vote for the worst Oscar-winning Best Pictures of all time!!

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
http://www.eddieonfilm.blogspot.com/


I think we all know the sentimental favorite; it's atop Matt Zoller Seitz's ballot:

http://mattzollerseitz.blogspot.com/2006/03/last-call-for-worst-lists_29.html


Assembling mine; I've never seen ten of the winners (including 4 of the last 12).

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:22 (twenty years ago)

I can't take another fucking ILE film thread.

-- Dr Morbius (wjwe...), March 29th, 2006 4:53 PM. (Dr Morbius) (later)

j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:25 (twenty years ago)

pwn

Jimmy Mod: GRILL ENSPEKTOR (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:26 (twenty years ago)

The list lengthens as it approaches the present day:

Cimarron
Calvacade
The Greatest Show on Earth
The Sting
Gandhi
Rain Man
Braveheart
Gladiator
A Beautiful Mind
Crash

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:28 (twenty years ago)

xpost
I'm giving, not taking.

That's chronological, Alfred -- are you sweating the ranking?

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:31 (twenty years ago)

yes!

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:31 (twenty years ago)

rain man is pretty funny & the sting is great!

+++, Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:32 (twenty years ago)

worst: braveheart
best:godfather pt.2, casablanca.

conconcon, Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:33 (twenty years ago)

i haven't seen many of the last 10-12 winners, so it skews older, but

1. Cimmaron
2. Broadway Melody
3. American Beauty
4. Chariots Of Fire
5. Out Of Africa
6. Going My Way
7. Around The World In 80 Days
8. Greatest Show On Earth
9. Tom Jones
10. Cavalcade

timmy tannin (pompous), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:34 (twenty years ago)

You Can't Take It with You is way worse than The Sting or Tom Jones.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:35 (twenty years ago)

Maybe there's a qualitative difference between worst Oscar-winning picture and worst movie ever to win Best Picture? See, Gandhi's mediocrity is exposed by the win, while Cimarron, The Greatest Show on Earth and Crash are just nightmares that ALSO won Best Picture.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:38 (twenty years ago)

You Can't Take It With You
Mrs. Miniver
Gentleman's Agreemant
The Greatest Show on Earth
Around the World in 80 Days
Ben-Hur
Kramer vs. Kramer
Dances With Wolves
The English Patient
American Beauty

j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:38 (twenty years ago)

God, I forgot about Mrs. Miniver.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:39 (twenty years ago)

10 fave:
Rebecca
How Green Was My Valley
Casablanca
An American in Paris
On the Waterfront
The Apartment
Lawrence of Arabia
Midnight Cowboy
Patton
Unforgiven

j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:44 (twenty years ago)

blount is just killing himself that Pakula never won Best Pic.

It's been so long since I watched Around the World or Oliver! (which at least has a couple nice tunes and the G-rated murder of a whore) that I can't judge them.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:45 (twenty years ago)

my list = blounts tho id swap in deer hunter & annie hall out for... i dunno!

+++, Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:46 (twenty years ago)

i worry that secretly my favorite is some middlebrow crap like silence of the lambs

+++, Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:47 (twenty years ago)

or deer hunter/annie hall!

+++, Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:47 (twenty years ago)

casablanca is kinda boring

+++, Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:47 (twenty years ago)

Anonymous Plus Coward, eat it.

God, I forgot about Mrs. Miniver.

I ENVY YOU

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:48 (twenty years ago)

so many of these movies are so unbelievably horrible. Just goes to show the Academy has never been particularly prescient or posessed of good taste.

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:48 (twenty years ago)

Maybe there's a qualitative difference between worst Oscar-winning picture and worst movie ever to win Best Picture?

This is a quandry I have making a list like this. Because when you get down to it there is a lot of stuff that is okay enough, pretty mediocre to even decent, but when suddenly saddled with the BEST PICTURE OF TEH YEAR label it seems to make the film 8x worse than it actually is. Gandhi is a pretty great example of this, and to be totally honest I'd say quite a significant portion of the last decade or two's winners fall into this category (of the ones I've seen, maybe Million Dollar Baby is just awesome and great jawdropping masterpiece filmmaking but I really, really doubt it).

But...I'm reticient to put them on a WORST list just because they really aren't terrible films, and yeah there are a lot of "OK WTF this film is truly c-level bad" choices to pick from.

True or false: the films that fall into the first category, the "actually not really totally BAD but not good either" films, are a lot more memorable and a lot easier to immediately remember as "Worst Oscar winner ever" than the truly laughably terrible ones. (Obv this only applies to OSCAR WINNING PICTURES TM).

Allyzay Rofflesberger (allyzay), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:48 (twenty years ago)

is your real name dr morbius?

+++, Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:49 (twenty years ago)

xpost

+++, Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:50 (twenty years ago)

casablanca is SO NOT BORING! it's like the most entertaining movie ever

s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:50 (twenty years ago)

Geez, anything from '94-'99.Um....The English Patient wins.

dr lulu (dr lulu), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:50 (twenty years ago)

and call me a middlebrow ho but silence of the lambs is pretty awesome too compared to most of these

s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:50 (twenty years ago)

worst is clearly gump

s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:50 (twenty years ago)

gump is hilarious!! its easily one of the funniest oscar winners ever

+++, Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:51 (twenty years ago)

also classic manipulative melodrama stuff

+++, Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:52 (twenty years ago)

i think watching gentleman's agreement in synagogue in boot camp was when i realized that gregory peck sucked


haha how is trife anonymous???

j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:52 (twenty years ago)

plus makes up for zemeckis getting snubbed for back to the future 2

+++, Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:52 (twenty years ago)

hmm I actually kinda agree with Ally about the award skewing a picture's actual quality... however yes Forrest Gump is godawful and everyone involved should have been shot.

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:52 (twenty years ago)

"top" 10 faves (after 5-6 i'm really not that interested):

1. It Happened One Night
2. The Apartment
3. All About Eve
4. On The Waterfront
5. Rebecca
6. Casablanca
7. Godfather II
8. Annie Hall
9. Midnight Cowboy
10. Lost Weekend

timmy tannin (pompous), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:53 (twenty years ago)

watching gentleman's agreement in synagogue in boot camp

this is my favourite phrase of the day

s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:53 (twenty years ago)

big xpost, Silence of the Lambs is to me an example of the middlebrow film OSCAR WINNER made well as opposed to the stuff like American Beauty which is made pretty poorly and therefore somehow more infuriating than some of the truly bad stuff.

another xpost The English Patient and Out of Africa hold special places in my heart representing hours I wished I could gouge my own eyes out. Forrest Gump is pretty hilarious but--while I don't normally care about or really make this distinction in terms of enjoyment--ts intentional v unintentional funny.

Allyzay Rofflesberger (allyzay), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:53 (twenty years ago)

what was the last comedy to win an oscar? annie hall?

Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:54 (twenty years ago)

gump is hilarious!! its easily one of the funniest oscar winners ever

-- +++ (...) (webmail), March 30th, 2006 12:51 PM. (later) (link)

Allyzay Rofflesberger (allyzay), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:55 (twenty years ago)

let's stop using the word middlebrow on this thread, every movie on this list is 'middlebrow'

s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:56 (twenty years ago)

TT worst worst list yet! are you Rex Reed?

xpost
I don't know who trife is; EVERYONE expects me and the Spanish Inquisition.

blount had a point after all.

Also, for the record, I would really appreciate it if the three of you on this thread would just stop replying to Morbius.
-- Allyzay Rofflesberger (allyza...), March 30th, 2006.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:56 (twenty years ago)

Er, Forrest Gump, anyone? I mean, there are a lot of perfectly mediocre winners (Gladiator, American Beauty), but that piece of conservative propaganda was downright scary, especially because it was so well made.

(xxxx-post)

Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:56 (twenty years ago)

crash was the last comedy to win trayce

j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:56 (twenty years ago)

comedies generally don't allow the Academy to pat themselves on the back for how "progressive", enlightened, culturally sensitive, etc. they are. Ergo, they do not win.

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:56 (twenty years ago)

Lyndon B. Johnson: America owes you a debt of gratitude, son. Now I understand you were wounded. Where were you hit?
Forrest Gump: In the buttocks.
Lyndon B. Johnson: Oh that must be a site. I'd like to see that.
[Forrest shows him]
Lyndon B. Johnson: God damn, son.

+++, Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:57 (twenty years ago)

every movie on this list is 'middlebrow' except this year's gutterbrow winner.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:57 (twenty years ago)

yeah, gump's not a comedy, though. annie hall is, even if it's just barely one - maybe last comedy QUA comedy to win was the apartment?

Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:59 (twenty years ago)

let's stop using the word middlebrow on this thread, every movie on this list is 'middlebrow'

I don't like that word either but I don't have another word to distinguish between first category "films that aren't really terrible but seem 10x worse because they won best picture and don't meet that expectation in any way" and second category "truly, this is crap" :(

Allyzay Rofflesberger (allyzay), Thursday, 30 March 2006 16:59 (twenty years ago)

morbs - i put down my bottom 10 (hates) first - and the second list is my top 10 (faves, but lukewarm faves)
i mean, hate my list(s) if you want, but just wanted to check if there was some confusion..... (also if i had seen all of the winners from the last decade or so, i'm sure my list would be very different)

timmy tannin (pompous), Thursday, 30 March 2006 17:02 (twenty years ago)

yeah silence of the lambs would be the best thing ever if you only ever just saw it on cinemax at 3am but when you got the ACADEMY telling you its BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR im like hold up 1991 had boyz n da hood AND bill & ted's bogus journey

+++, Thursday, 30 March 2006 17:03 (twenty years ago)

Upon reviewing my selections, here it is again, in descending order:

Forrest Gump
Crash
Cimarron
Mrs. Miniver
The Greatest Show On Earth
American Beauty
You Can't Take It With You
Calvacade
A Beautiful Mind
American Beauty

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 30 March 2006 17:09 (twenty years ago)

chocolat, crouching tiger, traffic, erin brockovich. man, chocolat, who even remembers that film?

gear (gear), Thursday, 30 March 2006 23:08 (twenty years ago)

There's a series of adverts for butter over here that rip off Chocolat so we're kinda forced to remember it.

Robocock (noodle vague), Thursday, 30 March 2006 23:11 (twenty years ago)

hmm while I liked Crouching Tiger and Traffic, I have too many issues with both to say they were truly great or anything.

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 30 March 2006 23:11 (twenty years ago)

Is there a site where you can see all the nominees for each category by year? A cursory google doesn't reveal one.

chap who would dare to be a stone cold thug (chap), Thursday, 30 March 2006 23:11 (twenty years ago)

try a google search for "oscar nominations by year" and click on the first result

gear (gear), Thursday, 30 March 2006 23:17 (twenty years ago)

Also, try removing quotes from your search to get more results.

gear (gear), Thursday, 30 March 2006 23:18 (twenty years ago)

Yep, found it. Thanks.

chap who would dare to be a stone cold thug (chap), Thursday, 30 March 2006 23:20 (twenty years ago)

http://www.imdb.com/Sections/Awards/Academy_Awards_USA/

Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Thursday, 30 March 2006 23:20 (twenty years ago)

If you want all the BP nominees on one page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Award_for_Best_Picture

Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 30 March 2006 23:22 (twenty years ago)

OK, my favourites out of the nominees for the 00s:

2000: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
2001: Fellowship of the Ring.
2002: The Pianist.
2003: Lost in Translation.
2004: Sideways.
2006: Brokeback Mountain.

chap who would dare to be a stone cold thug (chap), Thursday, 30 March 2006 23:31 (twenty years ago)

whatever year "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" came out that should've taken all the awards from everybody else. wtf.

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 30 March 2006 23:32 (twenty years ago)

also: DONNIE DARKO

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 30 March 2006 23:32 (twenty years ago)

i'm a fan of movie tits and such, but it's a shame this strayed so far from the original idea.

timmy tannin (pompous), Friday, 31 March 2006 00:39 (twenty years ago)

Mind games again.

Eric H. (Eric H.), Friday, 31 March 2006 01:01 (twenty years ago)

worst votes

1. Mrs. Miniver
2. Out of Africa -- date movie with Streep + Redford = DIE
3. Gandhi -- "like going to the funeral of someone you didn't know"
4. Gladiator -- carnage, yawn
5. Driving Miss Daisy
6. Oliver!
7. Gigi -- totally foreign to me
8. Shakespeare in Love -- date move with Gwyneth + a Fiennes = DIE
9. Ben-Hur -- kind of harmless in a "watch it on tv, forget about it afterward" way, but still stupid
10. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King -- I liked the first in the series but the other two aren't coherent

älänbänänä (alanbanana), Friday, 31 March 2006 04:49 (twenty years ago)

Best Picture Oscar Winners (from 1950 on) I haven't seen; let me know which one's I'm missing out on:

Marty, Greatest Show On Earth, Around the World in 80 Days, Tom Jones, A Man for All Seasons, Oliver, Patton, Godfather II, Kramer v. Kramer, Ordinary People, Terms of Endearment, Out of Africa, Braveheart, English Patient, A Beautiful Mind, Million Dollar Baby.

Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Friday, 31 March 2006 05:10 (twenty years ago)

patton is pro-war pro-death etc but is also really entertaining
mdb has bad narration but is still very good
the other ones i've seen are skippable.

älänbänänä (alanbanana), Friday, 31 March 2006 06:01 (twenty years ago)

i screwed up kael's gandhi quote, it's "as if I had attended the funeral of someone I didn't know"

älänbänänä (alanbanana), Friday, 31 March 2006 06:06 (twenty years ago)

it's threads like these that made me decide not to be a film major

JD, you mean this thread is just crawlin with film majors? (oh wait -- I see. Yeah, not much need for them.)

Wasn't Jane Seymour the original Constanze?

rosemary, you are correct!

http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=4083


7. Gigi -- totally foreign to me

Oh, that's sad! (not bein snarky -- I break into "The Night They Invented Champagne" fairly often)

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 31 March 2006 13:37 (twenty years ago)

btw, Gladiata-hatas -- Christopher Plummer is a hammy but effective Commodus in this watchable '64 epic:

http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0058085/

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 31 March 2006 13:44 (twenty years ago)

I haven't seen Gigi or An American in Paris.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 31 March 2006 13:46 (twenty years ago)

Plummer's my kinda ham

Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 31 March 2006 15:48 (twenty years ago)

I had no idea "Around The World In 80 Days" is so hated! I've never seen it but isn't it just, like, David Niven prancing around various exotic locations and tons of wink wink celebrity cameo appearences? Which, considering that the ppl involved in that include Sinatra, Buster Keaton, Marlene Dietrich and Peter Lorre, sounds like a pretty good time to me.

The book's ok. That cartoon with the lion as Willie Fogg is pretty cool.

Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 31 March 2006 16:37 (twenty years ago)

The music for the cartoon with the lion as Willie Fogg is way cool.

I can only understand people hating it for getting Best Picture if they thought the award should go the best film of its year. Yeah right.

Robocock (noodle vague), Friday, 31 March 2006 16:41 (twenty years ago)

Haha if they'd made being an asshole a bannable offense, this thread would be 30 posts long!

Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 31 March 2006 17:21 (twenty years ago)

word

I only saw 80 Days on TV when I was maybe 12. I don't recall it using Cantinflas especially well tho.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 31 March 2006 17:23 (twenty years ago)

it's only passable as a travelog, but it drags & drags, is not funny in the least (otm about Cantinflas), and seems to be made merely as a vehicle for the Todd AO technology. Ok for the kiddies is the best you can say.

regarding Cavalcade, it CREAKS like the worst of the early sound films, and it gets weirdly moralistic towards the end - what is that crazy Jazz-montage where the point seems to be "jazz is evil, that's why the world has gone to seed" I find it hard to believe that was in the Coward source material, but maybe it was????

timmy tannin (pompous), Friday, 31 March 2006 20:06 (twenty years ago)

Cavalcade is Noel Coward for those who think George F. Will is Noel Coward-esque.

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 31 March 2006 20:32 (twenty years ago)

VICTORY DANCE!!!

http://eddieonfilm.blogspot.com/2006/04/and-losers-are.html

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 1 April 2006 16:26 (twenty years ago)

guys it is PHILEAS fogg!! (best name ever btw)

J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Saturday, 1 April 2006 23:06 (twenty years ago)

i like Willie Fogg better

latebloomer: a power and finesse vocalist (latebloomer), Saturday, 1 April 2006 23:12 (twenty years ago)

Will you guys fuckin stop calling TracerHand Trayce?

Kthxbye.

Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 2 April 2006 00:30 (twenty years ago)

If Moulin Rouge! had managed to win Best Picture, it might've made #2 on my list.

I think Gigi is the only winner that was an original musical for film, as opposed to a compiled 'jukebox' (like American in Paris) or adaptation from Broadway.

Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 3 April 2006 13:32 (twenty years ago)

Holy shit, "Shakespeare In Love" apologists exist.

Dan (Gah) Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 3 April 2006 13:35 (twenty years ago)

No. 6: Braveheart: Freedom! -- from more overwrought epics like Mel Gibson's effort. What does it say about the competition for best picture in 1995 that the best film was about a talking pig? Odienator writes, "A brave heart makes a shattered eardrum, a sore ass, and an upset stomach. Featuring Oscar winning makeup by the Sears paint department." Josh R went further in comments in the original thread about this survey writing, without naming the movie, "Brokeback may not inspire the Academy too much, but they sure have no problem with ugly gay stereotypes, particularly scenes intended to cause laughter when weak swishy-boys are tossed off balconies and the like. I often wonder if it's too late to revoke a certain Australian-born actor-director's US citizenship."

Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Monday, 3 April 2006 14:33 (twenty years ago)

What, no hate for Terms of Endearment? Jeff Daniels and Debra Winger are good, but my God that movie is loathesome.

Pete Scholtes (Pete Scholtes), Monday, 3 April 2006 15:55 (twenty years ago)

Point of order: Mel Gibson is a US born actor-director. His family moved to Australia when he was, like, ten or something so his crazy father could help his boys dodge the draft.

phil d. (Phil D.), Monday, 3 April 2006 18:06 (twenty years ago)

eleven years pass...

It's listicle clickbait season, so Slant did this!

https://www.slantmagazine.com/features/article/every-best-picture-oscar-winner-ranked-from-worst-to-best

I don't know who the fella is who wrote the My Fair Lady (#64) take, but his mention of Shaw's "repulsive premise: The reason poor people are poor is that rich people don't like the way they talk" seems rather clueless.

ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 27 February 2018 15:45 (eight years ago)

there was this one too

http://www.newsweek.com/all-90-best-pictures-ranked-90-61-813603

piscesx, Tuesday, 27 February 2018 17:11 (eight years ago)

Surprising to see On The Waterfront in the Top 10, any Top 10 these days, when i was a lad you couldn't read an article about the film without that whole Kazan-grassing-up-commies thing being mentioned, but not a whisper of it here.

piscesx, Tuesday, 27 February 2018 17:19 (eight years ago)

Since ratting in that fashion is unrelated to current purity obsessions it probably wasn't a factor.

ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 27 February 2018 17:22 (eight years ago)

Solid top twelve.

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 27 February 2018 18:00 (eight years ago)

I'd be interested to know if anyone has a compelling argument for a worse best picture winner than the one that everyone else seems to agree is the worst.

Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 27 February 2018 18:05 (eight years ago)

it's approximately two hours shorter than The English Patient?

piper at the gates of d'awwww (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 27 February 2018 18:07 (eight years ago)

ok, it's only 50 minutes shorter. EP was only 2 hrs 42, it only felt like four hours

piper at the gates of d'awwww (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 27 February 2018 18:08 (eight years ago)

'd be interested to know if anyone has a compelling argument for a worse best picture winner than the one that everyone else seems to agree is the worst.

― Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), T

Cavalcade is interminable and less than two hours.

morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 27 February 2018 18:09 (eight years ago)

i actually *like* The English Patient, though I admit it's not a super exciting film. But it's the kind of boring film I like for some reason. it's a thin line between that and a film that actually bores me, I can't quite pin it down. but i think the actors elevate it considerably.

omar little, Tuesday, 27 February 2018 18:11 (eight years ago)

some people at Slant still can't see through Her.

ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 27 February 2018 18:13 (eight years ago)

eleven months pass...

I ranked the 2010s to date for ya.

Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 7 February 2019 20:01 (seven years ago)

and the 1940s.

a Stalin Stale Ale for me, please (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 21 February 2019 02:35 (seven years ago)


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.