Los Angeles, 1985. The seventh art in its Yankee aspect crossed the equator of the eighties in a ceremony directed by Jack Lemmon which ended up crowning what had been, according to the Academy, the best film of the previous calendar. And so Amadeus, which had received 11 nominations, ended up winning 8 statuettes. Little surprise in this matter. Beyond the success of Milos Forman’s film, The night was marked by two anecdotes which, quite possibly, tore wrinkles of disbelief on the face of the main character of Apartment and co-star with Marilyn Monroe and Tony Curtis in Whit skirts and being crazy.
With permission from the oversight of Laurence Oliverwho forgot about the finalists for the best film category and whose escape forward was to drown the uncomfortable silence with a vociferous Amadeus!, remedied moments later by producer Saul Zaentz, the most important ceremony in cinema was about to surpass the confines of the surreal by crowning a certain P.H. Vazak, whose victory would have been limited to being simply successful if it had not been for one detail. Vazak was a Hungarian shepherd. Vazak was a dog.
24 novels, Warner Bros. and a dog in the right place
A lot happened before Jack Lemmon wiped his sweat and questioned where this Oscar thing was going. A year ago it had been released Tarzna new and magnificent adaptation of the highly recognized work written by Edgar Rice Burroughs In reality, there were 24 adventure novels that made up the series of this jungle character, written between 1912 and 1965 and which had been brought to the big screen. under the direction of Hugh Hudson and the sharp wit of Robert Twane in the writing of history.
Although the work of Hudson and Twane had been a tremendous success, the modifications who had made the second of the original story gained a severe critical storm which ended up questioning the merit of the script. A more intelligent Tarzan, changes in the fathers’ story, radically different scenes; The jungle on the western coast of Equatorial Africa remained the same, not the plot. Neither better nor worse. Different. Burroughs’ work was one thing; the Hudon and Twane movie, another.
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It was this germ that led strong discussions between the production company, which was nothing more than the iron giant of the Warner Bros, and Twane. The low economic profit at the box office ended up blowing up the bridge between both parties. And as the walkway fell, Twane grabbed a vine: He decided to give the credits to his dog, his beloved Hungarian shepherd, his beloved PH Vazak.
What came next was almost irreversible. The work was a modern version of Tarzan and the name of the scriptwriter could not be avoided for logical and essential reasons. So, following the logical order of responsibilities and the cascade of decisions, It was impossible to displace Vazak from recognition. In fact, if you watch the film today the cannon will appear in the final credits.
Jack Lemmon had to ask twice to make sure that, in fact, a dog was nominated for Best adapted screenplay. A smart dog, a screenwriter dog. But that music was for another dance: Peter Shafferscreenwriter of Amadeus, ended up taking the prize. The city of stars missed the barks of gratitude and the pleasure of seeing how a dog in a frock coat He won an award for interpreting and writing the story about a man with ape habits. The world upside down. Lemmon sighed with relief, perhaps with sadness.
