What’s the biggest Oscar upset of the last quarter century? It may be the victory of Shakespeare in Love over Saving Private Ryan as the Best Picture of 1998. Looking back with the perspective of time, would that race play out the same way if it could be voted on today? EW is asking that question and others like it via our enormous survey campaign, called "Recall the Gold." As of today, we’re sending out ballots to 7,000 film industry professionals (many of them Academy members), asking them to vote anew on the top six categories in the Oscar races of 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 years ago. Many of the Academy Award-winning pictures, directors, actors, and actresses will stand up to our test of time; no doubt many others will be replaced by new consensus choices. And that’s where you come in, PopWatchers.
We’re going to ask you to vote as well. Every Tuesday and Thursday in PopWatch, from now until the end of the year, we’re going to ask you to re-vote one category from one year’s race and see if, out of the five nominees, you’d pick the same winner today that the Academy did then, or if you think another one of the nominees was more deserving. After the first of the year, we’ll tally all the results of both readers’ votes and industry professionals’ votes.
Let’s kick things off with that famous upset from the 1998 Best Picture race. You’ll recall that Ryan and Shakespeare were the favorites going in, with 11 nominations for Steven Spielberg’s war epic and 13 for the Miramax period comedy that starred Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes. Also vying for Best Picture, with seven nominations each, were Elizabeth, the biopic of Queen Elizabeth I that helped launch Cate Blanchett to stardom; Life Is Beautiful, Roberto Benigni’s Italian-language tragicomedy about a Jewish father who uses humor to shield his little boy from the worst horrors of the Holocaust; and The Thin Red Line, a brooding, meditative, elliptical World War II epic very different from Ryan, one that marked the return of ’70s directing legend Terrence Malick to the screen after a 20-year absence.
Conventional wisdom picked Ryan as the favorite over Shakespeare, since the former was a serious war drama that seemed tailor-made for the Academy, while the latter, for all its highbrow references and costume pageantry, was still a comedy, a genre that almost never wins Best Picture. Shakespeare’s victory was widely seen (fairly or unfairly) as a triumph of Miramax’s Oscar-campaigning genius (the quasi-indie distributor also represented multiple winner Life Is Beautiful).
Back then, I may have been one of the few who thought Shakespeare actually deserved to beat Ryan. I found it thoroughly entertaining and inventive from start to finish, while I thought Ryan was 25 minutes of bravura filmmaking (the D-Day sequence) attached to two hours of a routine WWII drama and marred by a superfluous, blatantly manipulative framing device. Today, however, I’m not so sure. Shakespeare looks to me now like an extremely well-crafted trifle, while Ryan retains its moral force. Elizabeth, with its stylish, gritty approach to period drama, looks better and more influential to me each time I see it. My feelings are still mixed about Life Is Beautiful; I’m still not sure it ever reconciled its light, bittersweet comic tone with the horrible gravity of its subject matter. Thin Red Line remains visually stunning and dramatically opaque.
Of course, your opinions of these movies are likely different from mine, and may have evolved in different directions from mine over the last ten years. Vote in the attached poll for the one you think is the Best Picture today. (Watch some embedded clips after the jump if you need a refresher.) Then keep an eye on this space for further opportunities to vote in theRecall the Gold poll (on Thursday, we’ll look at the Best Supporting Actress race from 1983), and watch for commentary and historical contexton the recall vote at Dave Karger’s new Oscar Watch blog.
Elizabeth trailer
Life Is Beautiful trailer
Saving Private Ryan trailer
Shakespeare in Love trailer
The Thin Red Line trailer
Comments (1-30) of 250 Add your comment
While I completely agree with the egregious error in ‘98, what about in ‘05 when Crash beat out Brokeback Mountain? That was a complete joke. Or, my vote for the biggest Oscar upset in the last quarter century, in ‘94 when Forrest Gump beat out Pulp Fiction? Really?
Saving Private Ryan was way better.
I hate this idea. Its totally demeaning to those who actually won. I am a huge fan of yours EW, but this is not a good idea.
This isn’t even close. “Ryan” is one of the great films of all-time, while “Shakespeare” is a mere trifle. Way to go, Academy! Oh, and I second the travesty of “Gump” over “Pulp Fiction”.
to many bad winners in the past years. Chicago over The Pianist???? Still don’t understand that one!
It’s an interesting idea, but if the results do change there are going to be a lot of Oscar winners feeling mighty crappy. Do we really need to do this?
I agree- this insults the winners. However I’m going to tip my hat to Life is Beautiful. I voted for Ryan, but then I watched the trailer for Life, and it made me cry. THAT is a powerful movie.
Shakespeare in Love was definitely the better movie. Ryan changed the way action movies are filmed, and the war scenes remain unbelievable, but the acting was hammy (other than Hanks) and the story was conventional. All of the characters were characatures of what soldiers should be.
People always complain that the Academy ignores comedies and when they award one, everybody points to the drama that should have won. “Shakespeare in Love” was a very good movie, with no slow moments, witty dialogue, and fantastic cast. I think the main culprit may be Gwyneth Paltrow, who hasn’t done much since that film. “Saving Private Ryan” is a very good movie, but I agree with the assertion that it’s all about the first 25 mins, which was spectacular, and less about the rest of the film, which was merely good. I do not think it was some great oversight that “Shakespeare” won, definitely not in the realm of “Greatest Show on Earth” or “Rocky” over acting nods like Spacek over MTM in 1980 or Al Pacino not winning for “Godfather”. Actually, the biggest miss was “Pulp Fiction” missing out to “Forrest Gump”. One picture was a turning point in American Cinema, the other was just American cinema.
I mean to say “Forrest Gump” over “Pulp Fiction” was the biggest miss in the last 25 years.
I respect “Saving Private Ryan” but I just don’t care for the movie. It’s fighting, walking, fighting, walking, fighting. I mean, I know “that’s war!”, but I just don’t care for it. I think I actually fell asleep watching it too. Well made, yes. Graphic, yes. Gritty and real, yes. But…. eh. Outta these choices, I think I’d go for Elizabeth. I think if that was out today, it’d trounce everybody for the Oscar.
my vote in ‘98 goes to elizabeth, cate blanchett and ian mckellen
While this won’t set right a number of wrongs (see Kevin Costner over Martin Scorsese for Best Director in 1990), it will at least acknowledge that mistakes were made.
Here’s one:
English Patient.
If ever a gag and yawn could be combined, that would be the film to do it. Fargo isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but I found it infinitely more layered and brilliant than an Oscar-made borefest like the English Patient.
Or how about the same year, when Gwyneth Paltrow won over Cate Blanchett’s fierce portrayal of Elizabeth? Or how about when Kim Basinger won her Suppoeting Actress Oscar (still so mad about her winning)over Julianne Moore’s Amber Waves in Boogie Nights? That one was an injustice, still gets me mad everytime I think about it.
Great idea! I’ll be back every Tues and Thurs to vote!
The Thin Red Line is a haunting poem. Taste is a subjective thing, and not many folks like poetry anymore. But for those of us who do, that movie will never lose its power.
To this day I believe that Cate Blanchett was totally robbed that year … and while Shakespere in Love was a good movie, I felt that it should’ve gone to Saving Private Ryan
Really a tie between Thin Red Line and Saving Private Ryan, but I vote for Terrance Malick if only so people will also see The New World.
EW, like this idea. It’s a travesty that forgettable little period comedy beat out an epic tale in the horrors of war. The direction in Ryan is studied in film classes. And Hanks had won the Oscar the two previous years and therefore was passed up for novelty’s sake. Haven’t cared about the Oscars since, yet I still complain about these oversights at dinner parties (which I’m sadly aware is pretty lame in itself). Anyway, let’s talk Titanic next.
Like Blue, I STILL want a do-over for best actress that year. It was Cate, not Gwyneth.
Shakespeare in love was to me and still is the movie that truly captures the comic struggle to create a work of art. it is amazingly poignant and reminds us that story telling is something that brings us all together. Saving Private Ryan is to amazing action sequences, bookending a hammy story full of cliche characters, but for my money… ELIZABETH is the stunner. That is by far the movie that has aged the best.
I agree – as much as I loved Shakespeare in Love at the time, it doesn’t hold up to Saving Private Ryan’s timelessness. I also thought at the time (and still do) that Cate Blanchett deserved the Best Actress Oscar – though Gwenyth’s performance was good – but Cate’s was more powerful.
Elizabeth was the best film of the year. It’s one I re-watch and marvel at every time.
Forrest Gump was a brilliant film and Pulp Fiction tried too hard to be shocking. stop hating.
DiCaprio losing Best Supporting Actor for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape to Tommy Lee Jones for The Fugative. Sure, Jones was great, but there was never a moment in Grape where you feel like you are watching an actor perform. DiCaprio completely disappeared into that role.
That year Cate Blanchett was robbed! Why the Academy decided for Gwyneth is beyond me. I can’t help but wonder what they hell they were thinking when Nicole Kidman won for The Hours. Are they kidding me???
Thank goodness for Hilary Swank and Helen Mirren winning the past couple of years or this category wouldn’t have been credible.
Saving Private Ryan all the way. I’m still very upset that Shakespeare in Love won the top prize, even if I like the movie overall. Saving Private Ryan was better. Is still better. I will not budge from this.
For me, the biggest “recall the gold” would be when Pulp Fiction lost out to Forrest Gump. Don’t get me wrong, Forrest Gump is a great movie, but when you put it head to head with Pulp Fiction? Hands down Pulp Fiction everytime!
This is a great idea.
May I offer a suggestion?
Could there be a recount on the 1997 Best Picture race? I still gets my goat that L.A. Confidential lost to Cameron’s Boat. I know Titanic is beloved, but it was not a great movie, much less worthy of the Oscar.