INFLUENTIAL, John, influential?! In that case Jaws should have beaten One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 76. BEST Picture is what the award is called ;). Annie Hall is very good movie, superbly acted and directed. It deserved that award, even though I’d prefer watching Star Wars (but then again, I’d prefer watching The Mummy over The Shawshank Redemption, but I know that The Mummy isn’t the better made film).
I believed the same as you, until I actually SAW Shakespeare in Love. Sorry movie Gods, I was wrong. Totally wrong. SIL deserved the Oscar over SPR in every way. It was just brilliant, especially all the ‘in jokes’ within the movie.
Chariots of Fire is a great film. Now I’m not a coach, but it was such a great film. I can’t saw whether it is better than Lost Ark, but both movies deserved the award that year. It was just a strong year and one had to lose out.
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Now that I’ve bashed everyone else’s picks ;), let me agree with the poster that said The English Patient didn’t deserve its award. Fargo deserved it that year.
Well it was one of the ‘in jokes’. A leading actor (and Affleck was definetly one of the BIG names at the time) playing a bit part in the movie; the bit part being a leading actor who was a bit part in the play. I believe that he only got the role for his ‘name’, although saying that, he was pretty good in the role.
I was one of the few left utterly cold by the latter two LOTR movies. However, even afficionados of the movies have to agree on one thing if they’re not into tunnel vision.
ROTK winning best song with ‘Into the West’ over the theme from The Triplets of Belleville was simply a travesty.
Angeline Jolie for Best Supporting Actress for Girl Interrupted over the sublime Catherine Keener for Being John Malkovich.
Robert Zemeckis for Best Director for Forest Gump over Krzysztof Kieslowski for Three Colors: Red (I wouldn’t have minded Quentin Tarantino winning for Pulp Fiction, though Kieslowski’s achievement was far greater).
Julia Roberts for Best Actress for Erin Brockovich over Ellen Burstyn for Requiem for a Dream (and Bjork wasn’t even nominated for Dancer in the Dark!)
Ron Howard for Best Director for A Beautiful Mind over Peter Jackson for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and David Lynch for Mulholland Drive.
Oh, hell, there are too many travesties to count. Never mind movies, actors and directors that won over more deserving nominees, the best movies, performances and directors are usually not even nominated.
I agree, and I think Private Ryan’s subject matter played a big part in the award. SPR is part of a long line of war movies. It’s about as good as that type can be done, but I still don’t think it’s better than Shakespeare in Love, which is really clever and has terrific writing. I agree with most of the posts here, actually! A few objections:
Star Wars doesn’t beat Annie Hall. Just no.
I don’t like Forrest Gump, but I dislike Shawshank just as much. It bugs me that people have started to insist it’s a great movie. If you ask me, they are absolutely equal, and they are incredibly predictable tripe. Jeez, at least Pulp Fiction was interesting.
I agree with rjung about Shrek. The first time I saw Monsters, Inc., I was surprised by how good it was. The second time, kinda changed my mind (it’s not original and it IS very sappy, plus it has Billy Crystal), but in a lesser of two evils contest I’d take it over Shrek, which was snide, overhyped, and made Smashmouth rich, which I think is unforgiveable.
What comes to mind for me…
The Pianist was the best movie of 2002. I liked Chicago; even Squinty Zellwegger was okay, but it was not even close.
Russell Crowe and Julia Roberts did not deserve Oscars.
In fact, I don’t like Russell Crowe at all. But it figures that he gets recognized for Gladitor and A Beautiful Mind, and The Insider (good) went 0-for-7 in 2000 and L.A. Confidential (terrific) was basically overlooked.
I think we can all agree that there’s no damn way that in 1988 Roy W. Edwards and The Engineering Staff of Photo-Sonics, Inc. Should have won the Scientific and Engineering Award Oscar, in the camera catagory for the design and development of the Photo-Sonics 35mm-4ER High-Speed Motion Picture Camera with Reflex Viewing and Video Assist.
Totally agree. They made RotK sweep the Oscars this past year after ignoring the previous two LotR films for Best Picture, but that Annie Lennox song was horribly undeserving. The Belleville theme was a terrific, fun, Django Reinhardt-inspired piece of hot jazz, and it was really refreshing to hear. Hell, I even like the Cold Mountain songs better than “Into the West”!
Halle Berry can keep hers but Denzel has to give his back the same year for the most cartoonish Oscar winning role I can remember, and I mean that in the most derogatory manner.
Michael Caine should have just said “What a load of bollocks,” and given his to Haley Joel Osment.
The English Patient is the least watchable Best Picture of all time. I have tried to watch it and feel like I am in a Twilight Zone episode, because I can’t comprehend that anyone thinks it is worth the time it takes to see it.
These sort of Oscars deserve their own category. Denzel should have won one for Malcolm X, and like a bad referee, the Academy made a make-up call later in the game. (I couldn’t fathom why Ethan Hawke got a nomination for Training Day. Snoop Dogg was better.) It’s like Judi Dench winning Best Supporting Actress for 15 seconds of screen time in Shakespeare in Love.
The one that still frosts me is that utter piece of dreck, Gosford Park, winning for Original Writing for a Screenplay over Memento. GP was standard, boilerplate, British who-dunnit (and a boring snoozefest, to boot). Memento was without a doubt one of the most original movies ever made. Christopher and Jonathan Nolan were robbed.
What exactly was the deep message of Forrest Gump, then? It was a lousy movie, IMO. The only real flaw in ‘Pulp Fiction’ was Tarantino’s lousy acting.
I didn’t think Star Wars was much of a movie either - I have never been able to watch it straight through, even in the cinema, without falling asleep. Also Titanic would get my vote - I took my friend’s teenagers to it - and had to go out and wait outside about half way through - I just couldn’t take it!
This has been discussed to death in other threads, recent and ancient, so I won’t debate your assertion on its merits, but I couldn’t possibly disagree with you more. Pulp Fiction is about redemption v. damnation. How about that for a theme? Whereas the theme of Forrest Gump amounts to the biggest movie cliche of all time-- child-like person with disability overcomes obstacles. Bleah.
Sorry, but I’m going to have to step in to defend the snubbing of Tarantino for Pulp Fiction. PF is a good movie (I admit that it took more than one viewing for me to “get” it) but PF has one notable flaw: it’s very unevenly paced, and it really drags in places. I’ve never seen Forrest Gump, so I can’t say whether it’s better or not, but I can see why Pulp Fiction didn’t get the nod.
Ah, I never got that. How clever! Just more evidence that Shakespeare in Love was a brilliant movie. There’s even a logical reason behind casting Ben Affleck in an Elizabethan drama!
If you’re going to give Denzel Washington an Oscar for Best Actor (in addition to the supporting Oscar he already has) then I think it has to be for The Hurricane. It’s not a fantastic movie, but Washington’s performance in it might have been the best I’ve ever seen, by any actor, ever. It was mesmerizing, and if you haven’t seen it, rent it just to see him. A master at the height of his powers.
Nicole Kidman has to be one of the worst actresses ever. Yes, she is gorgeous to look at, but her inability to show any range of emotion other than constipated/intellectual/frosty girl is the same in every movie. ( Except that POC witches film, which was a turd to begin with.)
Whatever she won her oscar for should be handed over. I cannot stand her at all.
