Undeserved Oscar Winners

[Sarge 2.0]

Rex Reed is and always has been a first class moron.

However Vanessa Redgrave is a legendary actress and Howards End is a classic film.

 

[Laderlappen]

but why was she the supporting actress nominee? granted i dont know much about this, and if someone can inform me, by all means please do, but since she's pretty much the only female cast in the film, shouldn't she be in the Best Actress category, or is it because she's pretty much a secondary character?

What? Just because you have the biggest female character in a movie doesnt mean you're lead. Was Maggie Gyllenhaal lead in The Dark Knight? Was Talia Shire lead in The Godfather? What has your gender got to do with being lead or supporting?

 

[Bond]

Alan Arkin winning Best Supporting Actor in Little Miss Sunshine, over Eddie Murphy in Dream Girls. I love Alan Arkin, but there wasn't anything particularly great about his performance in that film, while Eddie in Dream Girls was the performance of his lifetime.

I'm really late to this, but I agree completely. I love Arkin and I loved Little Miss Sunshine, but Eddie Murphy really gave the best performance of his life in Dreamgirls and totally deserved an award.

Also, why do so many people hate Forrest Gump? I loved that movie. I love Pulp Fiction even more, but I don't know if I would call it undeserving for Gump to win.

 

[Sentinel X]

Shakespeare in Love winning Best Picture over Saving Private Ryan. Laughable.

Julia Roberts winning for Erin Brockovich over Ellen Burstyn for Requiem for a Dream.

I agree. Ellen gave an amazing performance and the closing scene of that movie stays with you for quite some time thanks to her. There is NO way Julia Roberts did a better job then her.

I also never thought Julia Roberts was a good actress but whatever.

 

[El Payaso]

I agree. Ellen gave an amazing performance and the closing scene of that movie stays with you for quite some time thanks to her. There is NO way Julia Roberts did a better job then her.

I also never thought Julia Roberts was a good actress but whatever.

 

[Max J Power]

Frankly, the BIGGEST mistake the Oscats ever made was not nominating Shawshank for anything even though it was easily the best movie that year (same year as Forrest Gump I think)

It was nominated for Picture, Actor (Morgan Freeman), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Original Score, and Sound Mixing. It just didn't win anything.

 

[ComicChick]

What? Just because you have the biggest female character in a movie doesnt mean you're lead. Was Maggie Gyllenhaal lead in The Dark Knight? Was Talia Shire lead in The Godfather? What has your gender got to do with being lead or supporting?

that's not what i meant

i mentioned that i wasn't sure how the nominations work for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress in a film. I was only referring to Actress categories, hence that's why i only mentioned females. couldve been applicable to male catergories as well.

what i meant was since she was the main female character in the film, wouldn't she qualify for Best Actress category instead of Supporting Actress?

 

[Laderlappen]

Well no because if you're not lead, you're not lead. Also a movie can have 2 leading characters of the same gender. A movie can also have 0 leading characters.

 

[Rac]

While I haven't seen Shakespeare in Love I have hard time believing it's a better film than The Thin Red Line.

 

[Bruce Banner]

Harrison Ford was great in Witness. But He lost out to William Hurt that year.

Also thought Edward Norton should have at least been nominated for 25th Hour. Probably my favorite performance from him.

 

[dark_b]

I'm not giving Cameron credit for something that's done on a computer. I'll give him credit for how Titanic looks but not Avatar.


Sorry I've not been impressed with anything he's done since T2.

i didnt know that Cameron himself has builded every titanic set in 1996

 

[Evil Twin]

Frankly, the BIGGEST mistake the Oscats ever made was not nominating Shawshank for anything even though it was easily the best movie that year (same year as Forrest Gump I think)

The Academy is innocent on that score. They nominated Shawshank for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor - Morgan Freeman, Score, Editing, Cinematography, and Sound.

 

[Franklin Richards]

While I haven't seen Shakespeare in Love I have hard time believing it's a better film than The Thin Red Line.

It is.


But I'm still astounded by your ignorant assertion.

 

[BlackLantern]

It is.


But I'm still astounded by your ignorant assertion.

I'd have to agree here...Thin Red Line was ok, but wasn't as good as it should have been

we all know that the Oscars are extremely political these days, anyone that wins is usually someone thats been nominated before and the Academy "owes them one" or its something thats expected

 

[Bim]

Shakespeare in Love winning Best Picture over Saving Private Ryan. Laughable.

Julia Roberts winning for Erin Brockovich over Ellen Burstyn for Requiem for a Dream.

Agreed!

 

[Schlosser85]

Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive beat Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List for playing the typical Tommy Lee Jones character, while Fiennes gave was it almost universally acknowledged as one of the great movie performances.

 

[El Payaso]

Undeserved awarding; that's what thje Academy has done for decades so this thread has a lot of material.

 

[BlackLantern]

exactly Payaso...The Hurt Locker SHOULD win Best Picture, but it won't

 

[MOVIELORD101]

What are some actors, actresses, or movies that you feel didn't really deserve to win the Oscars they got?

Not to say that they weren't good, but just not good enough to where they were "Oscarworthy".

Slumdog Millionare
Brokeback Mountain

 

[Franklin Richards]

Hoffman over Hackman?


It's alot harder to portray a racist FBI agent trying to do the right thing in Mississippi than it is playing a ****ing ******.

 

[BlackLantern]

I think you mean "****ing autistic person"

 

[Evil Twin]

Undeserved awarding; that's what thje Academy has done for decades so this thread has a lot of material.

Since the beginning, really.

Although, I do think it's fair to point out that no human institution is perfect. How many truly good presidents have been elected? There's about a third of the Award winners in every decade, including the '00s, that are very defensible, another third that are understandable, and then the headscratchers. The most consistently good decade of pick is probably the 70s. (Or, really, 1969 to 1978.)

I put 1985 Best Director as one of the all time travesties. Sydney Pollock won for Out of Africa. Pollack is a fine director with some really good films on his resume, but Out of Africa isn't his best and wasn't even that well received in 1985.

Here's the nominated competition.

Akira Kurosawa - Ran (An aknowledged masterpiece at that time.)
John Huston - Prizzi's Honor
Peter Weir - Witness
Hector Babenco - Kiss of the Spider-Woman

Any one of those 4 would look better over time and Kurosawa certainly deserved it.

 

[Evil Twin]

Just for fun, here's a list of Best Picture winners. In the spirit of the topic, I'll highlight the ones I consider really egregious.

2008 - “Slumdog Millionaire”
2007 - “No Country for Old Men”
2006 - “The Departed”
2005 - “Crash”
2004 - “Million Dollar Baby”
2003 - “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
2002 - “Chicago”
2001 - “A Beautiful Mind”
2000 - “Gladiator”
1999 - “American Beauty”
1998 - “Shakespeare in Love” (although I do think it's perhaps underrated and Saving Private Ryan a bit overrated. But SiL wasn't the Best Picture of the year.)
1997 - “Titanic” (Understandable though considering voting was in the middle of Titanic mania.)
1996 - “The English Patient”
1995 - “Braveheart”
1994 - “Forrest Gump”
1993 - “Schindler’s List”
1992 - “Unforgiven”
1991 - “The Silence of the Lambs”
1990 - “Dances with Wolves” (good film, Goodfellas is clearly better though.)
1989 - “Driving Miss Daisy”
1988 - “Rain Man”
1987 - “The Last Emperor”
1986 - “Platoon”
1985 - “Out of Africa”
1984 - “Amadeus”
1983 - “Terms of Endearment”
1982 - “Gandhi”
1981 - “Chariots of Fire”
1980 - “Ordinary People” (Not over Raging Bull.)
1979 - “Kramer vs. Kramer”
1978 - “The Deer Hunter”
1977 - “Annie Hall”
1976 - “Rocky” (good film, not better than Network or Taxi Driver or All the President's Men)
1975 - “One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest”
1974 - “The Godfather Part II”
1973 - “The Sting”
1972 - “The Godfather”
1971 - “The French Connection”
1970 - “Patton”
1969 - “Midnight Cowboy”
1968 - “Oliver!”

1967 - “In the Heat of the Night”
1966 - “A Man for All Seasons”
1965 - “The Sound of Music”
1964 - “My Fair Lady”
1963 - “Tom Jones”
1962 - “Lawrence of Arabia”
1961 - “West Side Story”
1960 - “The Apartment”
1959 - “Ben-Hur”
1958 - “Gigi”
1957 - “The Bridge on the River Kwai”
1956 - “Around the World in 80 Days”
1955 - “Marty”
1954 - “On the Waterfront”
1953 - “From Here to Eternity”
1952 - “The Greatest Show on Earth”
1951 - “An American in Paris”
1950 - “All about Eve”
1949 - “All the Kings Men”
1948 - “Hamlet”
1947 - “Gentleman's Agreement”
1946 - “The Best Years of Our Lives”
1945 - “The Lost Weekend”
1944 - “Going My Way”
1943 - “Casablanca”
1942 - “Mrs. Miniver”
1941 - “How Green Was My Valley”
1940 - “Rebecca”
1939 - “Gone with the Wind”
1938 - “You Can't Take It with You”
1937 - “The Life of Emile Zola”
1936 - “The Great Ziegfeld”
1935 - “Mutiny on the Bounty”
1934 - “It Happened One Night”
1932/1933 - “Cavalcade”
1931/1932 - “Grand Hotel”
1930/1931 - “Cimarron”
1929/1930 - “All Quiet on the Western Front”
1928/1929 - “The Broadway Melody”
1927/1928 - “Wings” / "Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans"

 

[M.O.Steel]

edit

 

[Laderlappen]

Titanic was deserving.