'Ordinary People'

The 1980s were full of really intense, emotional, family-driven dramas. Like Steel Magnolias, Terms of Endearment, Kramer vs. Kramer and Beaches.

I wonder why that is. Any film that makes you feel like your in your best friend's living room and his parents are fighting in the next room.

That's drama. And that is what makes these films good. There's nothing spectacular about these films. No special effects. No elaborate make-up or costumes or sets.

It's just people. Ordinary people, I guess, with extraordinary problems. No, to have had Mary Tyler Moore as your mother as her character in Ordinary People is not normal or ordinary. Or healthy.

What makes this film even more extraordinary is that its Robert Redford's directing debut. He'd been looking to get into the game, read the short story and bought the rights.

Turns out, he wins Academy Awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screen Play and Tim Hutton wins for Best Supporting Actor (zero love for the great Donald Sutherland).

Ordinary People also beat out Martin Scorcese's Raging Bull. It would be the first time that he was beat out by a director making his debut. The second would be nine years later by Kevin Costner and Dances With Wolves. What bad luck.