{"id":872,"date":"2007-02-27T13:35:55","date_gmt":"2007-02-27T13:35:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/?p=872"},"modified":"2007-02-27T13:35:55","modified_gmt":"2007-02-27T13:35:55","slug":"how_many_best_pictures_have_yo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/2007\/02\/27\/how_many_best_pictures_have_yo\/","title":{"rendered":"How Many Best Pictures Have You Seen?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t find a lot of memes out there on the ‘net anymore — apparently they were just a fad that’s now on the wane — but every once in a while, I still run across one that grabs my fancy. Here, courtesy of Tosy and Cosh<\/a>, is one that grabbed my fancy this morning. It’s one of those list-style memes that asks how many Oscar-winning films — i.e., winners in the category of Best Motion Picture of their respective years — I have seen.<\/p>\n


\nThe usual instructions apply. Oscar-winning films I have seen<\/i> are italicized. Those I want to see<\/b> are bolded.<\/p>\n

1928 – Wings<\/i>
\n1928 – Sunrise<\/i>
\n1929 – The Broadway Melody
\n1930 – All Quiet on the Western Front<\/b>
\n1931 – Cimarron
\n1932 – Grand Hotel
\n1933 – Cavalcade
\n1934 – It Happened One Night<\/i>
\n1935 – Mutiny on the Bounty<\/b>
\n1936 – The Great Ziegfeld
\n1937 – The Life of Emile Zola
\n1938 – You Can’t Take It With You
\n1939 – Gone With the Wind<\/i>
\n1940 – Rebecca
\n1941 – How Green Was My Valley
\n1942 – Mrs. Miniver
\n1943 – Casablanca<\/i>
\n1944 – Going My Way
\n1945 – The Lost Weekend<\/b>
\n1946 – The Best Years of Our Lives<\/i>
\n1947 – Gentleman’s Agreement<\/b>
\n1948 – Hamlet<\/i>
\n1949 – All the King’s Men
\n1950 – All About Eve<\/b>
\n1951 – An American in Paris
\n1952 – The Greatest Show on Earth
\n1953 – From Here to Eternity<\/b>
\n1954 – On the Waterfront<\/b>
\n1955 – Marty
\n1956 – Around the World in 80 Days<\/i>
\n1957 – The Bridge on the River Kwai<\/i>
\n1958 – Gigi
\n1959 – Ben-Hur<\/i>
\n1960 – The Apartment<\/b>
\n1961 – West Side Story<\/i>
\n1962 – Lawrence of Arabia<\/i>
\n1963 – Tom Jones<\/i>
\n1964 – My Fair Lady
\n1965 – The Sound of Music
\n1966 – A Man For All Seasons<\/b>
\n1967 – In the Heat of the Night<\/b>
\n1968 – Oliver!
\n1969 – Midnight Cowboy<\/b>
\n1970 – Patton<\/b>
\n1971 – The French Connection<\/i>
\n1972 – The Godfather<\/i>
\n1973 – The Sting<\/i>
\n1974 – The Godfather Part II<\/i>
\n1975 – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest<\/i>
\n1976 – Rocky
\n1977 – Annie Hall<\/i>
\n1978 – The Deer Hunter<\/i>
\n1979 – Kramer vs. Kramer<\/i>
\n1980 – Ordinary People
\n1981 – Chariots of Fire<\/b>
\n1982 – Gandhi<\/b>
\n1983 – Terms of Endearment<\/i>
\n1984 – Amadeus<\/i>
\n1985 – Out of Africa<\/i>
\n1986 – Platoon<\/i>
\n1987 – The Last Emperor<\/i>
\n1988 – Rain Man<\/i>
\n1989 – Driving Miss Daisy<\/i>
\n1990 – Dances With Wolves<\/i>
\n1991 – The Silence of the Lambs<\/i>
\n1992 – Unforgiven<\/i>
\n1993 – Schindler’s List<\/i>
\n1994 – Forrest Gump<\/i>
\n1995 – Braveheart<\/i>
\n1996 – The English Patient<\/i>
\n1997 – Titanic<\/i>
\n1998 – Shakespeare in Love<\/i>
\n1999 – American Beauty<\/i>
\n2000 – Gladiator<\/i>
\n2001 – A Beautiful Mind<\/i>
\n2002 – Chicago<\/i>
\n2003 – The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King<\/i>
\n2004 – Million Dollar Baby<\/i>
\n2005 – Crash
\n2006 – The Departed<\/i><\/p>\n

I’m proud to see how much italicized text there is up there; I’ve seen a lot of stuff. However, the really interesting question about “best pictures” is not which films people have seen, but which remain relevant and respected after a span of years. For instance, I know a powerful backlash has built up against Dances With Wolves<\/i> and Titanic<\/i>, both of which many people now say shouldn’t have won. (To be fair, many people said this about them the night they did win; personally, I disagree in both cases, but especially so when it comes to Dances with Wolves<\/i>. I’ve been catching bits and pieces of it on TV the last couple weeks — AMC and my local PBS affiliate are both playing the hell out of it right now — and I still find it as captivating and moving as I did seventeen years ago. And I’ve always<\/i> liked Titanic<\/i> and don’t care who knows it!) Of course, whether a movie earns respect or scorn is, to a certain extent, subjective — people view movies through their own personal lenses of experience, interests, and education. It’s a matter of taste; I myself loath The English Patient<\/i>, Forrest Gump<\/i>, and Annie Hall<\/i> (and no, I don’t dislike AH just<\/i> because it beat out Star Wars<\/i> for the Oscar… although that certainly doesn’t help its cause in my eyes).<\/p>\n

But relevance is a different thing, isn’t it? Movies and other art forms that seemed so significant and wise at a certain time often tend to lose their power as times change. The Deer Hunter<\/i> drew much of its power from the fact that the Vietnam War was still very much an open wound on the American psyche; these days, with that wound at least scabbed over if not on the mend, it strikes me as rather ridiculous. Similarly, Kramer vs. Kramer<\/i> was notable at the time of its release for being the first movie to honestly depict modern divorce; nowadays, divorce has been so commonplace for so many years, that it’s hard to see what the big deal was about this film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t find a lot of memes out there on the ‘net anymore — apparently they were just a fad that’s now on the wane — but every once in a while, I still run across one that grabs my fancy. Here, courtesy of Tosy and Cosh, is one that grabbed my fancy this morning. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film-studies","category-memes-and-quizzes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jasonbennion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}