Article on "Worst Oscar Picks"

This should provoke some debate:

The Best of the Worst
A look at the worst films, performances and directors Oscar has rewarded
By Dave McCoy
MSN Entertainment


The only thing Americans love more than controversy is arguing ... and for movie fans, nothing gets us more riled up than the Oscars. Danny Perry, in his book "Alternate Oscars," wrote, "Second-guessing the Academy's Oscar selections has become the national sport of the dissatisfied and disenfranchised." We argue about who should host the awards. We argue about what or who was or wasn't nominated. But perhaps the biggest arguments come after the awards are handed out. "How could they give that film Best Picture?!" "She won Best Supporting Actress?"

When you look back at the 75 years of the Academy Awards, you have that reaction a lot. Simply put, the Academy has made some huge errors, and history has not been kind to their decisions. The most obvious example is "Citizen Kane." Though it's considered by critics and cinephiles alike to be the best film ever made, the Academy didn't even consider it the best film of that year (1941), giving the award instead to "How Green Was My Valley." And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

So, what follows is our look at the Academy's biggest blunders. We're only covering the six main categories. Sorry, we can't do them all. I mean, if we covered the Best Song category, we could write an entire dissertation on the last 20 years alone.

Feel free to argue ...

Worst Supporting Actress
Since the supporting categories were started in 1937, the biggest number of Academy gaffes, by far, reside here. Look down the list of best supporting actress winners and you'll be scratching your head so many times, people may think you've contracted lice. It's so bad, in fact, that we have a tie. The old line goes age before beauty, so let's start with Helen Hayes' win as on old lady stowaway in the clichéd disaster film "Airport" (1970). In the supporting category the winners usually swing between really good newcomers and crusty "Lifetime Achievement Award" old timers; Hayes, who was 70 when she won this award, falls in the later category (she had already won Best Actress in 1932 for "The Sin of Madelon Claudet"). Though her performance is scene stealing, it's hardly Oscar-worthy (Karen Black in "Five Easy Pieces" or Sally Kellerman in "M.A.S.H." were both stronger). On the other end of the spectrum, but equally as baffling, was Marisa Tomei's win for "My Cousin Vinny (1992). You could hear an audible gasp in the audience when Tomei's one-note performance as Joe Pesci's obnoxious, street-smart girlfriend was awarded gold. Twelve years later, it's just as puzzling ... especially to actresses like Judy Davis ("Husbands and Wives") and Vanessa Redgrave ("Howard's End") who were much more deserving.

Dishonorable mentions:
Beatrice Straight -- "Network" (1976)
Judi Dench -- "Shakespeare in Love" (1998)
Whoopi Goldberg -- "Ghost" (1990)
Angelina Jolie -- "Girl, Interrupted" (1999)
Mira Sorvino -- "Mighty Aphrodite" (1995)
Maggie Smith -- "California Suite" (1978)
Ingrid Bergman -- "Murder on the Orient Express" (1973)

Worst Supporting Actor
Unlike Supporting Actress, the Academy has generally redeemed itself when it comes to Supporting Actors. In fact, poring over the list of winners, the only one that sticks out is George Burns for "The Sunshine Boys" (1975). His win isn't offensive or awful as much as undeserving. He played one half of a vaudeville act (Walter Matthau is the other half) who reunites with his old partner late in life despite the fact that they hate each other. Burns' win definitely falls under the "Lifetime Achievement Award" category, as his competition that year blows his deadpan performance away. Jack Warden in "Shampoo," Brad Dourif in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," Burgess Meredith for "The Day of the Locust," and especially Chris Sarandon for "Dog Day Afternoon" were all better choices, but apparently not sentimental enough for the Academy. Does anyone even remember "The Sunshine Boys"?

Dishonorable mention:
Jack Palance -- "City Slickers" (1991)
Ed Begley Sr. -- "Sweet Bird of Youth" (1962)
Peter Ustinov -- "Spartacus" (1960)
Red Buttons -- "Sayonara" (1957)
Don Ameche -- "Cocoon" (1985)

Worst Actress
Of all the major categories, Best Actress is the one where you don't find many mistakes by the Academy. For the most part, they got things right, or at least didn't embarrass themselves. There is always an exception, however, and here it is Elizabeth Taylor winning Best Actress for "Butterfield 8" (1960). Before the film -- a campy, nearly unwatchable drama about a prostitute (Taylor) who falls for a married lawyer (Laurence Harvey) -- was even made, there were problems. Taylor thought the script was offensive, saying, "This is the most pornographic script I've ever read. I've been [at MGM] for 17 years and I was never asked to play such a horrible role ... she's a sick nymphomaniac ..." The problem, however, was that Liz was under contract and obligated to make one more picture for MGM. After many concessions by the studio, Taylor finally agreed to make the film. Critics trashed it, but audiences ate it up, and the film was a hit. Taylor was nominated, but the odds were against a victory for her in her first Oscar race. However, weeks before the ceremony, Taylor fell sick with a mysterious illness, and her condition was considered grave after a doctor performed a tracheotomy. Despite her sudden illness, Taylor vowed she'd make the ceremony. In a feat of disgusting empathy, the Academy awarded Liz with her first Oscar (she made the ceremony, and fainted backstage after winning) for a role she never wanted in a film that no one remembers.

Dishonorable mention:
Halle Berry -- "Monster's Ball" (2001)
Grace Kelly -- "The Country Girl" (1954)
Judy Holliday -- "Born Yesterday" (1950)
Cher -- "Moonstruck" (1987)
Glenda Jackson -- "A Touch of Class" (1973)

Worst Actor
Though the list of Academy mistakes in this category is long and impressive, we have to go with Roberto Benigni winning Best Actor for his Italian Holocaust comedy "Life is Beautiful" (1998). We'll spare you the details of why "Life is Beautiful" is one of the most offensive, callous, self-serving, sappy films to ever dupe both the nation and the Academy (it received more nominations than any foreign film in history), for that is another article. Instead, let's focus on Benigni's hyperactive, megalomaniacal "performance." He plays an imprisoned father in a Nazi death camp who tries to hide the reality of the Holocaust from his son by pretending the whole experience is a game. Benigni doesn't give a performance as much as celebrate himself and his "clever" idea. He wants to be Keaton or Chaplin, but we see his jokes coming from miles away. He's mugging and winking at the audience the whole way through and the result is nauseating. His shtick was good enough to fool the Academy, however, allowing Benigni to embarrass himself (again) on national TV by running around like a madman while gushing such drivel as "My body is in tumult ... I would like to be ... lying down and making love to everybody." Nick Nolte, who was nominated for his performance in "Affliction," was robbed.

Dishonorable mention:
Art Carney -- "Harry and Tonto" (1974)
Paul Lukas -- "Watch on the Rhine" (1943)
Dustin Hoffman -- "Rain Man" (1988)
John Wayne -- "True Grit" (1970)
Peter Finch -- "Network" (1976)
Rex Harrison -- "My Fair Lady" (1964)

Worst Director
I still remember the moment as if it were yesterday. It was March 24, 2002, I was at an Oscar party and they were just about to announce Best Director. The field was brutal: America's premier maverick Robert Altman for "Gosford Park"; genius David Lynch for "Mulholland Drive," easily the best film of 2001; one-time filmmaking master Ridley Scott for "Black Hawk Down"; rising mastermind Peter Jackson for "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring;" and Ron Howard for "A Beautiful Mind." Ron Howard. The guy that made memorable cinema such as "Gung Ho." And "EdTV." Oh, and how could we forget "Far and Away" or "Backdraft"? I was pulling for Altman -- he had never won, was 77 years old, and "Gosford Park" was remarkable -- but a win by Lynch or Jackson would have been justified too. Even a Scott win I could swallow. But they gave it to Howard. Three of the best directors in film history (plus, Ridley Scott) lost to Opie. Howard is a director who makes safe, bland entertainment intended not to ruffle anyone's feathers. A more challenging director could have made "A Beautiful Mind," and they wouldn't have changed facts about the life of John Nash to make the film more mainstream. Howard signifies everything that is boring and wrong with Hollywood, and his reward was a statue that defines the system. So, maybe, it was warranted. Still, there have been a lot of Oscar blunders, but this one rises above them all.

Dishonorable mention:
Robert Zemeckis -- "Forrest Gump" (1994)
Oliver Stone --"Born on the Fourth of July" (1989)
Leo McCarey -- "Going My Way" (1944)
Kevin Costner -- "Dances With Wolves" (1990)
Robert Redford -- "Ordinary People" (1980)
George Roy Hill -- "The Sting" (1973)

Toughest Call:
John Ford ("How Green Was My Valley") beat Orson Welles ("Citizen Kane") for Best Director in 1941. While Ford is easily one of the top five directors in film history, Welles deserved the award that year. Plus, Ford had already won an award (he went on to win four total). Meanwhile, Welles was never nominated again.

Worst Picture
In 1989, Spike Lee made his masterpiece, "Do the Right Thing," a volatile, edgy ensemble piece about deteriorating race relations in a Brooklyn neighborhood on the hottest day of the year. The film was a much-needed cinematic slap in the face: unblinking social commentary masked as entertainment. It was angry and funny and shocking, fueled by real humanity yet never yielding to cheap sentimentality. Oh, yeah, and it wasn't even nominated by the Academy for Best Picture. Instead, films like the conformity-embracing "Dead Poet's Society," the hyperbolic "Born on the Fourth of July," the schmaltzy "Field of Dreams," the biopic "My Left Foot" and, sigh, "Driving Miss Daisy" instead earned nominations. The same year that Spike Lee opened audience's eyes to the dangerously explosive nature of race relations in America, the Academy looked away, and instead retreated 30 or 40 years. They awarded "Driving Miss Daisy" the Best Picture trophy. That cozy, unthreatening exploration of a relationship between an aging Southern matriarch and her African-American driver was just the type of movie that critic David Thomson calls "feel-good liberalism" that the Academy eats up. It was nice and safe and told you exactly how to feel. The fact that Lee's film was snubbed when the nominations were announced was bad enough; that "Daisy" drove off with the Oscar for Best Picture just showed how out of touch the Academy was -- not only with cinema, but society. Irony has never been more bitter.

Dishonorable mention:
"The Greatest Show on Earth" (1952)
"Around the World in 80 Days" (1956)
"A Beautiful Mind" (2001)
"Titanic" (1997)
"Out of Africa" (1985)
"Kramer Vs. Kramer" (1979)
"Ordinary People" (1980)

 

All of these can be debated.

My personal criticism is the loss of Pulp Fiction to Forrest Gump.

While Gump is a nice pleasant All American movie, Pulp took us places we had never seen before. It still to this day remains one of the most remarkable films I have ever seen on the big screen. I loved it immediately.

I also agree that A Beautiful Mind beating out you name em: (Gosford Park/ Mullholland Drive/ or LOTR's) is just wrong.

 

One could spend much time on this subject. But it IS fun. One of many atrocious picks:
Cuba Gooding Jr. winning Best Supporting Actor over William H. Macy's performance in Fargo.

 

The other thing, not mentioned, is that a lot of the finest "art" - and I mean movies, books, paintings, even music - is, as they say, "ahead of its time." It's really no surprise that "Citizen Kane," for example, was overlooked when it first came out - or "Pulp Fiction" for that matter. Not that they (and others on the list) weren't successful, but that they were different enough to upset or unnerve the audiences at the time. And don't forget, the Academy voters are generally older vets of the business who tend to praise the sort of films they're "comfortable" with.

 

Unsurprisingly, I agreed with a number of picks and not on others. They hit it right on the head with their attacks on "Life Is Beautiful", "Rain Man" and "Driving Miss Daisy", though.

The one that most surprised me was Peter Ustinov -- "Spartacus" (1960). I thought he was terrific in that flick. He wasn't the best actor in it, as Olivier and Laughton provided stronger work, but I can't quibble with his award...

 

As a certified Oscar junkie, I love these kind of debates! My all-time "worst best picture" would be Out of Africa. It was the only time I literally fell asleep at the movies!

 

Sorry again!

 

Please No Ed (not Edward) Norton Bashing On This Forum!!! RIP Oh Pal O Mine....

 

Gotta agree with Titanic and Ordinary People (not a bad film, but better than Raging Bull?) Surprised that Gladiator and Braveheart aren't on that list as well.

Well, film is art, and art is subjective, so who's to say? I like what I like, and you like what you like, and that's okay!

 

The Academy is simply not the place where ground-breaking, cinematic art is fostered and encouraged. The writer's assessment of Do the Right Thing vs Driving Miss Daisy is dead-on, but unsurprising. That film was scary at the time and there was no way the Academy was going to encourage that.

One definig aspect of films like DtRT and Pulp Fiction is that they were made outside the mainstream, so why should they be expected to win awards? I'm still surprised and amused that people expect the Academy to be artistically objective when their entire history is antithetical to that philosophy.

 

Exactly Ken! (And I was there for Beautiful Mind.)

And as Greg said, it is extremely subjective. Greg justtrashed Braveheart, which is one of my Top Ten films of the decade. So there!

 

All I want to know is in your choices of worst best actor winners, how'd you manage to miss Al Pacino in "Scent Of A Woman"? IMO, that's one of the biggest goofs in Oscar history. In year that included Denzel Washington in "Malcolm X"(who really should have won), Clint Eastwood in "Unforgiven", Stephen Rea in "The Crying Game", and Robert Downey, Jr. in "Chaplin", you really can't explain it except the academy was trying to make it up to him for overlooking him numerous times.

 

I'm truly surprised with the omission of William Hurt in the dishonorable mention category for worst actor (Kiss of the Spider Woman - 1986). While his performance was good, Harrison Ford was robbed IMO. Ford's performance in Witness is simply superb.

 

For the most part, typical elitist critic nonsense. Frankly, who cares? People may see a film once because it won an Oscar, but never twice. As someone already noted, the AA are about as relevant to genius and accomplishment as the Grammys. Watch the show, check out the dresses, then go rent "Caddyshack" for the eleventieth time!

And for the record, I DO remember THE SUNSHINE BOYS!

 

This has to be a joke... or an incredibly big, dumb mistake. Beatrice Straight's performance (as well as the other principles in this film: Finch, Holden, Dunaway and Beatty) is splendid. The quiet anguish she conveys at the realization that her marriage to Holden is crumbling before her eyes is a classic "supporting" performance in every sense of the word and is certainly "Oscar worthy" IMHO.

Who the heck wrote this thing??

Gary

 

I was a critic once, so I can say, "Critics!! Sheeesh!!"

My sentiments exactly!! What the writer is not taking into account is the fact that Academy voters often vote with their hearts, not their minds. John Wayne, while very, very good in True Grit, actually won for his body of work. And if you think he couldn't act, go look at The Searchers, or other Ford pictures.

Speaking of Ford, How Green Was My Valley is a great picture, check it out!!! The fact that this writer is so *blindered* to this and other pesky *facts* is shameful.

Sorry for the rant. But, I suppose if Bill Murray wins for Best Actor this year he will go on this guy's dishonourable mentions...and I think he's going to win.


(Important phrase to remember--"Body of work." Having said that, Murray is stupendous in 'Translation' and deserves to win, IM--not so--HO!!)

 

Hawks admired Ford's style. So much so that Red River was often mistaken for a Ford picture. When complimented on it, Ford would reply, "Thank You."

 

I agree that awards should not be used as surrogate "Lifetime Achievement Awards." In the end, voting someone an undeserving, sentimental award only causes the sort of gaffes and slights that years later require yet another generation of dubious trophies to correct.

The worst Best Picture selections I can remember are CHARIOTS OF FIRE, OUT OF AFRICA, and BRAVEHEART. I didn't think any of those films should have even been nominated.

As for snubbed films that have entered the pantheon of greatness by the sheer weight of an adoring audience (like PULP FICTION), how about BLADE RUNNER or SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION?

 

The worst year was 1968 - "The Graduate", "Bonnie And Clyde" and "2001: A Space Odyssey" lost out to "Oliver!". We tried watching "Oliver" lately and couldn't get through it.

It's really funny to go back to the thirties to see the winners. Most of them are forgotten films that no one has seen since then.

It's all an insider-industry back-slapping party anyway, of no consequence.

 

"Oliver!" indeed is a terrible film, but it didn't beat any of those films. "Graduate" and "B&C" lost to "In the Heat of the Night" for 1967. "2001" wasn't nominated, so it didn't technically lose to "Oliver!" (For the record, "Oliver!" beat "The Lion in Winter", "Funny Girl", "Rachel, Rachel" and "Romeo and Juliet".)

That's harsh. Those films still have an audience - indeed, three of them just came out on DVD a couple of weeks ago, and I rather liked two of them ("Grand Hotel" and "Great Ziegfeld"). Obviously "It Happened One Night" and "Gone With the Wind" remain well-known classics, and "All Quiet on the Western Front" still is influential and very well regarded. Don't dismiss most of a decade as unmemorable just because YOU don't know the films...