| I was 17 in 1967, and I don't think there was any determined attempt to "snub" Burton/Taylor at the Oscars (Taylor did win, after all). But nobody was going to beat Paul Scofield for Best Actor that year, nor A Man For All Seasons for Best Picture. The Bolt play had been a smash hit on both sides of the Atlantic, and what's more was regarded as the "prestige hit" not only of its season but pretty much of the whole decade. Schools (including mine) made special bus trips to take kids to absorb this "painless history lesson / lesson in good citizenship." That's what the Academy has always rewarded with the major Oscars--lessons in good citizenship clothed in "prestigious" garb. Scofield's performance also had the cachet of being "the latest thing," whereas people had seen Burton being brilliant--and less than brilliant--before. |
