5 films that should have won the Best Picture Oscar

1.  Brokeback Mountain  (2005)

To think that Brokeback is just a gay cowboy film is beyond stupid.  To say that it is a beautifully tragic bi-sexual love story is probably more like it.  It's a gripping film with powerful performances that take you to the heights and depths of human emotion.  And the film that beat it to the top gong?  Crash is unrealistic and (despite trying so hard to be clever) told its audience nothing about its central topic of racism.

What won instead?  Crash

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2.  Goodfellas  (1990)

Goodfellas shows us the rise and eventual fall of gangster Henry Hill.  Superbly directed by Martin Scorsese and containing phenomenal performances from Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci, this is my number one gangster film. However, it wasn't good enough to win the Best Picture as Kevin Costner's reasonable but extremely soppy Dances With Wolves took the gong.

What won instead?  Dances With Wolves

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3.  Saving Private Ryan  (1998)

This is probably the most realistic war movie that you're likely to see.  It makes you truly realise how terrifying it must have been to be involved and how horrifying the whole process of war really is.  Spielberg's directing is at an all-time high and the performance of all the cast is perfect.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Shakespeare in Love but how the hell did it beat this giant of a film?!

What won instead?  Shakespeare in Love

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4.  The Last Picture Show  (1971)

This is one of the best coming-of-age dramas that has ever been made.  Despite being in black-and-white, it is still a beautiful picture that focuses around the lives of teenagers in a small Texan town.  As for the film that beat it, The French Connection has a paper-thin plot and is only famous for its pretty impressive car chase.

What won instead?  The French Connection

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5.  Pulp Fiction  (1994)

It hurts me to type this because Forrest Gump is my favourite film of all time!  However, the editing, the music, and the directing of Pulp Fiction were well ahead of the game and really it should have won.  

What won instead?  Forrest Gump

Around the World in 80 Days (1956) - The List Hero Review

A gritty, edge-of-your-seat drama.  If that's what you're after, you're in the wrong place.  Michael Anderson's film adaptation of Around the World in 80 Days is light-hearted, beautifully shot, and - to a modern-day viewer - absolutely hilarious.  To say that this is the most British film I've ever seen would be an understatement.  The movie, like Jules Verne's novel, follows protagonist Phileas Fogg (played as an aristocratic perfectionist by David Niven) and his sidekick Passepartout (a role given to famous Mexican comic Cantinflas) as they shoot around the world in order to win a huge bet with Fogg's Reform Club associates.  


The film is as easy on the eye as it is to follow the plot, but what is it that makes it so funny?  Well, whether they done intentionally or not, there are a number of extremely humorous elements to this film, which - if not taken too seriously - are a laugh-a-minute.  Firstly, there are the ridiculously out-dated stereotypes of Empire (remember that the book was first published in 1873), like the savage natives of the Indian jungle attempting to burn their dead leader's widow (played by Shirley MacLaine, who is about as Indian as myself) alive.  


The point about MacLaine's lack of Indian blood also leads me nicely on to the scene in Bombay in which a number of "blacked up" white actors are performing the usual Indian activities... like snake charming.  How could you not laugh at such a ridiculous scene?!  To be honest, a lot of my personal laughs did come from the out-dated British attitudes; "no crisis should get in the way of afternoon tea" says one cog in the work of the Empire.  Don't get me wrong, I don't think that the colonisation of other countries is funny.  Quite the opposite in fact and it's films like this that show just how ridiculous it was for the British (and other nations) to think that they could just own everything.  As the chords to "Rule Britannia" fade in and out of our sub-conscience throughout the adventure, it simply further emphasises the laughs.

However, the constant references to tea and Empire aren't the only laughs available here.  There are also a number of ridiculous situations that arise; Passepartout fights a bull, Passepartout saves Princess Aouda from those pesky natives, and my particular favourite is when Fogg prizes together a wonderful sail-powered train that actually overtakes the steam engine as they race through the barely-windy American desert.  Brilliant!


Around the World in 80 Days won a number of Academy Awards, including Best Picture (beating The King and I and The Ten Commandments).  Did it deserve such recognition?  I'm not sure, but it is a very good looking movie that's a fantastic viewing on a lazy afternoon.


Rating:  a very jolly 4 out of 5

The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) - The List Hero Review

Having won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1952 (beating off stiff competition from Fred Zinnemann's classic western High Noon and John Ford's The Quiet Man) and being put together by the extremely revered director Cecil B DeMille, a movie about a struggling circus seemed like a more-than appealing way to pass a couple of hours on a Monday afternoon.  However, The Greatest Show on Earth did not live up to my expectations.  The particularly ropey plot, which occurs in small bursts between over-extensive shots of circus performances, revolves around a selection of mostly dislikeable characters travelling across America with the Ringling Brothers Circus.  These dislikeable protagonists are portrayed on screen by some very weak acting; the ever-melodramatic Charlton Heston and the incredibly annoying Betty Hutton are particular culprits.  


Although this award winning flick does have the occasional highlight; a fairly convincing train crash, the sight of a trapeze artist falling to the ground, and plenty of clips of genuinely talented circus folk, the film fails by never really focusing in on its potentially interesting side-plot.  As previously stated, I never really warmed the central protagonists, whether it be because of the acting or the characters inability to be loyal or kind the those closest to them... however, the site of James Stewart on screen is always a pleasure and it is also the case here.  His warm-hearted (and enormously under-used) character, Bubbles the clown, is hiding a dark secret that is eventually revealed - leading to a criminal investigation.  This storyline is kept on the fringes, much to my disappointment, and the movie plunders on with Hutton's character Holly (a female trapeze artist) falling in and out of love like it's going out of fashion.


And so, my Monday afternoon viewing was plagued by a number of disappointments.  Had DeMille focused on the Bubbles plot, cut out some of the circus scenes, and given Heston and Hutton the boot, we may just have had a good film on our hands... and not a movie that was voted the third worst Best Picture of all time by Empire magazine.


Rating:  a fairly generous 2 out of 5

Should it have won Best Picture? (2000)

Here's a quick browse at previous winners of the Academy Award for Best Picture and, in comparison to fellow nominees only, whether or not they should have won the top gong.

2000 winner:

• Gladiator  (directed by Ridley Scott)

Runners Up:

• Chocolat  (directed Lasse Hallstrom) 
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon  (directed by Ang Lee)
• Erin Brokovich  (directed by Steve Soderbergh)
• Traffic  (directed by Steve Soderbergh)

Should Gladiator have won?

• Despite some historical inaccuracies and technical hitches, I'm going to say yes.  Gladiator keeps you emotionally engaged and rooting for the protagonist right until the end, and yet avoids the cheese and cliché of a film like Rocky, for example.  Russell Crowe's steely performance is so believable that we accept he can take on a the great challenges thrown at him in the Colosseum.

How does it compare to the other nominees?

• Whilst Chocolat may have had some not-so-deep meaning of being open-minded towards new things, I found it little more entertaining than middle-of-the-road rom-com.
• Crouching Tiger was a visual feast and contained fight sequences that matched up to those in Gladiator.  However, in terms of excitement and emotion, Gladiator is victorious.
• Erin Brokovich probably wins on plot and emotional engagement, and is Gladiator's closest rival in my opinion, but as an overall spectacle I'd still pick Gladiator.  
• Traffic is a visually excellent film.  Soderbegh excels with his directing here and the cast all do a fantastic turn.  Is it as exciting as Gladiator?  I'm afraid not.