4 Responses to Top 10 Oscars That Should Have Been

1. Darcy says:

   March 1, 2012 at 5:54 pm

   10. Richard Burton should have won for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1967) I am not just saying this because Virginia Woolf IS my favorite film ever, and Paul Scofield is great in A Man for All Seasons, but Burton is electric. Just watch it.

   9. Oliver! over The Lion in Winter? Oh, the humanity! (1968)

   8. Peter Sellers should have won best actor for Dr. Strangelove (1965). He played three completely different roles beautifully, ad-libbing a lot. Instead, the Oscar went to Rex Harrison for My Fair Lady. He also beat Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole. Why?

   7. 1990: Born on the Fourth of July should have run over Driving Miss Daisy. Born on the Fourth of July is a brilliantly done portrait of a broken man piecing himself back together, and Driving Miss Daisy is a cute picture about a little old lady learning that she shouldn’t be so racist after all. The whole film is beneath all of its parts.

   6. 2006: Crash beat Brokeback Mountain? And Munich? And Good Night, and Good Luck? And Capote? That film is seriously overdone. Okay, we get it. Everyone’s a little bit racist. I can think of a musical starring puppets that made that point a lot better than Crash.

   5. Fargo should have beaten The English Patient. The former is a clever, well-paced, quirky story that is well-acted and directed. The latter is a boring, overwrought love story set against war. Haven’t we seen this before?

   4. 1976: Network or Taxi Driver instead of Rocky. What more can I say?

   3. 1995: The Shawshank Redemption or Pulp Fiction should have been Best Picture over Forrest Gump. Forrest Gump is a gimmicky, feel-good, babyboomer fairy tale. It’s okay. Just okay.

   2. 1998: Seriously? Titanic over The Full Monty or L.A. Confidential or Good Will Hunting or anything else ever? Seriously? Allow me to vomit in my mouth a little. Also, My Heart WIll Go On over Miss Misery? What’s your problem, Academy?

   1. 1986: The Color Purple should have beaten Out of Africa. I think this is the single greatest travesty in the history of the Academy Awards. 11 nominations without a single win? I will never stop being angry about this, never. Out of Africa is great and huge, but it’s safe. The Color Purple moves me in a way that few things do.

   • Craig says:

     March 1, 2012 at 6:02 pm

     Excellent comments and I almost completely agree! Except for Rocky… No movie had the impact that Rocky had that year. It was completely “The Film of the Year,” and the movie that year is remembered for, sorry. And Burgess Meredith, forget about it! It’s still a great controversy!

     Craig 🙂

2. Darcy says:

   March 1, 2012 at 8:10 pm

   Also, here are some general comments that I said aloud to the podcast before I realized no one could here me.

   1969, 1970 John Wayne should not have won for True Grit. The Academy was making it up to him for not winning for The Searchers, which was a better performance, not recognized by the Academy.

   I hate James Cameron (except that I freaking love Aliens and Terminator I and II). I hate, hate, hate him. I also hate Avatar. Seriously, I have already seen Fern Gully and Pocahontas. That being said, The Hurt Locker was just okay; District 9 should have won, but that would only happen in my wildest dreams. I have read a lot of analysis over this pick, and some bloggers think that the Academy just wanted a token lady, since women are so woefully underrepresented in film (and politics, art, music, and history, but who’s keeping score, here?). Bigelow was a safe pick because her film is so “macho”. I don’t know. I normally like war films, and I think this film did a decent job portraying the dehumanizing effects of war, but not better than a dozen other films.

   1999 Yes, Ed Norton over Roberto Benigni. A thousand times yes.

   Yeah, Dustin Hoffman was robbed in 1982. Doug, did you just compare Tootsie to Mrs. Doubtfire? Ha, no.

   John Hawkes for Winters Bone? YES!

   Dances with Wolves deserved Best Picture. It’s the best thing Costner has ever done. Ever. This film is a feat of filmmaking; everything was authentic: the clothes, the language, everything. You can say it was the political choice, but until then, Native Americans had not been portrayed like complex characters, capable of It’s just great. Great. And you say that the guy can conquer all odds, but the kicker is that he doesn’t do that. They lose. They have to leave and things look pretty awful for Dances with Wolves and his new family, though I read both books by Michael Blake and a lot worse is to come…

   Goodfellas is a great film, although I can’t watch Ray Liotta in anything without thinking of Henry Hill and how much I hate him. He should have been nominated for making me hate him so much.

   Godfather III is as dead to me as Luca Brasi. Ick. It shames its predecessors. I was rooting for someone to off one or all of the Corleones by the end of the film. This is especially hard for me to say because of how stunning the first two films are. The Godfather is something I watch over and over and still feel the same during the baptism/Michael’s power consolidation scene or the final scene of the door closing over Kay’s realization of what’s happening or poor, pathetic Fredo being poor and pathetic or infinitely quotable Clemenza saying anything. Part III is a disgrace. Pooey. There, I spat.

   2003: I really hated myself for liking Chicago so much.

   No, Braveheart is not accurate, but it is a great film.

   http://medievalscotland.org/scotbiblio/bravehearterrors.shtml

3. Darcy says:

   March 1, 2012 at 8:17 pm

   *Native Americans had not been portrayed as complex characters, capable of the range of human emotions and actions.*

   I should really cut down on the coffee.