Reblogged » Oscar Best Picture Winners And Nominees Largely Overlooked In BBC List Of 100 Greatest American Films | Deadline
Reblogged » Oscar Best Picture Winners And Nominees Largely Overlooked In BBC List Of 100 Greatest American Films | Deadline.
I do enjoy a good film list now and then. Especially one that gets your head nodding in sublime agreement while also offering head scratching amazement at what you’ve read. Such was case with yesterday’s piece over at Deadline Hollywood by Peter Hammond. Specifically, the register by the BBC Culture released last week; one Peter remarked ignored a significant number of Best Picture Winners by the vaunted Academy.
“Gone With The Wind, considered the benchmark of all Oscar winning Best Pictures, barely made the list at number 97,
just one notch above Heaven’s Gate, the 1980 western that was a notorious disaster at the time but is clearly getting a second look. Ouch. Interestingly Michael Cimino’s one and only Best Picture winner, The Deer Hunter was AWOL, so take this all with a grain of salt, Academy. Perhaps it is choices like that one that have made this list the subject of much controversy and venom in the last few days.”
Offered a fine comparison of the BBC list to the record of the Academy with time-honored cinema when it comes to “the greatest” of American film. For instance, while I think Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological sex-melodrama Marnie (1964) an entertaining hoot, it rating above Notorious (1946) — let alone Hitch’s first with Tippi, The Birds (1963), unlisted — made me wonder what the Brits were smoking when they came up with this.
Still, a thought-provoking, maybe even teeth-clenching, examination I very much recommend reading.
It Rains... You Get Wet 
12 Responses to “Reblogged » Oscar Best Picture Winners And Nominees Largely Overlooked In BBC List Of 100 Greatest American Films | Deadline”
Well, it is not a crap list, to be fair. I think this is further evidence of the subjectivity of watching and “rating” any films – there is no real consensus. Granted I am slightly biased because as a classic film lover, my feelings concerning “Gone With the Wind,” as an example, are ambivalent at best.
Another thing, I am sure this list is a victim of sorts to revisionism. Critical analysis seems to revel in bucking conventional wisdom at every corner so some of the more “obscure” selections are glaring but not all that surprising.
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You and me both regarding GWTW, Iba. Thanks so much for joining in on this. 🙂
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I like the list far more than the AFI’s and liked the diversity yet I still had plenty of problems with the rankings. I can’t believe Apocalypse Now is below Forrest Gump, The Lion King, and West Side Story.
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Yeah, it’s not like the traditionally safe AFI kind of list, that’s for sure. It’s the order of films that draws the main criticism, such as mind. Thanks, my friend.
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These lists are there to generate opinion and comment. There are always controversies, although I can’t help ploughing through these lists.
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Agreed, along with page views. 😉
Thanks, Mark!
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Wow!
What a Facacta list of offerings!
‘Rio Bravo’?… Reallly?!!!
‘Grey Gardens’?… Are you kidding me?
Never got all the hoopla attached to ‘Gone With The Wind’. Outside of the brief burning of back subbing for Atlanta backdrop. A slow pan across hundreds of dead and wounded soldiers in the town square and a fair to middling ending… There has never been a lot of “there” there.
I thought the AFI listings were sometimes messed up. But The BBC is light years from this side of the pond. And not in a good way!
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You said it, Kevin. Always love reading your comments, my friend. Many thanks.
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Fascinating article. Thanks for sharing!
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Thank you for always reading, Fernando. Much appreciated, my friend. 🙂
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It’s an interesting list for sure. Obviously there’s always room for debate (I for one do not think The Tree of Life is one of the all-time top 100 American films). But I suppose a British look at American films is apt to have an unusual interpretation of things.
Even so, I figured it looked like a good list and decided to incorporate it into my list of movies to find and watch, which also contains the Oscar BP nominees, AFI lists, and a few other things . And I found that there really wasn’t all that much in the BBC’s list that I both hadn’t seen and hadn’t put on the watchlist already.
Grey Gardens (1975)
Love Streams (1984)
The Shanghai Gesture (1941)
Just three films. Out of the 65 on the list that I hadn’t already seen, only three weren’t already on my watchlist. So while the ranking may be odd, maybe it’s not such an avant-garde list after all.
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Excellent point, Morgan. Many thanks 🙂
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