Best picture winners worth re-watching
Welcome back Dear Reader for what I do hope will be a very helpful feature. First I should tell you, I have two favourite seasons – Autumn and Awards! And before the latter draws to a close for another year, I want to take a moment of your time to hearken back to some big big winners from way way back in the day. I mean those Best Picture title holders that were all the rage in the moment, yet over time have been relegated to the far far end of the rows and rows of streaming categories. Back in my day we didn’t have to endlessly scroll through the litany of lesser-thans. We needed only proceed to the nearest Blockbuster where we could peruse an entire wall of winners perched proudly for your rental pleasure. But however exalted I deemed the display, I recognize now how all that ‘home viewing’ evolved into where we are today – with these gems slowly fading from your purview. A demise most aptly delivered by the fictional character of legendary Oscar winning screenwriter, Arthur Abbott in Nancy Meyers THE HOLIDAY. Arthur explains while reading the paper “I counted 9 movies are opening today. I remember when 9 movies would open in a month. Now a picture has to make a killing the first weekend or they’re dead… I came to Hollywood over 60 years ago, and immediately fell in love with motion pictures….When I first arrived in Tinseltown, there were no cineplexes or multiplexes. No such thing as a Blockbuster or DVD. I was here before conglomerates owned the studios. Before pictures had special effects teams. And definitely before box office results were reported like baseball scores on the nightly news.” Now, I will grant you it was great when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences expanded the Best Picture category from 5 to 10 nominees in 2010. Did it accommodate more of the deserving? For sure! But I’d be willing to bet in the 15 years since, most of you would be hard pressed to list all the winners, let alone their fellow nominees. Indeed, we have arrived at the era of ‘excess and immediacy’; too many options coupled with fleeting attention spans spell pending obscurity for even the greatest among them. So while there’s no going back, I was thinking – before the 98th Annual Academy Awards are broadcast live on March 15th – I could draw your attention to a few previous Best Picture Winners that deserve your attention – for the first time or once again may they live on and not fade away.
Starting with IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT. A movie that we romantic comedy fans regard as ‘when it all started,’ but if you haven’t seen it my friends, treat yourself to the film that took home 5 Oscars including Best Picture back in 1934. Frank Capra won Best Director for this film featuring “A rogue reporter trailing a runaway heiress for a big story joins her on a bus heading from Florida to New York and they end up stuck with each other when the bus leaves them behind at one of the stops along the way.” Hollywood legends Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert took home the Best Actor Oscars in their respective categories all thanks to an Oscar winning Adapted script by Robert Riskin. It’s a classic for all the right reasons and for all you romcom fanatics – pure joy! Oh, it’s definitely worth falling in love with over and over again. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT is streaming now on Hollywood Suite part of the Prime Video collection.
If you grew up in Ontario like I did, when I did – there’s a good chance your folks tuned in every week to Elwy Yost’s “Saturday Night at the Movies”. That meant, with only one TV in the house (perish the thought), you were tuning in too. Back then his show was one of the few ways you could see old classics (apart from those PBS marathons). He used to give you the inside scoop on the films and interview the stars and filmmakers about their experience making it. Looking back on it now, it was groundbreaking television, and in retrospect really formed my love of movies and movie making. I mention that because it was on “Saturday Night at the Movies” where I first saw HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY. It was also the first time I can recall seeing my mom cry. Watch it for yourself and you’ll see why she did. Maureen O’Hara is beyond incredible, as are all the performances in this movie based “at the turn of the century in a Welsh mining village, as the Morgans, he stern, she gentle, raise coal-mining sons and hope their youngest will find a better life.” HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY is available to rent/buy through most streaming platforms.
Now before I get too heavy on the Black & White side of cinema, I’m going to list a few more of the classics that, if you’re any kind of cinephile you’re infinitely familiar, but for anyone reading who hasn’t seen the following Best Picture Winners, please do so at your first opportunity: CASABLANCA 1943 (CRAVE), AN AMERICAN IN PARIS 1951 (Prime Video), ON THE WATERFRONT 1954 (Prime Video) and THE APARTMENT 1960 (TUBI). All wonderful. All so worth watching (again and again).
I’m going to fast forward through the technical musical masterpieces of THE SOUND OF MUSIC 1965 (Disney+) and OLIVER 1968 (Prime Video), past the oh so epic GODFATHER 1972 and GODFATHER PART II 1974 (both on CRAVE), beyond my previously saluted film favourite ROCKY 1976 (CRAVE) with the hopes everyone out there who claims to love movies has seen all of those as they remain firmly ensconced in most “Best of” lists. I’ll leave you to watch those again at your leisure and point your attention to the following oh-so-worthwhile winning films that may have fallen off your radar.
Have you seen KRAMER VS. KRAMER?! Because I’m here to tell you – this movie is a must see, and once you do, it never leaves you. The genre listed on IMDb is “legal drama” which explains the title, but this movie is a masterclass in acting. It is real and raw and, have mercy, is it amazing. It is quiet without question, but the performances of Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep will resonate through the rafters, and Justin Henry as their son… look! Grab some tissue and get ready for a roller coaster of emotions. KRAMER VS. KRAMER is streaming now on STARZ.
Since we’re on the topic of tearjerkers, if that’s your scene, you haven’t lived until you’ve watch James L. Brooks Best Picture Winner TERMS OF ENDEARMENT 1983. It’s all in the tagline – “Come to laugh. Come to cry. Come to care. Come to terms.” I promise you will laugh plenty, and I guarantee you will shed a ton of tears… or, at the very least, well up way more than you have before as Shirley MacLaine plays widow “Aurora Greenway, who juggles her own struggles with a new romantic interest while trying to sort out the emotional problems of her daughter who’s married to a philandering husband.” Jack Nicholson, Debra Winger, Jeff Daniels, John Lithgow and Danny DeVito round out the incredible cast of grownups. The little kids are pretty spectacular too. I gave a quick shout out to this film in my last feature and I still can’t believe how many people told me they’d never heard of it. So, I’ll tell you now what I told all of them – treat yourself and watch it as soon as possible!
Since we’re on the subject of Jack Nicholson, I’m going to tell you about THE DEPARTED. Jack is part of a super-packed slate of powerhouse actors in this crime thriller that took home the gold in 2006. I’ll confess, I didn’t catch this one during its theatrical release days. It wasn’t until much later, following my second binge of OZARK, when Netflix slipped it into my “Top Picks for You” cue. Sometimes their suggestions are more hurtful than hit, but after recalling the initial buzz around this one I gave in and watched, and boy – were they bang on! Martin Scorsese took home the Oscar for his direction of this gripping drama about “an undercover cop and a mole in the police attempt to identify each other while infiltrating an Irish gang in South Boston.” The ensemble includes Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Sheen, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin and more. Oh, it’s such a great ride with some twists and turns you truly don’t see coming. Watch and you’ll see. THE DEPARTED is streaming now on CRAVE.
I’m sure you’ve heard of that saying “It was life imitating art.” When it comes to the 2012 Best Picture winner ARGO, a more appropriate description might be “art imitating life imitating art.” Here’s how the logline reads: “Acting under the cover of a Hollywood producer scouting a location for a science fiction film, a CIA agent launches a dangerous operation to rescue six Americans in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran in 1979.” Yes, based on a true story! In fact Chris Terrio took home the Oscar for his adaptation of the 1999 memoir “The Master of Disguise” by U.S. CIA operative Tony Mendez and an article by Joshuah Bearman that appeared in Wired magazine entitled “The Great Escape: How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran.” It’s edge-of-your-seat stuff, and knowing it all really happened in real life makes it even more so. For all the real life rundown, just Google “The Canadian Caper”. Ben Affleck directs this big screen telling and stars alongside a stellar cast that includes Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Alan Arkin, Victor Garber, Scoot McNairy and so many more. It’s a must see to be sure of it!!! ARGO is streaming now Paramount +.
A few more of my special “must see” mentions include SPOTLIGHT 2015 (Prime Video) which has been in the news a lot lately as it reflects a time when America’s First Amendment regarding Freedom of the Press was assured and not attacked as it is today. It’s based on a true story and oh so powerful in its telling. I gave great salute toCODA 2021 in my New Year’s feature so read that here and know for sure that one will have you feeling all the feels. Finally, I want to include GREEN BOOK which took home the Oscar back in 2018 amidst a crazy amount of controversy. I don’t want to rehash the criticisms, but rather salute the wonderful performances by the always outstanding Mahershala Ali and the equally incomparable Viggo Mortensen.
Those are just a few of my pics for past Best Picture Winners to watch (or watch again). With any luck, you’ll find a few worth remembering too and decide to pass them on to your film-loving friends! For a complete list of Best Picture winners from the past 97 years head to oscars.org, and be sure to tune in to CTV/ABC/HULU for the live broadcast of the 98th Annual Academy Awards on Sunday, March 15th They’ll be handing out the hardware to the best of the best and I simply can’t wait!
