# 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:** 5\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/141 "2018-10-24T16:28:00Z")
Back when movie musicals were common there were stars who specialized in them: Astaire and Rogers, Gene Kelly, Judy Garland, Julie Andrews. . . There was no loss in star power when they cast these actors. Today there is no “bank” of musical stars to draw on, so they often cast movie stars and teach them to sing, or they cast singers and teach them to act. There are exceptions—Anna Kendrick is a legitimate musical performer—but the fact that musicals are no longer a staple of the movie business has changed the economics of casting them. ---
**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 24, 2018, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/142 "2018-10-24T17:17:06Z")
I have seen them all (actually, I’ve seen \*all \*the Best Picture winners). If you want to see awful, IMHO, we need to go back much earlier than 1979. Here is my list using **Bullitt** ’s format: **Favorites** Amadeus The Silence of the Lambs Schindler’s List No Country For Old Men The King’s Speech Moonlight **Very Good** Rain Man Driving Miss Daisy Unforgiven Slumdog Millionaire Argo 12 Years a Slave Birdman **Pretty Good** Chariots of Fire Platoon The Last Emperor Shakespeare in Love The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Million Dollar Baby Spotlight The Shape of Water **Decent** Kramer v. Kramer Ordinary People Gandhi Terms of Endearment Out of Africa Dances with Wolves Forrest Gump Braveheart The English Patient Titanic Gladiator A Beautiful Mind Chicago The Departed The Hurt Locker The Artist **Pretty Bad** American Beauty Crash **Awful** ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2018, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/143 "2018-10-24T17:37:41Z")
I have developed a pretty reliable sense of what movies will interest me and which ones will be (subjectively) bad, and go out of my way to avoid seeing the (presumed) bad ones. So it’s nearly certain that the worst one on the list is one of those I haven’t seen, and am forbidden, under the rules, from speculating on. That said, Hollywood has a tendency to favor movies about Sensitive Artistes or Big Important Topics, so it’s probably something full of itself. ---
**Author:** ![edspellman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/58956e/32.png) [@edspellman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/edspellman)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/144 "2018-10-25T19:56:00Z")
Interesting discussion about casting movie musicals. Since it didn’t win best picture, I’ll only make one observation from Les Miserables- Russell Crowe, excellent actor but his singing? Yeowtch. Such may be what other posters have noted about ZetaJones and Zellweger with Chicago. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2018, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095/145 "2018-10-25T20:20:40Z")
I’ve seen something like 27 of the list. There’s surely a bias of me avoiding films I’m not likely to enjoy, but, that said, the two stinkers are probably _Forrest Gump_ and _Braveheart_ (the latter is speaking as a Scotsman). What’s personally noticeable is that they’re not only consecutive, but that they are followed by a run of pictures that I found perfectly reasonable winners - _The English Patient_ through to _Gladiator_ - but which all have hordes of online naysayers. The Nineties being a bit odd all round? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-best-picture-winner-of-the-last-40-years/823095.md?page=7)