Oscar’s Only Human: The 10 Biggest Academy Awards Blunders
9. And The Winner Is…Robert Donat?!?!?!?!
Film historians and critics have long considered 1939 a golden year for movies. A list of the year’s notable films reads like the cream of the classic crop: Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Stagecoach, Ninotchka (“Garbo laughs!”), Wuthering Heights, The Wizard Of Oz, and a little Civil War drama called Gone With The Wind.
The Best Actor category that year was packed with iconic performances. The nominees included Clark Gable in Gone With The Wind, James Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Laurence Olivier in Wuthering Heights, and, um, Mickey Rooney for something called Babes In Arms.
Strangely enough, the voters chose British actor Robert Donat for the inspirational teacher drama Goodbye Mr. Chips over Gable, Stewart, and Olivier.
Donat’s win cast a black cloud over Gone With The Wind’s triumphant night — eight Oscars and two special awards — and producer David O. Selznick considered Gable’s loss his greatest disappointment that year.
Time has not been so kind to Donat. His is one of the least remembered performances in a banner year for cinema, and he isn’t as highly regarded as his competitors. Or, as one writer put it:
Seventy years later, we’re still quoting Gable, while we’re googling who Robert Donat was, how his performance could have outshone Gable’s, and what Goodbye Mr. Chips was about.
As to “life is beautiful”… the premise of the movie is beyond disgusting. Thanks for pointing that out.
How could you miss the completely awful “Ordinary People” beating out “Raging Bull,” or any movie for that matter? I don’t begrudge “Forrest Gump” or any of those best pictures you mentioned; it’s not like the winner was awful compared to the others.
“Goodfellas” is a great film, so is “Dances With Wolves.” “The English Patient” is equal to “Fargo.” “American Beauty” was equal to its competition. “Out of Africa” maybe should’ve lost to “Back to the Future” but it’s a great movie.
And how does “Crash,” which has since disappeared down a black hole beat “Munich?” How does “America, America,” “Tom Jones” and “Cleopatra” rate while “Hud” doesn’t even get a nomination for best picture?
What makes “Million Dollar Baby” or “The Unforgiven” best pictures?
How about 1977? Giving another acclaim to that whiny pedophile Woody Allen for Annie Hall (who remembers Annie Hall?) instead of Star Wars?
I agree: “Annie Hall” is a very good film but “Star Wars” was a game changer.
The problem is that Star Wars really isn’t a very good movie. It’s mostly schmaltz with mediocre perfomances, Harrison Ford being the one notable exception. Virtually all of the Star Wars movies are average at best. The only excellent film among them is The Empire Strikes Back. Note that Empire was the one that had the least involvement from George Lucas.
If you think of “Star Wars” as using the language of film from top to bottom instead of just a story, you’ll find it’s a great film.
“Goodfellas” and “Raging Bull” are far superior to “Ordinary People” and “Dances with Wolves”. I will almost always watch the former 2 when I see them on. I cannot recall watching the latter 2 more than once. ANd not sure”OP” is ever on at all.Scorcese simply wasn’t appreciated. “Raging Bull” could be one of the best movies ever made, “Goodfellas” the 2nd best mob movie.
Give “Gump” this; it was a great movie experience. “Shawshank” is a better story.And like Scorcese before him, Tarantino wasn’t really part of the in crowd yet.
I must be the only person on Earth who LOATHED the Shawshank Redemption. I found it predictable and pedantic. I’ll admit I have a special and enduring hatred for Tim Robbins; but consider this, if Morgan Freeman wasn’t in that thing, would everyone like it so much?
Well, there you are: I thought ‘English Patient’, ‘Fargo’, ‘American Beauty’, ‘Out of Africa’, & ‘Ordinary People’ were terrible. And yes, ‘Forrest Gump’ is highly over-rated, one of Hanks’ worst performances. They are examples of post-modern angst & I-gotta-be-me at all costs. If you don’t agree with the picks of the Sophisticati, then you are too dull to see the clothes of the emperor.
“Fargo” can seem terrible on first viewing. I’m glad I gave it a second go, though. Now it’s one of my favorites. Frances McDormand as Marge Gunderson is one of the great performances of the 1990s.
Not making a distinction between “Ordinary People” and “Fargo” is its own explanation. Unless you think everyone in the world has an equal opinion about art, I’d start reading some film construction and film history books and cultivate the idea that you may have something to learn rather than feeling offended that someone has learned those things.
It’s all about politics, as usual. There should be some standards for judging. What are they? It’s crap. I don’t watch. Here’s a good reason why:
“Paul Newman’s Oscar for 1986’s The Color Of Money felt like a consolation prize because he failed to win for so many better performances (and because the Academy gave him a lifetime achievement award the year before).”
Newman won for a lesser role in a rehash of the original movie, “The Hustler,” in which he had the lead role, and should have won the award. “Oh, let’s be fair (I HATE that word) and give him the award now.” Give it to those who earn it, not because of some sentimental or political reason (see Brokeback Mountain). It’s crap. Flaming liberalism on display.
Out of the “biggie” Academy Awards, Brokeback Mtn. only won Best Director (Ang Lee). As he should have. I’m not into political/sentimental either, but it was a MUCH better movie than the Best Picture winner, Crash. Now THAT sucked and was hella p.c. all the way.
Consolation prize? John Wayne for ‘True Grit’. It was a noble attempt at a great script, but the second try was far better. And John Wayne turned in far better performances, though he did well in his role of the drunken marshall. (Oddly, his lines in the movie were better than the lines in the remake – to bad they couldn’t have photoshopped Wayne into the recent second effort.)
Couldn’t disagree with you more on Life is Beautiful. It was not a comedy. It was a movie about a father trying to shield the evil of the Holocaust from his son via humor and misdirection, while providing some levity to the victims who knew they had no hope. Did no victim of the Holocaust ever tell a joke about their situation? Is it beyond the pale to make a movie about the humor the victims might have used to distract from the horrible reality of their situation?
When Begnini’s son sees the American tank roll in to liberate the concentration camp has to be one of the most beautiful and heart-tugging scenes in movie history. The humor and distraction worked. He spared his pre-teen son the emotional trauma of fully realizing the true circumstances they were in while they were in them. Though his son will soon find out his father perished, he will make that realization in freedom knowing it won’t happen to him.
Life is beautiful. Cherish it, make the most of it, whatever your circumstances. That is the message of the movie, expertly done.
Beautifully said! I couldn’t agree more!
I could not agree less. How can the movie be a celebration of life when it ignores reality. The boy would have to be either extremely simple-minded or evil to be so unconcerned about the suffering around him. The movie is Hogan’s Heroes with the patina of the Art House. Had it been made in English with Jerry Lewis, it would never have seen the light of day.
Jerry Lewis DID make that movie! Look up “The Day the Clown Cried”.
Thank you, Ben… really well said.
The truly excellent and well-made “Life is Beautiful” is certainly no comedy.
The children of the time knew what was going on. They were not fooled. Parents tried, of course, to lie and tell stories, but the children knew. That was reality. Life was NOT beautiful for Jews in the Holocaust. Ever.
When I read the criticism of “Life Is Beautiful” I was thinking to myself, I don’t remember the film being a comedy, and yeah I agree, as a comedy it would have sucked.
“Life Is Beautiful” was one of the saddest most touching movies I ever saw.
Sorry if I disagree with you, I’m no movie expert.
Also I was captivated by “Forest Gump” as a young teenager, I watched it after hearing about it from all my friends and I remember that it was extremely satisfying. Funnily enough it got boring and I ended up watching it in two sessions. Maybe if I watched it now it would seem stupid and lacking in subtlety.
I remember seeing Gump with a friend the first week it was out….
Before anyone heard of it, before any hype or rumor of its “greatness”…
we simply had no idea what it was about from the one or two TV comercials we saw.
We walked out of the theater somewhat stunned, and looked at eachother realizing we had just seen “something”…..something that was going to be a very big deal…that we saw it “ice cold” with no knowledge or expectations about it was an amazing peice of luck…a gift, because we knew that experience cannot occur once a film has a “reputation”.
It is the single greatest and most “honest” cinema experience of my life.
You can only see a film for the first time, once.
That we saw a masterpiece, without KNOWING it was referred to as such by its devotees, was an event to remember.
I have to agree with Ben – ‘Life is Beautiful’ is excellent, particularly if you see it in the original Italian.
Peter Sellers should have won the Oscar for Being There. There has never been a performance of a fool so perfect.
Have you checked out the White House lately?
This role reprised in the 2008 presidential election
seriously? there’s a better actor playing a fool @ 1600 Penn Ave right now
Obama’s not acting.
‘The garden needs tending.’ Yeah, several trillion dollars worth.
But seriously, it was an excellent performance. The original screening had a series of out-takes during the credits, where Chance is trying to repeat the hoodlums’ comments to the medical staff at the hospital that is painfully funny – they couldn’t finish the scene because everyone kept busting up. What landed in the movie had to be abbreviated.
You’ve failed to mention anything about the 2 Oscars won by “An Inconvenient Truth”
It’s probably too soon for anyone in contemporary Hollywood to say anything bad about those picks. I’d expect in about another 10 years, that best song will rank right up there with Three-6 Mafia’s best work.
Don’t forget good ol’ Michael Moore and all his horse dooty. “Bowling for Columbine” won Best Documentary Feature 2002.
That’s because there’s no category for best propaganda film.
That would actually be the category of largest load of self-serving B(cough)S(cough).
Our Fearless Leader, Roger Simon, spearheaded a movement to rescind Al Gore’s Oscar. That’s what introduced me to PJM.
I gave up on the Oscars after Shakespeare in Love beat Saving Private Ryan.
Amen to that!
I quit Oscar-viewing after “Shakespeare in Love” beat out “Saving Private Ryan.”
It was nothing but a piece of fluff, and don’t get me get started on Gwenyth Paltrow.
I haven’t watched that agitprop since I was 13 or so. I’m 54 now.
How does a piece of over-produced, over-directed, over-acted piece of trash such as Titanic beat the best film noir since the ’50′s LA Confidential. No, Cameron, you are not the King of the World, but one of the worst charlatans Oscar history. And this was proved with Avatar.
Yes, yes, yes! LA Confidential is such a brilliant movie. It wasn’t exactly an overlooked movie – if I recall correctly, it was a hit at the time – but it’s kind of been forgotten ever since. It was by far the best noir done since the heyday of that style, really nailing the time period with outstanding performances from a terrific ensemble cast. Titanic had awesome special effects, but everything else about that film was a joke.
Touchy subject, yes, but you did bring it up: Forrest Gump undeserving? Not in the least. Shawshank is good, yes, but Pulp Fiction being Oscar worthy? Give me a break. Forrest Gump is nothing more than the Baby Boomer generation being played out in polarized symbolic characters. The author was a liberal nutjob who thought it’d be funny to make conservatives mentally slow, but when put to film, guess who came out looking better in the end… Seems to me you missed the point.
Otherwise, fun read, though I’d suspect that one could write a book on the failings of Mr. Oscar. Look at the recent True Grit, where the girl was nominated for best supporting even though she carried the film.
Just recently watched the new True Grit. Was captivated by Hailee Steinfeld’s performance. Having no idea who she was, I looked her up. I was shocked to see that she was only nominated for Best Supporting. Supporting?! Whatevs. She WAS that film. Without her and the cinematography and Jeff Bridges (at times) it’s a mediocre film at best. These Hollywood types are clueless windbags.
samuel L jackson not winning for his performance in ‘pulp fiction’ forever invalidated the academy awards.
similarly, james woods not winning for ‘salvador’
The acting category seems to be especially problematic: it seems as if the Academy gives out awards based on where they expect a performance to come from rather than where they actually are.
Woods was “Salvador”; what would that movie have been without him? Belushi was on as well. Watch Michelle Pfeiffer in “Batman Returns,” she is on for every minute of that film. What happened to Rutger Hauer in “Blade Runner?” Paltrow wins for “Shakespeare In Love” but was far better in “Emma,” the performance of her career.
Salvador? That movie seemed like the propaganda film that the USSR wished it knew how to make. NOT an Oscar worthy film.
I’ve never taken the Academy Awards seriously as a … well, whatever they’re supposed to be. When I was growing up, back in the Jurassic, I recall the biggest winners were the two Walters: Brennan and Disney. I reckon they’re supposed to be our Olivier and Lean, or something.
Since then, who has taken their place? Tom Hanks? Stephen Spielberg? Please.
Oscar, the true patron saint of mediocrities, as someone once said in a movie, and didn’t he win an Oscar for saying that? So there it is.
I love Amadeus too!
What a great article!! Another year, another Oscar bloop. Why is Oprah getting an Oscar? She is not an actress, she does everything to promote herself and I don’t believe she does anything without having an ulterior motive. She is a TV personality.
“Saving Private Ryan” should have received Best Picture over “Shakespeare In Love.” I acknowledge that “Shakespeare In Love” was a good, enjoyable movie. But it was nothing, nothing at all compared to what “Savng Private Ryan” did in showing everyone a glimpse of what Omaha Beach on D-Day and the Normandy campaign in World War II were like. Every year “Saving Private Ryan” is shown on television around patriotic holidays.
As a retired cavalryman, I couldn’t watch it, beyond about halfway through the Normandy scenes.
I haven’t watched an Oscar show in over thirty years. Here’s why; I was recently in a hotel lobby and picked up a USA Today rag to read to kill time. They had a full page of stuff on the Oscars for this year. I was utterly disgusted to read the references to the “best” movies of the year, all of which incorporated virtually every left wing shibboleth you can imagine. And guess who gets to be nominated as “best actors/actresses”? Yep, Plummer playing a gay guy, Streep ripping Thatcher, and on and on. The Oscars have been utterly ugly for many, many years. They became completely worthless long ago, just like the Pulitzer and Nobel Prizes. George C. Scott had it right. Who the hell cares? Thank God for Netflix where I can stream old movies and avoid the stink of “today”.
Totally agree and I ignore them as well, and not just the choice of movies and winners, but the presenting and accepting are leftist as well. And props for using the word shibboleth!
Everybody knows that an Oscar is simply a crowning to Hollywood royalty. And quality of performance has little to do with it. Even George Clooney said it was like running for office.
George Clooney has run for office?
best picture The Last Seduction best actress Linda Fiorentino
I’ve always thought that Forrest Gump was overrated (certainly not a “Best Picture”, but I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for it. Perhaps it was unwitting, but it portrayed all the sixties radicals as fools and charlatans, all of them outsmarted in the end by a retarded guy. I give it bonus points for being the only movie that ever portrayed John Lennon as the insufferable prick that he really was.
Lets not forget how the Academy overlooked The Duke all those years before finally giving him his consolation prize.
“Thirty-nine years after that Oscar show, I can’t help but wonder what the voters were thinking giving Cabaret eight awards — the most to a non-Best Picture winner at that time — to The Godfather’s three.”
Oh come on now, even a blind man could see that coming. In Cabaret you had the union of Hollywood, homosexuals, a musical, and Liza Minnelli, daughter of Judy Garland, icon OF homosexuals. How could it miss?
The score was 4-2 for “Cabaret” in awards they went head to head for; hardly a case of injustice since “Cabaret” is a very good film itself. The two less popular ones “Cabaret” beat out “The Godfather” for were for sound mixing and film editing. I don’t know anyone outraged about that. Then Joel Grey won out for best supporting: Grey was very good in that film; and the director won out for best director and “Cabaret” is in fact a very cleverly directed film. “The Godfather” got best picture and best actor for Brando. Seems all pretty fair and tame to me.
I stopped watching the Oscars years ago, I am a fan of old Hollywood. Today’s “stars” talk too much about every aspect of their lives, there is no mystery. The era of botox has brought us faces that don’t move and frankly that’s creepy to watch, on the big or small screen. Scary skinny women and immature acting men, another Republican debate would be more interesting to me.
That being said, I applaud the Academy’s pulling SBC’s tickets this year. Just because I find the Oscars irrelevant does not mean the industry has to pull out all the stops to be “fair” to someone who wants to make a complete mockery of it.
My hollywood experience went to fecal material when the studios lost control of the ‘talent’. The more these pampered putzes inflict upon me anything, *ANY*thing other than their performance the less likely I am to spend my money to see any of their subsequent products. Here’s a message from the past to Whoopi and all the rest, ‘If you want to send a message, use Western Union.’ Most of these arrogant jackasses can’t tie their own shoes without help and I’m supposed to take their political views seriously? SERIOUSLY? Anymore I’ll watch the upside down show (couple of aussies) on NickJr with my 4yo granddaughter and count it as time well spent. Hollywood has pretty much irrevocably sh*t on the brand with me. I don’t have the words to describe how deeply I despise them, but I’m working on it.
Someone asked Samuel L Jackson about the Oscar voting. He said “First thing i do is see whether anyone I KNOW is nominated; is there a friend nominated”? and gets even more subjective from there. Does anybody think that Denzel Washington in The Detective was more dramatic than Russel Crowe in Beautiful Mind? What about Cuba Gooding? The movie “Crash” ???? does anybody still speak like this? Hollywood thinks so.
It’s like there is a “Black Oscar” award that floats around in the voter’s minds; and movies that portray a country the way the communists wud like…
Forrest Gump was the perfect blend of ready-made nostalgia for the baby boom generation eager to look back on its 40 year adolescence with child-like innocence.
Demographics is destiny, no?
There may be a few baby boomers who looked at Gump like that, but mostly it’s a movie embraced and swept up by Gen X & Millennials (Gen Y). It’s as if Gump’s the gawd-honest truth. They become mawkish about it and I know there’s even a subset of the Gen X’s & Y’s who not only believe everything in it, but will argue over every teeny thing in it (we all know movie’s are completely true, hmmm?).
Roger, there is another major mistake that I would have included. The Academy ignored all of the music from “Saturday Night Fever”. There were 4 #1 hits from that movie. The winner that year was “you light up my life” Oh my God…..The album was the biggest seller for years until “Thriller” was released. This is why I do not take the Oscar’s seriously.
Death before Disco! It must be said.
As a metalhead who grew up in Brooklyn,I hated disco. And yet the “SNF” album and the Bee Gees work is simply fantastic. And it still stands up.
And the debacuhery of the writer of “YOU Light Up MY LIfe” amkes the Gibbs seem like regular guys. http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/you-light-up-my-life-songwriter-joseph-brooks-found-dead-in-apparent-suicide/2011/05/23/AFDG909G_story.html
Oscars and other Hollywood awards should follow children’s school and after school athletics, Every actor, movie and song should get a feel good award because self esteem once damaged by being a loser is a terrible thing.
Lord knows these Hollywood folks don’t have enough self esteem.
How could you overlook Art Carney’s win [best actor] in 1974 for the bomb Harry and Tonto. He won over Jack Nicholson [Chinatown] and Al Pacino [Godfather Part II]
For me, the worst blunder was giving “Rocky” best picture for 1976, while “Network” swept every other major Oscar category that year.
Best Oscar moment was one year later when Paddy Chayefsky (who incidentally wrote “Network”)stood up and told Vanessa Redgrave, in the middle of her acceptance speech when she started into a pro-PLO rant, to STFU and sit down.
Ah yes, Network. The controversial movie that revealed the shocking truth that the media is controlled by Arabs.
Whilst Mr. Chayefsky was indeed a liberal, he wasn’t an America-hating leftist. His views merely reflected the time when the script was written. In fact, in the few short years he had left, he went on to question and attack liberal dogma and was a staunch supporter of the state of Israel (his STFU at Vanessa Redgrave at the 1978 Oscars is legendary). Yes, in hindsight you could say that the Arthur Jensen character and the characterization of corporate America was over the top. Then again, when you look at Warren Buffet and Jeffrey Immelt and the cronyism, maybe not so much. “Network” accurately and savagely attacked one of liberalism’s most sacred cows; the media and predicted what it would soon turn into.
I think, had he lived, he would have been a convert to conservatism just like David Mamet. He was an incredibly gifted writer (one of cinemas best) and taken from us all too soon. One can only speculate as to how his genius at black comedy and satire would have been used to completely skewer and ridicule today’s liberalism. He would have had a field day with Obama and Company. Too bad.
Morgan Freman not getting the nod for his performance in Driving Miss Daisy disappointed me. In the end, the Oscars are subjective like all other awards shows. I tend to judge movies and music on whether or not people will still be enjoying them years after they were produced.
Not so much subjective as it is completely political. The bribery and vote-buying that goes on almost puts Chicago and Philly ward politics to shame.
Oscar nods and, more importantly, wins translates into big box office receipts.
** I tend to judge movies and music on whether or not people will still be enjoying them years after they were produced. **
I can’t tell that (not having a crystal ball); I rate movies on whether I care, or at least am interested, in the people and their story. For instance, “Crash”: biggest POS ever yet won Best Pic. I hated all the people, and cared not a whit about anything they did/experienced. It was an exercise in the “What’s my motivation?” school of thought.
Can never remember year to year who won what. Best part of the show is the red carpet fashion parade (and Joan River’s snide critique of the clothes the next day). Never watch the award giving, too boring.
“The picture that directed itself…”
Every year – EVERY DAMNED YEAR – I have to slap somebody down for this! If the best picture automatically equates with best director, then why have two different awards?
The best picture does NOT mean best director! (And, just for the heck of it, let me point out that the lead singer is not the band!)
Perfect case in point: “Braveheart” vs. “Apollo 13.” “Braveheart” was the better overall picture, but there were directorial flaws here and there, whereas Ron Howard managed to direct in friggin’ zero-G for little 23-second snippets and make it look graceful! Award for director SHOULD have gone to Howard, but no, the Academy was thinking like every other moron: best picture = best director.
While a motion picture is certainly a craft, which involves a team of creative people to pull it off, at the end of the day a picture succeeds or fails because of the director. It’s his or her overarching vision that drives the entire process – not just the performance of the actors – sometimes for a period of several years from developing the shooting script with the writer from the original screenplay all the way through post-production.
I respect your view, but having been in the film biz for just on 30 years (writer), it really is the director’s show. Perhaps he should share the best picture Oscar with the producers (as if they will ever let that happen!).
The best director award is a great way to reward/recognize a director who put his or her all into his craft but was saddled with a substandard script or some clown like Gweneth Paltrow in the lead.
A director certainly has the power to wreck a film, but there’s no inextricable link between a great film and a great director. I was just watching “The Man in the Glass Booth” for the umpteenth time – a brilliant film, due to the A++ script and a crazy-as-hell Maximillian Schell. The directing was absolutely pedestrian, but nothing too much was necessary. I could name a hundred such stunning films with none-too-stellar directing. Yes, they could have screwed up the brilliant scripts, but there’s no reason to award them for that restraint.
Agree to disagree.
Cheers.
In the final analysis what determines the quality of a movie is the audience. The thing about the Oscars is that they are wholly American in sensibility. That’s what makes them so awful.
A director does not make or break the artistry of a film: different directors are engaged in entirely different ways in any given film. Some are themselves cinematographers, others rely on cinematographers, some are an actor’s director, some are brought on board with casting a done deal and there is much more. How much of Star Wars is a success because of the brilliant design of the film, something Lucas did not do in the original or it’s even better sequel.
Best movie is not best director or vice versa. The more teamwork involved the less a film belongs to a director.
I stopped going to movies a long time ago. I stopped watching the oscars a very long time ago. Sunday night I’ll pop in my favorite movie ” The Maltese Falcon” and make some popcorn. That’ll be much more entertaining then the crap on display.
What? Al Gore’s slide show mockumentary isn’t on the list? INCONCEIVABLE! …. It is number 1 on my list of most undeserving of all time!!!!
In the meantime I will enjoy Oscar Night, ignore the who is wearing what drivel, laugh with Billy C and expect that… once again… there will be mistakes and some godawful liberal will make a complete ass of themselves making another vapid “statement” to a cheering crowd of the disconnected.
This list is just the beginning…
Kramer vs. Kramer anyone?
You guys kinda remind me of Red Buttons (‘s?) old schtick on the Friars Roasts. Blah blah blah never won a blah blah blah!
He was great in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, wasn’t he? And whatever happened to Michael Sarrazan? Flim Flam Man and Eye of the Cat are two of my guilty pleasures for sure. Right up there with The House That Screamed with Lilli Palmer. Real men do dig kitch!
Hoop Dreams was depressing.
It reminded me of all the black guys I knew who were great a sports and then fell off the ladder. Hero to zero. Some guys recover and go onto great lives, but so many do not.
Watching them deal with that is incredibly sad. But life is how you deal with setbacks.
There is a fantastic documentary from 2006 called “The Heart of the Game.” It follows 6 seasons of a girl’s high school basketball team in Seattle. It makes me sick that Michael Moore’s propaganda films are compared to “The Heart of the Game” because the latter is a real documentary film, not pieced together fakery. It wasn’t even nominated for an Oscar but is certainly as good as “Hoop Dreams.”
I couldn’t disagree with you more about Forrest Gump. It is a fantastic walk down memory lane for people my age, who lived through the events during the years the movie portrays.
Whatever the author’s leftwing intentions, the flick drew me to the theater for the first time in year—ah, 1994, when it came out, is stuck in my memories until death. I even enjoyed seeing it twice, and parts of it when it comes on TV. I think Hanks did about as good a job as anyone could have, too.
The other day I tried watching “Life Is Beautiful” on a DVD, and didn’t make it past a few minutes—what a pile of manure!
Also, despite the bad odor of disco, these days, I still love the music from Saturday Night Fever—as well as Beethoven, Shostokovich, Mahler, etc.
BTW, since Forrest Gump, I haven’t been to a movie, except a rightwing movie with Jon Voight—a comedy—from 2008, right before the election.
As for the academy awards—when Bob Hope was the emcee, they peaked, and it’s been VERY downhill ever since.
(1) One of the best movies I ever saw was never mentioned for an Oscar, so far as I know, even in the foreign film category: “The Gods Must Be Crazy.”
(2) I have not seen mentioned for this year a very good movie, “Tin Tin.”
I agree but we should stop nominating foreign films. It’s getting out of hand. How does “The Artist” deserve an Academy Award; it’s French. The Academy has a best foreign language award; promote it if you must or have a global category but leave us our own. I love “Cidade de Deus,” but if you need a translator for the title leave it out.
(1) One of the best films I ever saw was never nominated for an Oscar, so far as I know: “The Gods Must Be Crazy.”
(2) Has “Tin Tin” been nominated for this year’s Oscar? It is a fine movie.
My favorite description of Oscar night is “It’s the one night when Hollywood gathers to congratulate themselves for being the kind of people they’re not.” I don’t remember who said it but I love it.
Gump isn’t the worst movie to win an Oscar – the film that beat out Citizen Kane is. Although I agree, I don’t think I can watch Gump again.
I don’t agree with your comment that “How Green Was My Valley” was the worst movie to win an Oscar. It may not have been as historically significant a film as “Citizen Kane”, but it certainly was a very good film by a great director (John Ford) that deserved recognition. I think the problem with “Citizen Kane” was that it was so different in form and style from anything that came before that people didn’t quite know how to respond to it. It quickly developed a reputation as a “cerebral” film that the average moviegoer couldn’t appreciate. It became something of a joke, causing a rift between Welles and Hughes at RKO, with Hughes preferring such tripe as “The Outlaw” (showcasing Jane Russell’s boobs) over Welles’ auteur pieces. The way I look at all this, I’d much rather debate the relative merits of the movies of Hollywood’s Golden Age than the absolute crap that today’s Hollywood pukes up.
Oscar, Oscar, Oscar
Fastidious Felix Unger of TV’s “The Odd Couple” fame often expressed his frustration with his slovenly roomie Oscar Madison by sighing, “Oscar, Oscar, Oscar,” a frustration that could just as well apply to the Academy of Motion Picture Awards for its blatant liberalism and tireless adherence to politically correctness.
I, for one, don’t give a tinker’s damn who or what wins an Oscar at the 84th Academy Awards of Merit festivities on Sunday.
Not that it matters but no one seems to know the derivation of the term “Oscar.” What does matter is that the Academy Awards show is meaningless except insofar as it is probably the most vivid example of American shallowness, exalting movie stars to the level of demigods as exemplars of the best America has to offer the world and featuring some of the most superficial, most vapid human beings on the planet applauding themselves.
Let’s face it, actors and actresses gain fame and fortune by pretending they are someone else, mostly by acting as if they were whores or roues, or confused wives or philandering husbands, or by portraying average people caught up in life’s angst.
All that pretending eventually warps minds.
Nowadays, with some exceptions, few films depicting normality are contenders for Oscars and fewer actors and actresses nominated for acting awards are depicted as normal nor are they normal in real life. That is, unless you consider normality widespread use of illegal substances, bed-hopping, multiple marriages, and out of wedlock pregnancies as normal.
Is it any wonder movie-going has fallen off drastically or that American culture is slipping down the toilet with Hollywood as a role model?
Tinseltown’s elitists tend to choose as winners of Best Actor Awards people who reflect their own prejudices and leftist political views and pick the Best Picture on the same bases.
Years ago, Hollywood produced outstanding motion pictures, . . .(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=14508.)
I stopped paying any attention whatsoever to the Oscars since they’ve been so grotesquely politicized by the Far Left, especially the last 15 years. But “Scent of a Woman” not winning an Oscar was a shame. One of the best movies ever – Pacino was incredible, the story unforgettable, as were scenes like the tango scene, the Ferrari scene, the attempted suicide, and the school assembly. What the hell is wrong with those people?
One has only to peruse the comments to understand how this works. One man’s garbage is indeed another man’s treasure.
Do you know what the word peruse means?
I thought Titanic was one of the most ridiculous movies ever made. Of course, lots of great special effects and all … but really, is the ship’s sinking so devoid of natural interest that you have to have a villain running around shooting at the hero? James Cameron is retarded, as he showed in Avatar.
Forest Gump the worst ever? Good heavens. Have you never seen The Greatest Show On Earth? Or Cimarron??
It’s on in the background. When I look up, there is sleaze, silliness, and little dignity on the stage. Crystal’s dressing room skit was beyond pathetic. The presenters try for comedy. The winners thank ‘everyone’. The audience is ready for a camera shot and no one looks relaxed and happy.
-est, -iest, most, extremes rule reality. Kids, go to sleep. No TV. A human this year may just be the girl with the tattoo who stands as a product of the times.
Biggest Oscar shaft is the 1982 award for Special Effects. Tron was disqualified because “they cheated by using computers.”
Let that one sink in.
There were 2 actors who caused me to give up on the Academy.
Peter O’Toole and Roy Scheider. How they could be overlooked, O’Toole in multiple years still amazes me.
For those who must ask I’m referring to Scheiders turn in All That Jazz. A ‘Musical’ were on leaving the theater you would swear that you had witnessed Scheider sing and dancing on the B’way stage. When in fact he did neither. But made you believe that did.
I don’t watch the Oscars much, so I am not your target audience. But Forrest Gump is a superb movie. You have every right to believe that Pulp Fiction (which I find far most disgusting than you find Life is Beautiful) or Shawshank Redemption is better. That is your call.
But Forrest Gump is a classic comedy that touched on so many aspects of American life. I think that it will be remembered long after the other two have been forgotten.
And I am proud to be one of those who loves it so much.
For me the biggest rip-off in the history of the Awards took place in 1969. This is when Peter O’Toole’s portrayal of Henry II from “The Lion in Winter” lost out to Cliff Robertson’s mentally challenged lab subject in “Charlie.”
Robertson was a good workmanlike actor but nowhere near the caliber of Peter the Great. “Charlie” was sentimental dreck that is all but forgotten today. Henry II was a great role in a great film and O’Toole played it with a unique combination of furious energy and shrewd intelligence. (Katerine Hepburn won her 27th Oscar for playing Queen Eleanor and she wasn’t nearly as good.)
O’Toole was also jobbed in 1962 when his T.E. Lawrence (“Lawrence of Arabia”) lost out to Gregory Peck’s Atticus Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” I’ve alwyas found “To Kill a Mockingbird” to be waaaayyyyy overrated and it’s pretty clear that Peck won the statuette because he was (a) An established film icon who had lost before and (b) He was playing one of the most decent and respected characters in the history of American literature. However his performance wasn’t a patch on O’Toole’s subtle and nuanced Lawrence.
I have to disagree about Robert Donat in 1939. His Mr. Chips is a wonderful performance. No less an expert than Paul Muni (a guy who knew something about being an actor) said it was the best film acting he had ever seen. Donat’s performance as Chips captures the essence of a great literary character even better than Gable did as Rhett Butler. 1939 featured a cornucopia of riches and a lot of deserving people were short-changed.
Agree completely. Donat more than deserved his best acting Oscar. He was brilliant as Mr. Chipping.
How you can leave “Shakespeare In Love” off this list is a mystery to me.
Andy Serkis deserved a best supporting actor for his portrayal of Golumn in Lord of the Rings. Another case, perhaps, of technology going ahead of the Academy as they had no idea how to deal with motion-capture technology and failed to acknowledge the acting that went into it.
2004: “Return of the Kings” wins 11 Oscars, but nary a one for acting. Come on. Sean Astin or Bernard Hill and several others folks in it were far better than Jamie Foxx in “Ray.”
1989: “Driving Miss Daisy” beats out Branagh’s “Henry V.” What a joke.
1981: “Chariots of Fire” beats out “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” I’m a Christian and I think that was stupid.
Sorry, I know only ONE king returned. Sticky keyboard.