Thursday Movie Picks: Best Cinematography & Best Special or Visual Effects (Oscar Winners Edition)
Wandering through the Shelves hosts a weekly movie challenge in which you choose 3-5 movies based on that Thursday’s theme and explain why you chose those movies.
Today’s theme is Best Cinematography & Best Special Effects (Oscar Winners Edition) so here are my choices!
Gone With the Wind (1939)
While Gone With the Wind has been rightly criticized for its whitewashing of slavery, the movie itself remains a classic in cinema. A winner of 8 Academy Awards, it remains the highest-grossing movie of all time (including inflation). One of those wins was for cinematography (Ernest Haller and Ray Rennahan). I always found Gone With the Wind to be a gorgeous movie from start to finish, and I do believe its Oscar win was just.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
While I think every movie in the LOTR trilogy could have won this Oscar, Fellowship of the Ring is the only one to take the trophy home. It truly is a beautiful film, from the lush greens of the Shire to the mystical, dreamy Rivendell. I was so impressed with the look of this movie, and sometimes I find it my favorite one to watch simply because of its cinematography. Andrew Lesnie did an incredible job, given the scope of the trilogy itself.
Road to Perdition (2002)
I’ll say it right now. Road to Perdition is an underrated masterpiece. To me, everything about this movie is near perfection. The story, the directing, and the acting, especially from Tom Hanks. The score is beautiful, too. I honestly believe the rain shootout (as seen above) could be listed on almost any list of top ten moments in cinematography. I get chills every time I see it. This movie deserves a heck of a lot more love.
Inception (2010)
One reason I chose Inception for Best Special Effects was the rotating hotel fight scene. Director Christopher Nolan didn’t use any computer-generated effects for this scene, which is pretty dang impressive. The actors and camera operators had to practice filming it several times to get it right, and it’s by far one of the most impressive scenes in the movie. The rest of the special effects in this movie are pretty damn great too!
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Another LOTR choice! I would honestly just chose this movie for nearly every TMP if I could (and it fit, of course). Jim Rygiel, Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook, and Alex Funke really helped bring Middle Earth to life, and while a lot of the battles included some CGI, you could never tell. This movie is 18 years old and it holds up so dang well.
Titanic (1997)
I’ve used Titanic before and I’ll say the same thing today that I said back then. Regardless of how you feel about this movie, you have to admit it’s pretty impressive what James Cameron managed to pull off. The sinking of the Titanic alone was worthy of an Oscar. And just like ROTK above, Titanic truly does hold up really well in terms of its special effects.
