A Century of Film


Orion


The Studio

In 1978, the United Artists heads were tired of being told what to do by parent company Transamerica and the head of Transamerica, Jack Beckett, said “if the people at United Artists don’t like it, they can quit and go off on their own.”  Which is what they did, leaving the next day and forming Orion Pictures, with a financing and distributing affiliation with Warner Brothers.

Advertisements appeared in trades soon thereafter warning UA that they had made a huge mistake, which seemed to be a good warning when Heaven’s Gate would help sink the studio within a couple of years.  By that time, Orion was doing well.

The first film released by Orion wasn’t actually released by Orion.  A Little Romance came out on April 27, 1979 but was actually distributed by Warner Brothers as would be almost all of their films until the fall of 1982.  That would include, the studio’s first big hits, both of which starred Dudley Moore (10, Arthur).

The severing of the deal with Warners lead to several changes.  First, Orion bought Filmways and used it as its in-house distributor (films released before Orion before then, you will note appear on Box Office Mojo as Warners films).  Second, Orion began its in-house art-house distribution wing, Orion Classics (the vast majority of which were foreign films).  Third, though not important for this project, Orion began to produce television as well.  At the same time, less important for box office, but quite important for prestige, Orion managed to land Woody Allen and all of Allen’s films until early 1992 would be made for the studio.

Orion would start to land major critical success in 1984 with the release of Amadeus, which dominated at the Oscars.  The next year, however, would be a harbinger of the studio’s future with no film even making it to $30 million.  1986 would move the studio up, with its first big hit in five years (Back to School), then its first $100 million movie (Platoon) while the latter, combined with Hannah and Her Sisters would mean that Orion would take home five of the eight biggest Oscars.  Unfortunately, that was the high water mark.

For the next several years, the studio would struggle.  While it would have a number of critical success stories, none were big enough (one Best Picture nomination) and while it would have some solid success at the box office (RoboCop, Throw Momma from the Train, Bull Durham), nothing would break $60 million and there were no Top 10 films (and some years, not even a Top 20 film).

Orion would finally hit the jackpot twice within a few months.  In November of 1990, Dances with Wolves, by far the biggest hit the studio would ever release, would come out and it won seven Oscars just after the release of Silence of the Lambs the following February, which would be the studio’s third biggest hit and would also win five Oscars.  But those two films couldn’t save the struggling studio and too many box office flops like Great Balls of Fire, Valmont and State of Grace meant that by the end of 1991, in spite of all the recent Oscars (four Best Picture wins in eight years), Orion was declaring bankruptcy.

For most of 1992 and 1993, Orion lay dormant (except for Orion Classics) but a deal emerged for it to release a bunch of completed films sitting in its vault (including Blue Sky, which would go on to win an Oscar for its star while its director had been dead for three years).  Unfortunately, the 1994 slate of Orion films all tanked (the seven films combined for less than $20 million) and it killed a proposed deal that would have revived the studio.  Through 1997, Orion continued to push out some films as did Orion Classics but then the studio was sold to MGM and a brave period where it shone was completely over.

In its heyday (1983-1991), Orion and Orion Classics combined released 167 Oscar eligible films, more than any studio during that period except Warner Brothers.  During that time it was nominated for 100 Academy Awards of which it won 33 including Picture, Director and a Screenplay award four times each.  But fewer than 20 of those films made even $30 million at the box office and a considerable number of them lost money and unfortunately, the film industry, as much as we admire its art, is also still a business.

Notable Orion Films

  • A Little Romance  (1979)  –  first Orion release
  • 10  (1979)  –  first big Orion hit
  • A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy  (1982)  –  first Woody Allen film for Orion
  • Beyond the Door  (1982)  –  first Orion Classics release
  • Amadeus  (1984)  –  first Orion Best Picture nominee (and winner)
  • Platoon  (1986)  –  second Best Picture winner, first Orion film to break $100 million
  • Dances with Wolves  (1990)  –  third Best Picture winner, biggest hit by Orion by a long way
  • The Silence of the Lambs  (1991)  –  fourth Best Picture winner, final Orion film to break $100 million – makes more money than every film released by Orion for the next three years combined
  • Shadows and Fog  (1992)  –  Woody Allen’s final film for Orion
  • The Locusts  (1997)  –  final Orion release

The Directors

Woody Allen

  • Films:  11
  • Years:  1982  –  1992
  • Average Film:  81.7
  • Best Film:  Hannah and Her Sisters
  • Worst Film:  Another Woman

Allen moved to Orion after his year off in 1981 (Allen has always generally made one film a year).  He would average film a year for Orion (he made two in 1987 but none in 1991) and he would be their biggest awards person by far.  He won an Oscar (with eight other noms), would win a Globe (with two other noms), win four BAFTAs (with three other noms) and three WGA awards (with three other noms and two DGA noms).  He wasn’t big box office (Hannah is the only film in Orion’s Top 25 and that’s barely and Crimes and Misdemeanors the only other one in the Top 50) but he had three of the Top 10 awards films and two more in the Top 20.

Jonathan Demme

  • Films:  3
  • Years:  1986  –  1991
  • Average Film:  89.7
  • Best Film:  The Silence of the Lambs
  • Worst Film:  Married to the Mob

Jonathan Demme was never prolific but he took his time and made really good films.  His other film for Orion is Something Wild and all three films are vibrantly alive and fascinating and they are the bulk (minus Melvin and Howard) of what established Demme’s critical acclaim.

The Stars

Dudley Moore

This may seem strange.  Dudley Moore was never a particularly big star.  But he was the star of the first two big Orion hits, the only two films in Orion’s first two years to make over $50 million and until 1986, the two biggest hit in the studio’s history and that’s aside from earning an Oscar nomination and a Globe win for Arthur.  The only other actor to appear in two of Orion’s Top 10 films at the box office is Kevin Costner.
Essential Viewing:  Arthur, “10”

Mia Farrow

The decade that Woody Allen spent at Orion also overlapped with his time with Mia Farrow.  She wasn’t big box office, of course, and she never earned an Oscar nomination but during the decade she earned three Globe noms, two BAFTA noms and won the NBR, all in Allen films for Orion.
Essential Viewing:  Broadway Danny Rose, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Hannah and Her Sisters

Kevin Costner

Costner has just the three films with Orion but they are key.  The first helped him become a star, the second established him as a star and a great actor and the third was the biggest hit in the studio’s history, not to mention winning Costner the Oscar.
Essential Viewing:  No Way Out, Bull Durham, Dances with Wolves

Genres

Orion wasn’t big on genre films.  Almost 2/3 of their films were either Dramas or Comedies and in some genres (Kids, War, Western) they made almost no films.  Yet, they have a very strange relationship with genre films and the Oscars.  From 1979 to 2001, when Orion was a prominent company, only five genre films (non-Comedy / Drama) won Best Picture at the Oscar and four of them were the four films from Orion: Amadeus, Platoon, Dances with Wolves and Silence of the Lambs.  Even if you don’t want to count Amadeus, the other three are singularly strange.  Platoon is just one of two War films made by Orion (the only one directly by Orion as opposed to Orion Classics) and it’s the only War film to win Best Picture between 1978 and 2009.  Dances with Wolves is the only Western the studio made and it was the first Western to win Best Picture in almost 60 years.  I only list 10 of the Orion films as Suspense and yet, with Silence of the Lambs, it has the only one to ever win the Oscar.

All of the Orion films, ranked

note:  This is a list of all of Orion’s films (with four exceptions, listed at the bottom) in rank order.  Films in light green are Orion Classics releases.

  1. The Silence of the Lambs
  2. Hannah and Her Sisters
  3. Ran
  4. Amadeus
  5. Platoon
  6. Dances with Wolves
  7. Au Revoir, Les Enfants
  8. Crimes and Misdemeanors
  9. The Purple Rose of Cairo
  10. Europa Europa
  11. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
  12. Zelig
  13. Manon of the Spring
  14. Mississippi Burning
  15. Bull Durham
  16. Wings of Desire
  17. Excalibur
  18. Raise the Red Lantern
  19. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
  20. Jean de Florette
  21. Broadway Danny Rose
  22. My Beautiful Laundrette
  23. May Fools
  24. House of Games
    ***.5
  25. Monty Python’s Life of Brian
  26. Radio Days
  27. Jesus of Montreal
  28. The Sacrifice
  29. Something Wild
  30. The Cotton Club
  31. Married to the Mob
  32. Babette’s Feast
  33. Eight Men Out
  34. The Bounty
  35. Leningrad Cowboys Go America
  36. Open Doors
  37. No Way Out
  38. Jeffrey
  39. September
  40. Cyrano de Bergerac
  41. Colonel Redl
  42. Camille Claudel
    ***
  43. The Falcon and the Snowman
  44. F/X
  45. Prisoner of the Mountains
  46. First Blood
  47. Life and Nothing But
  48. Rhapsody in August
  49. Hoosiers
  50. Mystery Train
  51. Monsieur Hire
  52. Valmont
  53. Dirty, Rotten Scoundrels
  54. Pauline at the Beach
  55. Caddyshack
  56. Gorky Park
  57. Mermaids
  58. Under Fire
  59. The Terminator
  60. Ed’s Next Move
  61. Ulee’s Gold
  62. Arthur
  63. La Lectrice
  64. Desperately Seeking Susan
  65. Little Man Tate
  66. Without a Clue
  67. Best Seller
  68. A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy
  69. Chocolat
  70. Another Country
  71. Dim Sum
  72. Miami Blues
  73. Prince of the City
  74. El Amor Brujo
  75. At Close Range
  76. My Mother’s Castle
  77. Carmen
  78. Summer
  79. The Music Teacher
  80. Trees Lounge
  81. My Father’s Glory
  82. State of Grace
  83. Time After Time
  84. Shadows and Fog
  85. MacArthur’s Children
  86. Alice
  87. Henry IV
  88. A Month in the Country
  89. A Tale of Springtime
  90. The Adjuster
  91. Sharky’s Machine
  92. Too Beautiful For You
  93. Throw Momma from the Train
  94. A Great Wall
  95. Bar Girls
  96. Boyfriends and Girlfriends
  97. Colors
  98. Where the Green Ants Dream
  99. Love Without Pity
  100. Full Moon in Paris
  101. A Little Romance
  102. Swann in Love
  103. The Great Santini
  104. Devil in the Flesh
  105. Promises in the Dark
  106. F/X 2: The Deadly Art of Illusion
  107. Sugar Cane Alley
  108. My New Partner
  109. Heart of Dixie
  110. Heart Beat
    **.5
  111. Flesh and Blood
  112. Another Woman
  113. Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins
  114. UHF
  115. “10”
  116. The House on Carroll Street
  117. The Hand
  118. The Wanderers
  119. Heartbreakers
  120. Hammett
  121. Split Image
  122. The Mean Season
  123. End of the Line
  124. The Woman in Red
  125. Dancing in Water
  126. Wolfen
  127. Married to It
  128. Restless Natives
  129. Farewell to the King
  130. Simon
  131. Over the Edge
  132. Malone
  133. Original Gangstas
  134. Rita, Sue and Bob Too
  135. Privates on Parade
  136. The Escape Artist
  137. Slacker
  138. Prancer
    **
  139. RoboCop
  140. The Heavenly Kid
  141. Absolute Beginners
  142. Nostradamus
  143. There Goes My Baby
  144. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
  145. Strangers Kiss
  146. Beyond the Door
  147. The Believers
  148. The Three Amigos
  149. Love Field
  150. The Favor
  151. Harry & Son
  152. The Locusts
  153. The Couch Trip
  154. Back to School
  155. The Bay Boy
  156. Making Mr. Right
  157. Great Balls of Fire
  158. Cherry 2000
  159. Beat Street
  160. Hotel Colonial
  161. Just Between Friends
  162. Rollover
  163. Blue Sky
  164. City of Industry
  165. The In Crowd
  166. Cadillac Man
  167. Breathless
  168. Everybody Wins
  169. Strange Invaders
  170. Lost Angels
  171. Easy Money
  172. Maybe… Maybe Not
  173. The Fiendish Plot of Fu Manchu
  174. The Package
  175. Dominick and Eugene
  176. China Moon
  177. Secret Admirer
  178. Lone Wolf McQuade
  179. The Hotel New Hampshire
  180. Eve of Destruction
  181. Haunted Honeymoon
  182. Article 99
  183. Lionheart
  184. The Dark Half
  185. Maxie
  186. Beer
  187. She-Devil
  188. Die Laughing
  189. Class
    *.5
  190. Rain Without Thunder
  191. Up the Creek
  192. Phat Beach
  193. The Hot Spot
  194. The Awakening
  195. Yellowbeard
  196. No Man’s Land
  197. The Return of the Living Dead
  198. Madhouse
  199. Love at Large
  200. The Last of the Finest
  201. One Woman or Two
    *
  202. Zeram
  203. 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag
  204. Rude Awakening
  205. Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey
  206. Johnny Be Good
  207. Under the Rainbow
  208. Mystery Date
  209. Erik the Viking
  210. Sphinx
  211. Monkey Shines
  212. Navy SEALs
  213. Code of Silence
  214. The Arrival
  215. The First Power
  216. RoboCop 2
    .5
  217. Amityville II: The Possession
  218. RoboCop 3
  219. The Substitute
  220. Cheech and Chong’s The Corsican Brothers
  221. Amityville 3-D
  222. Speed Zone
  223. Clifford
  224. Car 54, Where Are You?
  225. Mac and Me
  226. Boxing Helena

note:  Orion, between its regular studio (161) and Orion Classics (69) released 230 films over the course of its lifetime.  Three of those are documentaries (A.K., The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe (recording of a one woman play), Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey) and thus not listed and there is one Orion film I haven’t seen (Scandalous).

Notes on Films

note:  These are just tidbits on some of the films.  The films are listed in alphabetical order.  Unless I have something specific to say, I don’t mention films that have full reviews elsewhere or films that I saw in the theater from 1989 to 2005 (they are all mentioned in those Nighthawk Awards).

  • The Believers  –  I feel I should point out that I actually saw this film in Spanish class in high school because our teacher wanted to show us native religious beliefs.  The opening scenes has left me with a lifelong fear of standing in liquid on the floor in the kitchen.
  • Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure  –  I am breaking the policy against writing about films I saw in the theater because I feel this merits it.  This is not a good film and it’s barely funny.  I can’t fathom why people are excited about another sequel.
  • Caddyshack  –  I feel I should point out that I had my father watch this film when we had a gopher problem at our house and at the end of the film, said “Don’t do that.”
  • The Cotton Club  –  Coppola’s Harlem Gangster epic doesn’t get the credit it deserves.  It looks great and it’s really very good.  Perhaps the new re-edited release will help its reputation.
  • The Dark Half  –  For the most part, the better Stephen King books make the better films and vice versa.  This is the biggest inverse relationship between the quality of the book (which is solid) and the quality of the film for King (the opposite is Carrie which is a fairly bad book but a really good film).
  • Leningrad Cowboys Go America  –  Even if you never see the film (but you should) at least listen to their version of “Space Tractor“.
  • Monty Python’s Life of Brian  –  Of the many brilliant moments in this film, the most memorable the first time we watched it was watching the Roman centurion bully those defacing the statue and watching my friend Jay curl up into a ball and say “It’s Mr. Barrett!” (his Latin teacher).
  • My Beautiful Laundrette  –  Make certain to watch this right after or before watching A Room with a View (not an Orion film) so you can marvel at what Daniel Day-Lewis did in one year.
  • She-Devil  –  Always remind yourself that the Globes love Meryl so much they nominated her for this rather than Winona Ryder in Heathers.
  • UHF  –  My Nighthawk Notables don’t have a “Listen to the Soundtrack, Don’t Bother with the Film” category but this would win.  The soundtrack is even better because the two best songs on it (“The Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota”, “Spam”) aren’t actually in the film.
  • Under the Rainbow  –  Part of me thinks I should watch it again because I’m not sure I’ve seen it since I was a kid when it was on Cinemax a lot.  On the other hand, even as a kid I knew it was just awful so why put myself through that again?  I think this might have been the first film I ever saw with a women in her underwear (my first celebrity crush – Carrie Fisher).
  • Yellowbeard  –  After Python, John Cleese did Fawlty Towers, Jones and Palin teamed up for Ripping Yarns, Eric Idle did the Rutles, Gilliam did numerous brilliant films and poor Graham Chapman came up with this piece of shit.

The 8 Most Under-Rated Orion Films

These eight films are the most over-looked by far.  None of them appear on the TSPDT list.  What’s more, none of these films was nominated for an Oscar in any category or won a critics award for Foreign Film.  In fact, many of these films received no awards attention at all (one BAFTA nom and one Globe nom are the total awards haul).  The first two are **** and the rest are ***.5.  Three of these films below actually received full reviews in my Year in Film posts for being over-looked.

  1. May Fools
  2. House of Games
  3. Eight Men Out
  4. The Bounty
  5. Leningrad Cowboys Go America
  6. September
  7. Jeffrey
  8. No Way Out

The Best Orion Films by Genre

  • Action:  n/a
  • Adventure:  The Bounty
  • Comedy:  Hannah and Her Sisters
  • Crime:  The Cotton Club
  • Drama:  Ran
  • Fantasy:  Wings of Desire
  • Horror:  n/a
  • Kids:  n/a
  • Musical:  Amadeus
  • Mystery:  n/a
  • Sci-Fi:  n/a
  • Suspense:  The Silence of the Lambs
  • War:  Platoon
  • Western:  Dances with Wolves

note:  Any genre without a film listed means no film earned a ***.5 or ****.

The Worst Orion Films by Genre

  • Action:  The Substitute
  • Adventure:  Sphinx
  • Comedy:  Car 54, Where Are You?
  • Crime:  Breathless
  • Drama:  Boxing Helena
  • Fantasy:  The Heavenly Kid
  • Horror:  Amityville 3-D
  • Kids:  Mac and Me
  • Musical:  The In Crowd
  • Mystery:  Love at Large
  • Sci-Fi:  The Arrival
  • Suspense:  China Moon
  • War:  n/a
  • Western:  n/a

note:  Any genre without a film listed means no film earned ** or below.
note:  Boxing Helena is 40 points worse than any other Drama.

The Most Over-Rated Orion Films

  1. Slacker
    I’ve never gotten the appeal of Linklater films and this is no exception.
  2. RoboCop
    I know it tried for something more than just mindless violence, but with Verhoeven directing and Peter Weller starring, I just don’t think it made it.  Much better than the sequels at least.
  3. Hammett
    Wim Wenders takes a weird look at the great writer.  There are critics who really love this film but even though I love Hammett’s writing, I found it a dreadful bore.

The Statistics

Total Films 1912-2011: 227  (14th)

Total Percentage of All Films 1912-2011:  1.32%
Total Percentage of All Films 1979-1997:  5.22%

  • 1970-1979:  8  (9.57%)  (22nd)
  • 1980-1989:  152  (7.35%)  (3rd)
  • 1990-1999:  67  (2.51%)  (12th)

note:  Normally at this point, I do the percentage I’ve seen by decade.  But I’m only missing one film, so it’s 99.35% for the 80’s (99.11% if I don’t count Orion Classics) and 100% for the 70’s and 90’s with 99.57% overall (99.38% for just Orion).

Biggest Years:

  • 1988:  22
  • 1987, 1990:  21
  • 1985:  20

note:  In 1987, Orion not only has the most films (21) but with 20 of them Oscar eligible, it had the most eligible films from any studio by a decent margin.  In 1990, I have seen as many Orion films (21) as any other studio.

Biggest Years by Percentage of All Films:

  • 1988:  10.00%
  • 1985:  9.52%
  • 1984:  8.84%
  • 1987:  8.75%
  • 1990:  8.43%

Best Year:

  • 1988:  5 Top 10 films, 8 Top 20 films
  • 1986:  4 Top 10 films, 7 Top 20 films

Average Film By Decade:

note:  The first number is total for all Orion, the second number is Orion itself and the third is Orion Classics.

  • 1970-1979:  66.83
  • 1980-1989:  59.12  /  55.52  /  69.30
  • 1990-1999:  51.69  /  41.76  /  67.35
  • TOTAL:  57.12  /  52.42  /  68.53

Best Years for Average Film (minimum 5 films):

  • Total
    • 1986:  68.06
    • 1979:  66.83
    • 1988:  63.45
  • Orion
    • 1979:  66.83
    • 1986:  66.00
    • 1987:  59.85
  • Orion Classics
    • 1988:  79.60
    • 1990:  78.14
    • 1985:  72.29

Worst Years for Average Film (minimum 5 films):

  • Total:  1994:  32.75
  • Orion:  1994:  30.57
  • Orion Classics:  1984:  60.17

Star Rating:

note:  The percentage breakdown for all Orion films by star rating.  The second number is just Orion and the third number is Orion Classics.

  • ****:  10.62%  /  8.75%  /  15.15%
  • ***.5:  7.96%  /  5.63%  /  13.64%
  • ***:  30.09%  /  21.25%  /  48.48%
  • **.5:  12.39%  /  13.75%  /  9.09%
  • **:  22.57%  /  29.38%  /  6.06%
  • *.5:  5.31%  /  6.25%  /  3.03%
  • *:  6.64%  /  9.38%  /  0.00%
  • .5:  4.42%  /  5.63%  /  1.52%
  • 0:  0.00%

Orion Classics accounts for 66 of 226 films or 29.20% but it accounts for 46% of the good, very good and great films (*** and above).

Eras:

  • Top 10 Most Films every year from 1979 to 1991

Orion grew so quickly that by 1984 it was one of the top studios in terms of total films being produced each year and had actually reached my Top 20 for all-time films.  By 1989, it was in the Top 10 all-time, up to 180 films, but eventually Miramax would catch it and knock it back out of the Top 10 by the end of the decade.  It still sits comfortably in the Top 15 though.

The Top Films:

Orion would be the first studio to win three Nighthawks in a row (1984-86) even if one of those is from Orion Classics.  The only other studio to do it since is New Line (which did it with three films from the same series).  In 1988 it became only the second studio to have 5 Top 10 films and that same year became the only studio to score 8 Top 20 films.

  • Nighthawk Winner:  1984, 1985, 1986, 1991
  • 5 Films in the Top 10:  1988
  • 4 Films in the Top 10:  1986
  • 3 Films in the Top 10:  1984
  • 8 Films in the Top 20:  1988
  • 7 Films in the Top 20:  1986
  • 5 Films in the Top 20:  1987
  • Top 10 Films:  24
  • First Year in the Top 10:  1981
  • Latest Year in the Top 10:  1992
  • Top 20 Films:  36
  • Best Decade for Top 20 Films:  1980’s  (29)

Nighthawk Awards

  • Number of Films That Have Earned Nominations:  40
  • Number of Films That Have Won Nighthawks:  12
  • Number of Films With Multiple Nominations:  29
  • Number of Films With Multiple Wins:  5
  • Best Picture Nominations:  11
  • Total Number of Nominations:  156
  • Total Number of Wins:  41
  • Category With the Most Nominations:  Original Screenplay  (15)
  • Director with Most Nighthawk Nominated Films:  Woody Allen  (6)
  • Best Film with No Nighthawks:  Crimes and Misdemeanors
  • Best Film with No Nighthawk Nominations:  Married to the Mob
  • Number of Films That Have Earned Drama Nominations:  25
  • Number of Films That Have Earned Comedy Nominations:  17
  • Number of Films That Have Won Drama Awards:  29
  • Number of Films That Have Won Comedy Awards:  28
  • Drama Picture Nominations:  13
  • Comedy Picture Nominations:  11
  • Total Number of Drama Nominations:  67
  • Total Number of Comedy Nominations:  71
  • Total Number of Drama Wins:  15
  • Total Number of Comedy Wins:  20
  • Category With the Most Nominations:  Picture  (13 – Drama  /  11 – Comedy)  /  Original Screenplay  (11 – Drama  /  13  –  Comedy)
  • Best Drama Film With No Nominations:  Open Doors
  • Best Comedy Film With No Nominations:  Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
  • Most 2nd Place Finishes:  Excalibur  (5)
  • Most 6th Place Finishes:  Jean de Florette  /  Mississippi Burning  /  Crimes and Misdemeanors  (3)
  • Most Top 10 Finishes:  Ran  (16)
  • Most Top 20 Finishes:  Ran  (16)
  • Films With at Least One Top 10 Finish:  57
  • Best Film Without a Top 10 Finish:  Prisoner of the Mountains
  • Films With at Least One Top 20 Finish:  79
  • Best Film Without a Top 20 Finish:  Monsieur Hire

Most Nighthawk Nominations:

  1. Ran  –  15
  2. Excalibur  –  12
  3. Amadeus  –  12
  4. The Silence of the Lambs  –  12
  5. Dances with Wolves  –  10
  6. Platoon  –  9
  7. Zelig  –  7
  8. The Purple Rose of Cairo  –  7
  9. Hannah and Her Sisters  –  7
  10. The Unbearable Lightness of Being  /  Raise the Red Lantern  –  6

Most Nighthawks:

  1. Ran  –  11
  2. Amadeus  –  9
  3. The Silence of the Lambs  –  7
  4. Hannah and Her Sisters  –  5
  5. Platoon  –  2

Most Nighthawk Points:

  1. Ran  –  705
  2. Amadeus  –  610
  3. The Silence of the Lambs  –  605
  4. Hannah and Her Sisters  –  430
  5. Excalibur  –  325
  6. Dances with Wolves  –  320
  7. Platoon  –  300
  8. The Purple Rose of Cairo  –  245
  9. The Unbearable Lightness of Being  –  235
  10. Zelig  –  220

Most Drama Nominations:

  1. Ran  –  6
  2. Mississippi Burning  –  6
  3. Excalibur  –  5
  4. The Unbearable Lightness of Being  –  5
  5. The Silence of the Lambs  –  5

Most Comedy Nominations:

  1. Hannah and Her Sisters  –  8
  2. Amadeus  –  7
  3. Broadway Danny Rose  –  6
  4. Something Wild  –  6
  5. Zelig  /  Bull Durham  –  5

Most Drama Wins:

  1. The Silence of the Lambs  –  5
  2. Ran  –  4
  3. Platoon  –  2
  4. Au Revoir Les Enfants  –  2
  5. My Beautiful Laundrette  /  Crimes and Misdemeanors  –  1

Most Comedy Wins:

  1. Amadeus  –  6
  2. Hannah and Her Sisters  –  5
  3. May Fools  –  3
  4. Arthur  –  2
  5. The Purple Rose of Cairo  –  2

Most Drama Points:

  1. The Silence of the Lambs  –  410
  2. Ran  –  395
  3. Platoon  –  230
  4. Mississippi Burning  –  230
  5. Au Revoir Les Enfants  –  225
  6. Crimes and Misdemeanors  –  205
  7. The Unbearable Lightness of Being  –  200
  8. Excalibur  –  195
  9. Dances with Wolves  –  165
  10. The Cotton Club  /  Europa Europa  –  135

Most Comedy Points:

  1. Amadeus  –  495
  2. Hannah and Her Sisters  –  485
  3. May Fools  –  285
  4. Broadway Danny Rose  –  270
  5. The Purple Rose of Cairo  –  260
  6. Something Wild  –  235
  7. Zelig  –  205
  8. Arthur  –  195
  9. Bull Durham  –  190
  10. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown  –  170

All-Time Nighthawk Awards

  • Best Picture
  1. The Silence of the Lambs
  2. Hannah and Her Sisters
  3. Ran
  4. Amadeus
  5. Platoon

Analysis:  These films are a pretty damn good Top 5 for any studio.  Four of them win the Nighthawk and the one that doesn’t (Platoon) loses to another (Hannah).  That also gives Orion three straight wins in the mid-80’s.  Another six Orion films earn Picture noms.  Four Orion films win Drama, including three in a row (Ran, Platoon, Au Revoir Les Enfants).  Also four Comedy films win including three in a row (Amadeus, Purple Rose of Cairo, Hannah) as well as May Fools.  That means in 1985 and 1986, Orion wins both awards and it wins eight out of 16 awards from 1984 to 1991.  There are nine other Drama nominees and seven other Comedy nominees.  In 1988 alone, Orion has three Drama and two Comedy nominees.  In all, Orion has 24 Top 10 films and 36 Top 20 films which means that over 10% of all their films are Top 10 films.
Orion won four Oscars in eight years from 1984 to 1991 (Amadeus, Platoon, Dances, Silence).  It was the first studio to win back-to-back awards since 1976-77 and made Orion the first non-major to win back-to-back awards.  Surprisingly, its wins (4) outnumber its nominees (2) with just Hannah and Her Sisters (losing to another Orion film) and Mississippi Burning failing to win.
Orion scored three Drama wins at the Globes (Amadeus, Platoon, Dances) and two Comedy wins (Arthur, Hannah).  In 1986, it became the first studio since 1974 and the first non-major ever to win both awards.  It has also earned six Drama (Prince of the City, Cotton Club, Mississippi Burning, Unbearable Lightness, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Silence) and one Comedy nomination (Purple Rose).
Purple Rose of Cairo wins the BAFTA as does Jean de Florette, a Classics release.  There are another 8 BAFTA nominees, giving Orion 10 of the 35 nominees from 1985 to 1991.  Because it was the era without the Best British Film category, no film appears there.  Because it was just the 2nd and 3rd PGA awards, Orion became the first film to win back-to-back awards, winning with Dances and Silence.
Silence is the biggest critics film with four wins (NY, Boston, Chicago, NBR).  Ran (NSFC, BSFC), Hannah (NY, LA) and Mississippi Burning (CFC, NBR) all won two awards each.  Amadeus, Bull Durham, Unbearable, Crimes and Dances all won one award each.  Because of that, Orion took four of the 1988 awards with three different films.

  • Best Director
  1. Akira Kurosawa  (Ran)
  2. Jonathan Demme  (The Silence of the Lambs)
  3. Woody Allen  (Hannah and Her Sisters)
  4. Oliver Stone  (Platoon)
  5. Milos Forman  (Amadeus)

Analysis:  Once again, four of the five win the Nighthawk with Stone losing to another Orion film.  Seven other films earn nominations, the same for Picture except Agnieska Holland (Europa Europa) and Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern) instead of Au Revoir.  Kurosawa, Demme and Stone win the Drama award while Allen and Forman win the Comedy awards with Orion taking both awards in 1986.  There are also nine other Drama nominees and seven other Comedy nominees.
All four Orion films that won Picture also won Director which isn’t that common historically but makes sense in the Orion era (from 1979 to 1997, the Orion era, only two films won Picture without winning Director).  Five other films earned Director nominations, two for Woody Allen (Broadway Danny Rose, Crimes) and one for Kurosawa (Ran).  In the heyday for Orion (1984-1991), the only year in which Orion didn’t have a Director nomination was 1987.
Three directors won the Globe (Forman, Stone, Costner) with five more earning nominations (Sidney Lumet – Prince of the City, Coppola – Cotton Club, Allen, Alan Parker – Mississippi, Demme).  There are three BAFTA winners (Allen, Stone – different BAFTA eligibility years and Louis Malle for Au Revoir) and six other nominees making nine nominees in just six years.  Forman, Stone, Costner and Demme won the DGA while Allen, Parker and Allen (Crimes) earned noms.
Demme won four critics awards (NYFC, BSFC, CFC, NBR) and Allen won two (NYFC, NBR).  There were also one won each for Lumet, Forman, Kurosawa, Stone, Parker, Philip Kaufman (Unbearable), Allen (Crimes) and Costner.

  • Best Adapted Screenplay:
  1. The Silence of the Lambs
  2. Amadeus
  3. Ran
  4. The Unbearable Lightness of Being
  5. Dances with Wolves

Analysis:  The top three win the Nighthawk while the other two are joined as Nighthawk nominees by Excalibur, Manon of the Spring and Europa Europa.  Ran and Silence win Drama with eight nominees and Amadeus wins Comedy with Jeffrey as a nominee.
Amadeus, Dances and Silence all win the Oscar while A Little Romance (the first Orion film), Prince of the City, Unbearable and Europa earn noms.
Amadeus and Dances win the Globe with Silence earning a nom.  Jean de Florette and Unbearable win the BAFTA with Another Country, Amadeus, Ran, Babette’s Feast, Cyrano, Dances and Silence all earning noms (including three of the four noms in 1991).  Dances and Silence win the WGA with noms for A Little Romance, Great Santini, Prince of the City and Unbearable.  Amadeus wins the LAFC and Silence wins the CFC.

  • Best Original Screenplay:
  1. Hannah and Her Sisters
  2. The Purple Rose of Cairo
  3. Bull Durham
  4. Au Revoir, Les Enfants
  5. Crimes and Misdemeanors

Analysis:  I could have easily done a strong Top 5 with just Woody Allen (with Zelig and Radio Days as the final two).  The first two win the Nighthawk while there are 12 other nominees and while Radio Days doesn’t earn a nom Broadway Danny Rose does, still giving Allen five Orion nominations.  Allen wins one Drama award (Crimes) and two Comedy (Purple Rose, Cairo) with My Beautiful Laundrette and Au Revoir also winning Drama and May Fools also winning Comedy.  There are also 8 Drama noms and 13 Comedy noms.  In all, between the two writing categories, there are only 6 films that earn Nighthawk Globe noms without a Screenplay nom.
Hannah wins the Oscar with 10 other films earning noms.  Allen earns six Oscar noms in total for Orion (Hannah, Broadway, Purple Rose, Radio Days, Crimes, Alice) in just seven years and Orion manages three nominations in 1986.
Purple Rose wins the Globe with Platoon, Hannah, House of Games and Mississippi Burning earning noms.
Woody Allen wins three straight BAFTAs (Broadway, Purple Rose, Hannah) and earns two other noms (Radio Days, Crimes) while there are also noms for Laundrette and Au Revoir.
Woody Allen wins three WGA awards (Broadway, Hannah, Crimes) while Arthur and Bull Durham also win.  Allen earns three other noms (Purple Rose, Radio Days, Alice) while Platoon is also nominated.
Bull Durham wins four critics awards (NYFC, LAFC, NSFC, BSFC) while Allen manages five wins (two each for Purple Rose and Hannah and one for Crimes).  Laundrette wins two awards while Pauline at the Beach wins one.

  • Best Actor:
  1. Anthony Hopkins  (The Silence of the Lambs)
  2. Tom Hulce  (Amadeus)
  3. F. Murray Abraham  (Amadeus)
  4. Gene Hackman  (Mississippi Burning)
  5. Tatsuya Nakadai  (Ran)

Analysis:  Hopkins and Hulce both win the Nighthawk while the other three earn nominations, as does Kevin Costner for Bull Durham.  Hopkins wins Drama while Hulce wins Comedy.  Aside from Nakadai and Hackman there are also Drama noms for Hopkins again (The Bounty), Yves Montand (Jean de Florette) and Daniel Day-Lewis (Unbearable).  Aside from Abraham and Costner, Comedy noms include Woody Allen three times (Zelig, Broadway, Hannah) as well as Dudley Moore (Arthur) and Jeff Daniels (Something Wild).
Abraham and Hopkins win the Oscar while Robert Duvall (Great Santini), Moore, Hulce, Hackman, Costner (Dances), Gerard Depardieu (Cyrano de Bergerac) and Peter Fonda (Ulee’s Gold) earn noms.
Abraham and Fonda win the Globe Drama with noms for Treat Williams (Prince of the City), Hulce, Hackman, Hulce again (Dominick and Eugene), Costner and Hopkins earn noms.  Moore wins the Globe Comedy with two noms for Jeff Daniels (Purple Rose, Something Wild) and one each for Danny DeVito (Throw Momma from the Train) and Michael Caine (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels).
Montand and Hopkins win the BAFTA while Woody Allen, Michael Caine (both for Hannah), Abraham, Costner (Dances) and Depardieu earn noms.  Fonda is the only SAG nominee.  Hopkins wins two critics awards (but two more in supporting) and there are one each for Abraham, Hackman, Day-Lewis and Fonda.

  • Best Actress
  1. Jodie Foster  (The Silence of the Lambs)
  2. Isabelle Adjani  (Camille Claudel)
  3. Gong Li  (Raise the Red Lantern)
  4. Carmen Maura  (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown)
  5. Mia Farrow  (Broadway Danny Rose)

Analysis:  Foster wins the Nighthawk with the other four earning noms as does Melanie Griffith (Something Wild).  Foster wins the Drama award with noms for Adjani, Li and Cher (Mermaids).  Farrow wins the Comedy awards with noms for Farrow thrice more (Zelig, Purple Rose, Alice), Maura, Griffith, Susan Sarandon (Bull Durham) and Michelle Pfeiffer (Married to the Mob) giving Orion three Comedy noms in 1988.
Orion had won the other three acting Oscars before it earned its first nomination in Actress in 1989 (Adjani).  Foster and Jessica Lange (Blue Sky) won the Oscar with a nomination for Michelle Pfeiffer (Love Field).
At the Globes, Orion won two Drama awards (Foster, Lange) but earned only two other noms (Marsha Mason (Promises in the Dark) and Pfeiffer).  No Orion performance won the Comedy award in spite of 10 nominations, some of which were definitely deserved (Farrow for Broadway, Purple Rose, Alice, Griffith, Sarandon, Pfeiffer) and some of which definitely were not (Liza Minnelli for Arthur which is hardly a lead, Rosanna Arquette for Desperately Seeking Susan, Glenn Close for Maxie, Meryl for She-Devil).
Foster won the BAFTA with noms for Farrow (twice – Purple Rose and Hannah) and Stephane Audran (Babette’s Feast).  Lange earned a SAG nom.
Foster won the NYFC and CFC, Sarandon won the BSFC, Farrow won the NBR (for Alice) and Lange won the LAFC.

  • Best Supporting Actor:
  1. Michael Caine  (Hannah and Her Sisters)
  2. Martin Landau  (Crimes and Misdemeanors)
  3. Patrick Stewart  (Jeffrey)
  4. Daniel Day-Lewis  (My Beautiful Laundrette)
  5. Nicol Williamson  (Excalibur)

Analysis:  Caine wins the Nighthawk while the other four earn nominations as do John Gielgud (Arthur), Peter (Ran) and Willem Dafoe (Platoon).  There are no Drama winners, just nominees (Williamson, Peter, Day-Lewis, Landau, Daniel Auteuil (Manon) and Brad Dourif (Mississippi Burning).  There are, however, four Comedy winners: Gielgud, Caine, Stewart and Jeffrey Jones (Amadeus) as well as noms for Nick Apollo Forte (Broadway Danny Rose), Ray Liotta (Something Wild), Tim Robbins (Bull Durham), Dean Stockwell (Married to the Mob) and Nathan Lane (Jeffrey).
Gielgud and Caine win the Oscar.  Caine’s comes in 1986 when Orion has four of the nominees (Dafoe and Tom Berenger for Platoon, Dennis Hopper for Hoosiers).  There are also noms for Michael O’Keefe (Great Santini), Stockwell, Landau and Graham Greene (Dances).
Gielgud and Berenger win Globes with noms for Laurence Olivier (A Little Romance), Gene Hackman (Under Fire), Jones, Joel Grey (Remo Williams), Caine, Hopper and Liotta.
Auteuil wins the BAFTA with noms for Gielgud, Michael Elphick (Gorky Park), Day-Lewis and Alan Alda (Crimes).
Stockwell wins three critics awards (NYFC, NSFC, BSFC) with two wins each for Gielgud, Day-Lewis, Alda and Anthony Hopkins for Silence while Liotta and Hopper win one each.
In other words, there are a lot of strong supporting performances but aside from Gielgud, Caine and Hopper, there’s not actually a lot of consensus on them.

  • Best Supporting Actress:
  1. Dianne Wiest  (Hannah and Her Sisters)
  2. Mieko Harada  (Ran)
  3. Frances McDormand  (Mississippi Burning)
  4. Helen Mirren  (Excalibur)
  5. Lena Olin  (The Unbearable Lightness of Being)

Analysis:  Only Harada wins the Nighthawk while the other four are all nominated.  Also nominated are Elizabeth Berridge (Amadeus) and Mary McDonnell (Dances).  Wiest, Liza Minnelli (Arthur – in a very weak field), Berridge and Dominique Blanc (May Fools) win the Comedy award while Harada wins the Drama award.  There are also Comedy noms for Barbara Hershey, Carrie Fisher (both for Hannah), Anne Ramsey (Throw Momma from the Train), Mercedes Ruehl (Married to the Mob) and Sigourney Weaver (Jeffrey) while only Nighthawk nominated performances earn Drama noms.
Wiest wins the Oscar with noms for Ramsey, McDormand and McDonnell.  There are no Globe winners but noms for Kathleen Beller (Promises in the Dark), Joanna Pacula (Gorky Park), Wiest, Ramsey, Olin, McDonnell and Winona Ryder (Mermaids).  Rosanna Arquette wins the BAFTA for Desperately Seeking Susan while Hershey, Wiest (but for Radio Days) and Anjelica Huston (Crimes) earn nominations.
Weist dominates the critics, sweeping all five awards (before the CFC).  Meanwhile, Orion is also strong in 1988 (Ruehl wins two and McDormand wins two) and 1990 (Jennifer Jason Leigh wins two for Miami Blues, Ryder wins one).

  • Best Ensemble
  1. Hannah and Her Sisters
  2. Amadeus
  3. Ran
  4. The Silence of the Lambs
  5. Mississippi Burning

Analysis:  This is based on the total points for acting for all members of the cast.  Hannah is at the top, not only because of the great supporting performances, but because it’s one of just two Orion films to earn acting points in all four categories (Married to the Mob is the other).

  • Best Editing:
  1. The Silence of the Lambs
  2. Hannah and Her Sisters
  3. Platoon
  4. Amadeus
  5. Ran

Analysis:  Amadeus, Hannah and Silence win the Nighthawk.  Zelig, Broadway, Ran, Purple Rose, Platoon, Manon and Dances all earn noms.
Platoon and Dances won the Oscar while Amadeus, Cotton Club, Hannah, RoboCop, Mississippi Burning and Silence all earned noms.
Three films won the BAFTA (Amadeus, Platoon, Mississippi Burning) while seven more earned noms (Another Country, Under Fire, Hannah, Radio Days, Crimes, Silence, Dances).
Orion did well at ACE with four wins (Amadeus, Platoon, Mississippi Burning, Dances) and two more noms (Hoosiers, Silence).

  • Best Cinematography:
  1. Ran
  2. Platoon
  3. Excalibur
  4. The Silence of the Lambs
  5. Amadeus

Analysis:  It’s a great Top 5 when you can’t fit in Dances with Wolves and The Unbearable Lightness of Being.  Ran, Platoon, Unbearable and Silence all win the Nighthawk.  Excalibur, Zelig, Amadeus, Jean de Florette, Dances and Raise the Red Lantern all earn noms.
Mississippi Burning and Dances win the Oscar with nominations for Excalibur, Amadeus, Ran, Platoon and Unbearable.
For eight years, the BAFTA went to Orion every other year: 1985 (Amadeus), 1987 (Jean de Florette), 1989 (Mississippi Burning) and 1991 (Cyrano).  Nominations also went to Ran, Platoon, Babette’s Feast, Silence and Dances.
Dances won the ASC while Unbearable and Mississippi Burning both earned noms.
Wings of Desire won three critics awards (NYFC, LAFC, NSFC) with two each for Ran and Raise the Red Lantern and one each for Unbearable, Dances and Silence.

  • Best Original Score:
  1. Dances with Wolves
  2. Ran
  3. The Silence of the Lambs
  4. The Cotton Club
  5. Jean de Florette

Analysis:  Dances wins the Nighthawk with noms for Ran and Silence.
A Little Romance and Dances won the Oscar with nominations for Under Fire and Hoosiers.  No film has won the Globe though Romance, Under Fire and Dances all earned noms.  Cyrano won the BAFTA with noms for Arthur, Mississippi Burning, Silence and Dances.  Ran and Europa each won the LAFC.

  • Best Sound:
  1. Amadeus
  2. Platoon
  3. Excalibur
  4. Ran
  5. Dances with Wolves

Analysis:  Amadeus, Ran and Platoon win the Nighthawk with Excalibur, The Bounty, Eight Men Out, Dances and Silence earning noms.
Amadeus, Platoon and Dances won the Oscar with noms for RoboCop, Mississippi Burning and Silence.  Amadeus and Mississippi Burning won the BAFTA with noms for Cotton Club, Radio Days, Silence and Dances.

  • Best Art Direction:
  1. Amadeus
  2. Ran
  3. Excalibur
  4. Raise the Red Lantern
  5. The Cotton Club

Analysis:  Amadeus and Ran easily win the Nighthawk while the other three earn nominations as do 7 other films (Zelig, Purple Rose, Hannah, Unbearable, Valmont, Dances, Silence).
Amadeus won the Oscar with Cotton Club, Ran, Hannah, Radio Days, Dances and Cyrano earning noms.  Radio Days won the BAFTA with Amadeus, Ran, Jean de Florette and Cyrano earning noms.

  • Best Visual Effects
  1. Excalibur
  2. The Terminator
  3. Ran
  4. F/X

Analysis:  A weak group but visual effects weren’t what Orion was about.  Excalibur is the only one that even earns a Nighthawk nom.
Purple Rose of Cairo and RoboCop both earned BAFTA noms, the only nominations from any awards group.

  • Best Sound Editing
  1. Ran
  2. Excalibur
  3. Platoon
  4. The Bounty
  5. The Silence of the Lambs

Analysis:  Ran wins the Nighthawk with Excalibur, Platoon and Silence earning noms.
RoboCop is the only Oscar nominee (and it won).  Wolfen won the MPSE while The Cotton Club earned a nom.

  • Best Costume Design:
  1. Amadeus
  2. Ran
  3. Raise the Red Lantern
  4. Dances with Wolves
  5. Excalibur

Analysis:  A hell of a Top 5 with a choice between two magnificent designs for the winner.  Amadeus and Ran both win the Nighthawk with 10 other films earning Nighthawk noms.
Amadeus, Ran and Cyrano de Bergerac won the Oscar while Valmont and Dances earned noms.  Bizarrely, neither Amadeus nor Ran wins the BAFTA (though both earn noms) while Cotton Club (over Amadeus), Radio Days and Cyrano do and Excalibur, Swanns Way and Valmont also earn noms.  The CDG didn’t start until after Orion was done.

  • Best Makeup
  1. Ran
  2. Excalibur
  3. Amadeus
  4. The Silence of the Lambs
  5. Dances with Wolves

Analysis:  Amadeus and Ran win the Nighthawk while Life of Brian, Excalibur, Purple Rose, F/X and Silence earn noms.
Amadeus won the Oscar while Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins and Cyrano earned noms (the nom for Cyrano was mocked by Siskel and Ebert).  Amadeus, Ran and Cyrano won the BAFTA with noms for Jean de Florette, Robocop and Dances.

  • Best Technical Aspects
  1. Ran
  2. Excalibur
  3. Dances with Wolves
  4. Amadeus
  5. The Silence of the Lambs

Analysis:  Ran and Excalibur make the top because of effects (Visual and Sound) while Amadeus is hurt by a lack of an original score.  There is a 14 point drop after Silence so this really is the Top 5 by a considerable margin.

  • Best Original Song:
  1. “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”  (Monty Python’s Life of Brian)
  2. “Live to Tell”  (At Close Range)
  3. “Into the Groove”  (Desperately Seeking Susan)
  4. “I’m Alright”  (Caddyshack)
  5. “Arthur’s Theme (The Best That You Can Do)”  (Arthur)

Analysis:  It kills me but “Bright Side” doesn’t win the Nighthawk (because of “Rainbow Connection”) though “Arthur’s Theme” does and “Bright Side” and “I’m Alright” earn Nighthawk noms.
“Arthur’s Theme” and “I Just Called To Say I Love You” (Woman in Red) win the Oscar but there are no other nominations.  Both songs also win the Globe while “When a Woman Loves a Man” (Bull Durham) earns a nom.  “I Just Called…” also earns a BAFTA nom.

  • Best Animated Film:
  1. n/a

Analysis:  Orion has never released an Animated film.

  • Best Foreign Film:
  1. Ran
  2. Au Revoir, Les Enfants
  3. Europa Europa
  4. Manon of the Spring
  5. Wings of Desire

Analysis:  A really damn good Top 5, all released by Orion Classics, of course, as was all of Orion’s Foreign films.  The Top 4 all win the Nighthawk while Wings is one of nine Nighthawk nominees.  Orion wins three Nighthawks in a row (85-87) and earns a total of 13 nominations in just seven years.
Somehow, Orion wins only one Oscar (Babette’s Feast) though among its 11 nominations are three much better films (Au Revoir, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Raise the Red Lantern) with the first actually losing to Babette.
At the Globes, Cyrano de Bergerac and Europa Europa win while 10 other films earn nominations including two each in 1985 and 1987-89.
Orion dominates at the BAFTAs, winning five straight awards (Colonel Redl, Ran, Sacrifice, Babette’s Feast, Life and Nothing But) and a sixth in eight years (Raise the Red Lantern).  In total, in just eight years (1985-92), Orion wins six awards and earns a total of 17 nominations with three nominations each in 1985, 1987 and 1988.
In eight years (1985-92), 12 different Orion films manage to win 20 Foreign Film awards from the various critics groups including at least from every group.  Ran leads with four awards followed by Europa and Lantern with three each and Women and Au Revoir with two.  Three different films win an award in 1987 (Jean de Florette, Manon of the Spring, Au Revoir) and three films win four awards in 1988 (Women, Wings of Desire, Au Revoir again).

  • Best Film (by my points system):
  1. Ran
  2. Amadeus
  3. The Silence of the Lambs
  4. Dances with Wolves
  5. Excalibur

Analysis:  Adding up all of my points.  Ran soars ahead of Amadeus based on two categories: Score and Sound Editing.  There’s a 10 point drop after Excalibur to the next film.

  • Best Film  (weighted points system)
  1. Ran
  2. The Silence of the Lambs
  3. Amadeus
  4. Hannah and Her Sisters
  5. Dances with Wolves

Analysis:  Silence passes Amadeus because Amadeus has a lot of points in weaker categories while Hannah‘s strong acting knocks Excalibur out of the Top 5.

Best Films With No Top 5 Finishers:

  • Zelig

Worst Film with a Top 5 Finish:

  • At Close Range

Nighthawk Notables

  • Best Film to Watch Over and Over:  Monty Python’s Life of Brian
  • Best Line  (comedic):  “Yoko Ono.”  Patrick Stewart in Jeffrey
  • Best Line  (dramatic):  “I’m having an old friend for dinner.”  (Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs)
  • Best Opening:  Hannah and Her Sisters
  • Best Ending:  The Silence of the Lambs
  • Best Scene:  Lector’s escape in The Silence of the Lambs
  • Funniest Scene:  Crash telling the batter the pitch in Bull Durham
  • Best Kiss:  Susan Sarandon and Kevin Costner  (Bull Durham)
  • Best Death Scene:  The Judean People’s Front Crack Suicide Squad  (Monty Python’s Life of Brian)
  • Most Gut-Wrenching Scene:  the river scene in Europa Europa
  • Most Heart-Wrenching Scene:  the arrest in Au revoir les enfants
  • Best Use of a Song (dramatic):  “The Tracks of My Tears”  (Platoon)
  • Best Use of a Song (comedic):  “Spatula City”  (UHF)
  • Best Soundtrack:  Amadeus
  • Best Soundtrack (original songs):  UHF
  • Best Soundtrack (compilation):  Platoon
  • Best Original Song from a Bad Film:  “Easy Money”  (Easy Money)
  • Funniest Film:  Monty Python’s Life of Brian
  • Worst Film by a Top 100 Director:  Rollover  (Alan J. Pakula)
  • Best Sequel:  Manon of the Spring
  • Worst Sequel:  Amityville 3-D
  • Best Remake:  Manon of the Spring
  • Best Guilty Pleasure:  UHF
  • Read the Book, SKIP the Film:  The Hotel New Hampshire
  • Performance to Fall in Love With:  Juliette Binoche in The Unbearable Lightness of Being
  • Sexiest Performance:  Susan Sarandon in Bull Durham
  • Highest Attractiveness / Acting Ability Ratio:  Jennifer Connelly in The Hot Spot
  • Jailbait:  Winona Ryder in Great Balls of Fire
  • Coolest Performance:  Kevin Costner in Bull Durham
  • Best Tagline:  “Love is an adventure when one of you is sure and the other one is positive”  (Jeffrey)
  • Best Cameo:  Nathan Line  /  Sigourney Weaver in Jeffrey

note:  As usual, several categories that are normally here (Best Ensemble, Most Over-Rated) are given a fuller treatment above and so aren’t listed here.

note:  Soundtracks I Own from UA Films (chronological):  Amadeus, UHF
note:  Soundtrack I used to Own from UA Films (on tape or vinyl):  Platoon, Dances with Wolves

At the Theater:  By the end of 2011, I had probably seen over 1000 films in the theater at some point or another and had definitely been to the movies over 1000 times.  These are the only Orion films I saw in the theater: Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Dances with Wolves, The Silence of the Lambs, F/X 2, Jeffrey.

Awards

Academy Awards

  • Number of Films That Have Earned Nominations:  45
  • Number of Films That Have Won Oscars:  14
  • Number of Films With Multiple Nominations:  20
  • Number of Films With Multiple Wins:  6
  • Best Picture Nominations:  6
  • Total Number of Nominations:  114
  • Total Number of Wins:  37
  • Category With the Most Nominations:  Foreign Film  (12)
  • Number of Films with Nominations I Haven’t Seen:  0
  • Directors with Most Oscar Nominated Films:  Woody Allen  (6)
  • Best Film with No Oscar Nominations:  Manon of the Spring
  • Best English Language Film with No Oscar Nominations:  House of Games
  • Year with Most UA Nominated Films:  1988  (6)
  • Year with Most UA Nominations:  1990  (19)
  • Year with Most UA Oscars:  1984  (9)

Oscar Oddities:

  • Every Orion film with more than 3 nominations won at least one Oscar.
  • Fully half of the 24 nominations earned by Orion Classics films were for Foreign Film.  However, Foreign Film only accounts for 1 of Classics’ three Oscars (the other two were for Costume Design for Ran and Cyrano).
  • Woody Allen alone earned nine Oscar nominations while with Orion – 3 for Director, 6 for Original Screenplay, winning the latter once.  Of the other 7 Oscar nominations for Allen films, two of them were wins (Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress for Hannah).

Most Oscar Nominations

  1. Dances with Wolves  –  12
  2. Amadeus  –  11
  3. Platoon  –  8
  4. Hannah and Her Sisters  –  7
  5. Mississippi Burning  –  7
  6. The Silence of the Lambs  –  7
  7. Cyrano de Bergerac  –  5
  8. Arthur  –  4
  9. Ran  –  4
  10. RoboCop  /  Crimes and Misdemeanors  –  3

Most Oscar Wins:

  1. Amadeus  –  8
  2. Dances with Wolves  –  7
  3. The Silence of the Lambs  –  5
  4. Platoon  –  4
  5. Hannah and Her Sisters  –  3

Most Oscar Points:

  1. West Side Story  –  610
  2. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest  –  515
  3. The Apartment  –  505
  4. Tom Jones  –  495
  5. Marty  –  445
  6. Rocky  –  440
  7. Rain Man  –  435
  8. Rebecca  –  425
  9. Judgment at Nuremberg  –  425
  10. Around the World in 80 Days  –  410

Oscar Nominated Films:

  • UA would have at least one film nominated every year from the 1st Oscars all the way until 1984.
  • UA lead with the most nominated films for four straight years (39-42) and for six out of seven from 39-45 and then five out of seven from 60-66.
  • UA has had the most (or tied for the most) nominated films 15 times.
  • UA started in 1st place for nominated films the first two Oscars.  By 1932, it dropped to third behind MGM and Paramount.  It passed Paramount back into 2nd in 1941 where it stayed until 1953.  It dropped to 4th in 1956 went back to 3rd in 1962 went back to 2nd in 1965 but in 1975 began the decline, moving down to 3rd, dropped to 4th in 1987 and to 5th in 1992 where it still sits.

By Decade:

  • 1920’s:  10  (1st)
  • 1930’s:  45  (3rd)
  • 1940’s:  70  (1st)
  • 1950’s:  28  (6th)
  • 1960’s:  54  (1st)
  • 1970’s:  35  (3rd – tie)
  • 1980’s:  9  (11th)
  • 1990’s:  4  (16th – tie)
  • 2000’s:  4  (18th)
  • 2010’s:  0
  • Total:  259  (5th)

Oscar Nominations:

  • Columbia has lead in the total number of nominations 9 times, all between 1937 and 1976 with its 45 in 1940 an all-time high for any studio.
  • It started in 3rd place, went up to 2nd place in 1939, stayed until 1953, dropped to 4th in 1955, by 1961 was back up to 2nd where it stayed until 1972 before starting to go down eventually sinking down to its current place of 6th where it has been since 2006.

Years with Most Total Oscar Nominations:

  • 45:  1940
  • 35:  1960
  • 33:  1961
  • 27:  1939, 1963

By Decade:

  • 1920’s:  13  (3rd – tie)
  • 1930’s:  107  (2nd)
  • 1940’s:  155  (4th)
  • 1950’s:  97  (6th)
  • 1960’s:  174  (1st)
  • 1970’s:  112  (3rd)
  • 1980’s:  33  (8th)
  • 1990’s:  5  (22nd)
  • 2000’s:  6  (22nd)
  • 2010’s:  0
  • Total:  702  (6th)

Oscar Wins:

  • The longest streak of years with at least one Oscar win is 1958 to 1972.
  • From 1933 to 1983, UA never went more than two straight years without winning an Oscar.
  • From 1958 to 1967 it won at least two Oscars every year.
  • UA has lead all studios in Oscar wins in seven different years.
  • Its 12 Oscars in 1961 is tied for the most and its 23 Oscars in 1960-61 is the most in back-to-back years.
  • By 1935, with only five total Oscars, UA was down in 7th place.  It would get as high as 4th but by 1958 and the start of its winning streak, it was still down in 6th place.  By the mid 60’s it was up to 3rd place where it stayed until 1985 and has slowly gone down having won only one Oscar since 1988 and it is now down in 6th place again.
  • UA’s 47 Oscars in the 60’s is the second most for any studio in any decade.

By Decade:

  • 1920’s:  3  (3rd – tie)
  • 1930’s:  10  (6th)
  • 1940’s:  13  (7th)
  • 1950’s:  27  (5th)
  • 1960’s:  47  (1st)
  • 1970’s:  28  (2nd)
  • 1980’s:  7  (6th – tie)
  • 1990’s:  0
  • 2000’s:  1  (19th – tie)
  • 2010’s:  0
  • Total:  136  (6th)

Critics Awards

  • Number of Films That Have Won Critics Awards:  34
  • Number of Films With Multiple Awards:  18
  • Best Picture Wins:  15
  • Total Number of Awards:  111
  • Category With the Most Awards:  Foreign Film  (20)

Most Awards:

  1. The Silence of the Lambs  –  16
  2. Hannah and Her Sisters  –  11
  3. Ran  –  10
  4. Bull Durham  –  6
  5. Mississippi Burning  –  6

Most Points:

  1. The Silence of the Lambs  –  1187
  2. Hannah and Her Sisters  –  790
  3. Ran  –  540
  4. Bull Durham  –  457
  5. Mississippi Burning  –  400

Highest Points Percentage:

  1. The Silence of the Lambs  –  31.52%
  2. Hannah and Her Sisters  –  25.28%
  3. Ran  –  17.23%
  4. Bull Durham  –  14.10%
  5. Mississippi Burning  –  12.35%

Most Points by Critics Group:

  • NYFC:  The Silence of the Lambs  –  330
  • LAFC:  Amadeus  –  340
  • NSFC:  The Unbearable Lightness of Being  –  190
  • BSFC:  The Silence of the Lambs  –  300
  • CFC:  The Silence of the Lambs  –  430
  • NBR:  Mississippi Burning  –  320

notes:

  • Silence of the Lambs is rather unique.  Consider the following points:
    • At the time, it had the second most critics points in history and is still #9 all-time.
    • It has, by a long way, the most critics points for a film with no points from two groups (LAFC, NSFC).
    • It was the first film in history and until 2007 the only one to win four Picture awards while not earning any awards at all from the other two critics groups.  Ironically, the only other film to do this, No Country for Old Men, also failed to earn any awards from the same two groups.
    • It won four Picture, four Director and four acting awards for the same performance (Hopkins won two each for lead and supporting).  The only other film to do that is GoodFellas.
    • In spite of being the #1 film all-time at the CFC, in the Top 10 all-time for points at the NYFC and BSFC (and at the time was #1 at the BSFC) and in the Top 15 at the NBR, it earned no awards at all from the LAFC and NSFC.
    • It is the only film in history to win Picture, Director, Actor and Actress from two different groups (NYFC, CFC).
    • Only one other film in history has even earned two Picture, Director, Actor and Actress awards which is Leaving Las Vegas, which did it two years later and could only manage all four from the same group from one group, ironically, the LAFC, one of the two groups that gave Silence nothing.

Golden Globes

  • Number of Films That Have Earned Nominations:  47
  • Number of Films That Have Won Globes:  12
  • Number of Films With Multiple Nominations:  17
  • Number of Films With Multiple Wins:  4
  • Best Picture Nominations:  12
  • Total Number of Nominations:  89
  • Total Number of Wins:  22
  • Category With the Most Nominations:  Actress  (15 – 4 Drama, 11 Comedy)
  • Best Film with No Globe Nominations:  Manon of the Spring
  • Best English Language Film with no Globe Nominations:  Excalibur

Most Globe Nominations:

  1. Amadeus  –  6
  2. Dances with Wolves  –  6
  3. Arthur  –  5
  4. Hannah and Her Sisters  –  5
  5. The Silence of the Lambs  –  5
  6. The Purple Rose of Cairo  –  4
  7. Platoon  –  4
  8. Mississippi Burning  –  4
  9. Prince of the City  –  3
  10. Something Wild  –  3

Most Globes:

  1. Arthur  –  4
  2. Amadeus  –  4
  3. Platoon  –  3
  4. Dances with Wolves  –  3
  5. eight films  –  1

Most Globe Points:

  1. Amadeus  –  405
  2. Dances with Wolves  –  360
  3. Platoon  –  290
  4. Arthur  –  285
  5. Hannah and Her Sisters  –  245
  6. The Silence of the Lambs  –  240
  7. The Purple Rose of Cairo  –  200
  8. Mississippi Burning  –  170
  9. Prince of the City  –  130
  10. Something Wild  –  100

Guild Awards

  • Number of Films That Have Earned Nominations:  21
  • Number of Films That Have Won Guild Awards:  11
  • Number of Films With Multiple Nominations:  8
  • Number of Films With Multiple Wins:  4
  • Best Picture Nominations:  2
  • Total Number of Nominations:  36
  • Total Number of Wins:  19
  • Category With the Most Nominations:  Screenplay  (14)
  • Best Film with No Guild Nominations:  Ran
  • Best English Language Film with No Guild Nominations:  Zelig

note:  Because the proliferation of guild awards didn’t happen until the late 90’s (before 1994 there were only five guilds that gave awards) the awards here are a bit skewed which is why the number of nominations and awards per film are so small.  Of the 21 nominated films only two (Blue Sky, Ulee’s Gold) weren’t nominated for at least one of those four early guilds (DGA, WGA, ACE, ASC, MPSE).

Most Guild Nominations:

  1. Dances with Wolves  –  5
  2. The Silence of the Lambs  –  4
  3. Platoon  –  3
  4. Mississippi Burning  –  3
  5. four films  –  2

Most Guild Wins:

  1. Dances with Wolves  –  5
  2. The Silence of the Lambs  –  3
  3. Amadeus  –  2
  4. Platoon  –  2
  5. seven films  –  1

Most Guild Points:

  1. Dances with Wolves  –  370
  2. The Silence of the Lambs  –  295
  3. Platoon  –  180
  4. Amadeus  –  140
  5. Hannah and Her Sisters  /  Crimes and Misdemeanors  –  125

notes:

  • Dances with Wolves was the first film to ever win 5 guild awards.
  • Dances with Wolves set a new guilds record with 370 points that would stand until 1993.
  • For pre-1994 (before SAG started inflating the point totals), Dances with Wolves is 2nd all-time and Silence of the Lambs is 4th.
  • Dances and Silence were also the first two films to win the PGA, DGA and WGA.
  • Dances was the first film to win the PGA, DGA, WGA, ACE and ASC.  Through today, the only other film to achieve that is Slumdog Millionaire.
  • The back-to-back wins of the DGA and WGA for Dances and Silence made Orion the first studio to do that since UA in 1960-61.  No studio has done it since.  That also makes Orion to only studio to have back-to-back PGA-DGA-WGA winners.
  • Dances earned 27.21% of all the guild points in 1990, a record then and a record today.  No other film has ever gotten to 25%.  At 19.03%, Silence is at #7 all-time.  Only Universal (#2, 8) and Fox (#5, 9) has two films in the Top 10.

The BAFTAs

  • Number of Films That Have Earned Nominations:  39
  • Number of Films That Have Won BAFTAs:  20
  • Number of Films With Multiple Nominations:  20
  • Number of Films With Multiple Wins:  10
  • Best Picture Nominations:  10
  • Total Number of Nominations:  125
  • Total Number of Wins:  37
  • Category With the Most Nominations:  Foreign Film  (17)
  • Best Film with No BAFTA Nominations:  Bull Durham

Most BAFTA Noms:

  1. Jean de Florette  –  10
  2. Amadeus  –  9
  3. The Silence of the Lambs  –  9
  4. Dances with Wolves  –  9
  5. Hannah and Her Sisters  –  8
  6. Cyrano de Bergerac  –  8
  7. Radio Days  –  7
  8. Ran  –  6
  9. Babette’s Feast  –  6
  10. Crimes and Misdemeanors  –  6

Most BAFTA Wins:

  1. Amadeus  –  4
  2. Jean de Florette  –  4
  3. Cyrano de Bergerac  –  4
  4. Mississippi Burning  –  3
  5. six films  –  2

Most BAFTA Points:

  1. Jean de Florette  –  455
  2. Hannah and Her Sisters  –  380
  3. The Silence of the Lambs  –  370
  4. Amadeus  –  320
  5. Dances with Wolves  –  275
  6. Cyrano de Bergerac  –  265
  7. The Purple Rose of Cairo  –  235
  8. Radio Days  –  235
  9. Babette’s Feast  –  235
  10. Crimes and Misdemeanors  –  220

notes:

  • The Purple Rose of Cairo won Best Picture but only had four total nominations, the fewest for a Picture winner since 1974 (and no winner has had as few since).
  • On the other hand, Dances with Wolves went 0 for 9, the most nominations without a win since 1976 and still tied for 5th all-time.
  • Jean de Florette was the only foreign language film to win Best Picture between Lacombe Lucien (1974) and Roma (2018) and has the second most BAFTA points for a foreign language film behind only Crouching Tiger.

Broadcast Film Critics Awards  (Critic’s Choice Awards)

Because the BFCA arose after Orion had, for the most part, stopped making films, it never earned any nominations.

All Awards

Most Nominations:

  1. The Silence of the Lambs  –  41
  2. Dances with Wolves  –  35
  3. Hannah and Her Sisters  –  33
  4. Amadeus  –  32
  5. Mississippi Burning  –  25
  6. Ran  –  21
  7. Platoon  –  19
  8. Crimes and Misdemeanors  –  17
  9. Cyrano de Bergerac  –  15
  10. Arthur  –  14

Most Awards:

  1. The Silence of the Lambs  –  27
  2. Amadeus  –  22
  3. Hannah and Her Sisters  –  18
  4. Dances with Wolves  –  18
  5. Platoon  –  12
  6. Ran  –  11
  7. Mississippi Burning  –  11
  8. Arthur  –  9
  9. Cyrano de Bergerac  –  7
  10. Bull Durham  /  Crimes and Misdemeanors  /  Raise the Red Lantern  –  6

Total Awards Points

  1. The Silence of the Lambs  –  2470
  2. Hannah and Her Sisters  –  1819
  3. Dances with Wolves  –  1683
  4. Amadeus  –  1665
  5. Mississippi Burning  –  1109
  6. Platoon  –  1045
  7. Crimes and Misdemeanors  –  839
  8. Ran  –  836
  9. Arthur  –  630
  10. The Purple Rose of Cairo  –  623

Highest Awards Percentage:

  1. The Silence of the Lambs  –  20.04%
  2. Hannah and Her Sisters  –  15.35%
  3. Amadeus  –  14.73%
  4. Dances with Wolves  –  13.26%
  5. Mississippi Burning  –  9.15%
  6. Platoon  –  8.82%
  7. Ran  –  7.13%
  8. Crimes and Misdemeanors  –  6.89%
  9. Arthur  –  6.02%
  10. The Purple Rose of Cairo  –  5.31%

Lists

Lists for studios are harder because I have to come up with them myself.  There are no books that rank the best films by studio and no way to sort through them on the IMDb or TSPDT.

The TSPDT Top 15 Orion Films

  1. Ran  (#202)
  2. Crimes and Misdemeanors  (#276)
  3. The Sacrifice  (#297)
  4. Amadeus  (#330)
  5. The Silence of the Lambs  (#382)
  6. Monty Python’s Life of Brian  (#405)
  7. Raise the Red Lantern  (#410)
  8. The Terminator  (#446)
  9. Hannah and Her Sisters  (#537)
  10. The Purple Rose of Cairo  (#650)
  11. RoboCop  (#697)
  12. Zelig  (#715)
  13. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown  (#850)
  14. Au Revoir, Les Enfants  (#853)
  15. Excalibur  (#905)

note:  The numbers in parenthesis are the position on the most recent (2019) TSPDT list.  This is the entirety of Orion films that were on the list in 2018 and in 2019 the only exception is Broadway Danny Rose which went back into the Top 1000 at #948.

The IMDb Top 6 Orion Films

  1. The Silence of the Lambs
  2. Amadeus
  3. Ran
  4. Monty Python’s Life of Brian
  5. Platoon
  6. The Terminator

note:  Those are all the Orion films in the Top 250 at the IMDb.

Top 10 U.S. Domestic Box Office

  1. Dances with Wolves  –  $184.20 mil
  2. Platoon  –  $138.53 mil
  3. The Silence of the Lambs  –  $130.74 mil
  4. Arthur  –  $95.46 mil
  5. Back to School  –  $91.25 mil
  6. 10  –  $74.86 mil
  7. Throw Momma from the Train  –  $57.91 mil
  8. RoboCop  –  $53.42 mil
  9. Amadeus  –  $51.56 mil
  10. Bull Durham  –  $50.88 mil

note:  Prior to 1982, Orion’s films were distributed by Warner Bros, so if you look at the linked page above, you won’t find Arthur or 10.
note:  I am not including an adjusted list because the time period covered by these films is so short and doesn’t reflect a lot of box office change.  If adjusted to 1991, Arthur is slightly above Silence and 10 is slightly below it but there’s not much overall change.
note:  These are all Orion films.  The highest grossing Orion Classics film is Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown with $7.33 mil.

Books

Final Cut: Dreams and Disaster in the Making of Heaven’s Gate, Steven Bach, 1985

There don’t appear to have been any books written about Orion but this book covers the period of United Artists when several of their most important executives left and formed Orion.  That alone makes it the most valuable book you can read about the studio.  Most of the information used in my introduction was actually culled from several generic film books and the web.

Reviews

The Best Orion Film I Haven’t Yet Reviewed

Crimes and Misdemeanors  (1989, dir. Woody Allen)

I’d have to look back to be certain but this might have been the film that screwed the Academy up (and other academies as well).  This film is split into two storylines, one with Woody Allen and one with Martin Landau, making it an ensemble piece, but the Oscars gave their nomination to Landau in supporting, forever screwing up the idea of what a lead or a supporting role is (other examples since: Bruce Davison (Longtime Companion), William H. Macy (Fargo), Tom Cruise (Magnolia) and in television, Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones)).  There’s no question that Landau’s performance was worthy of a nomination and the supporting list was weaker than the lead contenders, so I guess it works.

This film comes down to a scene that might be the visual image that most people know from it because it’s there on the poster: of Martin Landau and Woody Allen sitting together at a wedding, talking about life.  Their conversation is one of the interesting things about a film that really balances on the edge between comedy and drama (I classify it as the latter), that walks the line also between whether or not there is a deeper meaning in everything.  Landau’s just finished doing things that are awful and has gotten away with it and yet he is almost gleeful at the approach of the rest of his life.  Allen, the natural comedian, has been living a tragi-comical life and it’s just fallen completely to pieces around him and he is in despair even though he’s come out of the much more funny storyline.

Landau is a man in good shape.  He’s a successful ophthalmologist and he seems to have a good home life.  His major problem is his mistress, who has started to realize that he will never leave his wife and is ready to start talking.  Of all of his options, he chooses the worst, which is having his gangster brother kill her and remove all evidence of him from her apartment.  That is the serious side of the film and it deals with a man forced with moral choices and how he will move after he has made a truly awful one.

Then there is the comedic side of the film.  Landau is trying to get rid of a lover.  Allen is trying to gain one.  He’s working on a documentary about his brother-in-law, an obnoxious television producer (played, in a hilarious turn by Alan Alda that was far different from his work on M*A*S*H and I think his potential Oscar nomination was cut short by the Academy deciding that Landau was supporting) but he’s falling for the woman working on the documentary with him (played by Mia Farrow).  His real passion is a documentary about a philosopher that no one cares about.  By the end of the film, he will have lost his chance for success, his chance for some art and even his chance for some sex and he will sit there with Landau at the same wedding and they will ruminate upon their lives.

This was one of the first films I ever saw that I would have to grow into.  It was, in fact, the first Woody Allen film I ever saw (because of the Oscar nominations) and it would take me several years to grow into its dark but also darkly funny story about the curves that life throws at us and how we adapt to them.

The Worst Orion Film I Haven’t Yet Reviewed

Mac and Me  (1988, dir. Stewart Raffill)

Apparently, I can blame Paul Rudd, at the very least.  Whenever I end up looking at the Wikipedia page for a truly awful film, I often read something like this, which is straight from the Wikipedia page for this film: “is widely regarded as one of the worst ever made. Despite this, the film has attained cult status.”  It’s astounding how many films that are considered among the worst ever made have also achieved cult status.

Paul Rudd is apparently a fan of this film and continually takes what might honestly be the worst scene in an entire film that is made up of worst scenes and uses it to essentially “rickroll” talk show hosts, presenting it as the supposed clip from his latest film.  It’s a scene where a young boy in a wheelchair (he really was in the wheelchair – he had spina bifida and this was his only film) goes flying down a hill and drops a long way into a lake.  The shot is terrible, first, because the kid was really involved in some of it and that’s just putting him way too much at risk, second, because the flying body going through the air is clearly just a dummy, third because the immediate shot of the alien reacting to the fall is ineptly done and fourth because that fall would have seriously injured him and possibly killed him and apparently all it does is make him wet.

The alien, MAC (an acronym for mysterious alien creature though it’s never treated as an acronym in any literature) is a cheap rip-off of E.T. because the producer apparently wanted an E.T. for the next generation in spite of it only having been six years since E.T. itself was actually released.  I was seven when E.T. came out and thirteen when this one was released.  Who were they aiming for?  I’ll tell you – McDonald’s patrons.  This film was helped along by McDonald’s who gave the film massive access in order to do pathetically blatant product promotion (also for Coke which was tied in with the McDonald’s).

This film is a shameless, talentless, pathetic rip-off of E.T..  It doesn’t have anything new to say (alien lands, hunted by government, helped by kids), is ineptly filmed on every level and at the end the kid in the wheelchair is even shot by a stray police bullet with the alien creature bringing him back to life.  The only reason I have seen it is that it was a Razzie nominee, the only reason I didn’t review it for 1988 was that Caddyshack II is just a little bit worse and the only reason I’m reviewing it now is that the only film made by Orion Pictures that was worse is Boxing Helena which I reviewed for 1993.

Bonus Review

Ed’s Next Move  (1996, dir. John C. Walsh)

“Saw you at McDonalds and your earrings dropped a bomb
And your fifty dollar hairdo didn’t do, it did you wrong
I can see I’ll never see you at the sandbox again
But I can’t see why you dressed up like my mom”

If you think the lyrics to the song “Camouflage” by Ed’s Redeeming Qualities are strange, you haven’t heard the song itself.  It has a bizarre charm, partially from the utterly wacktastic lyrics (which continue throughout all of their songs) as well as their musical arrangement.  This was the first song I heard by the band, listening to it in my friend Dave’s dorm room before he cracked up and left school, the same room where I first heard King Missile as well.  It was my freshman year of college and this was the kind of things that dorm rooms were made for – to make discoveries like this among people you might never have met otherwise.

Now this might seem like I have forgotten what I am writing, which is supposed to be a bonus review for Orion Pictures.  In previous posts, whether genre or studio, I have generally tried to review a film I saw in the theater, either in high school or college.  However, if you looked at the above list, I only saw five Orion films in the theater and have already reviewed three of them (two Best Picture winners and one over-looked film) which would leave either a lackluster sequel I haven’t seen since the theater and have no interest in revisiting or a crappy comedy I already rewatched this year because my wife has a thing for the lead actor and it was even dumber than I remembered and have no desire to write about.  So, like with some other studios (UA, MGM), I had to go elsewhere and this time I was deciding between a mediocre comedy with one of my favorite musical artists (UHF) or a considerably better comedy with a musical act that piqued my interest at an important time in my life and is lucky to have been remembered at all, let alone in a solid film.

So, yes, this tiny little indie band that had actually pretty much ceased to exist by the time this film was made in 1995 and released in 1996 (because one of the original band members, Dom Leone, had died back in 1989 and another, Carrie Bradley, had gone on to form the Breeders, which kills me, because I hate the song “Cannonball”) ended up in a film because the writer / director John C. Walsh knew one of the band members and kept listening to the songs as he was writing the film and asked them to be in the film (originally he was actually going to call the film Ed’s Redeeming Qualities and the band asked him not to).  The film won’t make full use of the hilarity that their lyrics can have, like some of the lyrics I have been singing over and over for 25+ years now:

“Your name is Bob and there’s nothing you can do
The ladies won’t go out with you because your name is Bob”

which is from “Bob” and which my college girlfriend Kari asked me to record for her so she could play it for her father (who, of course, is named Bob) and

“I didn’t have a map so I went to Virginia
Because I know how to get there and because that’s my girlfriend’s name
So I was in Virginia and Virginia was in Boston
Boston was indifferent; Virginia was the same”

which I once sang to the mother of a classmate of Thomas’ who was, of course, named Virginia (which is also the name of the song).

“I broke my watch when I put up my calendar /  I left my map on the roof of my car”

That quote’s a bit more relevant, as it comes from “Buck Tempo“, not only one of the songs from that original album (More Bad Times) that made me a fan but is also sung in a poignant scene in the movie when the band rehearses in the apartment.  When you’re watching the girl you’re falling for sing lines like “I need somebody to make it seem worth it  /  To search for a light switch or reach for a star” it can pull at your heartstrings and you won’t really know what to make of it when the next line is “Would you be my clock if I promise not to hang you too close to the window or the picture of the Pope”.

The film is not all music, of course.  It doesn’t actually even have that much music in it and what it does use decreases the instrumentation from the original recordings.  There’s barely 10 minutes in the film all of which can be viewed here with some annotations as well.  The film still has to stand on its own aside from the songs (and my nostalgia for them) and it actually does.  It’s hardly great but it is a solid *** romantic comedy about two people who seem like they should be very bad for each other but somehow manage to get past all the initial problems and find some measure of happiness.

The guy in the couple is Ed who has just moved to New York from Wisconsin who’s got a solid job but no concept of how to talk to a female.  He’s played by John Ross who has a casual handsomeness that seemed to push him into supporting roles in most films (much like another good looking guy from a comedy in this year that he kind of reminds me of, Dan Futterman in The Birdcage).  He’s got his life together but can’t find romance which isn’t actually helped by his ladies’ man roommate as Ed points out: “You allow for things I can’t even pronounce.”  Then he meets Lee who plays in Ed’s Redeeming Qualities (played by an actual actress, Callie Thorne, as you can see in the video from the film and not by an actual member of the band).  Roger Ebert sums Lee up pretty well: “a New Yorker who regards Wisconsin as a word association test for which the answer is ‘cheese.'”

But the film allows them to grow together, to get past his inability to speak and the oddness of her friends who sing lines like

“You twisted your ankle, I carried you
You got a divorce so I married you
You fell off a cliff so I buried you
I wish there more bad times to see you through”

which is from “More Bad Times”, the hilarious final song on the album (which is also used in the film) and which, if it sounds vaguely familiar, it means you heard the Presidents butcher the song and you should listen to the original.

This film is smart (its poster is a take on the classic New Yorker cover that saw the world as if it ended at the Hudson River), it’s interesting, it’s warm and it’s funny.  It did well at Sundance and was picked up by Orion Classics.  But it made just over $100,000 at the box office, not even good enough to make the Top 250 for the year and has generally been hard to find on video (and even though I have very fond feelings for the band in the film, I wouldn’t even hear about it until years later).  But, if you’re willing to pony up $2.99, you can view it at anytime thanks to YouTube and you might just find that it’s worth it, to search for that light switch or reach for that star.

Post-2011

From 1997 to 2016, Orion didn’t release any films.  After that, it gets a little confusing, although, any way it works, there’s not a lot to it.  On my spreadsheet, I list seven films, six of which I have seen (I haven’t yet seen Anna and the Apocalypse), none of which made much money (The Prodigy, at $14.85 mil, though is the highest grossing Orion film since October of 1991) and the only awards attention going to God’s Own Country (BAFTA nominee for Best British Film).  At the moment, it looks like Orion is dead again; with the 100th anniversary of United Artists prompting MGM to release films under that label again and MGM also owning Orion, they seem to have moved their planned future Orion releases to UA and there are no more planned releases for Orion.