Controversy – I love it!
This thread could also be called “Hey guys, I just watched Dreamgirls”, a movie which reminded me of the Academy Awards where Cate Blanchett was nominated against Abigail Breslin and Jennifer Hudson but still lost.
Any other notable wins or losses?
Denzel Washington deserved an Oscar for great work in several of his movies, but Training Day wasn’t one of them.
On the topic of Dreamgirls, I thought that Kikuchi Rinko (deaf girl in Babel) should’ve won over Jennifer Hudson in the same year.
Bette Davis always felt her win for “Dangerous” was a consolation prize for not winning one for “Of Human Bondage”
I think Ingrid Bergman was dreadful in “Murder on the Orient Express” and her award was a consolation for having her career go downhill after committing adultery and getting pregnant.
I always figured Al Pacino’s win for Scent of a Woman was Academy speak for “Sorry for not giving you anything for Godfather I or II”. (For that matter, I think John Cazale is utterly magnificent as Fredo in those movies and he didn’t even get nominated for an oscar. Sigh, such a sad loss.)
On the ‘most deserved’ side, for me, Christopher Walken’s turn as Nick in The Deerhunter is the most emotionally affecting, stunning acting I’ve seen in my life and so I’m thrilled he won.
I just thought of one – I really felt that the Oscar to March of the penguins was a slap in the face to anybody involved with documentaries. March of the penguins was such a tacky, populistic mess.
Least - Titanic - Best Original Song (I think Eliott Smith was up that year)
Second Least - Titanic - Best Picture (Good Will Hunting, The Full Monty were better)
Third Least - James Cameron (Titanic) - Best Director (As far as I know that man screws up everything that would otherwise be worthwhile. Actually I didn’t realize he was behind the original Terminator. That was great, but T2 sucked DB IMO. Also Aliens, Spider-Man, and The Abyss weren’t bad so he isn’t comepletely all hype.)
Titanic may or may not have been a good movie. It isn’t something I enjoyed or found particularly original, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t worth Oscars. It definitely did not deserve the Oscar sweep it had. I was very happy that As Good as it Gets got the Best Actor and Bast Actress award, even if they may not have been the most deserving preformances (I’m not a good judge, they could have been great.), it was an enjoyable movie.
**Shakespeare In Love **won Best Picture in the only year I can remember where all four of the other nominations were clearly better.
It was up against Saving Private Ryan, Life is Beautiful, Elizabeth, and The Thin Red Line.
It won against those?
By the way, I actually like Shakespeare In Love.
Least deserved - Judi Dench in Shakespeare in Love. She’s one of the best actors in the world, but no one deserves an Oscar for a five minute cameo.
What a stinky year that was! I thought both GWH and Titanic stunk - when I saw Good Will Hunting, I was truly, completely shocked that it had won best original screenplay. That’s my pick for least deserved win.
Too many to sort through for most deserved…
Joe
My worst, which was obviously another “sorry we should have given you one before” Oscar, was in 1987. Paul Newman gets Best Actor for Color of Money, over William Hurt, Bob Hoskins & James Woods.
1974 was a very strange year. Up for best actor were
Albert Finney - Murder on the Orient Express as Hercule Poirot
Dustin Hoffman - Lenny as Lenny Bruce
Jack Nicholson - Chinatown as J.J. ‘Jake’ Gittes
Al Pacino - The Godfather, Part II as Don Michael Corleone
That’s four great performances. The last two are obvious stand outs. So who won, you might ask?
Art Carney. Who?
Looking back there has been a lot of undeserved Best Picture winners in the last 15 years, but none more so than Crash winning over Brokeback Mountain in 2005.
Most deserved: Both of Jodie Foster’s Oscars for The Accused and Silence of the Lambs, and Tom Hanks for Philadelphia.
I’ll second Crash and Titanicon the undeserved list and add Dances With Wolves, Forrest Gump, and The English Patient.
She seemed to agree - in her speech she said something like “I feel I should only have this much of him,” holding her fingers half an inch apart.
I think there was a little “sorry we didn’t give it to you for Mrs. Brown” in that decision.
Cate Blanchett was robbed, robbed, robbed when Gwyneth Paltrow got it for Shakespeare In Love over Cate in Elizabeth. It’s not that GP was bad, just that CB was phenomenal in a much more complex role.
My film prof used to say that Kevin Costner got a Oscar for Dances with Wolves for hiring the right cinematographer and a shot of a stirrup. Nothing else could explain that in his mind.
Least deserved: Best song, when “The Poseidon Adventure” song “There’s got to be a Morning After” beat out the “Blazing Saddles” title song. :mad:
L.A. Confidential was the picture that was robbed by the Titanic.
I’ve always heard “The Greatest Show of Earth” cited as the worst BP ever.
I would have given the 1992 Supporting Actor trophy to scene-chewing Jack Nicholson from A Few Good Men over Hackman’s solid, but otherwise average, performance in Unforgiven.
Controverial pick, but Brando in the Godfather stole the trophy from his much more deserving co-star.
MOST deserving?
Anthony Hopkins as Lecter springs to mind.
Chris Cooper from Adaptation was a performance I left and thought “he’s gonna win!”
Joe Pesci from Goodfellas is probably one of the best performances ever.
Kevin Spacey is American Beauty. The performance only gets better as I get older!
PS Hoffman in Capote. I think, along with Hopkins, this might have been one of the most lopsided victories in many years.
Hillary Swank in both wins.
Oddly, most Supporting ACTRESS winners in the last 20+ years seem mediocre or undeserving. Blanchett’s win a few years back is the only one that really stood out for me.
Tom Hanks was stunning in Philadelphia, don’t get me wrong–but I still think Liam Neeson deserved the statue for Schindler’s List.
I think acting Oscars are deserved when the actor brings life to a fictional or long dead historical character and makes them a flesh & blood interesting person.
Much like a Heath Ledgers Enos or Joker.
What I hate are Oscars and noms given for impersonations. Instead of getting props for creating a believable character they instead are judged on how well of an impersonation they can do of another real life person. Idi Amin, Truman Capote, Johnny Cash, June Carter, Queen Elizabeth, Ray Charles, etc.
Find a character and make it your own. Leave the impersonations to the comedienes.