Another year and another Oscar show is upon us, these awards are supposed to honor the best and brightest of Hollywood but often it just a platform for Hollywood elites to tells us all about their political views or grievances that they never have to deal with, but I digress. I haven’t watch one of these awards shows in years, but it still blows my mind how often they get these awards wrong. I thought I would take a break from politics and talk about some of Oscar’s biggest flops.
1981 Best Picture: Chariots of Fire, Runner-Up: Raiders of the Lost Ark
Chariots of Fire might be one of the dullest movies of all time! The fact that it beat Raiders is mind boggling! Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the best action-adventure movies of all time. Snakes, the whip, the hat, the giant rolling boulder, the bent Mercedes hood ornament, and of course the ark, have all become indelible Hollywood images. How Raiders lost to this movie is mind numbing!
1980 Best Picture: Ordinary People, Runner Up: Raging Bull
Many critics consider “Raging Bull” to be the best film of the entire decade – but the Academy couldn’t bring itself to say it was the best movie of 1980. Ordinary People was a nice picture but can’t hold a candle to Raging Bull, a vivid black-and-white boxing biopic of Jake LaMotta. The movie represented another brilliant teaming of Robert DeNiro and Scorsese – and together, they depicted a knockout portrait of a man who was as vicious outside the ring as he was within it. This was a poor choice.
1979 Best Picture: Kramer vs Kramer, Runner Up: Apocalypse Now
This drama about a newly divorced couple engaged in a painful custody battle was heartfelt and moving – and it deservedly won acting Oscars for Dustin Hoffmann and Meryl Streep. But “Kramer vs. Kramer” pales in comparison to Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now,” Set during the Vietnam War, we journey with Martin Sheen to find Marlon Brando, we are taken on a mysterious and wild trip that turns hallucinogenic by the end. “Kramer vs. Kramer” may tug at your heart, but “Apocalypse Now” burrows in the mind.
1996 Best Picture: The English Patient, Runner Up: Fargo
If you are ever having a problem with getting to sleep, watch The English Patient. This movie is like watching paint dry, for a week! Fargo, on the other hand gives you everything. It starts darkly with murder and kidnapping. It turns funny with biting social commentary on small-town Midwestern life, and then it finally becomes moving as an affirmation of the importance of family in our lives. This was really a gross injustice by the Academy, Frances McDormand is awesome in this flick!
And the worst Academy pick of all time.
1998 Best Picture: Shakespeare in Love, Runner Up: Saving Private Ryan
While Shakespeare in Love is a nice picture, it pales in comparison to Saving Private Ryan. The opening scene on Omaha beach might be the greatest war battle scene ever filmed, it still gives me the chills. Following Captain John Miller and his men to rescue Private Ryan through the battlefields of Europe during the height of D-Day is amazing to watch. Captain Miller’s final words on that bridge, “Earn this”, encapsulates the mindset of the greatest generation. How this movie didn’t win best picture is beyond belief!
Some runners up.
Dances with Wolves over Goodfellas
Driving Miss Daisy over Field of Dreams and Dead Poets Society
Gandhi over E.T.
One last little footnote, in 1939 the folks at the Academy had to pick between three of the all-time classics in movie history, Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, that had to be a tough vote.
Awesome post Tony. Agree with your analysis on all accounts.
Thanks Tony, but I really have not watched the show, entirely, for many years. The tid bits that I have seen have proven that the program is really a… (you fill in the blanks)