All the times the Golden Globes got it right (and the Oscars got it wrong)

Tim Robey

Updated 5 January 2018 at 4:57 am

L-R: Michelle Pfeiffer, Colin Farrell, Whoopi Goldberg - Rex/AP

The Golden Globes are often dismissed as the Oscars' kooky, borderline certifiable distant cousin. But sometimes, they make a lot of sense, says Tim Robey

1956

Oscar voters loved... Around the World in Eighty Days, The King And I, Giant

Globes went rogue for... Best Director: Elia Kazan (Baby Doll)

Elia Kazan, at work on the set of Baby Doll

Any year when a deflated all-star dirigible like Around the World in Eighty Days takes the top Oscar is never going to go down as a great one for film awards. But the Globes struck out for quality and ambition by rewarding Kazan, whose bold, tonally nervy direction of Tennessee Williams’s hothouse black comedy gave it fizz and speed amid the galumphing competition.

1967

Oscar voters loved... The Graduate, Bonnie and Clyde, In the Heat of the Night

Globes went rogue for... Best Actress (Drama): Edith Evans (The Whisperers)

Edith Evans in The Whisperers - Credit: Media Mogul/Moviestore/Rex — Edith Evans in The Whisperers Credit: Media Mogul/Moviestore/Rex

Hollywood woke up to new possibilities and embraced new talents with its famous crop of 1967 films. Still, the Globes weren’t blind to an old talent – a 78-year-old British stage dame, no less – giving an astonishingly detailed and unsentimental performance as a deluded pensioner who stumbles on stolen money in Bryan Forbes’s chamber drama.

1968

Oscar voters loved... Oliver!, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Lion in Winter

Globes went rogue for…Best Actor (Drama): Peter O’Toole (The Lion in Winter)

Peter O'Toole with Katharine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter - Credit: Everett/Rex — Peter O'Toole with Katharine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter Credit: Everett/Rex

"Rogue" isn’t quite the mot juste here, since O’Toole was a season favourite for his withering Henry II, and had his Oscar snatched away by Cliff Robertson for the barely-remembered Charly. The Globes choice has stood the test of time better: if only the Academy had followed suit, one of their most persistent runners-up would have had a trophy in the bag relatively young.

1974

Oscar voters loved... Chinatown, The Godfather, Part II, The Conversation

Globes went rogue for… Best Actress (Drama): Gena Rowlands (A Woman Under the Influence)

Gena Rowlands with Peter Falk in A Woman Under the Influence - Credit: Everett/Rex — Gena Rowlands with Peter Falk in A Woman Under the Influence Credit: Everett/Rex

No slight to Ellen Burstyn (Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore), for whom the stars were perfectly aligned on Oscar night – it’s one of her best performances. But Rowlands was flat-out brilliant as Mabel Longhetti, a mentally unstable blue-collar housewife, in her husband John Cassavetes’s harrowing improvisatory masterpiece. Once seen, it’s never shaken off.

1985

Oscar voters loved... Out of Africa, Witness, Prizzi’s Honor

Globes went rogue for… Best Actress (Drama): Whoopi Goldberg (The Color Purple)

Whoopi Goldberg with Danny Glover in The Color Purple - Credit: Rex — Whoopi Goldberg with Danny Glover in The Color Purple Credit: Rex

The Color Purple has a notorious Oscar record, tied with 1977’s The Turning Point for the most nominations (11) without a win. If there’s a single one they should really have given, it was for Goldberg’s beautiful breakthrough as Celie Harris Johnson. How did such an exuberant rising star convince so profoundly in a role this shy? The Globes gave her all the due credit.

1989

Oscar voters loved... Driving Miss Daisy, Born on the Fourth of July, Dead Poets Society

Globes went rogue for…Best Actress (Drama): Michelle Pfeiffer (The Fabulous Baker Boys)

Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys - Credit: ITV/REX — Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys Credit: ITV/REX

Pfeiffer’s such a knockout in The Fabulous Baker Boys. Her singing in this borderline musical is also pretty special, which begs the question: why did the Globes stick her in drama? It’s a good thing they did, or she’d have been head-to-head with long-overdue Oscar champ Jessica Tandy for Driving Miss Daisy.

1995

Oscars voters loved... Braveheart, Babe, Apollo 13

Globes went rogue for… Best Picture (Drama): Sense and Sensibility

Greg Wise and Kate Winslet in Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility - Credit: Rex — Greg Wise and Kate Winslet in Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility Credit: Rex

Sense? Sensibility? Yep, the Globes showed both when they bestowed their most important award on Ang Lee and Emma Thompson’s delicate, balanced Jane Austen adaptation, rather than Mel Gibson’s indelicate, unbalanced, sporran-wobbling Braveheart. The Baftas went on to agree, in what felt like nose-thumbing revenge against Mel’s intemperate anti-Englishness.

1999

Oscars voters loved... American Beauty, The Insider, The Talented Mr Ripley

Globes went rogue for… Best Picture (Comedy/Musical): Toy Story 2

The gang from Toy Story 2 - Credit: Pixar — The gang from Toy Story 2 Credit: Pixar

What a year this was: beyond the above-mentioned films, we had Being John Malkovich, Three Kings, Boys Don’t Cry, Election, The Straight Story, and many more. But let’s not forget Toy Story 2: the Globes certainly didn’t. Even in this company, it could stand tall as the most skilfully conceived sequel in years, and a new benchmark for Pixar’s wizardly craft.

2001

Oscars voters loved... Moulin Rouge!, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, A Beautiful Mind

Globes went rogue for… Best Director: Robert Altman (Gosford Park)

Alan Bates and Sophie Thompson in Gosford Park - Credit: Film Stills — Alan Bates and Sophie Thompson in Gosford Park Credit: Film Stills

It was all about Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind) vs Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings) on Oscars night, with everything else relegated to a sideshow. The Globes always find it hard to resist their old favourites, but they got it right with Robert Altman, who sprang back to near-peak form with Gosford Park – a film that couldn’t possibly have been as entertaining, incisive or fluidly composed with anyone else in charge.

2006

Oscars voters loved... Babel, The Departed, The Queen

Globes went rogue for… Best Original Score: Alexandre Desplat (The Painted Veil)

Edward Norton and Naomi Watts in The Painted Veil - Credit: Moviestore/Rex — Edward Norton and Naomi Watts in The Painted Veil Credit: Moviestore/Rex

The Globes have a nice habit of recognising standout work in scoring, even for films that haven’t turned out to be vastly successful awards players overall. John Curran’s adaptation of a Somerset Maugham novel was generally more admired than loved, but Desplat’s ardent, dappled score was a much richer creation than his Oscar-nommed one for The Queen that year.

2008

Oscars voters loved...Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Milk

Globes went rogue for… Best Actor (Comedy/Musical) AND Best Actress (Comedy/Musical): Colin Farrell (In Bruges) and Sally Hawkins (Happy-Go-Lucky)

Colin Farrell in In Bruges, Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky - Credit: Rex — Colin Farrell in In Bruges, Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky Credit: Rex

If any year justified those Comedy/Musical categories at the Globes, it was 2008. Neither of the winners ended up making the Oscar shortlists; both deserved to. Farrell’s In Bruges turn was a where-did-that-even-come-from? tour de force, and Hawkins, despite having the bad luck to star in one of Mike Leigh’s most divisive films, was a redemptive delight.

2008 (again)