Memento should have won for best screenplay.
Raiders of the Lost Ark should have gotten Best Picture.
Danny Elfman should have won for his soundtrack to Batman.
And it goes without saying that Hitchcock should have gotten Best Director AT LEAST once.
Steve Martin should have been Best Actor for ** All of Me.**. He would have won had it not been such a comedy.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington should have won at least one Oscar, if not for best picture, maybe best actor.
Jack Nicholson should have gotten best actor for his performance in The Shining.
Stanley Kubrick should have gotten Best Director at least once.
In all fairness, Mr. Smith did win a writing Oscar.
I can’t agree with all the opinions here (Nicholson, Batman), but I will champion Aaron Copland over The Wizard of Oz; great film that the musical is, Herbert Stothart was a hack. There are some terrific musical cues in the film, but the most powerful moments are the songs and the motifs off of the songs (none of which Stothart wrote). I can’t begrudge the loss too much, though, because Copland did go on to win an Oscar for The Heiress, which is more than George Gershwin or Duke Ellington (both Oscar losers) ever got.
I think Inherit the Wind should have won Best Picture in 1960. Hell, it wasn’t even nominated.
The Year: 1992 (The 1993 Oscars)
Best Picture nominees:
Unforgiven WINNER
The Crying Game
A Few Good Men
Howards End
Scent of a Woman
Best Director:
Clint Eastwood for Unforgiven WINNER
Neil Jordan for The Crying Game
James Ivory for Howards End
Robert Altman for The Player
Martin Brest for Scent of a Woman
Best Score nominees:
Aladdin WINNER (How I loathe Disney.)
Basic Instinct
Chaplin
Howard’s End
A River Runs Through It
Do you notice anything missing from those lists - possibly a wonderful Michael Mann film starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeline Stowe called Last of the Mohicans? It was only nominated for Best Sound (which it won and deservedly so, I think), but God forbid it even be nominated for Best Picture in place of that overhyped, gimmicky piece of snooze called The Crying Game.
Nothing wrong with Unforgiven but for me it lacked the passion and all-around excellence of Mohicans. (It’s been awhile since I saw the former so my memories are a little murky. I do remember feeling absolutely outraged come Oscartime, though.) That’s the year I realized that the Oscars were not the last word on movies. Now I just watch it for the women’s dresses and the montage sequences. It’s just one award out of many.
BUT WHY DIDN’T IT EVEN GET NOMINATED??? What were you people thinking?
LA Confidential and Saving Private Ryan are the two I would have suggested. SPR is the most overwhelming. SiL was a pretty good to mediocre film that won because the Weinsteins bought the vote.
High Noon didn’t win the year GSoE won??? HORRIBLE! I thought High Noon won, but I looked it up and your are correct! The consensus worst Best Picture ever beat out one of my top ten all time flicks???
Has anyone mentioned Citizen Kane? It lost out to How Green Was my Valley? Hearst had a lot to do with that, though…
Peary is wrong on the second one. Star Wars should have been the Best Picture winner of 1977. It’s now a cultural touchstone that goes far beyond its status as a motion picture. Annie Hall isn’t even Woody Allen’s best movie, let alone the best movie of 1977.