Terms of Endearment, 1983

1983 Best Picture:
Terms of Endearment

Competition:
The Big Chill, The Dresser, The Right Stuff, Tender Mercies

Other Winners:
Best Actor: Robert Duvall, Tender Mercies
Best Actress: Shirley MacLaine, Terms of Endearment
Best Supporting Actor: Jack Nicholson, Terms of Endearment
Best Supporting Actress: Linda Hunt, The Year of Living Dangerously
Best Director: James L. Brooks, Terms of Endearment

Cast: Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, Jeff Daniels, John Lithgow, Lisa Hart Carroll, Betty King
Storyline: The relationship between a mother and daughter is explored, as the mother prepares to face old age, alone, and the daughter prepares for marriage, motherhood, and illness.
Did it deserve to win: Oh Yes! Terms Of Endearment was one of the most refreshing comedies of its day. Terms is pure soap opera, worthy of an army of hankies, complete with powerhouse performances from its two stars, Winger and MacLaine.
The Right Stuff was a tribute to the American Space program. Tender Mercies was a tribute to country singing. And The Big Chill was an homage to better times, as a group of thirty something's come together for a funeral, and celebrate the music of the late sixties. The Dresser was a slow moving tribute to a Shakespearean theatre troop during the war.

Left out of the final five was another great film from Martin Scorcese. This time he toned down the violence, for a film about stalkers, with The King of Comedy. The film offered the best role of Jerry Lewis' career, and an excellent debut for Sandra Bernhard. Perhaps the movie was just too weird for the audience. It remains a minor cult hit to this day.

Critique: Terms of Endearment is a fast moving story that covers several years in the lives of the two women. The fun of this film lies in the performances, where it seems obvious that MacLaine and Winger are competing with each other to be the best! All of the players are equipped with some memorable lines, and some very touching scenes.
For Winger, this was the most powerful performance of her career, and it put her on the map as a serious actress. For MacLaine, it was the ultimate glory in a career that had been going on for almost thirty years. Finally, MacLaine was getting her due.

The story is pure soap opera, but that isn't a bad thing. The conflicts seem very realistic (thanks to great writing and excellent acting), and the overall story moves along at a steady pace.

Behind the Scenes: Terms of Endearment earned eleven nominations, and won five of them. MacLaine and Winger were in a dead heat for the Best Actress race, with MacLaine winning, perhaps due in small part, for sentimental reasons.
The early 80's were seeing a lot of expensive action films, a trend that would grow in time. Terms of Endearment was praised by New York Daily News as a film that 'dares to deal with the joys and frustrations of maintaining a mother-and-daughter relationship at a time when the average movie is concerned mostly with overwrought computers.'
Sight and Sound Magazine felt differently. They criticized the film as a 'crassly constructed slice of anti-feminism that contrives to rub liberal amounts of soap into the viewer's eyes.'
Upon winning the Oscar, MacLaine stated that she was going to cry, because 'this show has lasted as long as my career.' She went on to poke fun at her own interest in reincarnation by thanking everyone she ever met in her life, and in her past lives.
Some of the best drama went on behind the scenes of this film. It was a well known fact that the two actresses did not get along during shooting.
James L. Brooks is also known as a co-creator, director and writer on the Mary Tyler Moor Show.
All of the Best Actor nominees played drunks that year, and four of them were British. Robert Duvall got his due, winning the award for Tender Mercies. To show his support to his newfound friends in country music, he snubbed the Governor's Ball, when they refused to admit his new friends, and opted instead for Johnny Cash's house party.
Linda Hunt won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar, in what was a first for the Academy. She won the award for playing a man in The Year of Living Dangerously.
The biggest controversy of the year was over the role of women in Hollywood. Barbara Striesand did not get nominated for directing Yentl, the slow moving musical about a Jewish girl at the turn of the century, who poses as a man to get an education. Protestors demonstrated in her honor outside the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.