# List the best movies not even NOMINATED for Best Picture **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 27, 2002, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-the-best-movies-not-even-nominated-for-best-picture/100411 "2002-03-27T17:56:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-the-best-movies-not-even-nominated-for-best-picture/100411/41 "2002-03-29T16:21:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eve \* > \*\*“Someone suggested Cleopatra. I haven’t seen that, but it comes up constantly in lists of expensive Hollywood bombs.” > > —Now, now. It may not have been Theda Bara’s BEST picture, but the cinematography and costumes were amazing! True, though, Under Two Flags and Salome are more satisfying than Cleopatra for the Bara fan. > > [What’s that? Legomancer wasn’t referring to Theda Bara’s 1917 Cleopatra? Oh, well, I suppose the Helen Gardner and Claudette Colbert versions were okay, too . . .] \*\* I was actually referring to the 2004 version, starring Britney Spears in the title role and Justin Timberlake as Marc Antony. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Rieux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Dr.Rieux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Rieux)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-the-best-movies-not-even-nominated-for-best-picture/100411/42 "2002-03-29T16:29:26Z")
**JohnBckWLD** , you forgot that 1999 Shakespeare adaptation, _A Midsummer Night’s Cream_. ---
**Author:** ![JohnBckWLD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d6d6ee/32.png) [@JohnBckWLD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnBckWLD)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-the-best-movies-not-even-nominated-for-best-picture/100411/43 "2002-03-29T20:20:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dr. Rieux \* > \*\ ***JohnBckWLD** , you forgot that 1999 Shakespeare adaptation, _A Midsummer Night’s Cream_. \*\* Much to high brow for my tastes…but I have to admit I did enjoy Corio_lingus_ ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2002, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-the-best-movies-not-even-nominated-for-best-picture/100411/44 "2002-03-29T20:21:35Z")
**The Iron Giant,** dammit. ---
**Author:** ![bigbird120](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6a8cbe/32.png) [@bigbird120](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bigbird120)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2002, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-the-best-movies-not-even-nominated-for-best-picture/100411/45 "2002-04-02T03:41:44Z")
Evil Dead 2 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Zhen\_ka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ecccb3/32.png) [@Zhen\_ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zhen_ka)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2002, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-the-best-movies-not-even-nominated-for-best-picture/100411/46 "2002-04-02T04:53:21Z")
Anything by John Sayles (another poster mentioned Lone Star). Let me just add: Men with Guns (1997) Here’s the imdb listing: [http://us.imdb.com/Title?0119657](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0119657) I can’t tell you how much I love this movie! ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2002, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-the-best-movies-not-even-nominated-for-best-picture/100411/47 "2002-04-02T15:12:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zhen’ka \* > \*\*Anything by John Sayles (another poster mentioned Lone Star). Let me just add: > > Men with Guns (1997) > > Here’s the imdb listing: > > [http://us.imdb.com/Title?0119657](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0119657) > > I can’t tell you how much I love this movie! \*\* Well, maybe not anything\*\* by John Sayles (Limbo\*\* was kinda weak, for example), but I’ll agree that he is a seriously underappreciated film maker. Check the record: Lone Star, Men with Guns, The Secret of Roan Inish, Matewan, Eight Men Out, Brother from Another Planet… And yes, Men with Guns deserved a whole lot more attention than it received. ---
**Author:** ![Yondan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/278dde/32.png) [@Yondan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yondan)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2002, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-the-best-movies-not-even-nominated-for-best-picture/100411/48 "2002-04-02T15:57:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by spoke- \* > **Yondan** , your loathing of **The Untouchables** borders on the irrational. The movie is part of our cultural lexicon. (The baseball bat scene? Classic.) Irrational? Who’s irrational? I’ll show you irrational! Where’s my damn louisville slugger? 😃 Don’t pull the trigger on that collective pronoun too quick. YOU may be willing to own this piece of tripe, but others may not. Yes, DeNiro turned in a great performance as Capone, but what else would you expect? He’s had a bit of practice as a gangtser. Was it Oscar material? No way. > [@](#): > > Granted, Costner is a bit wooden (he always is), but hey, so was Gary Cooper. Would you exclude **High Noon** for that reason? Kevin Costner, sir, is no Gary Cooper. Anyway, I wasn’t commenting on the birch-like quality of his performance (but thanks for pointing that out. “Is it a bush? Is it a tree? No! It’s Kevin Costner!” ) Rather, I was referring to the fact that he was a whiny, mewling bowl of vanilla pudding compared to everybody else, _including_ the accountant. The guy was simply egregiously miscast. Imagine somebody, anybody else in that role, and it works better: Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Bruce Willis, hell, _Arnold_ would have been a better choice. Well, okay, maybe not Arnold, but certainly Denzel Washington, Samuel L. Jackson or Laurence Fishburne would have been far better, if the American audience could have gotten over certain trifling details. > [@](#): > > And I don’t understand your complaint about the storyline. I thought it was a nicely-done and entertaining narrative (though not historically accurate, of course). Yeah, sure, and as long as they were going to fictionalize it to such a degree, why not use one of my last three suggestions for the lead? > [@](#): > > What’s your beef? Do you really think it shouldn’t even have been nominated for best picture? Do you really think that Moonstruck, Broadcast News and Fatal Attraction, all of which were nominated that year, were better pictures? \*\* Absolutely! Well, not FA, but the other two were far better films. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2002, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-the-best-movies-not-even-nominated-for-best-picture/100411/49 "2002-04-02T19:34:53Z")
Pardon me, **Yondan** , but it seems like your criticism of **The Untouchables** boils down to: “I don’t like Kevin Costner.” I don’t necessarily disagree with that sentiment in general, but I don’t think Costner’s presence in this particular film prevented it from being fully worthy of an Oscar nomination. Now if he had tried out one of his fake accents… ---
**Author:** ![Yondan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/278dde/32.png) [@Yondan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yondan)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2002, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-the-best-movies-not-even-nominated-for-best-picture/100411/50 "2002-04-02T20:24:17Z")
Actually, I liked him in some other films: **Bull Durham, Silverado, Waterworld**. And I suppose that KC’s presence ought not to disqualify a film from Oscar consideraton, except for the teensy fact that _he was the lead_, and as such embodied the whole premise of the film. Really, I agree with much of the list you posted of films produced that year that unbelievably did not get an Oscar nod, let alone the little gold nekkid guy hisself. Full Metal Jacket Au Revoir, Les Enfants Radio Days Empire of the Sun Raising Arizona I just don’t see how you can put TU’s in this list. ---
**Author:** ![Ewdlorr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@Ewdlorr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ewdlorr)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2002, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-the-best-movies-not-even-nominated-for-best-picture/100411/51 "2002-04-02T21:27:46Z")
Michael Mann’s masterpiece, **Heat** , from 1995. ---
**Author:** ![Nacho4Sara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Nacho4Sara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nacho4Sara)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2002, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-the-best-movies-not-even-nominated-for-best-picture/100411/52 "2002-04-03T04:50:15Z")
**Life As A House** was an incredible movie and I can’t believe it wasn’t nominated this year. It had all the emotional schlock of “A Beautiful Mind” and “In the Bedroom” but the drama was much more tastefully done, and the storyline was wonderfully original. I think Hayden Christensen and Kevin Kline deserved nods for Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor, respectively. Oh well, if it weren’t for the T&A and couture gowns, 99% of the American public wouldn’t watch, so I don’t have much faith in Oscar. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2002, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-the-best-movies-not-even-nominated-for-best-picture/100411/53 "2002-04-03T05:23:50Z")
**The Exorcist** was nominated for 10 awards in 1973, the same number as the eventual B. Picture winner **The Sting.** The other nominees were **Cries and Whispers, American Graffiti,** and **A Touch of Class**. Other B. Picture worthy nominees in 1973 include **Badlands** and **Mean Streets**. Frankly, I think that you could’ve thrown away the interminably boring **The Cider House Rules** and put in the wonderfully inventive **Election** in 1999. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2002, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-the-best-movies-not-even-nominated-for-best-picture/100411/54 "2002-04-05T01:43:37Z")
In chronological order: _The Crowd_ (Vidor) _The Wind_\* (Sjostrom) _Steamboat Bill, Jr._\* (Keaton) _Love Me Tonight_\* (Mamoulian) _Trouble in Paradise_\* (Lubitsch) _Footlight Parade_\* (Bacon) _Man’s Castle_\* (Borzage) _Queen Christina_\* (Mamoulian) _The Scarlet Empress_\* (von Sternberg) _It’s a Gift_\* (McLeod) _A Night at the Opera_\* (Wood) _Only Angels Have Wings_ (Hawks) _His Girl Friday_\* (Hawks) _Pinocchio_ (Sharpsteen/Luske) _The Shop Around the Corner_\* (Lubitsch) _The Thief of Bagdad_ (Powell/Whelan/Berger) _The Lady Eve_ (Sturges) _Cat People_\* (Tourneur) _To Be or Not To Be_ (Lubitsch) _Shadow of a Doubt_ (Hitchcock) _The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp_\* (Powell/Pressburger) _Meet Me in St. Louis_ (Minnelli) _The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek_ (Sturges) _Scarlet Street_\* (Lang) _My Darling Clementine_\* (Ford) _The Big Sleep_\* (Hawks) _Out of the Past_\* (Tourneur) _Force of Evil_\* (Polonsky) _Intruder in the Dust_\* (Brown) _Kind Hearts and Coronets_\* (Hamer) _Criss Cross_\* (Siodmak) _White Heat_ (Walsh) _Gun Crazy_\* (Lewis) _On Dangerous Ground_\* (Ray) _The Band Wagon_ (Minnelli) _All That Heaven Allows_ (Sirk) _Kiss Me Deadly_\* (Aldrich) _The Man from Laramie_\* (Mann) _Invasion of the Body Snatchers_\* (Siegel) _Written on the Wind_ (Sirk) _The Tarnished Angels_\* (Sirk) _Men in War_\* (Mann) _The Incredible Shrinking Man_\* (Arnold) _Rio Bravo_\* (Hawks) _North by Northwest_ (Hitchcock) _Ride the High Country_\* (Peckinpah) _The Naked Kiss_\* (Fuller) _Chimes at Midnight_\* (Welles) _Point Blank_\* (Boorman) _Faces_ (Cassevetes) _The Wild Bunch_ (Peckinpah) _Kes_\* (Loach) _Walkabout_\* (Roeg) _McCabe & Mrs. Miller_ (Altman) _The Man Who Would Be King_ (Huston) _Dawn of the Dead_\* (Romero) _Local Hero_\* (Forsyth) _The King of Comedy_\* (Scorsese) _The Terminator_\* (Cameron) _Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure_\* (Burton) _Salvador_ (Stone) _Dead Ringers_\* (Cronenberg) _The Unbearable Lightness of Being_ (Kaufman) _Crimes and Misdemeanors_ (Allen) _Miller’s Crossing_\* (Coen) _Simple Men_\* (Hartley) _The Last of the Mohicans_ (Mann) _Fresh_\* (Yakin) _Dead Man_\* (Jarmusch) _Smoke_\* (Wang) _Lone Star_ (Sayles) _The Sweet Hereafter_ (Egoyan) _Topsy-Turvy_ (Leigh) _The Straight Story_ (Lynch) _Mulholland Drive_ (Lynch) I’ve kept these to English-language only (a foreign list would be twice as long). Films marked with (\*) recieved ZERO Oscar nominations [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/list-the-best-movies-not-even-nominated-for-best-picture/100411.md?page=2)