# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/61 "2011-02-21T03:22:17Z")
Is it possible to dislike Forrest Gump for reasons other than a character failing of some kind? I think so. And I did like it. ---
**Author:** ![irritant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@irritant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irritant)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/62 "2011-02-21T03:29:41Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > If Kane hadn’t been around, and something else had won, people now would be saying “I can’t believe that Valley didn’t win.” I don’t know about that: _The Maltese Falcon_ was another nominee that year, and Wyler’s _The Little Foxes_, which is terrific and underrated now. Hawks’s _Sergeant York_ hasn’t aged well, but I’m kind of surprised it didn’t win at the time (ceremony was in February of '42). Hitchcock’s _Suspicion_ even got a nod. 1941 was a pretty fine year. ---
**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 21, 2011, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/63 "2011-02-21T04:07:00Z")
Has anyone mentioned _Cimarron_ yet? It’s basically nothing more than a bloated western and it’s been pretty much forgotten. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/64 "2011-02-21T04:54:01Z")
I know this will probably not be a popular opinion, but my first thought at least deserved Best Picture is _Gone With The Wind_, which beat out _The Wizard of Oz_ - imho a vastly superior movie. ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/65 "2011-02-21T04:57:24Z")
> [@irritant](#): > > I don’t know about that: _The Maltese Falcon_ was another nominee that year, and Wyler’s _The Little Foxes_, which is terrific and underrated now. Hawks’s _Sergeant York_ hasn’t aged well, but I’m kind of surprised it didn’t win at the time (ceremony was in February of '42). Hitchcock’s _Suspicion_ even got a nod. 1941 was a pretty fine year. Suspicion??? Isn’t that the one where Cary GRant is trying to kill his wife throughout the movie and is about to push her over a cliff when the movie suddenly does a 1080 and it turns out he loves her after all and would never dream of hurting a single on her head??? Stupidest ending ever. ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/66 "2011-02-21T05:05:33Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Forrest Gump isn’t that bad a movie, but a lot of people absolutely despise it because it’s premise irritates them. To play devil’s advocate here, a movie about a moron whose success in life is due to being oblivious to the social upheavals going on around him? That’s gonna rankle a certain set. I think this analysis rather oversimplifies the movie. It was an extended metaphor for two conflicting threads in American life - the brave and loyal yet dumb and unimaginative thread vs the smart but hippy-dippy, fickle and self-destructive thread. That Gump was a metaphoric cypher is precisely why he was improbably at all those historic events - because America was. Imagining these two threads in an on-again off-again love affair with a child is a charming resolution to the metaphor. As to the metaphoric significance of the detail of how it all ends up, the viewer is left to ponder. A fine movie. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/67 "2011-02-21T05:45:25Z")
Forrest Gump is my least favorite film ever made. Other disappointing ones were American Beauty (I will NOT stop laughing at the plastic bag thing), and I thought Crash was an after school special about telling jokes and receiving really lame Karma. I loved Chicago though. ---
**Author:** ![CJJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecc23a/32.png) [@CJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/68 "2011-02-21T05:50:29Z")
The pile-on against _Around the World in 80 days_ surprises me somewhat. I don’t think the movie has aged well, but in its day even glimpses of far-away locales wasn’t the commonplace that satellite communication is today. The film was shot on location in some 40+ countries, in an age when 70mm and Cinerama were novelties. I’m not at all suprised that it wowed not just moviegoer but even the critics of an age prior to Sputnik. Hands down the worst choice is de Mille’s _The Greatest Show on Earth_. Even if it was a legacy award it was a horrible choice. Sure, Paul Newman had better roles than Eddie Felson in _The Color of Money_, and Scorcese had better films _The Departed_, but you could accept these lesser wins as a kind of a make-up call. But aside from _Cleopatra_, IMO the Academy’s snub of de Mille in the sound era was well-deserved. His films (though profitable) were bombastic corn. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/69 "2011-02-21T06:32:03Z")
> [@Equipoise](#): > > Yes, it is that great. You may not have been in the right mood, may not have had the right mindset, or may not have had the capacity to see and hear it (that amazing dialogue!) but it was, yes, that great. Sparkling, witty, dynamic, romantic, funny, sharp-witted, snide, sly…it’s a very, very, very good movie. What made it stand out to me was the music. The way the music swelled, increased in volume, and otherwise punctuate and underscore all the emotional moments was pure genius. ---
**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 21, 2011, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/70 "2011-02-21T07:14:13Z")
> [@CJJ](#): > > Hands down the worst choice is de Mille’s _The Greatest Show on Earth_. Even if it was a legacy award it was a horrible choice. Sure, Paul Newman had better roles than Eddie Felson in _The Color of Money_, and Scorcese had better films _The Departed_, but you could accept these lesser wins as a kind of a make-up call. But aside from _Cleopatra_, IMO the Academy’s snub of de Mille in the sound era was well-deserved. His films (though profitable) were bombastic corn. Exactly. It would be like if the Academy had given the best picture award to _The Towering Inferno_ because they felt they owed Irwin Allen after _The Poseidon Adventure_ and _Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea_ didn’t win. (Although in point of fact, Irwin Allen did win an Oscar. He directed _The Sea Around Us_ which won for Best Documentary in 1953. Unlike Allen, the Academy did not recognize the following directors: Robert Altman, Ingmar Bergman, John Cassavetes, Charles Chaplin, Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Howard Hawks, Werner Herzog, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kramer, Stanley Kubrick, Akira Kurosawa, Fritz Lang, Ernst Lubitsch, Sidney Lumet, Michael Powell, Satyajit Ray, Jean Renoir, Francois Truffaut, King Vidor, and Orson Welles) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/71 "2011-02-21T14:44:53Z")
Kyla writes: \> I know this will probably not be a popular opinion, but my first thought at least \> deserved Best Picture is _Gone With The Wind_, which beat out \> _The Wizard of Oz_ - imho a vastly superior movie. There’s a famous article by Stephen Hunter (which appeared in _The Washington Post_ in 1998) in which he lists 28 films from the year 1939 which he considers to be better than _Gone with the Wind_. Note: I take no position on what the best films of 1939 are. I haven’t seen many of them and am thus hardly qualified to speak to that question. I just wanted to make the point that your opinion may not be as rare as you think. ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/72 "2011-02-21T14:51:21Z")
I think _Crash_, _The Departed_, and (I think I’m the first person to voice this opinion in this thread) _Slumdog Millionaire_ are all average to below-average movies with largely incoherent and/or hamhanded narratives that were nowhere near the best pictures of their respective years. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/73 "2011-02-21T15:11:45Z")
_Chariots of Fire_ is a GREAT movie. This guy is on crack. I also don’t think _Chicago_ or _The Departed_ deserve to be listed either. I don’t share the _Crash_-hate that is prevalent here. I don’t know that it was Best Picture good, but it wasn’t dreck. I’m convinced much of the hate is due to the fact that some people desperately wanted _Brokeback Mountain_ to win. If not for the Brokeback love, Crash’s winning would have fallen off the radar. I think the worst Best Picture winner in recent years was _Gladiator_, by a longshot, which didn’t make the list. My top 10 worst Best Picture winners (since 1950) would include: - Gladiator - Shakespear in Love - Forest Gump - The English Patient - Terms of Endearment - Gigi - Slumdog Millionaire I know, that’s just seven. I don’t see any other egregiously bad ones. ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/74 "2011-02-21T15:54:15Z")
Crash was dreck. I hated it completely on its own merits. It was preachy and dumb. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/75 "2011-02-21T16:01:43Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > If the title was something distinctive and unique, perhaps, but come on. “Crash”? You would think someone in Hollywood be it the director, the producers, or someone in the studio would have some sort of way to look up movie names and be able to tell that “Crash” was used recently. ---
**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 21, 2011, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/76 "2011-02-21T16:34:33Z")
‘Recently’? 8 years is hardly recent. [1 year, however, is.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112732/) ---
**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 21, 2011, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/77 "2011-02-21T16:36:02Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > You would think someone in Hollywood be it the director, the producers, or someone in the studio would have some sort of way to look up movie names and be able to tell that “Crash” was used recently. It was more “didn’t care” than “didn’t know”. Lots of titles get reused. [Always](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088701/) (1985) - [Always](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096794/) (1989) [Employee of the Month](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0362590/) (2004) - [Employee of the Month](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424993/) (2006) [Fair Game](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113010/) (1995) - [Fair Game](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0977855/) (2010) [Fatal Attraction](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080851/) (1980) - [Fatal Attraction](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093010/) (1987) [The Illusionist](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443543/) (2006) - [The Illusionist](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0775489/) (2010) [Kicking and Screaming](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113537/) (1995) - [Kicking & Screaming](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384642/) (2005) [Night and the City](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042788/) (1950) - [Night and the City](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105001/) (1992) - released on DVD on the same day [Red Heat](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089892/) (1985) - [Red Heat](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095963/) (1988) [Twilight](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119594/) (1998) - [Twilight](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1099212/) (2008) ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/78 "2011-02-21T17:07:02Z")
I agree with Skammer about _Gladiator_. I though it was a slightly above average action movie with definite flaws to it, such as confusing editing in the battle scenes. The same story was told better in _The Fall of the Roman Empire_ (1964), which didn’t even receive a best pic nomination. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/79 "2011-02-21T17:47:01Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > It was more “didn’t care” than “didn’t know”. Lots of titles get reused. > > [Always](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088701/) (1985) - [Always](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096794/) (1989) > [Employee of the Month](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0362590/) (2004) - [Employee of the Month](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424993/) (2006) > [Fair Game](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113010/) (1995) - [Fair Game](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0977855/) (2010) > [Fatal Attraction](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080851/) (1980) - [Fatal Attraction](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093010/) (1987) > [The Illusionist](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0443543/) (2006) - [The Illusionist](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0775489/) (2010) > [Kicking and Screaming](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113537/) (1995) - [Kicking & Screaming](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384642/) (2005) > [Night and the City](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042788/) (1950) - [Night and the City](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105001/) (1992) - released on DVD on the same day > [Red Heat](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089892/) (1985) - [Red Heat](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095963/) (1988) > [Twilight](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119594/) (1998) - [Twilight](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1099212/) (2008) I feel sorry for the poor sucker who tries to rent a tween vampire romance and ends up with some movie with a couple old guys named Paul Newman and Gene Hackman. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![tnetennba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tnetennba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tnetennba)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2011, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978/80 "2011-02-21T18:13:54Z")
The 1995 Kicking and Screaming is one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-10-worst-best-picture-winners/571978.md?page=5)