All-Time Worst Best Picture Nominees
Any list of the worst movies ever nominated for Best Picture that doesn’t include Dr. Doolittle, Around The World in Eighty Days, and The Greatest Show on Earth just isn’t paying attention. Many other Best Picture nominees from the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s, I’m sure, belong in this category.
Sorry but I don’t agree with a fair-sized portion of this list. Just because Ordinary People beat out Raging Bull for Best Picture doesn’t mean it’s a bad film — it actually works very well for what it is and what it shoots for. I loved most of what Million Dollar Baby delivered — it’s easily one of Clint’s all-time best. Dances With Wolves may have seemed forced and hackneyed here and there, but had a naturalistic ethos and a certain emotional integrity. And Scent of a Woman is probably Martin Brest‘s best film ever, and it has a rousing finale that “works.”
I hated “LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL.”
Is it just me?
oh shit… “Dr Doolittle” was nominated for Best Picture? Wow, I didn’t know that. “The Greatest Show on Earth” is a real crappy movie, I agree.
TheCahuengaKid, I like “Life is Beautiful,” I don’t know what others think of it, though.
That list is stupid.
I like SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, THE COLOR PURPLE, THE ENGLISH PATIENT, and JUNO.
So sue me.
That list is a bullshit excuse to bash Slumdog and Juno (wonder how he forgot to list Little Miss Sunshine, too). I don’t have big problems with any of the films on the list having been nominated for BP, although every year I am totally bummed out by the inclusion of certain films, and for me this year that includes Ben Buttons and Milk…last year it was Atonement…
Midnight Run is my favorite Martin Brest film.
Martin Brest’s best film, hands down, was Midnight Run.
And Dances With Wolves was wonderful. If it hadn’t had “the audacity” to beat Goodfellas, it would be remembered with much kinder thoughts. I don’t hate Terms of Endearment just because The Right Stuff should have won.
Life Is Beautiful never recovered from its garbage first half. And the list needs to make room for The Prince of Tides, Mississippi Burning, Ray, The Green Mile and A Beautiful Mind.
For once I agree with Mr. Wells. I do not agree with half of the all-time worst picture nominees on the list. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is the all-time worst picture nominee? Did this person even see these films? They may not be the best pictures ever made, but they don’t deserve to be on any list as the all-time worst picture nominees. Same goes for Ordinary People, which I think is one of the best films that dealt with a dysfunctional family. In my book, it was better than Revolutionary Road, LIttle Miss Sunshine, American Beauty, Terms of Endearment, etc. I’ll never forget that scene where Mary Tyler Moore has that outburst on the golf course of that snooty golf course. It was perfectly orchestrated because it relected the lack of communication of this upper-middle class family. One more thing, Scent of the Woman won the Best Foreign Film by France’s Cezar Awards.
I’m completely with you on Ordinary People. It is beautifully shot and acted and deals with complex emotions and characters honestly (not at the level of a television Lifetime movie, as so many claim). The film never fails to move me when I catch it on television, especially the final moments of the film, the exchange between Moore and Sutherland and the final scene with Hutton and Sutherland.
What a lazy, half-assed, piece of crap list, probably by some 15 year old who has no business writing a movie blog. I’m surprised Wells would even dignify it by sending traffic its way.
second “golf course” should be “country club”
This list only covers the last 30 years (as is said in the intro).
And, agreed, Midnight Run is far and away better than Scent of a Woman.
I love it when people wind up liking a film they would normally hate and then find an excuse for hating it. That seemed to happen a lot with Iron Man last summer. People who normally hate superhero movies liked it a lot. The excuse for Iron Man was the casting — people said “Well, this movie is only watchable because of the cast.” No shit? Really? It turns out casting a project is inherently important to it;s success. If Speilberg had cast Rob Schneider as Oskar Schindler that movie wouldn’t have been nearly as good. The newest excuse floating around now is “Well, Slumdog would be a terrible movie if Danny Boyle hadn’t directed it.” That’s an incredibly stupid statement that is true of every well made film. The presence of a world class filmmaker will elevate the project he/she is working on. Danny Boyle’s Slumdog is a much better film than, say, Michael Bay’s Slumdog probably would have been.
Fuck You for having The Color Purple on that list. If he never made that movie all his other serious bullshit would’ve never come to past.
That list proves that just because you have an internet connection it does not mean you should be writing about film.
I have to respectfully disagree about ‘Scent of a Woman’ — its a ridiculously bad, cheaply sentimental movie. And yet I’ve derived years of joy ridiculing it. Hm.
Not a terrible list in my opinion. I’d make these changes:
Remove:
Dances With Wolves
Slumdog Millionaire
Life is Beautiful
The English Patient
Replace with:
The Cider House Rules
The Green Mile
A Beautiful Mind
Munich
I agree with everything Wells and Massey have said. I wouldn’t call DANCES WITH WOLVES “wonderful” , though. It’s a good movie though. And SCENT OF A WOMAN, with its bullshit “rousing finale”, fucking sucks. ORDINARY PEOPLE is actually one of the best movies ever made.
More for the list: I’ll pass on all the pre-1980 shitty movies there’s so many, like the piss poor A TOUCH OF CLASS…and then there is ON GOLDEN BLONDE, THE MISSION (C’mon guys, this movie is the real deal when it comes to bad best picture noms), BROADCAST NEWS, FIELD OF DREAMS, AWAKENINGS, GHOST, PRINCE OF TIDES, A FEW GOOD MEN, FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL, JERRY MAGUIRE, SHINE (the asshole really couldn’t play the piano), ELIZABETH, GOOD WILL HUNTING, THE FULL MONTY, AS GOOD AS IT GETS, AS GOOD AS IT GETS, AS GOOD AS IT GETS, AS GOOD AS IT GETS ,AS GOOD AS IT GETS, AS GOOD AS IT GETS,AS GOOD AS IT GETS… Shit! There’s too many to count!!!!!
I knew the list was bad when they put THE DRESSER on the list and they claimed they didn’t even see it. Fuckwad. You can argue about THE COLOR PURPLE (relatively weak, but still has moments), SCENT OF A WOMAN (I like it, though not the finale), JUNO (though I like it a lot, I agree it didn’t deserve a Best Picture nom), LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL (I liked it when I saw it, but it didn’t hold up for me a second time), and even THE ENGLISH PATIENT (even though I vehemently disagree with that), but yeah, there are much worse choices. If you want to limit yourself to the last 30 years, I’d say, in order in which they were made:
TESS (Roman Polanski did the unthinkable – he made Thomas Hardy boring)
ON GOLDEN POND (I got no joy out of Katharine Hepburn trashing her legacy)
CHARIOTS OF FIRE (to quote Richard Corliss, “a hymn to the human spirit as if scored by Barry Manilow”)
OUT OF AFRICA (the worst example of Sydney Pollack letting sentimentality overshadow story)
MISSISSIPPI BURNING (the most offensive movie on this list because it trivializes an important moment in history)
FORREST GUMP & THE GREEN MILE (the two worst examples of Tom Hanks letting sentimentality overshadow story)
CHOCOLAT (a charming novel had all the charm removed, except for Johnny Depp)
THE HOURS (please tell me why Stephen Daldry is an Academy favorite)
ATONEMENT (Joe Wright goes from a good adaptation of Jane Austen to an overwrought adaptation of Ian McEwan here)
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (sorry, I know this movie has a lot of fans, but to me, it’s still FOREST GUMP redux)
Josh Massey, I actually liked RAY, and I thought THE PRINCE OF TIDES was good for the first 2/3 – once Nolte and Streisand fall in love, I agree the film goes off the rails. I don’t like A BEAUTIFUL MIND, but Crowe’s performance kept it off my list here.
“11. The Dresser [1983] Say, who now? I don‚Äôt know what this is either but it stars that guy who died and Billy Crudup put him in the ocean and he turned into a big fish.”
Well then maybe you shouldn’t have included it on your list, you fucking twat.
Seriously, Jeffrey, there are probably fifty bloggers who put out a list like this every year, and this is the lightweight you decide to link to?
Sorry, GP, but BROADCAST NEWS should have won Best Picture.
Oh, and how could I forget A FEW GOOD MEN? I still revere Aaron Sorkin, and admittedly, that courtroom scene between Cruise and Nicholson is entertaining, but it’s Sorkin at his worst.
He actually has the balls to include a film he admits he hasn’t seen, THE DRESSER
Why would Jeff even address this web-only tripe?
Oh, right – look at the comments.
I think Dances with Wolves gets a really bad rap. If nothing else, the buffalo hunt is amazing.
Correct with LOTR at number 1. Incorrect with having Chicago or Life is Beautiful on the List. Both pretty darn good, if unfashionable to like.
Has everyone forgotten Hello, Dolly!?
I have nothing good to say about Dances With Wolves, Driving Miss Daisy, The Cider House Rules, The Green Mile, Braveheart or On Golden Pond, either…
Gabriel, did you honestly just put ‘Munich’ on the list of worst best picture nominees? *GROWLS*
The list is a pile of junk.
Of course that list is pathetic – Wells knows as much. But it is a good jumping off point for good conversation.
Lipranzer: Ray was OK, but it was an incredibly weak choice as a Best Picture nominee (in a weak year, but still). It’s the exact same way I feel about Benjamin Button, actually.
My original, longer list included many of the titles Prager had, except I think Broadcast News and Field of Dreams are incredibly deserving. In fact, of the films nominated in their respective years, I would have voted for each.
BEAUTY AND THE BEST is the least deserving EVER because IT’S A GODDAMN CARTOON. How the fuck do you put some Celine Dion KIDDIE BULLSHIT up there with JFK and “Silence of the Lambs”?
“Shakespeare in Love” is the not only the worst winner in recent memory but also the worst nominee; I distinctly remember that year the BP nominee “clips” throughout the broadcast were like mind-blowing footage from “Saving Private Ryan” and “Thin Red Line,” both being epic and huge-scale and powerful, then clips of Cate Blanchett acting her ass off in “Elizabeth”…
Then they got to the Shakespeare clip and it was JOSEPH ROBBIE BENSON FIENNES in drag covering up his MUSTACHE and BEARD with some veil and doing this MINCING VOICE to imitate a woman.
Then that bullshit WON.
And you guys are insane; MISSISSIPPI BURNING OWNS. Yeah, I’ve been hearing that argument for 20 YEARS that it puts the emphasis on the white characters and isn’t historically accurate, blah blah blah. I don’t care. IT’S AN AWESOME MOVIE and intense and blood-boiling and exciting and a great thriller with two great lead performances. I don’t care about truth or historical accuracy, I just want a good movie.
Oliver Stone and Alan Parker could make a movie where Nixon and Charles Manson were wacky buddy cops in 1987 cracking wise and being lit like Nietschean Gods, and if it’s a GOOD MOVIE, I don’t give one single FUCK if it’s a distortion of history.
Movies >>>>>> History.
The list is more about what’s fashionable to dislike which it seems to be written by a teenager.
As far as movies I would include on the list: Shakespeare in Love would probably be my number 1 followed by The Hours, Juno, Crash, Benjamin Button, Gladiator, Erin Brockovich, The Cider House Rules, As Good As It Gets, Shine, A Few Good Men, The Prince of Tides, Ghost and Fatal Attraction plus a slew of vastly overrated movies that don’t hold up beyond a single viewing.
I am so tired about hearing how Raging Bull was robbed. Seriously. There’s nothing wrong with Ordinary People.
“MISSISSIPPI BURNING OWNS” This just proves that it sucked. The black characters in the movie would’ve been better served if they were portrayed by JarJar Binks and his relatives, and the whites are all ugly racist crackers (except for the nice FBI guys). What do you except from the director of THE WALL and BUGSY MALONE. Fucking limey bastard.
Well, Midnight Run is my favorite Martin Brest film, too, and I like BHC and Going in Style better than Scent of a Woman, but that’s just me.
The list was just stupid.
But, here are some other bad Best Picture nominees: (and I was actually shocked at how many decent movies WERE nominated).
The Prince Of Tides
The Towering Inferno
Love Story
Romeo And Juliet
The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!
Airport
And I The Greatest Show on Earth, Hello Dolly and Dr. Doolittle are unmentionable (so why did I mention them?
The Wall OWNS, Shoot the Moon OWNS, Midnight Express MEGAOWNS, and Angel Heart is A MASTERPIECE OF AWESOMENESS.
And when Fame comes on, I sing into my hairbrush and hop up and down on my bed.
You need to take a seat and just SING THE BODY ELECTRIC, George Prager.
Alan Parker = OWNS.
Except for LOVE STORY–I guess you had to have been there–nothing on ReedyB’s list strikes me as all that heinous. The disaster movies were the superhero pictures of their era and the Academy was different in those days; THE TOWERING INFERNO was THE DARK KNIGHT of its time, except it got on. And ROMEO AND JULIET is excellent, a worthy contender.
A lot of hate for A Beautiful Mind here. 2001 was a weird year; all the Best Pic nominations were lacking (Moulin Rouge??), yet I thought the best director nominations were all warranted. (Howard, Scott for Black Hawk, Lynch for Mulholland, Altman for Gosford, and Jackson.
I saw Ghost this weekend. it acutally remains a beautifully shot flick. And i love the scene between Swayze and Schiavelli; the Wachowskis copied much of it a decade later. “You think you’re wearing those clothes?”
Dances With Wolves and, particularly, The English Patient are both awesome, classic films.
Just wanted to throw out my 2 cents for “Dances With Wolves.” Coming from someone who worships “Goodfellas,” I hold no grudge against Costner for producing and directing one of (in my opinion) a brilliant and engaging film.
People do get all hot and bothered, bashing films because they got nominated.
I agree with Breedlove – Dances With Wolves gets a real backlash because it beat Goodfellas but it’s not less of a film just because Scorcese should have won.
No one even mentioned Driving Miss Daisy beating Do The Right Thing. And does it matter in the end? Which film do more people watch today? Does the former having the Oscar take anything away from your enjoyment of the latter?
Do you really care Citizen Kane didn’t win and neither did 2001?
I also think Shakespeare in Love is a wonderful, smart, funny movie and I had no problem with it getting nominated but I’m still aghast that it beat SPR and I think everyone pretty much agrees Harvey bought that one. Doesn’t make either film better or worse.
In fact, I feel much the same about Slumdog Millionaire. A very good movie but it better not win.
I fail to understand why people can’t just take the Oscars for what they are – they like heartstrings and epics and movies about damaged famous people. That’s why Titanic wins and Jamie Foxx etc. etc. That’s their shtick. Who exactly promised they would be the objective measure of quality? Take a chill pill y’all.
(Oh, and Lord of the Rings will stand the test of time. The sooner people deal with that, the happier everyone will be.)
Free Willy OWNS, The Phantom OWNS, Operation Dumbo Drop MEGAOWNS, and Lightning Jack is A MASTERPIECE OF AWESOMENESS.
And when D.A.R.Y.L. comes on, I sing into my hairbrush and hop up and down on my bed.
You need to take a seat and just SING THE BODY ELECTRIC, George Prager.
Simon Wincer = OWNS.
I think we have to draw a line here between “worst” and “least deserving.” The difference here is that the worst movies are the awful ones, and the least deserving ones are OK films that didn’t warrant a BP nomination. A Beautiful Mind isn’t a masterpiece, but to call it one of “the worst movies to get nominated” is really stupid. It’s also an insult to a film which has some good writing and acting. Atonement didn’t deserve a BP nomination, but I wouldn’t call it a flat-out bad movie by any means.
The worst nominee in recent years probably has to go to Seabiscuit. Except for Chris Cooper’s performance, I feel like it talks down to the audience too much. They threw in waaaaaay too much exposition to make sure we got everything that was going on. It took itself too seriously. It also got a nomination over movies that are infinitely better, like In America and American Splendor. A close second for me would be Babel, which feels too manipulated and pretentious for my taste.
Whoever said Beauty and the Beast shouldn’t have been nominated is totally wrong. Power to animation. If movies like Toy Story and Wall-E are the best reviewed and most acclaimed films of the year, they should be nominated.
What Breedlove said. Dances With Wolves is a beautiful love letter to the forgotten West, and The English Patient is a masterclass in screenwriting, acting, direction and cinematography.
On *my* list would be E.T.[Blade Runner should've been the nominee and winner.], Titanic[Jimmy might have deserved it for T2, but not that dreck.],
Monster’s Ball [Forget TDK. Nolan has been "black-listed" since Memento. Plus, isn't MB basically a softcore version of American History X?], Pulp Fiction[Ed Wood is the better "homage".], American Beauty[South Park was the better satire, Fight Club the better social commentary.], and Moonstruck. [Princess Bride has got the better cast and more energy.]
George Prager:
Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe just called, with Alan Parker conferenced in, and for your UTTER WRONGNESS on THE BURNING, they have demanded that you watch all of this video from the 30-second mark on and GET OWNED:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKWKDh2Cq5Y
IRENE CARA COMMANDS YOU. BOW.
I can’t believe Prager’s the only one who has mentioned AWAKENINGS. What is wrong with you people?
I feel stupider for having read that list. The Dresser is a great film (as are most of the others).
If I had to choose to watch Raging Bull right now or Ordinary People, I’d pick Ordinary People.
I didn’t hate Life is Beautiful, but the fact that it was nominated and more so that Benigni won best actor over Edward Norton (American History X) really pisses me off.
Agreed that they should have called the list the worst best picture nominees of the past 25 years or something like that.
oh shit… “Dr Doolittle” was nominated for Best Picture? Wow, I didn’t know that. “The Greatest Show on Earth” is a real crappy movie, I agree.
TheCahuengaKid, I like “Life is Beautiful,” I don’t know what others think of it, though.
Am I the only one completely satisfied with the Shakespeare in Love win? Saving Private Ryan was a great film, but marred by horrendous bookends and that awful Ted Danson scene.
I would have been happy with either of them.
That list is stupid.
I like SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, THE COLOR PURPLE, THE ENGLISH PATIENT, and JUNO.
So sue me.
Holy shit..this may be the only place I’ve seen on the entire WWW that film buffs have given love to Ordinary People winning over Raging Bull. It’s nice to see because I have always thought Ordinary People was an incredibly powerful film.
GHOST. Fucking GHOST.
Jay T, Jeff and several others — if you read the intro it clearly states this list is for the last 30 years.
And calling them the “worst nominees” is a statement on their making it to the pinnacle, so to speak, and not deserving such a high place of merit. Simply put, they’re overrated.
LexG: that balding red-haired dude at the beginning. Didn;t he fall into a vat of toxic chemicals and explode in ROBOCOP. Now that OWNED!!!!!!!
The ones that deserved to be nominated 1960-69:
THE HUSTLER
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
TOM JONES
BECKET
DR. STRANGELOVE
MARY POPPINS
DARLING
A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS
WHO’s AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT
BONNIE AND CLYDE
THE GRADUATE
OLIVER!
MIDNIGHT COWBOY
Z
The rest didn’t deserve their nominations.
“Saving Private Ryan was a great film, but marred by horrendous bookends…”
A-fucking-men to that.
Plus, I have to go with Bill Goldman that it strains belief that after all the squad went through they would simply disobey orders. It destroys Hanks entire “Whatever I have to do to get home to my wife” speech as well.
How hard would it have been to simply make the situation that they are cut off, the Germans closed in behind them and therefore they must help defend the town?
Many people don’t want to admit that Raging Bull is a tough sit, no matter how brilliantly executed.
George Prager, that is an awesome list. I think you have the right approach.
LexG … I’m with you on Alan Parker and Shoot the Moon. One of my favorites.
LexG is the sober voice of reason when compared to George Prager. You hate almost everything. Why do you even bother?
What the fuck? The Lord of the Rings films were spectacular and we all god damn know it
I would second Titanic as one of the worst best picture nominees. Incredibly pathetic that the film couldn’t garner a nomination for its putrid script in a year when the Academy was bending over backwards to nominate it for everything under the sun.
George Prager hates everything except for…(wait for it)
Mary Poppins!
How many chimney sweep fantasies did he have a child growing up (or in the past week, for that matter)?
What Breedlove said. Dances With Wolves is a beautiful love letter to the forgotten West, and The English Patient is a masterclass in screenwriting, acting, direction and cinematography.
Pathetic. About half the list post-79 is basically a checklist of movies wannabe film buffs have to pretend to hate because the mainstream audience wound up liking them, too.
Holy shit..this may be the only place I’ve seen on the entire WWW that film buffs have given love to Ordinary People winning over Raging Bull. It’s nice to see because I have always thought Ordinary People was an incredibly powerful film.
Lord of The Rings is awful, boring, long, boring, more sentimental than Driving Miss Daisy and Love Story combined times 100 and boring. I just fell asleep thinking how boring it is. More power to the people who put those movies in the perspective they deserve.
To all those who find it important to believe that everybody loves LOTR “and we all god damn know it” I have to say that tase is different for everyone so if you like to stick your head in shit and inhale, enjoy yourself, but please, don’t expect everyone to follow.
Shakespeare in Love is also a great movie…personally I think I like it maybe a bit more than Saving Private Ryan. That win was no travesty, it’s a great movie.
I hate lists and discussions like this. I watch films because I want to love them, not because I want to hate them.
Yuval: Replace LOTR with Titanic, and I’ll agree.
While there’s little doubt that both L.A. Confidential and Good Will Hunting were better films than Titanic (as were several other movies in 1997 like Jackie Brown), I have no problem whatsoever with the film being nominated. It was an amazing spectacle and it’s easy to forget that 10-11 years later.
I suppose the same argument could be made for the LOTR films, even though I was bored as hell during them, but I’d much rather defend Titanic.
Anyone who hates TITANIC has no mother.
I know a lot of motherless people in this country, then.
If the Oscar ratings are bad this year, I fear AMPAS, under pressure from ABC, might alter Best Picture criteria to automatically add a sixth nominee — the film with the top box office receipts for the year, if only to give the fanboys a rooting interest. Aesthetically, I think that would be a terrible idea, though on the other hand it might cause producers of these crowd-pleasers to add some elements of sophistication to such a film so it might have a reasonable shot at winning.
George: Well, I hate Titanic, but love My Neighbor Totoro, so I guess I don’t count.
D.Z.: Your list would be valid if Monster’s Ball had even been nominated for Best Picture.
No wait, it still wouldn’t be valid.
Thank you for submitting this cool story – Trackback from Dotbot.
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And Dances With Wolves was wonderful. If it hadn’t had “the audacity” to beat Goodfellas, it would be remembered with much kinder thoughts. I don’t hate Terms of Endearment just because The Right Stuff should have won.
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