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Best Picture Oscars that actually deserved it


Instead of asking which ones didn't deserve it. To me most of the "winners" are losers of the worst kind. So I'll pick out the few I think were actually good enough to win legitimately, chronologically. All the ones not listed you can surmise my opinion of them.

1939-Gone with the wind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFu-jemU-bA
1943-Casablanca https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEWaqUVac3M&t=5s
1945-Lost Weekend
1961-West Side Story
1965-The Sound of Music
1967-In the Heat of the Night
1968-Oliver!
1969-Midnight Cowboy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnPcKk3YO3s
1972-The Godfather
1974-The Sting
1975- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1976-Rocky
1977-Annie Hall https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXy9Lp8bu98
1978--Deerhunter
1988-Rainman

And that's it for me!

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While most of these are not necessarily my favourite film of the year - in some cases not even top ten - these are those I would consider very worthy winners. There are quite a few others that I like - even like quite a lot - but which I wouldn’t have necessarily considered Best Picture worthy.

Wings
All Quiet on the Western Front
Mutiny on the Bounty
Gone With the Wind
Rebecca
How Green Was My Valley
Casablanca
The Lost Weekend
The Best Years of Our Lives
All About Eve
From Here to Eternity
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Apartment
West Side Story
Lawrence of Arabia
Oliver!
Midnight Cowboy
The Godfather
The Godfather Part II
Annie Hall
Amadeus
The Silence of the Lambs
Unforgiven
Schindler’s List
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Million Dollar Baby
The Departed
Birdman
Moonlight
Parasite

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I like your thinking. The Best Years of Our Lives is a particular favorite of mine. When watching it, I really try to put myself in the characters' lives, imagining how difficult it was to reaclimate into civilian life after what they'd been through.

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You nailed it with unforgiven

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I would take To Kill a Mockingbird over Lawrence of Arabia any day of the week, and twice on Sunday!!!
Unfortunately, the Academy didn't agree with me.
Oh well, at least they gave one to Gregory Peck.

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Oh, I would pick To Kill a Mockingbird in a heartbeat over it too. Lawrence is somewhere around my 10-12th favourite film of that amazing year for movies. But it’s such a stunning experience, and what is good about it is so good, that I can’t really argue against its win.

For the record, while Peck is great in his signature role, I’d have chosen Jack Lemmon as best actor that year. Perhaps his greatest dramatic role. But all five nominees were stellar that year.

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The Apartment, Casablanca, The Godfather, Unforgiven, or All About Eve are not best picture worthy?

Seriously, if that's the level, the only worthy movie I can think of is Citizen Kane. Anything else is not worthy enough.

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I'm not saying these were my favourite of that year, but I think were worthy of winning:

American Beauty
Titanic
It Happened One Night
The Godfather
The Godfather Part II
The Lost Weekend
The Apartment
Parasite
No Country For Old Men
The Departed
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

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No country was very awesome

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That’s my favorite on his list.

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American beauty was OK but I was a little bit younger when I saw it and I don’t think I got all of it

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My favourite film of 2007. And There Will Be Blood was released that same year.

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Shakespeare in Love.

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1935 - Mutiny on the Bounty - a surprisingly well made film that holds up today
1939 - Gone with the Wind - one of the most impressive movies I have ever seen
1961 - West Side Story
1962 - Lawrence of Arabia (it's a toss-up for me between this and To Kill a Mockingbird)
1965 - The Sound of Music
1970 - Patton
1972 - The Godfather
1976 - Rocky
1980 - Ordinary People
1986 - Platoon
1990 - Dances with Wolves
1993 - Schindler's List
1994 - Forrest Gump ( still a deserving film but I would have put Quiz Show or Shawshank ahead of it)
1995 - Braveheart
2000 - Gladiator
2001 - A Beautiful Mind
2005 - Crash

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Crash? CrAsH???

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Yeah, not even half the movie Brokeback Mountain was, in my opinion.

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Yes. I think it's a very good movie.

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You don't include Unforgiven in 1992?

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It's sad how Quiz Show is so overlooked in general. It's a very well done film with an interesting story. It's not flashy but it most certainly is as solid a film as has ever been made.

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No Country For Old Men
The Sting
The French Connection
Gladiator
Bravehart
Dances With Wolves
The Hurt Locker
Silence of the Lambs

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I agree with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I don't agree with Oliver. 2001 A Space Odyssey should have been nominated and won instead. It is a shame Stanley Kubrick only ever won best special effects.

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I seriously disagree with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

It's a great movie, but that very same year you had Jaws, which is Spielberg's greatest masterpiece and the movie that defined blockbuster cinema during the next 4 decades.

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I haven't seen Jaws in a long time but I disagree. One Flew over the cuckoo's nest dealt with more serious issues than a Giant Shark attacking people. Plus movies like Jaws don't tend to win best picture. It's a miracle it was even nominated.

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Titanic deserved it. There were a couple other goodies that year, but I stand with Titanic.

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You choice went down like it.

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Technically, perhaps, but in terms of convincing chemistry between the lead actors it was a big fail for me. I think for a romance film that is the most important factor and I just didn’t buy the Winslet/DiCaprio match.

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That is your opinion, but a lot of people were really amazed by "Titanic" and its love story.

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Yeah, exactly, just my opinion. I know many people love the film, I’m just not one of them 🙂

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Sorry, but I have to seriously disagree with Annie Hall, the beginning of the end of Woody Allen actually being funny. Take the Money and Run, Bananas, and Sleeper are all much better movies just from Woody Allen alone. Annie Hall is quite frankly not very good. Among Woody's worst.

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Not sure where you're coming from. Annie Hall is pretty much accepted as Woody's best film. For me it's a close 2nd to Sleeper. But if your only criteria is how funny it is, maybe you prefer the 3 Stooges.

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Personally, Annie Hall is not my type of film and if I were alive back then and on the academy board I would have voted Star Wars.

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With all due respect "is pretty much excepted as" is not a legitimate excuse. I don't mind legitimate beefs but "everyone else says so" so there, is not a legit excuse. i already proved with TTMAR that I am a true early Woody Allen fan. maybe YOU would prefer the three stooges since you seem to have a hard time with nothing more simple than that.

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