10 Best Pictures That Never Won Best Picture
All of us have our favorite movies! Some have become so ingrained into American culture, it is amazing to learn that they were passed over for the Best Picture Oscar. Here are ten great movies that we feel should have also been named Best Picture!
#1 -- The Color Purple
Despite having amazing portrayals by a wonderful cast, (Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, and Danny Glover), Steven Spielberg's The Color Purple lost the Best Picture award to Out of Africa , directed by Sydney Pollack.
#2 -- Fargo
One of the best crime movies ever, and populated by a cast of unique and quirky characters, Fargo lost out to The English Patient , a romantic movie.
#3 -- High Noon
Starring Gary Cooper in the fascinatingly ambivalent role of Marshall Will Kane, and Grace Kelley in an early role, High Noon lost out to The Greatest Show on Earth . Gary Cooper's performance became the standard bearer for many movies to come, and who remembers The Greatest Show on Earth?
#4 -- It's a Wonderful Life
The portrait of a good man driven to suicidal thoughts is guaranteed to elicit a tear from even the most cynical of movie goers. Only Jimmy Stewart could have played the title role so well, and supported by a fantastic cast of Lionel Barrymore and Donna Reed. However, the movie lost to It Happened One Night -- also a wonderful movie, but we see It's a Wonderful Life every Christmas.
#5 -- Network
Watching Network now is like a step back in time to what news programs used to be, and a map of the journey of how we got here, today. It is even harder to realize this movie didn't win Best Picture, and lost to Rocky -- an inspirational tale of a beaten down fighter, who works his way back to the top.
#6 -- The Right Stuff
Who could forget Tom Wolfe's novel about the original seven Mercury astronauts and those thrilling days of history? The Right Stuff was a portrayal of the very brave men who became overnight heroes and who exemplified the media's American Ideal as the men with "the right stuff". Sadly, this wonderful movie lost out to Terms of Endearment.
#7 -- Saving Private Ryan
Saving Private Ryan 's scenes of war depicted what really happened on the battlefield, not the sanitized version of most WWII movies. It is said that veterans of the actual battles shown were moved to the point that they could not leave their seats-- and that the heartbreak of the movie touched everyone who watched it. Sadly, the Best Picture Oscar went to a romantic comedy, a very good one, actually-- Shakespeare in Lov e.
#8 -- To Kill a Mockingbird
This adaptation of Harper Lee's iconic, Pulitzer Prize winning novel, moves many of us to tears to this day, and is often assumed to have been named The Best Picture. However, this classic film, starring Gregory Peck and Brock Peters, lost the award to Lawrence of Arabia.
#9 -- The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz had the great misfortune to have been released the same year as the winner of the Best Picture, Gone With the Wind . Still, our yearly sojourn to Oz, delights children, despite the scary parts, and enthralls many adults. While many of us despise Frank Baum's, (the author), politics, and other politically and socially incorrect moments-- the movie is a wonderful depiction of a fantasy world.
#10 -- Sunset Boulevard
Gloria Swanson's portrayal of an aging and mad film star perfectly captures what losing the limelight can do to one-- resulting in the death of her only friend... The movie that won that year, All About Eve , wasn't as acclaimed, even in 1950.
I hope that you have enjoyed our movie "Best Pictures"!
Thanks for coming by!
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It's hard for me to name a favorite out of these movies-- but all of them deserved The Best Picture award, too!
Dowser
All great movies to be sure, but I have no real argument with most of them not winning (based on the film that won that year) except for The Right Stuff, It's a Wonderful Life and Fargo
Good article thanks for sharing
Citizen Kane...IMO one of the best movies ever made.
Yes, it certainly could be! I just picked 10 out of 16... The original articles name the Shawshank Redemption as one, too!
Thanks! I loved The Right Stuff -- have the book, loved the movie... We still use the term "screw the pooch"...
I liked it, too-- but now, being so very much older, maybe I can relate more to what Gary Cooper must have been "feeling"... Grace Kelley was so young in that one!
Thanks for coming by, dear Jennilee!
It was listed in the original article, dear Kavika-- I chose 10 out of 16... Cut the list, so to speak, to my personal favorites!
Thanks, Kavika, for coming by!
It's a shame these didn't win an award, they certainly deserved to.
Yeah, they all needed some kind of award! Some special recognition!
Great nomination for the list! I loved that movie! Also: Casablanca, or did it win that year?
Yep, it got Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay.
Good seed... but there are s-o-o-o-o many!
It might be just as much fun to do a "this mess actually won Best Picture!!" article about the worst of the winners...