most of the awards for 1984 films, beating out David
Lean’sA Passage to Indiain most categories. Lean’s
film won Best Supporting Actress (Peggy Ashcroft)
and Best Score (Maurice Jarre, who expressed grati-
tude that Mozart was not eligible). When 1985’sThe
Color Purpleand its director, Spielberg, both lost to
Pollock andOut of Africa, it suggested not only that
the Academy still preferred big pictures but also that
it was uneasy with controversial ones. After the more
controversial films of the 1970’s, perhaps the Acad-
emy’s members sought a respite from politics—or
maybe they were influenced by the conservatism that
Ronald Reagan’s presidency brought to the nation.
The same year, John Huston received his last
nomination for Best Director and his daughter An-
gelica got her first for Best Supporting Actress for
Prizzi’s Honor(1985), and Paul Newman won the
honorary Oscar. The following year, the Academy
made less cautious choices, as it awarded Oliver
Stone’sPlatoon(1985) Best Picture and Best Direc-
tor. Stone’s devastating portrayal of combat in Viet-
nam opened the way for many more anti-Vietnam
films to come, and the list of Best Director nomi-
nees for 1985 films showcased some excellent films:
Woody Allen’sHannah and Her Sisters, Roland Joffe’s
The Mission, James Ivory’sA Room with a View, and Da-
vid Lynch’sBlue Velvet. Spielberg was awarded the
Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for his work as a
producer. Dexter Gordon, an African American jazz
musician, was nominated for Best Actor for his role-
of-a-lifetime performance in’Round Midnight, but
the Oscar went to Newman forThe Color of Money.8 Academy Awards The Eighties in America
From left: Richard Attenborough, Meryl Streep, and Ben Kingsley display their Oscars at the 1983 Academy Awards ceremony in Los An-
geles. Attenborough won both the Best Director and the Best Picture Awards.(AP/Wide World Photos)