AND THE WINNER ISN’T
On Academy Awards night there have been some real howlers, without a doubt. It’s going to be hard to top the 2017 gaffe when the wrong film was announced as Best Movie. To me, they got it right when they said La La Land won because I think it should have. I had Moonlight as my number 10. I also liked Manchester By The Sea and Hidden Figures more than Moonlight. But strangely enough in going through the Best Film awards, I think that most of the time the voters got it right- at least of those nominated. Deserving films that didn’t even make the list is the subject for another article. Herewith, in my opinion, the worst mistakes made by the Academy when picking the best film.
The greatest miscarriage of justice came in 1952 when the very mediocre and overlong Greatest Show on Earth was named instead of the classic High Noon. The former is largely forgotten now, while the Western icon is constantly viewed and is taught in film classes. It is Gary Cooper’s masterpiece and on everyone’s top 10 Westerns list. 
In 1967 Arthur Penn teamed Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde, a film that literally changed the way movies are made. The Barrow gang are violent creeps and shown as such. There’s not a wet eye in the house when the curtain comes down. But this classic lost to In The Heat Of The Night, which isn’t bad, but I think won because the subject matter (black Northern cop solves redneck murder) was more appealing. 
A little of the same thing was going on in 1990 when the voters fell in love with Kevin Costner’s politically correct Indians and named Dances With Wolves over Martin Scorcese’s classic gangster flick, Goodfellas. Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta make this Mafia story stand up. 
The Last Emperor (1987) is a good enough bioflick about China, but pales in comparison to the ground-breaking and altogether wonderful Broadcast News. It is doubtful a better movie about TV and its inner workings will ever be made.Goodnight and Good Luck comes pretty close. 
Some people really like Out Of Africa (1985). Not me. Instead, my vote would be for The Color Purple, with Stephen Spielberg wonderfully bringing to life the Alice Walker classic. Danny Glover, Oprah Winfrey, and Whoopi Goldberg lead a fine cast in one of the few films to show that black people are people.
Thirteen years ago the Academy picked Crash, which I really like. But to me it is a half-step or more behind Brokeback Mountain, a ground-breaker that will be around as long as people watch movies. The 2015 winner, Birdman, is pretty good. But as good as Richard Linklater’s monumental Boyhood? Not to me. 
All of the films in this article are available on DVD. All are for mature audiences.