# Worst "Best Picture" Winner of the last 40 years? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 17, 2018, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095 "2018-10-17T14:15:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/41 "2018-10-17T19:28:31Z")
I have officially entered clueless old man territory, because until this thread I had never heard of of Spotlight. ---
**Author:** ![Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/6bbea6/32.png) [@Living\_Well\_Is\_Best\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Living_Well_Is_Best_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/42 "2018-10-17T19:37:20Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > No need for a poll. The answer is _ **Crash.** _ Correct. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/43 "2018-10-17T19:53:46Z")
It’s weird because many of the movies on the list I liked a lot but wouldn’t consider them “important works” or anything. For example, I loved Gladiator, but come on, really? Other movies I consider very good or great but maybe not super entertaining, like watching them is supposed to enrich you rather than entertain you. Those are the ones I generally think of as award-worthy, but are rarely (if ever) favorite movies. Appreciated 12 Years a Slave Dances With Wolves No Country for Old Men Favorites Platoon The Silence of the Lambs Braveheart American Beauty Gladiator Liked Rain Man Forrest Gump Million Dollar Baby The Departed Slumdog Millionaire Meh The Last Emperor Driving Miss Daisy Shakespeare in Love A Beautiful Mind The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King The Hurt Locker Argo Birdman The Shape of Water Didn’t See Kramer vs. Kramer Ordinary People Chariots of Fire Gandhi Terms of Endearment Amadeus Out of Africa Unforgiven Schindler’s List The English Patient Titanic Chicago Crash The King’s Speech The Artist Spotlight Moonlight I guess I have to pick from the Meh group, and if I’m going by my criteria of what award-worthy means to me, Return of the King is the clear answer. So I’ll go with that. Note: I’m pretty sure or positive I saw Kramer vs. Kramer, Ordinary People, Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, Amadeus, and Unforgiven, but I don’t remember them enough to have an opinion because it was 30 years ago, once, for 20 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/44 "2018-10-17T20:15:39Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Oh my gosh, I forgot Out of Africa as well, another snooze-fest. Terrible movie. Out of the movies I have seen, this is the only one that I fell asleep during and never bothered to go back and watch what I missed. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/45 "2018-10-17T20:21:19Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > Well, you can make all the arguments you want but the freaking academy gave best picture to _Dances With Wolves_ and not _Goodfellas_. [“As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hud-3Dg0mo8) It’s only like the third or fourth best of Scorsese movies and yet it is still head and shoulders above anything even first tier directors will ever produce in their careers. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/46 "2018-10-17T20:23:04Z")
Went with\* Gladiator\*. Just an ordinary Sword and Sandals film, but lessee (consults Wikipedia), after Russell Crowe wins against a legendary, undefeated gladiator, the emperor of Rome decides it would be a great idea to personally fight Russell in the arena. Now **that** is storytelling at its finest. Hated _Crash_, but ehh, apparently its storyline, driven by shallow concepts, rather than characters, gosh-wowed a significant percentage of people. It was worthless to me, though. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/47 "2018-10-17T20:23:22Z")
Has to be Shakespeare in Love. I had to sit through that whole thing on an Saturday afternoon, in the theater, just to get laid later. That was better than the movie, but I still left before the sun went down. Gwyneth Paltrow. Need I say more? ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/48 "2018-10-17T20:26:39Z")
I picked The English Patient. Long, boring so so full of itself. It could have made its point in a quarter of the time. Its stupid, stupid point that everybody saw coming a mile away. I’ve seen 24 of these movies and the only ones that have more votes than The English Patient are ones I haven’t seen. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/49 "2018-10-17T20:40:46Z")
Good to see I’m not the only vote for _Braveheart_. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/50 "2018-10-17T21:19:22Z")
Of the 20 films I’ve seen from that list, _Dances with Wolves_ appealed to me least. ---
**Author:** ![Yodalicious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yodalicious/32/8195_2.png) [@Yodalicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yodalicious)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/51 "2018-10-17T21:34:29Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > _Gladiator._ Overlong and tedious. > > People dislike _Crash_ because they don’t understand (or resist) its message. I thought Crash wins this every time. I understand it perfectly. And without all the cursing and racial epithets it’s an after school special on why you shouldn’t be mean to brown people. ---
**Author:** ![Wilson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@Wilson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wilson)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/52 "2018-10-17T21:46:43Z")
I’ve seen exactly 14 (well, 14.1 since I once watched the first ten minutes of Dances With Wolves before turning it off), so I didn’t vote. But of the ones I’ve seen, Braveheart was the worst. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/53 "2018-10-17T21:59:36Z")
Only two on the list are downright bad (_The English Patient_ and _Out of Africa_). TEP is the worst of them. Several others aren’t very good, and certainly not deserving of the award, but not exactly bad either (_Chariots_, _Crash_, etc.) From before the cutoff, there are another 8 or 10 winners that are truly bad. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2018, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/54 "2018-10-17T22:53:16Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > People dislike _Crash_ because they don’t understand (or resist) its message. No, they dislike it because the characters are terrible people. I didn’t see “American Beauty” until a few years after the fact, and when I did, I personally liked it but understood why so many other people didn’t; it was because they were LIVING it. ---
**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:** [October 17, 2018, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/55 "2018-10-17T22:55:14Z")
I have seen them all. After a moment’s thought I went with **American Beauty**. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/56 "2018-10-18T00:08:37Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > I have seen them all. After a moment’s thought I went with **American Beauty**. It is a pretty dumb movie. I’ll add yet another I have realized I did not like. Moonlight. I honestly found the opening segment where the main character was a kid to be interesting. The rest…pretty bad. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/57 "2018-10-18T00:21:38Z")
I picked Forrest Gump. It’s not the worst movie on the list, but it was the worst choice because there were such better choices that year. ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/58 "2018-10-18T00:57:50Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > I still voted for **Shakespeare in Love** because it was a pretty bad movie and literally worse than all other movies nominated that year. Saving Private Ran, Life is Beautiful, Thin Red Line, and Elizabeth. > > Literally any of those would have been a better pick, especially Saving Private Ryan. > [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > [“As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hud-3Dg0mo8) > > It’s only like the third or fourth best of Scorsese movies and yet it is still head and shoulders above anything even first tier directors will ever produce in their careers. > > Stranger > [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > I picked Forrest Gump. It’s not the worst movie on the list, but it was the worst choice because there were such better choices that year. Remember: > [@Mr\_Shine](#): > > Also please don’t vote for the “most unjustly given” film. The level of the other nominees that year should not be a factor. ---
**Author:** ![Sloe\_Moe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Sloe\_Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sloe_Moe)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/59 "2018-10-18T01:20:00Z")
“Gandhi” beat “E.T.” only because E.T. was slated for best movie of the '80s. ---
**Author:** ![LLCoolL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/llcooll/32/3596_2.png) [@LLCoolL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LLCoolL)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2018, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/60 "2018-10-18T01:58:19Z")
Should I vote for the worst, or the one I hated the most? Not necessarily the same thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095.md?page=4)