# The 10 Worst Best Picture Winners **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 20, 2011, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978 "2011-02-20T04:13:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/1 "2011-02-20T04:13:02Z")
I came across [This list](http://listverse.com/2010/05/12/top-10-worst-best-picture-winners/) and found it most interesting. The top 10 worst Best Picture winners: 10. The English Patient 1. Gigi 2. Chariots of Fire 3. Forrest Gump 4. The Departed 5. Cavalcade 6. How Green Was My Valley 7. Driving Miss Daisy 8. Around the World in 80 Days 9. Chicago Discuss. mmm ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/2 "2011-02-20T04:32:02Z")
Crash should be on there somewhere ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/3 "2011-02-20T04:33:53Z")
Absolutely. Saw the title immediately thought Crash. ---
**Author:** ![Heyoka13](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Heyoka13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heyoka13)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/4 "2011-02-20T04:35:06Z")
Don’t you all gang upon on me, but even with the air embolism suicide scene, I did not like One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. ---
**Author:** ![Heyoka13](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Heyoka13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heyoka13)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/5 "2011-02-20T04:36:31Z")
An I hasten to add, the Crash you are referring to is not the Cronenberg masterpiece Crash, but rather the LA/racism film of the same name. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/6 "2011-02-20T04:39:31Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > Crash should be on there somewhere I have to agree. While I thought some of those films (Forrest Gump and The Departed at least) did not deserve to win Oscars, how Crash was even nominated bewilders me. It was midway between a made-for-TV movie and an after-school special. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/7 "2011-02-20T04:56:34Z")
Screw you, I like _Driving Miss Daisy._ ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/8 "2011-02-20T05:01:34Z")
I don’t understand the dislike for How Green Was My Valley. I don’t see anything wrong with it, other than there were a lot of great nominees that year. I didn’t find it “lackluster” or “tedious”. I’ve probably seen it a dozen times, thanks to it being one of my late father-in-law’s and my husband’s favorite movies. It was more a movie of its time than ours, I think. I never read the book, but I can’t see how the movie could have been any better at telling the story it told, though I acknowledge that it does seem rather a relentless trek to misery. I imagine the book was the same. The singing coal miners are a joy. I disagree with him about Chicago, too. I’d probably vote for(against) Terms of Endearment. Who, when finding out their friend has cancer, says, “But, you’re my touchstone!” Or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/9 "2011-02-20T05:08:25Z")
> [@JKilez](#): > > I have to agree. While I thought some of those films (Forrest Gump and The Departed at least) did not deserve to win Oscars, how Crash was even nominated bewilders me. It was midway between a made-for-TV movie and an after-school special. Beause the people who vote, vote because they “approve” of a movie, not because it’s even good, elt alone the best of the year. Crash played all those effete Hollywood heartstrings like a fiddle. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/10 "2011-02-20T05:09:28Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > I don’t understand the dislike for How Green Was My Valley. I don’t see anything wrong with it, other than there were a lot of great nominees that year. Yeah, but one of those nominated movies was _Citizen Kane_, the dislike is mostly for the Academy’s decision, I think. ---
**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 20, 2011, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/11 "2011-02-20T06:07:54Z")
> [@Heyoka13](#): > > An I hasten to add, the Crash you are referring to is not the Cronenberg masterpiece Crash, but rather the LA/racism film of the same name. Just the title alone drives me up the wall: imagine the unbelievable, lazy, selfish entitlement of a director who would name his movie the same exact name as another movie that came out 10 years earlier, with a passionate following of its own, by an acclaimed director. Paul Haggis is an unbelievable hack of the highest order; every movie he’s made has been a piece of shit. Cronenberg possesses a unique, visionary, aesthetic genius the likes of which Haggis could never and will never experience even a small fraction of, in all of his detested life. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/12 "2011-02-20T06:11:55Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Yeah, but one of those nominated movies was _Citizen Kane_, the dislike is mostly for the Academy’s decision, I think. No, the author specifically thinks it’s one of the 10 worst Best Pictures. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/13 "2011-02-20T06:15:42Z")
_Chicago_? I can understand not liking musicals perhaps, but calling it the worst best picture winner ever destroys all credibility, especially considering several musicals have won the award (_Oliver_, _Sound of Music_, _My Fair Lady_, etc.). I could watch it all day before seeing _Crash_ or _Rocky_ or _You Can’t Take It With You_ again, none of which were nominated. I liked _Gladiator_, _A Beautiful Mind_ and _Out of Africa_ well enough when I saw them but never had any desire to see them again, but they’re also not on the list. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/14 "2011-02-20T06:27:00Z")
The title of the article is ‘10 worst best pictures’, but it’s clear even before he gets to the list (which opens with his saying that he LIKES the #10 choice, The English Patient) that the actual topic is ‘the 10 films that least deserved to win the Oscar, considering what else was released in the same year’ - see his explanations for not including Titanic or A Beautiful Mind - both boil down to ‘it’s not a good movie, but nothing else that came out that year was any better, so, whatever’ (with an added ‘from a technical standpoint, great’ for Titanic). Once he gets to his list, the explanations for which include a list of the movies that were better than the listed films, it becomes even clearer. Some of them (like How Green…) he doesn’t like, but being a bad film (either from an objective POV, or an admittedly subjective one) is clearly not a requirement. ---
**Author:** ![irritant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@irritant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irritant)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/15 "2011-02-20T06:36:23Z")
_How Green Was My Valley_ is easily one of the ten _best_ Best Picture winners, and I find it hard to believe that anyone who has seen it would believe otherwise. The rest of that list is anything but representative of the worst of Oscar history. No _Gladiator_, fr’instance. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/16 "2011-02-20T12:59:09Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > _Chicago_? I can understand not liking musicals perhaps, but calling it the worst best picture winner ever destroys all credibility, especially considering several musicals have won the award (_Oliver_, _Sound of Music_, _My Fair Lady_, etc.). I could watch it all day before seeing _Crash_ or _Rocky_ or _You Can’t Take It With You_ again, \*\*none of which were nominated. \*\* I liked _Gladiator_, _A Beautiful Mind_ and _Out of Africa_ well enough when I saw them but never had any desire to see them again, but they’re also not on the list. (bolding mine) Maybe I am missing something, but every film you mention has not only been nominated, it has won BP. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/17 "2011-02-20T13:20:59Z")
They won BP, but weren’t nominated for the ‘10 worst’ list. (Which just means they weren’t the least deserving films of their year, in the writer’s opinion.) ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/18 "2011-02-20T13:21:30Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > (bolding mine) > > Maybe I am missing something, but every film you mention has not only been nominated, it has won BP. > > mmm I believe the reference Sampiro is making to “being nominated” refers to the list of worst Oscar winners, and not to the Oscars themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/19 "2011-02-20T13:42:43Z")
> [@irritant](#): > > _How Green Was My Valley_ is easily one of the ten _best_ Best Picture winners, and I find it hard to believe that anyone who has seen it would believe otherwise. This, basically. The only possible reason for it being on the list is that it beat Citizen Kane, which is a silly reason. Not least because it’s a better film than Kane, at least in terms of writing and acting. As for the fancy direction, John Ford did that a couple of years earlier in Stagecoach, which Wells claimed as a major influence on Kane. I’m not saying Kane is a bad movie mind, and it’s influence is undeniable. But How Green Was My Valley is the greatest director in cinema history at the peak of his powers. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2011, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/20 "2011-02-20T14:53:26Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > They won BP, but weren’t nominated for the ‘10 worst’ list. (Which just means they weren’t the least deserving films of their year, in the writer’s opinion.) Ahhh, I see. So I _was_ missing something. 🙂 > [@Steophan](#): > > This, basically. The only possible reason for it being on the list is that it beat Citizen Kane, which is a silly reason. Not least because it’s a better film than Kane, at least in terms of writing and acting. As for the fancy direction, John Ford did that a couple of years earlier in Stagecoach, which Wells claimed as a major influence on Kane. > I’m not saying Kane is a bad movie mind, and it’s influence is undeniable. But How Green Was My Valley is the greatest director in cinema history at the peak of his powers. I dunno if HGWMV is a better film than Kane (wait, yeah I do, it’s not), but ‘Valley’ is a fantastic movie and certainly does not belong on this list. mmm [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978.md?page=2)