Pop Culture Corner Vol. 1

As Promised!

After reading this wonderful post from the A.V. Club (go to item #3), I realized that, for one thing, the Oscars are kind of crap. I know this is in no way shocking and that I'm maybe the last literate person outside of L.A. to come to this conclusion, but there it is. It didn't seem like this when I was growing up, starry-eyed by the hopes of one day working in the movie industry, so to me the Academy Awards still hold a holy significance for me that they almost surely don't deserve.

Now, however, my faith is badly lapsing. I mean, come on. A Beautiful Mind? Gladiator? Crash, of all things? And those are just in the last five years or so. Go back further and apparently Driving Miss Daisy is better thanDo the Right Thing. The first ever Best Picture Winner was the 1928 film Wings. You've never heard of it, of course, except for possibly in the trivia that it was the first ever best picture winner. With a few exceptions of obviously phenomenal films that were instant classics, most Best Picture winners are the sort of thing that fade into relative obscurity about a week or two after their coronation. Million Dollar Baby is a great film, of course, but not one that people of any age or demographic are likely to be watching at home in the future.

My point is that Great Movies can only be judged from a little bit of distance, and maybe shouldn't be chiefly judged by those who make them, at the whim of the politics of any given week. As such, I give you The First Ever (and likely ever) Revisionist Oscars!

(and beg for your replies...)

I'm only going back to 1990, because it's unlikely that any of us truly have enough of a memory of anything before that, and if we do it's bound to be tainted by nostalgia.

1990 - WINNER - DANCES WITH WOLVES

(other movies that year* included Goodfellas; Ghost; Awakenings; The Grifters; The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover; Last Exit to Brooklyn; Miller's Crossing; The Nasty Girl; Beauty and the Beast**; Edward Scissorhands)

1991 - WINNER - SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

(JFK; Naked Lunch; Boyz n the Hood; My Own Private Idaho; Thelma and Louise; The Fisher King)

1992 - WINNER - UNFORGIVEN

(The Crying Game; A Few Good Men; Glengarry Glenn Ross; Howard's End; The Player; My Cousin Vinny; Malcolm X; Reservoir Dogs; Aladdin)

1993 - WINNER - SCHINDLER'S LIST

(The Piano; In the Name of the Father; The Fugitive; Philadelphia; Short Cuts; The Nightmare Before Christmas; Menace II Society; Strictly Ballroom)

1994 - WINNER - FORREST GUMP

(Pulp Fiction; The Shawshank Redemption; The Hudsucker Proxy; Ed Wood; Quiz Show; Heavenly Creatures)

1995 - WINNER - BRAVEHEART

(Apollo 13; Babe; Mr. Holland's Opus; Leaving Las Vegas; Dead Man Walking; 12 Monkeys; The Usual Suspects; Get Shorty; Toy Story)

1996 - WINNER - THE ENGLISH PATIENT

(Fargo; The People vs. Larry Flint; Jerry Maguire; Shine; Sling Blade; Trainspotting; Welcome to the Dollhouse; Bound)

1997 - WINNER - TITANIC

(L.A. Confidential; As Good as it Gets; Good Will Hunting; The Full Monty; Wag the Dog; The Ice Storm; Chasing Amy; Boogie Nights)

1998 - WINNER - SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE

(Saving Private Ryan; Elizabeth; Life is Beautiful; The Thin Red Line; The Truman Show; Out of Sight; Bullworth; Rushmore)

1999 - WINNER - AMERICAN BEAUTY

(Fight Club; Magnolia; The Sixth Sense; The Green Mile; The Hurricane; Boys Don't Cry; The Insider; Being John Malkovich)

2000 - WINNER - GLADIATOR

(Wonder Boys; Almost Famous; Traffic; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Erin Brockovich; You Can Count on Me; Requiem for a Dream)

2001 - WINNER - A BEAUTIFUL MIND***

(Ocean's Eleven; Moulin Rouge; Gosford Park; In the Bedroom; The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring; Mullholland Drive; Monsters' Ball; Ali; Monsters, Inc.; Shreck; The Royal Tenebaums)

2002 - WINNER - CHICAGO

(Gangs of New York; The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; The Hours; The Pianist; Adaptation; Catch Me If You Can; About Schmidt; Road to Perdition)

2003 - WINNER - THE LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING

(Lost in Translation; Mystic River; Finding Nemo; Pirates of the Caribbean; Monster; Whale Rider; In America; The Last Samurai; Kill Bill Vol. 1)

2004 - WINNER - MILLION DOLLAR BABY

(Sideways; Ray; The Aviator; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Closer; Maria Full of Grace; Kill Bill Vol. 2)

2005 - WINNER - CRASH***

(Brokeback Mountain; Sin City; Munich; Good Night and Good Luck; Syriana; Transamerica; Walk the Line)

So there it is. Have at it, folks.

*These lists of other movies are, of course, not exclusive nor comprehensive, and serve only as helpful reminders. I also chose not to mention this year's Oscar's as we're still too close to properly judge anything.

**The first animated film ever nominated for Best Picture.

***Imagine a written, audible sigh, as I lose a little more faith in humanity.