Listomania Sunday: Best Picture Winners Since 1970

Well my blog is coming to an end.  So here are my favorite Best Picture Winners since 1970. Why since 1970 because that was the halfway point in my quest.  If you want to see the list for the first that list is here.  Listomania Sunday: Oscars

1.  Silence of the Lambs- One of only the few movies to win all 5 top Oscars and one of the only thrillers to win Best Picture. Doesn't get much better then Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter.
2.  Schidnlers List - One of the most moving and inspiring films of the last 30 years. Spielberg at his best. 
3.  The Godfather- A true masterpiece. 
4.  The Hurt Locker- Even though it is a recent movie I think it deserves to be on this list. Very well done with high intensity all the way through. 
5.  American Beauty- One of my favorite movies in one of my favorite years. 1999 was a great year for movies and while most critics and my dad hate this movie I still find something about it very good.

The Kings Speech

I can't believe I made it. The final movie in my Best Picture quest. There were so many times I thought about just giving up on it but I made it through. My wife will be happy now since she thought this was a waste of my time.

For the second year in a row there were 10 nominees for Best Picture and 2010 was a good year. And for the first time (and probably the last time) I managed to see all the movies nominated for Best Picture before the nominations were announced. Coming into Oscar night there were two movies battling it out for the top spot. The Social Network and The King's Speech. The Social Network won almost every critic award but when the award season really kicked in The King's Speech started winning all the awards so it was anyone's guess who would win the top prize. But The King's Speech ended up winning.

The Kings Speech is about King George VI or Bertie (Colin Firth) as he was known to his friends before he became king. Bertie who always had a stutter is thrust in the spotlight as radio became more popular in the 30's and monarchs needed to make speeches that went out to a larger population. Being embarrassed by a speech he had given and numerous failures with speech therapist he wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) seeks out the help of the unconventional doctor Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). As Logue challenges everything Bertie has heard from previous doctors Bertie becomes disillusioned and things Logue is just a hack. At the same time Bertie's older brother who is next in line to become king is fooling around with a number of married women and is told he must stop before he becomes king. But after their father dies and he is crowned King he refuses to change and is forced to renounce the throne. This makes Bertie next in line to become King and he turns to Logue to help him. As he works with Logue he learns tricks to help him and when WWII starts and he needs to make a big radio address about the war Logue is by his side helping him.

The movie is funny, inspirational, and uplifting which is a change of pace from the dark gritty films that had won in the oughts. It had great performances especially Geoffrey Rush. He brought so much personality to his character and really gave the movie the comedy to balance the drama. Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter were both great in their roles also. While it was a good movie it was very formulaic and felt like a typical Oscar movie. I also felt one of the more interesting parts of the story was rushed and that was the story of Renouncement of the throne. It was the first time a King of England gave up his throne. And after when Bertie becomes King he even says that this is the first time a King has taken a throne while the previous King is alive and well.

I would have liked to see the more modern tale of The Social Network win or even better the twisted Inception win. The Social Network told the true story of Mark Zuckerberg and his rise to power after he started Facebook. The movie written by Aaron Sorkin with his typical rapid fire dialogue (he deservingly won Best Adapted Screenplay) and with a main character that was both sympathetic and ruthless. I felt the complicated characters that made this movie more interesting instead of the cookie cutter characters from The King's Speech . An even more bold choice for Best Picture would have been Inception which was written and directed by Christopher Nolan and told the story about a group of people who try to implant a thought into someone's head while they are asleep. The movie is also well acted and very original. But I think most Academy voters just didn't get it and only ended up winning 4 technical awards. And its loss to the King's Speech for Best Original Screenplay was a big snub in my opinion. I feel it should have went to the movie that really was original and creative.

The biggest snub in my opinion was the omission of Waiting for Super from the Best Documentary nominees. It was about the education system in America and how it needs to be improved. It was a great documentary and won a bunch of awards prior to the Academy Awards but was not even nominated. It has been speculated that its portrayal of Unions as bad made it hard for the members of the Academy (most who are members of one union or another) to vote for it. The other movie that I thought should have been nominated was Blue Valentine. Which featured great performances by Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams (she did get a Best Actress Nomination) as a married couple who are trying to save their marriage. The movie is sad and depressing but really has an emotional impact. Also Subbed was Mila Kunis as Best Supporting Actress for Black Swan. As rival to Best Actress Winner Natalie Portman she was a great villain and was one of the standout performances of the year.

Current Ranks on IMDB Top 250 for Best Picture nominated Films
Inception- #12
Toy Story 3- #29
The Black Swan-#123
The King's Speech-127
The Social Network-#236

The Hurt Locker

The little movie that could. The Hurt Locker went up against the highest grossing movie of all time and came out the victor. After a lot of criticism in 2008 for movies that get left off the Best Picture nominations (specifically The Dark Knight) the Academy decided to increase the number of Best Picture nominations to 10 in 2009. And it did what I think the Academy intended it to do, get a mix of small independent films with large blockbusters. Movies that would not otherwise be nominated like the sci-fi flick District 9, the animated movie Up, and the sports drama The Blind Side got a chance at glory. But the big showdown was between Avatar the highest grossing movie of all time vs. The Hurt Locker a small independent film and two directors that used to be married Kathryn Bigelow and James Cameron, with the Hurt Locker and Kathryn Bigelow coming out on top.

The Hurt Locker is about an elite bomb squad in Iraq. When a new leader SFC William James (Jeremy Renner) joins Bravo Company his leadership style causes conflict with his two subordinates, Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Eldridge (Brian Geraghty). His aggressive style goes against what they have been used too. Every call poses new problems and new bombs and they must try to figure out a way to work together to live. Meanwhile Eldridge is dealing with guilt for the death of their former leader.

 What makes this movie work is the intensity. Each bomb they are called out to defuse brings a new heightened sense of anxiety. The acting is great. Jeremy Renner is just pitch perfect as James. He is all gung ho without concern for his own safety and sometimes the safety of others. What I love about this movie besides all the suspense is that it feels real. Every character is believable. Each has their own psychiatric issues and they all feel multidimensional. The movie is very minimalist having very little score and no opening titles. It proves that you don't need a big budget to make a great movie.

On the flip side of that is Avatar, which proves that if you have a big budget doesn't mean you will have a great movie. I was surprised after the awards were announced how many people just assumed that Avatar would win. While Avatar did have some amazing special effects and great visuals the story was kind of bland. While the characters in The Hurt Locker felt well rounded in Avatar they felt very one dimensional (ironic since the movie was filmed in 3-D). It bothered me that everyone would assume that it would win without ever seeing The Hurt Locker.

 I was pleasantly surprised to see District 9 nominated for Best Picture as it was one of the most original Sci-Fi movies I had seen in a while. I am also glad Precious got nominated for Best Picture I just wish it would have received more attention as it was a dark, disturbing but incredibly well acted movie. With all the attention Kathryn Bigelow received about being the first women to win Best Director there was hardly any mention that Lee Daniels was only the second black man to be nominated. Not surprisingly The Hangover one of the funniest movies of the year didn't get nominated. The biggest snub in my opinion was The Lovely Bones which was one of my favorite movies of the year and deserved more nominations.

Oscar Trivia:

With her nomination for Best Actress for Julie and Julia Meryl Streep broke the record with 13 nominations for a leading role and a total of 16 nominations total.

Avatar and Up became the first 3-D movies to be nominated for Best Picture

On a personal note this is the first movie to win Best Picture since I started my Best Picture quest. Here is the link to my original review The Hurt Locker