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We Wuz Robbed: Six Films That Should Have Won the Oscar—But Didn’t
(Page 2)
Year: 1990
Won: Driving Miss Daisy
Shoulda Won: Do The Right Thing
1990 was an odd year at the Oscars. Driving Miss Daisy, an old-fashioned tale about the growing friendship between an elderly Southern woman (Jessica Tandy) and her African-American chauffeur (Morgan Freeman), was an entirely predictable win for Best Picture. The movie’s genteel handling of the relationship between a white character and her black servant stands in glaring contrast to Spike Lee
Year: 1991
Won: Dances with Wolves
Shoulda Won: GoodFellas
There is no dispute that Goodfellas is one of the greatest movies of all time, and how it did not win Best Picture is still a mystery to movie fans. Martin Scorsese
Year: 1995
Won: Forrest Gump
Should Won: Pulp Fiction
In the late 1990s, it was hard to walk into a movie theater without an uber-violent, non-chronological, multi-character, crime-comedy playing. And for that, we have lifelong movie geek Quentin Tarantino to thank. When Pulp Fiction, his ground-breaking, off-center take on genre conventions, was released in 1994, it set off an almost immediate wave of second-rate imitations. While these movies might have been entertaining in their own right, none featured characters as lively, insightful or three-dimensional as those populating the stylized world of Pulp Fiction. Tarantino’s masterwork is still being discussed in film classes and being ripped off (er, paid homage to) by moviemakers today, while the only person attempting to repeat the success of Robert Zemeckis’ pandering, schmaltzy Forrest Gump is Eric Roth, who wrote the 1994 Oscar-winner as well as the suspiciously similar The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (currently nominated for Best Picture).
Year: 1997
Won: The English Patient
Shoulda Won: Fargo
The Coen brothers
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- 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 1998Won : American Beauty 1999
Should have Won “ The Insider” 1999Worst 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 ReaderThe 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 NoonYear:1964
Won: My Fair Lady
Should Won: Dr Strange LoveYear:1965
Won: The Sound of Music
Should Won: Dr ZhivagoAnd in the most Political robbery in the history of the Oscars
Year: 2003
Won: LOTR: Return of the King
Should Won: Mystic RiverKyle, 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?
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