Undeserving Oscar Winners #1

With the latest Academy Awards ceremony on the horizon, here we look back at previous years. The Oscars have a history of, er, questionable decisions when it comes to their Best Picture winners, and this series of blog entries will look at some of the more glaring ones and argue which film should have taken home the statuette. Of course, there's no pleasing everyone, and this is mainly based on personal taste, but also takes into account how well certain films have endured compared to others.

Year
1999

Best Picture Winner
Shakespeare in Love

Why it won:
It had all of the Miramax marketing muscle behind it. Back in the late 90s, it seemed that the Weinstein brothers could just buy Oscar success; the trend thankfully hasn't continued.

Why it didn't deserve to win:
Shakespeare In Love isn't a bad film. It's a likeable, pretty well written but very lightweight romcom set in Elizabethan England. It's successful on its own terms, but Oscar winning material? I don't think so. Especially considering the competition it had.

What should have won
Saving Private Ryan

Why it didn't win:
Possibly because it's a bit dark and gritty for Oscar voters, but that explanation is countered by the fact that Schindler's List won in 1994. Maybe the very fact that Spielberg won it only a few years earlier put voters off, especially considering they're both World War 2 films. Spielberg deservedly look home Best Director for Ryan, but not Best Film.

Why it deserved to win:

What other war film has had more influence, ever? The impact of the opening D-Day landing scene alone is immense and rightly renowned, exhibiting a filmmaker at the very top of his form. The rest of the film is hardly a letdown, though. In terms of depicting war on screen, it remains unequalled. The less conventional The Thin Red Line, also nominated in the same year, was perhaps more daring and also a superb film, but the visceral force of Ryan is extraordinary. Filmmaking genius.

Other nominees:
The Thin Red Line
Elizabeth
Life Is Beautiful