Since the Academy opened the door for ten Best Picture nominees, let’s take a look at the last 10 Best Picture winners. If you could only vote for one (1), what would take Best Picture of the Decade?
Seen in this context, that was a week decade for films.
The decade before that one gave us, among others, Silence of the Lambs, Unforgiven, Braveheart, Schinder’s List, Titanic and Forrest Gump
If you line up the Best Picture winners for any decade, they’ll almost never represent the decade’s best films. The Academy doesn’t usually make the right choice in terms of choosing films that have a lasting impact. When I think of great films from the 1980s, “Out of Africa” doesn’t jump to mind.
I was thinking the exact same thing. There are only two films to which I’ve given a 10, American Beauty and The Return of The King, as well as a couple 9’s.
To answer the poll, I’d have to go with American Beauty I guess. I hate to vote against anything LOTR, but it’s hard to vote for just one section of the trilogy over another great movie.
I’d go with The Departed and American Beauty, though there are a lot of other great films that aren’t on that list: The Dark Knight, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Capote, just to name a few.
Am I wrong here, or wasn’t American Beauty in 1998 or 1999?
Nope, you’re not wrong. It was released in 1999, so while the Oscar ceremony may have occurred in 2000, it was recognizing the film achievements of 1999, so the whole “decade” thing falls apart–you might as well ask for the best for 1984-1993, or any other 10 year combo.
Why do I suspect that Return of the King is going to end up w/ the most votes on this board?
that I loved American Beauty when it came out. Saw it more recently and I don’t think it holds up that well.
I voted for No Country for Old Men, one of the best films of the last twenty years.
True, but 2009’s winner isn’t chosen yet and without American Beauty it makes it an uneven 9 and I was going for symmetry with the Oscar’s 10 nominees this year.
The Oscar for ROTK to me represents an award for the entire trilogy. Otherwise I wouldn’t have voted for it.
I went with “No Country for Old Men.” I, too, thought that it seems like a weak list of movies, and realizing that (what I consider to be) the Best Picture of a particular year doesn’t always win, I built this list of what the other nominees were in the Aughts (winner listed first):
[ul]
[li]2009: Slumdog Millionaire, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Reader[/li][li]2008: No Country for Old Men, Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood[/li][li]2007: The Departed, Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen[/li][li]2006: Crash; Brokeback Mountain; Capote; Good Night, and Good Luck; Munich[/li][li]2005: Million Dollar Baby, Finding Neverland, Ray, Sideways, The Aviator[/li][li]2004: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Lost in Translation, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Mystic River, Seabiscuit[/li][li]2003: Chicago, Gangs of New York, The Hours, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Pianist[/li][li]2002: A Beautiful Mind, Gosford Park, In the Bedroom, Moulin Rouge!, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring[/li][li]2001: Gladiator; Chocolat; Erin Brockovich; Traffic; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon[/li][li]2000: American Beauty, The Cider House Rules, The Green Mile, The Insider, The Sixth Sense[/li][/ul]
Realize, too, of course, that there are some very good movies from each year that weren’t nominated at all.
However, there are some really, really good movies in there that didn’t win Best Picture, and there are some years in there that, in retrospect, seem pretty weak overall (I’m looking at you, 2003, but maybe that’s just my still-strong shock at what won Best Picture). There are also some very forgettable movies on this list (my gaze has not left you, Chicago, and the nomination of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button last year is still … curious).
Even though this seems to be an arbitrary set of 10 years, in a way, it’s not: last year was the last with five nominations (unless/until the Academy decides – again – to go with five nominations). Assuming the Academy sticks with 10 nominations for Best Picture, it will be very interesting to see what this decade’s list will be like.
I voted for No Country for Old Men because I figured it hold up the best over the years. Plus there are at least a couple of real dogs on that list.
That is a very weak list of movies, but even sticking with non-obscure movies it is easy to come up with a much better list from this decade:
LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring
There Will be Blood
No Country for Old Men
Mulholland Drive
Before Sunset
The Incredibles
Spirited Away
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Lost in Translation
The Royal Tenenbaums
The only overlap is No Country for Old Men, so I’ll go with that.
Interesting there are no votes for GLADIATOR or CRASH.
CRASH was the biggest upset in recent memory. At the time it was generally assumed that Good Night and Good Luck, Capote, and Brokeback Mountain split the vote too much and Crash won by plurality, which could well be true. (Not a bad movie but also not something you’d watch again and again.)
Gladiator was 3/4 or maybe 7/8 of a great movie. The ending was horrible…it was worthy of some 1970s miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain rather than an epic Oscar winner.
I was with you up until the last sentence. “Out of Africa” certainly jumps to my mind. Would have been better if Redford hadn’t been such a smug hippie throughout, but it’s still high on my personal list.
That’s because they wouldn’t let Joaquin Phoenix rap the theme song; if they had it would rival Godfather, Gone With the Wind or Ben Hur among the great epics.
Not QUITE what I had in mind…
Seriously. Not only can I not pick a single great one, there are several I actively disliked (or fell asleep during). The only one that even entertained me was The Departed.
Off that list, No Country for Old Men is an easy choice for me with Lord of the Rings being a distant second. It also happens to be my favorite of the decade in general.