# Least deserved Oscar **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 13, 2004, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-deserved-oscar/234137 "2004-03-13T23:00:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-deserved-oscar/234137/1 "2004-03-13T23:00:25Z")
I’ve seen all kinds of threads complaining that some deserving actor or film DIDN’T win the Oscar. So apparently there must be a lot of statues on the shelves of people who shouldn’t have won. Who didn’t deserve their Oscar? ---
**Author:** ![schplebordnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@schplebordnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/schplebordnik)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-deserved-oscar/234137/2 "2004-03-13T23:07:00Z")
Jim “King of the World” Cameron. ---
**Author:** ![Wumpus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8c91f0/32.png) [@Wumpus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wumpus)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-deserved-oscar/234137/3 "2004-03-13T23:13:16Z")
Cecil B DeMille’s flatulent epic The Greatest Show On Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-deserved-oscar/234137/4 "2004-03-13T23:17:12Z")
_Gladiator_ springs to mind. Not that it was that bad of a film, but Best Picture? C’mon! ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-deserved-oscar/234137/5 "2004-03-13T23:39:15Z")
ROTK for Best Adapted Screenplay. Did the voters actually see the movie? More to the point, did they see _City of God_? I have to admit that, after a lifetime of being shocked and dismayed at some Oscar winners, I was still totally dumbstruck when ROTK won for its screenplay. Naive of me, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Qwertyasdfg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/ecc23a/32.png) [@Qwertyasdfg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qwertyasdfg)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-deserved-oscar/234137/6 "2004-03-13T23:41:59Z")
Gladiator… what a stupid movie. ---
**Author:** ![CBEscapee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@CBEscapee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CBEscapee)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2004, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-deserved-oscar/234137/7 "2004-03-13T23:54:15Z")
The English Patient. ---
**Author:** ![UnwrittenNocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/6de8d8/32.png) [@UnwrittenNocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UnwrittenNocturne)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-deserved-oscar/234137/8 "2004-03-14T00:00:29Z")
Titanic ---
**Author:** ![finette6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@finette6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/finette6)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-deserved-oscar/234137/9 "2004-03-14T00:13:20Z")
This year, Sofia Coppola for Best Orig. Screenplay. There were great things about _Lost in Translation_, but the writing sure wasn’t one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Prize](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@Sir\_Prize](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Prize)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-deserved-oscar/234137/10 "2004-03-14T00:26:29Z")
Return of the King: Best Editting I enjoyed this movie. I can even support it winning best movie. But the editting was awful. Poor choices throughout. The Oscar sweep only proves that academy voters are lazy. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-deserved-oscar/234137/11 "2004-03-14T00:28:26Z")
The least deserved Oscar has got to be Oscar the Grouch. What did he ever do to deserve an extradimensional trash can? ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-deserved-oscar/234137/12 "2004-03-14T00:29:16Z")
An old baddie but a goodie: _Cimarron_. ---
**Author:** ![Murcielago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Murcielago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Murcielago)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-deserved-oscar/234137/13 "2004-03-14T00:33:54Z")
First thought is the already mentioned _Titanic_ winning Best Picture over _LA Confidential_, a film that also should have won for Best Director and Best Cinematography (also lost to the boat flick). ---
**Author:** ![UncaStuart](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncastuart/32/404_2.png) [@UncaStuart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncaStuart)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-deserved-oscar/234137/14 "2004-03-14T00:40:13Z")
As much as I like Judi Dench, she didn’t deserve Best Supporting for her 8-minute turn in _Shakespeare in Love_. Heck, she gets more screen time and more complexity as “M.” ---
**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 14, 2004, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-deserved-oscar/234137/15 "2004-03-14T02:20:26Z")
The only year where I can remember the Best Picture Award going to a film worse than all four it was nominated against was Shakespeare in Love. It beat(hold your breath) Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, Lif is Beautiful, and Elizabeth. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-deserved-oscar/234137/16 "2004-03-14T02:24:46Z")
Sean Penn, this year, for his awful emoting. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-deserved-oscar/234137/17 "2004-03-14T02:27:42Z")
**Shakespeare in Love** was the most deserving best Oscar choice in the past twenty years; unquestionably the best movie of the year, and possibly the best script ever written for the screen. Judi Dench probably didn’t deserve an Oscar for it, but her choice was no worse than Beatrice Straight for **Network** , whose role wasn’t much bigger and, unlike Dench, made no impression at all. Worst choice for Best Picture may have been **Greatest Show on Earth** , but of those I’ve seen, **The Deer Hunter** would be my choice. It won because it was an epic film dealing with Vietnam. It did it very poorly, but the Academy wanted to show a recognition of the war, and the vastly superiou **Apocalypse Now** was released a year later (and lost primarily because they didn’t want to give it to another Vietnam film). ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-deserved-oscar/234137/18 "2004-03-14T03:38:38Z")
Not that there was a stellar list on nominees in 1989, but **Driving Miss Daisy** was a thoroughly mediocre film by Best Picture standards. One film not even _nominated_ that year was Spike Lee’s **Do the Right Thing** , one of the best films of the last 30 years, and it was as if the Academy decided they had to give the award to a film with a black person in the cast. Other nominees that year: Born on the Fourth of July Dead Poets Society Field of Dreams My Left Foot Has there ever been a weaker set of nominees? ---
**Author:** ![Beauty\_Personified](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e480ec/32.png) [@Beauty\_Personified](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beauty_Personified)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-deserved-oscar/234137/19 "2004-03-14T04:17:10Z")
**Forrest Gump** and Tom Hanks for “Best Picture” and “Best Actor in a Leading Role”, respectively. I managed to watch it once and couldn’t watch it again (and I’ve tried). _Terrible_ performance by Hanks, coupled with some terribly stupid scenes. This film caused me to loathe Hanks for a long time afterwards. (He’s since regained my confidence.) I’d also mention Eric Roth’s win for “Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium” for **Gump** , but I haven’t read the novel. But, I read the sequel and didn’t get very far before I had to put it back on the shelf. I can only think of one other book that I seriously attempted to read but gave up on (_Martin the Warrior_ by Brian Jacques). Anyhoo… ---
**Author:** ![Avalonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ee7513/32.png) [@Avalonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avalonian)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2004, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-deserved-oscar/234137/20 "2004-03-14T04:42:07Z")
> [@TOTBP](#): > > I’d also mention Eric Roth’s win for “Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium” for **Gump** , but I haven’t read the novel. I have, and I’ll add that one to the list. To his credit, Roth took a bad book and made it slightly better (he left out most of Forrest’s wrestling career, for example… a Good Thing), but it’s still a pretty flatline script. “Not quite as bad as the source material” isn’t saying much, in this case. What’s always killed me is that _Gump_ won “Best Adapted Screenplay” over _The Shawshank Redemption_, which was not only the best screenplay adaptation that year, it’s one of the best ever. Grrr. Bad Academy. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/least-deserved-oscar/234137.md?page=2)