A Man for All Seasons (1966)

39th Academy Awards (1967)
Nominations: 8
Wins: 6

Early in the morning of December 4, 2024, a masked gunman assassinated UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City. The shooter’s spent cases had the words “delay, deny, depose” written on them, similar to the insurance industry’s famous phrase “delay, deny, defend,” which refers to the extreme effort companies put into not paying out claims. Five days later, following a nationwide manhunt, Luigi Nicholas Mangione, a 26-year-old data engineer with no prior criminal record, was arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania. As the prime suspect in the killing, Mangione is currently facing 11 charges in New York state and four federal charges, including a murder charge that makes him eligible for the death penalty.

Among Mangione’s personal effects was a 262-word document about the corruption and failure American healthcare system. A deep dive into Mangione’s social media presence makes it difficult to put him in a box, perhaps the only label that fits him is “anti-system.” And that ideological ambiguity coupled with seeming moral consistency has helped turn Mangione into a folk hero. Mangione has become the subject of memes, look-alike contests, protests, and even a sex tape hoax. Supporters are donating to his jail commissary and writing him letters and sharing online his heartfelt responses. There is even merch being sold online that depicts Mangione as a Catholic saint, just like Sir Thomas More, the subject of A Man for All Seasons.

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Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)

34th Academy Awards (1962)
Nominations: 12
Wins: 3

Stanley Kramer did not fuck around. Hollywood’s king of “heavy dramas” made sure every time he got to make a movie, it was important (and often set in a courtroom, even if he wasn’t the director). Case in point, Judgment at Nuremberg, a fictionalized version of one of the 12 Nuremberg Military Tribunals that weren’t even popular when they happened. That was 1947, two years after the war, and Americans were more interested in restarting their lives at home than thinking about the past. That goes doubly for the German people, whose immense guilt and shame forced them to claim ignorance of the atrocities the Nazis inflicted upon the world. And America was fine with that, because we might need Germany’s support in the growing Cold War. Yeah, it’s pretty clear from the beginning that with Judgment at Nuremberg, Kramer is giving us a pill that’s hard to swallow. But, like all medicine, the bitter taste is worth it.

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Mrs. Miniver (1942)

15th Academy Awards (1943)
Nominations: 12
Wins: 6

I’m writing about Mrs. Miniver today because this Sunday Adrien Brody broke Greer Garson’s Guinness World Record for longest Oscars acceptance speech, which had stood for more than 80 years. How’s that for a state of affairs for the Academy Awards? Here’s the thing… as much shit as Hollywood gets, I’m rooting for it. I think that, more than most of the world, Hollywood has genuinely tried to be a better, more inclusive place year over year, even if that effort is most often merely superficial. Hey, you know, with so many people decrying the increasingly vague term “woke,” I’m inclined at this point to give props for anyone seeming to sincerely try to be better. More than that, I know that the real people who make movies, the vast majority of these people, are hardworking, passionate dreamers and that’s cool as hell. And yet, every year more and more people seem to care less and less about cinema in general and this ceremony in particular.

As the veil gets pulled back further and also farther, it’s become impossible to deny that the Academy Awards (and all of awards season) is a sport. A game played by some of the worst people in the world who spend ungodly amounts of money in the hopes of earning… clout, I guess? These days, the movies that get Oscars are the movies that are made by studios who hired awards consultant firms when they greenlit the picture. These awards, like so much of our reality now, are defined by billionaires trying to fill holes in their hearts. Oscar prestige, if there ever really was such a thing, is almost totally meaningless in 2025. It’s not really the case anymore that an Oscar will change career trajectories or shine a light on a diamond in the rough. Best case scenario, an Oscar is a trophy that says you played the game best. More often than not, it’s just a piece of bar trivia.

Does it have to be this way? Was it always this way? And what the hell does this have to do with Mrs. Miniver?

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