an annotated list--and a shitload of speculation

of all the movies that have won Best Picture. I haven't seen most of them, I'm sure, so if I haven't seen it yet, I won't comment. There might be some I'm not *willing* to see, however. :)

27-28 Wings
29 The Broadway Melody of 1929
30 All Quiet on the Western Front
31 Cimarron
32 Grand Hotel
33 Cavalcade
34 It Happened One Night Love it, love it, love it
35 Mutiny on the Bounty--I need to see this--my father adores it.
36 The Great Ziegfeld
37 The Life of Emile Zola
38 You Can’t Take it With You
39 Gone With the Wind Hmm. Nothing like the book, that's for sure!
40 Rebecca The only picture by Hitch that won Best Picture. And Laurence Olivier was in it. In case you don't know this, I'm madly in love with him. I even had a giant poster of him in high school, posing with a skull as Hamlet. It follows the book quite well, too.
41 How Green Was My Valley
42 Mrs. Miniver
43 Casablanca Naturally. Everyone should see this, of course.
44 Going My Way
45 The Lost Weekend: I SHOULD see this. But I'm not interested in watching a depressing movie with Ray Milland, becuase I'm madly in love with him, too.
46 The Best Years of Our Lives: Need to see this, too. Another of my father's faves.
47 Gentlemen’s Agreement
48 Hamlet Lord Oliver. But of course, I find many movies based on Shakespeare plays a bit long-winded.
49 All the King’s Men
50 All About Eve Quite interesting. I haven't seen it in awhile, though.
51 An American in Paris Argued by many to be the best musical ever filmed. It's pretty amazing.
52 The Greatest Show on Earth
53 From Here to Eternity A bit boring and depressing, but maybe I should see it again.
54 On the Waterfront Um, this was good, but I don't know why everyone thinks it was one of the best movies ever made. I guess maybe it goes over my head?
55 Marty
56 Around the World in 80 Days I think this is boring.
57 The Bridge on the River Kwai
58 Gigi One of the musicals winning Best Picture that was written by Lerner and Loewe. It follows the book by Colette very well. Directed by Vincente Minelli, the entire movie looks like an impressionistic painting. I love it.
59 Ben-Hur
60 The Apartment While I love Billy Wilder with all my heart, I just don't like this movie very much.
61 West Side Story I'm not wild about WSS at all. I even kept from familiarizing myself with Candide for some time because I don't like WSS.
62 Lawrence of Arabia Beautiful score. Well-acted. Pretty dull. I know my bro will totally diagree with me on this.
63 Tom Jones Whoever could have guessed that Albert Finney was once a hot item?
64 My Fair Lady Duh. Pretty fabulous. Although it's too bad they found it necessary to a. not case Julie Andrews, and b. to dub over Audrey's voice.
65 The Sound of Music Even though it's a total cheeseball, I sure loved this when I was little.
66 A Man for All Seasons One of my two all-time favorite movies (with High Noon).
67 In the Heat of the Night
68 Oliver! I'm sure it's well-done but I'm not wild about it.
69 Midnight Cowboy Very good and very depressing. I'll probably never see it again. Also, I borrowed this from my boss in September 2001 and then just didn't have the heart to see it all the way through for a few months.
70 Patton
71 The French Connection
72 The Godfather Very good and entertaining. That it. Entertaining is important to me. If it's not entertaining as well as good and intense, I don't like it.
73 The Sting One of my all-time faves. Totally deserved it.
74 The Godfather, Part II Also good and entertaining.
75 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
76 Rocky I think this movie is totally dumb and didn't deserve Best Picture.
77 Annie Hall Wonderful and deserved it.
78 The Deer Hunter
79 Kramer vs. Kramer Well done but not at all Oscar material. It's about a freaking divorce. Who fucking cares? Just because Meryl Streep and Dustin Hoffman were in it doesn't mean it deserves BP.
80 Ordinary People
81 Chariots of Fire
82 Gandhi Interesting and deserving.
83 Terms of Endearment Interesting. Probably not deserving of Best Picture. I think that if something deals with gay issues or terminal illnesses, it somehow always trumps Best Picture. Or actor or whatever.
84 Amadeus Another one of my all-time faves and definitely deserving, even though it's pretty far away from historical truth. If for no other reason, this deserved Best Picture because Milos Forman used the theater in which Don Giovanni premiered and lit it with candles, the way it would have been seen in Mozart's time.
85 Out of Africa A very good movie. Deserving of BP? Who knows?
86 Platoon
87 The Last Emperor Probably deserving. Definitely good. However, the last time I saw it, I was pretty young, so I need to see it again. I absolutely love depressing movies that are Chinese or about China.
88 Rain Man
89 Driving Miss Daisy A good movie. Not too entertaining.
90 Dances With Wolves
91 The Silence of the Lambs Definitely deserved BP. What a well-made horror/suspense flick. Furthermore, no one ruined it (think Keanu Reeves in either Much Ado About Nothing or Bram Stoker's Dracula--both movies had fantastic casts with the exception of him).
92 Unforgiven I remember this being entertaining, deep, and thoroughly good.
93 Schindler’s List Good and deserving.
94 Forrest Gump: I staunchly refuse to watch this crap.
95 Braveheart Hmm. I have some mixed feelings about this movie. The score is fantastic. It's well-acted. It's historically way off. While I may not have as much of a problem with that being the case in Amadeus, here it truly offends me.
96 The English Patient Read the book, saw the movie. I don't know if I really get it. It probably deserved BP owing to its cast and cinematography. I can't remember what else was nominated that year.
97 Titanic This was a complete joke. The fact that this movie won BP makes everything else less of a commodity. As a result, I never took the Oscars as seriously again. But then again, I am making this list. Sigh.
98 Shakespeare in Love I saw this again recently and it's a wonderful movie. Thoroughly enjoyable. I don't think it necessarily deserved BP, though.
99 American Beauty Very enjoyable and entertaining. Deserving of BP? Probably.
00 Gladiator Beautiful and enjoyable but didn't deserve BP.
01 A Beautiful Mind Again, following in the tradition of Stupid Bullshit that Won an Oscar, this seriously falls in that category.
02 Chicago Fun and nice that a musical won, but not deserving.
03 LOTR: The Return of the King The trilogy made cinematic history. Every single thing you see in those movies, down to the tankards used in the taverns, was specially made for the movies. LOTR are among the best movies ever made, in my opinion. So well done, so well crafted, acted, scored, directed, designed.
04 Million Dollar Baby

Indicentally, this site is great.

An addendum of movies that were nominated that so should have won:
The Awful Truth (1937), although I didn't see the Emile Zola pic that won.

The Philadelphia Story (1940). As much as I love Rebecca, I love this more.

Probably Citizen Kane (1941). How Green Was My Valley won instead. I can't seem to get through CK, but given the scholarship around it, it was a much more important movie than HGWMV.

Sunset Boulevard (1950) totally deserved the Oscar over All About Eve. Good grief.

I haven't seen The Greatest Show on Earth, but considering how High Noon is one of the best movies ever made, I'd say it was more deserving. (1952)

I haven't seen Shane, but my guess is it's much better than From Here to Eternity. It's also amassed a lot of scholarship.

I haven't seen Marty (1955), but I can tell you right now that Mister Roberts was more deserving.

I think Butch Cassidy was better than Midnight Cowboy (1969).

Since I think Rocky was really stupid, I think All the President's Men should have won in 1976.

While I can't get through Apocalpyse Now, I've seen enough of it to know it was more deserving than Kramer vs. Kramer (1979).

Any of these: Four Weddings and a Funeral, Pulp Fiction, Quiz Show, or The Shawshank Redemption deserved BP over Forrest Gump. (1994)

Totally Apollo 13 or Il Postino over Braveheart (1995).

Fargo over The English Patient (1996).

I don't think I can say with enough passion how much more LA Confidential deserved the Oscar over Titanic. Duh. Wouldn't everyone (except contemporary teenage girls) agree?

Gosford Park, In the Bedroom, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, or (even though I had to walk out of it) Moulin Rouge over A Beautiful Mind. Come on. (2001)

But you know, looking at the nominations, some years just really suck, apparently. Or the shortlisted choices do, anyway. 2003 was really good and so is this year.