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What's the least regarded best picture winner in your collection?

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What's the least regarded best picture winner in your collection?

Old 03-01-05, 01:06 AM
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Originally Posted by Mike Lowrey
For example, I don't understand why Troy wasn't nominated for more than just costume design.
because it sucked. hard.
Old 03-01-05, 02:24 AM
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Originally Posted by Nick Danger
...The least regarded is On The Waterfront. Elia Kazan testified before the HUAC, so it's unacceptable for political reasons.
I had no idea members of the American Film Institute's Board of Trustees posted here!
Old 03-01-05, 04:40 AM
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Schindler's List doesn't do anything for me.

I could make a much better best pictures list from the technical categories like special effects and sound editing. I tend to prefer those films over the so called best pictures.
Old 03-01-05, 05:54 AM
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Of the ones I own from the last several years, probably A Beautiful Mind followed by Chicago and American Beauty; I'm going by movies that I know I'm least likely to ever watch when I'm considering what I want to watch. If I owned them, Shakespere In Love would top the list and The English Patient would be there as well.
Old 03-01-05, 06:02 AM
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Originally Posted by Mike Lowrey

Sorry about the rant, but I'm getting a little sick of the Academy Awards lately.
In my opinion, it's not a case of the Academy Awards suddenly starting to make choices I wouldn't. Looking at the past winners list I can see why I had such little regard for the Oscars in the 80's. In the 70's I thought they were getting it right, and to be fair I think they started getting a clue again from the choice of Rain Man on.
Old 03-01-05, 06:14 AM
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Originally Posted by Nick Danger
My least favorite of what I own is Rebecca.
The least regarded is On The Waterfront. Elia Kazan testified before the HUAC, so it's unacceptable for political reasons.
Well, a director's political life doesn't change the films. That's like hating Wagner's symphonies because he was an anti-Semite.


A Beautiful Mind is a beautiful movie with a great cast... but a horrible script.
Old 03-01-05, 06:18 AM
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Originally Posted by Josh Hinkle


3. As for entertainment value, I get your point. I watch movies mainly for entertainment. But even I realize there is also an artistic element to film. There's a difference between making a list of favorite movies of the year or making a list of best movies of the year. The Oscars are picking the best film, not the members favorite film.

Sometimes they overlap, but sometimes not.
Not that I disagree with you as to how they make their choices, because I don't.....but films are supposed to entertain the viewer, so shouldn't the two overlap every year? The best movie of a given year should be the one that was the voter's favorite; if I were a member I would think I should make my choices based on my favorites from the 5 nominees I have to pick from.
Old 03-01-05, 07:07 AM
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Apparently The Sting isn't well-regarded, since it would be in my collection if only somebody would release it in OAR.
Old 03-01-05, 09:23 AM
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Chariots of fire
Old 03-01-05, 10:06 AM
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Originally Posted by Doctor Gonzo
Nearly all of us have the Citizen Kane's, Gone With The Winds's, Casablanca's in our collections, but what is the least highly regarded best picture oscar winner on your shelf?
Am I the only one who doesn't think 'Citizen Kane' should count as a Best Picture winner?

Originally Posted by Mike Lowrey
And another thing I find despicable about the Academy is that it seems that they're in league with the professional movie critics.
I find it unusual that you see a conspiracy afoot simply because you specifically have different taste than the Academy. In fact, 'Troy', while grossing quite high, left a lot of viewers unsatisfied.

For example, the Academy pretty much knows what kinds of film they like to coddle to, so they go tell the movie critics to give bad reviews to other movies just so that it'll keep their box office numbers down, but yet sometime it backfires, as in the case of Passion of Christ. How many critics panned that movie, and how much did it make? And of course it was snubbed at the Oscars as well.
So if critics say a movie is bad -- and, incidentally, almost every *major* critic gave a good review to 'The Passion' -- and it still makes money, it should win an Oscar? Can't wait to see you lobbying for 'Diary of a Mad Black Woman' to win.

Your logic is flawed, especially since it's based on the assumption that the Academy is telling critics what to think, or remotely based on what critics think (generally speaking, critics *disagree* with the Oscars; 'Million Dollar Baby' is a rare exception when critics pushed it as the best movie and it won). But I'd rather just point out that the supreme flaw in your thinking is that, by your logic, 'Fahrenheit 9/11' should've been nominated, since the Academy "told" critics to give it good reviews, and since it was one of the highest grossing movies of the year. But I know you don't believe 'Fahrenheit' should've been, which is why I'm saying your logic is severely flawed.

The Academy's job is to nominate late-year films that most people have not or will not see, just to help boost these films' box office numbers.
This, historically, is absolutely true, and it makes me wonder why you bothered to type out the rest of your rant, which had nothing to do with this sentence and wasn't remotely factual or accurate. The Academy Awards *were* created for promoting certain types of movies. Why would 'The Passion of the Christ' need to be promoted? Mel Gibson did a better job promoting it through churches than the Academy could've done anyway, given their lowered ratings. I agree with the general sentiment that you shouldn't care about the Oscars, but ranting about how out-of-touch Hollywood is with *you* doesn't show that you don't care, it shows that you really, really do care and wish that they did agree with you and are mad (which is a form of caring) that they don't.

EDIT: I realized I should answer the question; in my collection, I'd say 'Gladiator', which I bought when the two-disc went OOP because I wanted to fill out my Ridley Scott collection and it was a decent price. But, of all the best picture winners I have (which isn't something I've focused on since, by-and-large, I think the Oscars are usually wrong), that's my least favorite. My least favorite of all time is either 'Kramer vs. Kramer' or 'Million Dollar Baby', either one of which is faaaaaaar too manipulative for my tastes.

Last edited by ThatGuamGuy; 03-01-05 at 10:13 AM.
Old 03-01-05, 10:23 AM
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Originally Posted by PatrickMcCart
Well, a director's political life doesn't change the films. That's like hating Wagner's symphonies because he was an anti-Semite.


A Beautiful Mind is a beautiful movie with a great cast... but a horrible script.

...and don't forget the uninspired direction. Howard's a good choice if you like steak and potatoes... and this really shouldn't have been a steak and potatoes kind of movie.

And I guess that I'll add... just to stay on topic... that I'm super-ticked that The Sting still lacks a R1 OAR release. And that Gladiator has to be the least deserving best picture DVD in my collection. Fun movie. But very flawed. I'm still shocked it was nominated let alone won.

At least this year, IMHO, the Academy got ithe big categories right. But I'm still floored that anyone who saw the The Aviator could check it off for Best Editing. C'mon!! 20 minutes needed to be chopped off that sucker.

Last edited by jdpatri; 03-01-05 at 10:41 AM.
Old 03-01-05, 10:26 AM
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Probably Gentlemen's Agreement. But by my count I only own three best picture winners, Casablanca and How Green Was My Valley being the other two.
Old 03-01-05, 10:28 AM
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Originally Posted by PatrickMcCart
Well, a director's political life doesn't change the films. That's like hating Wagner's symphonies because he was an anti-Semite.
You know, I was thinking of that very example. There are also several people on this board who won't watchmovies by Woody Allen or Roman Polanski because of their personal behavior. I think it's a bad standard to use, but many people do use it to hold movies in low regard.
Old 03-01-05, 10:31 AM
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What has Woody Allen done that's been objectionable?
Old 03-01-05, 10:53 AM
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Originally Posted by natevines
What has Woody Allen done that's been objectionable?
Well, as Tucker Carlson put it so eloquently on this past week's Real Time with Bill Maher, there's the assumption that he was "tapping" Soon Yi while she was under age.
Old 03-01-05, 11:03 AM
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Best Pictures that I own:

1943 Casablanca
1956 Around the World in 80 Days
1957 The Bridge on the River Kwai
1959 Ben-Hur
1961 West Side Story
1962 Lawrence of Arabia
1964 My Fair Lady
1965 The Sound of Music
1966 A Man for All Seasons
1969 Midnight Cowboy
1970 Patton
1972 The Godfather
1974 The Godfather II
1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1976 Rocky
1977 Annie Hall
1978 The Deer Hunter
1982 Gandhi
1984 Amadeus
1985 Out of Africa
1986 Platoon
1990 Dances with Wolves
1991 The Silence of the Lambs
1992 Unforgiven
1993 Schindler's List
1994 Forrest Gump
1995 Braveheart
1997 Titanic
1998 Shakespeare in Love
1999 American Beauty
2000 Gladiator
2001 A Beautiful Mind
2002 Chicago
2003 The Lord Of the Rings: The Return Of the King

First, let me say that I surprised myself to discover I had so many. A lot of these (most of them, in fact) were purchased simply because they're among my favorites, and I wasn't consciously aware they'd won a "Best Picture" Oscar.

Second, it's more than one can do in a forum post to compare each title to its competitors in the respective years. Whether any of these films did or didn't derserve its award is more than I want to address.

Third, times change. When "Around the World in 80 Days" won -- and I remember the film from my childhood -- it was in an era when the sheer spectacle and scope of the film were enough to put it in a class by itself. It received multiple theatrical re-releases throughout the fifties because it was moviemaking on a grand scale, and *everybody* was blown away by it. Seeing it today, on the other hand, one sees nothing that wouldn't be considered either second-rate or even offensive. The humor isn't funny, the drama isn't dramatic, there's no tension, the characters are all cartoons, and it's uncomfortably racist.

So of the "Best Pictures" on my list, "80 Days" is the only one I consider bad today -- and it's the only one I bought for nostalgia's sake rather than because I wanted to collect a favorite movie.I don't own "Citizen Kane" or "Gone With the Wind," for example, because I simply don't enjoy them.

RichC
Old 03-01-05, 11:27 AM
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Originally Posted by rdclark
So of the "Best Pictures" on my list, "80 Days" is the only one I consider bad today -
I bought this for my mom, it was one of the first movies that she saw in the 50s. She had fond memories of it but after seeing it again for the first time in almost 50 years, she couldn't believe how bored she was by it.

On the other hand, the current DVD has some very interesting extras, including a good documentary on Mike Todd from the 60s and excerpts from a CBS broadcast of a "party" he threw at Madison Square Garden to promote the movie. The latter is a pretty fascinating record of a lame live event (more like a series of parades than anything else) that melted down into chaos by the end of the evening (I was reminded of "Day of the Locust"). Still probably not worth buying unless you're a fan of the film, but the extras alone might make it worth putting in your rental queue.
Old 03-01-05, 11:39 AM
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Originally Posted by nightmaster
Not that I disagree with you as to how they make their choices, because I don't.....but films are supposed to entertain the viewer, so shouldn't the two overlap every year? The best movie of a given year should be the one that was the voter's favorite; if I were a member I would think I should make my choices based on my favorites from the 5 nominees I have to pick from.
Well there's a difference between mindless entertainment and artistic entertainment.

Given that caveat, I agree with you.
Old 03-01-05, 11:55 AM
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Originally Posted by rdclark
I don't own "Citizen Kane" or "Gone With the Wind," for example, because I simply don't enjoy them.
Again, I don't think there's any way that 'Citizen Kane' should be counted as a Best Picture winner, assuming we're still talking about the Academy Awards. (It did win the NY Film Critics and the National Board of Review.)
Old 03-01-05, 11:59 AM
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a beautiful mind
driving miss daisy
chicago
titanic

that was easy! hated those movies...well, beutiful mind and chicago were ok. i hated titanic and dmd!
Old 03-01-05, 12:16 PM
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i really can't answer...all the ones i have and it is a few i really really like. some the same, same more than others, but i wouldn't have bought them if i didn't really like them.
Old 03-01-05, 12:23 PM
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I was going to say I don't own one but going though rdclark's list I discovered that I do: Return of the King. So I guess that is my best AND worst.
Old 03-01-05, 12:32 PM
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Nick Danger, just wondering but what didn't you like about Rebecca
Old 03-01-05, 12:40 PM
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Originally Posted by WingKongExpress
I was going to say I don't own one but going though rdclark's list I discovered that I do: Return of the King. So I guess that is my best AND worst.
I have 9 Best Visual Effects winners.
Old 03-01-05, 01:37 PM
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Braveheart, followed closely by Driving Miss Daisy, A Beautiful Mind, and Gladiator.

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