The Stingray Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 (edited) With awards season coming up, I decided to put together a list of what I think are the biggest travesties when it comes to the Best Picture Oscar category. When compiling this list I tried to think of Best Picture winners that maybe weren't all that great, or instances where the winner was a great movies, but where there were other, better, movies to choose from. And please keep in mind that there are plenty of Best Picture winners/nominees that I have not seen. 10. The Silence of the Lambs over JFK. I find Silence greatly overrated, and JFK is phenomenal. 9. Crash over Brokeback Mountain. Neither movie is good enough to be a Best Picture winner, but Brokeback is a lot better than Crash. Jack Nicholson wasn't the only person surprised when he read that envelope. 8. Shakespeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan. Saving Private Ryan's opening alone is better than anything in Shakespeare. 7. The English Patient over Fargo. A boring and tedious one over the Coen brothers' arguably best one. 6. Dances with Wolves over Goodfellas. Wolves is a great, sweeping epic, but Goodfellas is the 2nd best movie of the 90's. Case closed. 5. Chariots of Fire over Raiders of the Lost Ark. I guess its an achievement in itself that a movie like Raiders was even nominated, but it should also have won. 4. A Beautiful Mind over Mulholland Drive. Mulholland Drive wasn't even nominated, but I don't care. Its my fucking list. 3. Kramer vs. Kramer over Apocalypse Now. Apocalypse Now has a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The consensus being: "Cinema at its most audacious and visionary." One can only agree. 2. Rocky over Taxi Driver. Look, I love Rocky as much as the next guy, but c'mon, this was embarrassing. 1. Forrest Gump over Pulp Fiction. Forrest Gump is a great movie that I love, but it just so happens that Pulp Fiction is the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time). Of all time!! Edited November 24, 2012 by Don Niam The Stingray 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Accursed Arachnid!™ Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 I agree with Forrest Gump over Pulp Fiction. I'd throw in The Reader getting a BP nomination over TDK. That was such a screw up they went to twice as many noms the year after to avoid something like that happening again. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moviedweeb Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 10. The Silence of the Lambs over JFK. I find Silence greatly overrated, and JFK is phenomenal. Great list and I agree with pretty much all of it. I think JFK is an incredible movie but it presents itself as fact when it really takes too many dramatic liberties to make such a claim. It's still one of the best movies on a cinematic level. I also think Silence of the Lambs is great, but JFK was controversial which held it back from winning more awards. But movie for movie, JFK seems like the bigger accomplishment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Creator Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 If I ran the Academy Awards, Mulholland Dr. definitely would have won. Lynch deserves it, and Mulholland Dr. is one of the best movies I've ever seen, and my 3rd favorite. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoolioD1 Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 I can't think of ten right now, but in my mind the biggest Best Picture travesty was the god-fucking-awful Driving Ms. Daisy winning Best Picture, while a masterpiece also about issues of race, Do The Right Thing, was snubbed. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Travod Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 "The Social Network" 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAR Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 I'll think of more later. But Driving Miss Daisy over Goodfellas. I consider Goodfellas the greatest movie ever made. Rocky over Network/Taxi Driver. I love Rocky but it wasn't better than the aforementioned two.All About Eve over Sunset Boulevard. To be fair I never saw AAE but if Goodfellas is my pick as the best movie ever made SB is probably in my top 5. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoolioD1 Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 All About Eve is really fucking good though. Not quite Sunset Boulevard but not very far behind.Also Daisy and Goodfellas weren't the same year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Stingray Posted November 24, 2012 Author Share Posted November 24, 2012 Coolio, good one with Daisy over Do the Right Thing. Didn't even think about that one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Stingray Posted November 24, 2012 Author Share Posted November 24, 2012 (edited) I only picked from movies that were nominated (except in the case with Mulholland Drive cause I couldn't help myself), but some other great ones that weren't even nominated: Memento and Assassination of Jesse James.2007 could have had one of the greatest line ups of all time if they had replaced Juno with Jesse James:The Assassination of Jesse James - masterpieceAtonement - greatMichael Clayton - greatNo Country for Old Men - masterpieceThere Will Be Blood - great Edited November 24, 2012 by Don Niam The Stingray Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoolioD1 Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 Do The Right Thing is definitely a top 5 of all time movie for me. Apparently Kim Basinger complained about the Do The Right Thing snub while presenting an Oscar that year. I don't know if that's ever happened before or since. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Stingray Posted November 24, 2012 Author Share Posted November 24, 2012 Do The Right Thing is definitely a top 5 of all time movie for me. Apparently Kim Basinger complained about the Do The Right Thing snub while presenting an Oscar that year. I don't know if that's ever happened before or since.She did the right thing.See what I did there? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4815162342 Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 Don Niam I have to say your choice for your avatar is simply brilliant. One of my favorite computer games. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Gittes Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 I only picked from movies that were nominated (except in the case with Mulholland Drive cause I couldn't help myself), but some other great ones that weren't even nominated: Memento and Assassination of Jesse James.2007 could have had one of the greatest line ups of all time if they had replaced Juno with Jesse James:The Assassination of Jesse James - masterpieceAtonement - greatMichael Clayton - greatNo Country for Old Men - masterpieceThere Will Be Blood - greatWould've been even better IMO if Atonement had then been replaced with Zodiac. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jake Gittes Posted November 24, 2012 Share Posted November 24, 2012 Of the ones not mentioned, Chicago over The Pianist, Ordinary People over Raging Bull AND The Elephant Man, An American in Paris over A Streetcar Named Desire.I agree that A Beautiful Mind didn't deserve to win, and even while Mulholland Dr. hadn't been nominated, they could have had a worthy winner in either FOTR or Moulin Rouge. All About Eve completely deserved to win, in my opinion, a much bigger travesty was Gloria Swanson losing Best Actress. I've recently watched Sunset Blvd for the second time, and while the film itself didn't grow on me (it's quite good, but not a masterpiece), I appreciated her performance more and thought she was better than even Bette Davis.The two biggest snubs in my mind are Dances over Goodfellas and TKS over The Social Network (that last one made me want to never watch the Oscars again when it happened right before my eyes. I didn't watch it this year and I'm no longer really emotionally invested in it, no matter how much I argue about the nominees and winners). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Creator Posted November 25, 2012 Share Posted November 25, 2012 (edited) I only picked from movies that were nominated (except in the case with Mulholland Drive cause I couldn't help myself), but some other great ones that weren't even nominated: Memento and Assassination of Jesse James.2007 could have had one of the greatest line ups of all time if they had replaced Juno with Jesse James:The Assassination of Jesse James - masterpieceAtonement - greatMichael Clayton - greatNo Country for Old Men - masterpieceThere Will Be Blood - greatThe best movie of 2007 is one of my 5 favorites of all time: Into the Wild. That should have been nominated. Gone Baby Gone should have as well, (and Zodiac!!!) so the BP nominees should have been:There Will Be BloodNo Country for Old MenZodiacGone Baby Gonelnto the WildIMO. Jesse James and Atonement were also great, though, and Michael Clayton and Juno aren't bad movies, but those ones are much better. Edited November 25, 2012 by The Creator 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAR Posted November 25, 2012 Share Posted November 25, 2012 All About Eve is really fucking good though. Not quite Sunset Boulevard but not very far behind.Also Daisy and Goodfellas weren't the same year.That's right I meant Dances. But Miss Daisy over Do the Right Thing or even Born on the Fourth of July (still Cruise's best performance) should have never happened. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4815162342 Posted November 25, 2012 Share Posted November 25, 2012 The best movie of 2007 is one of my 5 favorites of all time: Into the Wild. That should have been nominated. Gone Baby Gone should have as well, (and Zodiac!!!) so the BP nominees should have been:There Will Be BloodNo Country for Old MenZodiacGone Baby Gonelnto the WildIMO. Jesse James and Atonement were also great, though, and Michael Clayton and Juno aren't bad movies, but those ones are much better.I would have had 2007's lineup as:The Assassination of Jesse JamesBefore the Devil Knows You're DeadThe Diving Bell and the ButterflyGone Baby GoneZodiac Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoolioD1 Posted November 25, 2012 Share Posted November 25, 2012 2007 nominees should've been:Assassination of Jesse JamesThere Will Be Blood3 other things. Like, whatever. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Creator Posted November 25, 2012 Share Posted November 25, 2012 Damn, 2007 had a lot of great movies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
