Winner '89:
First Saw It:		 Driving Miss Daisy
Early 1990, on the U.S. Marine Corps base in Quantico, VA
Bridesmaids: Born on the Fourth of July, Dead Poets Society, Field of Dreams, My Left Foot
My Vote: My Left Foot, even though I've cooled on the filmmaking over the years
Overlooked: When Harry Met Sally..., Do the Right Thing, Crimes and Misdemeanors


Driving Miss Daisy
Director: Bruce Beresford. Cast: Jessica Tandy, Morgan Freeman, Dan Aykroyd, Esther Rolle, Patti LuPone, Sylvia Kaler, Muriel Moore, Joann Havrilla, Ray McKinnon, Ashley Josey, Indra A. Thomas. Screenplay: Alfred Uhry (based on his play).

Photo © 1989 Warner Bros. Pictures
MF top bill - JW Mrs Bridge car wreck - black servants drinks to old white ladies while towed out; socializing iwth episcopalians; craning mah-jongg shot; Werthan Bag & Cotton Co.; high, faint piano as MF walks in from blown-out white light; strangely arbitrary crddential as pro-Jew; "good to know you feel that way"; used to wrassle hogs!; she's supposed to be 52? (no, 72, but why did I think that?); Zimmer just thinks it's WONDERFUL that they're driving; 6 days same as Lord make world; no sound design at all save score; Score just BOUDNING away again as they head off to Mobile; Be Still! Hush Up! We are just DRIVING! Boy, are we DRIVING! on the ROAD!; Alabama ain't lookin like much so feuh; 1888 first to Mobile; all right for me to dip my hand in the water; tasted the salt water on my fingers - closes her eyes and tastes her lips in reverie; Hey Boy! interr music; It's a German derivation; MF obv more bothered than she was; An old nigger and an old Jew Woman takin' down the road together - not even said TO them; they fixed crab for me; it's all ruined by now; A Colored can't use a toilet at Dundee Service Station, Miss Daisy you know that; Big, open laugh after singing Hes a Jolly Good Fellow for Uncle Walter; I ain't STUDYIN' bout goin to work for no trashy sump'm like her; Ain't she gotta lotta hair - wonder how she get it so shiny; Idella: Wash it in MYonnaise; Idella's legs shrunken in her opaque stockings; "What a friend we have in Jesus..." soulful mellifluous funeral singing; was all the overlighting before a way to age them down?; Krispy Kreme coffee in the morning; "I didn't say I love him, I said he was handy - honestly, Boolie. Are you tryin' to irritate me in the middle of an ice storm?; I'm deeply to be chosen as 1966 Man of the Year by the Atalnta Business Council"; Temple bombed; her makeup starting to look pancakey and white/damask; remembers old lynching in Macon; She's shushing his lynching story, refuses to believe bombing; Boolie too scared to go to MLK "They might snicker, call me Martin luther Werthan behind my back" - Wouldn't hear about cetrain lunch meetings; bizarrely over-elaborate mirrored shot; Looking smug about extending invite to MLK dinner to Hoke; "I think it's wonderful the way things are changin'!"; Talkin' bout things change, they ain't changed all that much; Utterly unconvincing that MLK is just offscreen at this formal dinner; Canby: "remarkable 25-year friendship"; Canby: "Miss Daisy and Hoke are as much outsiders for their age and sensibility as for anything else. Theirs is the friendship of equals.Miss Daisy and Hoke are as much outsiders for their age and sensibility as for anything else. Theirs is the friendship of equals."; HOKE, is that HOKE?; POV down stairs, in Daisy's hair-down panic; JT dismayed that old Hudson is gone; JT in bright, yellow light in very back of very dark room; Dissolve from two holding hands in dark room to home up for sale, twinkling piano; MF granddaughter teaching Biology at Spelman; She's a Republican National Committee Woman now!; Rusalka as time passes; (I was right! those three guys crossing train tracks as Hoke drives to Mobile are behind-the-scenes cameos); Hepburn/Davis/Ball/Lansbury - Midler/Murphy!; Score all synth and all Zimmer all the time! C

Academy Award Nominations and Winners:
★Best Picture
★Best Actress: Jessica Tandy
Best Actor: Morgan Freeman
Best Supporting Actor: Dan Aykroyd
★Best Adapted Screenplay: Alfred Uhry
Best Art Direction: Bruno Rubeo; Crispian Sallis
Best Costume Design: Elizabeth McBride
Best Film Editing: Mark Warner
★Best Makeup: Manlio Rocchetti, Lynn Barber, and Kevin Haney

Golden Globe Nominations and Winners:
★Best Picture (Musical/Comedy)
★Best Actress (Musical/Comedy): Jessica Tandy
★Best Actor (Musical/Comedy): Morgan Freeman

Other Awards:
Berlin Film Festival (1990): Best Acting Team (Freeman & Tandy)
Producers Guild of America: Best Picture
Writers Guild of America: Best Adapted Screenplay
National Board of Review: Best Picture; Best Actor (Freeman)
British Academy Awards (BAFTAs): Best Actress (Tandy)
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