Part 2: Best Decade for Best Picture Winners?

Part One: https://cccmovies.blogspot.com/2025/02/what-is-best-decade-for-best-picture.html

 

I’m picking up right where I left off, with looking at each decade of Best Picture winners to figure out which decade has the greatest collection of them. After three decades, the Oscars had been firmly established by the 60's, and as film was forced to evolve with the ubiquity of television, the winners, naturally, became more diverse.

1960s Winners:

 

The Apartment (1960): ?

West Side Story (1961): D

Lawrence of Arabia (1962): D, H

Tom Jones (1963): ?

My Fair Lady (1964): F 

The Sound of Music (1965): ?

A Man for All Seasons (1966): ?

In the Heat of the Night (1967): F

Oliver! (1968): ?

Midnight Cowboy (1969): ?

 

My Research:

• The Apartment holds up reasonably well, and no other films from that year stand out as more obviously deserving

• Tom Jones is considered one of the most successful comedies of its time, and I didn’t find anything to indicate it has aged particularly poorly

• I’ve heard of The Sound of Music, of course, but I don’t really know that much about it, or any of the other movies nominated that year. It seems pretty clear that it deserved to win, and I’m honestly surprised it hasn’t been remade yet—must be at least partly due to its legendary status among classic musicals

• Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? received the most nominations the year A Man for All Seasons won Best Picture, and while I think some might argue Virginia was more deserving, I don’t know enough about the winner or any of the other nominees to make that call. Apparently A Man for All Seasons remains a well-acted historical drama, though, worthy of its win

• Another musical winner I know nothing about: Oliver! has nothing against it either for winning or aging well

• I found nothing to indicate Midnight Cowboy was undeserving of its win. The only other movie that could’ve potentially rivalled it as more deserving was Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, a movie I have seen and do think is great, but I don’t know anything about any of the other nominees and don’t have strong enough feeling about Butch Cassidy to call this one a flub

I think some might argue that The Hustler should’ve won over West Side Story, but I think West Side deserved the win, given all the lasting praise it’s received. My Fair Lady is still well regarded in terms of classic musicals, but I am not as big a fan of the musical genre as I am a fan of director Stanley Kubrick, and Dr. Strangelove, which lost to My Fair Lady, deserved it more, I think. There was even another musical nominated alongside that I think has endured as more of a classic: Mary Poppins. 

Most controversial of all in this decade, though, is the winner of the 40^th Academy Awards. Sure, In the Heat of the Night is a classic, and it’s quotable, but so is The Graduate! I love the dramatic yet comedic melancholy of that film, and think it has aged particularly well. Another movie nominated that year which really pushed some boundaries was Bonnie & Clyde, and the other two nominees that year, Dr. Dolittle and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, while not on the same level of classic as any of the others, have both remained in the public consciousness. It was just a difficult pick that year, I guess, given three of the films were all nominated in the “Big Five” categories.

In the end, I just don’t know enough about most of these Best Pictures, and that fact plus two flubs make this yet another decade to eliminate. But, finally, we get to a true contender with our next one!

 

1970s Winners:

 

Patton (1970): D

The French Connection (1971): D, H

The Godfather (1972): D, H

The Sting (1973) : F

The Godfather Part II (1974): D, H

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975): D, H

Rocky (1976): D, H

Annie Hall (1977): F

The Deer Hunter (1978): D

Kramer vs. Kramer (1979): D

 

Wow, finally a decade I didn’t need to do any research for! Let’s start with the winners who undoubtedly deserved it. I have not seen Patton yet so I can’t say if it most deservedly won, but none of the other nominees stand out as significantly more notable. The French Connection is just so good. Unlike when Dr. Strangelove lost to My Fair Lady, I don’t think Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange is better than William Friedkin’s French Connection. Need I say anything about The Godfather, or The Godfather II for that matter? One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest could be considered a flub, given it was nominated alongside yet another Kubrick film, Barry Lyndon, as well as Dog Day Afternoon, with one of the all-time great Al Pacino performances, and freaking JAWS, but it isn’t a flub because One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest really is excellent. I don’t think it’s better than Jaws, personally, but it is a more typical Best Picture winner (and I actually don’t like Barry Lyndon that much). Taxi Driver could’ve won over Rocky, but it was a case of pessimism versus optimism, and even though I controversially prefer Rocky II, I think Rocky deserved to win over Taxi Driver. I haven’t seen The Deer Hunter or Kramer vs. Kramer, but both are considered classics, and none of the other nominees either year stand out to me, personally, as more deserving.

As great as the 1970s were for Best Picture winners, there are still a couple of flubs, in my books, with the first one being The Sting winning over one of the greatest horror films in cinema history. I have seen The Sting (I think?) and if you’re into heist films, sure, it probably seemed deserving, but the Academy has always given the horror genre the short end of the stick, and the impact of The Exorcist not just on horror but on filmmaking in general was so palpable that it’s still felt to this day. My theory is the Academy saw it like this: they already gave William Friedkin the win two years earlier for The French Connection, so gave it to someone else instead. I wouldn’t even say I love The Exorcist like I do The French Connection, but c’mon, it should have won. Similarly, Annie Hall is an okay-ish comedy-drama, but I don’t think it has aged quite as well as a truly revolutionary space opera nominated that same year, the name of which is still on the tip of everyone’s tongue—not just because of the franchise it became, but because of how good the original was (and still is). Not to get ahead of myself, but Star Wars got a nom so Lord of the Rings could get a win over two decades later. I would love to see someone argue that Annie Hall is a better movie than Star Wars.

The 70’s is a serious contender for the best decade of Best Pictures. I won’t call the winner until I get through them all, but so far, this is the frontrunner.

 

1980s Winners:

 

Ordinary People (1980): F

Chariots of Fire (1981): ?

Gandhi (1982): ?

Terms of Endearment (1983): ?

Amadeus (1984): ?

Out of Africa (1985): ?

Platoon (1986): D, H

The Last Emperor (1987): ?

Rain Man (1988): D, H

Driving Miss Daisy (1989): F

 

My Research:

• For whatever reason, I don’t know anything about Chariots of Fire or any other film nominated that year except for Raiders of the Lost Ark. I don’t think a film about the Olympics can really be compared to a film about an archaeologist whipping his way to the ark of the covenant, so I’ll just move on and say it’s fine that Chariots won

• Gandhi was a pretty big deal when it came out, and while I do love E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, I can see why the biopic won over the story of a weird waddling alien who dresses up like a little girl and makes some bikes fly around

• I think this is the first time since the 1930s: I know absolutely nothing about any of the movies nominated for Best Picture at the 56^th or the 57^th Academy Awards, including the winners, Terms of Endearment and Amadeus. From what I can gather, there were no other more obvious winners these years

• Okay, Out of Africa I’ve at least heard of! To my surprise, reviews of this film are not that great, and some question how it won Best Picture at all. With a nearly three-hour runtime and pacing described as “glacial,” it seems Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple was perhaps more deserving to win

• The Last Emperor did well, it stood out against the competition (and still does), and deserved to win

 

Although it’s not my favourite film from 1986 (where was the love for Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Academy, or for Stand by Me, or The Fly?), I do think Platoon is one of the best war films of the 1980s and is highly rewatchable. I love Rain Man, and even though certain aspects haven’t aged that well, I think it’s something of a time capsule for its subject and the era in which it was made, and no other films nominated that year remain as relevant today.

Though I found nothing to indicate Ordinary People was undeserving of Best Picture or does not remain significant, I can’t help but feel two other nominees from that year have had a stronger lasting impact and stand out as more unique films. Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver getting nominated and losing to Rocky was one thing, but Raging Bull (ironically a boxing movie) being the second time Scorsese missed out on Best Picture is another. I think an argument could be made that Raging Bull is even better in some ways than Taxi Driver, and even Rocky, for that matter. As far as I know, The Elephant Man was the only film directed by David Lynch nominated for Best Picture (though he later received subsequent Best Director nominations), and looking back, it seems like the most clearcut potential winner from his filmography, but I guess even that one was too “Lynchian” to win over the voters. I still find it quite moving and profound, and there’s something ironic about a film called Ordinary People beating it that year.

The biggest flub this decade, without a doubt, was the 62^nd Academy Awards. It is not a hot take to say Driving Miss Daisy, while not a bad film per say, didn’t deserve to win as much as fellow nominees Dead Poet’s Society, Born on the Fourth of July, or Field of Dreams. I don’t know about Field of Dreams (I think it’s just alright), but Dead Poet’s Society for sure carries more of an emotional impact. Born on the Fourth of July did get Best Director for Oliver Stone, but all three of those films have had way more staying power overall than Driving Miss Daisy.

I love many movies from the 1980s, but not that many of them scream OSCARS, which is one of the reasons I don’t care that much about the awards in the first place. Here is what I find crazy: despite so many of my favourite movies being from the 80’s, they were not “serious awards contenders,” so based solely on these Best Picture winners, I can’t say this decade is really one of the best for that kind of thing. Sorry, but I’m not even going to consider it for the shortlist.

Wrapping up part two, we have one definitive contender for best decade: the 1970s. We’ll have a look at the rest of the competing decades next time!

 

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!