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Are the British coming?

Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood
  • Posted at 3:38pm
  • 22 February 2008
  • by AndrewCollins-RT

When Colin Welland waved his Oscar for Chariots of Fire in 1982 and declared "The British are coming!" it was taken as a quote from the tale of Paul Revere, who alerted colonials to attack in the American War of Independence. Welland was actually making an in-joke, but it also marked a turning point for British confidence at Hollywood's most important prize-giving.

The following year, Welland's misconstrued boast seemed to carry through, as Gandhi, directed by Richard Attenborough, swept the board with eight Oscar wins, and Educating Rita and The Dresser were nominated in 1984. After that, though, normal service was resumed: Hollywood hegemony.

The first British film to make waves at the Academy Awards was 1933's The Private Life of Henry VIII, which won best actor for Charles Laughton. US product dominated throughout the 1930s and 40s, with the occasional Union flag flown by the likes of Robert Donat and Laurence Olivier. Then came David Lean, whose films rarely went unnoticed by the Academy in the 1950s and 60s, occasionally winning big, like The Bridge on the River Kwai with seven Oscars out of eight nominations and Lawrence of Arabia with seven out of ten.

Sadly, such epic productions were necessarily funded by American studios, so weren’t technically British. In terms of the Oscars, Britain practically sat out the 1970s. Chariots of Fire was big news because so few British films had troubled the Academy for so long.

Our industry struggles to fund itself and notable Oscar successes like The Full Monty and Shakespeare in Love would not have been made and distributed without US investment. You might ask if it really matters. British-born talent is what we should be proud of. Historically, our most successful exports were people who decided the expat life was for them: Cary Grant, David Niven, Alfred Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin. Does the fact that they emigrated make them less British?

It's ironic that in the same year as Chariots of Fire, Sir John Gielgud won best supporting actor (for Arthur) by doing what so many Brits have done in America: playing the butler.

I suspect this year that Atonement (produced by Working Title) will win best picture. If so, let's hope nobody gets up on stage and declares that the British are . . . well, you know.

AND THE WINNERS ARE . . .

Who do you think the Academy will recognise at the Oscars? And who do you hope will win? Andrew Collins gives his thoughts:

BEST FILM Will win: Atonement Hopes to win: There Will Be Blood

DIRECTOR Will win: Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men) Hopes to win: Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood)

ACTOR Will win: Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood) Hopes to win: Daniel Day-Lewis

ACTRESS Will win: Julie Christie (Away from Her) Hopes to win: Julie Christie

SUPPORTING ACTOR Will win: Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) Hopes to win: Philip Seymour Hoffman (Charlie Wilson’s War)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS Will win: Cate Blanchett (I’m Not There) Hopes to win: Cate Blanchett

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