Ranking the Best Picture Winners - Part 6 of 8

30. The Lost Weekend (1945)
What Should Have Won: Out of the nominees, this one was probably the best, although Spellbound and Mildred Pierce come very close.
What Was Snubbed: Marcel Carne’s Children of Paradise is the towering cinematic achievement of this year, but it was from France to they ignored it.
Review: A lot of people have won Oscars for playing drunks, but few films have captured the life of a drunk with as much honesty as Billy Wilder’s The Lost Weekend. Yes, Leaving Las Vegas has surpassed it as the best movie about alcoholism, but this is a surprisingly honest film about the subject given the time period. And Ray Milland is great in the lead role.

29. The French Connection (1971)
What Should Have Won: Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange has lasted longer than any of the others, although The Last Picture Show is also great.
What Was Snubbed: Robert Altman’s McCabe and Mrs. Miller is one of his best films.
Review: For a viewer coming at this film today, it’s probably hard to imagine just how influential this film is. There isn’t a cop movie or show that doesn’t owe this film something. This gritty police drama, with a killer Gene Hackman performance at its core, is still exciting and features perhaps the best car chase in cinema history. Time made have diminished its freshness, but not its impact.

28. Patton (1970)
What Should Have Won: I can’t argue too much, but I do prefer Five Easy Pieces.
What Was Snubbed: Woodstock is that rare documentary that really should have been in play.
Review: Yes, one could argue that the film was made during the Vietnam war to try and get people to support the war. But that doesn’t diminish the epic scope, or George C. Scott’s commanding performance in the title role. Yes, it is a standard biopic, but I have a hard time coming up with too many better examples of the genre than this one.

27. West Side Story (1961)
What Should Have Won: I like West Side Story as much as the next guy, but The Hustler was clearly superior.
What Was Snubbed: A lot of great foreign films were in play this year and they all got ignored.
Review: The two leads will always be a little boring to me, but the supporting cast is a knockout. Plus, there are few musicals with so many great songs, and none with better dancing. Musicals remain one of least favorite genres, but this is one of my favorites.

26. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
What Should Have Won: Personally, I enjoyed Mystic River and Lost in Translation much more than this one, but it’s hard to argue with their choice.
What Was Snubbed: City of God got nominated for Director, Screenplay, Cinematography and Editing – so a Best Picture nomination would have made sense.
Review: This was probably the most boring Oscar year ever, as we all knew the entire year that The Lord of the Rings was going to win this award, after having its two prequels nominated and raking in a ton of cash. And although I liked two of the other nominees better, it’s hard to argue with Peter Jackson’s massive achievement being worthy of an Oscar win, although as an individual film, this may actually be my least favorite of the three.

25. Million Dollar Baby (2004)
What Should Have Won: Sideways was a winning comedy, and would have made a great choice.
What Was Snubbed: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind was easily the most daring film of the year, and should have been in play.
Review: Million Dollar Baby is a sneaky little movie that really does pack an emotional wallop. It starts out as a high caliber film about a female boxer, her crusty old trainer and his crustier assistant, but then pulls the rug out from under you in the final reel, with an emotionally devastating turn of events. This film holds up well to repeated viewings, and the performances are top notch. A fine choice, even if it would not have been mine.

24. Rebecca (1940)
What Should Have Won: The Grapes of Wrath – and you know the Academy knew it that year as well as I know it now.
What Was Snubbed: How they missed the brilliance of Hawks’ His Girl Friday, Lubitsch’s The Shop Around the Corner and Disney’s Pinocchio, especially since they had 10 spots to fill, I’ll never figure out.
Review: Rebecca is the only Alfred Hitchcock film ever to win the best picture prize, and while I think it’s a great film, it doesn’t come close to matching at least 12 of his other masterpieces. But, this is still a gorgeous film, filled with wonderful staging and shots, as only Hitch could do it. While I find Olivier stilted at times in this film, it is almost oddly appropriate for his character, and I quite like Joan Fontaine as the “second wife”. But Judith Anderson as the “psychotic lesbian” Mrs. Danvers steals the movie away from both of them. So while this isn’t the best Hitchcock did in his career, it’s still a worthy Oscar winner – even if everyone knows that The Grapes of Wrath was the better film that year, but for some reason the Hollywood crowd didn’t want to give the Oscar to a film where wealthy California landowners were the bad guys. Gee, I wonder why?

23. It Happened One Night (1934)
What Should Have Won: It’s hard to argue with It Happened One Night, so I won’t, except to say I think The Thin Man was an even better comedy that year.
What Was Snubbed: The Scarlett Empress was one of von Sternberg and Marlene Dietrich’s best colloborations.
Review: It took the Academy a while to give its top prize to a true comedy, but when they did, they picked one hell of comedy. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert were both excellent in one of the first screwball comedies, a funny, witty, romantic road movie. Yes, it’s been copied to death, but this is one of those rare films that just keeps getting better every time you see it. The first film to take the awards for Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay, and it’s tough to argue with any of those choices.

22. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
What Should Have Won: Midnight Cowboy was the best of the nominees.
What Was Snubbed: Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch is one of the best westerns ever. They nominated poor They Shoot Horses, Don’t They for everything but Best Picture. How mean!
Review: The shock that viewers felt in 1969 is gone, but what remains is a fascinating character study, and a portrait of true friendship. Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman are both amazing in the film, as two lonely souls, who somehow find each other.

21. Gone with the Wind (1939)
What Should Have Won: I’ll take Mr. Smith Goes to Washington over Gone with the Wind, but really, it’s hard to complain about this choice.
What Was Snubbed: Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game is clearly the best film made in 1939, but it’s one of those films no one realized was a masterpiece for years. I will say that I think John Ford’s unnominated Young Mr. Lincoln is a better film than nominated Stagecoach.
Review: Has there ever been a film that more women have loved then this one? I don’t think so. So, well I could complain that it’s clear that two different directors made the film (and that Cukor’s part was better), or the MASSIVE running time, or some of the other flaws in the film, I won’t, because this is studio filmmaking at its best. And Vivien Leigh’s performance as Scarlett O’Hara is one of the best in screen history, and that is what I choose to remember about this grandiose, brilliant film.