What is the Best Decade for Best Picture Winners? (Part 1)

Best Picture Winners: What Has Been the Best Decade of Best Pictures in the History of the Oscars?

 

Even though it seems less people (including myself) take stock in what the Academy’s opinions are about the best movies of the year nowadays compared to decades past, the majority of the time they do award movies that are deserving of praise and recognition. In terms of Best Picture winners, they don’t always get it right, and lately it seems like the Best Picture of the Year is a film that is often quickly forgotten, or when it wins, everyone goes, “huh, alright” with a bit of a shrug and little to any impact. I’m generalizing, of course, but I took a peek back in time at every single Best Picture winner, and wondered…which decade has the greatest collection of them?

For this to work, I had to create some criteria as I worked my way through the decades and determined which winners have stood the test of time, which have been forgotten, and which ones were flubs, as far as not really deserving to win that year compared to other nominees. I cannot avoid some dramatic bias here, because (for the earlier decades especially) I have not seen all these winners, or even many of the other nominees that lost. In these cases, I will defer to the internet’s general consensus and try to come to some conclusions about whether or not it at least deserved to win in the first place. This required a lot more research than I initially planned, but I think the results will speak for themselves. 

 

PART 1: 1930s-1950s

 

1930s Winners:

 

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930): ?

Cimarron (1931): ?

Grand Hotel (1932): ?

Cavalcade (1933): ?

It Happened One Night (1934): ?

Mutiny on the Bounty (1935): D

The Great Ziegfeld (1936): ?

The Life of Emile Zola (1937): ?

You Can’t Take It with You (1938): ?

Gone with the Wind (1939): D, H

 

With it being the first full decade of the Oscars, obviously these will be the ten films I am least familiar with. Most of the films I’ve seen from the 30’s that I’ve enjoyed have been in the genres least often nominated: science fiction and horror. That being said, I can at least comment on a couple of winners without it all being internet findings.

My research:

• Although I’m familiar with the source material and more recent adaptation, I had no idea if the original All Quiet on the Western Front is still well regarded today, but from what I can tell, it remains an influential anti-war film

• Cimarron does not hold up anymore (it’s a dated western)

• Grand Hotel is still considered a classic and important film

• Cavalcade perhaps doesn’t hold up that well today, but is still interesting to look back on

• It Happened One Night was and still is a significant pop culture touchstone of the 1930s

• The Great Ziegfeld is an overly long cliché-riddled thing of the past

• The Life of Emile Zola is considered one of the first truly great biographical films, but is perhaps controversial in retrospect for its avoidance of criticism toward Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party (it was produced after the Nazi Party took over Germany)

• You Can’t Take It with You is still revered—however, compared to other films from director Frank Capra, decidedly less well remembered

 

The only one of these I have watched all the way through is Gone with the Wind—yes, all 238 minutes of it—and it still feels deserving of that Oscar all these decades later, with its epic scope, great performances, and technical innovations that remain impressive for 1939. Despite the controversy surrounding the subject matter (and another nominee that year, The Wizard of Oz, being more mainstream and easier to watch today comparatively) I think Gone with the Wind still holds an important place in early Oscars history. While I have not seen the 1935 version of Mutiny on the Bounty in its entirety, it is a very well-known film based on a classic literary tale and still valued to this day. Compared to the other films from the same year, none of them remain as culturally significant anymore.

I had a difficult time discerning if some of the other nominees for each of these years deserved to win more than others, because none of them stand out as obvious film classics—to me, at least. Honestly, I had never heard of more than half of these movies until I started writing this. Even without age being the main factor, it’s pretty clear this is not the best decade for Best Picture winners.

 

1940s Winners:

 

Rebecca (1940): D

How Green Was My Valley (1941): F

Mrs. Miniver (1942): ?

Casablanca (1943): D, H

Going My Way (1944): ?

The Lost Weekend (1945): ?

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946): F

Gentlemen’s Agreement (1947): ?

Hamlet (1948): ?

All the King’s Men (1949): ?

 

My research:

• Mrs. Miniver was very well respected the year it won, but has largely been forgotten since, and there are no other standout nominees from that year
• Going My Way was a huge success in 1944 and probably provided audiences with a much-needed upbeat blend of music and laughs amid World War II turmoil. It’s generally regarded as one of Bing Crosby’s best, and there were only four other Best Picture nominees that year, so I’d say it probably doesn’t hold the same impact today, but wasn’t undeserving at the time and hasn’t aged terribly
• According to the Rotten Tomatoes critic consensus, The Lost Weekend may not have quite the same impact any longer, but is still an effective story of an alcoholic, from director Billy Wilder, who will pop up again later in the next decade
• I don’t know enough about Gentleman’s Agreement or the original Miracle on 34^th Street (also nominated that year) to say this win was a flub, but I considered calling it one, since Miracle on 34^th Street is still widely known, whereas Gentleman’s Agreement is not, but it sounds like a deserved win
• I would have to actually see Hamlet to definitively say whether or not it deserved the win over the other nominees. The only one of them I’ve seen is Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which I can confidently say did deserve to win, because it is excellent and holds up extremely well today
• Not much to say on All the King’s Men, other than sounds like it deserved to win and none of the other nominees stand out

 

Rebecca ended up being the only film directed by Alfred Hitchcock to win Best Picture, so yeah, I think that one was deserved, although I still haven’t seen it. I’ve given my first two Fs for flubs. It may be unwarranted, given I know very little about The Best Years of Our Lives, but I do know all about It’s A Wonderful Life, which remains a classic and defies its era. Some may disagree and say Best Years deserved the win over Wonderful Life, but I think in retrospect the winner now seems less deserving. What I do not think is unwarranted is the widely accepted belief that Citizen Kane deserved to win Best Picture over How Green Was My Valley. Seriously, no film professor is putting that one on over Citizen Kane. The term “greatest movie ever” has been thrown around when discussing the Orson Welles classic for a reason. It’s not just for that reason, but on that note, let me say the 1940s is also not the decade with the best collection of Best Pictures.

 

1950s Winners:

 

All About Eve (1950): F

An American In Paris (1951): ?

The Greatest Show on Earth (1952): ?

From Here to Eternity (1953): ?

On the Waterfront (1954): ?

Marty (1955): ?

Around the World in 80 Days (1956): D

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957): D

Gigi (1958): ?

Ben-Hur (1954): D

 

My Research:

• An American in Paris is still regarded as one of the best musicals ever. I’ve only seen one of the nominees it beat: A Streetcar Named Desire. That movie had some good acting work (it won awards in those categories) but didn’t feel like Best Picture material when I saw it, and probably still wouldn’t if I saw it again
• While The Greatest Show on Earth was popular when it came out and worthy of being timely entertainment, it doesn’t sound like it’s aged too well
• Rotten Tomatoes suggests From Here to Eternity may have aged poorly, as well
• On the Waterfront also won Best Actor for Marlon Brando, and the film endures as more than just a stunning showcase for his acting talent
• Seems Marty is still considered a solid character study
• Some have called Gigi one of the worst Best Picture winners ever (yikes!) and it sounds like it wouldn’t hold up too well under scrutiny today due to its subject matter

 

From what I could discern, All About Eve and its competing film, Sunset Boulevard, share similar themes and praise, and both are regarded as some of the best films of the entire decade. I, however, am bias because I’ve seen Sunset Boulevard more than once and absolutely love it, whereas I have not seen All About Eve, so calling this one a flub may be unfair, but I really love Sunset Boulevard. Based on my research and what I know about some of the other winners, it seems this was a pretty fair decade overall. It was an era for epics; Around the World in 80 Days and Ben-Hur are some of the best of the era, and The Bridge on the River Kwai is still probably one of the most well-known movies of the 1950s.

While the majority of films this decade seemed deserving of their wins, yet again we do not have enough winners that have stood the test of time for it to even be considered for best decade.

Next time, I’ll be looking at the subsequent three decades, and finally getting to some real contenders!