Owen Gleiberman and Lisa Scharzbaum have assembled ten examples of¬†Oscar’s Best picture where the AMPAS awarded the wrong film — by wrong, we have to assume several factors at play: the undeniable “epic,” the sweepie sweeps and heart vs. other bodily organs. ¬†But other factors: money made at the box office, unification of “the people” who really really liked that movie once, celebrating a director whose time has come, and/or a really great publicity team winning the game (let’s face it; half the time this is the reason).
10. Forrest Gump vs. Pulp Fiction
You won’t catch me quoting Mama in¬†Forrest Gump and saying ”stupid is as stupid does.” But jeepers, Bubba! While the Oscar went to a gumbo of a feel-good movie about a simple Alabama fella who runs real fast and shows up for all the key events in the late 20th century without paying attention, Academy voters missed the headline: Oscar-worthy¬†Pulp Fiction had reinvented the language of American moviemaking, becoming an instant classic. It deserved the prize royale. ‚ÄîLisa Schwarzbaum
09. The Last Emperor (they don’t say vs. Broadcast News but I’ll say it)
There are years when ”prestige” is the ultimate Oscar catnip. That was certainly the case when Bernardo Bertolucci’s frilly and gorgeous, dramatically bloodless historical drama about the Chinese emperor Pu Yi took home the big award.¬†The Last Emperor is a fabulous piece of wallpaper, but it’s really just a so-so movie, especially compared to the year’s other potential winners: the juicy media love triangle¬†Broadcast News, the daffy-sublime¬†Moonstruck, or (not an ”Oscar movie,” but in a more honest world it would be) the he’s-just-not-that-into-you zeitgeist feminist revenge thriller¬†Fatal Attraction. ‚ÄîOwen Gleiberman
08. Around the World in 80 Days vs. Giant
This lead balloon of a whimsical adventure ”romp,” loosely adapted from Jules Verne and dotted with coy celebrity cameos, is the Hollywood road-show comedy as elephantine circus. It’s barely watchable now, especially when seen next to the film that should have won:¬†Giant, a deliriously engrossing oil-and-lust Texas soap opera ‚Äî it’s basically the original¬†Dallas ‚Äî that featured James Dean in his startling final performance. ‚ÄîOG
07. Gandhi vs. E.T. (The Verdict is also a great flick from this year)
In one sense, you could say that the Academy’s choice wasn’t¬†that far off: The picture that deserved to win ‚ÄE.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ‚Äî was¬†also about a short, bald, glittery-eyed savior with shriveled skin. Three decades later, though, Steven Spielberg’s cuddly-alien blockbuster remains a sweetly spectacular and timeless Hollywood fairy tale. It’s an instant classic that should have been honored. Whereas¬†Gandhi, by comparison, is prosaic, pious, and rather plodding, a great-man biopic that’s far too trapped in¬†its time. ‚ÄîOG
06. The English Patient vs. Fargo vs. Jerry Maguire (I love LS for this – I felt like the only person on the planet who didn’t like/get TEP)
I’m with¬†Seinfeld‘s Elaine, urging Ralph Fiennes’ burn victim in¬†The English Patient tojust…die! But even if you’re more patient than I am, can we at least agree that a drip-drip-slow, Brit-tinged prestige picture adapted from a prestige book, laden with prestige performances, and directed with a gilt-edged bookmark, isn’t nearly as Oscar-worthy asJerry Maguire, a lively, all-American original story about the all-American love of sports and money, inspiring one of all-American Tom Cruise’s best performances ever? A not-too-shabby second option…how about¬†Fargo FTW? ‚ÄîLS
05. Dances with Wolves vs. Goodfellas
I’ll say that¬†Dances With Wolves was the right romance-y white-man-among-Indians revisionist epic for its time. But immediately after that I’ll say that¬†GoodFellas ‚Äî Martin Scorsese’s apotheosis of a gangster movie ‚Äî is one of the great movies of¬†all time. The saga of Scorsese’s long, slow, delayed walk to the Oscar podium could have been shortened by 17 years had the director and his magnificent Mob picture won the Academy Awards they should have. ‚ÄîLS
04. Chariots of Fire vs. Reds
Think of¬†Chariots of Fire and what comes to mind? Slo-mo running and that groovy essence-of-’80s electronic music by Vangelis, right? But the underdog-sports story is smaller than the grandeur of the score: A British-Jewish guy and a Scottish-Christian guy win a couple of footraces. For this they give out Oscars?¬†Reds, by contrast, is a true epic, all the more stirring for the ambition with which it dramatizes a gigantic moment in American political history. It’s about something big. And it should have won the big gold statuette. ‚ÄîLS
03. Shakespeare in Love vs. Saving Private Ryan
When is ”good taste” bad taste? You can like¬†Shakespeare in Love a lot and¬†still think that something went haywire when it copped the award over Steven Spielberg’s magnificent and devastating World War II masterpiece¬†Saving Private Ryan, arguably the greatest combat movie ever made. The look of slack-jawed shock on Harrison Ford’s face when he opened the envelope said it all: This choice wasn’t justified ‚Äî it was dazed and confused. ‚ÄîOG
02. How Green was my Valley vs. Citizen Kane
John Ford’s drama about a Welsh mining family at the turn of the century is overstuffed with sentimental blarney. Yet even if it were half as good as its reputation, it had no business winning over the most audacious and visionary film in the history of the studio system:¬†Citizen Kane, the movie in which the young Orson Welles reinvented movies and should have been deified for it ‚Äî but, instead, was shunned by a Hollywood that viewed his artistry as less savior than threat. ‚ÄîOG
01. Crash vs. Brokeback Mountain
What???? What the…????¬†Brokeback Mountain, that great, gorgeous, successful, boundary-breaking, conversation-starting romantic drama about the love between two men in the 20th-century American West loses to¬†Crash, a tidily plotted chessboard game of a movie in which L.A. ”types” from all over the Hollywood-approved socioeconomic map intersect. So wrong! And so…odd. Was homophobia at play? Or were Academy voters doing what Academy voters do, making up for missing the originality of¬†Pulp Fiction‘s plot structure by shoving an award at the synthetic? Either way, a crashing mistake. ‚ÄîLS
It’s a great list, I’d say, of the top ten that seem to most anger people when you look back through the years. ¬†As much as I like the film Rocky I’d have to add it to the list and say that All the President’s Men or Network were both better films.
Other years I’d add in:
Rebecca vs. The Grapes of Wrath – I love Hitchcock but Rebecca was just ok, especially compared to The Grapes of Wrath and the other films up that year, The Philadelphia Story and The Great Dictator. ¬†No one likes to point this out because it was the one crumb they threw Hitchcock’s way.
The Best Years of Our Lives vs. It’s a Wonderful Life ¬†(Notorious was not even nominated….)
Hamlet vs. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
An American in Paris vs. A Streetcar Named Desire vs. A Place in the Sun=major Oscar fail
The Greatest Show on Earth vs. High Noon and The Quiet Man
Lawrence of Arabia vs. To Kill a Mockingbird (yes, I know, no one else agrees with me)
My Fair Lady vs. Dr. Strangelove
In the Heat of the Night vs. The Graduate vs. Bonnie and Clyde
The Sting vs. The Exorcist, American Graffiti and Cries and Whispers
Kramer vs. Kramer vs. Apocalypse Now
Ordinary People vs. Raging Bull (although I suppose this is debatable)
Braveheart vs. Sense and Sensibility vs. Apollo 13
American Beauty vs. The Insider (though debatable)
