Worst Best Picture Winner
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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.
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noracharles05 — 20 years ago(March 04, 2006 01:31 PM)
I'm with everyone who said "Titanic." Also, on a side note, what was with Gwyneth Paltrow winning Best Actress for her performance in Shakespeare in Love when she was contending with Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth?
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ecjones1951 — 19 years ago(May 08, 2006 04:21 PM)
Unfortunately, politics has a LOT to do with what wins Best Picture.
Just three examples generally agreed upon by respected critics and film historians, (and me!, who does a little of both).
1952 Winner:
The Greatest Show on Earth
. The Real Best Picture:
High Noon
. Reason it lost? Red scare, blacklisted writers using pseudonyms. Result? Academy chose to chicken out and play it safe.
1998 Winner:
Shakespeare in Love
. The Real Best Picture:
Saving Private Ryan
. Reason it lost?
Ryan
too violent and bloody. The entire Academy membership, which votes for the Best Picture nominees, skews much older than the average moviegoer. It tends to steer away from certain kinds of controversy, which leads us to
2005 Winner:
Crash
. The Real Best Picture:
Brokeback Mountain.
Reason it lost? Hollywood became more tolerant of violence and profanity in eight years, but was not yet ready to lend its imprimatur to a love story that did not take place between a man and a woman. It's really that simple.
Significantly, none of these Oscar winning movies won for Best Direction. -
TrueFiendish — 19 years ago(May 08, 2006 10:52 PM)
The Oscars really started going downhill when Terms of Endearment was awarded Best Pic. However, the person who said Million Dollar Baby was bad don't know nuttin. It's a classic.
As to the point about politics, I would add 1941. Winner: How Green Was My Valley; Real Best Picture: Citizen Kane. Reason it lost? Nobody in their right mind would have wanted to get on the bad side of William Randolph Hirst, who, let's say, had something against the film -
gleeps — 19 years ago(May 13, 2006 11:43 PM)
I love Tom Jones! It's funny how people criticize the academy for never recognizing comedies and when they do, people say its the worst Best Picture winner ever.Shakespeare in Love was also a comedy of course, and you maybe could classify American Beauty as one too. All those films are always pointed at as bad choices for Best Picture, so I think people tend to say one thing and then another, but I digress
My pick for most undeserving Best Picture winner would probably have to be Rain Man. Ugh, I just thought that movie was so cliche and after Dustin Hoffman's win, we got deluged with a million different actors playing people with "cutesy" physical/mental afflictions in order to win Oscars. Plus I was never a Tom Cruise fan (only person at my school that hated Top Gun). I would have been happier with ANY of the other five nominees (Dangerous Liaisons would probably be my pick) -
ecjones1951 — 19 years ago(May 16, 2006 07:28 AM)
I agree with you, gleeps, about both "Tom Jones" and "Rain Man." The latter has not worn well at all, and it now looks more and more like just a showcase for Hoffman's schtick. And you're right, playing a character with some sort of handicap/physical challenge/mental illness increases your chances of winning an Oscar significantly. It's like it's not enough just to be a really, really good actor. :sigh:
"Tom Jones" is a wonderful movie. I am very glad I finally got the chance to see it. For some reason, the Academy seems to think comedies are beneath its dignity, but I think comedy is in some ways a higher art form than drama, because it's so much harder to get right.
So the Best Picture Oscar has sometimes gone to a mediocre drama when a strong comedy was more deserving. IMO