Ranking the Past 25 Best Picture Winners

Last year at this time, we counted down the last 20 Best Pictures in order of preference. Yes, we're cheating by reprinting those same movies again, but we're going back another five years to make up for it. So this list begins, chronologically, with one of my favorite movies ever - Amadeus. I'll try to hide my bias. Actually, we had Silence of the Lambs at the top of the list last year, and I like that one even more than Amadeus, so I can't promise you anything. To accurately weigh each winner, you need to look at the losers. So within our rankings, we'll list the other films nominated that year. Sometimes there are winners by default, although you wouldn't think that would be possible. Clearly, a movie that beat much better competition earns a demerit. If you're not one of the strongest films of your own year, you sure as hell don't belong very high on the list. 25 - Driving Miss Daisy I asked myself, "Which of these movies would I least like to watch again." Simple question, easy answer. Miss Daisy is just a ho-hum experience; I honestly don't know what makes this so special. Consider its competition and you really start to think that this was indeed one Oscar got way wrong. Other nominees: Born on the Fourth of July, Dead Poets Society, Field of Dreams, My Left Foot 24 - Out of Africa Thinking I had missed something for all this time, I watched Out of Africa about two years ago. I think I was right all along. There's just not very much special about it. It's pretty and well-executed, but Best Picture should honor great filmmaking...and Kurosawa's Ran wasn't even nominated. Your witness, counselor. Other nominees: Kiss of the Spider Woman, Prizzi's Honor, The Color Purple, Witness 23 - Dances with Wolves They say when you drive a car off the lot, it depreciates immediately. That's true of Dances with Wolves, a movie that wasn't outstanding to begin with and faded rapidly. Sadly, for maybe the bottom five movies on this list, they're more derided because they won. Had they just been nominees, nobody would have a big problem. Wolves earns its scorn, though, because three of its four competitors were not in any way Best Picture material, while the other one might be the best crime movie ever made. Other nominees: Awakenings, Ghost, Godfather III, GoodFellas 22 - Crash Everybody loves to hate Crash. Good Night, and Good Luck was my pick that year, though the popular vote would've probably been Brokeback Mountain. I would imagine this is one of the closest votes of the past 20 years, because Crash didn't win anything else, and every nominee but Munich won a major Oscar earlier in the telecast. Is it a "Best Picture"? Probably not. Other nominees: Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Good Night, and Good Luck, Munich 21 - A Beautiful Mind The disappointing thing about A Beautiful Mind winning is that it represents the best out of nobody involved. Ron Howard has made vastly superior films, Russell Crowe is better in at least five films, and Jennifer Connelly outshone this performance with work in Pollock and Requiem for a Dream in previous years. A Beautiful Mind seems the most perfectly-tailored movie for the Oscar that year, meaning if there's something Oscar voters have a reputation for looking for, it's there. Two artistic breakthroughs, Lord of the Rings and Moulin Rouge! were overlooked so Ron Howard could get a make-up Oscar. Other nominees: Gosford Park, In the Bedroom, The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring, Moulin Rouge! 20 - Shakespeare in Love A good film on its own, better than most people remember, and loaded with great dialogue throughout, Shakespeare in Love simply shouldn't have beaten Saving Private Ryan. I'm not even sure how a case can be made. Other nominees: Elizabeth, Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, La Vita e Bella 19 - Rain Man I remember this movie being all the rage back in 1988. But outside of Mississippi Burning, there's not another movie on the list that year that stood a chance. It hasn't aged well. Hoffman's performance seems a little bit like a joke now, and it's Cruise doing his "watch me really acting" thing that annoys me so much. The story still holds up, but better than the movie does these days. At least it beat Working Girl, though. Other nominees: The Accidental Tourist, Dangerous Liaisons, Mississippi Burning, Working Girl 18 - The English Patient What holds true for A Beautiful Mind also holds true here. Everyone has or had done better films and it seemed to be the movie cut out of the Oscar mold that year. But how on Earth do they vote this over Fargo? That just doesn't make any sense. Other nominees: Fargo, Jerry Maguire, Secrets & Lies, Shine 17 - Chicago Some might have this further down on the list. After all, it kept a Lord of the Rings movie from winning. However, along with Moulin Rouge!, this film is one of the best examples of the musical genre in 40 years. It is also one of the rare musicals based on a stage play that doesn't feel like it's on stage. Before you throw in how unrealistic you think it is when movie characters burst into spontaneous song, I'll remind you that you're probably defending a movie where Hobbits fight dragons. Maybe it shouldn't have won, but it's by no means the worst Best Picture or anywhere close. Other nominees: Gangs of New York, The Hours, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Pianist 16 - The Last Emperor It's a good film, but didn't exactly have to endure a battle royale to win. Move it forward a couple years, and there's no way Bertolucci wins this Oscar. It's entirely too long, it wanders, and gets lost in its own beauty, and again we see a more resonant film that didn't get nominated - Wall Street - and four rivals in the race that just aren't that great. Other nominees: Broadcast News, Fatal Attraction, Hope and Glory, Moonstruck 15 - Forrest Gump Three things ultimately neuter Forrest Gump as an Oscar winner. The first two are Pulp Fiction and Shawshank Redemption. The first will be film school fodder for a couple of decades and the second might be the most beloved film of the past quarter century, or was before TNT played it six times a day. The other problem with Gump is that you just can't watch it now. It might have resonated in that moment in 1994, but that moment is gone, and now it's just a cloying three-hour movie. Other nominees: Four Weddings and a Funeral, Pulp Fiction, Quiz Show, The Shawshank Redemption 14 - Gladiator Who says Oscar doesn't reward big hits? Gladiator isn't much more than an action flick. Nobody watched this when it came out and thought it could be a Best Picture winner. It was a strange year. The Academy was afraid of Requiem for a Dream, overlooked Almost Famous, nominated Chocolat, and went against its nature by not nominating Cast Away. Clearly, Crouching Tiger was the best film nominated, but they couldn't let that win, now could they? Other nominees: Chocolat, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Erin Brockovich, Traffic 13 - Titanic The first half of Titanic isn't much better than a lot of romantic dramas. The second half - the sinking of that mammoth boat almost in real time - is incredible filmmaking. But even at its very best, L.A. Confidential is better, smarter, and more entertaining. Other nominees: As Good As It Gets, The Full Monty, Good Will Hunting, L.A. Confidential 12 - Platoon Platoon is significant because it put a very real face on Vietnam. There had been scary Vietnam flicks (Apocalypse Now) and movies that revealed the heartbreak of the soldiers coming home (The Deer Hunter and, well, Coming Home), but this was a film that put the combat under a microscope. It wasn't fought by heroes, just soldiers. Other nominees: Children of a Lesser God, Hannah and Her Sisters, The Mission, A Room With a View 11 - Slumdog Millionaire We'll see how it ages, but I think this is about right after one year. There are some things about it we know for sure: The production is first-rate in terms of cinematography, editing, sound, music, production design - this is one of best assembled movies, particularly on a modest budget, in this 25-year period. Again, the competition wasn't off the charts, but it was the best of those five, and it could be the one nominee of that group that sticks around for a while. Other nominees: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader 10 - American Beauty We're getting to the stage where we can't really make arguments against the winners and it just comes down to the quality of each film. However, American Beauty won against some incredible films and I'm not sure the vote would go the same way today. Have you seen The Insider lately? Other nominees: The Cider House Rules, The Green Mile, The Insider, The Sixth Sense 9 - The Departed The knock on The Departed is that it's 30 years of Oscar ignorance made up for with one gesture. I don't buy that, although it's not the Scorsese movie that should have won him the Academy Award. It's good, certainly, better in the first two acts before Jack Nicholson gets super high, but I have a feeling we'll get better Scorsese movies for a while as a result of this formula, and there's not a thing wrong with that. Other nominees: Babel, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen 8 - Million Dollar Baby This was supposed to be the year Scorsese got his obligatory Oscar, but Eastwood had other plans. And it's one the Academy got right. At the time, I thought overlooking The Aviator was the wrong move, but now, Million Dollar Baby has earned its place. I'm not sure Clint deserved Best Director, but in that group of nominees, this is the best movie by a length or two. Other nominees: The Aviator, Finding Neverland, Ray, Sideways 7 - Braveheart Perhaps on its own merits, film to film, Braveheart isn't the fifth best movie on this list. I'm fairly certain of it. But 1995 had some stiff competition, particularly the more Oscar-friendly Apollo XIII. There's something we don't have this year: Two big time crowd pleasers going for the Oscar, and they happen to be turning points in their genres to boot. Mel Gibson's an easy target nowadays, but this is a damn fine piece of work. Other nominees: Apollo XIII, Babe, Il Postino, Sense and Sensibility 6 - Amadeus The bad guy wins. A great piece of historical fiction and probably the best-looking film set in the 18th century, Milos Forman's film adaptation of Peter Shaffer's play was his second Best Picture (joining One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest). It's probably worth noting that F. Murray Abraham beat his own castmate, Tom Hulce, for Best Actor. I'm not sure there's another film with two nominees in that category that weren't major movie stars. Curiously, Slueth had two losing nominees, and it was written by Shaffer's identical twin brother, Anthony. Other nominees: The Killing Fields, A Passage to India, Places in the Heart, A Soldier's Story 5 - No Country for Old Men My least favorite Oscar nominee last year was Juno. I thought all the others had valid reasons to be in the running. Michael Clayton had three great performances and the best dialogue of the year, Atonement is flat out a work of art from a technical standpoint, and There Will Be Blood and No Country leave bruises on you. Of those films, No Country is the least like an Oscar winner, but its stock will only go up from here, unlike, say, Dances With Wolves. Other nominees: Atonement, Juno, Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood 4 - Unforgiven You kind of have to know the western to realize what Unforgiven did. It forever closed the book on that type of iconic hero, the silent Eastwood type. That character ran his course, and he always did it with Clint at the wheel. But Unforgiven has more humanity and mortality in it than most westerns ever dream of. And it gets a bonus point for having the working title The Cut Whore Killings. Other nominees: The Crying Game, A Few Good Men, Howard's End, Scent of a Woman 3 - Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Forever legitimizing fantasy, sci-fi, and - yes - even comic book movies, The Lord of the Rings trilogy probably won for its body of work over three films. I have no problem with that; they filmed them all at the same time. It wasn't like they mounted three completely separate productions. The win is probably bigger for this film because of its genre than for any other film on our list, and you know what? It's actually a lot better than the other nominees that year, minus the awkward last 25 minutes. Other nominees: Lost in Translation, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Mystic River, Seabiscuit 2 - Schindler's List This is one of the greatest films ever made. And if you can't see that through all the bluster of the Academy always rewarding Holocaust movies or whatever, then I feel sorry for you. And you've completely missed the point of one of the best movies ever created by the most influential director since Hitchcock. Nice going. Other nominees: The Fugitive, In the Name of the Father, The Piano, Remains of the Day 1 - The Silence of the Lambs It's just timeless. Silence was on cable about three months ago and I just watched the whole thing again. It hasn't aged a day. The transcendant ones never do. I do sense that the film's massive success was an all-around happy accident. Hopkins was hardly an A-list actor, Jonathan Demme would never make a movie this consistent again, the source material's not all that impressive and neither is screenwriter Ted Tally's filmography, and the movie opened a year before the Oscars, making it the earliest released Oscar winner in recent memory, if not ever. But somehow, everything - and I mean everything - came together perfectly. Other nominees: Beauty and the Beast, Bugsy, JFK, The Prince of Tides

Comments

[Visu]

The IMDb link for Amadeus takes to the writer Peter Schaffer's IMDb page instead of the movie page - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086879/

[anybody]

I watched Silence of the Lambs today actually and you're right, it's just great. What I take away from this is how often the Academy gets it wrong, either picking the wrong film from the list or leaving them off the ballot altoghter... biggest disappointments by not winning might be Fargo, Moulin Rouge and LA Confidential (and The Royal Tenenbaums not getting nominated when A Beautiful Mind wins). The only things I might disagree with you on are LoTR (all three films are good but not great by any means and you only have to look one higher to see that it's in the wrong place at three) and Shakespeare in Love (which for me is one of the best screenplays I have read and it was still special after being filmed). I will still say that There Will Be Blood might prove to be the most important and interesting film on maybe that entire list but I also love No Country, showing how strong that list was... Lastly, lets not forget another major misstep that occurred during this period was Eternal Sunshine not getting a nomination and even winning (I prefer it to Million Dollar Baby but by no means want to take away from that great film).

[nick soapdish]

Reading this list I agree with almost everything you said. At least for the movies that I have seen, which is far fewer than you.
Shawshank really is one of the best movies. If I'm flipping through the channels and I see it on TNT, I will almost always watch at least a few scenes, no matter where it is in the movie. There is not a single part of that movie that isn't worth watching.
I've seen movies that I've liked better and then realized I don't like nearly as much as I thought I did (Titanic, etc.), but Shawshank never loses anything with repeated viewings or time.

[Brandon]

That was a damn fine read Colin, thank you.

[MRPigg]

Thank You for your thoughtful and insightful analysis. I also wanted to point out that Driving Miss Daisy not only beat out it's moderately strong competition that year, but the unjustly overlooked Do The Right Thing.
Another little trivia tidbit: Out of Africa turned out to be The Color Purple's 11th loss of the night with no wins and that remains an Oscar record.

Whenever I get nostalgic about the Academy Awards, it just further emphasizes how much momentum and publicity factor in to winning the big prize...

[Greg]

Gret job on the list Colin. Props to you!

[Carv]

Man... nice job. Not only do I agree Silence is the best Best Picture of the last quarter-century, I'm also compelled to write a list of my own. Now watch as comment formatting destroys it. Here's who I think should have won each year's Oscar from each list of nominations. If I think a non-nominated film should have won, I'll put that in parentheses.
1984: Amadeus
1985: (Runaway Train, Ran, or even Back to the Future would hold up better than any of the nominees.)
1986: Platoon (though MY favorite film from that year is Aliens, and Children of a Lesser God is damn good)
1987: Broadcast News
1988: Dangerous Liaisons (not a great year)
1989: Field of Dreams (When Harry Met Sally..., the best rom-com ever)
1990: GoodFellas
1991: The Silence of the Lambs
1992: Unforgiven (with big ups to The Player)
1993: Schindler's List
1994: Pulp Fiction
1995: Sense and Sensibility (at the time, I voted for Apollo 13--but this thing actually made me like AUSTEN. Wow)
1996: Fargo
1997: L.A. Confidential by a narrow margin (...but really Boogie Nights)
1998: Shakespeare in Love (with much respect to the first and third acts of Saving Private Ryan. William Goldman made a solid case against at least Act II: http://achtenblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/saving-private-ryan-goldman-essay.html)
1999: The Sixth Sense
2000: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2001: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings (also the year of Almost Famous and Amores Perros, but this was the year LotR should have won, not two years later--argh, those multiple endings!)
2002: Chicago (which actually made a point of justifying the singing)
2003: (City of God)
2004: (dead heat) Million Dollar Baby, Sideways (and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind)
2005: Good Night, and Good Luck
2006: (United 93...and that was a way better year for movies than the nominees would indicate)
2007: Michael Clayton (but only because I LOATHED the end of No Country for Old Men, both the book and the movie)
2008: Slumdog Millionaire
2009: The Hurt Locker, narrowly edging out Inglourious Basterds

[SEAN]

Superb post!!! LOVE IT ....

Thanks for your rankings & you get it pretty much right in my opinion....Once again Colin reigns supreme