by Heath Lynch, Contributing Writer

Welcome back to another Oscars: What If, a retrospective look at the Oscars! It’s been an interesting summer blockbuster season, as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse popped off in big ways — but since then, it has been lackluster box office bomb after box office bomb. Here’s hoping Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, Oppenheimer, and Barbie kick things back into high gear. But while we are enjoying the summer season, we should still take a moment to appreciate some Oscars goodness! Especially as we are now set to start a retrospective on a new decade. It’s time to enjoy the ‘90s. So let’s jump right in. As a reminder, with this series we look at categories the Academy should be honoring, but for one reason or another, they aren’t. Hopefully someday the Academy will do right by these creative talents, but until then we must do the Academy’s job for them. Let’s look back at the year in which Tim Berners-Lee published his proposal for the World Wide Web, the Hubble Space Telescope was deployed into orbit, Nelson Mandela was released after 27 years in prison, and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air debuted. It is time to examine the films of 1990, celebrated at the Oscars in 1991. Let’s see what could have been!

Best Stunts and Choreography

Given to the best achievement in dance, stunts, related performances, and overall choreography.

And the nominees are… Die Hard 2: Die Harder, Home Alone, The Hunt for Red October, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Total Recall

And the winner is… Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Look, I know, I’m just as shocked as you are. But honestly, this was kind of a weak year for stunts and choreography. There are no big, sweeping musicals, no grand dance numbers, and most of the stunts throughout these movies are sparse and minimal at best. Sure, you have notable and memorable films like Home Alone, but it’s not like those stunts were all that impressive. So it’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that comes out on top. Yeah, there’s a lot of goofy and corny action sequences, and sometimes the performers struggle to work through their awkwardly large turtle suits, but for the most part, what’s happening here is actually pretty impressive. There’s an abundance of great martial arts action, hand to hand combat, and intricate choreography with melee weapons like nunchucks and sai. There’s people fighting in the middle of burning buildings, people falling through rooftops, hell, people falling off rooftops, and so much more. When you go back and rewatch this movie, you’ll be shocked at how much is really going, and in an incredibly weak year, it’s this piece of family friendly nostalgia that actually has the best stunts of the year.

Best Performance by Voiceover or Motion Capture

Given to the best off screen voice performance, or on screen motion captured performance.

And the nominees are… John Candy as Wilbur in The Rescuers Down Under, Brad Dourif as Chucky in Child’s Play 2, Josh Pais as Raphael in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, George C. Scott as Percival C. McLeach in The Rescuers Down Under, Alan Young as Scrooge McDuck in DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp

And the winner is… George C. Scott as Percival C. McLeach in The Rescuers Down Under!

This was a very close category, but I have to give it to George C. Scott in the end. I’m not even personally a big fan of Rescuers Down Under, although I know it has its followers, but I am a massive fan of Scott’s performance. It is harrowing in an electrifying way. The glee with which his character hunts and kills endangered creatures for his own pride, vanity, and glory, is disgusting. But what makes it so disgusting is Scott, who is absolutely menacing. There are some scenes in which he has a sense of excitement as he plays with his prey, and others in which he yells and screams in a manner that sends a chill down your spine, and injects you with pure terror. It’s one of the most complete and well-rounded voice over performances that you will ever see, in a movie that has largely been forgotten by today’s standards. I am very excited to give Scott this well-deserved Oscar, making it the second Oscar win of his career 20 years, after winning Best Actor for Patton.

Best Performance by an Ensemble Cast

Given to the best overall ensemble cast performance.

And the nominees are… Dances with Wolves, The Hunt for Red October, Goodfellas, Metropolitan, Miller’s Crossing

And the winner is… Goodfellas!

I was tempted to give this to The Hunt for Red October just due to the sheer volume and size of its ensemble cast, and how well they all play together, but I have to give it to Goodfellas. Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly a lot of people in Goodfellas as well, but the vast majority of it revolves around just four characters. However, those four characters are exceptionally performed by Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro, and Lorraine Bracco. They are All-Star level performances that have become iconic staples, not just in the annals of Hollywood and cinema, but also in pop culture. In fact, you could even say that a couple of these actors give the best performances of their entire careers in this film. You also have to account for the fact that Bracco was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, and Pesci actually won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor! You could even make a solid argument that De Niro could have potentially gotten a nomination as well, had he not already been nominated for his work in Awakenings that same year. It’s hard to get more impressive than that. Goodfellas absolutely earns the Oscar for Best Performance by an Ensemble Cast. 

Best Directorial Debut

Given to the best achievement in direction by a debut directing talent.

And the nominees are… Kevin Costner for Dances with Wolves, Reginald Hudlin for House Party, Frank Marshall for Arachnophobia, Whit Stillman for Metropolitan, Ron Underwood for Tremors

And the winner is… Kevin Costner for Dances with Wolves!

I really don’t know if I’m even making this decision. Part of me feels like it was made for me due to the fact that Dances with Wolves won Best Picture this year, and Kevin Costner actually won Best Director as well, over the likes of some of the greats, such as Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese. Whether this deserved Best Picture or Best Director is debatable, but he certainly deserves Best Directorial Debut against the rest of the competition. While I feel Whit Stillman does a good job with Metropolitan, it’s the only real threat, and it still doesn’t even come close to what Costner pulls off in Dances with Wolves. The tremendous performances Costner is able to yield from his ensemble cast, his complete understanding of the script and how to get the most empathy and emotion from the story, his sense of framing and pacing, and overall tone and vision for the project is well composed. Costner easily takes away the gold for Best Directorial Debut. 

Best Popular Film

Given to the best audience supported motion picture that earned a spot as one of the top 25 box office films of the year.

And the nominees are… Dances with Wolves, Ghost, Home Alone, The Hunt for Red October, Pretty Woman

And the winner is… Dances with Wolves!

This might be the most challenging Best Popular Film choice I’ve ever made since the inception of this series. Every single one of these films has a valid claim to such a title. Home Alone is still watched in households around the world every year around the Christmas season. Ghost might have the most iconic scene of any of these movies, due to clay pottery and “Unchained Melody” by Righteous Brothers. The Hunt for Red October is a riveting thriller that probably has the most political relevance in our current landscape. Pretty Woman burst onto the scene to become a rom-com favorite for generations. But I’m going to, after much deliberation, give it to Dances with Wolves. I feel like I can hear you roll your eyes, but bear with me here. In terms of its popularity at the time, Dances with Wolves was the third highest-grossing domestic film of the year, bringing in $184 million behind only Ghost and Home Alone. Now granted, Home Alone beat it by over $100 million, but third place at nearly $200 million in the early ‘90s is still damn impressive. Its worldwide box office puts Dances with Wolves at $424 million globally. Unfortunately, that’s still behind Ghost, Home Alone, and at this point Pretty Woman as well, but that’s still a largely impressive number. It’s also worth noting that its three-hour runtime constricted showtime opportunities at theaters, and if it was shorter, it’s highly probable, if not likely, that Dances with Wolves would get up even higher on these lists. Still, top-five finishes in domestic and global box office is very impressive. But it’s the film’s popularity with critics, and not just audiences, that really puts this film above the competition.

Dances with Wolves led the nominations at the Academy Awards this year with 12. The next closest movies, Dick Tracy and The Godfather: Part III, had seven. It was also the dominating winner of the night, bringing home seven Oscars. The next closest film was Dick Tracy, with three. For comparison’s sake to our other nominees: Ghost had five noms and two wins, The Hunt for Red October had three noms and one win, Home Alone had two noms and no wins, and Pretty Woman had just one, also with no wins. Dances with Wolves took home Best Film Editing, Cinematography, Sound, Original Score, Adapted Screenplay, Director, and Best Picture. This was a blow out. As a side note, but still relevant, it’s noteworthy that the biggest box office success of all time, Avatar, is still largely criticized to this day for its unoriginal story. What’s the movie most people compare it to? Dances with Wolves. While that take is a matter of opinion, it’s a fairly sizable group of dissenters who feel that way, and it’s interesting to note that Dances is still thought of with such reverence. When you consider its box office prowess, placing in the top five in both the domestic and worldwide box office, and the absolute love it received from critics and dominance at the Oscars, I have to give the Best Popular Film award to Dances with Wolves.

Thanks for joining me on another trip down memory lane to see what could’ve been! We got to see a submarine thriller that took us back to the Cold War, one of the most critically acclaimed gangster films of all time, and a family Christmas film full of laughs and booby traps that has become an annual rewatch for many. Be sure to come back next month when we look at films like The Silence of the Lambs, Beauty and the Beast, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Next time we’ll return for the Oscars of 1992, celebrating the films of 1991!

You can read more from Heath Lynch, and follow him on Letterboxd