Oscars Biggest Blunders: When the Academy Got It Wrong

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

This weekend is the big event in Hollywood, with all the stars ready to walk the red carpet and say hello to the crowds of adoring fans gathered to see who will go home with Oscar. The 84th Academy Awards is this Sunday, February 26th, and with it is the return of the best host since Johnny Carson and Bob Hope, Mr. Saturday Night himself: Billy Crystal.

There have been many years when Oscar truly recognized the best picture of the year. There have been times when Oscar was downright boring and predictable, and then there are times when Oscar had its biggest blunders or “When Oscar Got It So Wrong.”

Here’s a list of when the Oscar went to the wrong film for Best Picture:

1932 – Cavalcade beats out I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang

No film before or since I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang had captured the ruthless brutality of the Chain Gangs in the South and how a justice system goes from being about upholding the law to revenge and hate. The true crime was the Academy not honoring a film that exposed what was going on in America at the time to the movie-going public but instead rewarding a stylish melodramatic film that has culture and grace but no substance.

1940 – Rebecca wins over The Grapes of Wrath for Best Picture

John Ford’s film The Grapes of Wrath captured perfectly the struggle of a family trying to stay together and survive during the Great Depression. It showed how people stopped believing in the American system and started questioning their own values and beliefs of what is right and wrong. Henry Fonda’s unforgettable performance as the oldest son and his inevitable break from the family is the heart and soul of the picture.

Rebecca, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, is a very strong film in its own right but doesn’t match the cinematic realism and emotional depth of Grapes.

1948 – Hamlet beats out The Treasure of the Sierra Madre for Best Picture

John Huston’s film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is perhaps the best movie to ever show what Gold Fever can do to an individual with the wonderful, stunning and powerful performance of Humphrey Bogart. The mesmerizing performance of Walter Huston as the ‘old timer’ fortune-seeker and the incredible script make this film, without a doubt, the Best Picture of 1948.

1949 – All the King’s Men wins over Twelve O’Clock High

Never in movie-making history had a movie ever captured or dared to show the emotional, physical, and mental struggle the American pilots had to endure during their bombing missions in WWII until Twelve O’Clock High. The raw, powerful performance of Gregory Peck as Frank Savage, the lead officer who has to be extremely hard on his men to get them ready for the horrors that await them, IS the very heart and soul of the film. The movie shows how the mental and physical strain on the men can become destructive and all-consuming, with Peck’s character eventually cracking on the day of a big mission.

Although All The King’s Men is a strong film about the corruption of a decent but flawed man, it doesn’t merit taking Oscar away from Twelve O’Clock High.

1969 – Midnight Cowboy wins the Oscar over Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Not only is it one of the Top 10 Best Westerns ever made (yes, that’s another list that will be coming soon), but the best buddy film of all time. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was out and out robbed of the Oscar it so clearly deserved by the Hollywood elite who had an agenda to promote. What was it? Pushing Midnight Cowboy, a mediocre and X-rated film with two very good actors (Dustin Hoffman & Jon Voight), into the spotlight to push the edge of the envelope of what the American movie-going public should go see and accept as art.

Paul Newman and Robert Redford were the perfect outlaw partners in a Wild West which was now becoming civilized and had no place for them, two men who could only depend on each other and would never leave the other behind. They would, however, quickly blame each other for the mess or trouble they were trying to escape from. With a great script, fantastic cinematography, a beautiful soundtrack, unforgettable performances, and a brutal yet stylish ending, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was without a doubt the Best Picture of 1969.

1977 – Woody Allen’s Annie Hall walks off with Oscar for Best Picture instead of Star Wars

The greatest space fantasy film of all time, which captured the hearts and imaginations of moviegoers all over the world and inspired generations of filmmakers, was snubbed and almost ignored by Hollywood on Oscar night. Even the great Sir Alec Guinness lost for his performance as Obi-Wan Kenobi, the aged Jedi Knight helping the film’s hero battle The Dark Side of the Force. It seemed as though the Academy didn’t feel or think a film that had broken every box office record at that time and had been praised by both film critics and film lovers around the globe was deserving of THEIR approval.

1981 – Chariots of Fire wins over Raiders of the Lost Ark

Directed by Steven Spielberg, Raiders of the Lost Ark is hands-down the ultimate action/adventure film of all time. Bringing to the big screen the best hero since James Bond with Indiana Jones (played by Harrison Ford) and pitting him against the evil Nazi army in the 1930s just before war breaks out in search of The Ark of the Covenant, the movie has some of the most memorable action scenes ever put on film such as the rolling boulder, a wild truck chase, and a truly stunning and unpredictable ending.

With great writing, wonderful art direction, costumes, strong performances, and an unforgettable score, Raiders of the Lost Ark is what every action/adventure film strives to be but usually comes up short in delivering.

1990 – Dances with Wolves beats out Goodfellas

Kevin Costner’s epic-but-all-too-familiar Western rode off with what should have been the Oscar for Martin Scorsese’s shocking and brutal gangster film, Goodfellas. Starring Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, and Joe Pesci, the crime drama showed the underworld of the mob for what it is…a vicious, violent, and greedy world where those who you trust will betray and kill you with a smile.

1998 – Shakespeare in Love wins over Steven Spielberg’s WWII Epic Saving Private Ryan

The greatest and most authentic film ever made about World War II, which director Steven Spielberg made for the veterans, was forgotten by the Academy when it came time to present the Oscar for the Best Picture, going instead to a melodramatic, superficial romance movie. Saving Private Ryan is a film that did something which had not been done in decades, it captured perfectly exactly what war is…Hell on Earth. It showed the horrors of war, the storming of the beaches, the blood-soaked sand, and the true shock of witnessing your brothers in arms being gunned down by machine guns while using their dead bodies to shield themselves from the spray of bullets. Everything about the film, from the camera work to the costumes, the sound, the incredible performances of Tom Hanks (he should have won his third Oscar for this performance) and the rest of the cast, is flawless.

WWII veterans told Spielberg after seeing the film that it was so realistic it brought it all back to them. They thanked him for honoring and remembering what they and their fallen comrades had gone through. This is definitely the Biggest Oscar Blunder of all time.