# Past Oscar Snubs, Oversights, and Assorted Outrages **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 3, 2011, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022 "2011-02-03T14:39:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Jocko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncle_jocko/32/2932_2.png) [@Uncle\_Jocko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Jocko)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/1 "2011-02-03T14:39:50Z")
Let’s talk Oscar mistakes! And by “mistakes,” I mean “times the Academy didn’t agree with me personally, so what the heck were they smoking?” What brought this to mind was my re-viewing this week of _The Verdict_ (Paul Newman, James Mason, a smokin’ hot Charlotte Rampling, script by David Mamet, directed by Sidney Lumet). As a young, wide-eyed acting student fresh off the farm, unsullied by cynicism, Newman absolutely blew me away. That was one of the finest acting performances ever, not just of 1982. So I was confident his peers would recognize this feat with the Best Actor Oscar. Ben Kingsley? Pffft. All he had to do was shave his head and not eat for a month. Needless to say, I was disappointed with the outcome (although I have come to recognize Kingsley’s fine _Gandhi_ acting job on its own merits, his win is still an unjust robbery of Newman). Another “mistake” in my book was the selection of _Titanic_ over \*LA Confidential \*for 1997 Best Picture. That spurred my very first comments on any Internet message board ever. I have come so far … sniff. I mean, Cameron ain’t one for nuance, is he? What any of Cameron’s villains need is a handlebar mustache to twirl while they cackle. Admit it … such a mustache would have fit Billy Zane to a “T” in _Titanic_. Similarly Michael Biehn in _The Abyss_, or the Marine sergeant in _Avatar_ … pretty much any Cameron bad guy is waaay over the top. _LA Confidential_, in my mind, was superior in every way except special effects. And gross receipts. Like that makes a difference in the Oscar vote. :rolleyes: Anyway. Knowing this is going to be an opinion-heavy thread. let’s be gentle with each other, while we rail against the Academy’s injustices. What past Oscar choices do you disagree with? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/2 "2011-02-03T14:51:29Z")
_Forrest Gump_ was a good movie. It was pleasant and entertaining. But it was no _Pulp Fiction_. And even if you just go by popularity, _The Shawshank Redemption_ has it beat. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/3 "2011-02-03T14:55:08Z")
> [@Uncle\_Jocko](#): > > What brought this to mind was my re-viewing this week of _The Verdict_ (Paul Newman, James Mason, a smokin’ hot Charlotte Rampling, script by David Mamet, directed by Sidney Lumet). As a young, wide-eyed acting student fresh off the farm, unsullied by cynicism, Newman absolutely blew me away. That was one of the finest acting performances ever, not just of 1982. So I was confident his peers would recognize this feat with the Best Actor Oscar. Ben Kingsley? Pffft. All he had to do was shave his head and not eat for a month. I’ve never seen The Verdict, but I saw Gandhi when I was 13 or 14 and I was absolutely enthralled. If you can get a teenage boy interested in a movie about a political activist, you’re doing something right. ---
**Author:** ![ministryman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@ministryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ministryman)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/4 "2011-02-03T15:23:06Z")
\*Annie Hall \*over _Star Wars_…still haven’t recovered from that. How LOTR got one is beyond me. It couldn’t have been made without Lucas and ILM. ---
**Author:** ![multimediac17](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/839c29/32.png) [@multimediac17](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/multimediac17)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/5 "2011-02-03T15:28:35Z")
I’ll always remember Jack Nicholson’s surprise when he announced Crash had won Best Picture in 2006. ---
**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:** [February 3, 2011, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/6 "2011-02-03T15:45:30Z")
Completely disagree with _LA Confidential_ over _Titanic_. The award is for best _picture_ not best screenplay - that’s another award. I was also outraged by _Forrest Gump_ beating the much cooler _Pulp Fiction_, but I’m not as outraged by it any more as FG has grown in my estimation over the years. Probably the worst example of a popular movie winning B. Picture over more literary films is 1976, when _Rocky_ beat _Network_, _All the Presidents Men_, _Bound for Glory_, and _Taxi Driver_. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/7 "2011-02-03T15:53:52Z")
> [@multimediac17](#): > > I’ll always remember Jack Nicholson’s surprise when he announced Crash had won Best Picture in 2006. That was a weak year for BP, but Crash was overrated. If I remember correctly, I think Munich might have been the best of the nominees. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/8 "2011-02-03T16:04:26Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > That was a weak year for BP, but Crash was overrated. If I remember correctly, I think Munich might have been the best of the nominees. With _Brokeback Mountain_ and _Good Night and Good Luck_ among the nominees? You and I have very different ideas of what constitutes a week year for Best Picture. 😉 Marisa Tomei used to be my touchstone for Oscar Outrage, but _Crash_ winning Best Picture took it to a whole new level. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/9 "2011-02-03T16:31:34Z")
1983: _Terms of Endearment_ winning Best Picture over _The Right Stuff_. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/10 "2011-02-03T16:53:01Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > With _Brokeback Mountain_ and _Good Night and Good Luck_ among the nominees? You and I have very different ideas of what constitutes a week year for Best Picture. 😉 > > Marisa Tomei used to be my touchstone for Oscar Outrage, but _Crash_ winning Best Picture took it to a whole new level. I’ll be honest, I never saw Good Night and Good Luck all the way through. And Brokeback Mountain was just another story of forbidden love. How about Christian Bale not even getting a nomination for American Psycho in 2000? That was another weak year with Russel Crowe winning for Gladiator over Tom Hanks in Castaway. ---
**Author:** ![Wile\_E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c37758/32.png) [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/11 "2011-02-03T16:56:59Z")
I think the whole problem with Oscar voting is that if you get a couple strong contenders that split the vote it leaves things open for a weaker nominee to take the lead. ---
**Author:** ![multimediac17](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/839c29/32.png) [@multimediac17](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/multimediac17)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/12 "2011-02-03T16:58:20Z")
Cher won her Best Actress Oscar for _Moonstruck_ but in my opinion she was infinitely better in _Mask_, which she was not nominated for. As I mentioned in the current Oscar thread, her song from Burlesque should have been nominated for Best Original Song this year but it wasn’t, which leads me to… Dolly Parton losing the Oscar in 2006 for ‘Travelin’ Thru’ from _Transamerica_. There is no other song from a film that I love more. Ugh, that was so disappointing. There were only three nominees that year and everything! ---
**Author:** ![Sateryn76](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Sateryn76](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sateryn76)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/13 "2011-02-03T17:06:09Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > I’ll be honest, I never saw Good Night and Good Luck all the way through. And Brokeback Mountain was just another story of forbidden love. > > How about Christian Bale not even getting a nomination for American Psycho in 2000? That was another weak year with Russel Crowe winning for Gladiator over Tom Hanks in Castaway. And, IIRC, Crowe won over the stunning performance of Ed Harris in _Pollock_. That’s a real crime. ---
**Author:** ![AshenLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/94ad74/32.png) [@AshenLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AshenLady)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/14 "2011-02-03T17:07:28Z")
Oh, Lynn Redgrave and her “zionist hoodlums, screeching”…I won’t ever forget that. ---
**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:** [February 3, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/15 "2011-02-03T17:09:29Z")
Actually, as soon as I saw **Crash** , I picked it as the best movie I’d seen that year, and was gratified that this was one of the few times the Academy agreed with me. Frankly, I’ve yet to see a coherent argument as to why it wasn’t a great film, just a lot of sour grapes by people who liked **Brokeback Mountain** more. Worst snub was **Three Kings**. Here was the definitive Gulf War film, with great performances, a smart script and top-notch direction. It didn’t get a single nomination. That just boggles the mind. Others include Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/16 "2011-02-03T17:10:01Z")
Steve Martin in _All of Me_. Ebert & Siskel agree with me. The first time I saw it, I wondered how the hell they got Lilly Tomlin into Steve Martin (does that sound dirtier than I meant it?). ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/17 "2011-02-03T17:10:23Z")
2001: Julia Roberts in _Erin Brockovich_ winning over Ellen Burstyn in _Requiem for a Dream._ 1983: While agreeing with the previous doper that Paul Newman was terrific in _The Verdict_ and should have won over Ben Kingsley, as a general illustration of the Academy’s almost pathological refusal to give the Best Actor Oscar for a primarily comedic role, I will say Peter O’Toole should have won for _My Favorite Year_. 1941: John Qualen not even getting a nomination for Best Supporting Actor, in _The Grapes of Wrath_. True, the character of Muley was on screen for only a short time, but in two short scenes Qualen gave one of the most heartbreaking performances in American cinematic history. ---
**Author:** ![Lethal\_Babydoll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3be4f8/32.png) [@Lethal\_Babydoll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lethal_Babydoll)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/18 "2011-02-03T17:23:20Z")
1938: **You Can’t Take It With You** beats out **The Adventures of Robin Hood** for Best Picture. My Pa-Pa was bitter to his dying days. Seriously though, did anyone else just love WTBS on Saturday mornings when they’d show the Flynn Robin Hood. Perfect movie watching experience for a young man. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/19 "2011-02-03T17:28:32Z")
> [@AshenLady](#): > > Oh, Lynn Redgrave and her “zionist hoodlums, screeching”…I won’t ever forget that. That was Vanessa Redgrave. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/20 "2011-02-03T18:37:46Z")
**Crash** winning Best Picture, let alone even being nominated. It would have been socially important or edgy in 1965 as a Dragnet episode, but it was an unimaginative retread of better films and more appropriate as an also-ran on the Lifetime Channel. I’m surprised Valerie Bertinelli and Meredith Baxter weren’t cast in it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022.md?page=2)