1992 In Film

It was a big year for me.  The first year I started to take going to the movies "seriously."

I saw my first art-house films on the big screen.  I went to Glengarry Glen Ross, Howard's End,  and Husbands and Wives (and became impressed with myself for doing so, naturally.)

Unforgiven was one of the first films I ever wrestled with.  Initially it took me by surprise and I thought I didn't like it.  But then I saw it again quickly and it opened my eyes to how Eastwood was subverting his image, and the audience's expectations of the entire genre, really.

Last of the Mohicans remains one of my most memorable big screen experiences.  I arrived to the theater a little bit late, and I just got sucked directly into that film.

With A Few Good Men, Scent of a Woman, and A League of Their Own I noticed for the first time I was watching polished studio pictures with a critical eye.  And not really liking what I saw.

I was super psyched about Bram Stoker's Dracula, which had a great trailer... it remains one of my biggest in-theater disappointments.

Malcolm X blew me away.  Spike Lee's audacious filmmaking just energized the hell out of me.  I immediately sought out a VHS of Do the Right Thing, and that became one of my favorite films of all time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bailey 

Malcolm X blew me away.  Spike Lee's audacious filmmaking just energized the hell out of me.  

The first thing I think about movies when I see the year 1992 is "Oh yeah, the year Malcolm X should have won best picture and wasn't even nominated". Pfft. I only saw "Malcolm X" and "Unforgiven" for the first time a few years ago and it was clear to me then. I don't think "Unforgiven" is even a particularly good movie, let alone one worthy of best picture. One of the best examples of Hollywood giving undeserved awards just to honour a career.

That movie's Oscar is really just a tribute to Clint Eastwood's iconic status as a Western star and gratitude for his attempt to bring back the revered American genre at a time when it was cold. Hackman was good in the movie, but again, I think he won more as a tribute to the rest of his career. He was the only thing in the movie I found special. The story was trite and the other characters were forgettable.

"Malcolm X" is stunningly powerful. Probably the best biopic I've ever seen. And yet another example of a 'legacy' award taking precedence over the person who really deserved the win. Al Pacino's was fun in "Scent of a Woman" but I believe his Oscar win was basically a lifetime achievement award, and for that, Denzel Washington was robbed of getting his due for a monumental performance that rose to the challenge of the incredibly deep, sprawling epic it had to carry. Oscar-wise, 1992 was one of the best examples of politics over quality.

As for movie memories from the actual year, all I remember going to see in theatres is "Aladdin" and "Batman Returns". I went to see every Disney movie that came out in theatres from "The Little Mermaid" to "Aladdin". After "Aladdin", I felt I'd grown out of animated movies.

For that reason, "Aladdin" is meaningful to me as kind of the end of an era in my life. It was the last time an animated movie was a really big deal to me. To this day, "Aladdin" is still my favourite Disney movie, even though I'm sure it's not objectively one of the best (the two leads are bland and the movie is basically stolen from them by supporting characters, for one thing). 

My opinion of it is definitely biased due to nostalgia. There was some backlash from other kids who thought Robin Williams was too over-the-top (before we even knew that expression), but I still love him in the movie, and over the years, I have gained more and more appreciation for Jafar and Iago (especially Iago), two of my all time favourite movie villians. Jafar has one of the best evil asshole lines ever after he makes Jasmine cry by telling her that Aladdin was killed for stealing. Iago asks, "So, how did it go?" and Jafar replies, "I think she took it...RATHER WELL! MUHAHAHAHAHA!"

As for "Batman Returns", I think I was too young to really have any idea about what was going on in its story or make some kind of judgment about its quality. I just knew I loved Catwoman in it, and I still do, even now that I realize Pfieffer's performance is pretty hammy and she (like all the characters in the movie) acts quite ridiculously theatrical and barely resembles a real person. She's still a blast to watch in the role, though, and I think she always will be, no matter how old you are.

You're way off base about Unforgiven.  First of all, a Western had just won best picture two years before, so I don't think that's why the film received accolades.  Second, I dispute the notion that the story is trite or the characters aren't memorable.  Munny, Ned, Little Bill, and English Bob are all great characters.  And even small parts like Strawberry Alice, Delilah and Skinny have real texture to them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Naisu Baddi 

The first thing I think about movies when I see the year 1992 is "Oh yeah, the year Malcolm X should have won best picture and wasn't even nominated". Pfft. I only saw "Malcolm X" and "Unforgiven" for the first time a few years ago and it was clear to me then. I don't think "Unforgiven" is even a particularly good movie, let alone one worthy of best picture. One of the best examples of Hollywood giving undeserved awards just to honour a career.

 

That movie's Oscar is really just a tribute to Clint Eastwood's iconic status as a Western star and gratitude for his attempt to bring back the revered American genre at a time when it was cold. Hackman was good in the movie, but again, I think he won more as a tribute to the rest of his career. He was the only thing in the movie I found special. The story was trite and the other characters were forgettable.

This opinion on Unforgiven is Unforgivable. Have a seat, you're about to get taken down Eastwood-style.

1992 - The year of Reservoir Dogs.

It was the beginning of me searching out for indie films and would devour anything put out by Miramax (aka, the good old days in which Miramax was still an interesting company.) 

There were a few of the blockbusters or supposed-to-be blockbusters (Alien 3, Basic Instinct, The Bodyguard) , but Tarantino's debut was basically what formed the path that I have followed for the past 20 years in regard to the films I am usually drawn to.

Last of the Mohicans and Thunderheart.
 

Unforgiven is brilliant. So is Malcolm X. So, for that matter, are Reservoir Dogs and Bad Lieutenant and Fire Walk with Me and A Midnight Clear and — yes, I'm going there — Bram Stoker's Dracula.

I'd have been happy if any of those — well, except maybe Dracula, which for me is more of a guilty pleasure — had won the Oscar.

I'm pointedly ignoring The Player, which I've always found just a bit overrated, as I've also found Altman just a bit overrated. I much preferred his previous Vincent & Theo. At the time I got sick of hearing about how The Player was his big comeback, blah blah blah, and then he did that gigantic bitter overrated misunderstanding of Raymond Carver, Short Cuts. Which, as Pauline Kael said, contained the best and worst of Altman. Much as Short Cuts' spiritual sequel Magnolia contained the best and worst of PTA.

But the opposition of Unforgiven and Malcolm X strikes me as unfair. They're both great. I would've given Best Actor to Denzel over Pacino that year*, and maybe given Al Best Supporting for Glengarry, though that would mean snubbing Hackman for Unforgiven and that's a tough one. I also would've replaced A Few Good Men with X on the Best Picture nomination ballot, no questions asked.

*Although if Keitel had been nominated for Bad Lieutenant, he takes it as far as I'm concerned. Denzel is great in X but Keitel is legendary in Lieutenant.

Pretty much the first year I started going to the movies a lot, thanks to finally having friends with cars. UNIVERSAL SOLDIER, PASSENGER 57, UNDER SIEGE, RAPID FIRE, TRESPASS. Overall not quite as strong a crop as '91, good times nonetheless.

One that knocked me for a loop most that year was DEEP COVER. Ended up seeing that at some cheapo $1 theater and had the time of my impressionable life.

Didn't see ONE FALSE MOVE until a few years later, still great though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moltisanti 

 

One that knocked me for a loop most that year was DEEP COVER. Ended up seeing that at some cheapo $1 theater and had the time of my impressionable life.

Great little flick, Jeff Goldblum for the win there: "A man has two things in this world. His word and his balls. Or is that three things?"

I was only 5 in '92, but my first real memory of being excited for a movie was Batman Returns. Since the first one came out when I was 2, I didn't see it in a theater, but I just about wore out the VHS in the intervening years. I bought a ton of toys, and I remember winning the promotional magazine as a door prize, since the Batman Returns premeire launched the opening of the particular theater in which I saw it. Kids were apparently scared, but I enjoyed the hell out of it. Fucking soccer moms...

The only other 2 movies I remember seeing that year are Aladdin and Home Alone 2. I remember being disturbed by Jafar kissing Jasmin and afraid during Home Alone 2 where Marv is electrocuted and turned into a skeleton. I had strange phobias as a child (e.g. I remember watching the Nutcracker Prince in kindergarten and crying at the part where the people break their teeth on the nuts, but I rented The Making of Thriller constantly at the age with no problems.)

Of course I discovered classics like Reservoir Dogs and Unforgiven as I got older, but the three aforementioned titles are my only memories of movies as they were released during 1992.

Naisu has a chair with his name written on it!

My warmest memories of this year has everything to do with Cameron Crowe's grunge classic Singles & the brilliant Hearts Of Darkness documentary.

1992 was also the year that gave us the underseen proto-Galaxy Quest comedy Mom & Dad Save The World. Jon Lovitz's funniest movie role.

This thread needs more DIGGSTOWN.  Love that movie.  So underrated.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clarence Boddicker 

I was only 5 in '92

BOOOOO!!!

But, seriously, these 20 year anniversary things are bumming me out.  

I'm holding off on the 20 year nostalgia binge until next year, when we all have a complete freakout that Jurassic Park is almost of drinking age.

And then the party starts in 2014, when you realize you can legally bone someone who was born when Independence Day was in theatres.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greg Clark 

And then the party starts in 2014, when you realize you can legally bone someone who was born when Independence Day was in theatres.

I have got to get me one of these?

Crying Game, anyone? Haven't seen it since it dropped; haven't really felt inclined to. I feel like it's one of those Miramax films that got insanely hyped/overrated at the time and today collects dust. Anyone seen it recently and want to talk about how it holds up (or doesn't)?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greg Clark 

 

And then the party starts in 2014, when you realize you can legally bone someone who was born when Independence Day was in theatres.

Said it before, but my personal cut-off point is June 12, 1981. If you were born after Raiders of the Lost Ark came out, you might as well be playing with Cheerios in a high chair, to me.

A bunch of old assed bastards on this site...

SNEAKERS!

The best film of 1992.

Depressing, especially when you consider it's not even his best film from that year.

White Men Can't Jump was a huge one for me. Grantland did a great oral history of it recently - the bit about Woody Harrelson coaxing a bare breasted Rosie Perez out of hiding is classic.

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/8266665/an-oral-history-ron-shelton-basketball-comedy-white-men-jump

Juice is another 1992 flick I can watch repeatedly. Was never a big fan of Tupac the rapper but damn, he's absolutely electrifying as Bishop. Makes for a good 1992 Hip-Hop Noir companion piece to Deep Cover.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clarence Boddicker 

A bunch of old assed bastards on this site...

What's that, sonny?  You'll have to speak into my good ear.

A Few Good Men still holds up SO well. One of my favorite movies.

Oh sweet fucking christ, my senior year of high school.  Ugh, way to feel old.  Thanks to you, original poster.  

But yeah, great year for movies.  Resevoir Dogs, Unforgiven, Hard Fucking Boiled (though I didn't see it till probably the next year on bootlegged VHS) Glengarry, The Crying Game, Mohicans, Bad Lieutenant, A Few Good Men (Cruise drove the same, rust-colored POS Dodge Daytona that I did at the time!), The Player, Basic Instinct, Waterdance, My Cousin Vinny, Singles, Cool World, fuck it, I'll even throw out The Cutting Edge.  

Good year.  If you ignore Prelude to a Kiss, The Babe and 3 Ninjas.

Ah man, I forgot to single out AMERICAN ME. The knife in the fanny, oh my goodness. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Elvis 

I think the worst in theatre double feature I ever did was in '92. Buddies and I paid for KUFFS, and then afterwards snuck into FREEJACK. Pretty suck-y.

At least with FREEJACK you got that awesome Scorpions song over the credits. What a jam.

Quote:

Originally Posted by neil spurn 

Oh sweet fucking christ, my senior year of high school.  Ugh, way to feel old.  Thanks to you, original poster.  

 

But yeah, great year for movies.  Resevoir Dogs, Unforgiven, Hard Fucking Boiled (though I didn't see it till probably the next year on bootlegged VHS) Glengarry, The Crying Game, Mohicans, Bad Lieutenant, A Few Good Men (Cruise drove the same, rust-colored POS Dodge Daytona that I did at the time!), The Player, Basic Instinct, Waterdance, My Cousin Vinny, Singles, Cool World, fuck it, I'll even throw out The Cutting Edge.  

 

Good year.  If you ignore Prelude to a Kiss, The Babe and 3 Ninjas.

I won't have PRELUDE TO A KISS disrespected, man. It's very sweet and unexpectedly moving, and Baldwin and Ryan (both so young and so fucking gorgeous) have great chemistry.

I saw a lot of cool stuff in '92 but I mainly remember walking out of BATMAN RETURNS and straight into ALIEN 3. Both flawed but at the time I really dug that double feature.

Gotta give some love to Keith Gordon's underseen war pic A Midnight Clear.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moltisanti 

Pretty much the first year I started going to the movies a lot, thanks to finally having friends with cars. UNIVERSAL SOLDIER, PASSENGER 57, UNDER SIEGE, RAPID FIRE, TRESPASS.

Another one which should've led to bigger things, Nemesis.

Forgot Candyman was out in '92.

Also Of Mice and Men, before Gary Sinise forgot what Steinbeck was writing about and became a right-wing schmuck.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Elvis 

Buddies and I paid for KUFFS, and then afterwards snuck into FREEJACK.

That almost sounds dirty. (In a way, I guess it kind of was.)

On the upside, Milla in Kuffs:

Another underseen near-classic is Paul Schrader's brilliant Light Sleeper with Willem Dafoe in what is arguably his greatest role. Here, he plays an ex-junkie coke dealer who's trying to go straight. Susan Sarandon is his sly employer. It's a great "New York" movie too.

I just revisited it recently & was really impressed by it.

No love for "Batman Returns?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clarence Boddicker 

A bunch of old assed bastards on this site...

Yeah, I've been feeling bad about getting old lately and this thread is making me feel better, since I was only a kid in '92.  On the other hand, you guys are lucky you got to see certain movies I was too young to see in theatres at that time. As a big fan of '90s action movies, I would have loved to have been old enough to see "Universal Soldier" in theatres as well as "Under Siege", which I only finally got around to seeing last summer.

Another movie '92 movie I saw for the first time and loved last summer was "A League of Their Own". Hollywood doesn't make enough great baseball movies...at least not like in the '90s when we had that one, plus "The Sandlot", and "Rookie of the Year". I miss good, clean, family friendly baseball movies like those. I'm still catching up '92, having only seen "The Player" and the others I've mentioned last year. Thanks for the recommendations. Been planning to check out "Bad Lieutenant" for awhile.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Martin Blank 

Crying Game, anyone? Haven't seen it since it dropped; haven't really felt inclined to. I feel like it's one of those Miramax films that got insanely hyped/overrated at the time and today collects dust. Anyone seen it recently and want to talk about how it holds up (or doesn't)?

I saw it for the first time a few years ago and didn't like it, but I have to wonder how much of the reason is because the big twist was spoiled well in advance for me. I'm not sure where I first heard it, but "The Simpsons" might have been it. They blatantly gave it away and I thought that was kind of in bad taste. During an era when most of their jokes were perfectly crafted, that was one of their rare missteps. Just gratuitously inconsiderate. While I wasn't too keen on the movie overall, I have to echo the immense praise heaped on Jaye Davidson's performance.

Even knowing the twist, it had me fooled...totally effective at disguising the character's true nature. Gene Siskel had some incredibly flattering praise for it. Arguing with Ebert about how sure he was that Davidson deserved an Oscar that year more than any other nominee by a mile, he declared "not even John, Ethyl, or Lionel Barrymore could have played this character better than Jaye Davidson". Hyperbolic praise, but not completely off-base either. I'd say the movie is worth watching for the performance alone. I just wish I didn't know the twist before I watched it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fat Elvis 

Most embarrassing movie I loved back in '92 - ENCINO MAN.

Embarassing revelation: I paid 30 dollars for the DVD about 10 years ago.

Regarding WAYNE'S WORLD, I just watched it last night for the first time in years and, with the exception of a few jokes (the Grey Poupon gag in particular) it holds up just fine.