Several people have been dissing "A Beautiful Mind" and to each his own. What, exactly, do you feel is the worst film to ever win the Best Picture Oscar. I realize that you may have to have some history of the trivial Academy Awards or have to have seen lots of movies, but as I said, to each his own, so have at it with what you know.

My idea is that you shouldn't dump on a movie just because it stole it from your favorite. The movie should really suck or at least be deficient in multiple ways.

My vote goes to 1980's "Ordinary People." I will admit that I sorta like Timothy Hutton and I fell in love with Elizabeth McGovern, but the rest of the movie is a depressing stinkpile. I'll even admit that director Robert Redford showed talent in his debut, but the adult characters, especially that wonderful mom played by Mary Tyler Moore, made me all want to kill them, and it just went on and on. After the slightly-better "Kramer vs. Kramer" won the year before, the Academy seemed to settle into some kind of domestic drama redux. They didn't really come out of their funk for a while, but I'll stand by the universally-lauded "Ordinary People" as the nadir.

Titanic ... by far. One of the worst films ever. "As Good As It Gets" or "L.A. Confidential" should both have come in ahead of that lump of poo.

Also ...

Forrest Gump ... that movie got a monstrous eye roll from me also. I would have preferred Pulp Fiction, or even Shawshank at the time, although I'm pretty sick of it now.

Dances With Wolves ... this movie was ridiculous ... hey how about "Goodfellas?" I guess it split the "mafia" vote.

Rain Man ... supposedly this is supposed to be a great movie, but I find it completely boring. My attention wanders off every time I try to watch it. Dangerous Liaisons would have been a better pick in my opinion.

And that's as far back as my opinion will go because before that, I either agree or was too young or nonexistent to understand the context of the films in their times.

Well, as noted up top, I am a member of the crowd that finds A Beautiful Mind to be the worst film in memory to ever win the Best Picture Oscar. It assumes the audience knows nothing about schizophrenia, and expects them to digest the utterly preposterous story with ease. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it. I hate it.

And yeah, Titanic too. At least it had some impressive effects though.

And I happen to like Ordinary People... well, I did... I haven't seen it in ages.

UGH! And The English Patient too! Terrible, but not nearly as unenjoyable as Cold Mountain... Thank God that didn't get nominated for the award at all. Phew!

Titanic was lazy but pretty cool-looking, and A Beautiful Mind at least had some competent cinematography- my vote goes to Russell Crowe's previous "masterpiece," Gladiator..

quote:

---

A Beautiful Mind at least had some competent cinematography

---

I haven't seen A Beautiful Mind, so I can't really comment on it's worthiness to win Best Picture, but if all it had going for it was competent cinematography, then at most it should have won the cinematography award.

But I can't stand Russell Crowe ... so I'll never know in truth how good any of these movies are or aren't because I'm not going to torture myself by going to see them.

Why does everyone hate Russel Crowe? He may be an asshole in real life, but I think his acting is great. I didn't like Gladiator very much either, but I thought Crowe did a great job.

Master and Commander and L.A. Confidential are also great movies.

K-Dog

quote:

---

Originally posted by K-Dog:
Why does everyone hate Russell Crowe? He may be an asshole in real life, but I think his acting is great. I didn't like Gladiator very much either, but I thought Crowe did a great job.

Master and Commander and L.A. Confidential are also great movies.

_K-Dog_

---

"Everyone" doesn't hate Russell Crowe. I haven't seen him give a bad performance. Did you see "Romper Stomper"? I believe his two best performances were in "A Beautiful Mind" and "Master and Commander", but his most intense was as wild man Bud White in "L.A. Confidential."

I can't put my finger on exactly why I hate Russell Crowe. Nothing specific about his performances, just a vibe I get. I think his real life jerkiness oozes through his performance and reaches me somehow. I didn't like him when I first saw Romper Stomper, and that was way before he became all famous.

And it doesn't mean I automatically hate movies he is in. I liked L.A. Confidential a lot.

"Gladiator", "Shakespeare in Love", "A Beautiful Mind" and "Forrest Gump" have been four very undeserving films to receive that accolade in recent memory.

Chronological list of all Best Picture winners.

OK, I'll admit that I should have freshened up my memory before starting this thread. "Ordinary People" is only the THIRD- worst best picture winner. I forgot about "The Broadway Melody" and "Cavalcade." Both of them are worth a peek for historical reasons. "Broadway Melody" has more entertainment value because it's basically about sex.

annie hall 1977, only because it beat out star wars.

rocky is probably the worst - 1976.

ordinary people (1980) is another great choice as worst winner. how the hell did it beat out raging bull !

To me, the question is when does Oscar get it RIGHT for Best Picture?

While I don't always agree with who wins, I'd say the worst film to win Best Picture was "Chicago"...hands down. (Dis)Honorable Mentions: The English Patient, Forrest Gump, Driving Miss Daisy, and Out of Africa.

Actually, I really liked "A Beautiful Mind", and thought it was the best picture of 2001. And...while it seems to be fashionable to knock "Ordinary People" nowadays, I think that is a great film as well.

As for Russell Crowe - perhaps the best actor out there right now, even though he's apparently a real asshole.

quote:

---

Originally posted by asc85:
To me, the question is when does Oscar get it RIGHT for Best Picture?

And...while it seems to be fashionable to knock "Ordinary People" nowadays, I think that is a great film as well.

---

Well, your first comment should maybe be the title of the thread. I'm one of those retards (mostly because I'm so ancient) to have seen every best-picture winner. I don't really think any of them "suck", but I was hoping to get some reactions and I did.

Secondly, I didn't know it was "fashionable" to dis "Ordinary People." Before I started this thread, I don't remember anyONE dissing it. I will cut it some slack since I think you were supposed to hate Hutton's parents. I just wished I liked Sutherland more. Plus entertainment was basically anathema to the movie unless Liz McGovern was in a scene.

mark f,

Sorry if I offended you...I certainly wasn't trying to start a slugfest with you. It seems to me though, that over time, many people (not just you) denigrate "Ordinary People." That was the year that "Raging Bull" also came out, and I'd say starting about 10-15 years ago, it's the chic comment to say how stupid everyone was in 1980, and that the test of time has proven that "Raging Bull" was the superior film. Well actually, I didn't care for "Raging Bull" at all. Yes, I liked Joe Pesci, and it was interesting/disturbing to see DeNiro put on all that weight, but I didn't care very much for the movie.

So that was where my comment about it being "fashionable" for others to knock "Ordinary People" has it's origins.

First off, you have nothing to apologize for. I only want everyone's honest opinion. You gave it here and you started the 80s thread, so you're all good with me. If I wanted everyone to agree with me, I wouldn't even start any threads. The whole thing would be too boring. I'm not the kinda guy who posts something and then lurks in the shadows to pounce. Check the threads if you want. I will make comments, but I try to keep personalities out of it. Also, if you read my intro, I said that you shouldn't slam something because you thought something else was better. Anyhow, I hope you believe me, asc85, I appreciate any and all of your heartfelt comments. I hope you feel free to comment anywhere.

quote:

---

Originally posted by KT:
_Titanic_ ... by far. One of the worst films ever. "As Good As It Gets" or "L.A. Confidential" should both have come in ahead of that lump of poo.

Also ...

_Forrest Gump_ ... that movie got a monstrous eye roll from me also. I would have preferred Pulp Fiction, or even Shawshank at the time, although I'm pretty sick of it now.

_Dances With Wolves_ ... this movie was ridiculous ... hey how about "Goodfellas?" I guess it split the "mafia" vote.

_Rain Man_ ... supposedly this is supposed to be a great movie, but I find it completely boring. My attention wanders off every time I try to watch it. Dangerous Liaisons would have been a better pick in my opinion.

And that's as far back as my opinion will go because before that, I either agree or was too young or nonexistent to understand the context of the films in their times.

---

KT, how can you not like Rain Man? and Forrest Gump? and Dances with Wolves?
Those 3 films rule!! Rain Man? Boring? I don't think so...
Pulp Fiction was a great film but I think Forrest Gump deserved to win the oscar.
As for Goodfellas, again, great movie but Dances With Wolves is slightly more Oscar material!

For me Titanic is the worst film to have won the Best Picture oscar, no contest.

I know ... I guess I should just give in and like those movies, but I really can't.

Rain Man really is boring to me. I have really tried to watch it about three times, and every time my attention wanders so much, and then eventually I end up doing something else with the movie in the back ground and then eventually I always turn it off because I start going, "God, is this movie EVER going to end?" It's weird because typically I like movies about "mentally challenged" people, and I would have thought I would love this one ... but it just can't keep my attention.

Forrest Gump I just think is really silly. I don't get touched or moved by it, I just think it's dumb. It's totally condescending, cliche and unbelievable. Strangely, another movie about a mentally challenged person that I don't like.

And Dances With Wolves I can say with certainty that my total dislike for it comes (aside from my Kevin Costner scorn) from first watching the film in my Native American studies class and having a professor point out every step of the way, every ridiculous inaccuracy, combined with every piece of egotistical character puffery of Costner's character. Feh.

But truly, my tastes are rarely mainstream and the fact is, everyone loved those movies so I acknowledge that it's not so unusual that they won Best Picture. It's not my awards to give .... if it were, it would be very different set of winners you would see EVERY year, not just the ones I pointed out.

I'm just not a feel-good touchy feely person so these movies aren't made for me. Even in classical movies I prefer the pre-code darker stuff to the cleaned up happy later stuff. I adore "The Lost Weekend" and absolutely hate "It's a Wonderful Life."

So everything I like or dislike has to go through my personal "cheese filter." And the cloyingly sweet stuff (Like Gump) rarely makes it through.

I think you can make the case that when the Academy has to make a choice between a picture that is dispassionate and hard hitting in a realistic manner to something “uplifting”, wears its sentiment on its sleeves (to wit, sentimental) or self-congratulatory (meaning self-serving emotionally or conceptually) it chooses the latter.

Rain Man and Gump may be nitwits, but they had heart.

Dances w/Wolves finally shows an enlightened understanding of Native American folkways.

Mary Tyler Moore is monstrous and destructive of her family cuz she’s cold and unemotional.

When Leonardo and Kate walk down that spiral staircase at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, all the past-over spirits of the dead felt compelled to reassemble for one last valedictory event.

Chicago won cuz it shows the Academy knows entertainment.

When Driving Miss Daisy won, it won over Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing.

Maybe I’m just cynical...

And KT, I never, never understood what was so wonderful about some smarmy passive aggressive guy want to take a leap off the country bridge. I'm saying, this is depression era America, aren't there people with really, really hard luck?

quote:

---

Dances w/Wolves finally shows an enlightened understanding of Native American folkways.

---

Interesting ... I'm not surprised that's the perception, but from what I can remember from that Native American Studies class (It's fuzzy, it was ten years ago) what it acutally showed was a favorable view of Native Americans, but not one that was based on reality. So enlightened, maybe, understanding, probably not.

and ...

quote:

---

And KT, I never, never understood what was so wonderful about some smarmy passive aggressive guy want to take a leap off the country bridge. I'm saying, this is depression era America, aren't there people with really, really hard luck?

---

Hee!

Wong828 said,

"When Driving Miss Daisy won, it won over Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing."

Not sure if wong828 has remembered it right. "Do the Right Thing" wasn't even nominated for Best Picture that year. The film's that were nominated along with "Driving Miss Daisy" were

"Born on the 4th of July"
"Dead Poets Society"
"Field of Dreams"
"My Left Foot"

Personally, I would have given it to "Field of Dreams". Although Spike Lee still thinks his "Do the Right Thing" was a masterpiece, I still think that it wasn't.