It's Elizabethan flicks vs. war films

Reviewed by KATHRYN GRAHAM
Collegian Staff Writer

It's the fight of the century: William Shakespeare and Queen Elizabeth I vs. World War II.

Who's going to win the Best Picture Oscar?

It won't be James Cameron, that's for sure. His hit Titanic has finally gone the way of Celine Dion's overplayed love ballad.

This year, the Oscar for Best Picture either will go to one of the Elizabethan flicks, Shakespeare in Love or Elizabeth, or it will honor World War II with Saving Private Ryan, Life is Beautiful or The Thin Red Line.

In the past, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences usually honors movies set in the 20th century like Titanic, The English Patient and Forrest Gump. The only exception in the past few years was 1995 winner Braveheart.

The nominees this year are an eclectic bunch, set in both the 1900s and the late 1500s.

Unfortunately, Queen Elizabeth will have to keep waiting for her Oscar. Both Love and Elizabeth have too much in common to really be distinguished from each other.

Love has Joseph Fiennes, a beautiful blonde (Gwyneth Paltrow), a strong script and Geoffrey Rush. Elizabeth has Joseph Fiennes, a beautiful blonde (Cate Blanchett), a strong script and Geoffrey Rush. And both movies portray the Queen in a favorable light.

Love will have to settle for Paltrow as a Best Actress-winner and Tom Stoppard for his Best Original Screenplay. Elizabeth will bring some competition to different categories, but the film just hasn't garnered enough attention to make an impact with voters at the Academy.

"Shakespeare in Love is not just about William Shakespeare," Renee Mitchell (sophomore-music education) said. "It's about romance, passion and Joseph Fiennes in tights."

On to World War II and its veterans.

Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line has enough cameos to make Woody Allen jealous, but its producers will not be making any acceptance speeches March 21. The film, though featuring stars like George Clooney and Sean Penn, does not have the intense passion or drama to warrant an award. It could have been executed better. Malick needs to work on his storytelling technique and Clooney should have stuck with ER.

Life is Beautiful, the little independent movie that could, has made little money but has gained enough attention to make audiences remember Roberto Benigni's name.

The comical actor has captured the hearts of the Hollywood elite, paving the way for a long career in film.

The movie, a tragic comedy about a family imprisoned in a concentration camp, does make light of the war a little too much, but it still has an effect on its audience.

Benigni's character, Guido, tries to explain his family's situation to his son in a very unique way. Everything in the depressing camp is rationalized as a contest to win an armored car. It is Guido's desperate ploy to keep his son from finding out the harsh realities of the war.

Though the four movies above are excellent in their own right, they do not compare with yet another Steven Spielberg masterpiece, Saving Private Ryan. Joining such films as Schindler's List, the Indiana Jones trilogy, E.T. and Jurassic Park, Saving is just another example of Spielberg's directing skill.

The question "Is one man worth the lives of seven?" is delicately handled in this film as Tom Hanks leads a mismatched pack of soldiers to find the last living son (Matt Damon) of a family whose brothers had all died in the war.

As any person who has seen the film knows, the most startling part is the 24-minute opening sequence, in which Spielberg recreates the D-Day invasion with enough blood, guts and gore to take the audience back to Omaha Beach on that fateful day in 1944.

"It was really intense," Allana Dodd (junior-finance) said. "I had to turn away from the screen a couple of times because I couldn't handle it."

Spielberg will just have to make some more room on his mantle next to his two Oscars for Saving Private Ryan.