1993: GETTING SERIOUS
With the absence of the studio system, William Goldman's famous saying "Nobody knows anything" becomes more true with each passing year. Back in the old days, whatever you thought of the system in place, at least it allowed for people to develop their craft and learn along the way. And since movies are dictated by popular culture (as much as they might dictate it), the trends that occur throughout a movie year are often difficult to explain. All of which is to say there's no particular reason why 1993 was one of the best years in movies in recent memory.
Or should I say, there is a reason, just no particular explanation for that reason. By some strange convergence, filmmakers decided to tackle serious subjects for their films that year. And rather than just make message movies to preach, they made films as entertaining as they were thoughtful. Leading the way was when Hollywood's most successful filmmaker, Steven Spielberg, decided to make SCHINDLER'S LIST, which dealt with the Holocaust. This was a project that had been kicking around for a decade, with filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese and Billy Wilder kicking it around, until Spielberg decided he was ready to do it. And though there were naysayers, Spielberg ultimately delivered a powerful film that grossed nearly $100 million (which is pretty good for a 3-hour black-and-white movie about the Holocaust) and was nominated for 12 Oscars, winning 7, including Best Picture and a long-denied Best Director.
And Spielberg wasn't the only one. Jim Sheridan told the story of the men wrongly accused of the Guilford Four bombing in IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER. Jonathan Demme tackled the subject of AIDS in PHILADELPHIA, which sparked much debate on whether he had softened the film for mass consumption, but ultimately did help pave the way for people treating the disease more seriously. The Merchant/Ivory film, THE REMAINS OF THE DAY, used its story of a butler's service to his lord as a look at the shameful past of the British appeasing the Nazis. In adapting John Guare's play SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION, Fred Schepisi took on the emptiness of liberalism. Oliver Stone went back to Vietnam for HEAVEN AND EARTH, but showed it from the Vietnamese point of view this time. The Hughes Brothers - Allen and Albert - went bleaker than BOYZ IN THE HOOD with their look at inner-city African-Americans in MENACE II SOCIETY. Robert Altman's SHORT CUTS showed the alienation of the other half of L.A., and by extension the country. And even the entertainments of the year often tackled serious themes. Andrew Davis' version of the TV show THE FUGITIVE tackled medical corruption, both of Clint Eastwood's films - IN THE LINE OF FIRE and A PERFECT WORLD, the latter of which he also directed - touched on the Kennedy assassination, and Joel Schumacher's FALLING DOWN was a rare DEATH WISH clone that wasn't cheap or exploitative.
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