erik lundegaard

Tuesday February 19, 2013

The Worst Best Picture

The worst of the best pictures?

Thus far, 61 people have sent me their rankings of the Academy's choices for best picture from 1927 to 2011. That's about 55 more people than I thought we were going to get. Two days ago I listed off who's winning in the best best-picture race. This is a post about who's losing. Which is the worst best picture the Academy has chosen?

It's not much of a surprise.

Oddly, save for that one film, there is generally less agreement on which of the Academy's best pictures is worst. Those 61 readers chose 19 different movies in the No. 1 slot but 29 different movies for last place.

Here are the 18 best pictures who received just one vote as our worst best picture:

  • The Broadway Melody (1929)
  • Cimarron (1931)
  • The Great Ziegfield (1936)
  • How Green Was My Valley (1941)
  • Mrs. Miniver (1942)
  • Midnight Cowboy (1969)
  • The French Connection (1971)
  • Terms of Endearment (1983)
  • Amadeus (1984)
  • Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
  • Unforgiven (1992)
  • Titanic (1997)
  • Chicago (2002)
  • The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003)
  • Million Dollar Baby (2004)
  • The Departed (2006)
  • Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
  • The Hurt Locker (2009)

I know. “Unforgiven”? “Amadeus”? But there 'tis.

Four movies received two votes each:

  • Rocky (1976)
  • Gandhi (1982)
  • Forrest Gump (1994)
  • Shakespeare in Love (1998)

Five movies received three votes each:

  • Cavalcade (1933)
  • The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
  • Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
  • Dances with Wolves (1990)
  • A Beautiful Mind (2001)

There's a surprise, at least to me, for our second-worst movie. With four votes:

  • Braveheart (1995)

No surprise at all, as I said, with our choice for the worst best picture the Academy ever chose. In a landslide with 16 votes:

  • Crash (2005)

Make sure you get your votes in. We'll be parsing the numbers on a deeper level soon.

the worst of the best pictures?

Posted at 07:11 AM on Tuesday February 19, 2013 in category Movies - The Oscars  
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