Top 5 worst Best Pictures
When people talk about undeserved Academy Awards, The Greatest Show On Earth tends to get mentioned. Well, it doesn't make my list. That's because I haven't seen it. Of the 77 Best Picture winners in Oscar history, I've seen only 39, but I've seen most of the recent ones. Since 1971, I've seen 27 of 34, since 1980, 21 of 25, and all but 2 since 1989. (The 7 since 1971 that I haven't seen - Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, Kramer vs. Kramer, Platoon, The Last Emperor, The English Patient and Million Dollar Baby, the last of which is on my "must-see" list as soon as it's available on video).
Before I get to my list, I want to address some of the movies that I've seen other people list, and that I disagree with completely.
My theory on Rocky is this - the people that criticize it as a Best Picture winner are, for the most part, too young to have seen it in theatres. When they did see it, it wasn't a movie, but a phenomenon. If you start with the understanding that it's just the first in the series that includes Rocky IV and Rocky V, you may not have the same appreciation that someone walking into a theatre in 1976 had. Taken on its own, without imposing the baggage of weak sequels, there's just nothing not to like and admire about it.
I guess I can understand how someone might think this a little slow. But I don't. Excellent characters, fascinating true story, beautiful scenery, haunting and original music - this was an excellent film.
If I went out to 10, my list might include it. The appeal of Leonardo DiCaprio completely escapes me, the "love story" was trite, cliched and boring, the dialogue was weak. I think L.A. Confidential was a better movie. All of that said, film is a visual medium, and the visuals that Cameron filmed are some of the most impressive ever put on screen. The technical accomplishment that this movie represents prevents it from making it into my top 5.
That out of the way, here is my list of the 5 worst movies (that I've seen) ever to win Best Picture awards:
What can I say? I don't like Jack Nicholson. The only Jack Nicholson movies that I've liked were A Few Good Men, in which he had a small part that his over-acting didn't quite ruin, and Broadcast News, in which he had only a bit part. Nothing else he's done has done anything for me, and that includes Cuckoo's Nest. It was overdone, overwrought and over-acted.
I don't dislike Russell Crowe, or anyone else involved with this. I just think it was a mess. The fight scenes are cluttered and busy, essentially visual "white noise", and there's nothing of value beyond the fight scenes. There are no significant characters, it's just a bloody revenge movie. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it just didn't work for me. At all.
Bland and inoffensive, light and amusing, ought not be the standard for Best Picture...
For many years, this was number one on my list. Simpering soap opera, ridiculously over-the-top performances from Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson, irritating characters, cliched scenarios. This wasn't just a bad Best Picture winner - it was a bad movie.
But not as bad as this. I was shocked when I saw it and realized that it had even been nominated, never mind won. It's one of the worst movies that I've seen in the past 15 years, and that covers a lot of territory. It was absolutely without redeeming qualities. The characters were caricatures, the performances were shrill, the "twist" was obvious. There was not one likeable character. There was not one admirable character. There wasn't a single impressive or important or entertaining scene. Absolutely appalling trash.
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