Oscar Quest!

Posted by Benjamin Roudenis on March 9, 2010 Leave a comment (5) Go to comments

I’m on a quest. An Oscar Quest! I’ve decided I’ll track my attempt to watch every Academy Award for Best Motion Picture winner. Watched in bold. Comments will contain spoilers!

  1. Wings
  2. The Broadway Melody
  3. All Quiet on the Western Front
  4. Cimarron
  5. Grand Hotel
  6. Cavalcade
  7. It Happened One Night
  8. Mutiny on the Bounty
  9. The Great Ziegfeld
  10. The Life of Émile Zola
  11. You Can’t Take It With You
  12. Gone with the Wind
  13. Rebecca
  14. How Green Was My Valley
  15. Mrs. Miniver
  16. Casablanca
  17. Going My Way
  18. The Lost Weekend
  19. The Best Years of Our Lives
  20. Gentleman’s Agreement
  21. Hamlet
  22. All the King’s Men
  23. All about Eve
  24. An American in Paris
  25. The Greatest Show on Earth
  26. From Here to Eternity
  27. On the Waterfront
  28. Marty
  29. Around the World in 80 Days
  30. The Bridge on the River Kwai
  31. Gigi
  32. Ben-Hur
  33. The Apartment
  34. West Side Story
  35. Lawrence of Arabia
  36. Tom Jones
  37. My Fair Lady
  38. The Sound of Music
  39. A Man for All Seasons
  40. In the Heat of the Night
  41. Oliver!
  42. Midnight Cowboy
  43. Patton
  44. The French Connection
  45. The Godfather
  46. The Sting
  47. The Godfather Part II
  48. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
  49. Rocky
  50. Annie Hall
  51. The Deer Hunter
  52. Kramer vs. Kramer
  53. Ordinary People
  54. Chariots of Fire
  55. Gandhi
  56. Terms of Endearment
  57. Amadeus
  58. Out of Africa
  59. Platoon
  60. The Last Emperor
  61. Rain Man
  62. Driving Miss Daisy
  63. Dances With Wolves
  64. The Silence of the Lambs
  65. Unforgiven
  66. Schindler’s List
  67. Forrest Gump
  68. Braveheart
  69. The English Patient
  70. Titanic
  71. Shakespeare in Love
  72. American Beauty
  73. Gladiator
  74. A Beautiful Mind
  75. Chicago
  76. The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King
  77. Million Dollar Baby
  78. Crash
  79. The Departed
  80. No Country for Old Men
  81. Slumdog Millionaire
  82. The Hurt Locker
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5 Comments.

  1. Benjamin Roudenis May 2, 2010 at 5:09 pm

    To date I have seen 27 of the 82 movies winning the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture, a surprising 32%. They are:

    West Side Story (1961), My Fair Lady (1964), The Sound of Music (1965), Oliver! (1968), Patton (1970), The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part II (1974), Rocky (1976), Chariots of Fire (1981), Platoon (1986), Rain Man (1988), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Forrest Gump (1994), Braveheart (1995), Titanic (1997), Shakespeare in Love (1998), Gladiator (2000), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Chicago (2002), The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King (2003), Million Dollar Baby (2004), Crash (2005), The Departed (2006), No Country for Old Men (2007), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), and The Hurt Locker (2009).

    Not surprisingly my numbers are concentrated around more recent movies, having seen each of the last ten winners, and 18 of the last 24. The oldest Best Picture winner I have seen to date is West Side Story (1961).

    My favorites on the list so far: Patton (1970), Forrest Gump (1994), Braveheart (1995), Gladiator (2000), The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King (2003), The Departed (2006), No Country for Old Men (2007), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), and The Hurt Locker (2009).

    Biggest surprise: Shakespeare in Love (1998). Seriously? This movie beat Saving Private Ryan, among others I would say were far more deserving.

    I’ll continue to add movies as I see them. I don’t have a deadline, I expect it will take a few years to see them all.

  2. Benjamin Roudenis May 2, 2010 at 6:31 pm

    Today I watched On the Waterfront (1954).

    Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

    Best moment: The speech delivered by Karl Malden as Father Barry after the “accidental” death of Kayo Dugan.

    Some people think the Crucifixion only took place on Calvary. They better wise up. Taking Joey Doyle’s life to stop him from testifying is a crucifixion. And dropping a sling on Kayo Dugan because he was ready to spill his guts tomorrow, that’s a crucifixion. And every time the mob puts the crusher on a good man, tries to stop him from doing his duty as a citizen, it’s a crucifixion. And anybody who sits around and lets it happen, keeps silent about something he knows has happened, shares the guilt of it just as much as the Roman soldier who pierced the flesh of Our Lord to see if He was dead.

    You want to know what’s wrong with our waterfront? It’s the love of a lousy buck. It’s making the love of the lousy buck, the cushy job, more important than the love of man. It’s forgetting that every fellow down here is your brother in Christ! But remember, Christ is always with you, Christ is in the shape up. He’s in the hatch. He’s in the union hall. He’s kneeling right here beside Dugan. And He’s saying with all of you, if you do it to the least of mine, you do it to me. And what they did to Joey, and what they did to Dugan, they’re doing to you. And you. You. All of you. And only you, only you with God’s help, have the power to knock ‘em off for good. Okay, Kayo? Amen.

    Most surprising moment: Whenever I watch a movie with a famously over-quoted line, that line usually sticks out like a sore thumb, and I can’t help but chuckle. There are few lines more famous than “I coulda been a contender,” but surprisingly it fits smoothly into the middle of a fairly well-acted scene.

  3. Benjamin Roudenis May 16, 2010 at 9:06 pm

    Today I watched One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975), the movie that shows you can take a completely normal person, put them in a mental institution and treat them like they are crazy, and force them to lose their minds. It was, in my opinion, largely predictable and about 45 minutes too long.

    Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

    Best moment: When McMurphy breaks and attacks Nurse Ratched.

    Most surprising moment: When Chief suffocates McMurphy. I did not see that coming. It probably seemed more surprising because everything else in the movie was so predictable.

  4. Benjamin Roudenis July 11, 2010 at 4:46 pm

    Today I watched Schindler’s List (1993).

    Rating: 3 out of 5 stars.

    Best moment: The scene at the end where Schindler is overcome by his feelings that he could have saved many more people than he did, surprisingly the only time in the 3+ hour movie where two of the lead actors deliver spectacular performances in the same scene.

    Most surprising moment: While Liam Neeson, Ben Kingsley, and Ralph Fiennes each turn in praise-worthy performances that carry the movie on their own for long stretches at a time, there is only one scene (mentioned above) where two of them do it at the same time.

  5. Benjamin Roudenis July 14, 2010 at 9:54 pm

    A note on the ratings:

    I get my movies from Netflix, so I use the same 5 star rating system, because I don’t want to think that hard about it. No “half stars,” no “no stars,” just 1-2-3-4-5. Easy.

    I will not take the time to write reviews of the movies I had already seen as of the first post, so I decided to go ahead and add my rating up in the page and not just in the comments.

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