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I thot it was rilly rilly good. I rilly rilly did. I love albert finney. I rilly rilly do.
Here's looking at you, kid.

The film was gloriously bawdy in a way that simply hadn't been allowed in
English-speaking films until the early sixties, and its honesty was very
refreshing. It wasn't a pretty-pretty picture of olden day romanticism,
but very gutsy, and the time was right for that approach.
And Albert Finney, besides being a very good actor, was really gorgeous back
then, before he started to gain too much weight. He had a lot to do with
the film's box office success.

thats funny. i just came to these boards for Tom Jones (which i saw years ago), because i have just finished watching Barry Lyndon and couldn't help thinking how much it reminded me of TJ. I was curious if anyone else would make the same comparison and there you are!

As for TJ having been imitated so many times, I cannot either argue or support that, but whenever I think of "Tom Jones", "Barry Lyndon" comes to mind. As beautiful as it was, and as much as I love the soundtrack of "The CHieftains", I still tend to favor "Tom Jones". Might have to watch another dose of "Lyndon" - tough job

Precisely.
Tom Jones, although dated, was a real groundbreaking film on its release. The reason why it looks dated now is because its been imitated so many times.
I like tom Jones but there are weak Best Picture winners e.g. The French Connection, In the Heat of the Night etc
They're not particularly good but they did break new ground either in terms of technique or subject matter.
I haven't seen all the Best Picture winners, but, amongst others, I've seen all but 4 of the winners going back to and including Ben-Hur.
They are: My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music, Oliver! and Chicago. As you can see I'm not a great lover of musicals!!
However (and I know this will cause controversy) I think the worst Picture Winner I've seen is Million Dollar Baby.
I thought it was dreadful. It can't even lay claim to being groundbreaking in any way at all. The characters are unbelievably cliched, the script is a dud.
MAJOR disappointment.

REMEMBER this is not 1963. When TOM JONES came out is was everything you don't put in movies and a personality that Hollywood didn't and really never wanted to put the spotlight on. This broke so many rules by what it talked about and the way the characters, especially Tom, behaved. And also had one of the best scripts of the 60s. I thought it was terrific, a true masterpiece.
As for worst Oscar winner, HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS won best makeup. As for Best Picture, THE BROADWAY MELODY is by far the weakest one (I have seen all Best Picture winners)

I have to agree . This film is way over rated and the picture quality on the dvd is is one of the worst I have ever seen.

Unfortunately, you are both right and wrong. True, this is a terrible movie and should not have won best dog catcher. But there are many a film that should not have won best picture. Could it have all been the result of split voting?
other worst movies to win best picture Oscars.
Titanic
Shakespeare in Love
Oliver!
The Greatest Show on Earth
Braveheart
please feel free to add to the list

You mean:
'It's a good night to be abroad and looking for game.'

You do know that Pearl Harbor won the best sound editing oscar?
And come on, Albert Finney's first line was truly awesome! "it's a good night to be abroad out on a hunt."
It was totally sharky! Complete!

I think I agree with you. This was an incredibly insipid production. I can't imagine how it could have been a bigger waste of time. An OSCAR for Best Picture? PLEASE ! ! !

It was like Mel Brooks does Way Down East. Frothy revisionism with smart-aleck nudge-nudge. no bite.

With the obvious exception of "Life is Beautifull"

I was HUGELY dissapoined by this film. I had read that this was an epic and a masterpiece, and when I finally got around to watching it, I found it silly and immature at many points.

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Then, you have not seen Chariots of Fire.
Michael

great escape

mcdowelldjl, good post! You're right. There were very good movies that were not even nominated for Best Picture in 1963.
I did enjoy "Tom Jones" when I saw it in 1963. You've got to take into account that this was way back in '63. "Tom Jones" was pretty sexy and exciting back in the day.
I took two dates to see "Tom Jones". It was a good movie to take a girlfriend to see. And, you know, that's not all together unimportant.
My favorite movies from 1963 are "The Great Escape", "Hud", and "From Russia With Love". Imagine seeing these on a big movie screen again today.
If you're looking for justice, you won't find it when you're scrolling through the list of Academy Award Best Picture winners. Just look at some of the outstanding pictures nominated but lost.
And as mcdowlldjl has pointed out, notice some really good pictures that were not even nominated.
Some years there were several strong movies nominated. Other years the field was pretty weak.

The Academy as most of the United States was infected with the "British Invasion" bug and had amnesia. It forgot to even nominate any of the following:
: Hud with perhaps Paul Newman's finest performance and certainly Patricia Neal's and who can forget the scene of Melvyn Douglas slaughtering the last of the breed.
: Charade Take Cary Grant mix in Audrey Hepburn add Henry Mancini to a sharp script and Paris scenes and you have one of the best who done its. Will you ever look at stamps the same way?
: The Great Escape Although changed to appeal more to the American audience, this fact-based story will have you on the edge of your seat.
Also: 8 1/2, Hitchcock's The birds, How the West was Won - which can't truly be enjoyed today since you can't see it in Cinerama; and last but not least, From Russia with love. In addition to the usual gadgets and glorious gals, has the two pals in real life (Shaw {blond and buff} and Sean) having one of the best fight scenes ever. Now it's not artsy enough but at least you'll not walk out of the theatre thinking the Academy had too much twisting and shouting when the ballots were cast.

So, being a comedy disqualifies it from Oscar consideration? There are plenty of worse movies that have won Best Picture Oscars: Chariots of Fire, The English Patient, Out of Africa, The Last Emperor, Gandhi, etc. Just out of curiosity, can you name a comedy that you would have given a Best Picture Oscar to? I don't mean to sound rude, but I'm just trying to get a sense of where you're coming from. (Obviously, I happen to like Tom Jones, but wouldn't have minded if the BP Oscar for that year had gone to Hud or The Birds.)

Of those nominated, "America, America" deserved to win and would have been on any other decent list that year (imho), unlike bloated crap like "Cleopatra" (which sorely needed a B.O. boost, coincidentally!). But Kazan was not popular with many in Hollywood, due to his McCarthy hearings participation, so!?
This is a great quote, Maggie! (as it's true) "A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet."Orson Welles
It rings of Sartre's observation that ALL we ever experience (or perhaps it's perceive?) is ourselves!

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