Best Picture - the one movie that SHOULD have won that year but didn't

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So Matt72582 - Most deserving Best Picture Oscar winners. Since about 50% of the time, I find myself getting grouchy because my favorite didn't get it, what would be your choice? They should be from the nominees, one movie that should have won instead of the one that did. Why?

I will start recently -

2019 - JoJo Rabbit should have won rather than Parasite. Parasite was clever and I liked it, but once I figured out what was happening, it seemed like a fairly routine scam story.

2017 - The Shape of Water was fascinating and visually wonderful, but I have to admit that the fairly cold, clinical, procedural drama of Dunkirk gave me shivers about the nature, calculations, physics and magnitude of WW II.



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I can understand the case against Parasite, but not the one for Jojo Rabbit. That came across as saccharine nonsense from start to finish and even its attempts to actually engage with the serious side of its subject matter were extremely underwhelming, making it my least favourite of that set of nominees. Parasite struck me as an acceptable win and the only real alternatives I'd take are The Irishman or Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

With this kind of question, I think there should be a caveat that you have to have seen at the very least the vast majority of the nominees (if not all of them) of a given year - a malleable figure would be 75% (that rounds up to 80% or 4/5 nominees for most years and at least 6-8 on the rest). So using that as my baseline for which years I can even halfway-accurately comment upon, here are my answers (just sticking to the 21st century for now)

BlacKkKlansman over Green Book (not really any true greats from this year's lineup - it could've been Roma but that has some questionable takes on class and womanhood that manage to undermine its monochromatic epic, so I settled for the Spike Lee joint, its own issues with depicting the intersection of police and racial inequality notwithstanding)
Phantom Thread over The Shape of Water (it's either this or Get Out depending on how I feel - classy but twisted romance or radical genre fare win out over a film that aims to blend the two to intriguing but ultimately inferior effect, but I'll still take all three over Dunkirk)
Mad Max: Fury Road over Spotlight (arguably the first truly transcendent blockbuster since Lord of the Rings and they give it to the quietly intense journalist movie, which I'd still take over the likes of The Revenant anyway)
Whiplash over Birdman (I guess they're both stories about angry male artists being pushed to the brink and so it's easy to regard them both at a remove, but as far as I'm concerned the sharp editing and hellish glows of Chazelle's film have held up better than the overly technical theatricality of Inarritu's film)
The Wolf of Wall Street over 12 Years A Slave (took me a while to really come around on what seemed like Scorsese's most obnoxious film, but it's risen in my estimation while McQueen's film, while still being solid, hasn't weathered repeat viewings quite as well)
Amour over Argo (not really a standout here - Django is certainly one I've seen a bunch, but it's arguably QT's worst even with its outlandish performances and action - but it would be funny to see it go to Haneke)
The Tree of Life over The Artist (if we ranked BP winners by how easy it was to dunk on them, The Artist is almost too easy - far from the worst nominee that year and not without a certain charm, but you stack it next to Malick doing a worthy contender for his true masterpiece in a lengthy and eclectic career and see who comes out on top)
The Social Network over The King's Speech (this will forever be one of the big "should have won" clichés next to Raging Bull or Goodfellas, but at least you can sort of respect the Academy's decisions to go with Ordinary People or Dances With Wolves - this one is just stupefying)
Inglourious Basterds over The Hurt Locker (both ostensibly films about men who are warped by their experiences with war, but Basterds at least expands the scope beyond the soldiers and actually holds up underneath QT's classically irreverent surface)
There Will Be Blood over No Country for Old Men (easily the slightest difference in quality between two nominees but this is about my preference and I think I'd give the edge to PTA on this one)
Brokeback Mountain over Crash (do I even need to explain this one)
Sideways over Million Dollar Baby (liked the former well enough but didn't get into the latter - feel like revisiting The Aviator to see if it's better than either of them, though)
LOTR: The Two Towers over Chicago (or The Pianist or maybe even Gangs of New York - what can I say, I do not much care for Chicago)
Crouching TIger, Hidden Dragon over Gladiator (because if we have to give Best Picture to a sword-swinging epic, let's at least give it to Ang Lee doing another one of his artfully depicted and fluidly choreographed tragic romances instead of Roman Braveheart)
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Phantom Thread over The Shape of Water (it's either this or Get Out depending on how I feel - classy but twisted romance or radical genre fare win out over a film that aims to blend the two to intriguing but ultimately inferior effect, but I'll still take all three over Dunkirk)
Eh, I don't think so; for me, Dunkirk was the best film of that year, and one of Nolan's best, while Phantom Thread, while good, was still way too low-key to be great, and ended up being an over-correction from the relative bombast of There Will Be Blood, to the point that even the most striking moment in the film, where
WARNING: spoilers below
Reynolds hallucinated his mother
still ended up clashing with the style of the rest of the movie, due to it being a random turn into pseudo-supernatural imagery.



Welcome to the human race...
All I'll say about Dunkirk is that I'd seen it once in theatres and intended to rewatch it in the lead-up to Tenet's release but I ultimately didn't bother with it even though I did manage to rewatch Interstellar, a film I'd already seen multiple times and still didn't like. There's barely anything about Dunkirk that sticks for me so I have trouble thinking of it as a particularly good movie.



So Matt72582 - Most deserving Best Picture Oscar winners. Since about 50% of the time, I find myself getting grouchy because my favorite didn't get it, what would be your choice? They should be from the nominees, one movie that should have won instead of the one that did. Why?

I will start recently -

2019 - JoJo Rabbit should have won rather than Parasite. Parasite was clever and I liked it, but once I figured out what was happening, it seemed like a fairly routine scam story.

2017 - The Shape of Water was fascinating and visually wonderful, but I have to admit that the fairly cold, clinical, procedural drama of Dunkirk gave me shivers about the nature, calculations, physics and magnitude of WW II.
JoJo Rabbit won the Oscar it deserved...Best Original screenplay



I can understand the case against Parasite, but not the one for Jojo Rabbit. That came across as saccharine nonsense from start to finish and even its attempts to actually engage with the serious side of its subject matter were extremely underwhelming, making it my least favourite of that set of nominees. Parasite struck me as an acceptable win and the only real alternatives I'd take are The Irishman or Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.


The Social Network over The King's Speech (this will forever be one of the big "should have won" clichés next to Raging Bull or Goodfellas, but at least you can sort of respect the Academy's decisions to go with Ordinary People or Dances With Wolves - this one is just stupefying)
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I agree about The Social Network



At the 1945 Oscars, Double Indemnity was nominated in 7 categories, but didn't win in any of them! The Best Picture Oscar went to Going My Way, a musical comedy.



Despite the envelope debacle at the Oscars, I still think La La Land should have won over Moonlight

I think Goodfellas should have won over Dances with Wolves


I think The Shawshank Redemption should have won over Forrest Gump



I think Close Encounters of the Third Kind should have won over Annie Hall



I think ET: The Extra Terrestrial should have won over Gandhi



I think Raiders of the Lost Ark should have won over Chariots of Fire



I think Network should have won over Rocky



I think The Exorcist should have won over The Sting



I think The Lion in Winter should have won over Oliver!


I think Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? should have won over A Man for All Seasons



Gideon's previous post with my thoughts in red

I still think La La Land should have won over Moonlight...Agreed

I think Goodfellas should have won over Dances with Wolves...Disagree

I think The Shawshank Redemption should have won over Forrest Gump...Disagree but Shawshank is worthy of an Oscar win.

I think Close Encounters of the Third Kind should have won over Annie Hall...Agreed it seems the academy doesn't care for Spielberg's more entertainment focused films.

I think ET: The Extra Terrestrial should have won over Gandhi...Disagree ET was all kinds of silly.

I think Raiders of the Lost Ark should have won over Chariots of Fire...Totally Agree! I mean Chariots of Fire does anybody even watch that these days?

I think Network should have won over Rocky...Disagree though I don't love either.

I think The Exorcist should have won over The Sting...I haven't seen The Exorcist in decades so can't say.

I think The Lion in Winter should have won over Oliver!...I don't remember either well so no opinion.

I think Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? should have won over A Man for All Seasons...Gosh both are pretty good, Tie



I have more than my share of issues with Whiplash...JK Simmons was terrific, but it didn't make the film worthy of a Best Picture Oscar. I couldn't even get through Mad Max Fury Road...turned it off after about 20 minutes.



Sunrise over Wings (they split the award this year, 90 years later Sunrise still holds up while Wings was basically the Avatar of this era)

Skippy over Cimarron (this is the worst BP winner of all-time) But those were the options City Lights didn't get nominated and that was clearly the best film of the year.

Libeled Lady over The Great Zegfield, William Powell was in three of the best movies of the year...yet lost out to best actor to Paul Muni. Loy was in both films and missed out on an Oscar nom. If a 30's comedy deserved to win that's the comedy and that's the year.

Wizard of Oz over Gone with the Wind, Gone with the Wind wasn't even the best feminist Civil War film as Jezebel came out a year earlier and was shorter and better made.

Citizen Kane over How Green Was My Valley....or Maltese Falcon or Here Comes Mr Jordan or That Hamilton Woman. Gone with the Wind was good and 39 is often thought of as the best year but 41 was amazing and the winner was the safe bland How Green Was My Valley

Great Expectations over Gentleman's Agreement...maybe the greatest literary adaptation of all-time.

The Red Shoes over Hamlet this was Olivier's weakest Shakespeare adaption

High Noon over The Greatest Show on Earth...imagine if this was the first western to win a BP Oscar

Giant over Around the World in 80 Days Stevens has two Directors wins and no BP's (he's the old school Ang Lee)

Cat on the Hot Tin Roof over Gigi just imagine we could have gotten Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor instead of Separate Tables, I Want to Live, and Gigi which I doubt anyone has seen on these boards.

The Lion in Winter over Oliver! this should have been Peter O'Toole's year we didn't need a fourth musical to win this decade

A Clockwork Orange over The French Connection
The Exorcist over The Sting

These two are tied together, The Exorcist lost because The French Connection won and Kubrick never got his big win...this would have fixed things nicely.

Raiders of the Lost Ark over Chariots of Fire
E.T, over Gandhi
Spielberg should have gone back to back

Kiss of the Spiderwoman over Out of Africa...Spiderwoman was a lot more provocative than the sterile Out of Africa but the big miss was Back to the Future

Field of Dreams over Driving Miss Daisy and with this winning we get the proper

Goodfellas over Dances with Wolves

Shawshank Redemption over Forrest Gump

Fargo over The English Patient

Saving Private Ryan over Shakespeare in Love

Lord of the Rings:Fellowship of the Rings over A Beautiful Mind

Brokeback Mountain over Crash

Up over The Hurt Locker - Pixar really deserved a BP winner...Up would be my pick.

Inception over The Kings Speech

A Star is Born over Green Book

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood over Parasite




Mad Max: Fury Road over Spotlight (arguably the first truly transcendent blockbuster since Lord of the Rings and they give it to the quietly intense journalist movie, which I'd still take over the likes of The Revenant anyway)

There Will Be Blood over No Country for Old Men (easily the slightest difference in quality between two nominees but this is about my preference and I think I'd give the edge to PTA on this one)

Brokeback Mountain over Crash (do I even need to explain this one)

LOTR: The Two Towers over Chicago (or The Pianist or maybe even Gangs of New York - what can I say, I do not much care for Chicago)

Crouching TIger, Hidden Dragon over Gladiator (because if we have to give Best Picture to a sword-swinging epic, let's at least give it to Ang Lee doing another one of his artfully depicted and fluidly choreographed tragic romances instead of Roman Braveheart)
Agree with the above, and most strongly with Brokeback Mountain over Crash.



Agree with the above, and most strongly with Brokeback Mountain over Crash.
I agree with most of those as well, except for TWBB over NCFOM, which is a bit weird, seeing as how I already love Blood a lot in its own right, and in a lot of other years, it'd definitely be my #1... except for in '07, since, while TWBB is still one of my favorites of that year, No Country is one of my favorites of all time, which makes it impossible for me to pick anything else over it. Sorry Paul!



Welcome to the human race...
Like I said, it's the slightest of differences. I'll have to revisit TWBB to see how it holds up (already rewatched NCFOM at least once in the past year so it's still fresh).