Ten Worst Best Picture Winners

That’s a bad list overall. Slumdog Millionaire, Shakespeare in Love, and The English Patient are all good films. But there’s no mention of mediocrities like Chariots of Fire or The King’s Speech. (Or some films I suspect are not good that I haven’t seen, such as Gandhi or Forrest Gump.)

I rarely agree with "list" articles like this, but I agree with everyone one of their picks in this case. If it had been a Top 20 list, they could've added shitfests like Forrest Gump, The Shape of Water, The Artist, Braveheart, and Dances With Wolves.

Dances with Wolves is a stunningly well made movie. Arguing against it is embarrassing.

R3 Dances With Wolves was a stunning Kevin Costner ego trip.

And Mary McDonnell, the white woman raised by the Native Americans, must have had access to the Vidal Sassoon styling teepee. Her hair was always so beautifully styled.

Kramer vs. Kramer does NOT hold up.

Argo was a blockbuster?

No CODA?

The Shape of Water and The Artist were good movies. What the list omits are all those premiocrities Weinstein/Miramax used to shovel out in the 90's/00's.

R3 Dances with Wolves was a great movie. But in retrospect, most believe Goodfellas was the better movie!

Driving Miss Daisy is quiet, but I still think it's a great film.

No mention of Green Book? It was an okay movie, great lead performances. But no way was it Best Picture material.

Yes, R3. I think it’s a white gay male progressive, 58, who doesn’t like it for “political” reasons.

The two I agreed about in real time when they won was Shakespeare In Love and Crash, both B level movies that didn't even deserve to be nominated for best picture less alone win when every other film that was nominated each of those years deserved the win more.

I agree except for Driving Miss Daisy. That was a good film for its time and is actually rewatchable. A lot of the Oscar bait films are not exactly watchable for multiple viewings.

R5 does it have to hold up? It was of a specific time and society which we've moved on from but doesn't mean it isn't a compelling family drama.

R11 didn't Green Book win because the preferential ballot benefitted it as Roma was weighted down by some people listing it bottom?

The Last Picture Show.

I personally liked the black and white and I see what the realism they were attempting but there were some moments that took you out. Candace Bergen was barely even trying.

Wait until next year when EEAAO will be at the top of the list.

R17 Maybe that's because Candace Bergen wasn't fucking even in the movie.

[quote] Candace Bergen was barely even trying.

Probably because she wasn't in the Last Picture Show.

R17, it wasn’t a Best Picture winner. And Bergen wasn’t in it. Are you drunk?

Oops, sorry, R19. ; )

Lol that make me do a double take, I knew it never won R17!

The Artist should be on this list. Vulture had a similar list

[quote]Dances with Wolves is a stunningly well made movie. Arguing against it is embarrassing.

STFU.

I love The Greatest Show On Earth. It got great reviews when it came out and was #1 at the box office.

Oliver!. Especially considering it won over The Lion In Winter and Romeo and Juliet.

The ONLY notable and Oscar-worthy part of The Artist was Bernard's Herrmann's Score taken from Vertigo.

The Sting sucked and beat the best movie of the year, The Exorcist.

Anyone who uses "stunning" provides proof of bad taste and the stink of illiteracy.

Take a bow, R3.

The biggest Best Picture travesty was "Crash" winning instead of "Brokeback Mountain." That movie was a piece of shit

"Braveheart" should be one that list. Not only was it awful, but it was also one of the most historically inaccurate movies ever made.

You Can't Take It With You was not a great Best Picture winner. Not the best Frank Capra movie. Cimarron was lousy. Hamlet (1948) beat The Red Shoes and The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre. Key Largo wasn't even nominated. A Man For All Seasons - never got it. Why don't more people object to Rocky? I liked Rocky but it beat All the President's Men, Bound for Glory, Network, and Taxi Driver!

The English Patient, blecch. I want my 4 hours back.

What about Nomadland? Was Frances shitting in a bucket good?

i went to a screening of The English Patient at the Directors Guild in NYC in 1996. They would screen double features several nights a week, and triple features on the weekend during the awards season (and screenings all year round a couple times a week).

The movie had not come out yet and there was a lot of buzz about it and the theater, which was huge, was completely full. As the movie unfolded, you could sense the audience losing interest, getting very restless, and just all around totally not engaged. When the film ended, there was no applause, people just got up and filed out as soon as possible. I turned to my friend who I'd brought and said- Wow, this movie is a major dog. It's going to be a huge flop. I was shocked at how well it did, critically and commercially. If it had been up to the more than 1000 people in the audience that night, it would have never seen the light of day.

My friend left and I stayed for the 2nd movie, which- strangely enough- was the Bill Murray elephant movie Larger Than Life. There were maybe 20 of us left and I have to say, I enjoyed larger Than Life way more than The English Patient, that's how much I hated it.

The English Patient was boring.

Well if they had hired me, The Last Picture Show would have WON, dammit!

The worst to me are Crash and Shakespeare in Love.

Out of Africa needed an hour removed but it’s still a beautifully shot film.

Movies are so particular to the time. I tried watching The Sting recently and could not get past 10 minutes.

I hated The Sting. It's such a bad film, especially compared to the amazing Exorcist, which has remained a classic and iconic film. It's Friedkin's masterpiece and it never gets old.

It still hurts that Brokeback Mountain lost to Crash, which i still haven't seen nor do i plan on seeing.

This would not be my list exactly, but the only one of these I would gladly watch again at the moment is Driving Miss Daisy. Maybe it's not a fashionable approach to the subject of race-relations now, but it has great performances and scenes I don't find "forgettable" at all, like the one in which Hoke can't take Miss Daisy to the temple because it's been bombed, and the one near the end when she thinks she has to go teach. (Which reminds me that it isn't entirely about race relations; it's also about aging.)

Also, so many filmmakers—including, in very recent times, Darren Aronofsky and Regina King—have done flat-footed jobs of transferring stage plays to the screen. Beresford did it beautifully here.

I think there were far worst movies than some on their list, but whoever wrote it doesn't write very convincing arguments.

Look at his explanation for Slumdog Millionaire. He wrote it is a 99% fine film. He just didn't like the dance number tagged on at the end. All he has to do is shut the movie off before the dancing starts, and for him it's a perfect movie!

Really dumb reason having nothing to do with the rest of it. (which I didn't care for, but for much better reasons).

Agree, r42. You make me want to rewatch the film.

It has a certain optimism vis-a-vis race relations that would feel out of place today. But really, it's about two people. Near the end, when Daisy tells Hoke, "You're my best friend" ... MARY!!!!!!!

R36 There's a great write-up on The English Patient in this article.

I still think it's one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

I didn't realize Driving Miss Daisy won Best Picture. I remember Jessica Tandy won. Did Morgan Freeman? The movie was just okay. Somewhat overblown.I enjoyed On Golden Pond a lot more, it was the right size for what it was.

R5 I don't get why everyone is so down on Kramer Vs. Kramer. I still like it. People don't like that the dad was nicer than the mom and that her career got in the way of raising her child. God forbid! I'm sure that never, ever happens in real life. We must depict women as super-worker and super-mom at all times, now.

I'm in the minority here in both DL and the real world, but I like The English Patient. I didn't the first time I saw it. It was on often on one of the movie channels and it watched it several times. It grows on you. Out Of Africa was one I like and then loved after repeated viewings. The only problem that keeps the movie from being great instead of very good is Robert Redford. Are you telling me they couldn't find an good English/Australian actor or even an American to play Denys Finch-Hatton? He's pretty awful.

R48 I'm sorry, but the scene described in R45's article ruined the movie for me. Not only was the acting awful on both the part of Fiennes and Scott-Thomas, but the dialogue was laughable.

"I'm not missing you yet."

"Don't worry. You will."

Come on. Who talks like that? Then walking into the metal bar? What the hell was that?

So stupid.

R49 - She decided she had to end it. He was making a lame joke. She made one back. And hits her head. It was to break the tension and yes, there was a laugh.

It's kind of silly to judge a whole movie based on a scene that I think many people misinterpreted. I acknowledge the movie became a punchline and collider decided this was one of the 10 most laughable scenes. I can probably name many worse in "serious" movies. I still think the movie is better than people give it credit for.

The English Patient wasn't a bad movie, it was actually good, just not worthy of the best picture award. Crash however was a total crapfest.

Crash had one redeeming feature, three of my favorite actors in scenes together that I doubt we'll ever see again, Matt Dillon, Ryan Phillippe, and Loretta Devine. That doesn't mean I thought it was Best Picture material. Those three were all I liked.

I wonder if we gays would have hated it less if it had been released the year before or the year after.

R52 Crash is a B-movie rip-off of the 1991 film Grand Canyon starring Danny Glover, Kevin Kline, and Alfre Woodard. I recall forcing myself to sit through Crash in the hopes it would change trajectory or become less contrived. It was like a glorified TV movie of the week. It had nothing to do with winning the award over Brokeback Mountain. Good Night & Good Luck, Capote and Munich were more worthy of the award than Crash.

Crash sucked balls.

Brokeback Mountain should have won over Crash.

Saving Private Ryan should have won over Shakespeare in Love.

Fargo should have won over The English Patient.

The Social Network should have won over The King's Speech.

The Pianist should have won over Chicago.

Good Will Hunting should have won over Titanic.

The Shawshank Redemption should have won over Forrest Gump.

There are tons of "should have won" over the 94 years... and probably one more joining the list on Sunday. Sometimes the Academy gets it right and sometimes they get it wrong.

R55 I agree with most of your points, but I have always found Social Network as overrated, and am okay with either Shawshank or Forrest Gump as winners.

What I have issues with is films that did not even deserve a best picture nomination winning the award. Crash is that film.

I'm with several of your choices, R55 but...

Saving Private Ryan should have won over Shakespeare in Love - Both fantastic movies. If there were ever to be a tie, this would it. I think what raised SIL over SPR is imagination that went into it. SPR had the same combination of soldiers that we've seen since 1942. It did it very well, but I can see why SIL won.

The Shawshank Redemption should have won over Forrest Gump. Absofuckinglutely.

The Pianist should have won over Chicago. - Probably but I'm ambivalent about this one.

L.A. Confidential should have won over Titanic

It was a joke that ENGLISH PATIENT also won the Oscar for its basic costumes.

Especially over nominees ANGELS & INSE CTS, EMMA (with Goop), THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY, and Kenneth Branagh's HAMLET.

Not to mention that EVITA and 101 DALMATIANS (with G) were not even nominated even though they had stylish and creative costumes.

I liked Crash and thought it approached race relations very well. I thought Brokeback was a better movie but that doesn't mean I hate Crash. I think many people dislike Crash simply because it won Best Picture over Brokeback, not because it's an awful movie.

[quote] Come on. Who talks like that? Then walking into the metal bar? What the hell was that?

In the novel this exchange is different. I think he says "I won't miss you" or "I don't miss you." And she says "You will." And that's that. In the novel she doesn't walk into a metal bar. Maybe it was thougt it would be more dramatic if she did. I saw this movie but I don't remember that happening at all. Maybe I was too bored to notice.

I do remember this. I saw the movie in a theater. There's a scene where Katherine goes to Almasy's place; she comes to him wearing a white linen dress and the sun is shining though it. At the sight of her Almasy cries out, falls to his knees and rips the dress opening. The audience laughed out loud at that. It was pretty funny, it was so ridiculously over the top.

Juliette Binoche's Oscar win was one of the weirdest Oscar wins of all time. I don't think anybody expected her to win; I think she herself was shocked as hell. Lauren Bacall was nominated; everybody assumed she would win and she should have. She deserved it a hell of a lot more than Binoche.

R60 Juliette Binoche even said in her acceptance speech that she expected Bacall to win this. I think that was the sentiment going into the awards.

Same for Jim Broadbent winning for Iris over Ian McKellan for Fellowship of the Rings. Not taking anything away from Broadbent's performance but I think McKellan's was the better of the two.

And a shock that Sean Astin wasn't even nominated for Return of the King. He was the heart and soul of that movie and should have at least have been nominated. He may have given Tim Robbins a run for the Oscar that year.

It was an absolute travesty for Out of Africa to win. The Color Purple was shut out and deserved more.

R11 Green Book was just such a terrible movie.

R62, I agreed with you at the time but I haven’t seen either film in decades. It might be interesting to rewatch them both to see if my opinion still stands. I rewatched Prizzi’s Honor and I still love Anjelica Huston’s performance but I didn’t enjoy the film overall like I did in 1985.

I meant to say I didn’t enjoy Prizzi’s Honor as much as I did the first time, not that I didn’t like it at all upon rewatching.

I’m shocked they actually put Crash on there.

That was a terrible, ham-fisted, and god awful film. Won for PC points so I’m surprised anyone would dare list it.

I loved Slumdog Millionaire though. Great film.

[quote] That was a terrible, ham-fisted, and god awful film. Won for PC points so I’m surprised anyone would dare list it.

It was a film so few people liked.

Good Will Hunting was better than Titanic (Which was very good but far from great). Good Will Hunting was also not written by Ben and Matt as their blank resumes as writers during the ensuing 25 would strongly indicate.

^ Both of them have other screenplay credits, although not as the sole writers. Ben Affleck is one of the credited writers for two of his films as director, Gone Baby Gone and The Town. Both he and Damon have screenplay credits for The Last Duel.

[quote] The Color Purple was shut out and deserved more.

No, it didn't. Stephen Spielberg did his number on it and it was sanitized sap. Tinkling wind chimes were meant to represent lesbian sex, for God's sake.

Crash. Good God, at the very least you have Munich, an excellent movie, even if you won't vote for Brokeback Mountain.

I will say I'm happy Juliette Binoche has an Oscar. She's an absolute icon of world cinema, I'd argue moreso than Bacall. I think history will agree in the long run.

R10 Take me to the Piggly Wiggly!

Good Will Hunting is a warmed over Ordinary People jerk off.

Brokeback Mountain was robbed, and so were WE! :-/

[quote]I will say I'm happy Juliette Binoche has an Oscar. She's an absolute icon of world cinema, I'd argue moreso than Bacall. I think history will agree in the long run.

Totally agree. In an ideal world, I'd rather Binoche have an Oscar for Blue, Cache, Damage, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Certified Copy, Code Unknown...but at least she has one, and if more people know about her because of her time in the Weinsteins' world (English Patient and Chocolat), at least it's something. She did as much with the part in The English Patient as anyone could have, and if someone had to win an acting Oscar for that, I'm glad she was the one.

Who are the Juliette Binoche trolls? Her agent and stylist?

R70 THE COLOR PURPLE was shut out at the Oscars because of black people. White people made it a blockbuster hit -- #4 of 1985 after BACK TO THE FUTURE, RAMBO II, and ROCKY IV -- the same reason why THE COSBY SHOW was the #1 show in America around the same time.

Nevertheless, many African-Americans complained that the film was directed by a Jewish white man and was an all-white production except for Quincy Jones' music. They also resented the portrayal of black men as lascivious, incestuous fools.

In the end, the film received 11 Oscar nominations because it was a huge hit and well-received by most critics/audiences (i.., white), but it went home empty-handed because the outcry from the African-American community was so great that the Academy decided not to award the film anything lest there be any more backlash.

Blacks did not begin to embrace THE COLOR PURPLE until the '90s when Oprah was on top of the world and everything she suggested, particularly books and movies, became bestsellers.

R60 Here's the English Patient scene. Just ridiculous.

R78 except when Oscar-bait BELOVED bombed big time in 1998! That was a big blow to Oprah's ego, because she had had the Midas touch up until then. I believe she said she ate a big tub of mac & cheese to soothe her sorrows that opening weekend.

R80 - she ate Gayle, not ice cream.

"Oliver!" belongs in the to 10. It beat out "2001," which is just fucking incredible.

R78 The part you're leaving out is the gender divide. Black women did not have a problem with this film.

It was a small group of black men who felt called out for their own shitty behavior.

And the part about it being directed by a white man was not a problem when the film was released in the mid-80s. That is a wholly modern take by young woke activists who are trying revise history to fit their narrative.

My confused teenage buss din't know what to do with itself when it saw Fiennes in The English Patient, he was so beautiful.

R84 what did you do when you saw his big floppy cock in Red Dragon?!

[quote]The only problem that keeps the movie from being great instead of very good is Robert Redford. Are you telling me they couldn't find an good English/Australian actor or even an American to play Denys Finch-Hatton?

R48 Why would an Australian be any better than an American, to play an Englishman? He wouldn't have an Australian accent.

R86 - Australians are better at English accents than Americans.

R87 One of those pronouncements that can't be proven, we just have to take your word for it.

"The English Patient" generated some controversy. Its hero Almasy was based on a real person named László von Almásy. He didn't have matinee idol looks; he was described as "very ugly" with "nervous tics’" a "fat and pendulous" nose, walking with "drooping shoulders" and "shabbily dressed." He was a Hungarian pilot and desert explorer; he couldn't even speak English. He was a Nazi collaborator. He never had a great love affair with a woman because he was gay. And he died of dysentery. Some romantic hero!

I read the book "The English Patient" a long time ago. In the movie Almasy and Katherine seem to be the same age but in the book he's 15 years older than her. She a newlywed so my guess is she was supposed to be 21 or so and he was in his mid-thirties. Their love affair was rather gross. They're so into each other that they drink each other's blood; he "tasted and swallowed her menstrual blook" and she sucks the blood from his finger after he cuts himself cooking for her. When he finally comes back for Katherine in the cave she's been dead a long time but the cold in the cave has preserved her body well enough for him to have sex with it. Yes, he fucks her corpse. That's "love?" Sounds more like mental illness to me.

R88 - good. I'm glad you understand.

Menstrual blook, indeed.

R90 No, I don't, I know some Australians I can haadlee undahsteeand, mate. They do better American accents than English.

Yes, of course, OP.

I turn to MSN's posting of a USA Today story when I, as a "gay," want to feel "happy."

You're special, aren't you?

The King's Speech was dreadful

I never saw The English Patient. Can we talk about something else?

By the way, Crash is on the Sight And Sound Top 250 poll of the best movies of all time. I was kind of surprised.

I would not call Rebecca a bad film at all but I'm surprised it won Best Picture (then called Outstanding Production) over several of the other nominees: The Letter, The Philadelphia Story, or especially The Grapes Of Wrath, which I always erroneously think was the winner.

What stands out when watching Crash nowadays is how the Asian characters are portrayed as buffoons.

R92 - What's your point? Why are you arguing this? Sam Neill (from New Zealand) would have been a much better choice for Finch-Hatton. My point is Robert Redford was miscast and terrible. They should have gotten another actor who would be more convincing as an Englishman of his class in the WWI and post-WWI eras. Sydney Pollack, whom I consider a great director, had a blind spot when it came to Redford.

Now go away.

R97 That you even care this much about that piece of drek movie is highly amusing.

What the Academy SHOULD do is have a retrospective race ten years after the original contest. This would give time for the films to breathe -- or suffocate on their own hype/flavor of the day

How does Kramer vs Kramer not hold up? Because it DARES to paint the father in a somewhat more favorable light than the mom?

[quote] And the part about it being directed by a white man was not a problem when the film was released in the mid-80s.

That's not how I remember it.

[quote] Even before the film’s release, there was controversy about a white director, Steven Spielberg, directing the film. While some objected to Spielberg specifically, others lamented that it even took a white director of his caliber to get a film largely about black women made in the first place.

R98 - That you think the movie is drek speaks volumes about you.

R102 Oh all right, you win.

R100 I never understand why the film is so disliked, now. I saw it recently and thought it was really moving.

[quote]By the way, Crash is on the Sight And Sound Top 250 poll of the best movies of all time. I was kind of surprised.

The Crash that made that list is the David Cronenberg movie about people who have a fetish for car crashes, not the Paul Haggis abortion that won Best Picture.

Out Of Africa is a lovely romantic epic which made me fall in love with Kenya. It will never be everyone's cup of tea and probably boringly over-long for most people today but rather unfair to dismiss it as drek.

It's soundtrack and cinematography alone make it superior to most crap churned out today. Just my opinion

R104 Oh, okay, that makes more sense!

[quote]Yes, of course, OP.I turn to MSN's posting of a USA Today story when I, as a "gay," want to feel "happy." You're special, aren't you?

Well, little miss, you haven't been around much on DL, have you? " Crash is #2." That will make the gays happy because of the vitriol toward the film beating out " Brokeback Mountain." So, continue with your narrow life. But, you are happy, so there's that.

I know I'm in the minority but I had only a minor problem with Redford having an American accent in Out Of Africa. Somehow he just seems very American. For instance, Clark Gable could somehow occasionally pull off being English (in Mutiny On The Bounty, and China Seas), but Redford - no. Anyway the one I had the problem with was Streep. And her accent. I just find her in certain roles to be stagey and unconvincing. And unmemorable.

103 for the reasons I mentioned. Because allthough it is sympathetic to the mother, it is slightly more to the father. The irony is that it was considered to be a very feministic movie then, showing that a father can be a good caretaker and better in some instances than the mother. Nowadays, feminism seems to want it's cake and to eat it too (better in the workplace and better at home).

The father being the one to take care of the child is something people have been more conditioned to accept, now. At the time it was unusual and seeing how this guy adjusts to it and then becomes closer to the boy - and also has to go through what a woman traditionally goes through (the feminist angle) was very fresh at the time.

And I think people have very black-and-white thinking about how women, minorities, etc. are presented in older movies. There was actually a lot of sympathy in the film for the Streep character. We were rooting for the dad but she was not unsympathetic. You felt for her, too.

R110 true, Dustin was hopping mad Benton let Streep write her own lines for the courtroom scenes, explaining why she left then returned for her son. I think in the original source it was a lot more black and white - she's just selfish.

I was primed to like Kramer v. Kramer because I fell in love with the opening music, which I now know is Vivaldi's guitar or mandolin concerto RV425. I went to a record store and asked for the "Kramer v. Kramer music," and the owner of the store didn't know what I was talking about. But she had an LP of Vivaldi concertos conducted by Leonard Bernstein. I bought it, took it home, loved it for years.

But when I started buying CDs in the late '80s, I came to realize the Bernstein LP did not have the actual Kramer theme. It was four other concertos.

Baroque music can sound a lot like other baroque music. I still love the 425, though, and Kramer is still a movie I like (though I doubt I've seen it in the past 20 years).

[quote] I never saw The English Patient. Can we talk about something else?

Yes, Mary, this is all about you.

R113 Haha, yes, I have.

[quote] By the way, Crash is on the Sight And Sound Top 250 poll of the best movies of all time.

Which is further proof that lists are a crock of shit.

Titanic didn't deserve Best Picture. Neither did Good Will Hunting. The best picture that year was L.A. Confidential, and it still holds up.

R116 L.A. Confidential was great, but Kim Basinger absolutely did not deserve the Oscar for her role, let alone a nomination.

Kim Basinger never did anything that was award-worthy. Except maybe dumping Alec.

Kim Basinger is an example of how a great PR team can buy you an Oscar.

Julianne Moore deserved it that year for Boogie Nights, hands down. But then she got her make up Oscar in 2014 for Still Alice, which was a shit performance in a shittier movie.

Wow, it's been a while since I saw Boogie Nights, I don't even remember her.

"By the way, Crash is on the Sight And Sound Top 250 poll of the best movies of all time."

No, it is not. Or, it's the Cronenberg "Crash".

For God's sake, it's David Cronenberg's Crash, which came out in the 90s, that's on the Sight and Sound list. Not the 2000s movie that's a shitty version of Short Cuts.

The Artist, for sure.

Why don't people like The Artist?

The Artist was a cute, pretentious little film, that's all it was.

Have you yet to read the new dog-hating thread, r125?

I remember The Artist's charm worked on me the one time I saw it...

The Artist was a vaguely cute, vaguely entertaining film I remember nothing about. But I did think Jean DuJardin was/is tres mignon.

I fell asleep in the theater During The Artist. It was a gimmick film.

And the horribly untalented Berenice Bejo absolutely didn't deserve her nomination.

R121 Geez, Julianne Moore was Boogie Nights' female lead!

Amber Waves, porn star.

I wish it had been a tie between Shakespeare in Love and Saving Private Ryan. Or that one film came out in a different year because both are great films. That this list doesn’t mention Rocky winning over Taxi Driver shows how stupid it is.

Forget Taxi Driver. Network should have won over Rocky (as well as Lumet over Avildsen, a hack if there ever was one). Not only was Network a brilliant satire with indelible performances from everyone in the cast down to the smallest roles, but it accurately predicted what a shit show the media would turn into. While Taxi Driver is a good movie, its legacy is a presidential assassination attempt and one of the most annoyingly overused movie quote catchphrases ever.

And it also gave us the first performance of Robert DeNiro's that we would continue to see in watered down form for the next 45 years (not counting Raging Bull).

The ultimate crime: Acting division

These films should never have won an Oscar.

I'm still upset about The Broadway Melody winning. A travesty!

Everything Everywhere all at once is awful.

Nomadland didn't deserve any of its awards.

Four Weddings and a Funeral did not win, but I still love this sad scene

Saving Private Ryan has a stupid, unrealistic premise I couldn't get past.

What I thought was good about The Artist is that it reproduced the time period and the film style of that period flawlessly at times. There were things I didn't like about it, not sure it should have won Best Picture, but it was original an a great technical achievement.

R140 The premise of Saving Private Ryan was actually based on a true story. They added additional characters and dramatic situations, but the premise is real.

R131 Julianne Moore is always kind of forgettable to me.

R142 Well there's a historic basis for the policy. The government didn't want to have a repeat of the Sullivan brothers' deaths, where all five brothers were serving together (at their request) on a ship that went down, killing them all. After this, a policy was in place that if (I think) two or three brothers were killed, the remaining one(s) had to be sent home. The prototype for Ryan was a soldier who just got sent home. He was easily located. There was no dangerous mission to "save" a soldier by eight other guys, a couple of whom were killed. That makes no sense in wartime - to risk a lot of lives to save one.

Ain't it funny "old" Matt Damon at the end of Saving Private Ryan is exactly how he looks now.