Time to correct some historical injustices. Hindsight is always 20-20, but at the Oscars 10 years ago, it was clear even before the stars left for the Governors’ Ball that some deserving nominees had been robbed. Now, Time magazine movie critic Richard Corliss has revisited the 1998 ceremony and redistributed the awards in a way that should please posterity. Sure, James Cameron’s box office savvy made him King of the World, but was Titanic really a better picture than L.A. Confidential (starring Russell Crowe, pictured)? He says no, and he’s right; by every measure except ticket sales and special effects, L.A. Confidential is the superior movie. On the other hand, I’m willing to concede (as is Corliss) that LAC’s Kim Basinger didn’t deserve her Supporting Actress statuette, not when the Academy could have given the prize to Boogie Nights‘ Julianne Moore. I remember that everyone at the time thought Boogie’s Burt Reynolds was robbed of a Supporting Actor Oscar; Corliss thinks so as well. I’m not sure I agree with him that Helena Bonham Carter (in 1998’s weakest field) should have won Best Actress for Wings of the Dove; she fearlessly played an unlikable character, but maybe Kate Winslet should have won for convincingly selling Cameron’s clunky dialogue. I will spot him Peter Fonda, who gave the performance of his career in Ulee’s Gold and should have beaten As Good as It Gets‘ Jack Nicholson-doing-Jack Nicholson for Best Actor.
Do you agree with Corliss’ choices? Which year’s Oscar race would you like to redress? (I’d like to redo the Pulp Fiction-Forrest Gump showdown of 1995 and the Crash-Brokeback Mountain contest of two years ago.) And which of this year’s nominees do you think won’t stand up to posterity?
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Saving Private Ryan over Shakespeare in Love every day of the week, and twice on Sunday.
Eddie Murphy was robbed of his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in Dream Girls. True the man did make that awful movie NORBIT, but his performance was top notch in DG. I fear that snub will only prompt him to make even more hideous movies.
Eddie Murphy was robbed of his Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in Dream Girls. True the man did make that awful movie NORBIT, but his performance was top notch in DG. I fear that snub will only prompt him to make even more hideous movies.
Totally agree with Alex below.
Also want a recount on Gwenny Paltrow & Roberto Begnini’s wins. And was it “You Light Up My Life” that beat out the songs from “Saturday Night Fever”? The Bee Gees were ROBBED.
Oh please dont get me started about Crash and Brokeback Mountain. I was so upset that i CRIED and now with everything that has happened recently it angers me even more.
julianne moore was sooo robbed for Boogie Nights… I would like to revisit the Gladiator vs Traffic year (that was when Julia Roberts won for playing herself and beat Ellen Burstyn for playing pathetic junkie gore) and A Beautiful Mind vs Lord of the Rings year. seriously, has anybody seen A Beautiful Mind since that year???
I think we can complain every single year… I think the most obscene though is Gladiator and Crash winning Best Picture.
I saw both “No Country” and “There Will be Blood” last night, and I think that “Blood” was the more remarkable of two excellent films. “No Country” will win, but in the long run “Blood” will prove to be the kind of acheivement people will remember and study and write about with reverence.
I want to take away all the Oscars American Beauty won. That movie was so over the top it became trite, and I’m so amazed by all the people that fell for it. But at least I saw the win coming so didn’t have the WTF moment from the year before when Shakespeare in Love won.
Still devastated over Brokeback Mountain losing Best Picture.
God, this post could go on forever. The things I’m most irritated with to this day:
–Russell Crowe winning for “Gladiator” and not “A Beautiful Mind” (his win robbed Ed Harris of a much-deserved win for “Pollock”)
–Catherine Zeta-Jones in “Chicago” beating Meryl Streep in “Adaptation”
–Al Pacino finally winning for “Scent of a Woman,” but beating Denzel Washington in “Malcolm X” in the process
–Roberto Benigni beating Edward Norton in “American History X”
–Cuba Gooding Jr. beating Edward Norton in “Primal Fear” and William H. Macy in “Fargo”
–Michael Caine’s lousy accent in “Cider House Rules” beating an amazing Tom Cruise in “Magnolia” and an amazing Haley Joel Osment in “The Sixth Sense”
–Sean Connery beating Albert Brooks in “Broadcast News”
–Cher beating Glenn Close’s amazing performance in “Fatal Attraction”
Every year there’s always one WTF moment.
I’d like to redo the 1993 Oscars and name Robert Altman’s THE PLAYER as best picture of 1992. I hated UNFORGIVEN!
I would take away Forrest Gump beating Pulp Fiction and Shawshank Redemption. I haven’t watched the Oscars since.
It’s all apples and oranges folks!
It’s ‘I like this, you like that’. It’s all pageantry and popularity.
That’s why award shows are the crap that they are. Why didn’t I get an award for ‘most patient mom’? Huh?
I WAS ROBBED!
Hands down, Julia Roberts winning for Erin Brokovich OVER Ellen Burstyn who should have won the Best Actress Oscar for REQUIEM FOR A DREAM.
I’ll never understand that one.
Re American Beauty winning Best Picture, 1999 was probably my favorite movie year ever, and that film wasn’t even close to being one of the best that year. Heck, even a flawed movie like Fight Club was superior.
And I agree with Pacino beating Denzel being a disgrace. Denzel made it look way too easy, which is why he lost.
I intensely like both movies, but I have never figured out Shakespeare In Love winning over Saving Private Ryan.
Tommy Lee Jones winning best supporting actor in 1994 for “Blue Sky” simply because he’d been in the industry for 20 plus years with no awards – beating out Leonardo Di Capprio for his performance in “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?”
That being said, the Oscars is/was/and will always be a politically tinged popularity contest. “Best” has very little to do with the voters final decisions when they cast their ballots.
I have to agree with Gwyneth Paltrow winning out over Cate Blanchett as being a heinous decision on the part of voters. In fact, that entire year just needs to be redone. No love for “Saving Private Ryan” Heresy! Roberto Benigni for best actor? Ludicrous! Just redo the entire ceremony and give them to the right people. Better late than never.
I’d like to go back to the 1981 ceremony, when Michael Gore won Original Score for “Fame” over John William’s work for “The Empire Strikes Back.” That, my friends, is the biggest Oscar theft in history.
Bigger than “Shakespeare in Love” over “Saving Private Ryan” and “Crash” over “Brokeback Mountain.”
Nicole Kidman should have won for Moulin Rouge!
And Ewan McGregor should have been nominated.
Russell Crowe should have been nominated and maybe even won for The Insider, not won for Gladiator, and won for A Beautiful Mind.
This thread is pretty much why I find the Oscars irrelevant. My picks for the most overrated films of the 90’s happen to coincide with most Best Picture winners of that decade and other Oscar contenders: Forrest Gump, Titanic, Shakespeare in Love, and Jerry McGuire. The Oscars are a joke. And Shawshank Redemption is what got robbed by Forrest Gump, not Pulp Fiction. Hands down.
Tommy Lee Jones did NOT win for Blue Sky, he won for the Fugitive. Jessica Lange did win for Blue Sky though. As far as I’m concerned, TLJ could win every year and I’d have no complaints!!
Firstly, I refuse to believe that Titanic took best picture when LA Confidential was/is perfection.
Two other Oscar fumbles that stand out most in my mind are Gwenyth Paltrow winning best Actress for Shakespeare in Love over Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth, and Cuba Gooding Jr. winning for Jerry Maguire over Edward Norton for Primal Fear. I’m sorry Cuba, where ever you are – You seem like a very decent guy, but you won because of one line of dialogue, which I will not repeat here.
Have to agree with fogetaboutit’s “apples and oranges” comment…you can’t really compare dramas to comedies to musicals. Why not divide it up like the Globes do? Then give everyone drinks and cut out the idiotic production numbers, and everyone wins!
Danna, if you’re looking for Cuba Gooding, check out Daddy Day Camp on DVD. Or better yet, don’t.
This may not be a popular thought, but Johhny Depp totally should have won best actor for Pirates of the Caribbean. Lets just forget about the sequels and remember the fact that Depp owned that movie. Jack Sparrow is the sort of character that people will be remembering for years to come.
Thank-you Martha. Comedies continue to get compared to dramas, and dramas always win because they are perceived as “serious” and “worthy”. Comedies continue to get shafted.
Christopher Nolan for best screenplay for Memento instead of Gosford Park.
The Oscars would really be a lot more satisfying if each year, they simply gave awards to the best films of the year a decade previous. I hate the Oscars, but I think I’ll love the ReOscars.