(no subject)
i only tuned in for the last half of the Oscars, since this year i just couldn't bring myself to sit through four hours of BEST SUPPORTING SOUND EDITOR IN A FOREIGN FILM.
so just for a change of pace, i just looked at the complete list of Best Picture winners, and these are the ones i think are great:
1929-1930 All Quiet on the Western Front
1940 Rebecca
1943 Casablanca
1946 The Best Years of Our Lives
1950 All About Eve
1953 From Here to Eternity
1954 On the Waterfront
1960 The Apartment
1964 My Fair Lady
1969 Midnight Cowboy
1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
1977 Annie Hall
1992 Unforgiven
1993 Schindler’s List
not that i've seen all of them - i bet there's no one left alive right now who's seen Broadway Melody, The Great Ziegfeld, or Cavalcade (though i actually have seen Wings, the very first BP winner, from 1927! i rented it when i was like 10! no idea why...)
and yeah yeah i know i didn't include either of The Godfathers, but i've accepted that i'm pretty much alone on that one.
for some reason i think it's kind of sweet that Around the World in 80 Days won it in 1956. i remember liking that one when i was a kid. i can't imagine it winning now!
of the ones i haven't seen, these are the ones i want to:
1931-32 Grand Hotel
1935 Mutiny on the Bounty
1945 The Lost Weekend
1947 Gentleman’s Agreement (no critic in all of history liked this! but for some reason i think i would)
1961 West Side Story
1962 Lawrence of Arabia
1970 Patton
1973 The Sting (i had a friend when i was 15 who said this was her favorite movie and i just HAD to see it - 8 years later, i still haven't)
1984 Amadeus (somehow i made it through high school without seeing this - probably i didn't have enough drama/band friends)
1988 Rain Man
of the ones i've seen, these are the ones i really don't like:
1939 Gone With The Wind
a mildly entertaining soap opera that gets awfully boring in the last half, and a vile whitewash of history that's probably been a lot more harmful, in the long run, than the long-discredited Birth of a Nation. plus 1939 was probably the greatest year in movie history - Young Mr Lincoln, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, or even The Wizard of Oz all deserved it a lot more.
1948 Hamlet
not terrible, but i've never really liked any film version of Hamlet - and no, i don't like the Kenneth Branagh OR the Mel Gibson version. the weak spot is always the lead performance. every reader imagines his own Hamlet, and it's near-impossible for an actual actor to live up to that.
1971 The French Connection
this is OKAY and all, but i never remotely understood why it got the acclaim it did. it's like an okay '80s hour-long cop show stretched out to an hour and a half. (and don't get me started on cop shows!)
1990 Dances With Wolves
Pauline Kael: "Costner has feathers in his hair and feathers in his head."
1994 Forrest Gump
i feel sort of bad picking on this film. remember when it was this really big deal and everyone quoted from it all the time? and now it's almost like it never existed.
1999 American Beauty
my first lesson in "just because your cool friends loved it does not mean you will."
so just for a change of pace, i just looked at the complete list of Best Picture winners, and these are the ones i think are great:
1929-1930 All Quiet on the Western Front
1940 Rebecca
1943 Casablanca
1946 The Best Years of Our Lives
1950 All About Eve
1953 From Here to Eternity
1954 On the Waterfront
1960 The Apartment
1964 My Fair Lady
1969 Midnight Cowboy
1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
1977 Annie Hall
1992 Unforgiven
1993 Schindler’s List
not that i've seen all of them - i bet there's no one left alive right now who's seen Broadway Melody, The Great Ziegfeld, or Cavalcade (though i actually have seen Wings, the very first BP winner, from 1927! i rented it when i was like 10! no idea why...)
and yeah yeah i know i didn't include either of The Godfathers, but i've accepted that i'm pretty much alone on that one.
for some reason i think it's kind of sweet that Around the World in 80 Days won it in 1956. i remember liking that one when i was a kid. i can't imagine it winning now!
of the ones i haven't seen, these are the ones i want to:
1931-32 Grand Hotel
1935 Mutiny on the Bounty
1945 The Lost Weekend
1947 Gentleman’s Agreement (no critic in all of history liked this! but for some reason i think i would)
1961 West Side Story
1962 Lawrence of Arabia
1970 Patton
1973 The Sting (i had a friend when i was 15 who said this was her favorite movie and i just HAD to see it - 8 years later, i still haven't)
1984 Amadeus (somehow i made it through high school without seeing this - probably i didn't have enough drama/band friends)
1988 Rain Man
of the ones i've seen, these are the ones i really don't like:
1939 Gone With The Wind
a mildly entertaining soap opera that gets awfully boring in the last half, and a vile whitewash of history that's probably been a lot more harmful, in the long run, than the long-discredited Birth of a Nation. plus 1939 was probably the greatest year in movie history - Young Mr Lincoln, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Ninotchka, or even The Wizard of Oz all deserved it a lot more.
1948 Hamlet
not terrible, but i've never really liked any film version of Hamlet - and no, i don't like the Kenneth Branagh OR the Mel Gibson version. the weak spot is always the lead performance. every reader imagines his own Hamlet, and it's near-impossible for an actual actor to live up to that.
1971 The French Connection
this is OKAY and all, but i never remotely understood why it got the acclaim it did. it's like an okay '80s hour-long cop show stretched out to an hour and a half. (and don't get me started on cop shows!)
1990 Dances With Wolves
Pauline Kael: "Costner has feathers in his hair and feathers in his head."
1994 Forrest Gump
i feel sort of bad picking on this film. remember when it was this really big deal and everyone quoted from it all the time? and now it's almost like it never existed.
1999 American Beauty
my first lesson in "just because your cool friends loved it does not mean you will."