Academy Award Best Pictures The Lists

Now that I have watched all 87 Academy Award winning Best Pictures, it's time to wrap this series up with a few Best of The Best lists....!

Academy Award Best Pictures 1928-2014

So I have now watched every Academy Award winning Best Picture, 1928 thru 2014. My initial thought upon completion: eighty-seven films are a hell of a lot of movies.

Birdman (Best Picture 2014)

Birdman starts in the dressing room of actor Riggan Thomson, who is meditating before going out on stage. However, what makes this unique is that he is meditating while levitating himself three feet off the ground. He is also engaged in an internal dialogue with a deep, raspy voice. This turns out to be the voice of Birdman, the super-hero character Thomson played in two money-making Hollywood block-busters. This looks interesting.

12 Years A Slave (Best Picture 2013)

Twelve Years a Slave is the most difficult Best Picture to watch of all of them. It tells the story of a New York musician named Solomon Northup who was kidnapped from Washington, DC and sold into slavery in 1841. For twelve years he held out hope that he would somehow escape or get rescued. During that time he was beaten, shamed, threatened with death, whipped, and nearly lynched. So although I absolutely recommend that all Americans see this film, it is absolutely a difficult film to sit through.

Argo (Best Picture 2012)

Argo starts off with a bang, with the background story of the Shah of Iran told in photos and newsreel footage, but then morphing into storyboards as if we are making the story into a film. This tells us the story of Iran through the Fifties up to November 1979 in an interesting, fun way. You know right away that this is going to be an entertaining movie. You also get an inkling right off the bat that there is going to be a link between fact and fiction and Hollywood.

The Artist (Best Picture 2011)

The Artist is probably the most willfully contrived, artificial film I have ever seen. Unlike other silent films that I have seen such as The Phantom of the Opera, The Unholy Three, and Wings (the very first Best Picture), The Artist was filmed at a time when sound was an option. So the producers chose not to use sound (or color, for that matter). That begs the question....why? I guess it's like making a movie into a musical or into a comedy or a period drama....you can make the story in any way you want to. But in this case it's like writing a poem using no capitalization or playing a pop song without the lyrics. There is nothing intrinsically wrong with it, but it's not really what I want to see.

The King's Speech (Best Picture 2010)

The King's Speech is the dramatic story of the Duke of York, Prince Albert, and how he overcame his debilitating stutter. It is based on the true story of England's King George VI and his speech therapist and friend, Lionel Logue.

The Hurt Locker (Best Picture 2009)

The Hurt Locker is a gray, depressing film about three men in a bomb disposal unit stationed in Iraq in 2004. Filmed in Jordan, close to the actual Iraqi border, its extras were predominantly Iraqi refugees.

Slumdog Millionaire (Best Picture 2008)

I don't know anything about game shows in general, or Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? in particular, and I don't know anything specifically about India and its culture. That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed Slumdog Millionaire.

No Country For Old Men (Best Picture 2007)

I'm not sure why I never got around to watching this film when it first came out. Maybe it's reputation of ultra-violence turned me off. Maybe the "look" of Javier Bardem, with his emotionless glaze and his awful Seventies haircut, turned me off. And then maybe I just forgot about it. I mean, I have been a fan of the Coen Brothers for years, ever since Blood Simple (1984). They were born and grew up in Minnesota, and I was in school in that state at the time of that film's release. So it was around a lot and I think I saw it three or four times. I have seen most of their films since, so maybe I just forgot to get around to watching this one.

The Departed (Best Picture 2006)

The Departed is a violent, brash, and complicated film. It stars Jack Nicholson as a gangster in Boston and Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio as the police officers who are either trying to catch him, or to keep him free. The theme of the film is "identity," as everyone plays a different character depending on the audience. And it is the film that finally won director Martin Scorcese his first Academy Award for Best Director.

Crash (Best Picture 2005)

Crash is one of those films that you either love or hate. You either enjoy the way it weaves people's lives together into a rich tapestry, or you see a slew of coincidences and a conclusion that is obvious. But you know what? You have to actually see it in order to have an opinion. I definitely recommend this film.

A quick glance at the DVD cover above will tell you that there are atleast twelve "stars" in this film. However, the real "star" of this film is the city of Los Angeles. The story is about the city, and how people living in it do not connect, even when they crash into each other.

Million Dollar Baby (Best Picture 2004)

I am not a big fan of boxing or boxing movies. I'm also not a huge fan of Clint Eastwood movies, although I do find his later work more interesting than his Seventies and Eighties films. Clint Eastwood seems to always play the same type of character, and so to a large degree "you've seen one Clint Eastwood movie you've seen them all."

That being said, I thoroughly recommend Million Dollar Baby. I went in not wanting to like it, but ended up absolutely loving it.

The Lord of the Rings III (Best Picture 2003)

The Return of the King is the third and final episode in The Lord of the Ring trilogy. It began with The Fellowship of the Ring (nominated for Best Picture in 2001), then continued with The Two Towers (nominated in 2002), before finally winning with the last chapter. It's fair to say that the Academy was probably bestowing the awards on the entire series, as all three movies were written, produced, and filmed at the same time. This is only the second time in history that all films in a series were nominated for Best Picture. The first were, of course, The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and The Godfather Part III. 

Chicago (Best Picture 2002)

For the first time since Oliver! won in 1969, a musical won Best Picture. And for the second  time in two years, the Academy Award went to a film that made the audience think about how stories are told and how facts are presented, and what "Art" does or means to people. Last year it was A Beautiful Mind, which hood-winked us into believing that what we were seeing was true. This year it is Chicago, a film that is much more transparent in its artifice.

A Beautiful Mind (Best Picture 2001)

A Beautiful Mind is another of the films that I never got around to seeing when it first came out. I didn't remember specifically why I hadn't seen it until I started doing research for this review. Then I was reminded that I had had an issue with this so-called "biography" that used real people's names and situations, but fictionalized or white-washed the story. Luckily for the film, when I did finally see it just recently, I had forgotten all of those issues and accidentally thought that it was wonderful.

Gladiator (Best Picture 2000)

I recently saw a great film about a man in Ancient Rome who is sold into slavery, forced to fight against the tyranny and power of Rome, and who eventually wins his freedom by dying. It was called Spartacus. Oh, and I also saw the Best Picture of 2000, called Gladiator. 

American Beauty (Best Picture 1999)

American Beauty is a movie about unpleasant people doing unpleasant things.

Shakespeare in Love (Best Picture 1998)

Full disclosure: Shakespeare In Love is one of my favorite films. Not only am I a huge Shakespeare fan, I am also a big fan of "behind the scenes" type movies (Singing In The Rain, Gods and Monsters, etc). So this film is right up my alley. And it does not hurt that one of the supporting characters is named Richard Burbage. I never took the time and money to verify it, but my family believes we are distantly related to Shakespeare's contemporary, and I am not going to argue it.

Titanic (Best Picture 1997)

Do you think you know the story of Titanic? (Who reading this has not actually seen Titanic yet? A show of hands, please.) I can sum up this film in five sentences, so pay close attention if you don't want to commit to three plus hours of Leo DiCaprio: A rich girl meets a poor boy. She fights against falling in love with him, eventually succumbs. They are on a cruise liner which hits an iceberg and sinks. She lives, but he doesn't. When she is nearly 100 years old she returns to where the ship is buried and dies.