Favorite Best Picture winners

I've only seen 56 out of 90 Best Picture winners, but for as much flak as I've given the Academy over the years for not picking the best movies to be awarded the top award, there are very few of them that I dislike, and there are 18 of them that I rate 10/10. So this was a surprisingly difficult list to make. But here we go anyway with my favorite winners of the biggest award a movie can win. Since I've written about all of these movies in the past, and/or recently on the top lists of the decades, I decided to ask specific questions about the movie and the year they came out. These are my favorite movies that've won the Best Picture Oscar, but were they each the best movie nominated? What about the best movie of the year? Let's find out:

An honorable mention top 5 for:

Schindler's List
The Hurt Locker
Amadeus
Dances with Wolves
Silence of the Lambs

10. The Godfather part II - 1974


- Was it the best movie nominated?

The nominees at this year's ceremony were:

The Godfather, part II
Chinatown
The Conversation
The Towering Inferno
Lenny

I would argue that The Godfather, part II wasn't even Francis Ford Coppola's best movie nominated for Best Picture that year, as I slightly prefer The Conversation. And I prefer Chinatown to both.

Verdict: No, it wasn't the best of the movies nominated for Best Picture that year.

- Was it the best movie of the year?

1974 had five movies on my top movies of the 1970's list, but The Godfather, part II was the lowest rated among them. I had The Conversation, Blazing Saddles, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, and Chinatown above it.

Verdict: No, it was not the best movie of 1974.

9. Rocky - 1976


- Was it the best movie nominated?

The nominees at this year's ceremony were:

Rocky
All the President's Men
Bound for Glory
Network
Taxi Driver

Amazingly, a year in which all nominees are great movies, a feat which almost never happens. There wouldn't have been a wrong choice. The Academy loved the underdog story of Rocky, understandably. It's a big emotional crowdpleaser, those are great Oscar choices (see Chariots of Fire, The King's Speech, etc.). I could hear arguments for any of the movies, but Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, I think, easily stands atop the nominees.

Verdict: No, it wasn't the best of the movies nominated for Best Picture that year.

- Was it the best movie of the year?

Again, it's a great movie from a year of great movies, but Taxi Driver is its superior.

Verdict: No, it was not the best movie of 1976.

8. Rain Man - 1988


- Was it the best movie nominated?

The nominees at this year's ceremony were:

Rain Man
Working Girl
The Accidental Tourist
Mississippi Burning
Dangerous Liaisons

While Mississippi Burning is a powerful, if simplistic, movie, and the others all have their moments, Rain Man is the only truly great movie in this group, I think. Great performances by Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman, a wonderful script, and subtly terrific control from director Barry Levinson, who never bettered this movie.

Verdict: Yes, it was the best of the movies nominated for Best Picture that year.

- Was it the best movie of the year?

1988 was a great year for movies, but Rain Man wasn't even in the top three (it's fourth). It might've been the best American movie made that year, but with Krzysztof Kieślowski's The Decalogue, from Poland, and Japan's animated masterpieces My Neighbor Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies, also coming out that year, there's no way Rain Man can claim "best movie of the year" status.

Verdict: No, it was not the best movie of 1988.

7. No Country for Old Men - 2007

- Was it the best movie nominated?

The nominees at this year's ceremony were:

No Country for Old Men
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
There Will Be Blood

A fine group of movies, even if I thought Atonement fell too flat when it should've been emotionally devastating, Juno is too self conscious, and There Will Be Blood hangs its hat too much on a performance that doesn't work for this viewer. But, to me, No Country for Old Men easily stands atop this group of movies. Joel and Ethan Coen's win for Best Director that year marked just the second time the award had been shared (it had previously happened when Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise shared the award for West Side Story).

Verdict: Yes, it was the best movie of the movies nominated for Best Picture that year.

- Was it the best movie of the year?

2007 holds the record as the year with the most 10/10 ratings I've given out, 11 in total. So it has a real argument as the best year of film ever. Six of those movies made it into my top list of the 2000's. While it was above such greats as Eastern Promises, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, and 5 Centimeters Per Second, No Country for Old Men was listed below Pixar's Ratatouille for my list.

Verdict: No, it was not the best movie of 2007.

6. Annie Hall - 1977

- Was it the best movie nominated?

The nominees at this year's ceremony were:

Annie Hall
The Goodbye Girl
Julia
Star Wars
The Turning Point

A few great movies in there, to be sure, including the too often forgotten The Goodbye Girl. This year marked the 19th and final Oscar ceremony hosted by Bob Hope. The Turning Point set a record for most nominations without a win (11), a record later tied by Spielberg's The Color Purple. Although it surprised many people that it beat out the cultural phenomenon of Star Wars, Annie Hall is the best of these movies, I think.

Verdict: Yes, it was the best movie of the movies nominated for Best Picture that year.

- Was it the best movie of the year?

1977 was a great year for movies, it had four entries into my top movies of the 1970's list. The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh, Star Wars, Annie Hall, and my top rated movie of that year, Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Verdict: No, it was not the best movie of 1977.

5. The Apartment - 1960

- Was it the best movie nominated?

The nominees at this year's ceremony were:

The Apartment
Elmer Gantry
The Alamo
Sons and Lovers
The Sundowners

Despite some heavy hitting names among those involved with the Best Picture nominees that year, including John Wayne, Fred Zinnemann, Burt Lancaster, and others (not even including Alfred Hitchcock and Psycho, for some reason), The Apartment is just such a perfect movie that it easily stands above the rest. The Apartment was the last black-and-white film to win Best Picture until Schindler's List in 1993.

Verdict: Yes, it was the best movie of the movies nominated for Best Picture that year.

- Was it the best movie of the year?

Even with the previously mentioned Psycho being released that year, and being my #7 movie of the decade, The Apartment was my #2 movie of the 1960's.

Verdict: Yes, it was the best movie of 1960.

4. Unforgiven - 1992

- Was it the best movie nominated?

The nominees at this year's ceremony were:

Unforgiven
The Crying Game
A Few Good Men
Howard's End
Scent of a Woman

While A Few Good Men and The Crying Game have many great things in them, and Scent of a Woman does contain a great performance from Al Pacino, none of these movies are on the level of Clint Eastwood's masterpiece. Oscar fun facts from this year include composer Alan Menken becoming the first person to win two Oscars in back-to-back ceremonies, winning for Best Song and Best Score for Aladdin, the year after winning both for Beauty and the Beast.

Verdict: Yes, it was the best movie of the movies nominated for Best Picture that year.

- Was it the best movie of the year?

While there are two other 1992 movies on my top list of the 1990's, Werner Herzog's Lessons of Darkness and Spike Lee's Malcolm X, and both are astoundingly great movies, neither is as good as Unforgiven.

Verdict: Yes, it was the best movie of 1992.

3. On the Waterfront - 1954

- Was it the best movie nominated?

The nominees at this year's ceremony were:

On the Waterfront
The Caine Mutiny
The Country Girl
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Three Coins in the Fountain

While it's astounding that Rear Window isn't in that group, it's pretty obvious to me that On the Waterfront was the best movie of the bunch. I like the other movies, but don't love them. This year was notable both as Marlon Brando's first win for Best Actor, as well as his fourth consecutive nomination, a record still unmatched. On the Waterfront had the most nominations and most wins this year.

Verdict: Yes, it was the best of the movies nominated for Best Picture that year.

- Was it the best movie of the year?

While On the Waterfront was my #7 movie of the 1950's and is on my top 50 list of all-time, Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai is the best movie made that year.

Verdict: No, it was not the best movie of 1954.

2. Casablanca - 1942

- Was it the best movie nominated?

The nominees at this year's ceremony were:

Casablanca
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Heaven Can Wait
The Human Comedy
In Which We Serve
Madam Curie
The More the Merrier
The Ox-Bow Incident
The Song of Bernadette
Watch on the Rhine

A decent set of movies, really. Interesting factoid, The Ox-Bow Incident was the last Oscar nominated movie to only be nominated for Best Picture. Although Casablanca won Best Picture and Best Director for Michael Curtiz, The Song of Bernadette won the most awards on the night, with 4. Also, of the "big awards", only Best Original Screenplay went to a movie not nominated for Best Picture. This was the last year until 2009 that there were 10 nominees for Best Picture. Anyway, yes, of course Casablanca is the winner of this group.

Verdict: Yes, it was the best of the movies nominated for Best Picture that year.

- Was it the best movie of the year?

Although 1942's Bambi is a great movie, one that was on my top list of the 1940's (yet received no Oscar nominations), Casablanca is most definitely the best movie of 1942.

Verdict: Yes, it was the best movie of 1942.

1. The Godfather - 1972

- Was it the best movie nominated?

The nominees at this year's ceremony were:

The Godfather
Cabaret
Deliverance
The Emigrants
Sounder

It's not a bad list of movies, but pretty uninspiring outside of The Godfather, I think. Although Bob Fosse's Cabaret set an Oscar record for most wins without winning Best Picture, with 8 awards that night. The ceremony was notable also for Marlon Brando's refusal of his Best Actor award, as well as the first competitive Oscar win for Charlie Chaplin. Chaplin won Best Original Score for his 1952 film Limelight, which was only eligible at that year's Oscars because it screened for the first time in Los Angeles that year. Of course, that it won is a ridiculous anomaly, but also further enraging because Nino Rota's iconic and influential score for The Godfather wasn't even nominated (due to some bullshit controversy about Rota reusing part of a score he'd previously written for another movie). Regardless, I had three 1972 movies on my top list of the 1970's but only The Godfather made the cut from this group.

Verdict: Yes, it was the best of the movies nominated for Best Picture that year.

- Was it the best movie of the year?

Of those other two 1972 movies, Herzog's Aguirre, the Wrath of God, and Gordon Parks Jr.'s Super Fly, both are inferior to The Godfather.

Verdict: Yes, it was the best movie of 1972.