I was always underwhelmed by The Sting; I loved seeing Redford and Newman teamed again and it has a great cast but not a great movie. Mind you, it’s still a fun movie
...for the Lifetime channel. For the Oscars it has the most predictable and forced beats of any winner. Terrible terrible choice. Many not great best pictures got a nod for telling a true story (Argo, Spotlight) or containing a message (Crash) or representing a not often mentioned slice of life (Driving Miss Daisy, Coda.)
But it was fun. I like fun movies getting a nod occasionally, like The Fugitive. Otherwise looking at the list of best picture winners looks like "do I have to."
The competition was fairly soft that year (1974). It was up against ' The Exorcist' ( and that was not going to win) , ' American Graffitti' ( probably considered too lightweight / lowbrow for the Academy), and a couple of dull ass flicks to pad out the contender list.
For me, 1972 is the only year when the five Best Picture nominees were the five best films. In alphabetical order: Cabaret Deliverance The Emigrants The Godfather Sounder Other years come close but don't quite match it--and several of those are in the same decade.
I'd replace Deliverance with The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, but otherwise yes, 1972 was an outstanding year for the Oscars.
wouldn't a re-make of either the sting, or butch cassidy or both with clooney and pitt, be wonderful?
It’d be cool. The Sting I think could use it more than Butch which is just about a perfect movie and one of Goldman’s best scripts. I miss him as a writer.
Well I finally saw Everything everywhere all at once today from the library and I gotta say this is the oddest best picture winner I've ever seen. It was weird, funky, very little of it made a lick of sense, there were far too many darn subtitles, and in general it was just so out there I'm not quite sure what to make of it. Through it all though it was strangely compelling and weirdly interesting enough for me to not want to turn it off, and the ending was definitely heartwarming in its own way, but man what a strange trip to get there. The academy must have been in one weird mood to give it any awards, much less best picture.
Some good-to-great movies on there, but the only ones I'd probably ever screen again are Casablanca and Unforgiven. The rest are pretty much 'one and done' for me (lol).
NONE of the films on that 'Best Picture winners' list is in my top 20 all-time favorites list (lol). Casablanca would definitely place somewhere in the top 40 though.
I've seen fifty one of the films but but looking through the list, it's been curious how much my interest has waned over the years because there are several recent winners I've never even heard of let alone seen. In any event, here are the films I think bear repeated viewings: Casablanca Around The World In Eighty Days Ben-Hur Lawrence Of Arabia A Man For All Seasons The Sting Chariots Of Fire Gandhi Dances With Wolves The English Patient Argo Spotlight My ten least favourites would be: Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King American Beauty Titanic Out Of Africa Terms Of Endearment Kramer Vs Kramer Annie Hall An American In Paris Hamlet How Green Was My Valley
There's only a very few of these I'd ever watch again. 'Gandhi' dulled me right out. And I don't remember what was up against 'The English Patient' for Best Picture but they must have been a tedious buncha films for that snoozefest to bag top prize.
Love 'em both, personally. The other films in The English Patient's year were Jerry Maguire, Fargo, Secrets & Lies and Shine. For me, The English Patient is certainly more enjoyable than Secrets & Lies and Fargo. Haven't seen the other two.
I thought Fargo was a total grind, If I hadn't gone to the flicks with friends, I would have given up and gone to the pub way before the end,
100% agree on The English Tried My Patience. I fell asleep in the theater three or four times and was gobsmacked every time I woke up and the damned thing was still going. Oh and Elaine Benes is my hero.
Went to see The English Patient first-run with my wife and another 'artsy New York' couple at an upscale urban art house cinema. I nodded out, and when I awoke at about the 60-minute mark, the other three in our party were snoring blissfully in sleepy repose.