Goodfellas lost to Dances With Wolves. That almost defies belief. It's the walking dog syndrome. A star actor (and when it comes to Costner that's the loosest sense of the word, I've seen empty space that's less of a vacuum than him) that's unlikely to win an acting award doing direction almost always means award consideration (Eastwood, Redford).
In terms of the worst winner compared to ALL nominees, Forrest Gump is way clear of the field. Not fit to hold a candle to any of the other nominees. Pulp Fiction, Shawshank, Four Weddings, and even Quiz Show.
In terms of the worst winner compared to ONE nominee, How Green Was My Valley won over (take your pick) Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon. Sentimental decision because of the war and the original book being a National Book Award winner (so following on from Rebecca and Grapes Of Wrath as LITERATURE for the screen). It's a godawful film, the Welsh accents may as well have been taught by Sean Connery.
Shakespeare In Love is the most unfairly derided BP winner. Everyone dissociates themselves from it now because of Weinstein. But it was easily the best nominee in 1999. People go on about Saving Private Ryan and yes, that first scene is epochal, but the rest is meh war pr0n. And given Elizabeth has things like a woman being burnt with Latimer and Ridley, Mary I seemingly dying in 1554, Cecil being 40 years older than Elizabeth (and retiring), a battle outside Edinburgh Castle, and Leicester having a fetish about raping a servant girl who is busy dying while wearing a Creusa dress, it's one of the absolute worst wastes of time I have ever endured. Star Wars was more historically accurate.
There have been quite a few other bad Oscar decisions for Best Film (to be fair they usually get it right amongst the nominees) but the standouts are:
-Double Indemnity and Gaslight losing to Going My Way
-Raging Bull losing to Ordinary People
-Apollo 13, Il Postino, and Babe losing to Braveheart
And although Slumdog was the best of the nominees in a mediocre year, the one that should have won for 2008 was WALL-E. No idea why that was not up for Best Picture.
Oh, and Mulholland Dr. should obviously have won in 2001 over A Beautiful Mind, but, although Lynch was nominated for Director, the film was not up for Picture. It missed out for nomination to Moulin Rouge! and In The Bedroom, of which I had never heard before looking it up.
I consider I am better placed to choose the films and actors I like than an awards committee. It’s totally meaningless to me and I find the importance those in the industry put on it toe curling.
Oscars are brilliant for trivia. E.g. Roger Deakins won his first on his 14th nomination. Or they used to award half-sized Oscars for Best Juvenile (the last of those went to Hayley Mills). Or that the first Oscar winner to die was the only one ever to win Best Title Writing.
Other thing with Oscars is you're watching the zeitgeist of the time. Gump surely only won because of the doctored film clips. Broadway Melody only won because it was the first successful musical. You've got a lot of war angst right after angsty wars. For some inexplicable reason Hollywood fell over backwards to laud preternaturally-boring middle-class non-dramas in the late seventies and early eighties. And now Hollywood has discovered The World so BP is going all forrin.
Doctored film clips were the sort of thing that soon became common, the insertion of an actor in old footage and do some fiddling to make it look like he's interacting. A technical advance that evidently wowed the Academy's voters.
To go back to the thirties: Cimarron won in a year in which City Lights was not even nominated.
Top Hat takes me back Dux. My Dad loves those films and i must have had it on in the background dozens of times whilst playing boardgames in my living room as a kid. Or inventing football management type games using old 70s football alamanacs to generate random scores. Sure I used to be able to get the Shots promoted!
The Oscars gave best picture to GREEN BOOK. That was the moment they lost any shred of credibility because that was such a sickeningly bad movie.
Previous egregious oversights include Boyhood losing out to Birdman, and Brokeback Mountain losing out to Crash. Birdman was tosh and Crash was straight to DVD worthy.
It’s bizarre because the academy are capable of making good or at least respectable picks (Moonlight, Parasite, No Country) but Green Book was so disgracefully bad that I can’t forgive.
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moonlight over la la land
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Yes cb, but they weren’t going to give hanks a hat trick.
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Goodfellas over whatever won that year
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Elizabeth over Shakespeare in love
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Gremlins
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Shawshank Redemption over Forest Gump
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Goodfellas lost to Dances With Wolves. That almost defies belief. It's the walking dog syndrome. A star actor (and when it comes to Costner that's the loosest sense of the word, I've seen empty space that's less of a vacuum than him) that's unlikely to win an acting award doing direction almost always means award consideration (Eastwood, Redford).
In terms of the worst winner compared to ALL nominees, Forrest Gump is way clear of the field. Not fit to hold a candle to any of the other nominees. Pulp Fiction, Shawshank, Four Weddings, and even Quiz Show.
In terms of the worst winner compared to ONE nominee, How Green Was My Valley won over (take your pick) Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon. Sentimental decision because of the war and the original book being a National Book Award winner (so following on from Rebecca and Grapes Of Wrath as LITERATURE for the screen). It's a godawful film, the Welsh accents may as well have been taught by Sean Connery.
Shakespeare In Love is the most unfairly derided BP winner. Everyone dissociates themselves from it now because of Weinstein. But it was easily the best nominee in 1999. People go on about Saving Private Ryan and yes, that first scene is epochal, but the rest is meh war pr0n. And given Elizabeth has things like a woman being burnt with Latimer and Ridley, Mary I seemingly dying in 1554, Cecil being 40 years older than Elizabeth (and retiring), a battle outside Edinburgh Castle, and Leicester having a fetish about raping a servant girl who is busy dying while wearing a Creusa dress, it's one of the absolute worst wastes of time I have ever endured. Star Wars was more historically accurate.
There have been quite a few other bad Oscar decisions for Best Film (to be fair they usually get it right amongst the nominees) but the standouts are:
-Double Indemnity and Gaslight losing to Going My Way
-Raging Bull losing to Ordinary People
-Apollo 13, Il Postino, and Babe losing to Braveheart
And although Slumdog was the best of the nominees in a mediocre year, the one that should have won for 2008 was WALL-E. No idea why that was not up for Best Picture.
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Oh, and Mulholland Dr. should obviously have won in 2001 over A Beautiful Mind, but, although Lynch was nominated for Director, the film was not up for Picture. It missed out for nomination to Moulin Rouge! and In The Bedroom, of which I had never heard before looking it up.
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I am genuinely curious why anyone cares about the Oscar’s etc. I dont give a flying fvck about awards in my own industry never mind anyone else’s.
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Guy, the Oscars have a semblance of credibility.
As opposed to legal awards where you are guaranteed something if you book a big enough table at the dinner.
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I consider I am better placed to choose the films and actors I like than an awards committee. It’s totally meaningless to me and I find the importance those in the industry put on it toe curling.
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Oscars are brilliant for trivia. E.g. Roger Deakins won his first on his 14th nomination. Or they used to award half-sized Oscars for Best Juvenile (the last of those went to Hayley Mills). Or that the first Oscar winner to die was the only one ever to win Best Title Writing.
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- All the presidents men
- Good Will hunting
- Letters from Iwo Jima
- Raiders of the Lost Ark
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Forrest Gump over Pulp Fiction
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i care about the oscars guy m7, cos they do by and large make good choices, which means watching an oscar-winning film is generally a safe bet
unlike say legal awards which r generally dependent on paying 4 a table at the ceremony
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Other thing with Oscars is you're watching the zeitgeist of the time. Gump surely only won because of the doctored film clips. Broadway Melody only won because it was the first successful musical. You've got a lot of war angst right after angsty wars. For some inexplicable reason Hollywood fell over backwards to laud preternaturally-boring middle-class non-dramas in the late seventies and early eighties. And now Hollywood has discovered The World so BP is going all forrin.
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wot were the doctored film clips?
soz gump woz way b4 my time
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I think they probably got it right in 1938 & '39
1940 is a tricky one, as there were several decent films that year as well as Rebecca, which won.
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r u gonna keep going year by year?
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Doctored film clips were the sort of thing that soon became common, the insertion of an actor in old footage and do some fiddling to make it look like he's interacting. A technical advance that evidently wowed the Academy's voters.
To go back to the thirties: Cimarron won in a year in which City Lights was not even nominated.
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Aliens. Every year.
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Yes but it's my bedtime.
Tmrw.
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Top Hat takes me back Dux. My Dad loves those films and i must have had it on in the background dozens of times whilst playing boardgames in my living room as a kid. Or inventing football management type games using old 70s football alamanacs to generate random scores. Sure I used to be able to get the Shots promoted!
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The Oscars gave best picture to GREEN BOOK. That was the moment they lost any shred of credibility because that was such a sickeningly bad movie.
Previous egregious oversights include Boyhood losing out to Birdman, and Brokeback Mountain losing out to Crash. Birdman was tosh and Crash was straight to DVD worthy.
It’s bizarre because the academy are capable of making good or at least respectable picks (Moonlight, Parasite, No Country) but Green Book was so disgracefully bad that I can’t forgive.
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