Sensibility. Jack Palance received the award for Best
Supporting Actor in 1992 forCity Slickers(1991),
thirty-nine years after his previous nomination for
Sudden Fear(1952), and it occasioned a memorable
scene; seventy-one-year-old Palance demonstrated
one-armed push-ups before his worldwide audience.
The Western gained new life whenDances with
Wolves(1990) andUnforgivenbecame only the sec-
ond and third Westerns afterCimarron(1931) to win
Best Picture. Preoccupation with “family values” in
American politics was reflected, albeit obliquely, in
nominees such asThe Prince of Tides(1991),Forrest
Gump,Secrets and Lies(1996),Shine(1996),As Good
as It Gets, andLife Is Beautiful. The success of inde-
pendent films (in 1997, four Best Picture nominees,
The English Patient,Fargo,Secrets and Lies, andShine,
were made outside traditional Hollywood struc-
tures), even when independence consisted simply of
being produced by autonomous units of conglomer-
ates, pointed to new methods of production and dis-
tribution.
Impact As the Cold War concluded, movies held a
mirror to the soul of the only remaining super-
power. During the 1990’s, the Academy Awards, the
most publicized prize ceremony in the world, ex-
erted a powerful influence on the production, mar-
keting, and distribution of American films, even as
they reflected trends that might lead to the Oscars’
diminished importance.
Further Reading
Bona, Damien.Inside Oscar 2. New York: Ballantine,
- An opinionated report on what went on be-
hind the scenes at the Academy Awards.
Kinn, Gail, and Jim Piazza.The Academy Awards: The
Complete Unofficial Histor y. New York: Black Dog &
Leventhal, 2006. A detailed review of each year’s
Academy Awards. Illustrated with photos.
Levy, Emanuel.All About Oscar: The Histor y and Poli-
tics of the Academy Awards. New York: Continuum, - A thorough survey of the history, sociology,
and politics of the Oscars.
O’Neill, Thomas.Movie Awards: The Ultimate Unoffi-
cial Guide to the Oscars, Golden Globes, Critics, Guild,
and Indie Honors. New York: Perigee, 2003. A com-
pilation of information about most of the major
movie awards, including the Oscars.
Osborne, Robert.Seventy-five Years of the Oscar: The Of-
ficial Histor y of the Academy Awards. New York:
Abbeville Press, 2003. Written in association with
the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
and includes year-by-year accounts of the ballot-
ing results.
Steven G. KellmanSee also Allen, Woody; Coen brothers;Dances with
Wolves; Film in the United States;Forrest Gump;Good-
Fellas; Hanks, Tom; Independent films; Paltrow,
Gwyneth;Philadelphia;Saving Private Ryan;Schin-
dler’s List;Silence of the Lambs, The; Sundance Film
Festival;Titanic;Unforgiven. Advertising
Definition Written or verbal information directed
at individuals or a group with the intent of
influencing their behavior as consumers
Advertising during the 1990’s affected greater numbers of
individuals and began to have a much stronger impact as a
result of increasingly intrusive advertising methods.
In general, advertisements are intended to promote
the use of particular services or products through
certain, specific images (brands) and to take advan-
tage of the human tendency to form product-related
habits of taste (brand loyalty). By the 1990’s, adver-
tising agencies had successfully penetrated nearly
every form of communication in order to promote
their clients’ services or products. From magazines
to newspapers, radios to cinema, television to the In-
ternet, and billboards to video games, increased
consumption was the message intended to permeate
every facet of life in the 1990’s.
In William Dean Howell’s novelThe Rise of Silas
Lapham(1885), the titular hero becomes wealthy af-
ter announcing the benefits of using his mineral
paint by having advertisements painted on the sides
of barns. This ancient form of advertising—wall
painting—has continued to exist even in a modern,
technological society. Although fondly remembered
in the form of advertisements painted on the sides of
brick buildings, such wall paintings changed over
time into the more temporary billboard. The 1990’s
introduced a new twist on the traditional bill-
board—the so-called mobile billboard. When large-
format digital inkjet printers made large-scale ban-
ner printing possible, advertisers saw a way to reach
consumers who were increasingly able to avoid tele-
vision and radio advertising. By printing graphics4 Advertising The Nineties in America