My Pick For The Ten Best Academy Award Winning Films~Pass The Popcorn Please!
Mar 02 '06 (Updated Mar 10 '06)
The Bottom Line These movies are the best of the best, in my humble opinion that is.
With the Academy awards just around the corner I thought I’d write about my top ten favorite award-winning movies in years past. Most of these received quite a few of this highest honor but a few only had one or two … regardless, they are winners and deserved that most highly coveted recognition, in my humble opinion of course…So without any further ado here is my list of the best of the best.
Get the Statues ready, my winners are:
One... Gone with the Wind 1939
I just happened to be channel surfing the other night and found this ultimate classic film playing…I was instantly caught up in this tale of love, war and obsession once again...This movie won 10 academy awards and it certainly can be said it was deserving…Ultimately the story is about a very spoiled girl, Scarlett O’Hara, (Vivien Leigh) whose families fortune takes a turn for the worse when the civil war wrecks havoc on her life and her family loses everything due to the war … At the same time she falls for the man she just can’t have…He, Ashley Wilkes, (Leslie Howard) is going to marry her cousin, Melanie Hamilton (Olivia de Havilland), and Scarlett will do anything to stop it though she is not successful and the marriage takes place…At the same time Rhett Butler, (Clark Gable) meets and becomes totally fascinated by this very spirited, spoiled girl, who, in the long run, ends up to be brave as well as undaunting…Butler is very wealthy and when they finally do get together, things do not run smoothly due to many unfortunate circumstances….When she does eventually realize it is him she wants it’s way to late….Who doesn’t remember that most famous line, “Frankly my dear I don’t give a damn” when she admits she needs and wants him…Then her last line, “There’s always tomorrow”…Her fight will continue as she decides to go back to Tara, her Plantation ..She will try to, no I take that back she WILL, rebuild both, her life and home…She is the perfect definition of stubborn determination.
Two... The Godfather 1972
Who in this day and age hasn’t seen this epic saga of the most famous fictional crime family, the Corleone’s…Marlon Brando is the Godfather…He’s heads the Mafia family in the 1940’s after he finds crime the solution to all his families financial needs… But, that is just the beginning. This movie so brilliantly portrays the ruthlessness of what the Mafia became and how his families involvement grew to the extend that it did, from his sons, Sonny, (James Caan), Alfredo, (John Cazele) and ultimately the next Godfather, Michael, (Al Pacino)...Michael, a war hero who was not supposed be involved in the crime aspect of his family, goes on to be the most ruthless. There are so many gripping and unforgettable scenes in this movie, scenes, which have become famous in themselves as some did in the other 2 movies that followed. It’s hard to even to mention just one but who can ever forget the Hollywood movie producer who learns the hard way what it means when he is given an “offer he can’t refuse”. Or, when Michael, to revenge the shooting of Don Vito, goes to meet the corrupt cop and rival mobster to take care of family business…Nominated for 11 academy awards, it won 3, Best Actor, Best Movie and Best Screenplay…The Godfather is considered to be one of the best and most popular movies of all time with it‘s all star cast and award winning director, Francis Ford Coppola…Having a party to view this movie? Don’t forget to bring the Cannoli!
Three... Godfather II 1974
Godfather II is the ultimate continuation of this amazing saga… Michael Corleone takes over where his father left off and goes on to control the “family”, as well as the gambling industry in Las Vegas with the thought of someday becoming legitimate, though as he says, every time I think I’m going to get out, I get sucked back into it...Or something like that… In some respects I liked this movie even more than the first, with the incredible flashbacks into the rise of young Vito Corleone, (Robert DeNiro). The scenes in pre-Castro Cuba, the congressional hearings, his visits to Miami to visit Hymen Roth, (Lee Strasberg), who is supposed to be Meyer Lansky along with the disintegration of his marriage to Kay, (Diane Keaton). So much story and so richly photographed it seems almost real as you watch…. his relationship with his brother Fredo, (John Cazele), comes to it’s tragic conclusion in this film and, as you’ve watch Pacino change from the young soldier in the first movie to this hard nosed Mafioso you can’t help but feel for him even if you are repelled at the same time. Winner of 12 Academy awards, including Best Picture, Director, Best Actor and Supporting Actor.
Four... West Side Story 1961
“Something’s Coming” a song that portrays this musical drama to a tee. This story derived from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet was a Broadway hit before it became a film to tell the story of two people destined to have tragedy cut short the love they discover at a time when such a love just couldn’t be.
Maria, (Natalie Wood), a young Puerto Rican girl recently arrives in America and, unfortunately for her, falls in love with an “American” boy Tony, (Richard Beymer) who just happens to be a member of the all white American gang, the Jets. Her cousin Anita’s (Rita Moreno) involvement with the leader, Bernardo (George Chakiris), of the rival Puerto Rican street gang, the Sharks, will end in the worst possible way. These gangs have been enemies for years so it’s no wonder that they do not take well to this budding relationship. This is an incredible musical with songs that I can still hear in my head, everything from “Tonight, Tonight” to “Maria” to “Something’s Coming” and “Gee Officer Krupke”, just to name a few. The whole soundtrack was and still is amazing since each song set up the next scene in such an extremely eventful way. It’s no wonder it received 10 academy awards, for Best Movie, Best Direction, (Robert Wise) Musical Score, (Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim) who did the music for the broad way show, Supporting Actor, (Chakiris) and Supporting Actress, (Moreno) as well as Choreography, Jerome Robbins, who created some of the best and most memorable dance sequences filmed to this day.
Five... From Here To Eternity 1953
This is another film that explores bigotry, passion and tragedy, only this time the setting is an army base in Hawaii during the period of time just before Pearl Harbor when World War II hit it’s full blown action…It might be considered by some to be a military soap opera with it’s love stories, and unforgettable images, such as between the sergeant, (Burt Lancaster) rolling in the surf with the wife of the base commander, (Deborah Kerr), Maggio, (Frank Sinatra) getting beaten to the pulp by the sadistic Fatso, (Ernest Borgnine) simply because he was Italian, though a much unkindlier term was used, and Private Prewitt, (Montgomery Clift), a good guy boxer who doesn’t want to box anymore, especially for the armies boxing team. He has a soap opera love affair with Donna Reed, who’s a club hostess which in those days was a gentle term for prostitute though she certainly didn’t seem to fit that occupation in the way she dressed or spoke...The fight scenes were brutal yet the love scenes tender. These contrasts are what make up this movie, which received 8 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting awards for Sinatra and for Donna Reed.
Six... Giant 1956
This was the last movie James Dean appeared in just before his untimely death just days after the shooting was completed. It also dealt with racial intolerance...This is a Giant of a film, huge in scope, as big as all Texas, the state in which the story tells its tale. Three generations of land and cattle rich Texans deal with the magnitude of what happens when oil is discovered on their property as well as the property of a dirt farmer, Jett Rink, (James Dean), whose sudden wealth propelled him into a world he didn’t quite know how to deal with…He has always been infatuated by Leslie, (Elizabeth Taylor), the wife of Bick Benedict, (Rock Hudson), who was brought there as a young girl from the East many years ago. She doesn’t have that hatred of Mexicans as so many of the other white folks, (Texans) had back then and has a hard time dealing with that aspect of her environment. Then there is the cattle barons disregard for the new found wealthy oil tycoons and their conflicts, that is, until many of them find oil on their own properties...The stories of the children who grow up with their own ideas of who they should love and care for certainly go against what the parents have in mind for them with the last few scenes indelible in my mind..One, of Jett Rink passed out on the table, which was to be his triumph, after inviting everyone who was anyone to come to the magnificent new hotel he built. He especially wanted to impress Leslie but instead broke his own heart and Leslie’s daughter, Luz, (Carrol Baker) who thought she was in love with him and that he wanted her, not her mother! This was Deans’ final acting scene in life as well as in the movie…. The last scene in the film when two little babies, both grandchildren of Biffs and Leslie‘s, one, oh so white, the other, oh so dark, standing side by side in a playpen, with both grandparents looking on with love in their hearts tells a story in itself. This movie won the academy award for George Stevens the director and had 10 nominations all told.
Seven... Citizen Kane 1941
Though only receiving the Academy award for Best Screenplay, I wanted to include this film since it is such an icon in the history of movies. Simply put, it is a story of the life and death of Charles Foster Kane, who many say was based on the life of William Randolph Hearst …Orson Welles directed, produced, wrote and starred in the leading role and is noted for bringing many new and innovative filming techniques to the forefront of moviemaking history. When Kane dies at the beginning of the movie after just speaking one word, “Rosebud” all the world wants to know what he meant. What was Rosebud? Through flashbacks in his life we see what a driven man he was and how powerful in the world of politics, publishing and finances he became. His personal life left much to be desired though and, when he dies alone, the mystery of Rosebud becomes consuming to those who knew him. We do learn just what Rosebud meant and it is a sad and lonely tale in the end.
Eight... One Flew Over The Cuckoo‘s Nest 1975
How could any list of Award winners be written without this movie included? This very strange story based on Ken Kesey’s novel, dealt with life in an insane asylum when it seemed the inmates were saner than the people who kept them there. Who can ever forget Randle McMurphy, (Jack Nickelson), institutionalized but defiant to the core and not insane at all, just trying to beat the system and stay out of jail…He encounters a system ten times worse than any he would have encountered behind bars or on the outside…His natural rebellion against what he sees and hears takes him into a spiraling nightmare he never expected and one he couldn’t escape from…. Along the way the characters in the asylum he encounters are a very complex group to say the least and the actors who played them gave breakthrough performances that will never be forgotten. The Indian, Chief Bromden, (Will Sampson), who was most instrumental in McMurphy’s ultimate outcome, does manage to fly the coup and we cheer him on. The stuttering patient, Billy, (Brad Douriff) who McMurphy tries to help, Danny de Vito another loony with a heart, as well as many others who leapt at the chance of being in this film…Nobody stands out as much as Nurse Ratched, (Louise Fletcher), as the ultimate witch in a nurses uniform.. This movie was actually shot on location in a mental ward in Oregon so that gave a feel of reality to this richly dark comedy filled with outstanding academy award winning performances…. It won 5 awards, in top categories, Best Actor, Nickelson’s first, after 4 other nominations, Best Actress for Louise Fletcher, Direction to Milos Forman, screenplay and Best Movie over all..
A few more recent winners:
Nine... Schindler’s List 1993
There just had to be a Spielberg film on this list and so Schindler’s list seemed the most appropriate to me…Of all the movies made over the years about the Holocaust this one is just the most outstanding since it tells the documented true story of one man, Oskar Schindler, (Liam Neilson), the German businessman who saved the lives of so many Jews in the Polish Ghetto by hiring them to work in his factory thereby keeping them out of the concentration camps...The drama that unfolds as the story continues is shocking and unrelenting when you see the brutality and violence portrayed..The Nazi officer,(Ralph Fiennes), played his part to perfection. The movie was filmed in black and white, recreating that most frightening point in history in such a stark way and was accented by one scene of a young girl wearing a red coat...It is a haunting scene especially when you spot that coat again at the conclusion of the film…Then, in the epilogue, when the survivors visit Shindler’s grave it’s impossible not to be touched in on many levels when you think of how just one man can make such a difference in so many lives. This is Steven Spielberg's award-winning masterpiece, which won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director (the first for Spielberg)
Ten... Chicago 2002
Razzle Dazzle and All That Jazz.
Chicago is a story about 2 women and one greedy lawyer…Velma Kelley, (Katherine Zeta Jones), a singer/dancer of some renown, meets Roxie Hart, (Renee Zellweger) a spotlight seeking would be performer, on murderers row after Roxie murdered her abusive, lying boyfriend..Velma is in jail for killing her dance partner sister but was living a good life there thanks to “Mama“, (Queen Lativa), the prison warden who has no compunction about taking a bribe or two, which Velma was able to provide. Along comes Billy Flynn, (Richard Gere), as Chicago’s slickest lawyer, who says he can get anyone free for $5,000. Though already representing Velma, who is the “Front page story” at that time he decides to defend Roxie when her husband hires him…. Then the story takes another turn when he recognizes her as a “made for tabloids” story…When Velma is pushed to the back page, the fireworks begin. There is only room for one legend and both want to be that legend. The musical numbers just sparkle with the multi talented performers, most of whom are stage dancers and truly as professional and talented as anyone could be, and the stars, Jones, Zellweger and Gere really do an impressive job and the solo tap dance that Gere does was pleasantly surprising. Winner of 6 academy awards, including Best Picture and Best supporting actress, Catherine Zeta Jones
Well, there you have it. It certainly was hard to just chose ten movies out of all the movies that have won this coveted award, I have about 20 more in my head but for now these are my 10 favorites…Guess I just might have to make another list next year…In the meantime, Pop that popcorn and enjoy the Academy Awards Show this weekend… I’m sure Jon Stewart will rock as emcee. I just can’t wait!
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