One thing that must be stated is that compiling such a list is much easier said than done. I don't know if I can say this list accurately reflects my total views, and I went back and forth on a lot of them. There are so many things to consider; so many things have changed since most of these films have been released. A lot of these films I hated when I first saw them; some have aged for the better and some for the worse. They sort of demonstrate the love/hate relationship many of us have toward the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, for most of the time they choose the wrong film.
Note: The year denotes the year in which the film was released, not the year in which it won.
90. The English Patient (1996)
The film that somehow beat Fargo. The English Patient is the most featureless of all the winners on this list, the finest example of "Oscar bait". It has beautiful locations, a decent score by Gabriel Yared, and some fine acting (namely from Kristin Scott Thomas, Juliette Binoche, and Willem Dafoe) in its favor, but it is also a movie in which "things happen" and yet nothing happens.
Best Part: The end credits, signifying the conclusion of the film.
89. Cavalcade (1933)
Cavalcade, adapted from the Noel Coward play, is Downton Abbey but a thousand times less interesting. The film depicts two English families during the major events of the first part of the 20th century, namely the Second Boer War, the death of Queen Victoria, the sinking of the Titanic, and World War I. And it's pretty anemic, all the while being remarkably difficult to understand what is happening. Fun fact: this is the first film to use the words "damn" and "hell".
Best Part: The World War I montage.
88. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Erich Maria Remarque's war novel about the disillusionment and alienation of German soldiers in World War I has aged remarkably well. This American film adaptation, however, has not. All Quiet on the Western Front is a particularly difficult movie to make it through; in fact, it took me several sittings. You won't see acting as painful as this in most of the films on this list. The battle scenes, however, are massive and impressive, and about forty-five minutes in, the acting improves, if modestly so. It is at least interesting to watch Lois Wolheim in a somewhat comedic role as the unit's leader. However, the performance of Lew Ayres as the lead and the dialogue he has to deliver are particularly terrible. That being said, any movie so despised by the Nazis can't be all that bad.
Best Part: Paul, the main character, stands up to the group think and pro-war mentality of the classroom.
87. Gigi (1958)
Gigi has the creepiest opening of any movie on this list. Maurice Chevalier starts the film with a song called "Thank Heaven For Little Girls", and it's as creepy as you'd think. From there, the movie doesn't get any better. None of the acting is good, and the "humor" is horrifying. (One character attempts suicide after breaking up with the male lead, played by Louis Jourdan, and the older women excitingly tell him, "Your first suicide!") I try to avoid criticizing musicals by saying the songs aren't memorable, but few if any of the songs here are good. It's a movie like this that really makes one question the taste of the Academy.
Best Part: "The Night They Invented Champagne"
86. Tom Jones (1963)
I decided to watch Tom Jones the day Albert Finney passed away at the age of 82. I can't say anything bad about Finney; his performance is great. Can you think of a bad Albert Finney performance? The film, though, is very...English. What exactly is this film about? I couldn't really tell you because it's very incomprehensible. I can tell you that there is overly chaotic camera work from start to finish, and that it's a movie in which basically nothing happens. But the supporting cast is interesting, and it includes Susannah York, Hugh Griffith, David Tomlinson, Julian Glover, and David Warner in his film debut.
Best Part: Albert Finney.
85. The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
The Great Ziegfeld, starring William Powell, Myrna Loy, and Luise Rainer, is a big-budgeted, epic take on Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., the creator of all those Ziegfeld Follies, and yet it's far more boring that any of them probably were. It's the only movie musical I can think of where the musical numbers are often the most boring part. Ziegfeld's antics, particularly the slightly unethical ones, might bring a smirk to your face. But there's also blackface scenes, and a character refers to Native Americans as "savages", so that's there. On a more positive note, Frank Morgan, and his omnipresent laugh, also stars. You may recognize him from The Wizard of Oz. Speaking of The Wizard of Oz, Ray Bolger is also here as himself, and he has a nice musical number.
Best Part: Morgan's laugh.
84. Cimarron (1931)
Cimarron, based on the popular novel about the expansion into Oklahoma, has its moments, but the modern-day reviews are much more critical than its contemporary reviews. (Its current RottenTomatoes score is 50.) For one, if you were looking for the moral themes of High Noon or the epic nature of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, then you won't find them in Cimarron, which has a few of the tropes that make the Western genre unique, and yet it all adds up to a weak payoff. Beyond that, if you thought the racism in Gone With the Wind was uncomfortable, wait until you see Cimarron.
Best Part: While a more forgiving viewer might say this movie is a "victim of its own time", one still cannot ignore the stereotypical caricatures. So it's a very nice moment when Richard Dix as the lead barks back at protesters who whine that the Cherokee in the crowd did not give to the collection. "If you knew anything at all," he replies, "you'd realize that a Cherokee is too smart to put anything in the contribution box of a race that's robbed him of his birthright!"
83. Ben-Hur
Ben-Hur is unbelievably overrated, boring as hell, and quite difficult to get through. It starts with a nativity scene that's comparable to all the bad ones elementary school kids put on that their parents have to sit through. From there, you're really in for the four-hour long haul. And yet, the Oscars awarded the film with eleven statuettes, a feat unsurpassed since and matched by only two others (Titanic and The Lord of the Returns: Return of the King).
Best Part: The chariot race, literally the only good scene in the movie.
82. Chariots of Fire (1981)
I don't know how Chariots of Fire, the mundane sports drama about two British runners during the 1924 Olympics, beat Raiders of the Lost Ark or Reds, two films that anybody would agree are superior. Chariots of Fire focuses mainly on two opposite characters: a devout Christian (played by Ian Charleson) who refuses to run on the sabbath, and a Jew (played by Ben Cross) who is frequently discriminated against. But the only thing noteworthy about Chariots of Fire is the theme by Vangelis that opens and closes the film. The move to go with a synthesized score in place of a traditional orchestral one was a bold move, admittedly. But everything else will make you yawn. Of the sports dramas on this list, this is by far the dullest, with the race scenes not possessing an ounce of thrill in them.
Best Part: The musical theme.
81. The Broadway Melody (1929)
The Broadway Melody, MGM's first all-talking film, is one of those movies that shows the rough transition from silent films to sound ones. Like many of the era, The Broadway Melody is very theatrical, and not in a good way. The songs aren't bad, but they haven't survived into the modern era. (Speaking of not surviving, there originally was a technicolor sequence, but that unfortunately has been lost to history.) For what it's worth, it was a big film at the time, making it the highest-grossing film of 1929. It's also interesting to watch these pre-Code films; in this case, there are several characters who are clearly gay, and there's a same-sex kiss that surely must have been controversial at the time.
However, the second half of this film is painful. These days, most critics agree that it hasn't aged very well. It's rated at 35 percent on RottenTomatoes, making it the lowest-rated Best Picture-winning film. The story of the two sisters (played by Anita Page and Bessie Love) struggling to make it on Broadway is fine, but it's not compelling enough to carry the entire film. And the love triangle between the two of them and the male lead played by Charles King doesn't make any sense.
Best Part: The wedding scene in the play.
80. My Fair Lady (1964)
My Fair Lady is basically the musical version of Ben-Hur: long, boring, and pointless. I don't know why Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle is in it. (Julie Andrews was the original star and would've made a better choice.) Hepburn was certainly one of the biggest stars, but apparently she couldn't really sing and was re-dubbed with Marni Dixon's signing voice.
Speaking of the songs, some of them are fine and some are not. But overall, it's a pretty terrible film. I guess the bullying towards Eliza was once thought of as whimsical and funny, but these days it's kind of like a weird fetish and rather terrifying. For what it's worth, Hollywood is supposedly remaking it with a more feminist bent.
Best Part: "Get Me to the Church on Time"
79. Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
Based on the Jules Verne novel, David Niven and Cantinflas star as an unlikely duo trying to win a bet that they can travel around the world in eighty days. There are seemingly dozens of cameos from an eclectic bunch: Edward Murrow, John Gielgud, Buster Keaton, Peter Lorre, and Frank Sinatra, among many more. One Screen Actors Guild representative reportedly complained that the film was making "extras out of all the stars in Hollywood."
Cantinflas gives a Chaplin-esque performance, and the cameos are fun, as mentioned. Everything else is problematic. Around the World in 80 Days is the only film I can think of that is racist towards both American Indians and Asian Indians. There's a very romantic view of colonialism, and for some reason Shirley MacLaine was cast as an Indian princess. Even if that stuff for some reason doesn't bother you, the boredom will. These days, kids might enjoy it, but for adults it was probably more fantastic in 1956 than the modern era.
Best Part: The cameos.
78. The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
The Life of Emile Zola is an autobiographical film of the famed and provocative French writer, specifically regarding the infamous Dreyfus affair, the controversy that engulfed French society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It stars Paul Muni (best remembered these days for being the original Scarface) in the title role.
Despite the enormously positive reviews when it was first released, these days the film is quite tedious. The filmmakers should have trimmed out the first part and titled it "The Trial of Emile Zola." Muni was highly respected throughout his career, but more critics nowadays are willing to admit that he often overdid things. This is true of this film, even during his rendition of Zola's famous "J'Accuse...!" letter. The director of The Life of Emile Zola, William Dieterle, also admitted that Muni sometimes overacted.
Best Part: The trial.
77. Hamlet (1948)
Many people like the Expressionism and film noir aspects, but many dislike some of the liberties Laurence Olivier took in adapting William Shakespeare's favorite play. I think most, even hardcore Shakespeare fans, can concede that it is tiresome, even by Shakespeare standards. I mean, this movie is boring. Even the climactic sword fight is boring.
It's not the best adaptation or even the second best, but it is the one that won the most; Hamlet won four Oscars, including two for producer and star Olivier, who also directed it.
Best Part: The ghost of Hamlet's father.
76. Ordinary People (1980)
Folks, I don't know how Ordinary People beat Raging Bull or The Elephant Man. I mean, it's is no secret that for all their talk, the Academy has never had much love for Martin Scorsese or David Lynch, and they've always loved them some Robert Redford, the movie star who made his Oscar-winning directorial debut here. (Scorsese has lost to actors-turned-directors thrice: Redford, Kevin Costner, and Clint Eastwood.) Nevertheless, Ordinary People, a film that prides itself on being super ordinary, won the big prizes, despite being one of the most forgettable winners.
Based on the Judith Guest novel about an upper-middle class family in crisis, Ordinary People at least has some stellar acting. Mary Tyler Moore and Donald Sutherland play a couple struggling to understand and support their son, played by Timothy Sutton, who has suicidal tenancies. Sutton, in his debut film, won for Best Supporting Actor (even though he plays the main character, but that's the Academy for you). It allowed Moore and Judd Hirsch, who plays the boy's psychiatrist, to step away from their well-known comedy work in television. And while Sutherland was not nominated, the consensus is that it was a snub.
Best Part: The four main actors.
75. Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
Gentleman's Agreement, directed by Elia Kazan, is based on the novel by Laura Z. Hobson about a gentile journalist (played by Gregory Peck) who is tasked with writing a piece on anti-Semitism. Instead of writing a traditional piece filled with research, he decides to pretend to be Jewish. What he finds is horrifying, as people start to treat him differently, and his son (played by a young Dean Stockwell in one of his earlier roles) starts to get beat up by bullies.
While the film was important and controversial (sparking the wrath of the House Un-American Activities Committee, which ordered Kazan, producer Daryl Zanuck, and stars John Garfield and Anne Revere to testify), it often comes across these days as a movie that could have been titled "Anti-Semitism for Dummies". Peck's acting here is not exactly his best (especially when he has an epiphany and declares "I'll be Jewish!"), and I'm not even sure how effective the film had been in 1947. The similar-themed 1943 propaganda video called Don't Be a Sucker (which re-ran the same year Gentleman's Agreement was released) also had lofty aims at encouraging Americans to fight this kind of bigotry, and yet researchers at the time found that most participants in the study simply felt that this kind of thing wouldn't happen in the United States. So given the frightening rise of anti-Semitism these days, a movie like Gentleman's Agreement could be very important, but unfortunately I think the movie squashes its opportunity.
Best Part: The hotel scene and when young Tommy is beaten up will likely make you mad as hell.
74. The Lost Weekend (1945)
This Billy Wilder-directed film noir is the dark tale of an alcoholic going through a hellish weekend. The alcoholic is named Don and is played by Ray Milland, who won the Oscar for his performance here, despite often going overboard in his acting. Don's a writer struggling to make ends meet, and people whisper about him being "the nice young man who drinks." With this Star Trek: TOS-like music throughout, it's practically a horror movie, even with a creepy (but fake-looking) bat eating a rat.
That's kind of the biggest problem with this film: its intensity. Many films like this (such as It's a Wonderful Life from the following year) invest a great deal of time showing the protagonist pre-crisis, so that by the time the crisis does roll around, the audience has a lot of buy-in and thus a great deal of empathy and sympathy for him or her. You can say that that's too formulaic or predictable, but it works. This would have been especially important in the mid-40s, when there probably was a great deal more skepticism towards people suffering from alcoholism. But this movie starts the intensity at a 16 and only goes up, whether you want it to or not, and the result is that it's a bit exhausting.
Best Part: That the film has a prostitute character and a gay character during the Hays Era.
73. All the King's Men (1949)
The adaptation of All the King's Men only partly works these days because of how prophetic a lot of it was. Loosely inspired by the populist Louisiana politician Huey Long, Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford) starts as a hero up against the corrupt establishment; he's "an honest man with courage". However, he keeps getting beaten before he learns how to win. Essentially, he can't beat 'em, so he joins 'em, and he heeds the advice that he should "stir them up and they'll love it" and come back for more. Sound familiar? Populists almost always pretend to care about "the people", but the only skill set they have is that of a con artist.
The lead role was initially offered to John Wayne, but he predictably whined that the script was unpatriotic and turned it down, probably to the surprise of no one. The role was eventually given to Crawford, who won Best Actor for it. All the King's Men is a harsh criticism of politicians and the political process, and it probably worked in 1949. And again, because of the circus these days it might be thought-provoking to a modern audience. Most of it, though, doesn't hold up. If not for the modern-day allegories, I would say it's over the top.
Best Part: The warnings for today's time.
72. Out of Africa (1985)
Mery Streep is quite good as a Danish noblewoman running a farm in Kenya, but nothing much happens here. It's supposed to be romantic, but it's not. Her love interest is an English big-game hunter (played by Robert Redford with a very American accent).
Out of Africa received more or less mixed reviews, but it swept the Oscars in 1986 because, well, it's the Oscars. It's what they do. I first saw Out of Africa in high school the night after I had my wisdom teeth removed. The drugs sort of made the viewing a pleasant experience, and I very much missed them during this second viewing.
Best Part: The Oscar-winning score by John Barry.
71. Rain Man (1980)
You might not find many movies on this list that contain such an unlikable jerk as Charlie Babbit, played by Tom Cruise. Rain Man features a most implausible plot about Charlie kidnapping his own brother because he's angry that their father didn't give him lots of money in his will. It's also terribly awkward to watch an able-bodied actor play a character with a disability. (In fact, this happens the vast majority of times.) I feel like the movie probably did more to hurt people who work with people who have autism than help. I once asked someone who worked with people who have autism about this movie, and he seemed annoyed that I had brought it up; it was as if he was sick of people thinking that every autistic person is like Rain Man. Furthermore, it is impossible not to watch this movie these days without thinking of the many accusations of sexual assault against Dustin Hoffman, who plays the autistic brother Raymond.
Despite how boring it often is, people seem to love this movie. It was the highest-grossing film of 1988, and it won four Oscars, including Best Director for Barry Levinson. I'm not sure why it's so liked. Its repetitiveness is taxing, and the comedic moments are almost never funny. Charlie, as mentioned, makes one stupid mistake after another. There are a few touching moments between the brothers during their cross-country trip from Cincinnati to LA, but it's not enough to save the film.
Best Part: While it's a bit on the unethical side, the gambling scene is fun.
70. Gandhi (1982)
The story of Mahatma Gandhi's struggle leading India to independence from Britain was a passion project for Richard Attenborough, who won the Best Director award for this film. His early work in South Africa, his allegiance and then split with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, imprisonment, and death are all depicted. It has an all-star cast that includes Candice Bergen, Martin Sheen, Jon Gielgud, Richard Griffiths, and an early appearance of Daniel Day-Lewis, but the big star of course is Ben Kingsley, who won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance.
The film is not without its detractors. Some have said that it treats Gandhi as a saint without discussing some of the more controversial parts of his legacy. On top of that, the film is more than three hours long, and it seems to go on and on and on and on and on.
Best Part: Ben Kingsley.
69. American Beauty (1999)
So this movie is definitely viewed differently in 2019 than in 1999. This is mainly because of Kevin Spacey. American Beauty stars Spacey as a middle-class man who has a mid-life epiphany. Unfortunately, that epiphany involves being a jerk to his wife (Annette Benning) and daughter (Thora Birch). It also means lusting after his daughter's friend, played by Mena Suvari. Given the many, many accusations of sexual assault from men (some of them minors) who claim they were attacked by Spacey as first reported in 2017, it's all the more uncomfortable to watch.
American Beauty is often creepy and quite pretentious (especially the whole bag in the wind thing), but it has an interesting score by Thomas Newman (who still has somehow never won an Oscar) and great performances by Benning, Chris Cooper, and Allison Janney.
Best Part: The Newman score.
68. The Greatest Show on Earth (1953)
Produced and directed by Cecil B. DeMille, Charlton Heston plays the manager of a traveling circus. Also appearing are Betty Hutton, Dorothy Lamour, and Cornel Wilde. James Stewart is Buttons, a clown, and it's a performance that's very...interesting. He wears his clown makeup for the entire film. Love it or hate it, he certainly commits to it from start to finish. A lot of the other parts just don't work, like the love triangle and the DeMille narration, which is very full of itself.
There are some genuinely thrilling moments of the circus in this film, and The Greatest Show on Earth is not as bad as everyone says it is. But I don't know how it beat High Noon, but it did. That's the '50s for you.
Best Part: The thrilling moments at the circus, like when the two trapeze artist compete.
67. Crash (2004)
"And the Oscar goes to," said presenter Jack Nicholson, "Crash." That event certainly made the movie one of the more awkward winners. Now, when I saw Crash and Brokeback Mountain, the film many people believed, and still believe, should have won, I thought Crash was the superior film. So, too, did Roger Ebert, who strongly defended the movie after the backlash. The backlash has not gone away, with Ta-nehisi Coates calling it the "worst movie of the decade."
When I saw it for a third time recently for this list, my feelings had changed. It's difficult to say if Crash is a good movie or a bad movie. It's at least not really the movie it claims to be. Crash tries to promote itself as a movie about love and tolerance, and yet it comes across as the opposite. Virtually every racist stereotype gets a platform here, probably the most noticeable being the Persian immigrant (played by Shaun Toub) who comes across as a violent, gun-wielding hot head. Then of course, there's the most controversial part: the Matt Dillon character, a racist cop who molests black women he pulls over but then gets a redemption arc. Even without all that, the movie, these days at least, seems rather pretentious.
Best Part: The little girl saves her father with her "magic cloak".
66. Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
This story of racial harmony was a feel-good flick in a year of mega-blockbusters. But if the Academy really did want to shower praise on a film about race in the United States, they should have given some big prizes to Do the Right Thing or Glory, two superior movies that don't sugarcoat the issue. At any rate, even though this movie really starts to lose steam after the first act, I liked Driving Miss Daisy a little more than the first time I saw it.
Daisy, played wonderfully by Jessica Tandy (who won for her role here), is a bit on the prejudiced side, even though she won't admit it. She treats her new chauffeur terribly, at least at first. Black folks, no matter what kind of awful behavior they often receive from white folks, frequently are under pressure to bite their tongue and be polite. (Obama and Trump, anyone?) Hoke, the chauffeur, is played by Morgan Freeman, who originated the part Off-Broadway, and Daisy's son is played by Dan Aykroyd, whose Southern accent takes a bit getting used to.
Best Part: Daisy tells Hoke that he's her best friend.
65. Wings (1927)
Wings is about as pro-war a film as Hollywood has ever made. Avoiding the harsh realism of the battlefield, this movie sees war as a playground adventure between overly eager boys. Still, it's certainly more fun to watch than All Quiet on the Western Front, even after nearly a century. Some of the effects are wonderful, and some of them look better than many of the stuff you'd see in films these days.
Charles "Buddy" Rogers ("America's Boy Friend" back then) and Richard Arlen play two hot-shot pilots eager for some action in World War I. Also appearing in one of his early roles is Gary Cooper, as does Clara Bow as a girl with a deep crush on Rogers' character. A reoccurring theme throughout this list (and Hollywood films in general) is the lack of female characters, or at least interesting ones. Bow herself was not necessarily a fan of this hit film, the first to win Best Picture, claiming that it was a "man's picture and I'm just the whipped cream on top of the pie." Unfortunately, Hollywood has not improved very much in this regard.
Best Part: The running shot during the drinking scene which was paid tribute to in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
64. The Artist (2011)
It might surprise you that the only other silent film to win Best Picture was more than eighty years after Wings. This French film is the story of the rise and fall and rise again of a Silent Era superstar, played by Jean Dujardin, who struggles to adapt to the public's embrace of talkies. (Singin' in the Rain did the story better.) He also struggles with jealousy, as an up-and-coming star played by Berenice Bejo starts to overtake him in popularity. The cast also includes veteran actors James Cromwell, Malcolm McDowell, and John Goodman.
It is remarkable that they were able to make a silent movie work in the modern era, but that's kind of also the major problem with The Artist: it feels too much like a gimmick. But I suppose it worked for people. There were other films from around the world at the time that used similar innovation: Son of Saul from Romania featured the camera almost exclusively on one actor, Victoria from Germany was filmed entirely in one take, and The Tribe from Ukraine was completely in Ukrainian Sign Language with no subtitles. But The Artist is the one that everybody saw.
Best Part: Jack the dog, played by Uggie, who probably deserved an Oscar himself.
63. The Last Emperor (1987)
The Last Emperor covers the life and times of Puyi, the final emperor of China, and the tumultuous events in which he lived, such as the birth of the Chinese republic, World War II and Puyi's alliance with the Japanese, and the Communist takeover and his imprisonment. John Lone plays Puyi in his adult life, and Peter O'Toole plays his empathetic, progressive British tutor.
Puyi is portrayed as a man who only got a slight taste of power and wanted it back incredibly, but the cards were never in his favor. Most of his life, it seems he was a prisoner, one whose unique upbringing helps explain his character. If anything, the movie kind of dilates the ruthlessness of the real Puyi. Lone's performance is quite good, but much of the other acting is not. In some respects, it's surprising that the Chinese government allowed Bertolucci and his crew to shoot in the Forbidden City, given that the Chinese communists aren't always portrayed in a positive light in the film. However, just about the only scenes in which Puyi is a likable person is after his "re-education", so in that respect, it makes sense. At any rate, The Last Emperor is sometimes more interesting of a story than a film.
Best Part: The brief shot of a very young Puyi running towards an orange sheet in the Forbidden City.
62. A Beautiful Mind (2001)
This is probably the safest of the safe Best Picture winners, but what can ya do? Directed by American treasure Ron Howard, it is the story of the mathematician John Nash and his life mainly in the 1950s. The first thirty minutes or so (with the painful dialogue given to Jennifer Connelly and the obnoxious acting of Paul Bettany) and the last twenty minutes or so are among the weakest parts of the film. The stuff in the middle, while largely imaginary, is interesting and often moving. Once you re-watch the film and know what the twist is, it's even better, especially as you notice all the clues sprinkled around.
Normally, the Oscar would have been all Russell Crowe's, who plays Nash. But the Academy wasn't willing to give him the Oscar twice in a row, and the Oscar instead went to Denzel Washington for Training Day.
Best Part: John's relationships and struggles with his three unique friends.
61. Going My Way (1944)
I don't think I would say Going My Way is a bad movie, but there isn't much of a plot. Bing Crosby is Father O'Malley, a likable and calm priest who is placed in a church run by an older priest (Father Fitzgibbon, played by Barry Fitzgerald, who won the Oscar for this movie). But that's about as much of a plot as you'll get. O'Malley leads a boy's choir full of teenagers who say words like "Fadduh" and "drop him like a hot potato." (I'm sorry, but I refuse to believe that teenagers have ever talked like this.) And...that's about all that happens.
Well, one fact certainly remains: this movie could not be made today. The perception of Catholic priests has changed too much. But the movie must have worked for the time. Going My Way was the highest-grossing film of 1944, perhaps because a war-weary nation was looking for some old-fashioned entertainment with Crosby's iconic, soothing voice. It was so successful that it led to a popular sequel titled The Bells of St. Mary's.
Best Part: Father O'Malley surprises Father Fitzgibbon with a special visitor.
60. An American in Paris (1951)
If you ever wanted a movie musical set to Gershwin music, this is it. Based on George Gershwin's 1928 composition of the same name (with a variety of other George and Ira Gershwin musical numbers included), it's the story of an American painter played by Gene Kelly. It's a charming movie, especially when Kelly sings "I Got Rhythm" with a group of French children, who act like actual children and not actors.
Kelly's character, though, is not so charming. He goes on a date with a woman about his age, but he shows no interest in her, instead ogling a much younger woman. Despite how clearly the Nina Foch character wants Kelly's character and despite how uninterested Leslie Caron's character is in Kelly's, the movie just doesn't get it. That ending, in particular, is the worst.
Best Part: The Gershwin music.
59. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
With a title like that, it's easy to hate Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). I sure did in 2014, a remarkably weak year for films of all stripes. I mean, I hated it when I first saw it. But some of these films are worse upon a second viewing, and some are better. Birdman is among the latter. I'm not sure if I would say it's a very good film, but it's fairly unique and there's a lot to praise: the Oscar-winning cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki, the cast, that constant drum solo. What's easiest to praise is Michael Keaton; Birdman essentially was the start of his comeback.
Of course, everyone was talking about how similar Keaton is to his character Riggan Thompson, a Hollywood star who was sort of a one-hit superhero wonder. Keaton, however, was able to break away from being Batman, but until recently he didn't have the same prestige. Now, he's on a role, having also starred in the very next year's Best Picture-winner, Spotlight. And then of course he came full-circle by playing the villainous Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming. I have no idea why Keaton didn't win the big prize in 2015, and he looked pretty sad about it. It's a remarkable performance that undoubtedly was the best of the year.
Best Part: Riggan gets locked out of the theater in his underwear and has to make his way through Times Square to get back in.
58. The Hurt Locker (2009)
The Hurt Locker is slightly weaker on a second viewing, mainly because it's sort of a one-note film. The opening establishes it as a hyper-tense film right from the beginning, but it doesn't let up. Focusing mainly on three soldiers in Iraq, the film stars Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, and Brian Geraghty when they were in the earlier part of their careers, and they all deliver stellar performances. Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce, David Morse, and Evangeline Lilly also briefly appear.
The Hurt Locker was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, who became the first (and so far only) woman to win Best Director. (Her main competitor was her ex-husband, James Cameron, for Avatar.) She deserved the award for painstakingly trying to convey the tension of these characters, and for the realism, filming in neighboring Jordan near the border with Iraq and hiring Iraqi refugees as extras. So I'm not trying to say that I didn't like it, but it's not the same as the first time around.
Best Part: Jeremy Renner's character tries to defuse a bomb strapped to a man.
57. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
The Best Years of Our Lives is the story of three World War II veterans and their re-adjusting to home. The veterans are played by Frederic March, Dana Andrews, and non-actor Harold Russell. Russell was an actual World War II veteran, which explains his arms. He was awarded an Honorary Oscar by the Academy, and he also won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Director William Wyler won his second Oscar.
It's not quite as much of a tear-jerker as its competitor, It's a Wonderful Life, which has had a much long legacy. But The Best Years of Our Lives mostly works on an emotional level. It's a bit long-winded, and the love story between the character played by Andrews and the character played by Teresa Wright doesn't work, but the one between Russell as Homer and Cathy O'Donnell as Wilma works much better.
Best Part: The best performance is of Myrna Loy, but the one you'll never forget is Harold Russell. All the best scenes have him in it.
56. The French Connection (1971)
Gene Hackman's portrayal of an aggressive, fearless, racist cop named Popeye Doyle earned him his first Oscar. The French Connection is better the second time around, but viewers should be aware that the film was probably much more exciting in 1971 than these days, as countless cop movies and chase scenes have stolen from it.
Roy Scheider plays Hackman's partner, and Eddie Egan, a detective who served as the real-life inspiration for the Popeye character, plays the police chief. It's an interesting detective flick with a powerful, slightly ambiguous ending. A sequel followed four years later, with Hackman reprising his role.
Best Part: The cat-and-mouse chase in the subway, especially when the villain (Fernando Rey) smugly waves goodbye as the train drives away.
55. Grand Hotel (1932)
Grand Hotel was basically the birth of all-star movies. This one features many of MGM's top stars at the time: Greta Garbo, Lionel Barrymore, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, and Wallace Beery. Garbo's famous line "I want to be alone" comes from this movie.Based on the German novel and later the play that was produced by MGM, Grand Hotel is a mostly pleasant film (albeit one that might make modern audiences sleepy), but it's also sometimes a dark film. The characters of the Russian ballerina going through a crisis and Mr. Kringelein, played by Garbo and Lionel Barrymore, respectively, are examples of the film's exploration of mental health.
Best Part: Lionel Barrymore's acting.
54. Patton (1970)
If you're a hawk who thinks the country has become a bunch of wusses, then Patton is for you. Patton is essentially the last pro-war movie Hollywood ever made, one that embraces the great man theory of history. Speaking of history, General George S. Patton (George C. Scott) sees himself as someone who has been re-incarnated and fought in battles of antiquity; the Nazis in the film even call him a 16th-century man.
The film details Patton's campaigns across Africa and Europe during World War II. He is joined mostly by Karl Malden as General Omar Bradley. The filmmakers (including Francis Ford Coppola, who co-wrote the screenplay and won his first Oscar) aren't shy about showing the less pleasant facts about the man, like the "slapping incident" and putting his men at increased risk. All of these make him less sympathetic. Also, the movie after the intermission starts to become monotonous. Scott's performance is iconic, and it earned him Best Actor, an award he famously refused because he didn't think actors should compete against each other. But his performance sometimes looks like it's a slightly more realistic performance of practically the same role in Dr. Strangelove.
Best Part: The Jerry Goldsmith score.
53. The Sting (1973)
The Sting is a fun movie that is often quite boring. And safe. Look to 1974, when The Sting, a movie practically nobody remembers, beat The Exorcist, a film people watch and re-watch frequently, as evidence that the Academy almost always picks the wrong movie for Best Picture. But The Sting's embrace of the old-fashioned and its frequent use of the Joplin piece "The Entertainer" and other ragtime music must have been just the trick.
Taking place in 1936 Chicago, Paul Newman and Robert Redford, stars of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, reunite with director George Roy Hill for a story about two con artists pulling the con of the century on a cruel mob boss played by Robert Shaw. The conning scenes are loads of fun, and they'll teach you to never, ever trust anyone.
Best Part: The poker scene.
52. Rocky (1976)
Rocky, the famous underdog boxing movie, is still spawning sequels, with the most recent being released last year. Rocky might not be the best in the series; that honor probably goes to Creed, the 2015 reboot directed by Ryan Coogler. It doesn't have the most memorable music moment (that's Rocky III). As cool as Carl Weathers' portrayal of rival Apollo Creed is, I wouldn't say he's the most memorable antagonist (Mr. T as Clubber Lang or Hulk Hogan as Thunderlips in Rocky III? Drago in Rocky IV?). But Rocky is still the one that seems to speak to the most people, probably because of the rags-to-riches story. Indeed, Rocky was up against some heavy hitters that happened to be more pessimistic (and arguably better), like Network, All the President's Men, and Taxi Driver. Yet this was the U.S.'s bicentennial, just after Vietnam and Watergate, so maybe the nation craved something more upbeat.
Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone, who also wrote the screenplay) is a local boxer without much luck. The gym owner, Mickey (played by Burgess Meredith), thinks he's a bum. Rocky can't find a girlfriend. And his low income comes from his work as the enforcer for a loan shark played by Joe Spinelli, who played Willie Cicci in The Godfather films. His best friend Paulie (Burt Young) is kind of a jerk. But Rocky is a fighter and a person most people like. But I would argue that Adrian (Talia Shire) doesn't like him, as she frequently tells Rocky she does not want to come inside with him. Once there, she tells him three times that she wants to go. He insists she stays and forces himself on her. Romance, 1970s style.
Best Part: The Rocky theme, especially the part everyone forgets, when the trumpets reach the higher notes.
51. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
Viewers might be a bit shocked these days to learn that Kramer vs. Kramer beat Apocalypse Now at the 1980 Oscars, but that it did (probably due to Coppola fatigue). It's also surprising that the filmmakers managed to make Dustin Hoffman look so likable and sympathetic, especially given all the stories of how he misbehaved (to say the least) towards his co-star Meryl Streep.
The scenes of father and son mostly work, but this is also a movie that tells the divorce of a couple and the fight over custody of their child almost entirely from the husband's perspective. Streep's character comes across as irresponsible at best and unstable at worst. My other lasting thought about the film is that its message might be that it's best not to have any children at all. Indeed, Hoffman's Kramer as a father is a lesson in switching from permissiveness to authoritarianism and how bad that can be. "I'm warning you," he says, before exploding because his son (played by Justin Henry) eats the ice cream anyway.
Kramer vs. Kramer isn't bad, I guess, but did I mention that it beat Apocalypse Now?!
Best Part: Some might find this scene to be wrong, but the scene when Jobeth Williams walks into the hallway and stumbles upon young Justin Henry is humorous. I thought the film used "movie magic" to splice together two scenes so that they were not there at the same time. I was wrong.
50. Annie Hall (1977)
This is probably Woody Allen's most famous film, a story of the ups and downs of his relationship with a woman named Annie Hall. Annie is played by Diane Keaton, who won the Oscar for her performance. Allen also won the Oscars for directing and screenwriting. A lot of the quips (like his teasing Annie that they can walk to the curb after her bad parking) have aged well; many others are very Allen-esque, so that's either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your position.
Annie Hall beat Star Wars in 1978 because the former is a romantic comedy by Woody Allen and the latter is a sci-fi fantasy by George Lucas. Whether or not you agree that the Academy awarded the right film in this case, I think most would say that Annie Hall itself is pleasant, innovative, charming, but simply not as culturally important as Star Wars. The Academy has always loved Allen; he has won four Academy Awards. Even after the very serious allegations in 1992 against him of sexually assaulting his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow, he was still able to win Oscars. All of these allegations make some of his lines (like that politicians are "a notch under a child molester") more awkward.
Best Part: The scene with Christopher Walken as Annie's brother, who fantasizes about crashing cars, giving birth to decades of Walken quirkiness.
49. From Here to Eternity (1953)
What a cast: Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed, Frank Sinatra, Ernest Borgnine, and others. And they're all playing rather interesting characters, even if the movie at times is quite boring. Lancaster plays a sergeant who starts to have an affair with his superior's wife (played by Kerr). Clift plays a private who is being harassed by the unit's captain because he won't join the boxing team; he starts to fall for a prostitute (played by Reed). Sinatra plays his buddy, and Borgnine is a foul-mouthed staff sergeant who really hates Sinatra's character. Sinatra's drunk scenes are a bit much, but at any rate, he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
The film is probably best known these days for the famous beach scene where Lancaster and Kerr make out on the sand. But there are other things that are more interesting. Reed's performance, so unlike her most famous role in It's a Wonderful Life, is terrific. The violent feuding between the characters played by Sinatra and Borgnine is also great (and frightening) to watch. And if you want to really study how acting starting to change in the 1950s, you can observe Clift's performance here. But yeah, the movie is often pretty dull.
Best Part: Donna Reed.
48. Gone With the Wind (1939)
Gone With the Wind has not aged so well. I don't necessarily mean in the past 80 years, I mean in the past 10. I loved this movie as a kid, a time when I was far more ignorant about the racist stereotypes from start to end and the fact that this movie is dripping in Lost Cause mythology. It's a romantic film that heavily romanticizes one of the U.S.'s worst sins. Instead of a truthful history of the horrors of the era, we are given a four-hour homage to a "land of cavaliers and cotton fields in the Old South" and a "dream remembered."
A lot of this movie has stood the test of time: the Max Steiner score, the production value and cinematography, the love-triangle story, the performances (namely Vivian Leigh, Clark Gable, and Olivia de Havilland). Gable's Rhett Butler is what helped make him the King of Hollywood (even if the character is rather creepy and detestable.) The escape from a burning Atlanta is exciting, and the amputation scene in the hospital is potent. And I guess for what it's worth, its racism is less overt than say The Birth of a Nation, the 1915 epic that spawned the second wave of the Ku Klux Klan. But even if you think the racism in the movie should be ignored or forgiven, then surely the four-hour length will turn you off.
Best Part: "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."
47. How Green Was My Valley (1941)
I think a lot of people hate this film because it beat Citizen Kane and The Maltese Falcon for Best Picture. But How Green Was My Valley is a very pleasant, albeit sometimes taxing, film. Starring an adorable Roddy McDowall as a young Welsh boy in a family of coal miners, the film details the family struggles as victims of gossip, bullying, and economic difficulties.
There's a lot of moving moments in the movie, especially around young Huw, the McDowall character. His scenes with his mother (Sara Allgood), his father (Donald Crisp, who appears in several of the films on this list), the village preacher (Walter Pidgeon), and his older sister (Maureen O'Hara) are quite good. For his role in How Green Was My Valley, Crisp won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Best Part: The family dynamics.
46. Gladiator (2000)
Gladiator is kind of a dumb, but also a very enjoyable, movie. It stars Russell Crowe as a general for ancient Rome named Maximus Decimus Meridius. He's sort of a son to the emperor, Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris). That means that the actual son of the emperor, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) is quite jealous, so he kills the emperor and takes over. (That never happened, by the way.) Gladiator also features Connie Nielsen, Derek Jacobi, Djimon Hounsou, David Hemmings, and Oliver Reed in his final role.
The dialogue scenes are predictably uninspiring, but the action scenes are top notch, with visual effects that still look very convincing. And it makes for a fun revenge story. Gladiator won for Best Picture and Best Actor, but it's hard to see why the Academy didn't also give Best Director to Ridley Scott. If they weren't going to give him the top prize for Gladiator, they aren't going to give it to him for anything.
Best Part: The first big gladiator battle in Rome, especially with the Hans Zimmer score.
45. Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Mrs. Miniver is basically the film version of the British attitude of "keep calm and carry on". Greer Garson plays the title role, the matriarch of a middle-class English family at the dawn of the Second World War. Mrs. Miniver is a kind, compassionate, strong, and resilient woman. Walter Pidgeon plays the husband, and yet predictably speaks with a North American accent. Also appearing are Teresa Wright, Richard Ney, Henry Travers, and young Christopher Severn and Clare Sandars as the two sweet Miniver children.
Garson's acting is some of the best of any movie on this list, and she won an Oscar for it. So, too, did director William Wyler. Wyler, one of Hollywood's most legendary directors, helped a total of 36 of his performers win Oscars, a record. Mrs. Miniver led to a sequel, with both Garson and Pidgeon returning, but it turned out to be a costly flop.
Best Part: Garson's performance.
44. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
Was Clark Gable so much the King of Hollywood that no one told him he should probably have an English accent? He has that Gable presence, but his acting is no match for Charles Laughton as Captain Bligh, one of the great cinematic performances of all time. He's described as an excellent sailor but a snake of a man, constantly brutal to his men (though historically speaking, his treatment was benign compared to most other officers). But as far as the portrayal in film, it's a classic lesson in fear not being the same as respect.
This is a good, old-fashioned adventure story set in gorgeous locations (if you can ignore the fact that the film makes no mention of enslaving local people).
Best Part: "You mutinous dog!"
43. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
In the Heat of the Night is a fun murder mystery and detective story based on John Ball's novel of a black Philadelphia-based cop who is asked to assist a local white police chief solve a murder. The problem is the murder took place in the Deep South (Mississippi, to be exact), and Virgil Tibbs, the Philadelphia detective, is not exactly a welcomed figure. Tibbs is played by Sydney Poitier, and the police chief, a good ol' boy sheriff named Gillespie, is played by Rod Steiger. They make an interesting team.
In terms of acting, it's a little more complicated. Steiger's obnoxious gum chewing takes a bit getting used to, and sometimes it's as if he's competing with Poitier to see who could overact more. Also appearing are Warren Oates and Scott Wilson in his first role. Harry Dean Stanton appears uncredited as a policeman. Steiger won for Best Actor. In the Heat of the Night spawned two sequels with Poitier returning, as well as seven seasons of a TV series with Howard Rollins replacing Poitier.
Best Part: "They call me Mr. Tibbs!"
42. Oliver (1968)
I'm sure many people are dumbfounded that a movie like Oliver! is above movies like Gone With the Wind and From Here to Eternity. I would say that Oliver! is less problematic and frustrating than Gone With the Wind, and it's more enjoyable than From Here to Eternity. Based on the English musical that was an adaptation of Oliver Twist, it came over to Broadway (where a pre-Monkees Davy Jones played Dodger), and it was adapted for the screen in 1968.
Many of the songs, like "It's a Fine Life", aren't stupendous, but some (like "I'd Do Anything") are much better. The kids are adorable, especially Mark Lester in the title role (with Kathe Green providing the singing voice) and Jack Wild as Dodger. Wild was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, as was Ron Moody as Fagin. Finally, Oliver Reed is a frightening villain.
Best Performance: Moody's performance as Fagin, especially him singing "Reviewing the Situation".
41. Marty (1955)
Marty stars Ernest Borgnine in an Oscar-winning performance as the title character, a butcher who lives with his mother (Esther Minciotti), who's constantly pressuring him to get married. Marty would love to date women and eventually marry, but he doesn't have much luck. He comes to the realization that he likely is to be without a mate for the rest of his life. However, he meets a pretty woman (who everyone says is ugly, making it the least believable part of the film), and they have a successful date. This lady is played by Betsy Blair, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Marty isn't as memorable as many films here, but it's a low-stakes, fairly relatable movie that is enduring even today.
Best Part: That in the age of Brando and Elvis, Borgnine's Marty is a man who admits to crying and stands in stark contrast to the terrible way many men discuss women in this movie (and in real life).
40. You Can't Take It With You (1938)
For starters, this movie has sort of a special place in my heart, because I played Grandpa Vanderhof, Lionel Barrymore's role, in high school. So now that that's out of the way, You Can't Take It With You is still a charming movie, even if it drags from time to time. It's the story of two rival families from different classes; the daughter from the poorer one (played by Jean Arthur) is in love with the son from the richer one (played by Jimmy Stewart).
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| See! Me as Grandpa Vanderhof in our high school's production of You Can't Take It With You. |
Best Part: The fancy dinner scene, in which Stewart teases Arthur before she lets out a loud scream; he tells the waiter there was a mouse.
39. A Man For All Seasons (1966)
A Man For All Seasons feels very old-fashioned, even for its time, but in the very best of ways. The costume drama is based on Robert Bolt's play about Sir Thomas More, the deeply devout Catholic whose convictions found him on the receiving end of the wrath of King Henry VIII. More is played by Paul Scofield, who won the Tony from the Broadway version and also the Oscar for the adaptation. Henry VIII is played by Robert Shaw. Like many of the films of this list (or perhaps most), the first half is better than the second half, although the trial scene, where More still refuses to relent, is a highlight.
Bolt's adaptation of his play has exceptional dialogue, and the terrific cast also includes John Hurt as Richard Rich and Orson Welles as Cardinal Wolsey, as well as Wendy Hiller and Susannah York. The best performance other than Scofield's is Leo McKern as More's main adversary, Thomas Cromwell. Director Fred Zinneman, who also directed High Noon and From Here to Eternity, won for Best Director.
Best Part: Scofield's acting.
38. Shakespeare in Love (1998)
With that beautiful music by Stephen Warbeck, and Geoffrey Rush as Philip Henslowe with his feat forcibly in fire, this lovely romantic comedy gets started. Rush has never been funnier, with his facial expressions and voice moving in all sorts of directions. With its leads of Gwyneth Paltrow (who won Best Actress) and Joseph Fiennes as William Shakespeare writing Romeo and Juliet, the film's supporting cast includes Tom Wilkinson, Colin Firth, Rupert Everett, Ben Affleck, Imelda Staunton, Simon Callow, Jim Carter, and Judi Dench, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress as Queen Elizabeth.
Shakespeare in Love is not exactly historically accurate, but unlike the other historically inaccurate movies on this list, it doesn't care. If you're willing to ignore that, and if you're willing to ignore the sometimes obnoxious similarities to the famous play (with one far-fetched moment after another), you should mostly enjoy it. Beware though: despite its pleasant opening and conclusion, there's a lot of boring stuff in the middle. But with its elaborate sets and gorgeous costumes, it's certainly a neat film.
However, there is an elephant in the room. By elephant, I mean one who also is a rapist. This is the movie that Harvey Weinstein won an Oscar for. Weinstein reportedly harassed Paltrow (one of about 80 on record), and his campaign to win the top award over the Saving Private Ryan, the movie most believe (then and now) should have gone to, is notorious, giving birth to the aggressive political campaigns to win Oscars.
Best Part: Paltrow's performance.
37. Braveheart (1995)
This peak-Mel Gibson movie (about a decade before his fall from grace) is certainly not a bad movie, but it's cheesy and incredibly inaccurate. It's also a war film unlike practically any other. Starring Gibson, who also produced and directed it, Braveheart stars Sophia Marceau, Angus Macfadyen, Catherine McCormack, Brendan Gleeson, James Cosmo, Alan Armstrong, and Brian Cox. But it is Patrick McGoohan's role as King Edward that is the most memorable. He makes it all look so easy, although the villainous role is often a bit too old-fashioned. Braveheart also has enormous historical inaccuracies in this film, like how Isabella never met Wallace, Gibson's goofy accent, and many more. (Author John O'Farrell once quipped that the movie couldn't have been more inaccurate even if its title had been "William Wallace and Gromit".) This alone likely should have cost Gibson and his team Best Picture. (Babe, frankly, is better.)
But the film is grand and defensible. Love Gibson or hate him, Braveheart features lots of graphic violence that you would expect from a movie with him, and the makeup affects look incredible. As an eight-year-old watching this, it was particularly believable. When Gibson as William Wallace, the Scottish independence warrior, cuts open the throat of an English officer, the Oscar-winning makeup effects were beyond convincing. I asked my father how they did that. He told me that when movies do that, they find people who do not want to go on living anymore, and these people give their lives for the movie. The explanation left me terribly depressed.
Best Part: The Battle of Sterling Bridge, one of the most epic war scenes in cinema.
36. Rebecca (1940)
This atmospheric gothic film is the only motion picture directed by Alfred Hitchcock to win Best Picture. Joan Fontaine is perfect in the film. We first see her as a paid companion (I guess those kinds of jobs once existed), but she meets a wealthy widower named Maxim de Winter (Laurence Olivier), still in mourning over the death of his wife, Rebecca de Winter. The two fall in love, and in no time she becomes the new Mrs. de Winter. However, Mrs. de Winter is in for a rough adjustment. A fish out of water, she struggles to become accepted by Maxim's snobbish friends. The cinematic king of snobs, George Sanders, also appears, and his character knows that there's something fishy about the situation.
But the biggest problem for Mrs. de Winter, at least at first, is the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers. Judith Anderson gives the role a haunting eeriness few have achieved since. Rebecca's presence is everywhere, making the film almost feel like a ghost movie, and this is especially so because of Mrs. Danvers; it's highly suggested that she was obsessed with Rebecca. It might not be as well-known as Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho, or The Birds, but there are several twists and turns throughout, as you might expect in a film directed by Hitchcock, making it very memorable.
Best Part: Mrs. Danvers tries to tempt Mrs. de Winter. "Why don't you? Why don't you?" she taunts. "Go on. Don't be afraid."
35. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)
The gang's all back for one final (sort of) adventure to destroy the ring and Sauron once and for all. Frodo (Elijah Wood), Sam (Sean Astin), and Gollum (Andy Serkis) struggle to destroy the ring, while Gandalf (Ian McKellen), Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen), Gimli (Jonathan Rhys-Davies), Legolas (Orlando Bloom), and others gather armies to fight a bunch of Orcs.
This movie, the third in the hugely successful trilogy, certainly lays the cheesiness on pretty thick, with names and dialogue that undoubtedly will make your eyes roll. That being said, it is as exciting and as epic and as beautiful as any film you'll find on this list, with a lot of effort made to get everything right. Some things are not right, however. Christopher Lee as Saruman is only mentioned, not seen (at least in the theatrical version). Nobody likes Legolas sliding down the trunk of a giant elephant. And the movie goes on and on, with one long, boring battle scene after the other. And that ending! 20-30 minutes could have easily been chopped off.
It might have won simply so the Academy could point to it as proof that they don't just pick boring dramas nobody watches. But Return of the King is certainly worth the watch (if you can spare lots of time).
Best Part: Gollum's trap for Frodo.
34. All About Eve (1950)
All About Eve, written for the screen and directed by Joseph Mankiewicz, has some of the sharpest dialogue around, and we're all privy to it from the very beginning. In the opening, we basically get an intro to all the characters, namely Margot Channing, a theater actress played by Bette Davis, and Eve Harrington, another actress played by Anne Baxter. They're both caught up in a story of bitter rivalry, ambition, and jealousy.Other actors appearing are Celeste Holm, Gary Merrill, Hugh Marlowe, Thelma Ritter, George Sanders, and Marilyn Monroe in one of her first movies. Sanders' role as the supercilious theater critic Addison DeWitt is a performance that earned him the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. It is he who has most of the delicious lines, and you might need to take notes as you listen, for it can be exhausting keeping up. As mentioned, the screenplay is a highlight, especially the fight between Margot and her director. But the scenes with Eve are the most interesting, especially as she climbs the ladder, stepping on Margot all the way up.
Best Part: "Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy night."
33. It Happened One Night (1934)
The first of three movies to win the big five for Best Picture, Director, Actress, Actor, and Screenplay (the other two being One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Silence of the Lambs), It Happened One Night is the romantic tale of a runaway heiress and the journalist trying to nab her story. Claudette Colbert is the heiress, desperate to marry a man her banker father despises. Clark Gable is the journalist who happens to be on the same bus as her, becomes annoyed at her antics, discovers who she is, tries to get her story, and the finds himself falling for her, despite her spoiled personality.
Some of the lines are still a bit funny, or at least smirkable, especially as a drunk Gable argues with the bus driver in the beginning. But while the two leads have chemistry, their partnership seems more creepy than romantic. Gable even eerily sings "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" to Colbert as she falls asleep. Gable's acting, in addition, grows a bit obnoxious as the movie goes on, although Colbert is basically spot on from start to finish. Still, it's a movie that has a better first half than second.
Best Part: With all due respect to the iconic (and still humorous) hitchhiking scene, the most charming scene is the singalong on the bus to "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze."
32. Platoon (1986)
Charlie Sheen followed in his father's cinematic footsteps by starring in a renowned film about the Vietnam War. Set in 1967 and written and directed by Oliver Stone, who partly based the story on his own experiences in Vietnam, Platoon stars Sheen as Chris, a young volunteer for the war. He is caught between two rivaling superiors: Staff Sergeant Barnes (Tom Berenger) and Sergeant Elias (Willem Dafoe). The narration by Chris is unnecessary and the weakest part of the film, but the acting is great. Berenger's performance, in particular, is exceptional. The other cast members include early performances by Keith David, Forest Whitaker, Kevin Dillon, John C. McGinley, Mark Moses, and others.
In a post-Deer Hunter, post-Apocalypse Now landscape, Platoon was able to distinguish itself. The massacre of the village, which seems to be an allegory for the My Lai massacre, is the most powerful moment. This was the first part of a trilogy of Vietnam War films for Stone (with Born on the Fourth of July and Heaven & Earth following), and it helped him transition from being a screenwriter to being an American director and household name.
Best Part: Berenger's performance.
31. The Shape of Water (2017)
The Shape of Water is a tale that essentially is The Creature from the Black Lagoon but turned upside down. It centers on a mute custodian, played by Sally Hawkins. She works the night shift cleaning a government lab, and at home basically has the same daily routine of boiling eggs, brushing her shoes, and masturbating in the bathtub. Things change rapidly when she starts to fall in love with a creature kept at the lab that appears to be half-man and half-fish. He is played by Doug Jones (not the senator from Alabama). Jones is a frequent collaborator of director Guillermo del Toro, who won Best Director for this film.
Hawkins is quite good, as she usually is, though the role should have gone to someone who actually is mute. She is supported by Octavia Spencer, who is terrific as always, and Richard Jenkins, who sometimes is adequate in this role and at other times overacts but pretends it's a less-is-more approach. Michael Stuhlbarg appears as a scientist; he also appeared that year in Call Me By Your Name and The Post, both of which were nominated for Best Picture. Then there is Michael Shannon in the villainous role, the officer who captured the Amphibian Man and tortures him in the lab. Everyone likes Shannon, but he is yet again playing the same character he almost always plays.
The Shape of Water has a concept that probably works better on paper than in film. Still, if you're willing to buy the romance in Beauty and the Beast, you likely will here as well. You'll certainly feel sorry for the Amphibian Man as he's beaten repeatedly and chained up in the lab. The film has numerous moments of excitement, particularly as it progresses.
Best Part: The climax. It may be a little old-fashioned with copious amounts of rain, but it works.
30. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
This movie was quite controversial at the time due to its content. In fact, it is the only Best Picture winner to have earned the X rating from the MPAA censorship board. It's the story of a prostitute from Texas who is a bit too nice and naive for New York, his new home, at a time when New York was much scarier. The prostitute, Joe Buck, is played by Jon Voight. He runs into a struggling con man named Enrico Rizzo, who is dismissively called Ratso. Rizzo is played by Dustin Hoffman.
Voight and Hoffman both kind of overdo it occasionally, but they are iconic performances. Hoffman's line "I'm walkin' here! I'm walkin' here!", which many have said was improvised, is one of cinema's most memorable. The bravery of director John Schlesinger (who won Best Director) and his team deserves to be appreciated. The trippy party scene in particular is quite something. In many ways, Midnight Cowboy seems like it defines the 1960s.
Best Part: The song "Everybody's Talkin'", written by Fred Neil and sung by Harry Nilsson.
29. Spotlight (2015)
Remember when I said Going My Way couldn't be made today? It's mainly because of events depicted in Spotlight. Spotlight is about a group of Boston Globe journalists and editors (played by Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Brian d'Arcy James, Liev Schreiber, and John Slattery) who uncovered not only the widespread abuse of young children by Catholic priests, but the cover-up by the Church. Directed by Tom McCarthy (who famously played a journalist in the final season of The Wire), the cast also features Stanley Tucci, Billy Crudup, and Richard Jenkins.
2015 was not exactly the strongest year for movies. Spotlight's main competition at the Oscars was The Revenant, which is the more "Oscar-y" of the two choices. But Spotlight is a finer film. Spotlight certainly does realism better than most movies on this list, and the dialogue is fantastic, especially when Tucci as a lawyer representing abuse victims says that "if it takes a village to raise a child, then it takes a village to abuse one."
Best Part: The most powerful moment is just before the end credits, when a seemingly unending list of cities around the world where children have been abused by priests appears.
28. Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Million Dollar Baby is one of the grittiest and most depressing movies on this list. Clint Eastwood produced, directed, and starred in it (as he often does). He plays Frankie, a boxing coach with little patience and basically no connection with his family. He goes to church every day, although it seems like it's just to troll the priest. His boxing gym is cleaned by Eddie (Morgan Freeman), who once was a rising boxer himself. One day, a young woman from Missouri named Maggie (Hillary Swank) shows up and starts using the gym, frequently asking Frankie to train her. He refuses, before filing giving in.
Critics were quick to praise Eastwood's directing. I don't think his acting gets enough praise. It's a moving performance. So too are those of Swank and Freeman, who both won for their performances. (Eastwood won Oscars for producing and directing the film). It's a powerful work of art.
Best Part: The big fight between Maggie and the Blue Bear is well shot, powerful, and sad.
27. The Departed (2006)
The rare Scorsese-directed gangster flick that takes place in Boston and not New York, this Hollywood remake of the Hong Kong film Internal Affairs hasn't aged as well as Goodfellas, but it is an enjoyable ride that finally won Martin Scorsese an Academy Award. The Departed is about two "rats" -- one a cop (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) infiltrating the mob and the other (played by Matt Damon) who is the exact opposite. The gangster one of them is after and the other is protecting is played by Jack Nicholson, in a role loosely based on Whitey Bulger. It's certainly great casting, with DiCaprio, Damon, and Nicholson being joined by Martin Sheen and Mark Wahlberg as the heads of the investigative unit supervising DiCaprio's character. They're all joined by Ray Winstone, Vera Farmiga, Anthony Anderson, and Alec Baldwin.
Best Part: Queenan (Sheen) and Dignam (Wahlberg) catching Costello slightly by surprise at the harbor. After an almost friendly banter back and forth, Queenan finally tells Costello that he's going to catch him. "If you coulda," Costello taunts, "you woulda." And then he walks away.
26. Moonlight (2016)
Moonlight is the simple yet powerful story of a black gay man and his painful coming of age. It stars Alex Hibbert as a young boy named Chiron (often called "Little"), Ashton Sanders as a teenage Chiron (often called "Black"), and Trevante Rhodes as an adult Chiron. Chiron struggles with his identity as a gay person in Florida surrounded by homophobia. He even faces it from his drug-addicted mother, Paula (played by Naomi Harris), who is not exactly mother of the year. He has parental figures in Juan (played by Mahershala Ali, who won the Oscar) and Janelle Monae, the queen of pop who was also in 2016's Hidden Figures.
Audiences will likely be smart enough to recognize the complexities of characters like Juan or Paula. In a list of grand epics with huge budgets, this is a quiet, calm movie. Yet it's also a painful one. Despite its top quality, each of the film's three acts gets a little less interesting. But it is a remarkable film, nevertheless.
I promised myself I wouldn't discuss the famous or infamous Oscar mishap in which presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway were given the wrong envelope and everyone thought La La Land had won, but tell it I shall. I was living in China at the time, so it was in the early afternoon and my friends were waiting for me while the show was concluding. By the time we got to Best Actress (the second-last award), I knew La La Land was going to win Best Picture, as the entire evening had been boringly predictable up until that point. So I left without seeing the final prize. When I saw my friends, they asked me if there were any surprises. I said no, that it had been the most predictable Oscars ever. As much as that anecdote lends itself to a neat story, I would much rather have seen it live.
Best Part: The moving, depressing scene where Juan and Chiron talk about what a "faggot" is.
25. Argo (2011)
Detailing the extraordinary rescue of six embassy workers in Iran using the guise of a Hollywood science fiction film, Argo starts like a tense docdrama, detailing the storming of the U.S. embassy in Tehran. After the government fails to come up with a plan to get them out, CIA operative Tony Mendez (played by the director and producer of the film, Ben Affleck), comes up with an idea to pretend to be a film production scouting locations for a sci-fi flick. And suddenly the movie becomes a witty comedy. John Goodman and Alan Arkin, in particular, are hysterical as the make-up effects guru and the movie mogul involved in the scheme, with Arkin insisting that if he's going to do a fake movie, it's going to be a fake hit.
Best Part: Arkin as the producer being hounded by an inquisitive reporter who wants to know why the movie is called Argo. After trying fake explanations, he finally yells, "Argo-fuck yourself!"
24. The King's Speech (2010)
I might be the only person who thinks The King's Speech is better than The Social Network, though I think David Fincher deserved the Best Director award for the latter. The King's Speech was certainly an establishment choice over The Social Network. It may be yet another safe pick for the top prizes, but it is still a remarkable and memorable film, especially Colin Firth's Oscar-winning role as King George VI, struggling to overcome his stammer as he has to help lead his county through World War II after his brother (played by Guy Pearce) abdicates. Firth is matched with exceptional acting by his co-stars Geoffrey Rush as the speech therapist and Helena Bonham Carter as Queen Elizabeth.
The King's Speech is an especially important movie because before The King's Speech (and sometimes after), people who stuttered were most likely seen as a joke in film (like in Best Picture-winning films Cimarron and The Broadway Melody, and the comedy A Fish Called Wanda). There has been a lot of talk recently about how representation in media and pop culture matter so much, and this film, one that shows that even kings have stuttered, is part of that broad movement.
23. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Several controversies (mainly the concern that the child actors were exploited and the movie embraced a fetishized "poverty porn" version of India the West is used to) almost derailed the Oscar success of this Danny Boyle-directed film. And the movie was lucky that this was the year the Academy felt comic book movies (like The Dark Knight) and animated films (like WALL-E) weren't worthy of such prizes. If one can put those issues aside, one will still be entertained by this embrace of rags-to-riches excitement.
For starters, Slumdog Millionaire has the benefit of utilizing the music and format of the universal game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? The award-winning songs and score by A.R. Rahman only give it more adrenaline. The nine actors portraying the three main characters (Dev Patel, Ayush Mahesh Khedekar, and Tanay Chheda as Jamal; Freida Pinto, Rubina Ali, and Tanvi Ganesh Lonkar as Latika; and Madhur Mittal, Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, and Ashutosh Lobo Gajiwala as Salim) all give fantastic performances. And Boyle and his team bring an exciting urgency to the editing and pace of the movie.
Best Part: It's cheesy as hell, but it's absolutely wonderful when Latika finally answers the phone while Jamal is on the final question of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Chicago, adapted from the Broadway show and directed by Rob Marshall, is the story of two Jazz Age singers (one a big star and one aspiring to be) both in jail accused of murder. Marhsall has since had mixed success outside of the genre (with Memoirs of a Geisha being balanced by Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides). He also directed the adaptation of Into the Woods and last year's Mary Poppins Returns.
Chicago stars actors who (to my knowledge) never sang on screen before: Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere, and John C. Reilly. Marshall has said that he prefers to direct actors who can sing as opposed to singers who can act. (I'm not sure what the difference is, but I'm glad it works for him.) Every one of their musical numbers is great, though the best might be Queen Latifa's number, "One for Mamma". Latifa was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, but lost to her co-star, Zeta-Jones. (Zellweger and Reilly were also nominated, and everyone was stunned when Gere, as the lawyer Billy Flynn, was not nominated. "Welcome to my world," Oscar host Steve Martin teased him that year.) Also appearing are Lucy Liu, Taye Diggs, Christine Baranski, and Dominic West. For the most part, they all play detestable people.
Best Part: The opening number, the best opening of any movie musical.
21. West Side Story (1961)
Based on the Broadway musical by Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim, and loosely inspired by Romeo and Juliet, West Side Story has tremendous, unforgettable music and so-so acting. Natalie Wood does not provide her own singing (Marni Nixon does the singing, as she did for many movie musicals), nor does Richard Beymer (Jimmy Bryant does that). (At least we were spared having to watch Elvis Presley play Tony). And it's awkward watching adults play teenagers. It's especially difficult watching white actors play Latino characters. (The upcoming remake to be directed by Steven Spielberg will feature Puerto Rican teenagers.) Thus, West Side Story is basically the musical version of Love Actually: a deeply enjoyable movie filled with lots of problems.
Even if you don't like the cheesiness of it all, you have to at least concede that the music is fantastic. And in some cases, it's even better than the theatrical version. The songs "Gee, Officer Krupke" and "I Feel Pretty" were switched to before the rumble, because it's really bizarre to have them be after it. The only negative result of that is the movie really starts to wane as it inches towards its conclusion. The final moments of the musical also become increasingly absurd. It makes zero sense (zer-o) that Maria (Wood) stays with Tony (Beymer). I know it sounds like I don't like West Side Story, but trust me, I do.
Best Part: The school dance, the most energetic part of the movie.
20. Titanic (1997)
One of the great epics of all time that everyone thought would be a gigantic flop, Titanic is one for the ages. It has two sins (its dreadful script and the fact that it's profiting from a terrible tragedy). If you're willing to forgive the film for that and a few other things, you will like it. From the very beginning, with archival footage of the ship departing Europe and haunting scenes of actual footage from the "ghost ship", you will likely have goosebumps.
James Cameron is a better director than screenwriter. His script has real issues, namely the "I'm flying, Jack" stuff. The chief stupid moment is Rose (Kate Winslet) jumping off the lifeboat back onto the sinking ship to be reunited with Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio), and then her fiance (Billy Zane) starts shooting at them. But Cameron's use of class issues to really drive home the tragedy of the sinking are appreciated. The production design by Peter Lamont and the visual effects by Rob Legato are incredible. For directing, co-producing, and co-editing the film, Cameron won three Oscars that night. There's also a terrific supporting cast that includes Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Bernard Hill, David Warner, Victor Garber, Jonathan Hyde, and Bill Paxton.
Best Part: The final violin concert, in which we see many, including an older couple and a mother with her children, simply accept their terrible fate. "Gentleman," the violinist says, "it has been a privilege playing with you tonight."
19. The Apartment (1960)
The Apartment, directed by Billy Wilder, stars Jack Lemmon as a working sap named Bud who also is quite the pushover. He let's his bosses kick him out of his apartment to have extramarital affairs. Perhaps it's a metaphor for how the American workers is treated. He starts to fall for the elevator girl, played by Shirley MacLaine, but there's a rather large obstacle: his big boss, played by Fred MacMurray, is seeing her (despite his marriage). It might surprise those who have seen Father Knows Best and The Absent-Minded Professor to see MacMurray in a role like this.
The black-and-white cinematography by Joseph LaShelle really give The Apartment a timeless quality, and the set design by Alexandre Trauner using forced perspective is neat. Lemmon and MacLaine have great chemistry, and it's one of MacLaine's very best performances.
Best Part: It's a tie: Bud gives his boss the wrong key, and the sound of a gunshot was only a bottle of champagne opening.
18. Dances With Wolves (1990)
I think some, or at least a growing number, of people find this movie to be overrated. It beating the film that deserved the top prize (Goodfellas) has only augmented this belief. I, however, do not think that the movie is overrated. Like many of the movies on this list, it has its problems (the white savior trope, historical inaccuracies, etc.) which are obvious and have been discussed for decades. If you can forgive the film for those errors, I think you'll like it.
Dances With Wolves helped Hollywood clearly break away from deeply offensive portrayals of Native Americans from earlier decades, even though the movie kind of dumbs everything down by having a group of "good Indians" and "bad Indians". It's the story of a Civil War-era lieutenant named John Dunbar (played by Kevin Costner, who also directed it) who is placed in a post that has been deserted. While trying to patch everything up, he befriends a wolf he names Two Socks, and he has his trusty smart horse to also keep him company. He eventually befriends the Lakota Indians, especially Kicking Bird (Graham Greene) and Stands With a Fist (Mary McDonnell), a white woman who was captured and adopted into the tribe as a young girl. She initially struggles to translate for Dunbar, as she hasn't used English in a long time.
While it gets a little boring after Dunbar shaves his mustache, Dances With Wolves has a lot of great action scenes and effective comic relief. Costner, McDowell, Greene, and others are great in it. Costner in particular deserves lots of praise for pulling off such an epic (particularly one that no one wanted to make), and he won Best Director that year. But the sad reality of the film is that despite its embrace of a Thanksgiving-style story of friendship, the reality is that this has never really been true. And additionally, it would be in everyone's best interest if Hollywood made more films mainly or only from the prospective of indigenous characters (like they did with Smoke Signals, a movie that jokes about Dances With Wolves.)
Best Part: With all due respect to the most famous image (Dunbar riding past a sea of bullets on his horse) or the buffalo scene (filmed with over a thousand actual buffaloes), the image I like the most, one that's very moving, is from the Plains Indians' second visit to Dunbar. He waves to them as he did before, and one of them waves back.
17. On the Waterfront (1954)
Marlon Brando, the actor best known for playing very masculine characters, is a boxer in this movie about union violence and corruption among longshoremen. Despite being a boxer, he's a rather vulnerable one. It's interesting to see Brando as Terry Malloy, a conflicted and sensitive man who thinks he's stupid. The soft score by Elmer Bernstein heightens these emotions. It takes Malloy the entire film, but he wrestles with his conscience before trying to do the right thing. Do the right thing he often does not. Despite the Eva Marie Saint character yelling three times that he should go away, he kicks the door open and forces himself on her, but I guess that was considered romantic in 1954.
This is Lee J. Cobb's most famous role (outside of 12 Angry Men), terrifying as the union boss and quasi-father figure to Terry Malloy. As for Brando, Terry Malloy might not be in the permanent memory of audiences the way his roles in A Streetcar Named Desire, The Wild One, The Godfather, or Apocalypse Now are, but it is the one that earned him his first Oscar. There are other very memorable performances as well. Saint made her film debut here, and she won for Best Supporting Actress. Karl Malden plays the priest trying to rally the men to stand up to the mob. And Rod Steiger plays Terry's older brother Charley, who shares the scene with him during the famous "I coulda been a contender" speech.
Best Part: The big fight between Terry and the mob boss played by Cobb, especially when the latter is thrown in the water.
16. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Based on Ken Kesey's famous novel, Jack Nicholson plays Randle McMurphy, a criminal who is sent to a mental institution for evaluation. This was one of the very big Nicholson roles, and he earned an Oscar for his work, as did director Milos Forman. Louise Fletcher plays the villainous Nurse Ratched, and she too won an Oscar. Also appearing are as patients are Will Sampson, Christopher Lloyd, Danny DeVito, Vincent Schiavelli, and Brad Dourif (in his first film). Dourif, whose career has included playing Chuckie in the Child's Play movies, Wormtail in The Lord of the Rings, and Doc Cochran in HBO's Deadwood, among others, was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and should have won.
Given his violence and charges of statutory rape, I have no idea why McMurphy is seen as some kind of hero, even today, but regardless, he seems to be for many people. He may be a rebel, but it's hard to see him as a good person. I actually often found myself feeling for Nurse Ratched, at least in the beginning. Dealing with difficult people is a task easier said than done. Her problem is that she is too cruel and too authoritarian, not willing to compromise or show that she likes the people she's trying to help.
Best Part: Patients start demanding their cigarette's during Nurse Ratched's therapeutic meetings.
15. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Lawrence of Arabia is not perfect, but despite its flaws, the movie works, even if some aspects haven't aged well. It's best known for its epic nature and ambition, and it remains an unforgettable and influential work of cinema. Steven Spielberg, for example, has called it his favorite film and the movie that inspired him to be a director.
Peter O'Toole plays the title role of T.E. Lawrence. He's supported by a memorable performance by Omar Sharif, but it's a little awkward these days to watch non-Arabs like Alec Guinness and Anthony Quinn play these other Arab roles. It's disappointing, too, that this film is not really from the Arab perspective, but in that case the recent Jordanian film Theeb, which is sort of the anti-Lawrence of Arabia, is an interesting watch after Lawrence of Arabia. Additionally, in a movie that's over three hours long, there is not a single line of dialogue from any female character; in fact, women only appear briefly in one scene.
While the film is critical of British foreign policy, subtly placing blame for current-day problems in the Middle East to Europe's drawing of borders, it also fully embraces Lawrence's attitude that "nothing is written," and depending on your perspective, you'll either squirm or rejoice. Most Westerners, or at least most who are not very religious or religious at all, will probably cheer as Lawrence defies what is "written" and rescues a comrade from the desert heat. And about that desert: it's gorgeous. Who can forget that iconic Maurice Jarre score set to those landscapes filmed in wide angles? Those images will stay with you forever.
Best Part: Any scene with the Jarre score.
14. Amadeus (1984)
"All men are equal in God's house," or so we are told. For some, this is salt on the wound. F. Murray Abraham plays the Italian composer Antonio Salieri, a teacher of Schubert and Beethoven, who has intense jealousy towards Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, played by Tom Hulce. Despite Salieri's decent character and good faith, he feels God has favored Mozart. Mozart, whom Salieri refers to as "the creature", doesn't help, frequently insulting Salieri's heritage and talent, even "fixing" his music in front of everyone. This rivalry is all, I think, speculative. And on the one hand, one feels sympathy for the actual Salieri, given that he didn't, you know, actually kill Mozart. But on the other hand, the play and film led to renewed interest in his music. So you win some, you lose some. But as for the character, I think anyone in his shoes would feel the same antipathy towards Mozart, a giggling child.
Original Broadway stars Ian McKellen and Tim Curry were not cast in the roles, and with all due respect to Murray and Hulce, I think it would have been more interesting to see them. (Mark Hamill, who replaced Curry on Broadway, was also considered but not given the title role.) But both Murray and Hulce were nominated for Best Actor, with Murray winning. In addition to winning a handful of technical awards, it also won Milos Forman his second Best Director Oscar, and for good reason. It's an unforgettable tale of revenge and jealousy, and it's also quite funny at times.
Best Part: The Mozart opera Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail.
Clint Eastwood's return to the Western genre (his last Western) was Unforgiven, which he also produced and directed. In it, he plays Will Penny, an aging criminal known for violence and drunkenness. When we meet him, his wife is dead, and he's raising his two children alone on a farm. He appears as if he wouldn't hurt a fly, and he never drinks. However, a prostitute (played by Anna Levine) is brutally attacked one night in the town of Big Whisky. The town's sheriff, Little Bill (played by Gene Hackman, who won for Best Supporting Actor), is a brutal authoritarian who confiscates guns from travelers passing through and erupts in violence to lay down the law. The other prostitutes are outraged at Little Bill's lack of justice, and they raise money to offer a bounty on the attackers. Penny decides to take it.
He is joined by two cowboys played by Morgan Freeman and Jaimz Woolvett. Richard Harris also has memorable scenes here as English Bob, another nefarious individual. But the most interesting to watch is Eastwood. He's vulnerable and banal, and also terrifying and wicked when push comes to shove. Eastwood dedicated this movie to his mentors, Don Siegal, who directed Eastwood in five movies, and Sergio Leone, who directed Eastwood in the Dollars trilogy. The best of those films is The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, a more fun and memorable Western. But the gritty realism of Unforgiven, the brutality, the mud and the rain, the wildness of it all, is palpable.
Best Part: Will Penny avenges the death of his friend.
12. Forrest Gump (1994)
Forrest Gump is pretty harmless and safe, and it's sort of the definition of Oscar-bait. But it's hard to criticize it. Although, I should say that it would be unfair to criticize Rain Man's use of an able-bodied actor to play a character with disabilities but not point that out the same issue in this film. Forrest Gump and Tom Hanks don't get a free pass on this.
In its endearing story, Forrest happens to find his way into many of the essential events of the Baby Boomer generation. (Forrest Gump often feels like the movie version of "We Didn't Start the Fire".) He teaches Elvis (voiced by Kurt Russell) how to dance his famous dance, witnesses Alabama schools being integrated, fights in the Vietnam War, and loses a loved one to AIDS. And this is basically the Baby Boomer ultimate soundtrack: you'll hear Creedence Clearwater Revival, Aretha Frankliln, the Beach Boys, the Mamas and the Papas, the Doors, Simon and Garfunkel, and others.
This crowd-pleaser was directed by Robert Zemeckis, the director of the Back to the Future films, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and more. Both Zemeckis and Hanks won Oscars. Many are/were disappointed that Forrest Gump defeated Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption for the top prize, but still, this is an unforgettable movie.
Best Part: The soundtrack.
11. No Country For Old Men (2007)
The most recent Western to have won Best Picture, No Country For Old Men features a trio of actors, all of whom never appear on screen at the same time. Josh Brolin plays a man named Llewellyn Moss, who stumbles upon an enormous amount of cash after a bloodbath. Unfortunately for him, the money can be tracked, and the pursuer is Anton Chigurh, a psychotic hit man immortally played by Javier Bardem, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for this this performance. The third lead is Tommy Lee Jones as the aging sheriff totally disturbed by the changing times and rising violence he witnesses. Woody Harrelson also appears, as does Kelly MacDonald, who proves yet again that she's a master of accents.
While No Country For Old Men drastically slows down in the final third, it has one memorable scene after the other, particular the shootout between Llewellyn and Chigurh and their repeated cat-and-mouse chases. But what helps make this movie truly great is Bardem's performance. One can't help but chuckle out of nervousness as he stares down his victims. He's an utter, yet calm, agent of chaos.
Best Part: The Texaco scene, in which Chigurh hauntingly taunts a meek store owner.
10. Terms of Endearment (1983)
In a list crowded by hyper-masculinity, Terms of Endearment, written and directed by James L. Brooks, takes a giant step in the opposite direction. About the ups and downs of a relationship between a mother (Aurora, played by Shirley MacLaine) and daughter (Emma, played by Debra Winger), this comedy-drama mostly hits it out of the park. The supporting cast is fantastic as well. Jack Nicholson won his second of three Oscars for playing Garrett, the astronaut usually chasing younger women but who might just be falling for Aurora, and Jeff Daniels is great as well as Flap, Emma's not-so-faithful husband. Also appearing are John Lithgow as a banker Emma starts having an affair with and Danny DeVito as a caller of Aurora's.
MacLaine and Winger give their very best performances, with Aurora being cantankerous and Emma being less reserved. I wish that MacLaine and Winger would have tied for Best Actress, but alas, only one of them (MacLaine) won. They incidentally had kind of a legendary did-they-or-didn't-they feud on set.
Best Part: The most entertaining scene is Aurora and Garrett's unique date on the beach, while the most moving part is when Emma says goodbye to her sons.
9. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Produced by Sam Spiegel and directed by David Lean, The Bridge on the River Kwai is a fascinating war film. The movie stars William Holden, Alec Guinness, and Jack Hawkins, among others. Holden plays an American POW, and Guinness plays a stubborn and proud British colonel who also is a POW. The Guinness character believes that without law there is no civilization. For him, it's a matter of principle. But he's up against Colonel Saito, the vicious man running the prisoner camp who cares not for the Geneva Convention rules. Saito is played by Sessue Hayakawa in what is probably his most famous talkie role. In early Hollywood history, he was a huge star and an early sex symbol. Hayakawa was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but he lost to Guinness.
Guinness' role as Colonel Nicholson is his most complex and interesting in his long career. How Lean plays him against Saito and Holden's Commander Shears, who keeps having one piece of bad luck after another, is quite interesting. Shears has had enough of the crazy heroics of Nicholson and Hawkins' Major Warden, who leads Shears and an international team back to the bridge to blow it up. The trouble with their plan, however, is that Nicholson has convinced himself that the British prisoners can show the Japanese what they're made of and build the most beautiful, efficient bridge possible, even if it means helping the enemy.
Best Part: The climactic scene at the bridge, so tense and quiet, especially when Nicholson asks, "What have I done?"
8. The Deer Hunter (1978)
Basically the first film about the disastrous Vietnam War to reach a wide audience in the United States, The Deer Hunter is about three steel worker friends (Michael, Nick, and Steve, played by Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and John Savage, respectively) who are sent to Vietnam. The war has lasting consequences for them all. The most famous, powerful, and controversial scene involves the three of them being held as prisoners of war in a North Vietnamese camp (filmed on the actual River Kwai). There, they are forced to play Russian roulette. This scene is controversial partly because there is no evidence of American POWs being forced in engage in such an act, partly because (in an era when I'm sure American attitudes toward Vietnamese people were at an all-time low) many believe the depiction of the captors is racist, and partly because it unfortunately led to many actual suicides. For these three reasons, the scene is unfortunate. Once a lie is put into a major film, it is difficult to convince the public that it is a lie. If you're willing to accept the scene as a metaphor for what happened it Vietnam, it might be more palatable.
There are other unforgettable scenes, like any featuring Meryl Streep, who plays a local young woman in the Pennsylvania town. She is engaged to Nick, but she starts to fall for Michael. Walken's performance might be his best in his very fruitful career, and he won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. The Deer Hunter is not an easy film to watch, whether it be its disturbing war scenes, any of the Russian roulette moments, or the final "God Bless America" scene, which many have debated for decades as to whether or not the characters are being sincerely patriotic or ironic.
The accusations of racism nearly derailed the movie's chances at the Oscars, with many believing that the other big Vietnam War movie of the year (Coming Home) would win. De Niro was so anxious about the protests that he skipped the ceremony. This is also the final performance of John Cazale, who plays one of the friends who didn't go to Vietnam. He was engaged at the time to Streep. Of the five films Cazale was in (The Deer Hunter, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Conversation), all were nominated for Best Picture.
Best Part: Despite its many flaws, the first Russian roulette scene will stay with you forever.
7. The Sound of Music (1965)
This might be the musicaliest of all musicals, but The Sound of Music is three hours of absolutely unforgettable songs. If you have a certain level of tolerance for coriness that is required, I think you'll really love this movie. The story by now is very well known: Julie Andrews plays Maria, a young Austrian woman studying to become a nun, who is sent to be the governess of seven rambunctious children. Their father is a strict naval captain and is played by Christopher Plummer (with the singing voice provided by Bill Lee).
The best songs here by Rodgers and Hammstein are probably "Maria", "Sixteen Going on Seventeen", "Do-Re-Mi", "The Lonely Goatherd", "Edelweiss", "Song Long, Farewell", and "Something Good" (which was an original for the movie). The Sound of Music could have been trimmed a bit (like removing the reprisal of "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" and some dialogue scenes), and apparently, Plummer hated this movie, calling it "The Sound of Mucus". But he's a grouch. The Sound of Music is fantastic.
Best Part: "Do-Re-Mi". Check out this YouTube video to watch an incredible flash mob dance to the song in Antwerp.
6. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
This gruesome and haunting psychological thriller is literally the only horror movie to have won Best Picture. (The only other two that were nominated are The Exorcist and Jaws.) The Silence of the Lambs is about an FBI trainee named Clarice Starling, played by Jodie Foster (who won her second Oscar) on the trail of a serial killer nicknamed Buffalo Bill (played by Ted Levine). To try and hunt him down, she needs help. Her supervisor (Scott Glenn) advises her to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter (played by Anthony Hopkins, who also won an Oscar for his work here). Lecter is nicknamed "Hannibal the Cannibal", and she finds him in a dark dungeon serving as his prison. "I'll help you catch him, Clarice," he teases.
Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter is his best in a long line of memorable performances. He has said he based the voice and movement on Katharine Hepburn, Truman Capote, and HAL 9000. It's an interesting trio to imitate, and it pays off. He would again play the character in the 2001 sequel Hannibal and the 2003 prequel Red Dragon. (Brian Cox played the character in the 1986 film Manhunter, Gaspard Ulliel played him in the prequel Hannibal Rising, and Madds Mikkelsen plays him in the television series Hannibal.) Hopkins may be a bit too subtly theatrical, but it's a performance that stands the test of time. Foster and Levine are also exceptional here.
Best Part: This one is hard to choose because there are so many. There's Starling and Lector's first meeting, Lector's exciting and horrifying escape, and Clarice alone in the dark looking for Buffalo Bill. However, my personal favorite is probably when Lector calls Starling to congratulate her, and to tell her that he's "having an old friend for dinner."
5. 12 Years a Slave (2013)
The horrifying tale of one of our worst sins, 12 Years a Slave, adapted from Solomon Northup's memoir detailing his kidnapping and enslavement, is the movie to show your crazy uncle who thinks slaves were actually treated pretty well. (Folks who believe this stuff are apparently more common that you would think or hope.) This is an immensely depressing and hopeless movie from the start. Solomon, a free man in New York, is kidnapped and sold into slavery in Georgia. He suffers there for twelve years, unable to convince anyone in power that he is a free man.
This movie gets that there simply is no example of a "good slaveowner". There never has been and there never will be. If there is a Hell, we can say with certainty that people like Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington are all in it, for they felt it was acceptable to enslave their fellow human beings. This movie's scenes of mothers being torn from their children are painful reminders to many (especially the white liberal crowd) who are ignorant of U.S. history and/or who have forgotten that there is a long history of the U.S. government tearing families apart.
Best Part: It's hard to pick a "best part" in a movie like this, but the scene in which Solomon is reunited with his family is incredibly powerful.
4. Casablanca (1942)
Refugees of all nationalities hiding in Casablanca, fleeing the Nazis, waiting for exit visas, is an ominous start of one of Hollywood's most beloved classics. And yet, this is how it starts. War is brewing and people are fleeing. Many of them end up at Rick's Place, where everybody seems to come. One of them is a resistance fighter; the other is his wife, who used to love Rick.Among the famous cast members, this was their most famous film and role. In addition to Humphrey Bogart as Rick, Claude Raines plays the Vichy head Lois, while Conrad Veidt is terrific as Major Strasser of the SS. For Bogart, it was his coolest and yet most sympathetic performance, as a man who never makes plans far in advance and who sticks his neck out for nobody (despite evidence to the contrary). And just look at the rest of that international cast: Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Dooley Wilson, S.Z. Sakall, and more.
There are just so many classic moments: Rick's final speech to Elsa (played by the incomparable Ingrid Bergman), the terse conversations between Rick and Strasser and Rick and Lazlo, the song "As Time Goes By", those memorable lines (like about how the Germans wore grey and Elsa wore blue). It truly is one of the most unforgettable Best Picture winners of all time.
Best Part: My favorite scene is undoubtedly the one where Lazlo and others confront the Nazis at Rick's Place with a soaring rendition of "La Marseillaise".
3. Schindler's List (1993)
Liam Neeson portrays the real-life industrialist Oskar Schindler during one of history's most horrifying episodes, the torture and slaughter of millions of Jews in Europe by the Nazis. Schindler was able to profit from the human rights abuses against the Jews to make a fortune. However, after viewing the liquidation of the ghetto in Krakow, he decides that he needs to do something. Eventually compiling a list of 1,100 Jews from the camp, he and his factory manager (played by Ben Kingsley) bribe and persuade the Nazi command to let the Jews come work for him, where they will be in less danger.
There are a lot of unbelievably tense moments, like when Ralph Fiennes as Amon Goeth attempts to shoot a rabbi in the head because he hasn't made enough shingles but the gun won't work. After an imprisoned Jew explains that the foundation for the building is all wrong, he insists that she be shot. She tries to explain that she is just doing her job, to which he replies, "Ja, and I'm doing mine." She is shot from the back of the head, and Goeth orders the foundation to be redone anyway. Despite his banality of evil (half of his screentime seems like he's complaining about all the work he has to do), one survivor reportedly started panicking when she saw Fiennes on set because of all the traumatizing memories.
There are many scenes like that that will stay with you. Children hiding in latrines. Women pricking their fingers and wiping blood on their cheeks to look more alive to prevent them being sent to the gas chambers. The liquidation of the ghetto. It's a film you cannot forget.
If you're a fan of the show This American Life, I highly recommend the episode on the students who saw the film on a class field trip and got in trouble for disrupting the movie. Spielberg's response and how the students appreciated it is terrific. It's my favorite episode.
Best Part: As is the case with 12 Years a Slave, it seems inappropriate to discuss a "best part" of a movie like this. But I will say that one of the final scenes, the one where the Schindler Jews present Schindler a ring that says "whoever saves one life saves the world entire," is very moving.
2. The Godfather Part II (1974)
Vito Corleone is first seen in this film as a young boy in Sicily at the turn of the century. He's practically mute, and his father, brother, and mother are murdered by a vicious mafia boss. He escapes to the United States, and here we have the start of something kind of unprecedented: a sequel that's also a prequel. The prequel parts take place mainly in New York during the early twentieth century, as Vito slowly becomes the powerful figure audiences saw him as in the first film. He's played by Robert De Niro, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, making him and Marlon Brando the only two actors to have won an Oscar for playing the same character.
In the 1950s, we see Vito's son, Michael (played again by Al Pacino), sometimes struggling against a house of cards as the family has shifted to Nevada and has become involved in the casino business. He has to deal with two rivals trying to kill each other (Pacino's acting teacher, Lee Strasberg, as Hyman Roth, and Michael V. Gazzo as Frank Pentangeli, both of whom were also nominated for Best Supporting Actor). Also returning are Diane Keaton as Kay, Robert Duvall as Tom, John Cazale as Fredo, Morgana King as Carmela, and Talia Shire as Connie (along with a few memorable cameos at the end). Also appearing are Dominic Chianese (who later played Uncle Junior on The Sopranos), Bruno Kirby as a young Clemenza, and blink-and-you'll-miss-it early appearances by Danny Aiello and Harry Dean Stanton.
Some have argued that this film is better than its successor, but they're wrong (and happy to have a pat on their contrarian back for starting an argument just for the sake of it). For one, The Godfather Part II certainly drags on a bit. Second, even Gordon Willis admitted that his cinematography was too dark here. Third, it's simply not as unforgettable. Still, this is one of the very best Best Picture winners, and will be for all time.
Best Part: Vito Andolini of Corleone gets his revenge.
1. The Godfather (1972)
This is probably the most iconic American film of all time. With that beautiful score and the opening moments featuring Marlon Brando's best-known role, we're then witness to how Luca Braci sleeps with the fishes, affairs being not personal but strictly business, or how they're gonna "make him an offer he can't refuse."
Just look at the others in the cast: Al Pacino as Michael, the war-hero son who was supposed to be spared all of this and have a life in politics or something; James Caan as Sonny, the hot-headed son who exacerbates the war once his father is incapacitated; Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen, the adopted son in the family and his father's consilerie; John Cazale as Fredo, maybe the nicest one but also the most incompetent. But while Brando had top billing and won the Oscar for Best Actor (an award he famously refused), the story really is the epic arch of Michael Corleone, which continues into its two sequels. He becomes the true boss during the climactic baptism scene in which all of his problems seemingly vanish.
Filming was a nightmare for Francis Ford Coppola, who at this point already was an Oscar-winner and would eventually win four more (including one for adapting the screenplay for The Godfather with Mario Puzo, the author of the novel). The studio didn't want Pacino, who was little known and thought of as too short. And they certainly didn't want Brando, who was known for being box-office poison and difficult to work with. But Coppola eventually got his way. (Fun fact: Robert De Niro was originally cast as Paulie, but Coppola made an agreement with another production for Bang the Drum Slowly to trade De Niro and Pacino, thus later allowing for De Niro to appear in The Godfather Part II.)
Diane Keaton also appears as Kay, one of her most famous roles. Supporting cast members include Abe Vigoda, Morgana King, and Sterling Hayden. Even the actors who aren't so well-known (like Alex Rocco as Moe Green, Gianni Russo as Carlo, Al Lettieri as Sollozzo, and John Marley as Jack Woltz) are fantastic.
There really is no other film like The Godfather.
Best Part: There are so many, but the best scene is when the stubborn Hollywood studio head Woltz refuses to help the godson of Corleone. He finds a certain something in his bed as the score makes a crescendo, temporarily taking the film into horror territory.
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