Disappointing Choices for Best Picture
by nware-2 | created - 11 Apr 2012 | updated - 11 Apr 2012 | PublicBest Picture Oscar Winners that have not aged that well with superior other films released but snubbed in their respective years. I have reservations about close calls like All About Eve (Sunset Blvd, Rashomon), The Apartment (Psycho, La Dolche Vita), Lawrence of Arabia (To Kill a Mockingbird), The Sound of Music (Doctor Zhivago), Midnight Cowboy (Butch Cassidy), Godfather II (Chinatown), Annie Hall (Star Wars), Driving Miss Daisy (Glory), Unforgiven (The Crying Game), American Beauty (Fight Club, The Matrix, The Green Mile, Eyes Wide Shut, The Sixth Sense) A Beautiful Mind (Mulholland Drive), and No Country for Old Men (There Will Be Blood), but those are all very close so I'll give them a break.
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1. How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Passed | 118 min | Drama, Family
At the turn of the century in a Welsh mining village, the Morgans, he stern, she gentle, raise coal-mining sons and hope their youngest will find a better life.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Walter Pidgeon, Maureen O'Hara, Anna Lee, Donald Crisp
Votes: 26,457
Better films: Citizen Kane, The Maltese Falcon
2. Going My Way (1944)
Passed | 126 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
When young Father O'Malley arrives at St. Dominic's, old Father Fitzgibbon doesn't think much of the church's newest member.
Director: Leo McCarey | Stars: Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald, Frank McHugh, James Brown
Votes: 13,432 | Gross: $16.30M
Better films: Double Indemnity
3. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
Approved | 170 min | Drama, Romance, War
Three World War II veterans, two of them traumatized or disabled, return home to the American midwest to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed.
Director: William Wyler | Stars: Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Fredric March, Teresa Wright
Votes: 70,472 | Gross: $23.65M
Better films: It's a Wonderful Life
Great film though
4. An American in Paris (1951)
Passed | 114 min | Drama, Musical, Romance
Three friends struggle to find work in Paris. Things become more complicated when two of them fall in love with the same woman.
Director: Vincente Minnelli | Stars: Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Oscar Levant, Georges Guétary
Votes: 36,824 | Gross: $4.50M
Better films: A Streetcar Named Desire
Seriously, what the hell were they smoking that night
5. The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
Passed | 152 min | Drama, Family, Romance
The dramatic lives of trapeze artists, a clown, and an elephant trainer are told against a background of circus spectacle.
Director: Cecil B. DeMille | Stars: James Stewart, Charlton Heston, Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde
Votes: 16,026 | Gross: $36.00M
Better films: High Noon
6. Hamlet (1948)
Approved | 154 min | Drama
Prince Hamlet struggles over whether or not he should kill his uncle, whom he suspects has murdered his father, the former king.
Director: Laurence Olivier | Stars: Laurence Olivier, Jean Simmons, John Laurie, Esmond Knight
Votes: 18,363 | Gross: $7.09M
Better films: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Great film though.
7. Marty (1955)
Not Rated | 90 min | Drama, Romance
A middle-aged butcher and a school teacher who have given up on the idea of love meet at a dance and fall for each other.
Director: Delbert Mann | Stars: Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, Esther Minciotti, Augusta Ciolli
Votes: 26,989
Better films: Rebel without a Cause
Still a great movie though
8. Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
G | 175 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family
A Victorian Englishman bets that with the new steamships and railways he can circumnavigate the globe in eighty days.
Directors: Michael Anderson, John Farrow | Stars: David Niven, Cantinflas, Finlay Currie, Robert Morley
Votes: 29,661 | Gross: $42.00M
Better films: The Ten Commandments, Giant.
Awful and boring-to-death film
9. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
PG | 161 min | Adventure, Drama, War
British POWs are forced to build a railway bridge across the river Kwai for their Japanese captors in occupied Burma, not knowing that the allied forces are planning a daring commando raid through the jungle to destroy it.
Director: David Lean | Stars: William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, Sessue Hayakawa
Votes: 233,094 | Gross: $44.91M
Better films: Paths of Glory, Witness for the Prosecution, 12 Angry Men
Still a great movie though
10. Gigi (1958)
G | 115 min | Comedy, Musical, Romance
Weary of the conventions of Parisian society, a rich playboy and a youthful courtesan-in-training enjoy a platonic friendship which may not stay platonic for long.
Directors: Vincente Minnelli, Charles Walters | Stars: Leslie Caron, Maurice Chevalier, Louis Jourdan, Hermione Gingold
Votes: 24,456
Better films: Vertigo, Cat on the Hot Tin Hoof, The Defiant Ones
Good musical though
11. West Side Story (1961)
Approved | 153 min | Crime, Drama, Musical
Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy.
Directors: Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise | Stars: Natalie Wood, George Chakiris, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn
Votes: 121,094 | Gross: $43.66M
Better films: The Hustler, Judgment at Nuremberg, Breakfast at Tiffanys.
12. Tom Jones (1963)
Not Rated | 129 min | Adventure, Comedy, History
The romantic and chivalrous adventures of adopted bastard Tom Jones in 18th-century England.
Director: Tony Richardson | Stars: Albert Finney, Susannah York, George Devine, Rachel Kempson
Votes: 14,234 | Gross: $37.60M
Better films: 8 1/2, This Sporting Life
13. My Fair Lady (1964)
G | 170 min | Drama, Family, Musical
In 1910s London, snobbish phonetics professor Henry Higgins agrees to a wager that he can make crude flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, presentable in high society.
Director: George Cukor | Stars: Audrey Hepburn, Rex Harrison, Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde-White
Votes: 101,745 | Gross: $72.00M
Better films: Dr. Strangelove, Becket
I love Audrey as much as everyone, but still, this wasn't the Best Picture by a long shot
14. A Man for All Seasons (1966)
G | 120 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of Sir Thomas More, who stood up to King Henry VIII when the King rejected the Roman Catholic Church to obtain a divorce and remarry.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Robert Shaw, Leo McKern
Votes: 37,129 | Gross: $28.35M
Better films: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Seriously, they should be ashamed for snubbing that one
15. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Approved | 110 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A black Philadelphia police detective is mistakenly suspected of a local murder while passing through a racially hostile Mississippi town, and after being cleared is reluctantly asked by the police chief to investigate the case.
Director: Norman Jewison | Stars: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates, Lee Grant
Votes: 83,492 | Gross: $24.38M
Better films: Bonnie and Clyde, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Graduate
Still a good movie though
16. Oliver! (1968)
G | 153 min | Drama, Family, Musical
After being sold to a mortician, young orphan Oliver Twist runs away and meets a group of boys trained to be pickpockets by an elderly mentor in 1830s London.
Director: Carol Reed | Stars: Mark Lester, Ron Moody, Shani Wallis, Oliver Reed
Votes: 41,367 | Gross: $16.80M
Better films: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Rosemary's Baby
17. The French Connection (1971)
R | 104 min | Action, Crime, Drama
A pair of NYPD detectives in the Narcotics Bureau stumble onto a heroin smuggling ring based in Marseilles, but stopping them and capturing their leaders proves an elusive goal.
Director: William Friedkin | Stars: Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Rey, Tony Lo Bianco
Votes: 135,493 | Gross: $15.63M
Better films: A Clockwork Orange, The Last Picture Show
18. The Sting (1973)
PG | 129 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama
Two grifters team up to pull off the ultimate con.
Director: George Roy Hill | Stars: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Robert Shaw, Charles Durning
Votes: 279,583 | Gross: $159.60M
Better films: The Exorcist, American Graffiti
Still a great film though, I own it for good reason
19. Rocky (1976)
PG | 120 min | Drama, Sport
A small-time Philadelphia boxer gets a supremely rare chance to fight the world heavyweight champion in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect.
Director: John G. Avildsen | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers
Votes: 627,731 | Gross: $117.24M
Better films: Network, Taxi Driver
I hate putting it here because it's so great and I really love it back when the character was so fresh and real, but snubbing those other two is unforgivable.
20. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
PG | 105 min | Drama
After his wife leaves him, a work-obsessed Manhattan advertising executive is forced to learn long-neglected parenting skills, but a heated custody battle over the couple's young son deepens the wounds left by the separation.
Director: Robert Benton | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Jane Alexander, Justin Henry
Votes: 154,546 | Gross: $106.26M
Better films: Apocalypse Now
Great film to be sure, but that year was a travesty
21. Ordinary People (1980)
R | 124 min | Drama
The accidental death of the older son of an affluent family deeply strains the relationships among the bitter mother, the good-natured father and the guilt-ridden younger son.
Director: Robert Redford | Stars: Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, Timothy Hutton
Votes: 56,627 | Gross: $54.80M
Better films: Raging Bull
Quite a good movie, but seriously, what the hell were they thinking
22. Chariots of Fire (1981)
PG | 125 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
Two British track athletes, one a determined Jew and the other a devout Christian, are driven to win in the 1924 Olympics as they wrestle with issues of pride and conscience.
Director: Hugh Hudson | Stars: Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nicholas Farrell, Nigel Havers
Votes: 65,813 | Gross: $58.97M
Better films: On Golden Pond, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Reds
23. Out of Africa (1985)
PG | 161 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
In 20th-century colonial Kenya, a Danish baroness/plantation owner has a passionate love affair with a free-spirited big-game hunter.
Director: Sydney Pollack | Stars: Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Michael Kitchen
Votes: 86,243 | Gross: $87.10M
Better films: The Color Purple
24. The Last Emperor (1987)
PG-13 | 163 min | Biography, Drama, History
Bernardo Bertolucci's Oscar-winning dramatisation of the life story of China's last emperor, Pu Yi.
Director: Bernardo Bertolucci | Stars: John Lone, Joan Chen, Peter O'Toole, Ruocheng Ying
Votes: 111,390 | Gross: $43.98M
Better films: Full Metal Jacket, Broadcast News, Fatal Attraction, Wall Street
25. Dances with Wolves (1990)
PG-13 | 181 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
Lieutenant John Dunbar, assigned to a remote western Civil War outpost, finds himself engaging with a neighbouring Sioux settlement, causing him to question his own purpose.
Director: Kevin Costner | Stars: Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, Rodney A. Grant
Votes: 290,203 | Gross: $184.21M
Better films: Goodfellas, Reversal of Fortune, Misery
26. Forrest Gump (1994)
PG-13 | 142 min | Drama, Romance
The history of the United States from the 1950s to the '70s unfolds from the perspective of an Alabama man with an IQ of 75, who yearns to be reunited with his childhood sweetheart.
Director: Robert Zemeckis | Stars: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Sally Field
Votes: 2,253,625 | Gross: $330.25M
Better films: The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction
Still a remarkable film though
27. Braveheart (1995)
R | 178 min | Biography, Drama, War
Scottish warrior William Wallace leads his countrymen in a rebellion to free his homeland from the tyranny of King Edward I of England.
Director: Mel Gibson | Stars: Mel Gibson, Sophie Marceau, Patrick McGoohan, Angus Macfadyen
Votes: 1,090,428 | Gross: $75.60M
Better films: Se7en, Heat, Dead Man Walking, Leaving Las Vegas, Casino, Nixon
It's very good though
28. The English Patient (1996)
R | 162 min | Drama, Romance, War
At the close of World War II, a young nurse tends to a badly burned plane crash victim. His past is shown in flashbacks, revealing an involvement in a fateful love affair.
Director: Anthony Minghella | Stars: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas
Votes: 200,459 | Gross: $78.65M
Better films: Fargo, Fargo, FARGO!!!
29. Titanic (1997)
PG-13 | 194 min | Drama, Romance
A seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.
Director: James Cameron | Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates
Votes: 1,278,671 | Gross: $659.33M
Better films: L.A. Confidential
Still a great film in a great year though
30. Shakespeare in Love (1998)
R | 123 min | Comedy, Drama, History
The world's greatest ever playwright, William Shakespeare, is young, out of ideas and short of cash, but meets his ideal woman and is inspired to write one of his most famous plays.
Director: John Madden | Stars: Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Tom Wilkinson
Votes: 234,202 | Gross: $100.32M
Better films: Saving Private Ryan, American History X, The Thin Red Line, The Truman Show, Pleasantville
31. Chicago (2002)
PG-13 | 113 min | Comedy, Crime, Musical
Two death-row murderesses develop a fierce rivalry while competing for publicity, celebrity, and a sleazy lawyer's attention.
Director: Rob Marshall | Stars: Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, Taye Diggs
Votes: 243,159 | Gross: $170.69M
Better films: Gangs of New York, The Pianist, Adaptation, Far From Heaven
32. Crash (I) (2004)
R | 112 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
Los Angeles citizens with vastly separate lives collide in interweaving stories of race, loss and redemption.
Director: Paul Haggis | Stars: Don Cheadle, Sandra Bullock, Thandiwe Newton, Karina Arroyave
Votes: 448,844 | Gross: $54.58M
Better films: Capote, Good Night and Good Luck, Munich, Walk the Line, Batman Begins, Brokeback Mountain, North Country, Sin City, A History of Violence, Memoirs of Geisha, Hustle & Flow, Syriana, and just about every other god-damn film that came out that year.
My choice for the single worst Best Picture winner in Oscar history and that covers a LOT of ground.
33. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
R | 120 min | Crime, Drama, Romance
A teenager from the slums of Mumbai becomes a contestant on the show 'Kaun Banega Crorepati?' When interrogated under suspicion of cheating, he revisits his past, revealing how he had all the answers.
Directors: Danny Boyle, Loveleen Tandan | Stars: Dev Patel, Freida Pinto, Saurabh Shukla, Anil Kapoor
Votes: 877,187 | Gross: $141.32M
Better films: In Bruges, Revolutionary Road, The Dark Knight, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Doubt
Great film though
34. The Hurt Locker (2008)
R | 131 min | Drama, Thriller, War
During the Iraq War, a Sergeant recently assigned to an army bomb squad is put at odds with his squad mates due to his maverick way of handling his work.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow | Stars: Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Guy Pearce
Votes: 473,432 | Gross: $17.02M
Better films: Inglourious Basterds, Precious, The Road, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
I was and still am very happy for Kathryn Bigelow though, she did do a good
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