving it to Marie Osmond.

"Ordinary People" was a great film, even if a bit sanitized in spots (the school kids mostly). "Raging Bull" is amazing to look at but tough for many to sit through. The true Best Picture that year (and Best Director too): "The Elephant Man" and David Lynch.

I’ve tried to make it through Raging Bull twice, and bailed both times. It’s beautifully shot. Cinematically, it looks great.

But it’s like sitting on a bus and watching an asshole be a dick to other people for two hours. Jack LaMotta is a wholly worthless individual. Scorsese makes no indictment of him; rather, he chronicles him.

Life’s too short to spend two hours with that man (DeNiro’s LaMotta, not Scorsese).

Agreed. Though Cathy Moriarty almost makes it all worthwhile. What a gorgeous creature. Should have been a huge star.

"Ordinary People" is such a great movie. I imagine it's really hard to direct a movie dependent upon dialogue and body language alone. Also, great cinematography with such subject matter is also a great achievement.

The first 40 seconds of this! Laura Petrie IRL

At least Scorsese didn’t lose to a bunch of British Olympians.

You won the directing Oscar though WB

I was just a kid when these movies were in cinemas so I didn't get round to seeing them until about ten years ago. Anyway, Ordinary People stayed with me long after I saw it. I didn't think about Raging Bull again after I saw it. I can see how technically brilliant it is but (and this isn't a reflection on DeNiro's performance) Jake LaMotta, for me, wasn't a particularly compelling character.

It was a few years before I wanted to look at Raging Bull. At home. On the VCR. In case I didn't want to finish it. I did finish it, though.

It's an awful film all the way around.

Which one, r54?

RAGING BULL is my all time favorite Deniro movie. He’s amazing in it.

OP underwhelms me. Love MTM but Redford bores me on either side of the camera.

Nice post, r52. When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with Scorsese movies. I just loved watching and analyzing Taxi Driver, New York, New York, Raging Bull and Goodfellas. I still think he's great but I don't like that Ordinary People is sometimes deemed unworthy of the Oscar. I think both OP and RB are excellent films, and classics in their own right. Like you said, OP has stayed with me also. Watching OP as a 17-year-old I could relate to Hutton's alienation and my stepmother was MTM, very cold with flashes of warmth but always reverting back behind the shell.

Kind of surprising that Ordinary People is not available on Blu-ray.

R7 yeah but Redford really started that “golden boy turned director” trend - Beatty, Costner, Affleck all came after. So the question is from 1980 eyes was Redford’s win as much a foregone conclusion? Directing awards had yet to go in that direction.

I agree with whoever said Quiz Show is at least as good if not better than OP. That was the year of Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction but I thought Quiz Show was the movie that was really robbed.

Also a shame Donald Sutherland has never been nominated for an Oscar.

I intended to only watch the first 40 seconds of R49's video but I ended up getting sucked in. MTM was so great. Everything was amazing, Donald Sutherland, Timothy Hutton (obviously), the costumes, the set design... it was all so snotty and monied and WASPy and I love it.

Mary Tyler Moore was SO miscast as Beth. Who would believe Mary Richards as a cold, detached mother from hell?

It was fucking brilliant! Redford deserved the award for that casting decision if nothing else. He just didn't deserve it more than Scorsese.

As you can see, I'm torn. Yeah, they were both great and iconic films in their own right.

[quote] yeah but Redford really started that “golden boy turned director” trend - Beatty, Costner, Affleck all came after.

actually Beatty was nominated two years before for Heaven Can Wait. Woody Allen kind of broke down the barrier against actors directing in terms of Oscar. (Paul Newman sort of did it with Rachel, Rachel but the Academy accepted him but the director's branch didn't.

Richard Attenborough, who started directing in 1969 after a long acting career, won in 1983 for Gandhi. So Allen, Redford, Beatty, and Attenborough: 4 actors won best director in 6 years.

R61 Woody Allen was a “golden boy?”

Actually, RAGING BULL’s reputation has floundered over the years, as an overall FILM particularly compared to his other work. People love TAXI DRIVER and GOODFELLAS more. Even THE KING OF COMEDY is considered odder, more experimental and mire individualistic. The direction of the fight scenes, Joe Pesci’s energy and general admiration of Robert De Niro regaining his previously taut and terrific body by Oscar night remain lauded.