It’s no big secret that this year’s Academy Awards broadcast was among the least watched in history, for two primary reasons. There were no true blockbusters in the COVID era, and the nominees themselves were small budget, pessimistic “tough hangs” that only hardcore cinephiles bothered to watch at all. Many readers may not be familiar with “Nomadland” or “Minari,” and they certainly aren’t going to be engaged in the debate over which film was more deserving of the big prize.
Alas, there was a time—even a few years ago—when financially successful and popular movies won Oscars, and the list of Best Picture winners is a fascinating mixture of no-brainer slam dunks, peculiar upsets and movies that, whether they’re good or bad, simply aren’t discussed or collectively remembered these days.
On that note, Bridget and Rob decided from the beginning of this column that they didn’t want to solely focus on new releases and hoped they could gain a stronger appreciation for the classics while providing something for fans of movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood to the superhero dominated present. Without further adieu, here are each of our picks for our favorite Best Picture winners of all time.
Honorable mentions
Bridget: West Side Story, Dances with Wolves, Unforgiven, Ben-Hur, No Country for Old Men.
Rob: Patton, The Bridge on the River Kwai, From Here to Eternity, Platoon, The Silence of the Lambs, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, The Departed, Spotlight.
5. Bridget: Shakespeare in Love (1998)- I almost left this movie off my list. Afterall, it is often cited as one of the worst Best Picture winners of all time. In hindsight, should “Saving Private Ryan” have won this year? Absolutely! Was its big win followed by criticism and controversy relating to now disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein? Yep! But considering “Shakespeare” won, I can unabashedly talk about it here.
Perhaps I love “Shakespeare in Love” so much because I was a young teen who fancied herself a lover of fine literature at the time and the movie surrounds a production of “Romeo and Juliet.” Or maybe because it’s just an entertaining good time, especially compared to a lot of other Academy-winning darlings.
The cast is star-studded. It includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Ben Affleck and Judi Dench. The love story made my young heart flutter. Many would find this movie cheesy costume-drama fodder, but I still enjoy watching it today.
Rob: Casablanca (1943)- Is this the most quoted film of all time? I know I was parroting lines like “Here’s looking at you, kid” and “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship” before I’d ever actually seen it.
Michael Curtiz’s tale of old flames reunited among the expat community of Morocco at the height of World War II stars arguably the greatest of the Golden Age actors, Humphrey Bogart, a young and radiant Ingrid Bergman and a song that no one can seem to forget, “As Time Goes By.”
It is, by every metric that movies are measured, one of those rare “perfect films” that men and women seem to love equally across generations. Harry and Sally rewatch it obsessively, and it’s now the benchmark that all other romances are measured against. Of all of the gin joints in all of the towns in all of the world, I’d like to walk into Rick’s.
4. Bridget: Rocky (1976)- Yo Adrian, who doesn’t love a rags-to-riches story? The interesting thing is that behind the scenes, the little-known screenwriter of this movie, a guy named Sylvester Stallone, also experienced his own rags-to-riches storyline as this movie developed. Stallone penned the script and also insisted on playing the titular role. Consequently, no one wanted to make the movie with him starring in it. The film was eventually made with the promise the budget would be kept small.
Rocky is so much more than a sports movie alone. I like sports movies, but sometimes boxing is a bit much for me. Considering most of the movie is about Rocky’s humble beginnings with actual fight scenes being few, that probably helps. There are funny moments…Rocky chasing a chicken, verbally sparring with a teenage girl, and courting Adrian, that balance out the fists and fighting.
The supporting cast made up of Talia Shire (Adrian), Carl Weathers (Apollo Creed) and Burgess Meredith (trainer Mickey) also add to the strength of the movie. My mom talks about going to this movie multiple times in college, while my dad insists that he and his buddies drank raw eggs after seeing Rocky do it. It was a cultural phenomenon at the time and is still a winner today.
Rob: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)- There are a few years of Best Picture nominees that are so stacked, I just want a chance to talk about all of them.
That isn’t to take anything away from Milos Forman’s seminal adaptation of Ken Kesey’s era-defining novel set at an Oregon mental hospital: it was, and is, an undisputed masterpiece. All of these years later, Jack Nicholson’s R.P. McMurphy character is one of the two or three performances he’ll be most remembered for, and the story of a rebellious outsider taking on a cruel system hell-bent on enforcing conformity (embodied by Louise Fletcher’s Nurse Ratched) remains timeless, even if the reasons he’s institutionalized make him a lot more difficult to sympathize with by modern moral standards.
It’s difficult to believe, but a big screen adaptation of the book (published in 1963) actually languished to the point that Kirk Douglas, who bought the film rights and wanted to play McMurphy himself, was talked into selling them to his son Michael, then a little-known producer, and forfeiting the lead role as he had aged out of it.
In addition to earning Nicholson his first acting Oscar, Fletcher her lone Best Actress statue and winning Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director for Forman, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” launched the careers of several supporting cast members, including Christopher Lloyd of “Back to the Future” fame, Danny DeVito, Brad Dourif and Will Sampson, who played the unforgettable Chief Bromden.
If I had a vote today, I might be tempted to choose Robert Altman’s “Nashville,” which is still unlike any other American film ever made, or Sidney Lumet’s New York masterpiece “Dog Day Afternoon” for Best Picture. Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned “Jaws,” the first modern blockbuster, or “Barry Lyndon,” Stanley Kubrick’s epic period classic about a swindling Irish rogue who attempts to con his way to the top. But I’m never going to be mad that “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” won the big prize, and next time Kellie and I get back to Oregon, we’ll be visiting the museum in Salem.
3. Bridget: Titanic (1997)- In case you’re unfamiliar with this one, there’s this boat… Again, I’ve chosen one of the movies that film buffs and historians say was the wrong winner! (Wow, she has great movie taste). Yes, maybe “L.A. Confidential” or “Good Will Hunting” should have won that year. But do $2.2 billion in worldwide box office earnings lie?
I like this movie, and apparently so do zillions of other people. And that’s ok! It’s a fun, seat-gripping ride that introduced movie goers to some of the most impressive visual effects they had seen up to that time, thanks to pioneering director James Cameron.
And the ridiculous and tragic love story! I can’t describe how crushed my friends and I were at the end of that movie. There was audible sobbing on the drive home. (Rose could have made room for Jack on that door!) You can’t deny that fresh-faced Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet had great chemistry.
In the end, say what you will about “Titanic,” but it did win 11 Academy Awards, tying for most of all time with two other movies. It was the King of the World in it’s day and is still something I like going back to.
Rob: No Country for Old Men (2007)- Speaking of dynamite adaptations of novels by all-time great writers that beat out a crowded field to win, “No Country for Old Men” is arguably the best film of the 21st century thus far, and it sticks with the viewer long after the end credits roll.
The concept is simple enough: an average guy (Josh Brolin), out on an antelope hunt somewhere in southwest Texas, stumbles upon a botched drug deal and a briefcase full of cash. He decides to take the money and keep it for himself. Chaos ensues, and it’s up to an aging sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) to bring the carnage to an end.
A million films have covered the drug trade, the U.S.-Mexico border, a deadly chase and lawmen trying to piece it all together, but none have ever done it quite like “No Country,” which feels like a spiritual successor to Sam Peckinpah classics like “Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia” and “The Getaway.” And no other film had ever included author Cormac McCarthy’s demonic creation Anton Chigurh, a sadistic hitman played by Javier Bardem who’s so ruthless that he might force the Terminator to throw in the towel.
The Coen Brothers deserved Best Picture for “Fargo,” but they finally got it here in a crowded field that included Paul Thomas Anderson’s oil epic “There Will Be Blood,” which many critics now argue is actually the superior film, and Tony Gilroy’s legal thriller “Michael Clayton,” featuring a career best George Clooney performance. “Zodiac,” now hailed as David Fincher’s crowning achievement, wasn’t even nominated, and neither was the mournful Brad Pitt revisionist western “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.” Take me back!
2. Bridget: The Sound of Music (1965)- The hills are alive with this time-honored and beloved musical. Who doesn’t love scaling the Alps with a singing Julie Andrews? The story of the singing Von Trapp family and their governess won five Oscars and has since been named one of the American Film Institute’s top 100 movies (ranking 55) and the fourth best musical of all time.
This one brings warm, fuzzy memories to mind every time I watch it. It was regular viewing for me when I was home sick. The movie was so long, it came in the giant double VHS case! My mom used to help us match pitch by singing the movie’s famous “Do-Re-Mi” and I think we often tried to put on puppet shows ala the enchanting marionette scene. Though I haven’t watched “The Sound of Music” in its entirety in a few years, I would wager to say I still have most of it memorized.
Rob: The Godfather Part II (1974)- It’s no longer all that contrarian to love “Part II” more than the original. Both are widely recognized as the work of an artist at the peak of his powers and a leading man (who didn’t win Best Actor for EITHER of his performances) emerging as one of the greatest thespians in American history. My more provocative take is that “Apocalypse Now” is actually Francis Ford Coppola’s magnum opus and also the single greatest American film ever made, but it never won Best Picture.
As “Part II” begins, Michael is firmly in charge of the family, he’s married Diane Keaton’s Kay, and his son is taking his first communion at Lake Tahoe. From there, everything disintegrates, from the personal to the professional, culminating in one of the most heartbreaking endings in film history. Honestly, I still haven’t seen “Part III,” and I’m not sure if I want to.
A separate plotline intercuts throughout the story featuring Robert De Niro as a younger version of Vito, played by Marlon Brando in the original, and the Cuban Revolution plays a key role in the events as they unfold. “The Godfather Part II” is a massive scale, operatic tragedy, and even at three hours and 22 minutes, not a second feels wasted.
1. Bridget: The Departed (2006)- In the months after this movie came out on home video, it did not leave my DVD player. I watched it all the time, sometimes more than once a week. A crime-thriller directed by Martin Scorsese, the movie is a remake of a successful Hong Kong film. It’s set in Boston, plays into the stereotypes and mob-lore of the location and is great because of it. It’s brutal, violent, and yet sometimes comical. The bodies pile up but I can’t take my eyes off it.
And the cast! My man Leo DiCaprio stars with Matt Damon. The incomparable Jack Nicholson plays the big mob boss Frank Castello, employing all his crazy Nicholson-ness to perfect effect. The amazingly colorful supporting cast is too vast to cover but some of my favorite standouts include the foul-mouthed Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen and Alec Baldwin.
In addition to Best Picture, “The Departed” earned a directing Oscar for Scorsese. Many say this was more of a life-time achievement type award and that he really deserved to win for several of his other great films…think “Raging Bull” or “Goodfellas.” But that doesn’t stop me from enjoying the twisted criminal underground of “The Departed.” In fact, I might go pop it into the DVD player and leave it there for a year.
Rob: Lawrence of Arabia (1962)- I almost went with a David Lean double feature and included “Bridge on the River Kwai” on my list as well, but if you have to pick one, you might as well go with the almost four-hour gargantuan historical retelling that’s high in the running for the greatest achievement in all of cinema.
The best praise I can heap on “Lawrence of Arabia,” which stars Peter O’Toole as the titular character who helped to organize the people of the Middle Eastern peninsula against the Turks during World War I, is that the cinematography in a film released almost 60 years ago looks leaps and bounds better than anything you’ll see today. It’s not a hagiography (far from it), and the moral ambiguity surrounding the lead character would influence biopics for decades to come.
For anyone on the fence about seeing it, I can promise it isn’t homework, and you may notice striking similarities to the plot of “Dune” if you’re looking for a modern corollary.
As always, send feedback to Rob (publisher@grundyregister.com) or Bridget (news@wrightcountymonitor.com), and keep an eye out for future installments of Mid-America at the Movies!
