# Biggest Oscar robberies/snubs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 1, 2016, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-oscar-robberies-snubs/747590 "2016-03-01T02:06:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2016, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-oscar-robberies-snubs/747590/61 "2016-03-02T22:36:34Z")
lego movie ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2016, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-oscar-robberies-snubs/747590/62 "2016-03-03T15:29:22Z")
> [@MovieMogul](#): > > To the Academy, Lulu falls into the category of “Rock”, which they made an explicit effort to completely ignore throughout the 50s & 60s. To be somewhat fair to the Academy, they weren’t completely bonkers to consider Lulu to be “Rock” in 1967. She started her career at age 15 doing a pretty rocking version of the Isley Brothers “Shout” which you can find on youtube from “Ready! Steady! Go!”. She then did the song “Here Comes the Night” that was made famous by Van Morrison and Them. Mid 1960s rock can be a weird era in that it was dominated by AM radio with FM coming into play. A lot of AM radio stations, most notably WABC 770 in New York City wanted to have housewives listen to them during the day when the kids were elsewhere so they would program differently. Lots of radios didn’t have FM band. In my house the radio in the living room had fm but the car, my sister’s room radio and my portable transistor radio didn’t. Things like Louis Armstrong’s cover of “Hello Dolly” and the Fifth Estate’s cover of the Wizard of Oz song “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” were AM rock radio hits. The Beatles’s biggest hit was “Yesterday”: a mournful ballad with an acoustic guitar and string quartet. ``` But certainly the Academy and the Grammys didn't have much use for loud, guitar and drums rock until its fans got old to become voters and they were forced to bow to reality that they were becoming irrelevant. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-oscar-robberies-snubs/747590/63 "2016-03-04T02:19:12Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Another song not nominated that year was Simon and Garfunkel’s _Mrs Robinson_ from _The Graduate_. If you go back and watch _The Graduate_ you’ll notice that you never hear the complete “Mrs. Robinson” as we now know it. It wasn’t a finished song at the time. There’s no verse about Joe DiMaggio, or any other verse lyrics - there’s just the chorus and some place-keeping syllables. I surmise that in this version it was considered too slight to get a best-song nomination. The movie came out in December 1967; the complete “Mrs. Robinson” single didn’t appear until April 1968. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-oscar-robberies-snubs/747590/64 "2016-03-04T04:23:46Z")
[QUOTE=TonySinclair] To Sir, With Love, from the Sidney Poitier movie of the same name, is one of my favorite songs from 1967. And I’m not alone, since it was Billboard’s #1 pop song of the year. But it wasn’t even nominated. I know what you’re thinking — the Academy tends to go for songs with more gravitas, not pop songs, even if they have lush strings like TSWL did. Nope, the 1968 Best Song Oscar went to Talk to the Animals, an instantly forgettable piece of fluff from Dr. Doolittle. [/QUOTE] > [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Another song not nominated that year was Simon and Garfunkel’s _Mrs Robinson_ from _The Graduate_. [QUOTE=Jim’s Son] To be somewhat fair to the Academy, they weren’t completely bonkers to consider Lulu to be “Rock” in 1967. She started her career at age 15 doing a pretty rocking version of the Isley Brothers “Shout” which you can find on youtube from “Ready! Steady! Go!”. She then did the song “Here Comes the Night” that was made famous by Van Morrison and Them. Mid 1960s rock can be a weird era in that it was dominated by AM radio with FM coming into play. A lot of AM radio stations, most notably WABC 770 in New York City wanted to have housewives listen to them during the day when the kids were elsewhere so they would program differently. Lots of radios didn’t have FM band. In my house the radio in the living room had fm but the car, my sister’s room radio and my portable transistor radio didn’t. Things like Louis Armstrong’s cover of “Hello Dolly” and the Fifth Estate’s cover of the Wizard of Oz song “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” were AM rock radio hits. The Beatles’s biggest hit was “Yesterday”: a mournful ballad with an acoustic guitar and string quartet. But certainly the Academy and the Grammys didn’t have much use for loud, guitar and drums rock until its fans got old to become voters and they were forced to bow to reality that they were becoming irrelevant. [/QUOTE] Another song the Academy unfairly ignored in 1967 was [“In the Heat of the Night” by Ray Charles](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scj4jJA8A0s) even though it was the theme to the movie that won freakin’ Best Picture that year. Oddly enough, Quincy Jones (who composed the song and the score for the movie) did receive a Best Song nomination for “The Eyes of Love” from the now-forgotten film **Banning**. Also, since The Beatles were brought up, none of their songs from **A Hard Day’s Night, Help,** and **Yellow Submarine** were nominated. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-oscar-robberies-snubs/747590/65 "2016-03-04T15:28:32Z")
> [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](#): > > If you go back and watch _The Graduate_ you’ll notice that you never hear the complete “Mrs. Robinson” as we now know it. It wasn’t a finished song at the time. There’s no verse about Joe DiMaggio, or any other verse lyrics - there’s just the chorus and some place-keeping syllables. I surmise that in this version it was considered too slight to get a best-song nomination. > > The movie came out in December 1967; the complete “Mrs. Robinson” single didn’t appear until April 1968. Two days ago I watched the HBO Documentary _ **“Becoming Mike Nichols”** _. In it, the late Mike Nichols discussed the origin of the _“Mrs. Robinson”_ song. Mike had become obsessed with S&G’s music and when he got _ **“The Graduate”** _ asked Paul to write some songs for the film. At first Paul said no, but after reading the script, changed his mind. He delivered a couple songs (one of which, _"“Punky’s Dilemma”_ wound up on the **“Bookends”** album) but Mike rejected them. Paul & Art had been working on a song called _“Mrs. Roosevelt”_ (which makes some sense since she’d just passed away about five years previous) when Paul told Mike they had a song called _“Mrs. Robinson”_ (they really didn’t, but since it as also a three-syllable name, it worked) But since all they had was a chorus they filled in the song with in with dee de dee dee de dee dee dee. They filled the song out and released the single three months after the film was released. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-oscar-robberies-snubs/747590/66 "2016-03-04T19:27:14Z")
I haven’t watched the Oscars since Kate Winslet lost for Titanic to Kim Basinger for L.A. Confidential. There was Kate wading through chest-deep ice cold water in period costume for Titanic scenes compared to Kim doing…what?..in L.A. Confidential. I don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-oscar-robberies-snubs/747590/67 "2016-03-04T20:40:02Z")
> [@drewder](#): > > lego movie People, not movies. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-oscar-robberies-snubs/747590/68 "2016-03-04T20:55:29Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > I haven’t watched the Oscars since Kate Winslet lost for Titanic to Kim Basinger for L.A. Confidential. > > There was Kate wading through chest-deep ice cold water in period costume for Titanic scenes compared to Kim doing…what?..in L.A. Confidential. I don’t get it. They were in different categories. Basinger beat Gloria Stuart in _Titanic_ (Kate’s character in modern times), who essentially just sits for one long flashback narration before throwing her necklace in the water. Kate lost to Helen Hunt in _As Good As It Gets_, who was the only American among a bunch of British actresses (Judi Dench, Helena Bonham Carter, Julie Christie & Winslet) ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-oscar-robberies-snubs/747590/69 "2016-03-04T20:58:07Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > Also, since The Beatles were brought up, none of their songs from **A Hard Day’s Night, Help,** and **Yellow Submarine** were nominated. However, they did win the Oscar for Best Song Score for **Let It Be**. The first R&R winners. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-oscar-robberies-snubs/747590/70 "2016-03-04T21:19:42Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > People, not movies, if you would. > > I definitely agree with Andy Serkis as Gollum in the Two Towers. Okay, but who do you bump for him? The year “The Two Towers” was eligible for an award, the Oscar went to Chris Cooper for “Adaptation.” Was Serkis really better than Cooper? Was he really better than Ed Harris in “The Hours”? Like, was that really a travesty that Serkis did not win over them? Hell, was he better than Sean Astin? Or “The Return of the King,” which won many Oscars it shouldn’t have… that year the Best Supporting Actor was Tim Robbins. Was Serkis way, way better tha Tim Robbins? Or Djimon Hounsou? Ken Watanabe? Jeff Bridges wasn’t even nominated for “Seabiscuit” but he was amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2016, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-oscar-robberies-snubs/747590/71 "2016-03-04T21:27:46Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Okay, but who do you bump for him? The year “The Two Towers” was eligible for an award, the Oscar went to Chris Cooper for “Adaptation.” Was Serkis really better than Cooper? Was he really better than Ed Harris in “The Hours”? Like, was that really a travesty that Serkis did not win over them? Hell, was he better than Sean Astin? > > Or “The Return of the King,” which won many Oscars it shouldn’t have… that year the Best Supporting Actor was Tim Robbins. Was Serkis way, way better tha Tim Robbins? Or Djimon Hounsou? Ken Watanabe? Jeff Bridges wasn’t even nominated for “Seabiscuit” but he was amazing. Fair to ask, so I’ll answer, at least who he was better than in the nominations. Of the nominees, I’d bump out John C. Reilley for Chicago. Then again, I thought Chicago was terrible and would have bumped everything it was nominated. I also thought Serkis was better than Paul Newman in Road to Perdition and Christopher Walken in Catch me if you Can. The others two nominations don’t stick out enough for me to compare. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2016, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-oscar-robberies-snubs/747590/72 "2016-03-07T00:00:58Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > Or a young DiCaprio in Gilbert Grape, > > The Academy does a lot of subsequent year second guessing. Next year expect to see lots of minority actors nominated. I’m expecting ZERO Caucasian wins next year. ---
**Author:** ![Mince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@Mince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mince)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 6:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-oscar-robberies-snubs/747590/73 "2016-03-08T06:31:18Z")
When \*Turner and Hooch \*wasn’t even nominated for best picture. #OscarsSoHuman ---
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-oscar-robberies-snubs/747590/74 "2016-03-08T19:25:20Z")
Jack Lemmon should have won for his portrayal as Jerry/Daphne in Some Like it Hot, and again as Joe in The Days of Wine and Roses ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-oscar-robberies-snubs/747590/75 "2016-03-08T19:26:58Z")
> [@Mince](#): > > When \*Turner and Hooch \*wasn’t even nominated for best picture. > > #OscarsSoHuman Still a movie and not a person. Perhaps the dog should have been nominated? I remember Tom Hanks on Inside the Actors Studio and he said he learned more on Turner and Hooch than many other more serious movies. I’m sure that is true. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Hen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-oscar-robberies-snubs/747590/76 "2016-03-08T19:50:25Z")
I’m sure the Academy really wanted to honor John Wayne, but he had no business beating out Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy, I don’t care how iconic Rooster Cogburn is. Actually, Jon Voigt should have taken best actor. Hoffman should have been supporting. Bad idea, pitting them against each other, because that was one of the best acted movies of its era. I thought Richard Burton was outstanding in Virginia Woof. Better than Liz Taylor for certain. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-oscar-robberies-snubs/747590.md?page=3)