In the Bedroom - Several Oscar nominations, no one ever brings it up.....

Any movie listed in this thread is automatically in violation of the topic.

What was that one movie with that guy in it and that kid, what's his name?
Didn't it win an award or something?

"Mr Holland's Opus" was the media darling for awhile...

Does anyone today watch E.T.? I know people who still rewatch Goonies and Gremlins and even Explorers, but E.T. seems to've fallen off the radar.

I wish there were more films in that genre -- you know, the city as malevolent entity that prevents people from getting to their destination. I know of three other examples, After Hours, The Miracle Mile, and Dark City, and all are classics.

...well I don't think we watch E.T. anymore cuz of the changes made to it. I've only seen it once..on TV back in '94. I don't remember if this was before or after he made changes to it..but until I get the original unaltered flick it's never going to be in my collection.

Two of my all-time favs.

Amazing how many people don't read the thread before they post.

"Greatest Show On Earth" leaps to mind, 1960 Best Picture winner I think. I second "Chariots of Fire" and when it comes to more recent pics, "The English Patient," "Atonement", "The Last Emperor" and "Quiz Show" come to mind as movies that have slipped the mind of the masses probably....

Cecil B. DeMille's circus "epic," THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, was Best Picture winner of 1952. It's arguably the worst Best Picture winner ever, although it has lots of competition from the last ten years (AMERICAN BEAUTY, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, MILLION DOLLAR BABY, et al). Unfortunately, GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH is not as forgotten as it ought to be. (And neither are AMERICAN BEAUTY, SLUMDOG, MILLON DOLLAR BABY, CRASH, etc.)

http://www.amazon.com/E-T-Extra-Terr.../dp/B00003CX9Q

So, by your logic, Arise, My Love is always in our hearts and minds?

And Raiders of the Lost Ark was the Spielberg movie robbed that year. Disappointing, but not really surprising (a feel-good drama winning over an action movie, albeit one of the greatest action movies of all time). Typical Academy mentality.

I did happen to recently see "Ordinary People" for the first time. Excellent movie, though certainly one of those movies you have to be in the right emotional frame of mind to handle. Donald Sutherland was excellent as usual, but Mary Tyler-Moore was really a revelation - I had never seen her do anything but fluffy comedies.

Like Chariots, I think retrospective Oscar backlash hurts Ordinary People's reputation. Sure, Raging Bull is great ... but it doesn't make OP less of a movie.

Oh yeah, I think Shakespeare in Love gets that too. There was a thread recently where somebody said he refuses to even see it. I also believe that at least some of the hate earlier this year for The Reader was because it was assumed to be the movie that took a BP nomination away from The Dark Knight.

I came into this thread specifically to mention this film. Nominated for multiple Oscars including Best Picture and promptly forgotten. Great performance by Lemmon.

I think another great film and Best Picture nominee worthy of mention here is Broadcast News. It is fairly whimsical compared to most of its peers, but the film remains highly prescient and quite enjoyable.

Some might skewer me for this, but Napoleon Dynamite.

When it came out, it was everywhere...t-shirts, wristbands, etc. It wasn't nominated for any awards, but it was pretty acclaimed.

Now it's pretty forgotten amidst all of the 'quirky' movies.

The blu ray of this movie has been sitting, forgotten in its Netflix envelope on my desk for at least 2 months now.

I don't know why I can't quite get myself in the mood to watch it.

I have the DVD with the original and revised cuts on it. I watched the original version once and realized how schmaltzy the movie is, with John Williams practically bashing us over the head with his score.

I've thought about it. Cause I was in a relationship much like Nick Stahl's in the movie.

My thoughts on the movies in the OP

PRIZZI'S HONOR --Too many comedic and irreverent looks at the Mafia have come along since his movie came out for it to be as fresh and entertaining as it was when released. Notable then and now for Nicholson's performance.

ORDINARY PEOPLE --People will always be down on this movie because it undeservedly won the Oscars that should have gone to Raging Bull and Scorcese, but it is a well acted and very affecting drama.

CHARIOTS OF FIRE --For me it just has this "who really gives a damn?" quality to the story.

COMING HOME --The power of this story about the Vietnam war and the treatment of its returning veterans was at its peak when these issues were raw in 1978. Not so much 30 years later, as the "Support the troops even if you don't support the war" sentiment has been internalized by American society. I like the much more staid but (for me) more moving film THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES.

REDS --If you are interested in the history that this 3+ hour film depicts then it is great, otherwise it is just a 3 hour history lesson.

THE KILLING FIELDS --Obviously this story about the Cambodian holocaust that occurred 30+ years ago had more immediacy when the movie was made 25 years ago, but the film is still powerful because it focuses on the journey of one character who we care about.

ON GOLDEN POND --Earnest melodrama about a dysfunctional family isn't hard to come by nowadays, but there is something special about any movie that stars two of Hollywood's greatest screen legends at the end of their acting careers.

MISSING --Movie makes the charge that corrupt and murderous South American regimes are supported by our very own US government. Captain Renault is shocked!

THE MISSION --never saw it
MY LEFT FOOT --never saw it

PAPER MOON --This is just a terrific and enjoyable comedy. Really.

ALICE DOESN'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE --A movie of its moment. Sorry, but Women's Lib dramas just don't play 35 years later. If you don't agree, you can Kiss My Grits!!

THE DRESSER --never saw it

PLACES IN THE HEART --For what it's worth, my mom --who grew up on a farm during The Great Depression, loves this movie.

THE ONION FIELD --never saw it

I should have taken that into consideration before posting.


good mention on Broadcast News. I had no idea this was nominated for Best Picture, deservedly so, it's hilarious. Holly Hunter and Albert Brooks should have gotten Oscars.

Thinking about this some more, I think it's just that many of these movies aren't accessible and enjoyable enough for the average person. Sure, they get a bump in exposure due to their awards, but that doesn't last very long. If you look at what HAS been remembered, it's stuff like Silence of the Lambs, Braveheart, Pulp Fiction, Shawshank, Titanic, Saving Private Ryan, Gladiator, LOTR. Those were hits at the time (although Shawshank built its audience on video), and would still be remembered even if they didn't win awards.

Then again, I wonder how much poor (or no) DVDs have hurt some of these films. Quiz Show came out in 1999, in one of the worst DVDs ever. Broadcast News' disc is pretty crappy too. Maybe if they'd give these movies new transfers and SEs, people could rediscover some of them. Heck, I believe that the huge drop by The African Queen on the AFI list is at least partly due to it not being available on DVD in R1.

Thank you for that. I remember when BEST YEARS was looked down on by film buffs because its director, William Wyler, wasn't considered a true "auteur," but belonged in a less-regarded class, the metteur en scene. Thankfully, nobody much cares about such distinctions anymore and BEST YEARS' reputation as an American classic has come back. Every time I see the film it just gets better and better and has become one of my favorite films of all time. It doesn't date at all and speaks about a crucial moment in our nation's history in a way that's universal and timeless. On the other hand, COMING HOME, which I saw when it came out, was a film of its moment and as much as I liked it back then, I've never felt the urge to revisit it. Whereas I revisit BEST YEARS every few years.

Sounds like a victim of its own success.

Personally, I hated the movie.