# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/41 "2011-02-04T02:57:01Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > _Babe_ a better movie than _Heat?_ _Usual Suspects?_ _12 Monkeys?_ > > Are you serious? I can see an argument that “12 Monkeys” was a better film. However, I absolutely, positively stand by “Babe” being a much better movie than “Heat.” I LIKED “Heat,” I love Michael Mann’s work, but the movie’s not perfect by any means. “The Usual Suspects” I also love, and that’s a harder comparison. I would agree it should have been nominated - but “Babe” isn’t the movie I would have bumped. Why are those movies so obviously better? “Babe” had a pitch-perfect script, was beautifully shot, had a great score, and was wonderfully acted. It was a sensational movie. Why is it so lacking in merit? ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/42 "2011-02-04T04:11:21Z")
> [@bramma23](#): > > Sean Penn winning Best Actor over Mickey Rourke in 2009. I firmly believe that Penn’s winning Best Actor in 2003 for _Mystic River_ was solely to make up for his losing to Cage in 1995. Though I can’t think of who should have won that year, Penn’s acting in places was over-the-top, and stilted in others. Edward Norton not winning for _American History X_, losing to Roberto Benigni. _Life is Beautiful_ winning Best Picture over _Saving Private Ryan_. Not discounting _Life is Beautiful_ as a great film, but _Saving Private Ryan_ hit all the right emotional buttons for me. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/43 "2011-02-04T04:34:38Z")
[Lone Star](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116905/) not being nominated for Best Picture. Better by far than _Secrets and Lies_, _Jerry Maguire_ and _Shine_ Also, _ **Fargo** _ should have won that year, over _ **The English Patient** _. (And I actually like _The English Patient_ quite a lot.) ---
**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 4, 2011, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/44 "2011-02-04T04:41:31Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > _Life is Beautiful_ winning Best Picture over _Saving Private Ryan_. Not discounting _Life is Beautiful_ as a great film, but _Saving Private Ryan_ hit all the right emotional buttons for me. Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! Mistah Kottah! Mistah Kottah! ---
**Author:** ![fusoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@fusoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fusoya)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/45 "2011-02-04T05:13:30Z")
Crash and Shakespeare in Love deserved their best picture wins (Saving Private Ryan wasn’t even the best WAR movie nominated that year!). Sean Penn beating Bill Murray was the biggest joke I can remember…at least until he beat Mickey Rourke. A Beautiful Mind was garbage. The best picture Oscar should have gone to Lord of the Rings (and apparently only didn’t due to a conspiracy to stop LOTR from winning anything until Return of the King was released, which in turn snubbed Master and Commander, coincidentally another Russell Crowe film, from winning best picture). And while we’re on the subject of Russell Crowe, he didn’t deserve his best picture statue for Gladiator (that one should have gone to Ed Harris) but he did deserve one for The Insider (which went to Kevin Spacey, deservingly so) and that was another conspiracy to give it to him, a year late. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/46 "2011-02-04T05:34:53Z")
People pile on to tell me how wrong I am when I say that the old, campy, comedic James Bond movies were better than Craig’s gritty, grimy, super-serious scowling Bond, yet in this parallel universe of the SDMB, _Babe_ deserves an Oscar more than _Heat._ ---
**Author:** ![Telperion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telperion/32/509_2.png) [@Telperion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperion)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/47 "2011-02-04T05:47:16Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > People pile on to tell me how wrong I am when I say that the old, campy, comedic James Bond movies were better than Craig’s gritty, grimy, super-serious scowling Bond, yet in this parallel universe of the SDMB, _Babe_ deserves an Oscar more than _Heat._ For crying out loud, are you twelve years old? Griping about other people enjoying something you don’t is just about the most inane form of argument on the internet, and that’s saying something. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/48 "2011-02-04T06:29:56Z")
Yes, because nobody ever, _ever_ insinuates that one movie is better than another movie on this message board which is a _complete_ paragon of total objectivity when it comes to entertainment. All I was trying to say was that it seems like this board skews towards cerebral, serious films, so I was surprised that a movie about a talking pig would be held in such high regard when compared to a considerably more ‘adult’ film. The title of this thread contains the phrase “assorted outrages.” Presumably it would be expected that fans of films with a passionate cult following would be ‘outraged’ that their favorite movies lost out to a movie about a talking pig. But maybe I mis-read the word “outrages” and it actually says something else. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/49 "2011-02-04T07:09:11Z")
> [@Superdude](#): > > _Life is Beautiful_ winning Best Picture over _Saving Private Ryan_. Not discounting _Life is Beautiful_ as a great film, but _Saving Private Ryan_ hit all the right emotional buttons for me. Wrong year. \*Shakespeare in Love \*was the movie that beat out _Saving Private Ryan_. ---
**Author:** ![multimediac17](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/839c29/32.png) [@multimediac17](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/multimediac17)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/50 "2011-02-04T07:25:17Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > All I was trying to say was that it seems like this board skews towards cerebral, serious films, so I was surprised that a movie about a talking pig would be held in such high regard when compared to a considerably more ‘adult’ film. I’m not really a fan of any of the movies being discussed in this particular conversation but just because a film is about a talking pig or is marketed towards children doesn’t mean it’s automatically a lesser film than one that is dark and serious. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/51 "2011-02-04T11:19:41Z")
> [@fusoya](#): > > Crash and Shakespeare in Love deserved their best picture wins (Saving Private Ryan wasn’t even the best WAR movie nominated that year!). No, they most certainly didn’t. And yes, it most certainly was. ---
**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 4, 2011, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/52 "2011-02-04T11:33:21Z")
I get the complaints about _Crash_, but that win wasn’t even the worst call of that year’s Academy Awards. “It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp?” Over Dolly Parton’s “Travelin’ Thru?” I mean … what was going on there? > [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > 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. Oh, _Gandhi_ is a great film, much better overall than _The Verdict_. I’ll even grant (with the wisdom of years) that Kingsley was superb in the role. I just believe Newman’s acting was some of the finest I’ve ever seen, and I think it deserved the acting award. Although O’Toole was great that year as well, Newman was … brilliant. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/53 "2011-02-04T11:44:29Z")
Saving Private Ryan is two astonishing, masterful, battle sequences bookending a rather ordinary quest film. I like it, it’s a great film, but so is Shakespeare in Love. SiL has the advantage of having a fantastic script, full of wit and invention. Admittedly, Judi Dench only got her Oscar because the Academy felt that she’s an actress who should have one. ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/54 "2011-02-04T11:56:43Z")
> [@fusoya](#): > > Crash and Shakespeare in Love deserved their best picture wins (Saving Private Ryan wasn’t even the best WAR movie nominated that year!). Oh please! _ **The Thin Red Line** _ was a boring piece of shite. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/55 "2011-02-04T13:34:17Z")
I’m too lazy to look it up but didn’t Bette Davis once get an Oscar as a consolation prize for being ignored the previous year? Has anyone mentioned “How Green was my Valley” over “Citizen Kane”? ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/56 "2011-02-04T13:36:18Z")
> [@mcgato](#): > > Hoop Dreams not nominated for best documentary. They should have launched an investigation of the entire branch of the academy. Actually, the Academy did revamp the nomination process for the documentary category. The clique that had controlled the nominations in the ‘Hoop Dreams’ era basically had a “If it’s already attracted public attention, it doesn’t need an Oscar to help it” philosophy, which is why they ignored “Hoop Dreams” (and earlier had ignored “The Thin Blue Line” and “Roger & Me”). So they probably would have not nominated such later winners as “Bowling for Columbine” (2002), “The Fog of War” (2003), “March of the Penguins” (2005) and “An Inconvenient Truth” (2006). ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/57 "2011-02-04T14:35:14Z")
> [@wedgehed](#): > > Oh please! _ **The Thin Red Line** _ was a boring piece of shite. Agreed. Man, that was dreck. Absolutely awful. I felt we should’ve been paid for sitting through the damn thing. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Hen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Small\_Hen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Hen)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/58 "2011-02-04T15:14:01Z")
I’m still kinda upset that Colin Farrell didn’t get a nod for In Bruges. But then, it was a big year for best actor. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/59 "2011-02-04T15:39:05Z")
> [@ministryman](#): > > \*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. I think only the third LotR won the Oscar for Best Picture. (Wikipedia claims it won all 11 Oscars it was nominated for.) My distaste for _Return of the King_ aside, I thought the award was merited, as it was implicitly for the entire series rather than that movie alone, and _Fellowship_ certainly deserved the trophy. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2011, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022/60 "2011-02-04T16:05:50Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > I’m too lazy to look it up but didn’t Bette Davis once get an Oscar as a consolation prize for being ignored the previous year? “Dangerous,” I believe it was, when general feeling was that she should have gotten it for “Of Human Bondage.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/past-oscar-snubs-oversights-and-assorted-outrages/570022.md?page=4)