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Posted: |
Mar 12, 2022 - 6:15 PM
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By: |
Ron Pulliam
(Member)
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And yet in 1956 "The Searchers" came and went as just another, perhaps slightly above-average Western. The film, director Ford, John Wayne, supporting actor Ward Bond, the never-more-vivid Technicolor and VistaVision cinematography by Winton C. Hoch — none received an Oscar; none was even nominated.
And the 1956 Oscar went to ... "Around the World in Eighty Days
Did it really just come and go? I was a child when I saw it with the family in 1956 but it seemed to me to be a lot more than just an average western - it certainly had a very strong impact on me and I never forgot the film. My parents were not western fans but the film must have generated a lot of critical and public atttention for it to have been a family visit. As for it not being recognised in the Academy Awards, well that's irrelevant because many great films were never even nominated and the Academy rarely gave awards in those days for such genres as westerns or thrillers.
I still consider Winton C. Hoch not being nominated for an Oscar his beautiful cinematography on "The Searchers" (and in VistaVision, which was also used on two other landmark Westerns released in VistaVision, which was borrowed for "The Searchers" - "Shane" and "One Eyed Jacks" - the former an Oscar winner for Best Cinematography and the latter nominated) an absolute travesty! The cinematography for "Around The World In Eighty Days" seems more suited for a travelogue.
Travelogue? You DO understand the movie was about a man going around the world, yes? And what better way than to document that story than the glorious cinematography of the film? Yes, "The Searchers" had beautiful photography, but was it greater than Lionel Lindon's for "...80 Days"? Oscar voters thought not, and that included the cinematography branch which nominated the five nominees. That could be a matter of jealousy on the part of many of the members who failed to nominate "The Searchers". That factor has often marred categories with glaring omissions.
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