#5 – Saving Private Ryan (1998) – lost to ‘Shakespeare in Love’

The first 25 minutes alone is better than Shakespeare in Love. The Omaha beachhead assault is the most realistic depiction of war ever put on film. Period. It is difficult to watch in its realism and Tom Hanks hasn’t given many performances better than he did in this film. Shakespeare in Love was a decent enough movie, but it wasn’t even as good as another Best Picture loser from that year, Life is Beautiful. Aside from the people who made Shakespeare, does anyone really think Saving Private Ryan was the inferior film? For that matter, do they even really think that? Harrison Ford’s reaction when he read the actual winner says it all.

#4 – L.A. Confidential (1997) – lost to Titanic

Titanic was a movie born and bred for an Oscar campaign. The movie that propelled Leonardo DiCaprio superstardom and proved to everyone EXCEPT Academy voters that James Cameron’s screenwriting skills are the most overrated in Hollywood. L.A. Confidential, on the other hand was a sweeping masterpiece of noir. Based on James Ellroy’s book of the same name, this movie is filled with brilliant performance after brilliant performance. Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger, David Strathairn, James Cromwell, hell even Danny DeVito didn’t embarrass himself. No one was trying to outshine the rest, they just dug in and did what they do best. The result? One of the best films of the 1990s.

#3 – E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) – lost to Gandhi

At the time, E.T. was Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece. 25 years later it still might be. Gandhi may have featured a great impression, er…, performance by Sir Ben Kingsley, but E.T. has withstood the test of time. It is the science fiction movie for non science fiction fans. A fantastic story dealing with the simple theme of loss, this was the first film I remember seeing that actually moved me to tears. What further proof is needed seeing as when Gandhi won Best Picture, director Richard Attenborough declared, "I was certain that not only would E.T. win, but that it should win. It was inventive, powerful, [and] wonderful. I make more mundane movies."

My thoughts exactly.

#2 – Goodfellas (1990) – lost to Dances With Wolves

“As far back as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangster.” In one sentence of dialogue, the gangster movie was born anew. Coincidentally nominated in the same year as the final installment of the series it strove to be, The Godfather, Goodfellas re-invented the crime drama and arguably surpassed that film with its brilliance. Driven by the outstanding performances of Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Ray Liotta, this is the film that every single picture in the genre has since tried to emulate. Quentin Tarantino would not exist without this movie. If Scorsese deserved a directorial Oscar for only one picture he ever made, this would be it.

#1 – Citizen Kane (1941) – lost to How Green Was My Valley

Was it ever in question that this would be #1? At or near the top of almost every list of the greatest movies of all time, Citizen Kane was nominated for nine Academy Awards, but won only Best Original Screenplay. Why was Citizen Kane denied the Oscar for Best Picture? One word: politics. Inspired loosely by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hurst, Citizen Kane almost never saw the light of day. Hurst was so angry about the film he offered RKO Pictures $800,000 (adjusted for inflation that would be about $12 million today) to destroy all prints of the film and burn the negatives. When they refused, he banned so much as a mention of the film in his newspapers. While its status is well cemented now, Academy voters back then were not willing to award the film based on its own merits; instead they avoided it simply because of the controversy that surrounded it. More depressing still is that over 60 years later, the academy still hasn’t learned its lesson.