Now more often than not, I think that the movies winning Best Picture at the Oscars are great movies and mostly deserving ones too, but it is rare that I really and fully agree with the Best Picture winner, meaning that it was definitely the best of its year.

Now a good example for me is Titanic. I love that film and in most other years, it would have been a fully deserving winner, but sadly it had to go up against L.A. Confidential which I consider to be a better film in some regards, so despite thinking that Titanic by itself is a deserving winner, it is no a BP winner I fully agree with.


So what are the rare cases of Best Picture-winning films that you absolutely agree with getting the award?


Mine would be:

Platoon
Schindler's List
Forrest Gump
Gladiator
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Departed

Best Picture winners that I think are the best of the year:

The Return of the King
The Godfather
Casablanca

Best Picture winners that I think are the best of the five nominees:

The Departed
The Silence of the Lambs
Ben-Hur

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
American Beauty
Schindler's List
Amadeus
The Deer Hunter
The Godfather
Ben-Hur

most others (Titanic, Forrest Gump, etc.) are great but there are other movies those years that are as good or better

The Godfather and The Departed no doubt are amongst the members, others include Gladiator, Casablanca, and Lawrence of Arabia. But the one I agree with the most that some question is One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, to me the best film of all time.

One I semi-agree with is Forrest Gump as it is to me equal to Shawshank Redemption.

Very few.
The Godfather's, All About Eve, Casablanca, Schindler's List, and probably some others.

NOT LotR or the Departed.

Best of the 5 nominees or best of the year?

Best of the whole year... the only ones would be Schindler's List, maybe The Last Emperor, Amadeus, Lawrence of Arabia, West Side Story, Casablanca, Mutiny On The Bounty.

Best of the 5 (or more) nominees would add Return of the King, Titanic, Platoon, Patton, Midnight Cowboy, The Sound Of Music, Ben-Hur, Rebecca, All Quiet On The Western Front.

The Departed
American Beauty
Schindler's List
The Silence of the Lambs
Driving Miss Daisy
The Godfather
The Godfather: Part II
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The Apartment
Lawrence of Arabia

Departed
ROTK
Gladiator

The Departed - '06
American Beauty - '99
Schindler's List - '93
Unforgiven - '92
Rain Man - '88
Platoon - '86
Amadeus - '84
The Deer Hunter - '78
Rocky - '76
The Godfather Part II - '74
The Sting - '73
The Godfather - '72
The French Connection - '71
Patton - '70
Midnight Cowboy - '69

*Cutting it off here because I haven't seen many of the other films nominated (Outside of the one's that won) to make a fair enough selection. *

So 15 in the last 38 years. They got most of the picks right in the '70s (Jaws, Star Wars, and Apocalypse Now, should've won) and then they begin to become more spread out. The Departed is the only one they've got right this decade.

There are also films that I think deserved to win, but weren't exactly the best film of that year or out of the five nominees. For instance I thought Million Dollar Baby deserved it and was happy when it won, but Sideways was the better film (I think I need to update my '04 list). Same with Silence of the Lambs. It deserved the win, but JFK was the better film.

Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King
Schindler's List
The Last Emperor
Platoon (maybe, need to rewatch Blue Velvet)
The Deer Hunter
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (Jaws is great, Barry Lyndon is undervalued, but no comparison)
The Godfather: Part II
The Godfather
Lawrence Of Arabia
Bridge On The River Kwai
On The Waterfront
Hamlet
The Lost Weekend
Casablanca
Rebecca
It Happened One Night
All Quiet On The Western Front

Might seem like a lot, but it really isn't. On average, that's what, one film every seven years?

i usually agree with the winners but these are the ones i don't.
(winner in astrick -
my choice in bold)

1977 (50th)
BEST PICTURE
* Annie Hall -- Charles H. Joffe, Producer
The Goodbye Girl -- Ray Stark, Producer
Julia -- Richard Roth, Producer
Star Wars -- Gary Kurtz, Producer
The Turning Point -- Herbert Ross and Arthur Laurents, Producers

1985 (58th)
BEST PICTURE
The Color Purple -- Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Quincy Jones, Producers
Kiss of the Spider Woman -- David Weisman, Producer
* Out of Africa -- Sydney Pollack, Producer
Prizzi's Honor -- John Foreman, Producer
Witness -- Edward S. Feldman, Producer


1998 (71st)
BEST PICTURE
Elizabeth -- Alison Owen, Eric Fellner and Tim Bevan, Producers
Life Is Beautiful -- Elda Ferri and Gianluigi Braschi, Producers
Saving Private Ryan -- Steven Spielberg, Ian Bryce, Mark Gordon and Gary Levinsohn, Producers
* Shakespeare in Love -- David Parfitt, Donna Gigliotti, Harvey Weinstein, Edward Zwick and Marc Norman, Producers
The Thin Red Line -- Robert Michael Geisler, John Roberdeau and Grant Hill, Producers


2001 (74th)
BEST PICTURE
* A Beautiful Mind -- Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, Producers
Gosford Park -- Robert Altman, Bob Balaban and David Levy, Producers
In the Bedroom -- Graham Leader, Ross Katz and Todd Field, Producers
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring -- Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Barrie M. Osborne, Producers
Moulin Rouge -- Martin Brown, Baz Luhrmann and Fred Baron, Producers

2005 (78th)
BEST PICTURE
Brokeback Mountain -- Diana Ossana and James Schamus, Producers
Capote -- Caroline Baron, William Vince and Michael Ohoven, Producers
* Crash -- Paul Haggis and Cathy Schulman, Producers
Good Night, and Good Luck. -- Grant Heslov, Producer
Munich -- Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg and Barry Mendel, Producers

rarely, if ever. i don't really have a strong enough background in film that is much older than i am, so it makes thinking about it sort of hopeless.

I meant best of the whole year

You liked The Last Emperor? I thought it was a bit dull...

Brokeback Mountain... oh, wait...


now seriously. Best Pictures of that year:

American Beauty
Titanic
The Silence of the Lambs
Ordinary People
Annie Hall

I guess that's it for 30 years.. I could also put movies like Forrest Gump, The English Patient, Amadeus, Kramer vs. Kramer, etc. that are extremely close to the top spot, but yeah. These are the ones I'm REALLY happy they won.

I just wanted to say that after seeing Midnight Cowboy, even 38 years later I have to give all the props in the world to the academy for awarding it and its X rating, especially when Butch Cassidy was sitting right there as the all too obvious safe choice. Maybe the most guts they've ever had with a decision. The Academy screws up sometimes... but they did a good thing there. What a beautiful movie.

Amadeus
Schindler's List
Forrest Gump
Titanic
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

That's it. Brokeback Mountain should've won in '05 and LMS should've won in '06.

2003: ROTK
1999:American Beauty
1995:Braveheart
1994:Forrest Gump
1993: Schindler's List
1990: Dances with wolves
1984: Amadeus
1976:Rocky
1972: The godfather
1971:The French Connection
1970: Patton
1962:Lawrence of Arabia
1959: Ben-Hur
1939: Gone with the wind

Braveheart
Forrest Gump
The Departed
Titanic
The Return of the King
Dances With Wolves
Gladiator
One flew over the Cuckoo's Nest