Shakespeare In Love - 71st Best Picture Winner

Shakespeare In Love - 71st Best Picture Winner
1998
#59

Starring:
Gwyneth Paltrow
Joseph Finnes

Directed By:
John Madden

1998 Academy Awards
Winner:
Best Picture
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actress
Best Art Direction
Best Costume Design
Best Original Musical or Comedy Score
Best Original Screenplay

Other Films Nominated:
Elizabeth
Life Is Beautiful
Saving Private Ryan
The Thin Red Line

This is one of the BP Winners that I'd seen before, more than a few times. So rare is it for a comedy to win Best Picture. To me, that is kind of strange, in a way, given the awards are a popularity contest after all. Comedies tend to reach wider audiences than drama so you'd think more would be nominated in general but they just aren't. And to that end, most of those nominated are more what currently people would call a dramedy - part drama, part comedy, and frankly, closer to what real life is like. Most people have times of drama and joy in their lives, the lucky ones having less drama and more joy. But when people think of rewarding something, proclaiming something has more merit than others, I guess things that seem bigger spectacles or that fall into a narrower genre are seen as more work and more deserving than something that reflects real life? Unless that real life was like 30+ years ago...

Films based in part or in whole on one of the works of Shakespeare (on in this case a work and his life) have a decent-ish track record for being nominated for Oscars, with at least 20 films in the history of the awards having been nominated, tho only a few have won their nominated titles, like West Side Story and Olivier's Hamlet (not to mention the number of Oscars Olivier himself was nominated for and won for various works of Shakespeare he was a part of).

This one isn't so much about a specific play, though Romeo and Juliet is the main feature, but about story of what went into writing such a play and performing it and the lives of those that create it. One reason why it was so notable is that through the comedy, it uses a very real point of historical issue - that of the rule that women were not to be seen on stage and therefore all the parts of every play, including the young Juliet Capulet, were played by men or boys. Such a prohibition still speaks to society today in the plight of those denied, well, anything because of their gender, race, age, sexual orientation, etc. Look into history - this was set in the late 1500s and yet today, more than some 400 years later, this is still an issue of today's society. you'd think we'd have all come a lot further in 400 years time...

Also interesting to note that this beat 2 highly acclaimed WWII movies, both of whom many people expected to win Best Picture. While SiL wasn't a total surprise, it's just one of the many times the Academy has given that top prize to something unexpected.

Check out more about the 71st Academy Awards
Check out more about the films of 1998