As another Oscar season rolled around and with it a slight post-Christmas slowdown in my reviewing duties, I decided it was time to finally do something about all those Best Picture winners that remained unfamiliar to me. The plan was to view every film that won the Academy Award for Best Picture, as close to chronologically as possible, in under a year. Relying on both my public library's cultural savvy and a DVD collection whose contents could all stand to be revisited, I began my journey on January 31, 2010. Many of the films in the first weeks were ones whose titles you'd probably only recognize from having studied an Oscar winners list. Eventually, though, one hits the well-remembered and still highly celebrated classics: It Happened One Night, Gone with the Wind, etc.
The project, as I saw it, would shed less light on the films presently hailed as cinema's greatest and more on the ones that stood out to their very first audiences. It would also give me an opportunity to reassess some of the many instantly heralded films that did little for me in past viewings.
Fifteen films and 2½ months in, I can already declare this project supremely educational. I now have performances to go with the famous names that often arise in discussions of classic Hollywood. I've gotten to see new sides of actors I only knew from their most iconic roles. And even in just sampling one distinguished film per year (or two, with my occassional "Appealing Alternative" extra credit), a fuller picture of cinema's ever-expanding styles and interests is forming before my eyes.
Believing this film history too rich not to share with fellow cinema fans, I've put together these pages for each of the viewed Best Picture subjects. Each provides background information, a brief story synopsis, a modern critical view, and the context with which the film should be considered. There are screencaps, posters, credits, and run-throughs of DVD releases (with links to buy, should you be so inclined). I hope these articles can shed light on the many obscure winners you're probably as unfamiliar with as I was. And on the films that you've likely seen, perhaps I can provide some new perspective. Enjoy...
 | 1. Wings (1927) (UPDATED!)
2. The Broadway Melody (1929)
3. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
4. Cimarron (1931)
5. Grand Hotel (1932)
6. Cavalcade (1933)
7. It Happened One Night (1934)
8. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
9. The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
10. The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
11. You Can't Take It With You (1938)
12. Gone With the Wind (1939)
13. Rebecca (1940) (NEW!)
14. How Green Was My Valley (1941)
15. Mrs. Miniver (1942)
16. Casablanca (1943)
17. Going My Way (1944)
18. The Lost Weekend (1945)
19. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
20. Gentleman's Agreement (1947)
21. Hamlet (1948)
22. All the King's Men (1949)
23. All About Eve (1950)
24. An American in Paris (1951)
25. The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
26. From Here to Eternity (1953)
27. On the Waterfront (1954)
28. Marty (1955)
29. Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
30. Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
31. Gigi (1958)
32. Ben-Hur (1959)
33. The Apartment (1960)
34. West Side Story (1961)
35. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
36. Tom Jones (1963)
37. My Fair Lady (1964)
38. The Sound of Music (1965)
39. A Man for All Seasons (1966)
40. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
41. Oliver! (1968)
42. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
43. Patton (1970)
44. The French Connection (1971)
45. The Godfather (1972)
46. The Sting (1973)
47. The Godfather, Part II (1974)
48. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
49. Rocky (1976)
50. Annie Hall (1977)
51. The Deer Hunter (1978)
52. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
53. Ordinary People (1980)
54. Chariots of Fire (1981)
55. Gandhi (1982)
56. Terms of Endearment (1983)
57. Amadeus (1984)
58. Out of Africa (1985)
59. Platoon (1986)
60. The Last Emperor (1987)
61. Rain Man (1988)
62. Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
63. Dances With Wolves (1990)
64. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
65. Unforgiven (1992)
66. Schindler's List (1993)
67. Forrest Gump (1994)
68. Braveheart (1995)
69. The English Patient (1996)
70. Titanic (1997)
71. Shakespeare in Love (1998)
72. American Beauty (1999)
73. Gladiator (2000)
74. A Beautiful Mind (2001)
75. Chicago (2002)
76. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)
77. Million Dollar Baby (2004)
78. Crash (2005)
79. The Departed (2006)
80. No Country for Old Men (2007)
81. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
82. The Hurt Locker (2009) |
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