Name That Oscar Movie In Three Clues! Quiz

Answer: Jaws

"Jaws" is the movie adaptation of the best-selling book of the same title. Based on real-life events in the summer of 1916 on the shores of New Jersey, "Jaws" was purchased by film producers Zanuck and Brown for less than a million dollars. They recruited the then unknown director Steven Spielberg to helm the large production. Filmed off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, "Jaws" experienced a number of technical nightmares, making the production a harried affair for Spielberg. Despite having three mechanical sharks to draw from, each one had problems and the full model sank to the ocean floor when it was discovered it had not been tested for buoyancy.

Initially, casting for the film proved to be surprisingly difficult. The first actor signed on was Lorraine Grey for the role of Ellen Brody. Robert Shaw accepted the role of Quint after Sterling Hayden and Lee Marvin passed on it. Even Richard Dreyfuss questioned doing the movie at first but later took on the role of marine biologist Matt Hooper, after fearing he may not get a chance to work again after a poor performance in another film.

"Jaws" tells the story of the coastal town of Amity Island, terrorized by a shark lurking in its shallow waters. The film opens with a young woman named Chrissie Watkins skinny dipping in the ocean at night. In a surprisingly non-graphic and low key manner, the audience witnesses her being snatched up by an underwater predator that later is revealed to be a great white shark. While the chief of police (Martin Brody played by Roy Scheider) is concerned that her death is shark-related, the mayor and the town council convince him otherwise in order to keep open the beach during the peak tourist months. Soon after, the shark strikes again, in broad daylight, at a beach populated with swimmers. We first realize that the shark has returned when a man playing fetch with his dog calls for the dog and the audience is shown the stick floating alone in the water. In the same scene a young boy named Alex Kinter is taken and when his mother later places a bounty on the shark, a town meeting is called where Quint, in a memorable scene, grates his fingernails against a chalkboard to get the people's attention. Eventually, the three main characters, with clashing personalities (Brody, Hooper and Quint), team up and hunt the rogue fish in the open sea.

"Jaws" opened in the United States on over 400 theaters on June 20th, 1975 and one month later played on close to 700 screens, the most screens any movie had played simultaneously at that time. It is credited as being the first summer blockbuster and paved the way for the wide release of movies the first weekend instead of the slow release or platforming, that movies up to then experienced. The movie earned four Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and three wins for Film Editing, Sound and the haunting Music (Original Score). Spielberg was considered a shoo-in for a Best Director and appeared live on a morning news program as the nominations were announced. The Academy, in a surprise move, nominated Federico Fellini for Best Director for "Amarcord" without a Best Picture nod and left a visibly crushed Spielberg out of the running.

FUN FACT: "Jaws" became the first film in U.S. history to gross more than 100 million dollars and was the highest-grossing movie of all- time until "Star Wars" snatched the title two years later.

Answer: Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?

"Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" was originally a play that debuted on Broadway in October of 1962. Written by Edward Albee, the play was critically well-received and won the 1963 Tony Award for Best Play and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Play. It had been considered for the Pulitzer Prize but the controversy surrounding its use of profanities and its explicit sexual innuendos prevented the board from giving it the award, instead awarding no prize that year for best drama.

The title is a play on words of the song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" which first appeared in the Disney version of "The Three Little Pigs". The characters of George and Martha were named after America's first couple, George and Martha Washington, and were based on Albee's good friends Willard Maas and Marie Menken, two New York socialites.

The movie takes place at George and Martha's house after they come home from a party. As they enter the house Martha remarks "What a dump!" and continually asks George which movie it comes from. They are waiting for a couple to arrive - a new professor and his wife who they've invited over for some drinks, despite being quite inebriated already. After they arrive, verbal sparring commences between the two main characters and is witnessed in fits of embarrassment and intrigue by the young couple. Over the course of two hours high emotions and deep secrets are revealed in the complicated lives of these four people.

The most well-known celebrity couple of the time, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, signed on to star in the movie version, despite Taylor's being much younger and prettier than originally imagined. After gaining thirty pounds and being made frumpy, Taylor received tremendous praise for her interpretation of the role and went on to win the Best Actress Academy Award. Sandy Dennis, as the young mousy wife of the new professor, took home Best Supporting Actress. The two male roles performed by Richard Burton and George Segal received acting nominations as well. Released in June of 1966, the film became the first film to receive a nomination in every category for which it was eligible.

FUN FACTS: Albee was first introduced to the title phrase when he read it on a mirror in a bar scrawled in soap.

Answer: Hannah And Her Sisters

"Hannah And Her Sister" hit the big screen in February of 1986, to tremendous critical acclaim and to strong box office returns in its initial limited release. The film involves several story arcs revolving, in some part, around Hannah (Mia Farrow) and her relationships with her husband Elliot, played by Michael Caine and her two sisters Holly and Lee (Dianne Wiest and Barbara Hershey). It opens at a Thanksgiving dinner arranged by Hannah, during which we find out that Elliot is in love with Hannah's sister Lee. Their emotional involvement comes to a head when Elliot gives Lee a book featuring the e.e. cumming line as a way of expressing his love to her, which leads Lee to come to grips with her burgeoning feelings toward him. Through a tremendous cast of actors including Sam Waterston, Carrie Fisher and Woody Allen, the exploration of love, faith, life and family in upper class Manhattan is quite a joy to behold.

"Hannah And Her Sisters" was up for seven Academy Awards in 1987 including Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction, Best Director and Best Picture. It won for Best Supporting Actor (Michael Caine), Best Supporting Actress (Dianne Wiest) and Best Original Screenplay (Woody Allen). In addition, it received eight BAFTA nominations, five Golden Globe nominations and took home Best Picture honors by both the Los Angeles and New York City Film Critics Associations.

FUN FACT: Maureen O'Sullivan who plays Hannah's mother is the real life mother of Mia Farrow.

Answer: It Happened One Night

"It Happened One Night" was released in the United States on February 22nd, 1934. The movie opens with heiress Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) marrying Westley, against her father's wishes. Before the marriage is consummated, her father gets her back but she manages to get away by jumping off his yacht. He posts a reward for her return in the newspapers and a sharp-eyed unemployed newspaperman (Clark Gable as Peter Warne) discovers her on his bus. Hoping for an exclusive story to restart his career, he offers to help her find her husband, or else he'll notify her father and collect the reward.

She agrees and the odd couple begin their tempestuous adventure. When Peter's attempt to hitchhike fails, Ellie upstages him by showing a little leg to a passing car, which causes the driver to screech to a halt. In their first night together they must share a motel room and in order to establish some privacy he attaches a blanket to wire dividing the room in half, which he refers to as the walls of Jericho. These are just a couple of the boundary-pushing scenes found in this still highly entertaining classic from the 1930s.

The film garnered five Academy Award nominations and won all of them. The five major categories were Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Writing. Initially, Claudette Colbert wasn't going to attend the Oscars that year because she was convinced she was going to lose to Bette Davis as a write-in candidate for "Of Human Bondage". "It Happened One Night" was recognized by the Library Congress in 1993 as being a "culturally, historically, or aesthetically signicant" film.

FUN FACT: Steven Spielberg purchased Clark Gable's Oscar in 1996 for over $600,000 and promptly donated it to the Motion Picture Academy for safekeeping.

Answer: The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring

"The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring" is a 2001 film based on the first part of J.R.R. Tolkien's trilogy "The Lord Of The Rings". First published in the U.K. in 1954, "The Fellowship Of The Ring" initially was to be a single volume in a six section book, but was broken into its own novel at the suggestion of the publisher. The book opens with hobbit Bilbo Baggins celebrating his 111th birthday. He leaves his home in the Shire but not before giving a special ring to his nephew Frodo. A wizard named Gandalf alerts Frodo that the forger of the ring, the dark Lord Sauron, has found out the whereabouts of the ring and Frodo must leave the Shire and take the ring to Rivendell, where he should be safe. On his journey with three fellow hobbits, he meets Tom Bombadil who saves them from the tree-spirit Old Man Willow. Tom Bombadil claims to be the first creature in Middle-Earth and his carefree nature is quite a contrast to the quest-driven hobbits. The makers of the film decided to leave him out because it was felt he did nothing to advance the story.

Along Frodo's journey to Rivendell, he meets Sauron's henchmen called Nazguls and is stabbed by the chief of the Nazgul. He is brought to Rivendell where he is nursed back to health by the elves. At a council of various creatures of Middle-Earth, it is decided that Frodo, along with eight others, will form a fellowship to deliver the ring to Mount Doom, where it needs to be deposited to be undone. The fellowship's adventures include a perilous trip over the Misty Mountains, a deadly path through the mines of Moria and a wondrous journey into the elf-haven of Lothlorien.

The film began shooting on October 11th, 1999 in New Zealand. All three movies of the trilogy were filmed during this shoot and edited so they would be released approximately one year apart. "The Fellowship" was released on December 19th, 2001 in the United States and took in over 66 million dollars in its first weekend. Its worldwide gross is estimated to be over 800 million dollars.

Among the 13 Oscar nominations the film received included Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor (Ian McKellen). It won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Makeup and Best Music. The third part of the trilogy "The Return Of The King" took home the Best Picture Oscar in 2004.

FUN FACT: Most of the actors who made up the fellowship had an elvish nine tattooed on to their bodies.

Answer: The Bridge On The River Kwai

"The Bridge On The River KwaI" was first released in the United Kingdom in October, 1957 and opened in time for Oscar consideration on December 18th, 1957, in the United States. Based on the largely fictional work of the same name, the movie was written by two blacklisted Hollywood writers, Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson. Because of the blacklist the movie initially was credited to the French author of the novel, Pierre Boulle, despite his inability to speak English. Surprisingly, a number of American directors declined to helm the project before it was awarded to the British director, David Lean, who was relatively unknown stateside at the time.

The inspiration for the film came from the Japanese attempt to build railway lines from Bangkok, Thailand to Rangoon, Burma during World War II. It is estimated that a hundred thousand Asian workers and over ten thousand prisoners of war died on the project. The movie is a fictional account of the building of part of the railroad over the river Kwai by British officers. It starts with American Navy Commander Shears (played by William Holden) as a prisoner of war in a Japanese prison camp in Burma. A company of captured British prisoners enters the camp whistling the famous "Colonel Bogey March". The Japanese camp commander Colonel Saito (played by Sessue Hayakawa) informs the troop that all prisoners, including officers, are to work on the construction of the bridge. On the following day Colonel Nicholson and his officers refuse to comply citing the Geneva Conventions on officers not being forced to perfom manual labor.

An enraged Saito threatens to shoot the officers, to no avail, and tosses the officers into a punishment box known as the oven, due to its extreme heat during the day. Meanwhile, the British officers do shoddy work undermining the construction of the bridge, which leaves Saito in desperate straits as his career and ultimately his fate is tied to the project's completion. To save face, Saito announces the anniversary of an important Japanese military victory, which will allow the officers to be released and not have to perform manual labor. Colonel Nicholson evaluates the bridge and finds many flaws, including its being in the wrong location. He decides that he wants to show the Japanese how a proper bridge should be made and makes many recommendations to Saito, whose only concern now is that the bridge be completed in time. Nicholson feverishly forces his soldiers and ironically even his officers to help in its erection by the deadline.

During this time, American Commander Shears manages to escape the brutal prison and make it back to refuge in Ceylon. Despite his protest, Shears is blackmailed by the British Special Forces to venture back to Burma with a team of operatives, to blow up the bridge over the river Kwai. Shears and his team arrive just as the bridge is finishing completion. As Nicholson and Saito marvel over the bridge's exquisiteness, Nicholson discovers a suspicious wire down to the riverbank. The two men rush down to follow the wire to a detonator manned by one of the team. The man stabs Saito but is held back from the detonator by Nicholson, who cannot bear to see his legacy destroyed. Nicholson comes to his senses and realizes his error as he is shot. He stumbles several steps and falls on the detonator. It sets off the bomb and destroys both the bridge and the train that is passing over it. Having witnessed these unreal set of events one of the British soldiers repeats the famous line "Madness...madness".

The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, winning all but one, for Sessue Hayakawa for Best Supporting Actor, who was beat out by Red Buttons' performance in "Sayonara". Its wins were for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Cinematography and Best Music. Its accolades also included three BAFTA Awards and three Golden Glove wins. The film's legacy has endured. It was placed in the United States National Film Registry for preservation and was number thirteen of the American Film Institute's top 100 American movies in 1998.

FUN FACT: While set on the Thai/Burma border, much of the film was actually filmed in Ceylon, present day Sri Lanka.

Answer: Fargo

"Fargo" was released in the United States on March 8th, 1996. It was written, directed and produced by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen who, up to that time, where most well known for their films "Blood Simple", "Raising Arizona" and "Barton Fink". Filmed in early 1995, the movie was made on location, almost entirely in the state of Minnesota, where the movie was set. (Ironically, the city of Fargo in North Dakota is seen only for a very short time, in the beginning of the film.) Many critics were enamored with the film at its release, including influential American film critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel, who both named it best film of 1996. Its showing at the Cannes Film Festival resulted in a prize for Best Director in May, 1996 and it was named Best Film by the New York Film Critics Circle Award.

The movie centers on Jerry Lundegaard (played by William H. Macy), a car salesman who, in order to resolve some financial difficulties, comes up with a plan to have his wife kidnapped and collect a large ransom from his wealthy father-in-law. It opens with Jerry discussing the plan with the two would be kidnappers, Carl (Steve Buscemi) and Gaear (Peter Stormare) who agree on a price of half of the ransom and a Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera from Jerry's dealership. The abduction goes off without a hitch, until the two men are pulled over by a state trooper because there is no license plate on the car. The trooper spots Jerry's kidnapped wife, lying in the backseat and is promptly shot and killed by Gaear.

The shooting takes place in Brainerd, Minnesota and an investigation is undertaken and led by the chief of police Marge Gunderson, the pregnant police chief. Despite her small town ways, she possesses a remarkable sense of proportion and logic, which leads her to correctly follow a chain of events which brings her to Minneapolis. She visits Jerry at his dealership, to inquire about any missing tan Cutlass Cieras, which Jerry denies. Never intending for anyone to get hurt, Jerry begins to cave under the pressure. Despite his pleas, his father-in-law insists on taking the money to the kidnappers himself and winds up being shot and killed. Carl discovers, upon opening the case that the eighty thousand dollar ransom is actually one million dollars. He buries most of it before returning to the hideout to meet up with Gaear and Jerry's wife. Gaear, in the meantime, has killed her for annoying him. Carl offers Gaear his share and decides he is taking the Ciera but on leaving the cabin is axed to death by Gaear.

Following some tips by the locals, Marge arrives at the hideout and to her horror finds Gaear feeding a leg into a wood chipper. She tries to arrest him but he runs off and she is forced to shoot him in the leg. Jerry is later arrested in a hotel and the film ends with Marge and her husband in bed watching TV discussing his drawing being immortalized on the stamp.

The film received seven Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (William H. Macy), Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing with two wins for Best Actress (Frances McDormand) and Best Original Screenplay (Joel and Ethan Coen).

FUN FACT: A pilot for a TV series was shot with Marge Gunderson being played by Edie Falco and directed by "Misery" Best Actress winner Kathy Bates.

Answer: There Will Be Blood

"There Will Be Blood" was first released in New York and Los Angeles on December 26th, 2007. Adapted by writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson, the movie is based marginally on the 1927 Upton Sinclair novel "Oil!". "Oil!", a political satire, revolves around a man and his oil tycoon father in Southern California. Wanting to focus less on the satire and more on that era of America, Anderson researched extensively for the project, including visits to California museums to learn about the time and people. After completing the screenplay he approached and convinced Daniel Day-Lewis to take on the role of Daniel Plainview, an oilman from the early 20th century. Despite some initial trouble gathering financing, filming finally began in Marfa, Texas in the summer of 2006. Coincidentally, Marfa was also used as a location for the Coen brothers film "No Country For Old Men" which bested "There Will Be Blood" for Best Picture.

The movie first premiered at a film festival in Austin, Texas in September of 2007 to good reception. Film critics joined with their praise at the end of the year, with many choosing it as the year's best film. It received two Golden Globe nominations, including a Best Actor prize for Day-Lewis. At the 2008 Oscar ceremony it vied for eight awards, including Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction, Film Editing and Sound Editing. Besides winning for Best Actor for Day-Lewis, it scored an Oscar for Best Cinematography for its bleak but captivating landscapes.

FUN FACT: The movie's famous line "I drink your milkshake" is a paraphrase of a statement by a U.S. Senator during the Teapot Dome scandal of the 1920s.

Answer: The Heiress

"The Heiress" was released in the United States in October of 1949. While based on the Henry James novel, the movie was an adaptation of a Ruth and Augustus Goetz play that had opened on Broadway two years earlier. After seeing the play, Olivia de Havilland coerced Paramount to buy the play's rights for her to star in the title role. Much of the play remained intact as it was written for the screen by the playwrights. Probably the most notable difference from the play was the tempering of the villainous suitor, Morris Townsend ,to be portrayed by then heartthrob and leading man Montgomery Clift.

Olivia de Havilland played Catherine Sloper, a plain Jane, who lives with her domineering and cold father in New York City. A widowed, wealthy physician, Dr. Austin Sloper (played impeccably by Ralph Richardson) fails to hide his tremendous disappointment in his daughter's lack of wit and beauty and often displays a cruel malevolent attitude to his only child. She meets Morris Townsend, a charming yet impoverished young man, who shows her tremendous affection and attention. Quickly, Catherine falls for him but her father disapproves and threatens to disinherit her if she marries him because he suspects that Morris is interested in her only for her inheritance. Despite this she is ready to elope with Morris, but on the night they are to leave he never shows, leading her to think that her father was right all along.

Some years pass, her father passes away and she inherits the family fortune. Morris returns and pleads his case to a now hardened Catherine. He claims to have left her because he couldn't bear to see her lose her fortune over him. She is softened by his explanation and agrees to marry him and elope as originally planned. However, when he shows that night, she refuses to open the door. The movie ends as she coldly scales the stairs to her bedroom holding the candelabra as he knocks ferociously at the front door.

"The Heiress" won its four Academy Awards for Best Actress (De Havilland), Best Art Direction, Best Original Music Score and Best Costume Design. It was nominated for four more Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Richardson) and Best Cinematography. De Havilland's remarkable performance was also recognized by the Golden Globes and the New York Film Critics Circle for which she won Best Actress honors.

FUN FACT: "The Heiress" was chosen in 1996 by the U.S. National Film Registry for preservation due to its being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Answer: The Silence Of The Lambs

"The Silence Of The Lambs", based on a popular novel of the same name by Thomas Harris, was first widely released in the United States, ironically, on Valentine's Day of 1991. The movie begins with Clarice Starling, an FBI student, training in Quantico, Virginia. Her professor, Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn), asks her to interview the jailed convict Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) in hopes of using his insight to help solve a case involving serial killer Buffalo Bill. Despite a tense meeting, Clarice uses Lecter's clues to discover the head of Benjamin Raspail, a former patient of Lecter's and supposed acquaintance of Buffalo Bill's. In the meantime Buffalo Bill has kidnapped another woman, Catherine Martin, the daughter of a U.S. Senator and an earlier victim of Bill's is dredged up in West Virginia. Desperate for more information, Clarice agrees to Lecter's quid pro quo (Latin for "something for something") exchange where she begins to reveal details of her troubled childhood, despite being warned not to. This leads to a series of events, resulting in Lecter's harrowing escape and Clarice's discovery of Buffalo Bill.

The film garnered five Academy Awards in the five main categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay (Adapted). It became only the third film to accomplish this feat, following "It Happened One Night" and "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest". While highly praised, the movie was an uncertain contender going into the night's award ceremony. It had been released over a year earlier by a then bankrupt studio (Orion Pictures), lost the Best Picture Award at the Golden Globes to "Bugsy" and dealt with grisly subject matter that had never been previously recognized by the prim and proper Academy, who had chosen "Dances With Wolves" and "Driving Miss Daisy" the previous two years over more critically acclaimed fare "Goodfellas" and "Born on the Fourth of July". Anthony Hopkins' classic portrayal was also against type for an Oscar. His performance was up against a popular dramatic turn by Nick Nolte in "The Prince of Tides" and Hopkins screen time was a mere 16 minutes, shorter than any Best Actor winner previously. Despite these shortcomings, "The Silence of the Lambs" entered the Oscar record book that night and has endured as a modern classic. It was chosen by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 greatest American movies of all time.

FUN FACT: The American Film Institute named Hannibal Lecter as the number one film villain of all time over Norman Bates, Darth Vader and the Wicked Witch of the West.