There have been 83 Best Picture winners at the Academy Awards. Some are the greatest films in motion picture history, others not so much.
Here is how I separate the Casablanca’s from the Crash’s.
UNWORTHY WINNERS:
Slumdog Millionaire
Crash
Shakespeare In Love
Chariots Of Fire
Oliver!
Gigi
Around The World In 80 Days
The Greatest Show On Earth
Gentleman’s Agreement
The Best Years Of Our Lives
Going My Way
How Green Was My Valley
THE GOOD, BUT NOT GREAT:
The Hurt Locker
No Country For Old Men
Million Dollar Baby
The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King
Chicago
Unforgiven
The Last Emperor
Ordinary People
Annie Hall
Rocky
A Man For All Seasons
My Fair Lady
Tom Jones
Marty
An American In Paris
All The King’s Men
The Lost Weekend
Mrs. Miniver
Rebecca
You Can’t Take It With You
Cavalcade
Grand Hotel
Cimarron
The Great Ziegfeld
Broadway Melody
EXCELLENT FILMS:
The King’s Speech
The Departed
A Beautiful Mind
American Beauty
Titanic
The English Patient
Braveheart
Forrest Gump
Silence Of The Lambs
Dances With Wolves
Driving Miss Daisy
Rain Man
Platoon
Out Of Africa
Terms Of Endearment
Gandhi
Kramer vs. Kramer
The Sting
The French Connection
Patton
Midnight Cowboy
In The Heat Of The Night
The Sound Of Music
West Side Story
The Apartment
The Bridge On The River Kwai
All About Eve
Hamlet
The Life Of Emile Zola
All Quiet On The Western Front
Wings
CLASSICS, BEST OF ALL TIME:
Gladiator
Schindler’s List
Amadeus
The Deer Hunter
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
The Godfather
The Godfather II
Lawrence Of Arabia
Ben Hur
On The Waterfront
From Here To Eternity
Casablanca
Gone With The Wind
Mutiny On The Bounty
It Happened One Night
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Crash was unworthy? Why, because it made more poignant social commentary than Brokeback Mountain? Crash was a multi-faceted look at raciscm, terrorism, stereotyping and abuse of police power. It fed the brain just a tad more.
I respectfully disagree. Crash was a forced, heavyhanded parable that we already knew. Racism = Wrong. Brokeback Mountain was a chance for the Academy to be daring & bold & ahead of it’s time. As a hetrosexual, BB came across as a love story more than a gay story. As a liberal, I was very disappointed that some knuckledraggers couldn’t stomach a BB victory. In fact, Crash was the worse of the 5 nominees that year and I believe unworthy of not only a victory but also a nomination. I can think of 2 movies off the top of my brainbone that deserved a nomination more than that direct to DVD style flick.