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The Oscars Do-Over 96 and 97: Some titanic match-ups (1 Viewer)

Best Picture of 1997

  • Titanic

    Votes: 26 18.3%

  • LA Confidential

    Votes: 28 19.7%

  • Good Will Hunting

    Votes: 49 34.5%

  • Boogie Nights

    Votes: 30 21.1%

  • Life is Beautiful

    Votes: 7 4.9%

  • As Good As It Gets

    Votes: 2 1.4%
  • Total voters
    142
Wow, two great movie years.  When We Were Kings was by far the best film of 1996, though.   Here's my second tier (in no particular order):

  1. Fargo
  2. Sling Blade
  3. Trainspotting
  4. Lone Star
  5. The English Patient
  6. Secrets & Lies
  7. Big Night
  8. Breaking the Waves
  9. Hard Eight
  10. Dead Man
  11. Walking and Talking
  12. Basquiat
  13. Paradise Lost
Guess I'll go with either Fargo or Trainspotting given the glaring omission of the best movie of the year.  I'll be back shortly to tell you how you messed up the '97 list.

 
'96 was between Fargo and Sling Blade. Although Sling Blade was superb I had a pretty easy choice in Fargo.  "You're just a fountain of conversation. I real geyser" . So many great lines.

'97. Guess I'm way in the minority here but I didn't enjoy LA Confidential all that much.  Wasn't horrible but nothing close to great.  I went with Titanic over Will Hunting but it was a close call.  Miss you Robin Williams. :cry:

 
falguy said:
'97. Guess I'm way in the minority here but I didn't enjoy LA Confidential all that much.  Wasn't horrible but nothing close to great. 
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Minority, but right. I'm actually surprised when a Boomer likes it - most of us who grew up on Bogie & Cagney & gangsters feel its lack of core. It's OK, but too derivative to be more. I rarely bring that up around here, tho, cuz the noisiest FFApper flixfreax all love it.

 
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Ilov80s said:
Billy Bob never came close to matching Sling Blade. It's almost like Rocky. I have no idea how that guy was the total driving force behind something so wonderful and human. It makes no sense with of their career. 
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Watch the first season of Fargo and your opinion may change.  

 
Major said:
I heard the sequel is decent but for some reason have yet to watch it.  I guess I didnt want to ruin a good thing but definitely curious how the homey Begbie is doing.  
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The Trainspotting sequel manages to be entertaining, retain the spirit of the original, and it's not just a ripoff of the original. 

 
Major said:
Watch the first season of Fargo and your opinion may change.  
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Did he write and/or direct it? I do want to watch the show but I just meant how one person could be such a creative driving force behind something like Sling Blade and then totally fizzled out in other writing/directing attempts. 

 
krista4 said:
Wow, two great movie years.  When We Were Kings was by far the best film of 1996, though.   Here's my second tier (in no particular order):

  1. Fargo
  2. Sling Blade
  3. Trainspotting
  4. Lone Star
  5. The English Patient
  6. Secrets & Lies
  7. Big Night
  8. Breaking the Waves
  9. Hard Eight
  10. Dead Man
  11. Walking and Talking
  12. Basquiat
  13. Paradise Lost
Guess I'll go with either Fargo or Trainspotting given the glaring omission of the best movie of the year.  I'll be back shortly to tell you how you messed up the '97 list.
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Love Hard Eight. Big Night is pretty good one too.

 
Gally said:
Man I am in the minority.  I really liked Primal Fear and thought it was a nice twist that kept me entertained.  But to be fair I have never seen Fargo or Sling Blade
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It was between Primal Fear and Fargo for me. Went with the latter though. 

 
On to 1997, which features (1) one of my all-time favorite acting performances, from Robert Duvall in The Apostle, (2) Taste of Cherry, my second favorite film by my second favorite (tied) Iranian director, and (3) The Sweet Hereafter, certainly in my top 50 favorite movies of all time.  I would vote for any of these three movies over the six on the list.  Small shout-outs to the great Spike Lee documentary 4 Little Girls and to he-knows-what-it's-like-to-be-dead Peter Fonda for his performance in Ulee's Gold.   I didn't expect any of these to make the list.

I fully did expect, however, that The Full Monty would be on here.  My digs at what does/doesn't make it are all in jest, but this one legit befuddles me.  It was a monster hit at the box office and nominated for a ton of Oscars including Best Picture, meaning a conscious decision had to have been made to insert at least two other movies that weren't nominated for Best Picture above this one.  What gives?  I might guess because it's a comedy, but I see nominally-a-comedy As Good As It Gets on here.  I'd vote for The Full Monty above anything on the list.  As it is, I'll go with LA Confidential.  

Oh, and I found Good Will Hunting laughably bad but know I'm an outlier there.  

 
krista4 said:
Oh, and I found Good Will Hunting laughably bad but know I'm an outlier there.  
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As a former smartest-uneducated-man-in-Boston i have an affinity for the premise, but it is pretty hacky movie-making with a smattering of very good scenes. the therapy portion is too pathetic to be laughable.

 
As Good As It Gets was also nominated for Best Picture. Nominated for 7 Oscars and won 2. It was also a big hit. Full Monty had 4 nominees and won 1.It was a tough call between the two but AGAIG got more Oscar love and most importantly, I prefer it. 

 
Swingers and Bottle Rocket were definitely up there for me in 1996.  Timeless comedies with some heart and great debuts from some iconic directors/writers.  

 
Ilov80s said:
Did he write and/or direct it? I do want to watch the show but I just meant how one person could be such a creative driving force behind something like Sling Blade and then totally fizzled out in other writing/directing attempts. 
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I was just commenting on his acting but understand your point now.  Just a guess but he seems to likes drink and drugs a little too much.    Sure that has hindered his potential greatness on the writing/directing front.  

 
Major said:
I was just commenting on his acting but understand your point now.  Just a guess but he seems to likes drink and drugs a little too much.    Sure that has hindered his potential greatness on the writing/directing front.  
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I was genuinely asking if he was behind Fargo at all.

 
krista4 said:
On to 1997, which features (1) one of my all-time favorite acting performances, from Robert Duvall in The Apostle
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He was great in this movie. Like Billy Bob with Sling Blade, Duvall wrote, directed, and starred in The Apostle.  He produced it too.

 
krista4 said:
I fully did expect, however, that The Full Monty would be on here.  My digs at what does/doesn't make it are all in jest, but this one legit befuddles me.  It was a monster hit at the box office and nominated for a ton of Oscars including Best Picture, meaning a conscious decision had to have been made to insert at least two other movies that weren't nominated for Best Picture above this one.  What gives?  I might guess because it's a comedy, but I see nominally-a-comedy As Good As It Gets on here.  I'd vote for The Full Monty above anything on the list.  As it is, I'll go with LA Confidential.  

Oh, and I found Good Will Hunting laughably bad but know I'm an outlier there.  
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I'm glad that I'm not the only one who loves The Full Monty. I mentioned it in the previous thread.

 
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Ilov80s said:
As Good As It Gets was also nominated for Best Picture. Nominated for 7 Oscars and won 2. It was also a big hit. Full Monty had 4 nominees and won 1.It was a tough call between the two but AGAIG got more Oscar love and most importantly, I prefer it. 
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I didn't compare AGAIG to FM in terms of being on the list.  I only mentioned they were both comedies.  What I asked was how it got relegated below two non-nominees for Best Picture.  Looks like one was Boogie Nights, which clearly was an omission.  The other you elevated was Life Is Beautiful.  Why that over an actual nominee?

And though I didn't direct compare the two, it seems AGAIG wasn't a great listing based on its zero votes.  Full Monty would have had at least one.

 
McJose said:
Oh man...this is tough as heck 

Boogie Nights vs GWH vs LA Confidential...three of my favorites.

If I could saw the Oscar in thirds I would.

Three very different types of movies and each amazing in their own way.  

I think this requires a Krista-esque write-up that I am not prepared to do.
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Wait.... is this a serious post? No smart, witty or subversive joke to be found? 

:jawdrop:

 
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Went with Fargo and LA Confidential because I just think it holds up better than Boogie. LA Confidential is way up there with Chinatown for me. 

Slingblade was incredibly dumb. 

 
krista4 said:
I didn't compare AGAIG to FM in terms of being on the list.  I only mentioned they were both comedies.  What I asked was how it got relegated below two non-nominees for Best Picture.  Looks like one was Boogie Nights, which clearly was an omission.  The other you elevated was Life Is Beautiful.  Why that over an actual nominee?

And though I didn't direct compare the two, it seems AGAIG wasn't a great listing based on its zero votes.  Full Monty would have had at least one.
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I can't argue with your logic that Full Monty would have gotten 1 vote and AGAIG has zero. However, I am secretly PMing Shark Pool members offering them money to vote for AGAIG just so I don't look so wrong. That said LiB did get several nominations including Best Picture and won 3 Oscars but as Bucky noted it was in the 99 Oscars and not the 98. It was first released in 1997. Didn't premiere in the US until 98 and the UK in 99. So I suppose there is a legitimate case to be made that I put it in the wrong year for the Oscars. For simplicity of these polls and since we are able to use hindsight here, I am just organizing movies years by when they first originally released. 

Buckychudd said:
It was nominated....just not in 1997. 
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Ilov80s said:
I can't argue with your logic that Full Monty would have gotten 1 vote and AGAIG has zero. However, I am secretly PMing Shark Pool members offering them money to vote for AGAIG just so I don't look so wrong. That said LiB did get several nominations including Best Picture and won 3 Oscars but as Bucky noted it was in the 99 Oscars and not the 98. It was first released in 1997. Didn't premiere in the US until 98 and the UK in 99. So I suppose there is a legitimate case to be made that I put it in the wrong year for the Oscars. For simplicity of these polls and since we are able to use hindsight here, I am just organizing movies years by when they first originally released. 
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I think Full Monty would have had more than one vote.

If we’re doing over the Oscars, it seems we should be using the Oscar rules on eligibility, meaning Life Is Beautiful would be ‘98.  You didn’t put Hoop Dreams in earlier because you said Oscars don’t recognize docs for Best Picture.  Seems inconsistent not to follow Oscar practice here.

All that said, I’ll stop complaining and instead thank you again for doing these!   :)  

 
krista4 said:
I think Full Monty would have had more than one vote.

If we’re doing over the Oscars, it seems we should be using the Oscar rules on eligibility, meaning Life Is Beautiful would be ‘98.  You didn’t put Hoop Dreams in earlier because you said Oscars don’t recognize docs for Best Picture.  Seems inconsistent not to follow Oscar practice here.

All that said, I’ll stop complaining and instead thank you again for doing these!   :)  
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You are probably right and Life is Beautiful was an oversight. I didn't notice the discrepancy when I posted. I just saw LiB came out in 97 and knew it got a bunch of Oscar noms/wins and included it. So for official records, I would say Full Monty should have been nominated and not LiB. In the end, I don't think it impacts outcomes. Neither Full Monty or LiB were ever going to win for whatever year they were nominated. Also, in my defense, the Oscars have changed their requirements for cutoff dates before. They have had awards for multiple years, they have done cutoffs mid year, they have done calendar year. They have different rules for release date/location for different categories. So perhaps part of me fixing it is coming up with a more simplified system while keeping the spirit of the category. 

Also I screwed up, ok? lol

 
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Ilov80s said:
Neither Full Monty or LiB were ever going to win for whatever year they were nominated. 
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Yeah, this is a good point.

Count me as an apparently rare person who really liked LiB, by the way.  So much weird backlash on that movie.  Same with The English Patient.

 
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jdoggydogg said:
I really want to watch more early Brando. I haven't seen any of his films for decades. 
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Dunno if you really wanna do that. Lotta crap in that CinemaScope era

ETA: but do watch his Bounty if you haven't - best job of heroic acting ever and he essentially directed the thing and was just having a ball.

 
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wikkidpissah said:
Dunno if you really wanna do that. Lotta crap in that CinemaScope era

ETA: but do watch his Bounty if you haven't - best job of heroic acting ever and he essentially directed the thing and was just having a ball.
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Never seen it, so that's exciting. Having watched weeks of content on AMC back when the network only ran old movies, I did see plenty of bad movies. But I will say that while I like modern films more than many classic films, the mediocre movies from the golden age are usually a lot better than the mediocre movies from the modern era. 

 
krista4 said:
Yeah, this is a good point.

Count me as an apparently rare person who really liked LiB, by the way.  So much weird backlash on that movie.  Same with The English Patient.
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I love Anthony Minghella - had the good fortune to talk to him on the phone a couple times when he & my cousin were writing a film together and no one had a greater talent & enthusiasm for film RIP - and genuinely enjoyed all his movies, but English Patient just got away from him in the 2nd half. I rewatch and the sumptuous scenes get better but the post-crash stuff more excruciating

 
wikkidpissah said:
Dunno if you really wanna do that. Lotta crap in that CinemaScope era

ETA: but do watch his Bounty if you haven't - best job of heroic acting ever and he essentially directed the thing and was just having a ball.
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Is the Wild Ones any good? That is one the famous Brando movies I haven't seen yet. 

 
I'd have voted for the Full Monty for best in 97. Life Is Beautiful would have been 3rd for me after L.A. Confidential.

I might have voted Swingers for best in 96, would have been a tough decision between that and Trainspotting.

 
Gr00vus said:
I'd have voted for the Full Monty for best in 97. Life Is Beautiful would have been 3rd for me after L.A. Confidential.

I might have voted Swingers for best in 96, would have been a tough decision between that and Trainspotting.
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I'll be honest Swingers was never in consideration. Also maybe you can edit your post to say "I meant to vote for As Good As It Gets in 97 but I misclicked." It would really help me out. 

 
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