The Oscar should've gone to...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Melika
  • Start date Start date
Oliver was definitely more deserving than 2001 ;)

Should have won - or at least been nominated - Brief Encounter. But then, I doubt American voters would have ever let it win over The Best Years of Our Lives (which did deserve to win so I won't begrudge it)...but Celia Johnson was SO robbed for best actress that year, as was Barbara Stanwyck for Stella Dallas :pout: (and she also should have been at least nominated for So Big cos that was just...wow.) - and for Double Indemnity which was also SO incredibly robbed of best picture. I'd also put The Philadelphia Story as more deserving than Rebecca and Singin' in the Rain also at least deserved a nomination. I actually really like The Greatest Show on Earth but it's not a better picture than SITR ;)
 
Psycho? Scary, but definitely not Oscar-worthy.

E.T. didn't win an Oscar? Shame!
 
It's not a very fair list. You have to look at what these films were up against to see if they "deserved it or not"

1. Shawshank Redemption - was beaten by Forrest Gump in 1995 and nobody was stopping Gump that year. Pulp Fiction was also in the running.

2. It's a Wonderful Life which is famous mostly because it was shown every Christmas by a zillion channels (because it was copyright free at the time) was rightly trounced in 1946 by one of the great post-war dramas ever The Best Years of Our Lives

3.E.T. was beaten in 1983 by Gandhi although E.T was the better film IMO. But Oscar loves it's epics.

4. 2001 was indeed robbed. It wasn't even nominated in 1969 and the Oscar went to Oliver! which is one of the worst Best Pics ever.

5. The Great Escapealso wasn't nominated the year it came out. Best Pic was Tom Jones which was also pretty good. I consider that a wash.

6. The Wizard of Oz is one of the all-time greats but it was up against Gone With the Wind , and was nominated in the same year with Stagecoach, Wuthering Heights, Ninotchka, Dark Victory, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Of Mice and Men and Mr.Smith Goes To Washington. Any one of these could have been Best Picture in a different year.

7. Some Like it Hot wasn't nominated the year it came out which is a travesty but does anyone really think it deserved to beat out the epic of all epics, Ben-Hur?

8. The Color Purple may have been better than 1986 winner Out of Africa but neither IMO was as good as Witness which was also nominated that year.

9. Raiders of the Lost Ark was IMO the Best Pic of 1982 and belongs since it lost to Chariots of Fire, a film most memorable for the Vangelis score and not the movie itself.

10. Psycho wasn't nominated (though Hitchcock was for Director) in 1960 and The Apartment won. I agree there. Psycho is now almost as influential as Citizen Kane (which also didn't get a Best Picture Oscar) while The Apartment seems dated.

But still the list is arbitrary to the extreme. The quality of the film has nothing to do with if it wins or not - the culture of the time, Hollywood politics (Shakespeare in Love over Private Ryan?) and the competition of that year plays a huge part. As I said anyone of the films that went against GWTW including Oz would have won in any other year.

And oh yeah, I love IMDB. All this useless trivia at my fingertips.
 
Did Gone With the Wind win? I should know that but I honestly don't. I don't pay that much attention to those things.

I definitly agree Some Like it Hot should have won. I was actually talking about that movie today with some friends who hadn't seen it. I showed it to this kid I was babysitting and he loved it.
 
Well, I definitely don't agree with The Color Purple - uch, I hate that film. :rolleyes:

But the others - I don't know, I can definitely see it (although like you, I'm also questioning the addition of ET).
 
Great list, huh? I agree with Shawshank Redemption but I don't know if over ET.

What do you think? I know some people here resent Gladiator wining it when it did.

And you can also comment on other Academy Awards categories you thought the best didin't win. :)
 
Back
Top