Redoing Oscar Best Picture Awards for the last 25 years

This is one of the most disputed/lamented Best Picture results of the last 25 years. Perceived at the time as a two-horse race between Robert Zemeckis’ feathery baby boomer guilt trip “Forrest Gump” and Quentin Tarantino’s precociously brilliant “Pulp Fiction," had it been put to a revote as early as a year later, the likely winner would’ve been Frank Darabont’s "The Shawshank Redemption." In retrospect, any of the other four nominees (including “Quiz Show” and “Four Weddings and a Funeral”) would’ve been preferable to "Gump." A vote with the head gets you “Quiz Show." One from the heart favors “Shawshank." Go with the gut and it’s “Pulp Fiction."

Mel Gibson’s rousingly gory Scottish epic was hailed as a throwback historical piece in 1995, and though the ferocious battle sequences are still impressive 24 years later, some of its content has aged poorly (particularly the jokey dispatching of Prince Edward’s gay lover). Ron Howard’s “Apollo 13” was viewed as its closest competition, while "Sense and Sensibility," “Il Postino” and “Babe” were considered also-rans. That the utterly perfect and wondrous “Babe” wasn’t the runaway winner is an ignominy the Academy will never live down. That won’t do, Oscars. That won’t do.

There was nothing controversial about Anthony Minghella’s lushly romantic adaptation of Michael Ondaatje’s Booker Prize-winning novel taking home the top prize at the time, but Elaine Benes awakened a legion of haters in a 1997 “Seinfeld” episode, and now it’s often derided as one of the worst films to ever win Best Picture. This is, of course, insane. Minghella’s film is a meticulously crafted, deliriously romantic masterpiece. The Academy made the right call, though “Fargo," “Jerry Maguire” and “Secrets and Lies” were worthy competitors. In retrospect, “Shine” is a slightly above-average biopic powered by an extraordinary Geoffrey Rush performance.

James Cameron’s box office behemoth wooed Academy voters with its intoxicating mix of old-fashioned schmaltz and pioneering visual effects. It was a ready-made, zeitgeist-capturing Best Picture winner and would probably win again today if put to a revote. And it’s a great movie. It deserved the Oscar over “Good Will Hunting," “The Full Monty” and “As Good As It Gets” (none of which should’ve been nominated over “Boogie Nights” or “The Sweet Hereafter”). But we’ve got to give Curtis Hanson’s elegantly streamlined adaptation of James Ellroy’s “L.A. Confidential” the edge.

Winning Best Picture over “Saving Private Ryan” is the worst thing that ever happened to “Shakespeare in Love." It’s a gem of a romantic comedy invigorated by a witty Tom Stoppard screenplay that gleefully rewards the viewer’s familiarity with The Bard’s work (i.e. it’s theater nerd catnip). But Spielberg’s phenomenal, shellshock-inducing World War II drama had been deemed the front-runner since its summer theatrical release. It was a cinematic monument to the Greatest Generation — a public service more than just a movie. It’s definitely superior to “Life Is Beautiful” and “Elizabeth," but those flash-forward bookends blunt its impact. There’s nothing wrong with “Shakespeare in Love” — or for that matter the other WWII movie nominated that year, “The Thin Red Line." The optics stink, but the Academy basically did the right thing.

In a year that gave us “Fight Club," “Three Kings," “The Talented Mr. Ripley” and “Eyes Wide Shut” (among many other triumphs), the Academy saw fit to nominate “The Cider House Rules," “The Green Mile," “The Sixth Sense," “American Beauty” and “The Insider." Only that last title belongs. “American Beauty” is bracingly acerbic on initial viewing, but it winds up being every bit as shallow as the suburbia it’s critiquing. Michael Mann’s “The Insider," with its infuriating depiction of corporate malfeasance, was sounding an alarm that we chose not to hear until it was too late. It should’ve won Best Picture in a walk.

Ridley Scott brought back the sword-and-sandal subgenre in 2000, and an Academy nostalgic for the likes of “Ben-Hur” and “Spartacus” awarded his tremendously entertaining film with the top prize over the formidable threesome of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," “Erin Brockovich” and “Traffic.” (“Chocolat” was also nominated for some imbecilic reason.) Given that Scott lost Best Director to Ang Lee that year, it was probably a close race between “Gladiator” and “Crouching Tiger” — and while the former is a fine film, the latter would’ve been the right choice.

Evidently the Academy was so stunned that Akiva “Batman and Robin” Goldsman wrote a decent film, it felt it had to mark the occasion by giving “A Beautiful Mind” its highest honor. It wasn’t the strongest Best Picture field ever assembled. “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” should’ve won, but voters were just getting acclimated to the idea of hobbits and orcs and such. “In the Bedroom," “Moulin Rouge!” and “Gosford Park” would’ve been better choices than Russell Crowe doing the fancy maths, but they’re not exactly all-timers. It’s hard to get worked up over this one.

Rob Marshall’s all-star rendition of the Broadway smash capitalized on the “return of the musical” momentum created by “Moulin Rouge!” and won out over “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," “Gangs of New York," “The Pianist” and “The Hours." Marshall’s clumsy direction of his own choreography knocks “Chicago” down a notch. “The Pianist” and “The Two Towers” are clearly better films, while Martin Scorsese’s “Gangs of New York” is a more impressive achievement despite its flaws. “The Hours” is a depressing, one-note slog. There’s no miscarriage of justice here, but the Academy could’ve done better. 

The long-awaited coronation of Peter Jackson’s Tolkien saga was richly deserved even if, as a standalone film, Peter Weir’s “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” is slightly more satisfying. “Mystic River," “Seabiscuit” and “Lost in Translation” rounded out the field of cannon fodder. This was the most foregone Best Picture conclusion since “Schindler’s List."

This wasn’t a particularly strong year for the movies, which made it a fine time for the Academy to feed its Clint Eastwood jones. “Million Dollar Baby” is a solid film, but it’s not exactly in the class of Martin Scorsese’s Howard Hughes biopic “The Aviator." Alexander Payne’s “Sideways” was also more deserving. “Ray” was all about Jamie Foxx’s Best Actor Oscar. “Finding Neverland” was the obligatory Miramax nominee pushed through by Harvey Weinstein. This should’ve been the year for Scorsese to finally win his Best Picture/Director combo, but his time was coming.  

It felt wrong at the time, and it looks hideous in retrospect. Basically, Paul Haggis’ “everyone’s a racist” ensemble drama appealed to the Oscars’ “problem picture” infatuation, while some prominent elderly members expressed disgust with the gay content of Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain." “Capote," “Good Night, and Good Luck” and “Munich” were never really in the running, so it came down to a two-horse race wherein a chunk of voters refused to even watch one of the contenders. It was a disgrace. Lee’s film holds up beautifully, Haggis’ Altman-lite nonsense is now considered one of the worst films to ever win Best Picture and we can all agree “Munich” should’ve won.

Martin Scorsese's rollicking remake of Andrew Law and Alan Mak’s “Infernal Affairs” hit the pulp sweet spot with the Academy, ending the great filmmaker’s run of unconscionable Best Picture/Director snubs that started with 1980’s “Raging Bull." Thank goodness there wasn’t a runaway audience favorite or a Very Important Movie like “Dances With Wolves” in his way this time. Granted, “The Departed is relatively minor Scorsese, but it’s miles better than “Babel," “Letters from Iwo Jima," “Little Miss Sunshine” and “The Queen."

It wasn’t close at the time, but a revote might produce a (presumably) tighter finish between the Coens’ “No Country for Old Men” and Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood." Quality-wise, it’s a toss up, so let’s just call “No Country” the Coens’ lucky coin and consider this competition fairly settled. The rest of the field — “Atonement”, “Michael Clayton” and “Juno” — was pretty spiffy as well.

Danny Boyle’s Bollywood-inflected drama was a feel-good cinch over “The Reader," “Frost/Nixon," “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Milk," and it’s a perfectly defensible choice. It’s not popular to admit a preference for David Fincher’s melancholy fantasy, but it’s a lovely movie that’s nowhere near as mawkish or shallow as its critics suggest. 

The Academy expanded the Best Picture field to 10 this year in the hopes of getting more blockbusters in the running. “Avatar," “District 9," “Inglourious Basterds," “The Blind Side" and “Up” cracked the list, so mission accomplished. James Cameron’s “game-changing” 3-D extravaganza and Quentin Tarantino’s long-promised “men on a mission” flick were serious contenders, but the Academy went with Kathryn Bigelow’s low-grossing Iraq War drama “The Hurt Locker." “Up” and “Basterds” are better movies, but we’ll take the Bigelow over the other seven (which also included “Up in the Air," “An Education," “A Serious Man” and “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”). 

The Academy’s run of sketchy Best Picture winners started this year with the shamelessly formulaic prestige drama “The King’s Speech” triumphing over (in order of preference) “Winter’s Bone," “True Grit," “The Social Network," “Inception," “Black Swan," “127 Hour," “Toy Story 3," “The Fighter” and “The Kids Are All Right." Debra Granik’s sensational Ozark noir was Jennifer Lawrence’s breakout film and a vitally unvarnished depiction of extreme poverty and drug trafficking in America’s disintegrating heartland. Despite her film earning four Oscar nominations, it would take Granik another nine years to make another movie because the film industry is broken.  

The Academy contracted the Best Picture field to nine this year and embarrassed itself by anointing Michel Hazanavicius’ silent bauble, “The Artist." If they wanted to honor a movie that celebrated the history of the medium, Martin Scorsese’s lovely “Hugo” was sitting right there. Meanwhile, if they’d wanted to toast a sui generis masterpiece from one of our greatest living filmmakers, Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” was nominated as well. Of the other six nominees, “Midnight in Paris," “Moneyball," “War Horse” and “The Descendants” would’ve been reasonable selections. “The Help” and “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” would’ve been cause for abolishing the Oscars altogether.

Ben Affleck’s sturdy Hollywood-saves-the-hostages drama was an improvement on “The King’s Speech” and “The Artist," but it had no business winning over Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” — which, sadly, feels more relevant seven years later. At least the Academy didn’t fall for Tom Hooper’s infuriatingly misconceived staging of “Les Misérables” or David O. Russell’s quirk-laden trivialization of mental illness, “Silver Linings Playbook." So the Academy could’ve done much worse. It also could’ve gone with “Django Unchained," “Zero Dark Thirty," “Amour," “Beasts of the Southern Wild” or “Life of Pi."

After three years of suboptimal Best Picture winners, the Academy regained its senses and honored Steve McQueen’s starkly told “12 Years a Slave." Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street," Alfonso Cuarón’s “Gravity” and Spike Jonze’s “Her” were the only other nominees in its class, but voters wisely, and somewhat surprisingly, rallied around one of the most brutally realistic dramatizations of slavery in American film history. The rest of the competition — “Captain Phillips," “Dallas Buyers Club," “Nebraska," “Philomena” and “American Hustle” — ranged from excellent to “American Hustle."

The Actors Branch comprises the largest chunk of the Academy’s membership, so no one was terribly surprised when Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s thespian-centric “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” won Best Picture. There were worse options that year (namely “American Sniper," “The Imitation Game” and “The Theory of Everything”), but Wes Anderson’s spirited marvel, “The Grand Budapest Hotel," would’ve been proper recognition for pulling off a natural hat trick of masterpieces (including “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and “Moonrise Kingdom”). “Boyhood," “Whiplash” and “Selma” were also superior options.

Tom McCarthy’s absorbing drama about the Boston Globe’s exposé of the Catholic Church’s child sex abuse scandal pulled a minor upset over Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s relentlessly bleak wilderness adventure, “The Revenant." Right-minded cinephiles the world over would’ve rejoiced had George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” carried the day, but the Oscars haven’t done anything that ecstatically unexpected since awarding Marisa Tomei Best Supporting Actress for “My Cousin Vinny." “Bridge of Spies” and “The Martian” also would’ve been nice surprises. As for “Brooklyn," “The Big Short” and “Room," it was a win just for them to be nominated.

No one who was watching the Oscar broadcast will ever forget the wrong-envelope snafu that briefly anointed “La La Land” Best Picture, but in time the more vivid collective memory will be of Barry Jenkins’ piercingly human character study. The best nominees — “Moonlight," “Fences” and “Manchester by the Sea” — were so tightly bunched in terms of quality that it feels wrong to state a preference. All three offer wildly different, deeply considered perspectives. “La La Land” and “Arrival” were more than worthy contenders, but “Hacksaw Ridge," “Lion," “Hidden Figures” and “Hell or High Water” felt a little out of place.

This was a brutal year. Guillermo del Toro picked up the Oscar he was owed for “Pan’s Labyrinth," and it was hard to argue with the Academy’s decision. But there were five other instant classics nominated: “Phantom Thread," “Get Out," “Lady Bird," “Call Me by Your Name” and “Dunkirk." All of them will stand the test of time. “The Post” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” were both flawed but featured multiple moments of greatness and a multitude of indelible performances. There’s nothing horribly wrong with Joe Wright’s Churchill drama “Darkest Hour”; it’s just incredibly conventional when compared to the other nominees.

Peter Farrelly's portrait of a racist (Viggo Mortensen) who learns that he doesn't have to throw out glasses after black people drink out of them hit the same can't-we-all-just-get-along sweet spot that prompted the Academy to honor "Driving Miss Daisy" with its most prestigious award in 1990. "Roma" felt like the obvious winner (especially after Alfonso Cuarón won his second Best Director Oscar), but a legit case could be made for "BlacKkKlansman," "The Favourite," "A Star Is Born" or even "Black Panther." This was a giant leap backward for the AMPAS that two years prior had honored Barry Jenkins' "Moonlight", and it stings that his superior follow-up, "If Beale Street Could Talk," wasn't even nominated.

Oscar voters had a wide array of high-quality choices here. Only Taika Waititi’s ill-considered attempt at a feel-good black comedy about Nazism, “Jojo Rabbit,” and Todd Phillips’ gamely grotesque, yet thematically heavy-handed “Joker” felt out of place. The other seven nominees – “Ford v. Ferrari,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” “The Irishman,” “1917,” “Little Women,” “Marriage Story” and “Parasite” – would’ve all been deserving winners. The two masterpieces from Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese present a cinephile’s Sophie’s Choice, while Bong Joon-ho’s pitch-black satire speaks with alarming clarity to our current global crises (which have only worsened in the intervening years). Tarantino has never made a better film, so this felt like the year to make up for “Pulp Fiction” losing to “Forrest Gump” in ‘94. Still, you can’t argue with the perfection of “Parasite.”

Context is important here. This was the first Oscars of the Covid pandemic era, and the only one held before the worldwide rollout of the vaccines. People were in a bizarre, apprehensive mood, yearning for the personal freedom they took for granted. They were also bristling under the weight of a rigged economy that caters to the top one-percent, leaving the rest of the populace to struggle to earn a living wage. So Chloé Zhao’s character study about a headstrong widower (the reliably superb Frances McDormand) who hits the road in her van to see the country on her own financially-meager terms. “Nomadland” is an agreeable hang if only because McDormand is such wonderfully unique company, and the Best Picture competition wasn’t particularly stiff. Florian Zeller’s adaptation of his heartbreaking stage play told from the perspective of a dementia-addled elderly man (Anthony Hopkins) towers above the other nominees, but it’s a crushingly claustrophobic film. You can’t blame quarantining voters for going with the most visually and spiritually expansive option.

Sian Heder’s “CODA” is a nice, open-hearted drama about a young woman torn between her responsibilities to her deaf parents and her desire to study music at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, but Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza,” Guillermo del Toro’s “Nightmare Alley” and Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” were superior achievements on every level. And then there was Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story,” a spectacularly entertaining retelling of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim’s musical take on “Romeo and Juliet.” Spielberg’s camera dances along with the cast, whisking you up in their youthful exuberance. Our greatest living filmmaker finally fulfilled his dream of directing a musical, and knocked out an all-timer.