We Wuz Robbed: Six Films That Should Have Won the Oscar—But Didn’t

by Kyle Rupprecht | Published January 25, 2011

Robert De Niro stars in Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull.

Every Academy Awards season the airwaves and chat rooms are abuzz with movie fans complaining about the Oscar winners—especially for Best Picture. When the envelope is ripped open and the Best Picture winner is announced there is bound to be an outcry. That’s part of the fun: After every Oscar ceremony there is always room for argument, discussion, even controversy.

In the past 40 years of the Oscars, however, there have been a number of occasions when the outcry and controversy have been totally justified, when the most deserving movie of the year was left on the sidelines.

MM would like to remember and honor six movies that should have won the Best Picture Oscar but lost (five of these pictures at least received a nomination; one—Do the Right Thing—didn’t even receive that honor). These are bold, original, challenging movies that have stood the test of time; they are still enjoyed, studied, discussed and cared about. The actual Best Picture winners? Not so much. The moviemakers behind these overlooked gems should have demanded a recount.

Year: 1977
Won: Rocky
Shoulda Won: Taxi Driver
1976 was a great year for movies. All the Best Pic nominees, which included All The President’s Men, Bound for Glory and Network, were worthy opponents. Yet, it was the crowd-pleasing, rags-to-riches tale of a little boxer-who-could named Rocky that knocked out the competition. The winner of this bout, however, shoulda been Taxi Driver. Where Rocky is unabashedly sentimental and hopeful, Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver is a dark, unforgettable journey into the mind of a disturbed anti-hero, Travis Bickle (played by Robert De Niro). With its detached protagonist, unexpected bursts of bloodshed and ambiguous ending, the movie probably confused and unnerved the Academy. After 30 years, Taxi Driver is generally regarded as one of the greatest movies of all time, a breakthrough for Scorsese, De Niro and writer Paul Schrader. It remains a thought-provoking character study of a lonely man caught in a nightmare of violence. While Rocky remains a crowd-pleasing, feel-good movie, it is the harrowing Taxi Driver that remains lodged in the viewer’s psyche, firmly refusing to let go.

Year: 1981
Won: Ordinary People
Shoulda Won: Raging Bull
Scorsese, De Niro and Schrader were shut out yet again for their second acclaimed collaboration, Raging Bull, the true story of angry, self-destructive boxer Jake La Motta’s rise and fall. With the impact of a flurry of uppercuts, Raging Bull, shot in stark black-and-white, proved to be the polar opposite of the crowd-pleasing Rocky. Perhaps not surprisingly, Oscar favorite Robert Redford’s directorial debut, Ordinary People, about a grief-stricken family, brought home the gold. With De Niro’s volatile performance and Scorsese’s brutal boxing sequences, Raging Bull may have been too much for voters in 1980 to handle, so they chose the more stately and conventional nominee. While a fine movie, Ordinary People today seems like a middleweight outmatched by the brute power and heft of Raging Bull. Nowadays, when critics pick the best movies of the 1980s, Raging Bull is the number one choice.

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Comment by Buddesatva on 2/22/09 at 10:12 pm

I think about this from time to time watching TCM. Many wonderful film were not ‘awarded’ but their entertainment value and the impact of the performances qualifies them beyond Oscars. Twentieth Century is outstanding in all the ways that you want a movie to be. It was not the face that the Academy wanted to present but that is some kind of film and it will be one hundred years from today.

Comment by Paul on 2/22/09 at 10:44 pm

Year 1982 Won Gandhi
Shouldda won E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
The heartwarming E.T. Is the movie we remember. Who watches Gandhi or even remembers it?

Comment by Dan on 2/22/09 at 10:51 pm

I watched the Oscars ritually for nearly 20 years until 1998. The year that Saving Private Ryan lost to Shakespeare in Love was the last time I watched.

Comment by jacob on 2/22/09 at 11:05 pm

I know I’m in the minority, here, but ‘Raging Bull,’ IMO, is a disgusting movie, about disgusting people.. Every single character is utterly disgusting, including Cathy Moriarity’s character… I never understood the fascination with that movie..

Meanwhile, ‘Ordinary People’ is one of the more memorable films I have ever seen… Including one of the most complex and moving female characters, and one of the finest performances I’ve ever seen by a woman, on film (Mary Tyler Moore)..

Comment by lawyer on 2/22/09 at 11:37 pm

I could not agree more about the wrong movies getting oscarized. However, look at the Nobel Prize for literature and you will find that statistically Scandinavian language authors are overly represented.
That Churchill won a Nobel Prize for literature in 1953 is an ironic confirmation of: “get a committee and get it wrong”.

Comment by Nathan on 2/22/09 at 11:48 pm

Let’s add (movie years, not oscar years)

1997: LA Confidential should have beat Titanic
2001: Gosford Park should have beat A Beautiful Mind

Comment by Autumn on 2/23/09 at 12:02 am

Won: Shakespeare in Love 1998
Should have Won: Saving Prvate Ryan 1998

Won : American Beauty 1999
Should have Won “ The Insider” 1999

Worst two years ever in Oscar History.

Comment by Rob on 2/23/09 at 12:29 am

Kyle really must like kissing Martin Scorsese’s ring because three of the six films here were by Marty.

And come on, “Pulp Fiction” for Best Picture? Anything Tarantino makes is mindless kleenex - one use and you’re done with it. I’ve yet to see one iota of Oscar filmmaking from Quentin and I doubt I’ll ever see it in my lifetime.

How is the author of this article? Did he even seriously look at anything beyond 1970? Did he even know that there were TWELVE nominees for Best Picture in 1934? Who got robbed there?

The only true robbery & travesty in Oscars history: Not giving Alfred Hitchcock a statue. Ever.

Comment by lulu on 2/23/09 at 12:33 am

1997: Best movie that never received a nod was Amistad. Definitely beat out the hokey Titanic in writing, acting (IMO the only “miss” by DiCaprio), and impact. The only thing Titanic had was awesome special effects.

Comment by drew on 2/23/09 at 1:02 am

Hitchcock won for Rebecca (1940).. The biggest travesty in Oscar history is Gregory Peck (To Kill a Mockingbird) edging out Peter O’Toole (Lawrence of Arabia) for best actor, in 1962..

Probably the finest acting performance ever committed to celluloid..

Comment by Joseph on 2/24/09 at 4:34 pm

ALL RIGHT YOU LIKE SCORSESE WE GET IT!!! (j/k)

How bout this one....

Year: 2009
Won: Slumdog Millionaire
Shoulda Won: The Reader

The Reader was one of the most powerful, evocative and mature love stories ever told. It will make you think about things that very few films that come out each year are able to make you ponder. It is complicated emotionally, and morally, it is heart breaking, and it is beautiful. But above all it is the most honest piece of art to come out this past year.

Slumdog was a really fun film that I truly loved, but it is a typical sentimental life affirming fairy tale, like the hundreds that have come before it, and will come after it, every single year. I am sorry if this sounds harsh but this film shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same sentence as The Reader.

I think in year or two most people will “sober up” on this film and it will not be remembered. Much like Chicago, The English Patient, or all those cookie cutter musicals that won in the 60’s (That last comment does not include West Side Story).

Comment by Joseph on 2/24/09 at 4:41 pm

Drew, Alfred Hitchcock did not win the Academy award for directing Rebecca in 1940, he never won the award.

John Ford won his second of five oscars in 1940 for directing the Grapes of Wrath.

Comment by Joseph on 2/24/09 at 5:01 pm

and While I am at it .....

Year:1952
Won: The Greatist Show on Earth
Should Won: High Noon

Year:1964
Won: My Fair Lady
Should Won: Dr Strange Love

Year:1965
Won: The Sound of Music
Should Won: Dr Zhivago

And in the most Political robbery in the history of the Oscars

Year: 2003
Won: LOTR: Return of the King
Should Won: Mystic River

Kyle, I could not agree more about 1997

Comment by amy on 5/10/09 at 11:29 pm

I’m extremely surprised no one has mentioned the dismissal of Gran Torino, one of the biggest travesties of the 21st Century.
God Bless ye, Mr. Eastwood.

Comment by Arian Raeisi on 7/29/09 at 7:28 pm

The Oscars disappoint me every year. There are many great films that have not been acknowledged. Hitchcock the greatest director of all time got awarded only ONCE for REbecca. ill name just a FEW movies that shoulda won (there are too many rejected films and i can’t name ‘em all):

1932:Scarface
1956: searchers
1958: Vertigo
1968: Once upon a time in the west or space odyssey
1976: taxi driver
1980:raging bull
1984: Once upon a time in America (excellent film)
1994: The SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (Not Pulp Fiction. Shawshank is far ahead!)

Comment by Joseph on 7/29/09 at 9:10 pm

HITCHCOCK NEVER WON THE ACADEMY AWARD!!!

NOT FOR REBECCA, NOT EVER!

David O Selznick, the producer, took hom the statue that night.

And suggesting anything should have won over Amadues (in 1984) is a sin. Amandeus is as close to perfect as cinema can get, its by far the best film of the 1980’s.

Couldn’t agree more on 1968(2001). Don’t know how I missed that one.

Comment by Erin on 8/15/09 at 4:48 pm

I can agree with some of these movies...but to say that Forrest Gump shouldn’t have won?? Still one of the most memorable movies, Tom Hanks was amazing.

Comment by joey on 10/05/09 at 9:22 pm

I thought Fargo should have beat out The English Patient. Fargo had an incredible script, excellent characterizations, phenomenal acting—even the cinematography and music were perfect (it has one of the best opening credits scenes in movies.) The story worked on so many levels. It was a mystery, black comedy, tragedy—a great, complex story about good versus evil. I was shocked, actually, that it didn’t win.

Comment by Dance Floors on 11/23/10 at 2:47 pm

It is events like these that cause me to question the fairness and bias of these awards. At the same time though, it seems that many films, once their time has past, become more popular...am I the only one seeing this trend?

We Wuz Robbed: Six Films That Should Have Won the Oscar—But Didn’t

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