Best Picture Oscar Winners : The Good, The Bad and The Really?

Yikes, I would rate THIN RED LINE as among the decade's best . . . But I knew it wouldn't connect with audiences like SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.

 

I don't know if I saw*anything* this year that I thought was "Best Picture" nomination quality. The Irishman and Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood were probably the closest. IMO Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was mediocre, and 1917 was fairly entertaining but just a SF gimmick. Knives Out was a fun puzzle movie, but not anything more than that. I haven't seen The Lighthouse or Uncut Gems yet, though.

 

I say the same thing about E.T. It starts off well but by the middle of the movie it stumbles into the basement.

 

Uncut Gems is superb.

 

I find it a marvelous movie and musical. Joel Grey was amazingly creepy.

 

I think it’s also a pretty crappy movie. Cliched, predictable and the only saving grace is Henry Fonda.

 

Saving Private Ryan has a relatable story. Meanwhile The Thin Red Line is a deep film. Nature watches as the human kill each other. Malick should've won Best Picture and Best Director. IMHO.

 

Just watched 1917 - I thought it was an amazing experience - really well done, very thoughtful and the right mix of hollywood popcorn and tense drama. Excellent. Bizarrely the entire audience just sat silent for a good 4 to 5 minutes after the movie ended. It just felt disrespectful to move.

I also loved the Wayfaring Stranger, Over Jordan segue - Papa M does a great version if you want to listen

 

here is one for you all.

if/when joaquin phoenix wins the best actor oscar......i'm pretty sure it will only be the second time that 2 different actors won the oscar for playing the same role.

deniro/brando = vito corleone

correct????????????

 

Meaning it'll win Best Picture eventually?

I suspect the legacy of "MM:FR" will go the other direction. It received massive praise 5 years ago but I think it'll be semi-forgotten over time.

For all the love it received, it's really Just Another Loud, Aggressive Action Movie...

 

I'm amazingly creepy too, but that doesn't mean I'd make a movie good!

 

I thought both he overacted - as did most of the cast. Playing against type, Dabney Coleman was the only actor I thought did well:

On Golden Pond [Blu-ray] (1981)

 

The answer is Heaven's Gate. United Artists was tied up with Michael Cimino's epic Western they couldn't do a proper Oscar campaign for Raging Bull. This is what we call "collateral damage".

 

IIRC, it came out the same year as BLADE RUNNER, ROAD WARRIOR and THE THING, meaning it was, at best, the fourth best SF film that year!

 

What was there to actively dislike in Brooklyn? Such a sweet fun film.

 

As it happens I saw all the films on the 2015 list in the theater. Spotlight was easily the best on this list and one of the best of the 2010’s. Revenant and Mad Max the next two and then Room. And between Argo and Spotlight it’s no contest IMO. Argo took too much liberty with the truth and Affleck was not believable.

 

As I mentioned earlier in the thread, it should have been nominated (and won) cinematography, and it should have won art direction and visual effects -- even at the time there was really no contest. Blade Runner stood way above everything else in those three categories in 1982. You might reasonably argue that Ridley Scott deserved a nomination for director, but at the time it tanked so badly that idea wouldn't have gotten any traction. I'd be curious to look back at Variety to see what Warner's Oscar campaign for this film pushed.

ET should have taken Best Picture and Director that year (as Raiders should have the year before). But, you know, prestige etc.

Has this thread taken a dump on The Shape of Water yet? I'm still dumbfounded that movie got the accolades it did, let alone Best Picture. It's well made, but MAN is that movie weeeeiiiiirddd.

 

As great as any movie you'll ever see, pretty much. It's widely considered to have arguably the greatest original screenplay of all time, and it's just a helluva work of art.

 

yeah I never got the hypr

 

I really loved The Shape of Water, but no question it was weird city. What I liked about it was that it took a lot of chances and was completely unpredictable: that ending came out of nowhere for me, and yet it made total sense. Universal Studios were fools not to hire Guillermo del Toro to handle their entire "Dark Universe" horror films, including Creature from the Black Lagoon. So many of the reboots they've done were massive flops, but Water was a really big hit -- critically and commercially -- which would have given their horror films a lot of credibility.

I wouldn't say it was that great, but it is a very fine film. Chinatown was #3 on the WGA's list of the 100 greatest screenplays ever, so they agree with you:

WGA 101 Greatest Screenplays

 

This got me looking at decade best lists and the only movie from that year's noms to rank is Mad Max:Fury Road, in some cases as Best of the Decade.
So in that way it did get best picture and it is moving more toward classic than forgotten.

 

Fury Road left me cold, and I thought the characters were hard to empathize with, and I also thought it looked absolutely bizarre. But it did win six Oscars (and was nominated for 10), so there is that. The film cost a whopping $185 million dollars (about $30M overbudget) and made about $380M, which is not enough to really break even:

This Is Why We Haven’t Gotten a Mad Max: Fury Road Sequel Yet

I think George Miller is a really talented filmmaker, but this one didn't grab me.

 

Regarding Chinatown, you've got peak Nicholson and Dunaway, and John Huston's presence really puts it over the top for me. I still marvel at Jerry Goldsmith's score, written and recorded in under two weeks. Granted, it really has only one theme, but the orchestrations are brilliant, using waterphone, extended piano and harp to great effect, and that incredible trumpet, along with those lush strings. What atmosphere! One of my favorite soundtracks.

And yeah, that screenplay. Once you see the film, listen to the commentary between David Fincher and screenwriter Robert Towne, which is essential for anyone interested in filmmaking.

 

I've always thought peak Nicholson was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. That one was fun, but ****ing devastating at the end!

 

The leads generally get nominated for each version of A Star Is Born, but no one ever wins.