Greatest movie to NEVER win a major Best Picture Award

[D-Man]

I was watching the HIAC PPV last night with the Jersey Triad (minus 1) and IC25 and I got into a discussion about this subject. We tossed many movies out there and realized that major injustices happened over the years at the Oscar Awards. Even though many great movies were beaten by GREATER movies during this award show, it's a total shame that the runner-ups haven't gotten more notoriety. It's time that we all show our appreciation for these movies here.

So, please list your favorite/greatest movie to NEVER win a major Best Picture award (i.e. Oscar, Golden Globe, etc.).

Mine is none other than:

How can anyone possibly say this isn't one of the greatest movies of ALL TIME, let alone the greatest to never win a major best picture award. Unfortunately for the creators of this classic film, it was released during the same year as Forrest Gump who dominated the box office and swept the Oscars, being nominated for 13 awards and taking home 6 of them. Even thought Shawshank Redemption was nominated for 7 awards that year, it came home with NOTHING. An absolute travesty in American Film.

 

[jmt225]

For me it's definitely Raging Bull.

Not only is Raging Bull one of the greatest movies ever made, but it lost to Ordinary People, which in my opinion is a HUGE piece of shit. It's trite, terribly acted, and just flat out ridiculous. How ANYONE could watch Raging Bull and Ordinary People and walk away with the opinion that Ordinary People is the better movie... I mean, the thought just baffles me. How ******ed can a person be? And these are supposed to be fucking "experts" when it comes to film. Blows my mind.

Ordinary People beating Raging Bull is easily the biggest travesty in the history of the Academy Awards. Hell, Ordinary People shouldn't have even been nominated to begin with, whereas Raging Bull was not only the best movie of its respective year, but of its entire decade as well if you ask me.

 

[Mitch Henessey]

I'm a fan of Martin Scorsese, so I'm going to have to go with Gangs Of New York. This was such a great film. Leonardo DiCaprio was excellent, and Daniel Day Lewis was just brilliant. This film had a great cast, and I just loved the way Scorsese was able to capture this time period. The language, scenery, and culture were all depicted so well. Also, this film had a good group of characters.

I've never understood the appeal of Chicago. It wasn't a bad film. Cathrine Zeta-Jones and Rene Zellweger did put on some fine performances, but there really isn't anything special about this film. It's just a flashy musical, and I think the stage musical being famous helped this movie out a lot. Can Chicago be a fun movie? Yes it can. But I just don't see how anyone can compare this film to Gangs Of New York. The fact that this film won the best picture award over Gangs Of New York disgusts me to no end.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

I'm a fan of Martin Scorsese, so I'm going to have to go with Gangs Of New York. This was such a great film. Leonardo DiCaprio was excellent, and Daniel Day Lewis was just brilliant. This film had a great cast, and I just loved the way Scorsese was able to capture this time period. The language, scenery, and culture were all depicted so well. Also, this film had a good group of characters.

I've never understood the appeal of Chicago. It wasn't a bad film. Cathrine Zeta-Jones and Rene Zellweger did put on some fine performances, but there really isn't anything special about this film. It's just a flashy musical, and I think the stage musical being famous helped this movie out a lot. Can Chicago be a fun movie? Yes it can. But I just don't see how anyone can compare this film to Gangs Of New York. The fact that this film won the best picture award over Gangs Of New York disgusts me to no end.

Right director, wrong film... Good as Silence of The Lambs was and deserving of the actor awards it got, Scorsese was robbed blind by Goodfellas not winning Best Picture...

Obscure but in 1974, Brian DePalma did a little movie called Phantom Of The Paradise... it is probably the best rock musical ever made and its score by Paul Williams (the midget from Smokey and the Bandit) who also starred was nominated for best score but lost to "The Great Gatsby", crazy talk...

 

[Mitch Henessey]

Right director, wrong film... Good as Silence of The Lambs was and deserving of the actor awards it got, Scorsese was robbed blind by Goodfellas not winning Best Picture...

Umm, I'm not sure if you're aware if this or not, but Silence Of The Lambs wasn't nominated in the same year as Goodfellas. Silence Of The Lambs won the award for best picture at the 64th Academy Awards. It was up against Beauty and the Beast, Bugsy, JFK, and The Prince Of Tides, so Lambs winning the Oscar wasn't really a surprise. Goodfellas actually lost to Dances With Wolves at the 63rd Academy Awards. I don't like Kevin Costner at all, and I think this film could've been a lot better without him. Dances With Wolves wasn't a bad film, but it I've always thought it was kind of bland. But Wolves gets praised for bringing back the Western genre of film making. Now Goodfellas was up against some tougher competition in the best picture category. The Godfather III or Awakenings could've won the award back then, and Ghost wouldn't have surprised me either, because it was a unique love story.

Still, I think Gangs Of New York should've won over Chicago. That's my pick, and I'm sticking by it.

 

[INDYjon22]

City of God. One of the most beautiful and brilliant films I have ever seen and it wasn't even nominated at the Academy Awards for best picture. I really don't understand how it didn't even get a nomination. It destroyed Pirates of the Caribbean 1 and Lost in Translation. Neither of those films even holds a candle to it. The winner that year was Mystic River, which was a very fine film, but it still wasn't as touching as City of God. City of God is one of those movies that really opens your eyes and helps you to see how ugly some places of the world can be. The characters were so fascinating, and the shots were amazing. It is still just insanely shocking that it wasn't even nominated, when it was so clearly better then the other 5 movies that got chosen over it.

 

[FunKay the Inevitable]

Seven

I'm still shocked to this day that this was only nominated for Best Editing I'll never know. The screenplay was a deep, compelling one with twists and turns that were intelligent. Should have been nominated for that. Its direction was top class from Fincher. What was even more remarkable about the direction is that Fincher's previous foray into film was the failure that was Alien 3. To come back from a semi-disaster like that and produce one of the greatest films of that era is very admirable. I still regard Fincher's directing here as some of the best in the whole of film.

The Acting was also wonderful. Brad Pitt has arguably his best role here. Morgan Freeman really makes his name a global one with this movie. This is the movie that introduces Morgan Freeman to the world. Kevin Spacey is brilliant here (He Would Actually Win the Oscar that year for The Usual Suspects so no complaints there). The film itself had all the components in needed to be an Academy Award winner, it’s only problem was that it was up against Bravehart and the Academy was still sucking up to major film studios (See the Winners in 95, 96 & 98).

 

[LSN80]

Up in The Air

Without giving away any spoilers for those who haven't seen it, it was nominated for Best Picture in 2009. It had George Clooney as a traveling motivational speaker, whose life was spent on an airplane, with no real emotional attachment. Basically, he goes to companies and does what the bosses don't have the spine to do: he fires people, without thinking about the consequences.

This movie was so brilliantly done because it gave me, as a wrestling fan, what I look for in any plot: it tied up every storyline. It did so in a logical way that made sense. I wont say it was a travesty that The Hurt Locker beat it out for film of the year, but plot wise, it was second to none. Each character played their part perfectly, and it played out in a logical, sensible manner. It didnt necessarily have the happy ending for all involved that you would imagine, but thats real life. I guess thats where the appeal was to me, and why i liked it so much, and felt it got the shaft.

It received 6 Academy Award Nominations, including Best Picture, and two Best Supporting Actress Nominations. One went to Vera Farmiga, of "The Departed" fame, as George Clooney's "Love Interest", and the other to Anna Kendrick, who played clooney young upstart partner who develops a "foolproof" plan for firing people without supposedly causing incident or harming them emotionally. Both characters had incredible depth, and yet were convincing as normal, everyday people. It could have easily won all 3 awards, and should have.

 

[ScruffDog]

JAWS

This is without a doubt one of the best movies ever, but when it came to the Academy Award, it fell short to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, also a great movie.

From beginning to end, this movie is entertaining, with no lull. It made an entire generation afraid to go in the water. Even by today’s standards, Jaw is still one of the best movies and will continue to withstand the test of time.