vote for the best Oscar-winning Best Pictures of all time

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Ned: I will thoroughly admit that early DeNiro + Christopher Walken will automatically give you +10 charisma in my world

Heh, good point. But wait, gaming references and then you don't like Return of the King. *runs away*

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 5 May 2006 15:31 (seventeen years ago) link

hurry up with Ignore func, pls

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 5 May 2006 15:37 (seventeen years ago) link

i don't particularly LOVE any of these films apart from SotL but here's five:

1 - The Silence of the Lambs
2 - annie hall
3 - The Deer Hunter
4 - Casablanca
5 - Ordinary People

jed_ (jed), Friday, 5 May 2006 15:41 (seventeen years ago) link

I've never gotten around to seeing the Deer Hunter.. like Deliverance its been on my list for years now.

sorry morbs too much sentimental value in those two Forman flicks for me. wee adolescent shakey mo suckered by melodramatic-rebel-artist movies shockah.

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 5 May 2006 15:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Ned, I was only doing it for you :)

SotL is probably the best Best Picture winner in like the past two decades. I actually just deleted 1990+ when I was going over the list, automatically.

Allyzay Rofflesbot (allyzay), Friday, 5 May 2006 15:51 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah, the more recent choices are pretty pathetic.

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 5 May 2006 16:00 (seventeen years ago) link

1. All About Eve
2. The Apartment
3. The Godfather, Part II
4. Casablanca
5. From Here to Eternity
6. Unforgiven
7. The Deer Hunter
8. The Godfather
9. Rebecca
10. The Best Years of Our Lives (just to be different, and it's a solid movie)

I'd like to see anyone defend Gentleman's Agreement, Kramer vs Kramer, Tom Jones, Going My Way, or The Bridge on the River Quai.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 5 May 2006 16:01 (seventeen years ago) link

I might've put Kramer vs Kramer tenth another day. One of Hoffman's more convincing mid-career characters; I think it only goes wrong in the utterly unbelievable last scene w/ Streep.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 5 May 2006 16:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Also the scenes where Guinness dominates in Kwai are a tour de force; too bad the Holden stuff is dull and the gung-ho ending (altered from novel) is a total cop-out.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 5 May 2006 16:13 (seventeen years ago) link

Ned, I was only doing it for you :)

Hahahahah. :-)

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 5 May 2006 16:16 (seventeen years ago) link

You love Rebecca, Morbius? I thought you hated it!

Redd Temple Player (Two Headed Dogg) (Ken L), Friday, 5 May 2006 16:18 (seventeen years ago) link

hahaha ... It's a tribute to AJH that it's as good as it is, with such a simp as the heroine.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 5 May 2006 16:19 (seventeen years ago) link

Re Kramer: Hoffman's pleading for sympathy grates after the hour mark. Young Justin Henry was pretty good.

I really love Rebecca, despite George Sanders' cartoon villain (less Basil Rathbone, more Addison De Witt, please)

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 5 May 2006 16:22 (seventeen years ago) link

Ugh, Hair is awful! Give me The Wiz, One from the Heart or Xanadu anyday.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 5 May 2006 16:58 (seventeen years ago) link

10. The Best Years of Our Lives (just to be different, and it's a solid movie)

That's not being that different. Best Years is one of the only completely defensible BPs in history, right up there with Sunrise and the three A's (one of which, Apartment, I haven't seen yet).

I'll probably have to blog my answer to this or I'll never update that thing again.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 5 May 2006 17:00 (seventeen years ago) link

Rebecca is all about the uber-creepy Ms. Danvers!! I can't even remember who the lead is (which is I guess appropriate given the theme of the movie...)

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 5 May 2006 17:04 (seventeen years ago) link

1. The Godfather Part II
2. The Bridge on the River Kwai
3. Rebecca
4. Annie Hall
5. It Happened One Night
6. Lawrence of Arabia
7. Casablanca
8. The Apartment
9. On the Waterfront
10. From Here to Eternity

erklie (erklie), Friday, 5 May 2006 17:14 (seventeen years ago) link

1. It Happened One Night
2. The Apartment
3. All About Eve
4. On The Waterfront
5. Rebecca
6. Casablanca
7. Godfather II
8. Annie Hall
9. Deer Hunter
10. Lost Weekend

timmy tannin (pompous), Friday, 5 May 2006 17:31 (seventeen years ago) link

1. It Happened One Night
2. The Apartment
3. Rocky
4. The French Connection
5. The Broadway Melody
6. You Can't Take It With You
7. The Bridge on the River Kwai
8. Midnight Cowboy
9. The Deer Hunter
10. Unforgiven

Huk-L (Huk-L), Friday, 5 May 2006 17:51 (seventeen years ago) link

1. All About Eve
2. On the Waterfront
3. The Apartment
4. Tom Jones
5. Midnight Cowboy
6. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
7. Annie Hall
8. Amadeus
9. Shakespeare in Love
10. The Silence of the Lambs

anthony easton (anthony), Friday, 5 May 2006 18:09 (seventeen years ago) link

1. All About Eve
2. On the Waterfront
3. The Apartment
4. Tom Jones
5. Midnight Cowboy
6. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
7. Annie Hall
8. Amadeus
9. Shakespeare in Love
10. The Silence of the Lambs
(i should have chosen cabaret over tom jones)

anthony easton (anthony), Friday, 5 May 2006 18:09 (seventeen years ago) link

Shakespeare in Love? I'm curious, why?

Allyzay Rofflesbot (allyzay), Friday, 5 May 2006 18:14 (seventeen years ago) link

Actually the one thing that leaps out at me from all this is that I finally need to get around to seeing The Apartment.

Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 5 May 2006 18:15 (seventeen years ago) link

Give me The Wiz

We will! Sidney Lumet will! (you are so damn Seventies)

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 5 May 2006 18:20 (seventeen years ago) link

(also Sunrise still doesn't count, officially)

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 5 May 2006 18:22 (seventeen years ago) link

i love it--i think its really well written, the performances are clever, its really difficult to do light comedy well, esp about high culture, and some of the performances (Esp imelda staunton, geoffery rush and judi dench) are amazing. i also really like some of the rather obscure english major inside baseball (gags about john webster pulling wings off flies comes to mind)

outside the text, it amuses me that this light thing destroyed the jingoistic, macho bullshit of saving private ryan, a movie i loathed

anthony easton (anthony), Friday, 5 May 2006 18:31 (seventeen years ago) link

jingoistic, macho bullshit of Deer Hunter to thread...

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 5 May 2006 18:35 (seventeen years ago) link

Ah yeah, I forgot that was the same year.

I think my main problem with SIL is basically the leads. I agree with some of what you said but the two leads are just basically unwatchable for me.

Allyzay Rofflesbot (allyzay), Friday, 5 May 2006 18:42 (seventeen years ago) link

I saw it on a date and even my date (now my wife) hated it.

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 5 May 2006 18:51 (seventeen years ago) link

attributing Will's canon to the inspirational whinny of Gwynny is beyond grotesque.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:03 (seventeen years ago) link

haha whinny of gwynny

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:05 (seventeen years ago) link

in order of preference (more or less):

1. the apartment
2. one flew over the cuckoo's nest (all you ppl NOT voting for this are insane!)
3. casablanca
4. from here to eternity
5. the best years of our lives
6. rebecca
7. midnight cowboy
8. on the waterfront
9. annie hall
10. schindler's list (haha am i really the first one to vote for this? i don't even really like spielberg!)

J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:19 (seventeen years ago) link

Sunrise counts unless the Academy is fine with the idea that they only ever gave their top award for "artistic" qualities in its first year.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:23 (seventeen years ago) link

Well, Ed Copeland isn't counting it.

cuckoo's nest was probably the third Best Pic I saw in a theater (after Oliver! and The Sting) but I haven't seen it in years, it's a much more sanitized rebel story than the psych-sprawl of the novel, and Big Nurse is basically a misogynist's straw woman (yeah, coming from a gyrophobe like me).

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:26 (seventeen years ago) link

well lets not get into the book vs. film tangent... its interesting that everyone is rating the Apartment so highly - is it just cuz it happens to be the best of the prospective candidates, or do people really think its a highpoint for Wilder, Lemmon, et al? I like it a lot, just watched it again a few weeks ago in fact, but I can think of several Wilder films I like more that *didn't* get best picture...

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:31 (seventeen years ago) link

nurse ratched is MUCH more humanized in the movie than the book (where she's basically a cartoon monster), i guess you could argue that the story itself is misogynist but kesey's a lot more guilty than forman in that case.

J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:31 (seventeen years ago) link

it's conventional wisdom that it's a highpoint for Wilder, Lemmon, et al, and it goes on my short list of favorites from the list, and of best pictures from the list (though i've seen way too few to really say), but even of what i have seen, i'm not sure it deserves top 5

gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:34 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah, i think the apartment is wilder's best. it is funny how everyone seems to rate it these days, but there's a real melancholy about it that sticks with me. double indemnity is probably just as good (i've never been all THAT into sunset blvd, to be honest) but it doesn't mean as much to me.

J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:36 (seventeen years ago) link

I'd sort of rather have a top slot blank than give a single point to most of the winners.

If John Waters should've directed Network, then Ken Russell should've directed Cuckoo's Nest.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:36 (seventeen years ago) link

I'd rate above The Apartment: Patton, Casablanca and It Happened One Night. Maybe The Best Years of Our Lives. Maybe it is Top 5. I loved the tv You Can't Take It With You, but that was mostly Robards. What's the movie like? If I did a list, it would probably have Costner, Gene Kelly and Jackson Scholz on it, so we don't want to go there.

gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:45 (seventeen years ago) link

never seen Ordinary People. not really sure if I'm a Redford fan, strangely enough.

gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:49 (seventeen years ago) link

Dammit, I left Gigi off my list, somehow! Probably the best muscal to win.

You Can't Take It With You is a seminal stage comedy, but Capra and his writers basically threw out the last third for one of their most simplistic Big Business jeremiads.

I've cooled on Some Like It Hot over the years tho it's still a lark, but Wilder thought The Apartment was a makeup for SLIH losing to Ben-Hur. But I think the only other Wilder comedy that approaches The Apartment in sophistication is A Foreign Affair.

Eric, Russell def for Cuckoo!

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 5 May 2006 19:58 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm not sure Sunrise counts; if it did, it'd surely be on my list. Totally forgot about It Happened One Night.

cuckoo's nest was probably the third Best Pic I saw in a theater (after Oliver! and The Sting) but I haven't seen it in years, it's a much more sanitized rebel story than the psych-sprawl of the novel, and Big Nurse is basically a misogynist's straw woman (yeah, coming from a gyrophobe like me).

She creeps me the fuck out, in part because she never hisses or even raises her voice. She's every colorless school nurse who gave you an aspirin but wouldn't excusing your lateness for your next class.

Best Years is one of the only completely defensible BPs in history

I agree, Eric, but I rarely read an intelligent defense.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 5 May 2006 20:10 (seventeen years ago) link

*excusing = excuse

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 5 May 2006 20:12 (seventeen years ago) link

So, the winners are: the three A's, Casablanca, Rebecca, Unforgiven, Midnight Cowboy, Rebecca.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 5 May 2006 20:22 (seventeen years ago) link

pretty much. tho I'd be surprised that anyone thinks Unforgiven is THAT great...? I have issues with it, but it has enough great scenes to make my cut (spec. the scene where Munny's actual past is revealed, "I ain't like you, Will" etc.)

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 5 May 2006 20:26 (seventeen years ago) link

things that sucked about Unforgiven:
- gratuitous pants-wetting
- a black cowboy whose race is never mentioned, commented upon, or held against him, even when he's murdered by vindictive townspeople

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 5 May 2006 20:28 (seventeen years ago) link

Pluses:

- Pungent dialogue
- Ambivalent treatment of women (Eastwood the director seems himself confused about the whores: are they victims or instigators?)
- Munny's transformation from flu-ridden sadsack to the merciless psycho killer. It bothered me when I first saw it, but no longer.
- Excellent perfs by Freeman, Hackman (another deserved Oscar), and all the prostitutes, even by the cute one who gets cut up.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 5 May 2006 20:33 (seventeen years ago) link

it's a good movie. the idea that it's a great one is ridiculous.

gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 5 May 2006 20:40 (seventeen years ago) link

But it's a good Best Picture winner.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 5 May 2006 20:45 (seventeen years ago) link

alfred OTM on All quiet

erklie (erklie), Saturday, 6 May 2006 00:05 (seventeen years ago) link

mark sinkers essay on SOTL is where i come from here--and what moves me about it, is that it is trash, hard, unleavened trash, not redeemed at all by middle class pretensions of art. i have no idea why it won the academy award, but it was one of the best movies of the last 15 years, because of the charisma and intellegience of hopkins, because of how those qualities, and his charisma seduced foster (one of the things i think we miss about serial killers is to get that many people unders ones belt one has to be a bit charsamtic, because its the first time ive ever believed her as naive, because of the strangeness and the genuine fright i got from jamie gumb, and because of many of the virtousou(sp) elements of film making...

the apartment i like because of its britlleness, and how much it hates.

anthony easton (anthony), Saturday, 6 May 2006 00:35 (seventeen years ago) link

you're otm (except for Foster - wrong on all counts), and that's exactly why i don't like it. the serial killer seeks celebrity, and the movie delivered a generic form of that celebrity indelibly into pop culture. it won the academy award because, for all its fetishistic blue-collar milieu, it's a big spectacle epitomized by the flayed-dudes-on-cages money shot. as morally indefensible as the terrorist attacks in Independence Day.

gabbneb (gabbneb), Saturday, 6 May 2006 00:53 (seventeen years ago) link

the aliens were freedom fighters

erklie (erklie), Saturday, 6 May 2006 00:55 (seventeen years ago) link

Around the time she retired Pauline Kael praised The Grifters and dismissed SOTL: "I like my pulp as pulp." I'm not sure what she meant, since SOTL may be slower and attempt ambiguity (the hostility of fellow G-men and local sheriffs directed at Clarice Starling) but it's got the reductive psychology of pure pulp (a helpful explanation by Dr. Lecter: Clarice wants to catch Buffalo Bill because, see, she couldn't save a lamb and she wants to avenge her father's death).

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 6 May 2006 01:03 (seventeen years ago) link

thats where kael is wrong--i also like my pulp as pulp, and fucking hell it was pulp, in the most meatspace sense of the word (cf news footage of Dahmer or Gacy,etc--which concentrated on issues of flesh and the body)

anthony easton (anthony), Saturday, 6 May 2006 01:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Every scene with Buffalo Bill is classic. Everything else, not so much... excepting "I can smell yr cunt."

My ten (first half for real, second half a little devil's advocate):

01. Sunrise
02. All About Eve
03. How Green Was My Valley
04. Annie Hall
05. The Best Years of Our Lives
06. Titanic
07. The French Connection
08. Ordinary People
09. Million Dollar Baby
10. Driving Miss Daisy

Eric H. (Eric H.), Saturday, 6 May 2006 02:53 (seventeen years ago) link

defend DMD

anthony easton (anthony), Saturday, 6 May 2006 03:03 (seventeen years ago) link

well uh pauline kael liked it! *ducks*

J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 6 May 2006 03:04 (seventeen years ago) link

It's hilarious! Esther Rolle "I wouldn't be in your shoes if the good Lord came down here and ask me hisself." Dan Ackroyd just getting really fat. "Bee-uh... and an Are-uh!" I should start a JFK thread on it.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Saturday, 6 May 2006 04:00 (seventeen years ago) link

yes, DMD is good if conventional; it doesn't stink just cuz Spike Lee (who certainly was robbed) wanted Hoke to burn the mansion down.

Foster is what give SOTL its reason for being; Hopkins isn't scary or believable, he's just a pro at not blinking.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 6 May 2006 17:21 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh, if only Hopkins had played Capote in Capote and Katherine Hepburn in The Aviator.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Saturday, 6 May 2006 17:34 (seventeen years ago) link

results are up
fuckers got rotk in there

a.b. (alanbanana), Sunday, 7 May 2006 04:12 (seventeen years ago) link

ROTK at #20 is a pretty weak showing for an ubergeek touchstone in a Net poll.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 8 May 2006 12:35 (seventeen years ago) link

one year passes...

's here.

but was there a newer one?

pisces, Thursday, 28 February 2008 01:52 (sixteen years ago) link

six years pass...

http://www.ofcs.org/the-best-of-the-best-picture-oscar-winners-part-6/

22. Gone With the Wind (1939)
23. 12 Years a Slave (2013)

Ouch.

Eric H., Tuesday, 4 March 2014 22:36 (ten years ago) link

http://www.ofcs.org/the-best-of-the-best-picture-oscar-winners-part-6/

Eric pointed out this marvelous juxtaposition:

22. Gone With the Wind (1939)
23. 12 Years a Slave (2013)

Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 4 March 2014 22:41 (ten years ago) link

Oops. Goddamn cell phones.

DMD at #80 is ridic though

Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 4 March 2014 22:41 (ten years ago) link

Yeah, of all the vilified '80s winners, that ones by far the best movie, even if it got awarded during the very wrong year.

Eric H., Tuesday, 4 March 2014 22:46 (ten years ago) link

there are a lot of "good" best-picture winners i have little-to-no personal affection for, but here are some i really like:

how green was my valley
the best years of our lives
it happened one night
casablanca
the godfather
going my way
no country for old men
gigi
the silence of the lambs
rocky

(I admit that I don't love "rebecca")

espring (amateurist), Tuesday, 4 March 2014 22:50 (ten years ago) link

we should do a thread where we all pick the best american movies of all the years since 1927/28. i.e. "what should have won the oscar?"

espring (amateurist), Tuesday, 4 March 2014 22:51 (ten years ago) link

or maybe we can even pick the FIVE NOMINEES and one winner, none of which have to actually have been nominated/won.

espring (amateurist), Tuesday, 4 March 2014 22:52 (ten years ago) link

sure as shit Holiday should've been at least nominated in '38.

Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 4 March 2014 22:53 (ten years ago) link

we should do a thread where we all pick the best american movies of all the years since 1927/28. i.e. "what should have won the oscar?"

There's an Oscar for best American movie?

Alba, Tuesday, 4 March 2014 23:00 (ten years ago) link

I got '95 on lockdown.

Eric H., Tuesday, 4 March 2014 23:00 (ten years ago) link

most mediocre of my lifetime

Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 4 March 2014 23:01 (ten years ago) link

Not too hard to improve the nominations tho.

Eric H., Tuesday, 4 March 2014 23:04 (ten years ago) link

rebecca easily my fav hitch these days

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, 4 March 2014 23:11 (ten years ago) link

Probably time to revise my list from upthread. Now it'd be more like ...

01. Sunrise
02. All About Eve
03. Annie Hall
04. The Best Years of Our Lives
05. No Country for Old Men
06. How Green Was My Valley
07. The Godfather (I give)
08. maybe West Side Story
09. I dunno, maybe The Hurt Locker?
10. Ordinary People

Eric H., Tuesday, 4 March 2014 23:12 (ten years ago) link

revised:

Sunrise
All About Eve
The Apartment
The Godfather, Part II
It Happened One Night
From Here to Eternity
How Green Was My Valley
No Country for Old Men
Rebecca
The Best Years of Our Lives
On the Waterfront
12 Years a Slave

Bryan Fairy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 4 March 2014 23:15 (ten years ago) link

Chronologically:

On the Waterfront
The Apartment
Midnight Cowboy
The Godfather
The Godfather II
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Annie Hall
The Deer Hunter
American Beauty
No Country for Old Men

"American blah blah blah?"--it's okay, I'm aware, I'm aware.

clemenza, Tuesday, 4 March 2014 23:21 (ten years ago) link

Missed From Here to Eternity--probably that over Annie Hall, but it's close.

clemenza, Tuesday, 4 March 2014 23:23 (ten years ago) link

1. Forrest Gump
2. Amadeus
3. Rain Man
4. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
5. Silence of the Lambs
6. Titanic
7. Platoon
8. The Godfather
9. Driving Miss Daisy
10. The Deer Hunter

Mr. Snrub, Tuesday, 4 March 2014 23:24 (ten years ago) link

rebecca
sunrise
the apartment
one flew over the cuckoo's nest
the best years of our lives
casablanca
midnight cowboy
how green was my valley
all quiet on the western front
the lost weekend

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, 4 March 2014 23:53 (ten years ago) link

the lost weekend is a really good movie, I forgot about that one

espring (amateurist), Wednesday, 5 March 2014 00:00 (ten years ago) link

four years pass...

don't know the guys who wrote abt Gigi and My Fair Lady, but they're kind of embarrassing

a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 16 February 2019 14:54 (five years ago) link

at first I thought, "but a lot of these 'What Should Have Won' choices are dubious too" before realizing they're only choosing from the other nominees

Josefa, Saturday, 16 February 2019 15:50 (five years ago) link


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