Today's list comes with a big caveat: I haven't seen every Best Picture nominee in history; I'm not sure anyone has. So in writing this, I've made the decision to include a film's popular consensus and historical relevance as judging criteria. It's not something I'm thrilled about, but this was something I really wanted to write about, and I didn't see any way around it, unfortunately.
Alas, here's what I've come up with: The ten years with the strongest Best Picture lineups ever. Notice 2011 is not here. Well, I finally caught up with Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and though I haven't had the chance to write about it yet, its inclusion in the lineup automatically renders this year ineligible for a list like this. But more on that another time. Enjoy the list:
10.) 1957
The Bridge on the River Kwai (winner)
Peyton Place
Sayonara
12 Angry Men
Witness for the Prosecution
Some years on this list made it based on the top-to-bottom strength of all their nominees. This is not one of those years—at least not for me. Perhaps Peyton Place and Sayonara are true forgotten classics, but I haven't seen them. Instead, this year makes it because of one good film (Billy Wilder's Witness for the Prosecution) and two all-time greats.
9.) 2002
Chicago (winner)
Gangs of New York
The Hours
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Pianist
Definitely not the most eye-popping lineup overall, but from top to bottom, it's very solid. Chicago is great fun and absolutely gorgeous. The Pianist and Gangs of New York are underrated masterpieces. The Hours is probably the weakest nominee, but it's a very well-acted piece of work. And The Two Towers, despite suffering just a little from middle-child syndrome, is epic filmmaking at its finest.
8.) 2009
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker (winner)
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air
Unlike 2002, this isn't the best lineup from top to bottom as two films, District 9 and The Blind Side, shouldn't have even come close to the Best Picture conversation. Alas, the other eight films (this was the first year of ten nominees since 1943) are terrific. Of my top 10 films from that year, seven were Best Picture nominees. I think Up in the Air and Inglourious Basterds are destined to be classics, while my love for The Hurt Locker grows every time I see it. It was a very deserving winner.
7.) 1940
All This, and Heaven Too
Foreign Correspondent
The Grapes of Wrath
The Great Dictator
Kitty Foyle
The Letter
The Long Voyage Home
Our Town
The Philadelphia Story
Rebecca (winner)
While 1939 often gets more love (and deservedly so, see below), the 365 days that followed it were pretty damn good, as far as films go. Rebecca is Hitchcock's only Best Picture winner, and it's a great one. However, he lost Best Director to John Ford for The Grapes of Wrath—another enduring classic. Foreign Correspondent happens to be one of my favorite Hitchcock films (a great year for him), while The Philadelphia Story and The Great Dictator show great comedies haven't always been written off by the Academy (Jimmy Stewart even won Best Actor for his great work).
6.) 2007
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men (winner)
There Will Be Blood
I really can't stand Juno, but the other four films are sensational (yes, I love Atonement...always have, always will). Besides just nominating great films, though, what's most noteworthy about this year is how many of them aren't typical Oscar movies. Juno, despite its flaws, is a very quirky comedy. No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood are cold, calculating neo-Westerns. And Michael Clayton is a throwback, 1970s-style thriller, though not necessarily the kind that typically got nominated for Oscars. So for those of you who complain about the Academy not embracing new styles of cinema (and really, if you want to complain about that, just stop paying attention), I'd take a quick glance at what they did four years ago.
5.) 1971
A Clockwork Orange
Fiddler on the Roof
The French Connection (winner)
The Last Picture Show
Nicholas and Alexandra
Another year, another pair of films I can't comment on (Fiddler on the Roof and Nicholas and Alexandra), but the other three? Amazing. I'll be writing more on A Clockwork Orange as I plow through my Kubrick marathon, so I don't want to get too much into that film. But The French Connection and The Last Picture Show are really great—and I think underrated—films. The former features one of my favorite scenes ever (the car chase), while the latter rubbed me the wrong way on first viewing, but my appreciation for it has grown exponentially since.
4.) 1939
Dark Victory
Gone with the Wind (winner)
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Love Affair
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Ninotchka
Of Mice and Men
Stagecoach
The Wizard of Oz
Wuthering Heights
Say what you will about Gone with the Wind (I'll say that half is great and the other half is extremely tedious), but it's one of cinema's most enduring films. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington will always hold a place in this poor idealist's heart, while Stagecoach is right up there with Once Upon a Time in the West as my favorite Western. Of Mice and Men and Wuthering Heights are films I haven't seen, but they seem to be well-regarded interpretations of two classic pieces of literature. Of course, there's also The Wizard of Oz. What else needs to be said?
3.) 1976
All the President's Men
Bound for Glory
Network
Rocky (winner)
Taxi Driver
Of all Sidney Lumet's great films, Network is my favorite. Ditto with Taxi Driver and Martin Scorsese, so those films could be up with three pieces of shit, and the year would still be in contention for a spot on this list. But All The President's Men also happens to be a classic (albeit one I'm not as crazy about as many others are). Rocky is, I think, an undeserving winner, but only because of what it's up against. I still say that film holds up and is a really fun watch.
2.) 1967
Bonnie and Clyde
Doctor Dolittle
The Graduate
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
In the Heat of the Night (winner)
If you haven't read Mark Harris' book, Pictures at a Revolution, you're doing yourself a disservice. The film looks specifically at these five films and details how they signaled a major shift in the old ways, bringing on the era known as New Hollywood. And just looking at the year before it (when A Man for All Seasons won Best Picture), it's easy to see why. There was, of course, one more traditional Oscar movie—the big-budget musical Dr. Dolittle. But the lineup also includes to solid, albeit dated, films about race relations, as well as two indisputable masterpieces. Bonnie and Clyde forever changed the way violence could be depicted in movies, while The Graduate is perhaps the most honest and relatable coming-of-age story ever.
1.) 1975
Barry Lyndon
Dog Day Afternoon
Jaws
Nashville
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (winner)
In the end, there was no question: This was the best year. Jaws still terrifies me. Barry Lyndon still mystifies me. Dog Day Afternoon still excites me (not in that way). Then, there's Nashville, which remains the blueprint for large ensemble pieces. And One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest manages to blend together everything I love about the other four films. Just think: Kubrick, Lumet, Spielberg, Altman, and Forman. How can that not be the greatest of all 84 Best Picture lineups?
0 comments:
Post a Comment