# Oscars should be cancelled — there are no Best Pictures anymore! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 26, 2018, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520 "2018-01-26T14:05:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520/21 "2018-01-26T19:34:29Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > A movie SHOULD be able to show the size and scale of the whole rescue effort. Nolan didn’t do that. His _ **Dunkirk** _ was actually too small, in my opinion. I think that is what we’re starting to see now and will be the biggest shift in movies over the next decade. The rise of TV as a credible medium in telling big epic stories has taken that away from movies. Why condense a story down to 2 hours when it could be better told over 12 hours? I think we’re going to see more and more compact movies. Look at “Darkest Hour” for example. I didn’t really know anything about it going to it, but I assumed it would cover at least a good chunk of WWII. Instead it didn’t even cover a full month. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520/22 "2018-01-26T19:34:51Z")
I think all the fuss over HOW a movie is made, i.e. camera angles, special effects, arresting visuals, etc. is meant to cover up the fact that nobody can write a decent script anymore. I read some snotty critic, (I can’t remember his or her name) that actually said that dialog was the _least_ important factor in movies. Oh wonderful. Maybe we should go back to silent films, only I didn’t think Best Picture Winner _The Artist_ was any great shakes either. ---
**Author:** ![eunoia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eunoia/32/97_2.png) [@eunoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eunoia)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520/23 "2018-01-26T19:39:15Z")
By and large I’m down with cancelling the Oscars, except Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri was Shakespeare and you have to admit the special effects in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? are getting dated. The dream sequence when George Segal and Sandy Dennis build scalar weapons to fight the space dinosaurs was better when left to the imagination in the Broadway version. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_Arachnid_Laser_1)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520/24 "2018-01-26T19:50:31Z")
Aren’t you sort of cherrypicking the years? Before River Kwai, the previous Best Motion Picture winner was Around the World in 80 Days, hardly a masterpiece. The winner afterwards was Gigi. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520/25 "2018-01-26T19:57:10Z")
> [@Go\_Arachnid\_Laser](#): > > Aren’t you sort of cherrypicking the years? Yep. Comparing 2017 to a cherry-picked list of the best years over a 10-year period is hardly fair. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520/26 "2018-01-26T20:06:40Z")
> [@Rysto](#): > > Yep. Comparing 2017 to a cherry-picked list of the best years over a 10-year period is hardly fair. It’s just another in a long example of SDMB threads that all have the same basic OP. “I am not interested in _this popular thing_, therefore _this popular thing_ should disappear because my interests are the only ones that matter.” ---
**Author:** ![Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Springtime_for_Spacers)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520/27 "2018-01-26T22:16:55Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > The Academy should have packed it in in 1929. Everyone knows sound ruined pictures. It’s even in the name. > > “Talking pictures are like lip rouge on the Venus de Milo.” - Mary Pickford That quote is pretty funny when you consider that classical statues _were_ in fact [garishly painted](https://hyperallergic.com/159420/what-do-classical-antiquities-look-like-in-color/) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520/28 "2018-01-26T22:24:38Z")
> [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](#): > > That quote is pretty funny when you consider that classical statues _were_ in fact [garishly painted](https://hyperallergic.com/159420/what-do-classical-antiquities-look-like-in-color/) 🙂 I almost made reference to that, but figured it would be painting the lily. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520/29 "2018-01-26T22:42:50Z")
“Moonlight” is the best film I saw last year. It’s gorgeously written, acted, and directed. The plot is lovely, the dialogue is painfully good, and the cinematography is exceptional. If you’re going to judge movies, at least see the fucking things first. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520/30 "2018-01-26T22:58:11Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > My experience this year is exactly the opposite. I can’t remember when I’ve been so interested in so many Oscar nominated films. I’m really looking forward to the award show; nothing will disappoint me. I agree. This is the first year in a long time that I’ve really had some resonance with the Oscar slate. The leading overall nominee is an intertext of the _Creature from the Black Lagoon_ series done by one of the greatest living directors - and it utterly lives up to its billing. _Get Out_ is one of the most provocative non-documentaries I’ve seen in years, and it is amazingly effective in the theater. I’m rather astounded that the Academy had the insight to nominate such a “little” film - which underscores the profundity of its impact. I haven’t seen _Call Me by Your Name_, but the Academy has shown some insight here as well, nominating a queer film with negligible star power. Likewise the writing nomination for _Logan_. A comic book movie nominated for screenplay? Who’da thunk it? There are years that the Academy’s picks have left me scratching my head. By and large, this isn’t one of them. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520/31 "2018-01-26T23:03:31Z")
> [@wonky](#): > > “Moonlight” is the best film I saw last year. It’s gorgeously written, acted, and directed. The plot is lovely, the dialogue is painfully good, and the cinematography is exceptional. > > If you’re going to judge movies, at least see the fucking things first. Fair point. I haven’t seen it. I will correct that tonight. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520/32 "2018-01-26T23:19:36Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > I’ve not been keeping up with recent movies. Surely you see the disconnect here? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520/33 "2018-01-26T23:22:32Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Surely you see the disconnect here? If they were any good, he _would_ have kept up with them. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520/34 "2018-01-26T23:26:50Z")
> [@StusBlues](#): > > Fair point. I haven’t seen it. I will correct that tonight. I’d love to hear your impression. I have no issue with someone not wanting to see it or not liking it. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520/35 "2018-01-26T23:37:16Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > [I exaggerate \*slightly\* hoping to make a clearer impression.] > > I’ve not been keeping up with recent movies. I haven’t even heard of eight of the 2013 Best Picture nominees. Trying to make amends I watched most of the 2014 Best Picture nominees. Only _Selma_ and _Imitation Game_ appealed much, and that was mainly because they replayed historic events that interested me. 2015 was even worse. Among the 2016 nominees I watched only _Manchester by the Sea_. It made such little impression I’d have to watch it again to comment on it. > > And now 2017. I’ve seen two nominees. _Dunkirk_ ? — one of the most boring war films ever. _Three Billboards_ ? — a brand new genre: slapstick noir. > > In the old days, there were only five nominees for the Best Picture Oscar. At some point this was increased to nine — I guess the hope was that with _nine_ films to choose from, one might appear that was qualified to be called ‘Best Picture.’ But this was a forlorn hope. > > Compare recent nominees with some of the slates from a half-century ago: > > 1957 > _The Bridge on the River Kwai > 12 Angry Men > Peyton Place > Sayonara > Witness for the Prosecution_ > > 1962 > \*Lawrence of Arabia > The Longest Day > The Music Man > Mutiny on the Bounty > To Kill a Mockingbird \* > > 1964 > _My Fair Lady > Becket > Dr. Strangelove > Mary Poppins > Zorba the Greek_ > > 1966 > _A Man for All Seasons > Alfie > The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming > The Sand Pebbles > Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?_ > > Twenty films: Twenty great classics. > > Am I right or am I right? Or am I a fuddly oldtimer acting like Norma Desmond from _Sunset Boulevard_? (“I’m still a big movie fan — it’s the movies that got small!”) > > **Mods** — I expect my viewpoint to be highly unpopular; please wait a day or two and then move the thread to the BBQ Pit Some of the films you list are very good. Some are overrated, in my opinion. Some I haven’t seen. Reminds me of the Oscar nominees from last year. “Moonlight” was very good. “La La Land” was overrated. I didn’t see “Manchester by the Sea.” The fact that you picked specific years makes me wonder about the years you avoided. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2018, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520/36 "2018-01-26T23:55:35Z")
See, that’s where preferences come into the picture; I liked La La Land quite a bit. More so than Moonlight, actually. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2018, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520/37 "2018-01-27T00:08:15Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > See, that’s where preferences come into the picture; I liked La La Land quite a bit. More so than Moonlight, actually. I know a number of people who loved LLL. I thought it was very enjoyable. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2018, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520/38 "2018-01-27T03:43:27Z")
I thought LLL was fine. Moonlight blew me away. Manchester was wonderful. This year I’ve seen Get Out which was fantastic. I haven’t seen the rest but I am jonesing to. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2018, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520/39 "2018-01-27T04:16:20Z")
> [@Two\_Many\_Cats](#): > > I think all the fuss over HOW a movie is made, i.e. camera angles, special effects, arresting visuals, etc. is meant to cover up the fact that nobody can write a decent script anymore. > > I read some snotty critic, (I can’t remember his or her name) that actually said that dialog was the _least_ important factor in movies. Oh wonderful. Maybe we should go back to silent films, only I didn’t think Best Picture Winner _The Artist_ was any great shakes either. +++. _Fargo_ had **great dialog**. Does anyone claim _Three Billboards_ is in the same class? But I will watch _Moonlight_ and _Get Out_. (And I expect I’ll like _The Post_ and _Darkest Hour_ enough to watch, but not as much as I’d like excellent fiction.) ---
**Author:** ![Lorne\_Armstrong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@Lorne\_Armstrong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorne_Armstrong)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2018, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520/40 "2018-01-27T06:00:39Z")
For years the Oscars heavily favored dramatic films. This resulted in a lot of classic movies being snubbed because they were action/fantasy or comedy. I stopped watching after they snubbed Raiders of the Lost Ark. I’m also still irritated that they passed over Star Wars for an overrated Woody Allen film that I didn’t particularly like, Annie Hall. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oscars-should-be-cancelled-there-are-no-best-pictures-anymore/807520.md?page=3)