No matter what, an Academy Awards ceremony is never going to make everyone happy.Perhaps that makes the whole ordeal frustrating, both on the night of the ceremony and in the weeks/months leading up to it, or maybe that divisiveness is what makes Oscar night interesting. If everyone agreed on what the best movie of any year was, there would be no need for the Oscars, other awards shows, or any personal ranking to exist, really.
Yet sometimes, Oscar winners prove particularly unexpected, divisive, or even controversial. The following ranking focuses on Best Picture winners, with these films thereby tending to win in other categories, too.Some are good movies released during competitive years when various other films could’ve – or debatably should’ve – won, while other winners proved surprising for ultimately dethroning the potential winnereveryone was expecting. They’re divisive to different extents, but yes, including them here could itself be divisive. You may not be happy to see some of these called divisive. Divisiveness leads to more division. Notthe circle of life, but the circle of discourse and outrage. Welcome.
10’The King’s Speech' (2010)
Director: Tom Hooper
The Best Picture race for 2010 camedown to two biographical films: one quite cynical and about something relatively recent (The Social Network), and the other more idealistic and set further back in history (The King’s Speech). The former centered on the origins of Facebook withMark Zuckerbergas its flawed protagonist, while the latter centered onKing George VI, and the way he overcame a speech impediment shortly before World War II broke out.
Anyway,The King’s Speechisn’t technically awful, but it is a bit Oscar-baity, and some of its unconventional/quirky visual choices look a whole lotworse in a post-Catsworld(people seemed to tolerate thatTom Hooperstyle more when the story was more grounded). BeyondThe Social Network,2010 also had other Best Picture nominees that were more deserving of the win, includingthe likes ofToy Story 3(yes, really),Black Swan, andTrue Grit.
The King’s Speech
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9’Ordinary People' (1980)
Director: Robert Redford
Robert Redford’sfirst movie as director,Ordinary People, also saw him win an Oscar for Best Director, and the movie itself won Best Picture. It is a well-made family drama, and does prove suitably moving, not to mention very well-acted by everyone in its main cast… though of the four main actors,Donald Sutherlandwasn’t Oscar-nominated, quite surprisingly.
Still, it came out the same year asRaging Bull, and thoughRobert De Niroearned adeserved Oscar for his terrifying lead performance,Ordinary People’s win can be seen as something of an upset, with it representingMartin Scorsese’sbest direction up until that point.Redford’s a very good actorand a solid director, but him and his movie winning over Scorsese and his movie is a little surprising. Maybe divisive. To stress again, if you disagree, that’s okay.
Ordinary People
8’Dances with Wolves' (1990)
Director: Kevin Costner
Once more, here’s a movie that won the same year one of Scorsese’s best was released. The year in question was 1990, and the winner of Best Picture wastheKevin CostnerWestern,Dances with Wolves, notGoodfellas, which might well stand to date as thesingle greatest film Martin Scorsese has ever made.
Also, like withOrdinary People,Dances with Wolvessaw an actor (Kevin Costner) winning Best Director for the first feature film he ever made, which just feels wild when Scorsese was in the running with one of his best efforts: aperfectly cast, slick, and engrossing gangster movie. Like Robert Redford, Costner has definite skills behind the camera, but doesn’t have anything on Scorsese.Dances with Wolvesis a good epic, but you’re unlikely to see it as a contender for the title of greatest Western of all time.Goodfellas, on the other hand, might well represent the best of what gangster movies have to offer.
Dances With Wolves
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7’The Greatest Show on Earth' (1952)
Director: Cecil B. DeMille
Hearingthe words “the greatest show on earth”nowadays will probably make one think ofThe Sopranosor something, but back in 1952, it was the name of a movie that went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars. Admittedly, it’s a term also associated with circuses, which are beyond old-fashioned at this point, andThe Greatest Show on Earthkind of just feels like seeing circus performances for 2.5 hours, and not much else.
There’s drama between certain performers, all being soap opera-ish at best, with the only exciting moment – an extended train crash sequence – ultimately being referenced inSteven Spielberg’sThe Fabelmans. So that was some good that came out ofThe Greatest Show on Earth. If 1952 had been a lousy year for cinema, the win wouldn’t seem so controversial or puzzling, butthe all-time great Revisionist Western,High Noon, came out that year, and won various other Oscars. Why it didn’t take home the top prize is a mystery.
The Greatest Show on Earth
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6’Gigi' (1958)
Director: Vincente Minnelli
IfGigihad fluked a Best Picture win yet not obtained that much more by way of trophies, perhaps it wouldn’t be worth highlighting here. Yet that’s not what happened at the Oscars ceremony intended to award releases from 1958. Instead,Gigidecimated the Oscars like few films have before or since, winning all nine of its nominations.To put that into perspective, there are only six other films in Academy Award history to have won nine or more trophies.
And it did all this while beinga just okay musical at best, and certainly not nearly one ofVincente Minelli’svery best efforts(1951’sAn American in Parisalso won Best Picture, and is a good deal better). Still, what’s probablythe best film of 1958,Vertigo, wasn’t even nominated for Best Picture that year.Cat on a Hot Tin RoofandThe Defiant Oneswere, though, and both would’ve been more deserving winners.
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5’Forrest Gump' (1994)
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Unlike the Best Picture category for 1958, the category for 1994 was stacked, giventhe year was an overall fantastic one for cinema.Forrest Gumpultimately won, and while it is a good movie that certainly has its charms, its competition includedThe Shawshank RedemptionandPulp Fiction. The former is considered one of the best andmost emotionally fulfilling movies of all time, and the latter could well be the greatest thingQuentin Tarantino’sever made (which is saying something).
Perhaps more surprising than the win for Best Picture was the win forTom Hanksin the category of Best Actor, considering he’d won the previous year forPhiladelphia, and that was probably the stronger performance.John Travolta’sturn inPulp Fictionwas one of the greatest actor comebacks ever, and he deserved some Oscar recognition for it.ConsiderForrest Gumpdoubly divisive for winning both Best Picture and Best Actor overPulp Fiction, then… but again, it is, at worst, still a pretty good movie.
Forrest Gump
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4’Shakespeare in Love' (1998)
Director: John Madden
A good manymovies based onWilliam Shakespeare’s texts end unhappily, butShakespeare in Love, which fictionalizes the man’s life as he wroteRomeo and Juliet, is intentionally flowery and crowd-pleasing. It’s a somewhat novel romantic comedy, given the setting and the characters, butit’s pretty lightweight stuff overall, with its Best Picture win proving particularly contentious.
Essentially,Shakespeare in Lovewas up against one ofthe most acclaimed war movies of all time,Saving Private Ryan. ThatSteven Spielbergfilm was expected to win, and become the second Spielberg movie to win Best Picture, after the also World War II-setSchindler’s List(1993). Spielberg won Best Director, with some additional technical wins going toSaving Private Ryan, butShakespeare in Lovecontroversially won Best Picture; a decision that still feels odd to this day.
Shakespeare in Love
3’Driving Miss Daisy' (1989)
Director: Bruce Beresford
1989 is a year that can be compared to 1958, given the best movie of each respective year wasn’t nominated for Best Picture.In the case of 1989, that film wasSpike Lee’sDo the Right Thing, which earned a screenplay and supporting actor nomination, but nothing by way of Best Picture. The award in question went, rather questionably, toDriving Miss Daisy.
That winner also deals with themes regarding race and prejudice, but in a very shallow and disappointingly safe manner. Itdoesn’t aim to challenge or do anything thought-provoking, whileDo the Right Thingdoes feel forceful and appropriately angry.Time has been much kinder to Lee’s filmthan it has been toDriving Miss Daisy, and it’s clear now which is the better 1989 dramedy about race.
Driving Miss Daisy
2’Green Book' (2018)
Director: Peter Farrelly
Nearly 30 years on from theDriving Miss Daisywin, history kind of repeated itself. More than one movie that dealt with race in some way or another was up for Best Picture, and the safest/least deserving one of the bunch won. For this year, that winner wasthePeter Farrelly-directedGreen Book, and another Spike Lee movie,BlacKkKlansman, was snubbed.
At least Spike Lee earned a Best Director nomination,BlacKkKlansmanitself was nominated for Best Picture, and Lee won for co-writing the screenplay… but it would’ve beenmore deserving and just overall cooler if the film had won over the bland and somewhat forgettableGreen Book. EvenBlack Pantherwould’ve been a better win thanGreen Book, with it featuring a predominantly Black cast and being a cut above most superhero movies… though it wasn’t meant to be, for whatever reason.
Green Book
1’Crash' (2004)
Director: Paul Haggis
Crashhasan impressive ensemble cast, sure, but not much else going for it. It tells various stories that interconnect in some ways over the course of its runtime, broadly dealing with racial issues yet doing so very clunkily. Its Best Picture win was baffling, and one that numerouspolled Academy members said they would changeif asked to vote again.
The clearer winner, then and now, isBrokeback Mountain, theAng Lee-directed film that feels like one of themost powerful romance movies of the 21st centuryso far. Buthonestly,Crashis bad enough (yes, it’s outright bad) that any other movie up for Best Picture that year would’ve been a more worthy winner. Seriously, just go ahead and take your pick out ofBrokeback Mountain,Capote,Good Night, and Good Luck, andMunich.
