Ranking the Best Picture Winners - Part 5 of 8

40. A Man for All Seasons (1966)
What Should Have Won: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf is the vastly superior stage to screen adaptation.
What Was Snubbed: It’s hard to fault them too much, since all the great films of 1966 were foreign, and as such, may not have even been released in American that year.
Review: Paul Scofield is excellent as Thomas More, the man who refuses to grant King Henry VIII permission to divorced his second wife, making the ultimate sacrifice for his beliefs. The rest of the cast, especially Robert Shaw and an amusing Orson Welles in a cameo, are also great. But A Man for All Seasons, no matter how well done, never quite gets beyond being a photographed play – an excellent one, but one all the same. All these year’s later, it looks a little dated, especially next to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

39. Marty (1955)
What Should Have Won: Out of the nominees, I’ll stick with Marty thank you.
What Was Snubbed: Night of the Hunter is a true masterwork, and Bad Day at Black Rock, Kiss Me Deadly and East of Eden are not far behind.
Review: Marty may not be the world’s best film, and too some the story of shulby Ernest Borgnine meeting a plain girl and falling for her, no matter what his friends think, is probably a little cheesy. Too me though, it struck a cord, so while I will admit it’s no masterpiece, it’s a film that I can rewatch every now and then and feel good.

38. Ordinary People (1980)
What Should Have Won: Raging Bull is a masterpiece.
What Was Snubbed: They nominated Star Wars, but not it’s superior sequel The Empire Strikes Back. And Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining should have gotten in too.
Review: Ordinary People catches a lot of flak for being the film that beat Raging Bull, and it has had so many imitators over the years, it’s hard to tell just how powerful it would have been in 1980. But this remains one of the best films about a family in crisis to come out of Hollywood. The performances, by a dramatic Mary Tyler Moore, the sullen Timothy Hutton, the sympathetic Judd Hirsch, and most underrated of all, Donald Sutherland as the father holding back his resentment, are all top notch. No, the film is no Raging Bull. But it’s hard to hold that against the film, since so few are. It’s not the films fault the Academy are morons.

37. Dances with Wolves (1990)
What Should Have Won: GoodFellas was the best film of the decade and should have easily won.
What Was Snubbed: David Lynch did great stuff with Wild at Heart, and the Coens made the wonderful Miller’s Crossing, and while we’re at it, I’ll throw in Burton’s Edward Scissorhands and Beatty’s Dick Tracy.
Review: This is one of those films that has gotten a bad rap over the years because of Kevin Costner’s subsequent career choices, and the fact it beat out such a clearly superior film in GoodFellas, it’s not even funny. But Dances with Wolves remains a powerful romantic epic – the type of film that Hollywood doesn’t make anymore. Costner is not flashy as a director, but he knows how to make a film, and does so wonderfully this time out. Yes, it is too long and little too long winded in spots, but it is still quite an excellent film.

36. Grand Hotel (1932)
What Should Have Won: While I don’t necessarily think Grand Hotel is a masterwork, it does represent studio filmmaking at its peak, so of the nominees, I think they probably chose correctly.
What Was Snubbed: Trouble in Paradise was Ernst Lubitsch’s finest film. True, they did nominate his The Smiling Lieutenant, but it wasn’t as good.
Review: Grand Hotel is one of those movie we used to get in the studio days – when a large ensemble cast of nothing but stars gathered in one movie. The film is entertaining and fun, and contains wonderful work by John and Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Greta Garbo and especially Joan Crawford. A lot of movie have copied the Grand Hotel formula, which diminishes its impact somewhat, but this is still a wonderful film.

35. The Last Emperor (1987)
What Should Have Won: The Last Emperor was the best of the nominees, and the year, but it was a rather weak year.
What Was Snubbed: Oliver Stone’s Wall Street and Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket were both flawed, but still pretty damn good, as was Brian DePalma’s The Untouchables.
Review: The Last Emperor is a powerful, gorgeous film, about China’s last emperor, who spent most of his life in jail, and pretty much had no joy in it. It’s one of those “important” film that there really isn’t much need to watch it over and over again, and yet it’s tough to argue against it, because they year it came out was so weak. It is certainly much better than most of the films of its ilk.

34 Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
What Should Have Won: Top Hat may well the best of the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers movies, and one of the best musicals of all time, and should have taken this one.
What Was Snubbed: James Whale outdid himself with the wonderful Bride of Frankenstein, which built upon the original, but genre basis kept it out of the race.
Review: Mutiny on the Bounty is Hollywood filmmaking at its best. Three great performances by Charles Laughton, Clark Gable and Francois Tone (that amazingly, all got nominated for best actor) and exciting action sequences make this one of the best movies of its sort and still quite exciting all these years later. A worthy winner.

33. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
What Should Have Won: Bonnie and Clyde, which revolutionized cinema.
What Was Snubbed: In Cold Blood was Bonnie & Clyde equal, yet completely opposite.
Review: It’s hard to fault Hollywood, who seemed to finally be getting around to making movies about respectable African Americans, as long as they were played by Sidney Poitier, for giving this film the Oscar. It is a tightly knit police drama, and Poitier and Rod Steiger, as the redneck sheriff who isn’t quite as backwoods as we first think, are both excellent in the film. Time, and a million cop shows on TV, has diminished the impact of this film over the years, but it is still quite a good film – perhaps Norman Jewison’s best.

32. All the King’s Men (1949)
What Should Have Won: The probably picked the best of the nominees
What Was Snubbed: She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is Ford/Wayne at their best, and White Heat is one of the great gangster dramas.
Review: All the King’s Men is a sprawling movie, that looks at a corrupt politician – warts and all. Broderick Crawford delivers a powerful performance in the lead role, and he is supported by a great cast. An intelligent movie, and a worthy best picture winner.

31. American Beauty (1999)
What Should Have Won: The Insider was intelligent, finely wrought drama from Michael Mann and easily the best of the nominees.
What Was Snubbed: Magnolia was the year’s best, but Fight Club, Election and Eyes Wide Shut (yes, I said it, deal with it) all deserved nominations. It’s sad that in a year with so many great films, they choose the nominees they did.
Review: American Beauty doesn’t seem as fresh and new to me as it did when I saw first saw when I was 18. And yet, I still cannot help but love it. Yes, the flaws are much more obvious than before, but the performance by Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Chris Cooper and Thora Birch are all excellent, and the cinematography by Conrad L. Hall was amazing. The film is overly glib, and perhaps a little sexist, but the movie still gets under my skin every time I see it. A fine choice, but one I’m not sure is going to age well.