What Should Have Won

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Pick a movie that won an Oscar for Best Picture and name what movie that was nominated that should have won. Debate those posted that you agree/disagree with. Here's a website that shows the winners and the nominated films. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...r_Best_Picture

I'll start with a few.

- The Sting Won. American Graffiti should have won.
- One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest won. Jaws should have won.
- Kramer vs Kramer won. Apocalypse Now should have won.
- Chariots of Fire won. Raiders of the Lost Ark should have won
- Amadeus won. The Killing Fields should have won.
- Titanic won. God Will Hunting should have won.
- Shakespeare In Love won. Saving Private Ryan should have won.
- American Beauty won. The Green Mile should have won.
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The Ordinary People won. Elephant Man should have won.
Kramer VS Kramer won. Apocalypse now should have won.
An American in Paris won. Streetcar named desire should have won.
How green was my valley won. Citizen Kane should have won.
Gone with the wind won. Wuthering Heights should have won.
Hurt Locker won. Inglourious Basterds should have won.
Lord of the rings: Return of the king won. Mystic River should have won.
Chicago won. The Pianist should have won.
Gladiator won. Crouching Tiger, Hidden dragon should have won.
Dances with wolves won. Goodfellas should have won.



The Ordinary People won. Elephant Man should have won.
Kramer VS Kramer won. Apocalypse now should have won.
An American in Paris won. Streetcar named desire should have won.
How green was my valley won. Citizen Kane should have won.
Gone with the wind won. Wuthering Heights should have won.
Hurt Locker won. Inglourious Basterds should have won.
Lord of the rings: Return of the king won. Mystic River should have won.
Chicago won. The Pianist should have won.
Gladiator won. Crouching Tiger, Hidden dragon should have won.
Dances with wolves won. Goodfellas should have won.
OMG, I agree with all of those, with the on exception of mystic river over Return of the King, return of the king was the essence of the Oscars Best picture'

additionally:

All About Eve won, Sunset Blvd should have.
West Side Story won, Judgment at Nuremberg should have
My Fair Lady won, Dr. Strangelove should have (though I can easily see why it didn't)
forrest Gump won, Shawshank Redemption should have
Crash won, ANYthing else, should have
Slumdog Millionaire won, Benjamin Button should have



also, disagree with Wuthering heights deserving to win over Gone With The Wind, but, that's probably because I ADORED Gone With The Wind.

also, Jaws>One Flew Over A Cuckoo's Nest? I think not, Gunny. props for the link, though. cool topic, too.



planet news's Avatar
Registered User
Jaws>One Flew Over A Cuckoo's Nest? I think not, Gunny.
Get mark f innere!
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Chariots of Fire won. Raiders of the Lost Ark should have won.
Got to respectfully disagree--Raiders of the Lost Ark was essentially a cartoon, a throwback to the Saturday afternoon serials I saw so often as a child. Fun and entertaining, but it had all been done before. There was, on the other hand, a grandeur to Chariots of Fire, a message of principle about an outstanding athelete who wants to run and win in the Olympics but won't compromise his principles to compete on the sabbath. There were many great moments in that film--the runner who falls but gets up and still wins the race through shear determination; the Jewish trainer who is not even allowed to watch his runner perform; just the feel and color of that bygone period, and the fact that it was a true but little-known story. I learned something from it.

Shakespeare In Love won. Saving Private Ryan should have won.
Sorry, I thought Shakespeare in Love was the far superior film, but then I liked the cast, especially Judi Dench, and I enjoyed all of the little comic plays on famous Shakespeare quotes. Plus it was an imaginative story and well done, something all too rare in Hollywood nowdays.

On the other hand, I admit to being probably the only adult male in the world who thinks Saving Pvt. Ryan sucks swamp water from start to finish. With all the spin about how realistic this war movie was supposed to be, that bunch of bozos looking for Ryan wouldn't have lasted through 8 weeks of boot camp, much less years of war as supposedly elite Rangers. They couldn't have got chopped down easier or quicker if they had a suicide wish. Basically, it was 3 separate movies loosely hung together. First the noisy Normandy invasion movie with all the special effects that were so obviously special effects; then the slap-happy search for Ryan--I had my doubts they would even find France, much less a specific GI; and finally the kill-the-German-Army climax. I had lots of hope for that film because of all the preview hype, but I've seen many, many better war films that never even got nominated. How unrealistic was it? In real life when the Army decided to pull the one surviving son out of combat, the job was handled by a lone chaplin.



will.15's Avatar
Semper Fooey
Chariots of Fire bored the crap out of me. A well meaning, well made but I never want to see again movie. What does it matter what movie wins or loses? There are a number of Oscar winning movies no one cares about anymore and other movies people still love and weren't even nominated.



I admit to being probably the only adult male in the world who thinks Saving Pvt. Ryan sucks swamp water from start to finish.
It won't surprise many here, I'm sure, to learn that you're not alone, ruf. Not when I'm the other male, anyway.

Actually, I pretty much agree with your entire post, with the exception of your comments on Shakespeare In Love, which I've not seen and have never had the desire to.



Chariots of Fire bored the crap out of me. A well meaning, well made but I never want to see again movie. What does it matter what movie wins or loses? There are a number of Oscar winning movies no one cares about anymore and other movies people still love and weren't even nominated.
I can see why the film would be boring to some--I wouldn't call it exactly action-packed. But you're right about Oscar winners and not-winners--100 years from now nobody will know the difference.



It won't surprise many here, I'm sure, to learn that you're not alone, ruf. Not when I'm the other male, anyway.

Actually, I pretty much agree with your entire post, with the exception of your comments on Shakespeare In Love, which I've not seen and have never had the desire to.
Thanks for the moral support on Ryan! As for Shakespeare in Love, I'm a big fan of Shakespeare's works and I had heard or read before seeing that film that one needed to be something of a Shakespeare "expert" to keep up with all the references to his work. But there was nothing particularly deep about the dialogue when one character says, "The show must ..." and pauses and another tells him to "Go on!" Rather than deep, it was more like skipping lines from other plays like stones across a pond.

But the play within the play is Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. When my daughter was in her teens and on a summer custody visit with me, I took her to the theater here in Houston to see a performance of Romeo and Juliet. She had read the story in high school English but didn't think much of the English of Shakespeare's time. But when she saw it performed on stage with the old English spoken as in real conversation, she really got into the story and throughly enjoyed the play. That being her introduction to the Shakespeare I love, then Shakespeare in Love had a special nostalgia for me. Plus it touched on several renaissance realities, and I liked that as well as a really outstanding cast.



also, disagree with Wuthering heights deserving to win over Gone With The Wind, but, that's probably because I ADORED Gone With The Wind.
You think that if anyone had ever thought to give Heathcliff and Scarlett both a good kick in their self-centered butts, both stories would have had happier endings? GWTW deserved all its Oscars and more, however.



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I absolutely love Forrest Gump, but I think The Shawshank Redemption should have won as well.

I would have liked to see Mystic River win, but it didn't happen.

And Rear Window should have gotten a mention for its year.



You think that if anyone had ever thought to give Heathcliff and Scarlett both a good kick in their self-centered butts, both stories would have had happier endings? GWTW deserved all its Oscars and more, however.
lol, maybe, but it makes for a good couple of movies



Oscar Award......



How Green Was My Valley Won. Citizen Kane Should Have Won
Tom Jones Won. Cleopatra Should Have Won
Annie Hall. Star Wars Should Have Won
Kramer Vs Kramer Won. Apocalypse Now Should Have Won
Ordinary People Won. Raging Bull Should Have Won
Gandhi Won. ET Should Have Won
Forrest Gump Won. The Shawshank Redemption Should Have Won
Titanic Won. Good Will Hunting Should Have Won
Shakespeare In Love Won. Saving Private Ryan Should Have Won
A Beautiful Mind Won. LOTR Should Have Won
The Hurt Locker Won. Up In The Air Should Have Wom



Only a very small minority of Best Picture winners are IMO the best pictures from their year, even accepting Oscar's unofficial only-live-action-US-and-British-films policy. So I could go on for some time her, but instead I'll limit myself to looking at the actual nominees, which cuts back the complaints drastically (what the hell happened in, for example, 1955, which was a year of phenomenal films, something you'd never know by looking at the nominations?). There are still a few of the earlier years where I haven't seen the winner, or maybe few or none of the other noms. And Oscar has good and bad phases too- good in the 70s, for example, and consistently wrong for almost every year from Kramer vs Kramer until No Country for Old Men.

I've left off marginal ones by limiting myself to 20 years where I've seen the Best Picture and at least one other nominee that was clearly better -

1935 Top Hat over Mutiny on the Bounty
1941 Citizen Kane over How Green Was My Valley
1948 The Red Shoes over Hamlet
1953 Shane over From Here To Eternity
1964 Dr Strangelove over My Fair Lady
1971 The Last Picture Show over The French Connection
1975 Nashville over One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
1976 Taxi Driver over Rocky
1979 Apocalypse Now over Kramer vs Kramer
1980 Raging Bull over Ordinary People
1981 Raiders of the Lost Ark over Chariots of Fire
1983 The Right Stuff over Terms of Endearment
1990 Goodfellas over Dances With Wolves
1994 Pulp Fiction over Forrest Gump
1996 Fargo over The English Patient
1997 LA Confidential over Titanic
2001 Gosford Park over A Beautiful Mind
2003 Lost in Translation over Return of the King
2004 Sideways over Million Dollar Baby
2005 Brokeback Mountain over Crash

This gives me the idea for a spinoff thread...