The Best Picture

Earlier this month was the 90th Academy Awards. In its history, 90 films have claimed the title of Best Picture. As part of the celebration, Entertainment Weekly had a fan voted, March Madness style bracket competition to determine the Best Picture of the Best Picture winners.

Of course, since it was a popular vote, there were flaws. Many people admittedly haven't seen all the competitors. And competitions like that always skew toward populist classics, which partly explains why "Gone With The Wind" walked away with it.

Another complaint is that it only included 64 films, and breaking them down by era and pitting them against each other really narrowed the field in constricting ways. (As someone who voted every round, there were some heart-breaking early match ups). But it got me thinking, what are my favorite Best Picture winners?

I hold myself to a standard of having to have seen all the competitors, and as much as I love film there are plenty of older Best Picture winners I haven't seen. But I have seen every Best Picture winner since 1970, a total of nearly 50 years worth of films. And I thought it would be fun to go through and pick out the 10 that I think are the best from that group. So that's what I'll be doing the next 10 weeks in this space (on Saturdays).

But first, a word on the process. When I looked at the list, I tried to consider overall impact, re-watchability, the achievement it is, and what I thought of the film. Of course, this is a subjective process because I can't totally siphon off my opinion from my evaluation. But I tried to be as objective as possible and, as a result, have included some films that aren't personal favorites that I think are really well done. (But there's also some personal favorites in there, too.)

Here is a list of all the eligible films:
1970s:
Patton
The French Connection
The Sting
The Godfather, Part II
One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest
Rocky
Annie Hall
The Deer Hunter
Kramer vs. Kramer

1980s:
Ordinary People
Chariots of Fire
Ghandi
Terms of Endearment
Amadeus
Out of Africa
Platoon
The Last Emperor
Rain Man
Driving Miss Daisy

1990s:
Dances With Wolves
The Silence of the Lambs
Unforgiven
Schindler's List
Forrest Gump
Braveheart
The English Patient
Titanic
Shakespeare in Love
American Beauty

2000s:
Gladiator
A Beautiful Mind
Chicago
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Million Dollar Baby
Crash
The Departed
No Country For Old Men
Slumdog Millionaire
The Hurt Locker
The King's Speech
The Artist
Argo
12 Years A Slave
Birdman
Spotlight
Moonlight
The Shape of Water

So tune in Saturday for No. 10 on the list, with each of the subsequent picks in the weeks to follow. But first, a shout out to some honorable mentions. "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King" is a great and memorable film, one that won a boatload of Academy Awards. I like it, but I think it's really part of a larger story, not as great a singular achievement on its own, so it just narrowly misses this list. (I also think all those awards were an appreciation of three incredible films, even if they all went to the last one.)

Also of interest is the fact that I didn't pick a single film out of the decade of the 1980s. There are some enduring classics on that list. "Chariots of Fire" is an inspirational sports story, and one that resonates with a lot of people of faith. "Platoon" is some of Oliver Stone's best work, and a fascinating look at the Vietnam War. And "Terms of Endearment" is a film that still makes many cry. Those, among others, from the 1980s were good movies. But when I was narrowing down my list, none of them made the cut.

You can begin to see which films did on Saturday. And, as always, I invite your comments. Feel free to post your own lists. It's always fun to compare, contrast, discuss, and debate great art.