| Feb. 23rd, 2009 @ 01:09 am Musings on the Academy Awards |
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The Oscar ceremony was tonight, and that led me to think about Best Picture winners and non-winners past and present. First, I'm happy with Slumdog Millionaire as the winner this year, though I would have also been happy with Milk; both are fine films.
Once again, animated films were snubbed for nomination, so WALL-E didn't even have a chance to win. Only one animated film has even been nominated for Best Picture -- Beauty and the Beast in 1991. (It didn't win.) Now that the Academy has created the Best Animated Picture ghetto it's unlikely that we'll ever see another animated Best Picture nominee. No, not even Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was nominated for Best Picture, though it did win a special Oscar.
I had a look at the list of historical winners on Wikipedia. There are some clear cases where the best picture didn't win (even leaving aside the ones that weren't even nominated), and some Best Pictures that haven't stood the test of time. There are also some cases where the Academy had a hard choice, this year being one such. Let's look through the history; I'm offering no opinion on pre-1939 films because I don't know enough about them.
1939: Many people feel Gone With The Wind was a bad choice, but I don't agree. It's a bit melodramatic and a bit long, but it's a beautiful film, the interplay between Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh is often sharp, and it is still arguably the most successful movie of all time. (It has fallen off the top box office list due to inflation, but still holds a huge lead if measured by number of paid admissions.) That said, The Wizard of Oz is also deserving.
1940: The nearly forgotten Rebecca beat The Grapes of Wrath and Chaplin's The Great Dictator. This one looks pretty bad in hindsight.
1941: How Green Was My Valley over Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon? Puh-leeze.
1942: The Magnificent Ambersons is widely regarded as one of the truly great partially lost films, and Yankee Doodle Dandy is a fine example of its kind. But Mrs Miniver won.
1943: The Academy got it right this time with Casablanca, one of the great films of all time.
1944: A war-weakened year with no films that I am familiar with.
1945: Anchors Aweigh and The Bells of St Mary's are fondly remembered musicals, but the winner was The Lost Weekend, a film I have not seen and which seems to be largely forgotten.
1946: Olivier's Henry V and It's A Wonderful Life were both snubbed in favor of The Best Years of Our Lives; another one that looks bad in hindsight.
1947: Miracle on 34th Street is a holiday classic. But the winner was Gentleman's Agreement.
1948: This time Olivier got a statue for Hamlet. But he didn't deserve it this time, with the superior The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Red Shoes on the ballot.
1949: No opinion.
1950: All About Eve is a fine choice.
1951: An American In Paris is solid, but A Streetcar Named Desire would have been even better. Brando had to wait a few more years for his turn.
1952: The Greatest Show On Earth was hugely popular in its day but hasn't stood up over the years. High Noon and The Quiet Man both look better from here.
1953: From Here To Eternity deserved its statue.
1954: On The Waterfront is another clear winner. Seven Brides For Seven Brothers is a wonderful example of the classic musical and would have been a good choice most years, but in 1954 it was outclassed.
1955: Hard though it can be for those of us who grew up watching McHale's Navy to imagine, Ernest Borgnine was a fine dramatic actor in his day, and Marty was his best film. Mr Roberts would have been a reasonable alternate choice.
1956: Around The World In Eighty Days was the winner over two other decent and very different films: Giant and The Ten Commandments. The latter looks hopelessly bombastic to modern eyes but is a good example of epic film making of its day.
1957: It's hard to argue with The Bridge Over The River Kwai. 12 Angry Men was another good film.
1958: Gigi is fun, but The Defiant Ones and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof look stronger in hindsight.
1959: Ben-Hur is a classic epic film that has withstood the test of time.
1960: No argument with The Apartment. The only plausible contender, Spartacus, wasn't on the ballot, one of the biggest Oscar slights over the years.
1961: West Side Story. Enough said.
1962: Lots of good films that year; The Longest Day, The Music Man, To Kill A Mockingbird, and Mutiny on the Bounty were all on the ballot. But Lawrence of Arabia is one of the all-time great films.
1963: Tom Jones was the best that a weak year had to offer. Not a bad film, but most of the 1962 or 1964 nominees would have beaten it.
1964: A year of tough choices. My Fair Lady was the winner, and hardly a bad film. But one could make a case for any of the other four films being better: Becket, Dr Strangelove, Mary Poppins, and Zorba the Greek. Dr Strangelove is my personal favorite, but I love all five.
1965: The Sound of Music was a cultural phenomenon then and now. Dr Zhivago was a good film but lacks the cultural impact.
1966: A Man For All Seasons is a classic.
1967: In The Heat Of The Night won in another year of hard choices, with The Graduate and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner on the ballot. Bonnie and Clyde and Dr Dolittle aren't bad films but weren't contenders for best that year.
1968: One of Oscar's biggest missteps; Oliver! The Lion In Winter was a much better film.
1969: Midnight Cowboy hasn't stood up to time all that well, but deserves its statue based on its cultural impact at the time. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is the best of the rest.
1970: Patton was OK, but I'd have gone for M*A*S*H. Love Story fully deserved not to win.
1971: The French Connection wasn't a bad film, but many of the year's nominees look better in hindsight: A Clockwork Orange (my vote), Fiddler On The Roof, and The Last Picture Show.
1972: The Godfather made the Academy an offer it couldn't refuse. Cabaret and Deliverance might have been winners in other years.
1973: The Sting was a lot of fun, but in hindsight American Graffiti looks like the more influential film.
1974: The Godfather Part II continues the Coppola love. Chinatown was the leading alternative.
1975: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest deserved its win. Robert Altman loses again with Nashville (after M*A*S*H in 1970).
1976: Rocky is one of the few Oscar winners I actively dislike. Network or Taxi Driver would have been better picks.
1977: The Academy finally gave Woody Allen some love for Annie Hall. But Star Wars was a far more important film culturally and should have won.
1978: The Deer Hunter was the clear winner.
1979: Kramer vs Kramer won but hasn't stood up well. Apocalypse Now was widely regarded as a disaster when it was released; it took years for filmgoers and critics to fully understand it. Breaking Away was one of the first Little Indies That Could to get a nomination.
1980: Ordinary People seemed impressive when it came out but is largely forgotten today. Raging Bull has held up better.
1981: Another miscue, with Chariots of Fire winning; Raiders of the Lost Ark should have.
1982: Gandhi won. Two very different films had a good case: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and Tootsie. The Academy likes serious biopics so this wasn't really a contest, but it should have been. Blade Runner wasn't on the ballot; the originally released version as butchered by the studio wasn't a Best Picture but the later Director's Cut and still later Final Cut would have deserved a statue.
1983: Terms of Endearment is a winner that I actively dislike; to my mind it's horribly overmanipulative. The Big Chill or The Right Stuff, both fine films in their day and fine period pieces now, would have been better choices.
1984: Amadeus.
1985: Out Of Africa was a bad pick. Witness is my favorite of the other nominees. Back to the Future and The Purple Rose of Cairo should have been on the ballot but weren't.
1986: Platoon won in a weak year. Children of a Lesser God and Hannah and Her Sisters (to my mind not nearly as good as some other Woody Allen films that didn't even get nominations) were alternatives.
1987: The Last Emperor wins another weak ballot. Moonstruck and Broadcast News were the best of the rest.
1988: Rain Man is a good film. I personally enjoyed The Accidental Tourist a lot more.
1989: Driving Miss Daisy tugged the Oscar heartstrings. Field of Dreams tried to tug them in a different direction but failed to win the statue. Dead Poets Society was also there. Branagh's Henry V was the notable omission from the Best Picture ballot, though Branagh was nominated for Best Actor.
1990: Lots of people criticize the winner, Dances With Wolves. I'm not among them; I found it a beautiful and lyrical film. Ghost was another good film.
1991: Beauty and the Beast, one of my favorite films ever and the only animated Best Picture nominee ever, was robbed. But at least it was robbed by Silence of the Lambs, a fine film though a difficult one to watch because of its emotional impact.
1992: Unforgiven was a sentimental favorite, but I think that the classical Western was past its expiration date. But it was also a weak year; The Crying Game and Scent of a Woman were memorable but flawed. Robert Altman should have finally gotten his Best Picture turn for The Player but wasn't on the ballot.
1993: Schindler's List deserved its win. I'm glad I saw it, and I never want to watch it again.
1994: Forrest Gump was the winner, and I have mixed feelings about that; I go back and forth between believing it was charming and feeling it was manipulative. It's certainly stunning as a technical accomplishment; the insertion of Gump into archival footage was brilliantly done. The hindsight winner is Pulp Fiction, a hugely influential film.
1995: My choice for Worst Best Picture Ever, Braveheart; it should have gotten a Razzie nomination for Worst Picture. I think that the 1995 Worst Picture, Showgirls, was a better movie than Braveheart, though I'm not sure about some of the other Worst Picture nominees. Any of the other nominees would have been better. So would Don Juan de Marco, a film that should have been on the ballot but was not.
1996: The English Patient isn't a bad movie, but it was hardly the best one on the ballot. My vote would have been for Fargo, but I'd have also taken Jerry Maguire or Shine ahead of the winner.
1997: Titanic was an unstoppable cultural phenomenon. The Full Monty was more fun, but sometimes you just can't stop the juggernaut.
1998: Shakespeare In Love is a film that some people like to cite as a bad choice. I disagree; it succeeded in being both a playful romp and an interesting (if slightly twisted) look at history.
1999: American Beauty was the class of a weak field.
2000: Gladiator is another contender for Worst Best Picture, though not a contender for a Razzie because there were some REALLY bad films in 2000. (Battlefield Earth got the Worst Picture award.) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Erin Brockovich, please.
2001: A Beautiful Mind is OK, but there were better films available. If you're not going to vote for LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring (the Academy probably didn't want to give the series THREE Best Picture awards like the Hugos did) my choice would be the visually groundbreaking Moulin Rouge!
2002: If you're ignoring LOTR again until the final installment, Chicago is a good pick.
2003: Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King finally wins.
2004: Million Dollar Baby is a solid winner. Finding Neverland is the best of the rest.
2005: Another mistake with Crash. Brokeback Mountain had a huge cultural impact and probably should have won but was too daring a pick for the Academy. Good Night, and Good Luck was another good choice.
2006: The year that Little Miss Sunshine, another Little (semi)Indie That Could, should have won. But the Oscar inexplicably went to The Departed.
2007: No Country For Old Men got the statue. Another plausible year for the indies, with Juno on the ballot. |
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