the list of 9 for february 27, 2006:
THE NINE WORST "BEST PICTURE" OSCAR CHOICES
Once in a while, a film that truly is the best of its year wins the coveted "Best Picture" Oscar:Casablanca, On the Waterfront, The Godfather, The Silence of the Lambs. Then there areother films that, while good, have proven not to be the classics that other eligible films intheir year of release turned out to be (Going My Way over Double Indemnity? TheApartment over Psycho?) But with increasing regularity, after the passing of just a fewshort years the question "What were they thinking?" inevitably comes up. Here are the moreglaring examples of Academy short-sightedness:

  1. OUT OF AFRICA, 1985. This year, Brazil, Back to the Future, Witness and Blood Simple all came out.

  2. DRIVING MISS DAISY, 1989. This beat out MyLeft Foot, Do the Right Thing, sex, lies & videotape and Crimes and Misdemeanors, amongmany other fine films.

  3. THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, 1952. This dumb CharltonHeston circus movie has been almost completely forgotten. You can't quite say the same for some of1952's other releases, namely High Noon and Singin' in the Rain.

  4. OLIVER!, 1968. One of the big-screen musicals' last gasps,Oliver! doesn't have the sort of latter-day acclaim that West Side Story, The Sound ofMusic or, well, Singin' in the Rain does. Still, it won Best Picture during the year thatalso saw 2001: A Space Odyssey, Rosemary's Baby and Planet of the Apes - threemovies you may have heard of.

  5. ORDINARY PEOPLE, 1980. We all know the film, but who'sseen it? Meanwhile, also-rans such as Raging Bull, The Empire Strikes Back and TheElephant Man have shown a bit more longevity.

  6. FORREST GUMP, 1994. Robert Zemeckis's beloved paean toconservatism and doing what you're told was a huge hit, but best picture? Compare it to PulpFiction, The Shawshank Redemption, Heavenly Creatures, Chungking Express and Three Colors:Red, then get back to me.

  7. A BEAUTIFUL MIND, 2001. This forgettable studio biopic wonmucho Oscar gold in the year of Memento, In the Mood for Love, Amelie, Moulin Rouge andGhost World.

  8. AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS, 1956. A stale adventurecomedy, this beat out The Seven Samurai, La Strada, Giant, The King and I, The Ladykillers andThe Man Who Knew Too Much.

  9. HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY, 1941. I'm sure this was adelightful little movie. But it was no Citizen Kane, now was it? It wasn't even TheMaltese Falcon.

Copyright © Mark Tapio Kines 2011