Worst Best Picture Winner
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bebop63-1 — 19 years ago(March 23, 2007 07:36 PM)
I too am making it a goal to watch all the Oscar-winning movies from the beginning onwards, and while I have yet to see all of them, I would categorically say of the ones I have watched so far, Shakespeare In Love, A Beautiful Mind & Million Dollar Baby would have to be on the top 3 of the worst ones imho. Just goes to show that just because the panel of judges who decide who wins what on the Academy Awards are in the movie industry doesn't mean that they know any more than the hoi polloi.
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gittes98 — 10 years ago(September 06, 2015 11:32 PM)
There is also a big difference between 'worst' and 'undeserving' More winners fall into this second catagory: An American in Paris, Oliver!, Rocky, The English Patient, In the Heat of the Night, Driving Miss Daisy, Shakespeare in Love, 12 years a Slave and a personal choice here, One Flew Over the beep Nest are a few off the top examples. Some undeserved because of politics, then relevant subject matter, or producers bullying and/or cajoling members to vote for their picture (guess who this is).
Some of the movies have not stood the test of time: Broadway Melody, The Great Ziegfeld,Gentleman's Agreement, Around the World in 80 Days, perhaps Tom Jones and even Rain Man and the hugely overrated Terms of Endearment.
But in the case of Cimarron and The Greatest Show on Earth for example, it's tough to think that these were even considered worthy in their own time.
o -
john kenrick — 6 months ago(September 06, 2025 08:29 PM)
I have seen
The Greatest Show On Earth
, which has dated badly over the years, however, for what it is, I found it entertaining, and its director, Cecil B. DeMille knew what he was doing. Some of it is a lot of fun. Just don't take it too seriously. It's a
circus movie
, after all. -
john kenrick — 6 months ago(September 06, 2025 08:40 PM)
I liked
Out Of Africa
. Good, not great. The Academy Of Motion Pictures is a trade show sort of organization, not necessarily a sign of quality. It's more of a popularity contest. Even in its (relatively speaking) heyday, it was more about favorites, favoritism and box-office issues, not artistic achievement. A lot of the older Best Picture winners just strike me as old-fashioned, which for many people is a sort of "falling short":
Wings, Cimarron
and
Grand Hotel
are decent pictures for what they are; also, for those of us with a taste for classic Hollywood, they deliver the goods. Great films, not. -
theb_ronster — 20 years ago(January 17, 2006 06:34 AM)
A little part of me dies every time I watch:
Titanic, Chicago, Shakespeare in Love
and Tom Jones would have driven a good friend of mine to suicide if the film hadn't made him so stupid he couldn't figure out how
"Do I have an original thought in my head? My bald head?" -
antinichard — 19 years ago(September 20, 2006 05:14 PM)
Top Ten Worst Best Picture Winners
1.) The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
2.) Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
3.) A Man for All Seasons (1966)
4.) Tom Jones (1963)
5.) Crash (2005)
6.) Rain Man (1988)
7.) Chariots of Fire (1981)
8.) Rocky (1976)
9.) Million Dollar Baby (2004)
10.) A Beautiful Mind (2001) -
cyninbend-149-610489 — 10 years ago(February 21, 2016 10:27 PM)
antinichard, Great list! We have similar tastes. I have not seen all of thosenever even heard of Crash (wonder where I was?). But if I saw it, I can't dispute it being on your list! Chariots of Fire was treated as the greatest thing ever, and I wanted to cry sitting through it! But The English Patient ought to be on the list. It was frightful.
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rorshock — 20 years ago(February 15, 2006 11:45 PM)
"A little part of me dies every time I watch:
Titanic, Chicago, Shakespeare in Love"
A little part of you dies every time you watch these movies. Every time? Which implies you've watched these movies a whole bunch of times even though you think they're bad movies?
How sad your life must be if you waste so much of it watching movies that kill you just a little bit every time you watch them! -
mileniumanimator — 20 years ago(February 06, 2006 07:01 PM)
I liked Shakespeare in Love, which most people on this board seemed to disagree with me. For me Forest Gump crawled along at a snales pace, and I was so bored by the end. Also hated Tom Jones, didn't much care for Chicago, and actually found Ordinary People excruciatingly dull. Only my opinions. Feel free to disagree.
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DrEinstein — 20 years ago(February 08, 2006 10:30 AM)
There are very few Best Pictures that I think deserved the award. Almost every year, I think at least one other film nominated was better.
I was going to list them (
Titanic
was my first thought) but I realized it would be easier to list the good ones.
I have already reached the point where I ignore the Academy Awards. -
kamakazi_5033 — 20 years ago(February 17, 2006 07:20 PM)
I understand that many people on this site love a good western, so don't roast me when i state that Unforgiven might be high on this list. Honestly, i couldn't understand what was so great and acclaimed about it. If anyone could explain i would be happy to listen.