Welcome to One Best Picture After Another – our new fortnightly blog where Barista Alan will attempt to watch all the winners of the Academy Award for Best Picture, starting at the very beginning. Before it all begins in earnest tomorrow, here’s his explanation as to why he embarked on this madness.
When it comes to the Academy Award for Best Picture, there’s an adage that goes: “The right pictures get nominated, the wrong picture wins.” And while you could easily do a very long-running blog on all the amazing films that didn’t get close to even a nomination, I think there’s some truth in that. Especially when it comes to the great injustices of the Award’s history, it is almost always framed in terms of a nominated film that is now revered as a classic losing out to a film that is now almost unheard of.
The failure of Martin Scorsese’ Goodfellas to win the Oscar in 1990, beaten by Dances With Wolves, is often cited as the Oscars overlooking the inventive and influential in favour of the much safer choice. Sometimes the film that won is still well-regarded in film critic circles – but has failed to create the sort of lasting legacy that the losers that year managed. How Green Was My Valley is still talked about as a great film, but by far fewer voices than rave about Citizen Kane or The Maltese Falcon – and the former rarely gets shown again on the big screen or to enjoy a deluxe DVD or Blu Ray release.
And sometimes the film that won has descended into obscurity. In 1955 Delbert Mann’s Marty took home the Oscar (it also won at Cannes that year) but feels completely forgotten today. I’ve certainly never seen it, and – truth be told – I have absolutely no idea what it is about at all, let alone why the Academy – and the Cannes jury – took to it so much in the mid-‘50s. I’m old enough to remember some controversy when Driving Miss Daisy won the Oscar, being seen as the dull safe choice over the likes of Born On The Fourth Of July, My Left Foot and Dead Poet’s Society, but I’ve also never actually watched it.
Which, of course, begs the question: is Driving Miss Daisy actually any good? Is Marty? Scanning through a list that just contains all the Best Picture winners is a genuinely curious experience – it doesn’t read like a comprehensive overview of the history of Great Cinema. Instead it reads like a motley ragbag of film titles; many true classics to be sure, but alongside them interesting curios, also-rans and absolute mysteries.
All of which inspired me to start this new series for A Damn Fine Cup of Culture – where I am going to watch all the films that won the Oscar. Just to judge them as films in their own right. I’m going to try and avoid referencing the other films that year that didn’t win – even if those losers are now regarded as being much better films. I am going to watch the film to see if it is at all Damn Fine. And even if it is not my particular cup of tea, it’ll be interesting to see if I can at least spot enough in there to understand why the Academy that year went for it.
Along the way, it’ll give me a reason to watch a number of films I’ve never seen – a fair few of which I’ve always felt I probably should have watched by now. But also to watch a few films I’ve not really heard of (Marty – I’m still talking about you here) alongside an excuse to rewatch some absolutely stone-cold Classics. Starting tomorrow at the very dawn of the Oscars with William A Wellman’s Wings all the way to whatever picture has just won the thing by the time I actually get to it. (What’s the early favourite to win in 2031, I wonder?)
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture 