I’m still pissed about 1969 when John Wayne (True Grit) beat out Dustin Hoffman (Midnight Cowboy) for best actor.
And, can you believe that Rocky was considered the best picture over Taxi Driver in 1976?
Do I dare criticize the choice of Julia Roberts as best actress last year? OK. What a joke. Has she ever played a role where, even for a minute, you could forget that it was Julia Roberts on the screen?
[sub]Has this been done before?[/sub]
I’m still wondering how Hilary Swank beat out Annette Bening for best actress. Annette Bening’s portrayal of Carolyn in American Beauty was pure comic genious IMHO.
I did a search on this and found that “Titanic” won for best picture in 1998, beating out “As Good As It Gets” and “Good Will Hunting.” Titanic?!? What were these people thinking?
Fyi, the Internet Movie Database has a nominations and awardees database at http://www.imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Academy_Awards_USA/
I’m always amazed that Jodie Foster (Silence of the Lambs) beat Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon, both nominated for their roles in Thelma and Louise, for Best Actress in 1992. But, I remember at the time there was talk that nominating two actresses from the same film essentially split their vote. Personally, I would have voted for Susan Sarandon.
More amazing to me is that Thelma and Louise wasn’t even nominated for Best Picture that year. The nominees were JFK, Bugsy, Beauty and Beast, Prince of Tides, and the winner, Silence of the Lambs. .
I don’t know if Rocky is a better picture than Taxi Driver, but for what its worth, Rocky is a much better film than I remembered it being. It was on TV recently, and I was completely surprised by how good it is, and how little of it is actually about boxing. I had always thought its Academy Award was a bit unbelievable, but now I’ve downgraded it from “bonehead choice” to plain old “weird choice.”
I thought Annette Benning was the best part of American Beauty, but Hilary Swank was hands down fantastic in Boys Don’t Cry. Two good performances, but Swank had the better role, IMHO, which gave her the edge on the award.
I think this is an urban legend (I hope it is), but perhaps someone can shed some light on it. I’ve heard that Marisa Tomei’s 1993 award for Best Supporting Actress for My Cousin Vinny was actually a mistake, that the presenter read the wrong name as the winner. Could this possibly be true? Or is this just sour grapes from people who didn’t think a comedic role should have won over more serious contenders?
I still can’t believe that Annie Hall won out over Star Wars for best picture in 1977.
I mean, Annie Hall?!?!! What the hell were they smokin’?!
I can believe it. Taxi Driver is the worst movie I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s worse than bad. It’s in a category of it’s own several levels below the category with all the other bad movies.
Alright, Seriously who paid off the votes to get Forrest Gump to win best picture over The Shawshank Redemption.
The worst year for best picture was without a doubt 1941.
In a year that produced Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon, Suspicion, Sergeant York, Dumbo, and Fantasia, the best picture award went to How Green Was My Valley.
But at least that was a good movie. Last year’s best picture wasn’t, IMO, a good movie, and the best movie of the year–Chicken Run–wasn’t even nominated. I gotta go to bed, but I’ll come back and rant some more. But you can’t top 1941, the low point in Academy history.
“The Greatest Show on Earth” is often listed as the worst-ever Best Picture.
And John Wayne deserved his “True Grit” Oscar, especially after being robbed for “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon.”
False assumption here – a good acting role does not require that you forget the star playing it. There’s a prejudice that good acting requires emoting and range, but that’s just not so.
The first name that came into my mind when I saw the subject was Julia Roberts. I Agree fully with KarlGauss. Awarding someone with a Oscar just for having extraordinarily big muzzle is pretty ridiculous.
The Oscar should have gone to Ellen Burstyn or Laura Linney.
1983, Best Picture. Terms of Endearment winning over The Right Stuff was criminal.
I believe that year’s best picture (I believe it was 1994) was a poster-boy for bad oscar winners. My beef is that Forrest Gump beat out both The Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction. I’d have given it to PF first, TSR second, altho I think both films were vastly superior to FG.
I’m going to draw a fusillade of fire on this, but IMHO, the most outstanding ‘they picked WHAT?’ by the Academy was American Beauty. Not knocking anyone who particularly liked it, but I simply did not.
Same goes for Good Will Hunting and As Good As It Gets – Good Will Hunting was at least watchable, but As Good As It Gets was simply boring. (Of course, I don’t care for Helen Hunt as an actress, either.) I generally will go out of my way to see Robin Williams and Jack Nicholson, but comparatively speaking, they’ve both had better roles in other movies.
Titanic certainly had its flaws, but I could at least appreciate the amount of work and detail that went into the production.
I agree with zuma, too – FG wasn’t a bad movie, but I much preferred both Shawshank and PF.
The worst was definitely the year Jethro Tull won the award for best heavy-metal album. I mean what were they thinking?
What?
What do you mean “Read the gosh-darn subject”?
Oh.
Then let me be the first to decry what a piece of dingo dreck Gladiator was. Who should’ve won? Any movie except the gloomy gladiator (and Erin Brockavich of course).
God I HATED As Good As it Gets. It was like being kicked in the groin for two hours. Was Nicholson even acting in that? Because it seemed to me that he was just being Jack Nicholson - that is, an arrogant asshole. OOH! I HOPE THE SWEET LADY HOOKS UP WITH THE ASSHOLE IN THE END! And I never felt like he stopped being the asshole. Even the line everyone talked about: “You make me want to be a better person.” She gave you a chance to say something nice about her and not talk about yourself and you still couldn’t do it, but apparently nobody noticed. Pah.
Sorry, sorry. Bad oscar choices. Whatever got best picture instead of Pulp Fiction.
To each his own. Still, it featured one of the greatest acting roles ever (De Niro as Travis Bickle), and it perfectly fit and depicted a bleak time in the US (mid 70’s). Parts of the movie, and even its theme, have become film icons.
Plus it had a killer soundtrack by Bernard Herrmann.
Costner (Dances With Wolves) beating out Scorsese (Goodfellas) for Best Director. Ha, I say, ha! I’ll say it again… ha!
Shakespeare in Love winning best picture.
Dancing With Wolves
Art Carney beating out Al Pacino in 1974
Marisa Tomei
Titanic (only best picture winner not nominated for a writing category)
Pretty much all the Oscars that Shakespeare in Love got, with the exception of Best Costumes. Not that it was a bad movie, but it sure as hell wasn’t that good.