Depending on who you ask, there has been a treasure trove of snubs in the history of AMPAS. The people that oversee the ballyhoo of cinema, known as the Oscars, usually get it right for their big recognition moments. And then, there are times when that golden old man forgets his Depends and craps the bed. Like Alfred Hitchcock or Stanley Kubrick never winning Best Director despite their genius, or in the 94 years of that old fart gathering people in Tinseltown, only two women have won best director.
Really, Oscar? Yes, even he can be tone-deaf and need a damn hearing aid. And when that auditory assistance isn’t turned up too loud, AMPAS can swing and miss in a colossal fashion. So, let’s talk about those bewildering “The hell are they thinking” moments.
Here are the Top 10 Worst Best Picture Oscar Winners in Academy History.
10. Ordinary People (1980)
Ordinary People is a beautiful movie about a broken family who tries to mend the pieces over attempted suicide, premature death, and pain that won’t heal. It featured the film debuts of Timothy Hutton and Elizabeth McGovern, followed by his winning Best Supporting Actor–at the age of 20! The film was also the directorial debut of Robert Redford. And the queen of TV sitcoms, Mary Tyler Moore, stepped away from the small screen to show just how talented she was. Following the movie, she called her role in Ordinary People “the holy grail of her career.”
One problem: it beat Raging Bull for Best Picture. Wait, what?! That’s like Mike Tyson getting knocked out by that tub of goo, Buster Douglas. No way that should have happened.
Was it the controversy? Back in the days of Footloose, when folks were burning books, Ordinary People was a hated book. It is on the list of the most banned books in school libraries. This book was scary with a scene depicting two teens losing their virginity, a frank discussion of suicide, and graphic language. In fact, in the 1990s, it was #52 of the most challenged books in any library. Number 53 was American Psycho!
9. Dances With Wolves (1990)
Here is another story of woe where Oscar went for the heartstrings instead of what should have happened. This year was a closer race because Kevin Costner‘s directorial debut is a masterpiece. This movie was such a triumph in its script and how it humanely approached relationships with Native Americans that the Sioux Nation made Costner an honorary member. He even spent $18 million of his cash to help take care of the overage of the film budget.
John Butler was a moving character who was forced to look at his frailty and prejudices. Then, he was confronted with what he hated to stand upon what he believed. Many folks read headlines, so there will be those who read this with angst shouting, “‘Dances With Wolves’ was an incredible movie!” Yes, it was, but…uh…it beat Goodfellas for Best Picture. Scorsese was done so dirty that Oscar gave him a make-good with The Departed, winning the award decades later.
And if you think that film was better than Goodfellas, you have issues. Not for nothing, but Dances With Wolves could have easily beat The Departed, so there’s that.
8. Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
Talk about the making of an ensemble cast. This movie had Sir David Niven as Phileas Fogg (a fabulous movie character), Sir John Gielgud, Cesar Romero (yes, the OG Joker), Red Skelton, Marlene Dietrich, Shirley MacLaine, Buster Keaton, John Carradine, and this Frank Sinatra cat. How can a movie fail with that cast? It’s impossible, and this wasn’t a flop at all. This film had a $6 million budget and made $42 million. In 1956, that was a blockbuster.
But not even that cast can arm wrestle Moses and walk away from a winner! There is an award of life achievement named after Cecil B. DeMille, mainly on the tails of his epic tale of the man who believed in God and parted the Red Sea. The Ten Commandments were a marvel to behold in theaters back then. Someone, please explain how a burning bush loses to a hot air balloon anyway?!
7. Crash (2006)
Here’s an interesting movie in Crash. Paul Haggis directed an excellent story here. You don’t realize it when you’re watching four concurrent tales in the same movie, but then, all the lives in the film collide or “crash.” And this was another NBA makeshift collection of acting prowess with Don Cheadle, Thandiwe Newton, Sandra Bullock, Terrence Howard, Daniel Dae Kim, Brendan Fraser, Larenz Tate, and even Ludacris showed up before all those damn car movies.
Maybe this was an indicator of how woke Hollywood wasn’t. During all the kerfuffle about this film, there was another that captivated the rest of America, except for the cantankerous curmudgeons at AMPAS. Maybe you heard about it, Brokeback Mountain? Incidentally, Crash was the lowest-grossing Best Picture winner ($98 million) since The Last Emperor in 1987 ($46 million). When Hollywood had a chance to treat same-sex relationships with class, they stunk up the stage, tripped on their ego, and crashed.
(Thank you. I’ll show myself out.)
6. Out of Africa (1986)
You have Sydney Pollack at the helm directing Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. What could go wrong? Well, nothing really. The movie was stunning to watch. David Watkin (Chariots of Fire, Jesus of Nazareth, Moonstruck, Memphis Belle) richly deserved an Oscar for Best Cinematography–and he won it too. The African horizons and vistas are breathtaking. The adaptation from Karen Blixen’s book was succinct and crisp. The acting was great. But how many people do you know who have discussed this movie recently? None? Yeah, thought so.
That film beat one that is mentioned annually by diverse audiences. If not any other time, it’s all over the Black History Month map. The movie was The Color Purple and it was historic. But it was completely shut out of 11 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Then, it seemed like a tight race and how can you argue with the foundation of the film? Yet, look back. No one talks about Out of Africa. Yet, what The Color Purple meant to those who saw it and remember stories of people living it, no wins from Oscar felt like the least woke thing in a long time.
5. Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
This may stomp on someone’s toes, but we must be brave in life, so here goes… What in the literal hell is this slow as a Miss America contestant taking an SAT doing beating the rest of its Best Picture competition?! Tom Cruise has one of his most outstanding performances in Born on the Fourth of July. Kevin Costner creates one of the best sports movies ever with Field of Dreams. Daniel Day-Lewis earns an Oscar for Best Actor as real-life artist Christy Brown, born with Cerebral Palsy and could only control his left foot. And then Robin Williams challenged the world to think for themselves in Dead Poets Society.
And some super sweet guy driving around this old testy broad wins best picture?! So, Driving Miss Daisy deals with aging and a lifelong relationship. That’s great, but so does The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. If you watch the Oscars in 1989, this won Best Picture, and even Morgan Freeman looked surprised. The four of those movies hold up decades later. The only thing Driving Miss Daisy still holds up is the firmness on my pillow when I crash watching it. Such a travesty.
4. Argo (2012)
Ben Affleck helped tell the true story of an American rescue of six hostages in Tehran during the Iran conflict of the 1980s. The movie was gripping because the story was real. It was a lauded effort at sharing an obscure story about American bravery. For their work, Argo won three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. In a stroke of sheer coincidence, Oscar awarded the wrong true story about American bravery when the befuddled minds of Hollywood snubbed Zero Dark Thirty.
If you saw it, you know. Yes, Oscar loves Affleck ever since he and Matt Damon completed a childhood dream with Good Will Hunting. So, what was it? Some sort of Affleck ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ card? He is part of the club so he had to win and couldn’t dare lose to someone who directed Point Break? Her true story was how Osama bin Laden was tracked down and it was 100% better than Argo as a pure cinematic experience. Kathryn Bigelow is one brilliant and talented woman who was definitely cheated out of joining a way-too-elite club of best female directors.
3. Rocky (1976)
Admittedly, this one is going to hurt. Rocky is a candy bowl full of steroids to pop culture. It was a meaningful film with a story everyone could appreciate, and the hero didn’t even win. Sylvester Stallone put everything he had into this movie–literally. It was emotional and inspiring, but was that great? Rocky remained the underdog, even at the Academy Awards. Maybe Oscar was “punch drunk”? Because Apollo Creed should have walked off the stage here too.
Do you really think Rocky was a more significant movie than Network? All the President’s Men? Well, hold on…what about Taxi Driver? Based on characters alone, Rocky may beat Travis Bickle but the rest of the movies are just no contest. It was one of the first times that PTSD was given a mantle to sit upon and people could see what may be happening inside the souls of America’s heroes. Travis is fake-ish. Rocky is too. But seeing this narrow defeat was real, and it was clearly something that should have been reconsidered.
Yes, Balboa. To paraphrase Travis Bickle, we are talking to you.
2. Shakespeare in Love (1999)
In what is possibly the most egregious example of the worst best picture nominees in Academy Award history is this borderline meh film. You can like or dislike the schmaltzy content. You can do the same for the co-stars–Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow. But, for the love of all things sacred in that jacked-up town of Tinsel, how in the red, white and blue hell can you watch that slumber-inducing period piece and believe it’s a far better film than Saving Private Ryan?!
Seriously? Is there one minute of that sappy flick that is a triumph over what could be argued as Steven Spielberg’s magnum opus? Yes, Spielberg! It doesn’t matter who you ask. And it doesn’t matter what they say. This was a crime–figuratively and almost literally. Saving Private Ryan was a gruesome, authentic depiction of what the Greatest Generation faced to defend our land. The story made four-star generals weep like babies while watching this evocative glimpse into what had to be one of the most grueling events in global history.
Great, we learned about Romeo and Juliet might have come to be. So what! Saving Private Ryan was one of those once-in-a-generation movies, and it was stained over what isn’t even considered a great romcom. Dreadful.
1. How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Numbers 1 and 2 could play rock, paper, scissors all day long and they will topple each other. Those two films winning Best Picture of the Year were heinous and doltish picks by a gaggle of prigs who wouldn’t know what makes a memorable film if the answer appeared on a pop quiz. But, this Caspar Milquetoast reflection of rural America in the coal mines near the turn of the century just…well, it sucked! Apologies to John Ford who directed this snoozefest, but if you caught Johnny Boy on a good day with a belly full of adult beverages, even he would tell you the choice was about as stupid as Kanye West thinking that poop song was going to win a Grammy.
I’m sure this movie about the Welsh valleys glistening on the horizon had some meaning to someone, somewhere. However, when you have a room full of award-winning actors, producers, executives, directors, and critics, you ask them, “What is the best movie of all time?“ Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane will always make the Top 10. Always. Since 1910, Hollywood has been making movies, creating memories, and putting the figurative bar a little higher. And, according to AFI and that room full of luminaries, nothing before or after 1940 has ever been better.
Everyone has their opinions, but we are talking about the GOAT of movies. And How Green Was My Old, Rugged, Boring as Hell Valley beat it for Best Picture of the Year?!
Largely considered a slam biopic on media mogul William Randolph Hearst, Citizen Kane was a passion project of Orson Welles who was only in his 30s when he made it. It was also his first movie. Think the absolute greatest directors ever, and they all say Orson Welles was a stone-cold genius. And the connection to Hearst must have been real because he single-handedly try to ruin the industry by showing this film. All the papers he owned and Hearst refused to run advertisements for Citizen Kane and even went so far to accuse Orson Welles as an unpatriotic Communist sympathizer.
The movie is such an enigmatic masterpiece that Hollywood’s elite still debate Charles Foster Kane’s dying word: Rosebud. Welles had to shut down the noise and finally offered this explanation:
Rosebud is the trade name of a cheap little sled on which Kane was playing on the day he was taken away from his home and his mother. In his subconscious it represented the simplicity, the comfort, above all the lack of responsibility in his home, and also it stood for his mother’s love, which Kane never lost.
The reasons range from Welles’ remarkable storytelling and vision, technical innovation, and beautiful editing, or even his amazing narration (he was James Earl Jones and Morgan Freeman before those were ever considered). Yet, despite all those reasons, the topographical turd about some Welsh ravine wins Best Picture. It was absolutely the worst Best Picture robbery in AMPAS history.
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Since he saw ‘Dune’ in the $1 movie theater as a kid, this guy has been a lover of geek culture. It wasn’t until he became a professional copywriter, ghostwriter, and speechwriter that he began to write about it (a lot).
From the gravitas of the Sith, the genius of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, or the gluttony of today’s comic fan, SPW digs intelligent debate about entertainment. He’s also addicted to listicles, storytelling, useless trivia, and the Oxford comma. And, he prefers his puns intended.
