Friday, February 26, 2016

BEST LOSERS

Its Oscar season, and everywhere you turn someone is listing their top 10 movies of all time.  Of course, most of those lists contain the obvious; The Godfather, Braveheart, Forrest Gump, Rocky, Sound of Music – Oscar winners, one and all.

So I decided to list my top ten favorite movies that did NOT win Best Picture.  And here they are, in chronological order:



TOP TEN LOSERS

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939 – lost to Gone With the Wind)

The Grapes of Wrath (1940 – lost to Rebecca)

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946 – Lost to The Best Years of Our Lives)

High Noon (1952 – Lost to The Greatest Show on Earth)

The Ten Commandments (1956 – Lost to Around the World in 80 Days)

12 Angry Men (1957 – Lost to The Bridge on the River Kwai)

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969 – Lost to Midnight Cowboy)

The Shawshank Redemption (1994 – Lost to Forrest Gump)

Saving Private Ryan (1998 – Lost to Shakespeare in Love)

The Green Mile (1999 – Lost to American Beauty)



As a closing thought, here are (in my opinion) the worst travesties in Academy history:

WORST TRAVESTIES

That Wizard of Oz had to compete with Gone With the Wind;

That Mr. Smith goes to Washington had to compete with Gone With the Wind;

That Star Wars (or anything else) was beaten by Annie Hall;

That a western hasn’t won Best Picture since Unforgiven, in 1992 (although Braveheart and Gladiator might be considered westerns);

That politics is so prevalent in the movie industry;

That they just don’t make ‘em like they used to!


Shhhhhhh – and pass the popcorn.


 Logo vector designed by Freepik