Best Pictures Ranked (of the 30 so far)

So to celebrate that I've watched and reviewed I'm posting the ranking, from worst to best, of all the Best Picture's I've watched so far. You may not agree with my rankings, but I thought I'd be a fun little thing to commemorate making it to 30, after only 6 months of reviewing and blogging.

(note: some of  the ratings don't go in order. I rate films not compared with anything else but the overall thought, and sometimes films that got a lower rating overall, I enjoyed better than something that was a .5 higher.)

30. How Green Was My Valley  4/10

This film was just very long, and very dull, with very little action, nor anything of interest. It told the story of a family living in a Welsh coal-mining town. It sounded like it would be funny and interesting but didn't turn out that way, for me.

29. West Side Story- 4/10

I've never really understood the hype over this musical. The songs were alright, and the choreography was great, but the acting was pretty terrible, the story line (Romeo and Juliet modern-day retelling in New York with Americans vs. Latinos? With gang/turf wars?) was pretty lame too. It just wasn't the musical for me.

28. Going My Way- 6/10

Again, while it sounded like an interesting story, and Bing Crosby is a really good actor, it was a bit too long, and a bit too much not like what it said it was going to be. And just sort of dragged out the story line. There were a couple nice songs in it though.

27. The Broadway Melody- 5.5/10

Honestly, I thought this movie was pretty impressive for a movie made in 1930. The first talking film to win, and the 2nd winner overall. While it wasn't overly interesting, it was neat to recognize some of the music. And it was pretty good for something so old.

26. American Beauty- 5/10

While I realize this movie is supposed to be complex, and "deep", I just can't take movies like this very seriously, nor can I find myself to empathize for the main character. Sex and nudity don't go well with me either.

25. Shakespreare in Love- 6.5/10

While I thought it was alright, it's just funny to see what the Academy thinks is the best. Personally, I would've pushed it off as another period piece chick flick with lots of big name actors.

24. All Quiet on the Western Front- 6/10

WWI is something I find so tragic. So it was interesting to watch one of the first movies on the topic. While it was made in 1930, it was pretty impressive. The special effects weren't terrible, and the acting was quite good. However the story was a little slow and the characters weren't very connectable.

23. Terms of Endearment- 6.5/10

This was a cute story with good acting. However, some of it felt a little unrealistic, and some of it was just boring. And then the end came as a bit of a shocker, but I felt I hadn't connected well with any of the characters to really care as much as I ought to.

22. All About Eve- 6.5/10

One of the first Hollywood satires. It was a funny story, but was a little too drawn out at 2 hours and 18 minutes. It had a funny, witty script, and had some great performances (including an early Marilyn Monroe appearance).

21. Forrest Gump- 6.5/10

While we've seen movies time and again with people with "simple" mind views, Forrest Gump is probably the best known. While Tom Hanks have an amazing performance, the movie couldn't seem to decide if it was serious or funny, and that really hindered it for me.

20. A Man for All Seasons - 7/10

Being a Christian myself, I felt this movie had a very strong message, and found it quite inspiring. In the typical "die for what you believe in" this movie was well acted, if a little long.

19. The Departed- 7/10

Martin Scorsese's very first Best Picture and Director win. While it was good, and had an interesting plot, excessive swearing always puts me off a movie a little bit. And gangster/crime movies aren't really my thing. However, Leo, Matt, Mark and Jack were all fantastic.

18. Casablanca- 7/10

One of the big classics on the list. Humphrey Bogart being that suave lover, and Ingrid Bergman as the confused woman in love, it was a classy movie, with an interesting story. While it wasn't my favourite movie ever, nor was it what I expected it to be, it was good.

17. No Country for Old Men- 7/10

Very different from all the other best picture winners is No Country for Old Men, based on the Cormac McCarthy novel. It's a thriller, with guns, blood, violence, drugs and money. Javier Bardem floored me in this role. But reading it was a 'fast-paced action thriller' really left me disappointed, since that wasn't what it was at all. It was slow-burning, and psychological. A second watching may bring up the rating.

16. Slumdog Millionaire- 7.25/10

India, slums, romance, and Who Wants to Be A Millionaire. This movie portrays the slums of India, and tells a young Indian boys story in a brutal and honest way. While it wasn't my favourite movie of the year, or even of the nominees, I understand why it won. (Oh, and the little kids were probably the best part of the movie)

15. Chicago- 7/10

I was surprised by enjoying this musical. I thought it was funny, and the way they song numbers were done was interesting and different from other musicals, being on stage, and as an "inner monologue". The dancing was great, and Catherine Zeta-Jones was brilliant and sexy.

14. An American in Paris- 7.5/10

After seeing Singin' In the Rain, I've been kind of a sucker for Gene Kelly and for tap dancing. While the movie wasn't as charming as Singin', and with less tap, this movie looked great, was fun, and had great dancing.

13. Gigi- 7.5/10

Another musical, starring Leslie Caron, who got her start in the previous movie, An American In Paris. This movie, while it wasn't the best musical ever was cute, and fun, and girly. And a girl like me likes stuff like that sometimes.

12. Million Dollar Baby- 7.5/10

The first half of the movie bored me a little bit. The second half I spent bawling my eyes out. Hillary Swank was simply amazing. It was very interesting, very sad, and really well made.

11. Rain Man- 7.5/10

Through this project has brought me to really love Dustin Hoffman. And this movie definitely showcased his amazing abilities. While the movie wasn't altogether exciting, Dustin Hoffman was truly incredible, and I hardly realized it was even a performance.

10. The Bridge on the River Kwai- 8/10

I thought this movie would be boring, but I found it quite interesting. It's very different from any war movie we've seen, and tells the interesting story of soldiers who are prisoners of war, and how one stood up for what he believed in, and how they were able to succeed. I liked it a lot.

9. The Lost Weekend- 8/10

I thought this movie was incredibly interesting. It's about an alcoholic, in the time when alcohol addiction wasn't talked about very much. It was well-acted, and showed it in a really personal way. I enjoyed it. 

8. Gentleman’s Agreement- 8/10

Another interesting movie, from around the same time period. It's about a reported who goes under cover as a Jew to write an article on antisemitism. While it only stayed in the upper class way of things, it was interesting nonetheless and really showed how much antisemitism there was in the States. 

7. The Artist- 8.25/10

This year's winner, and the first silent film to win since the 20's (and only the 2nd one overall). It's a love story, but it's more than that. It's the rise and fall of the silent film era. It's depression and loneliness, pride and cowardice. Jean Dujardin gave an amazing performance and the film was really fun, as well as interesting. 

6. Annie Hall- 8.25/10

Probably one of the only comedies to win Best Picture (only comedy?). It's the story of a disfunctional relationship, not unlike (500) Days of Summer. It was cute and funny, and Woody Allen is adorable. 

5. Driving Miss Daisy- 8.75/10

I know a lot of people give this movie heck for winning, but I watched it with my mum, and we both really enjoyed it. Morgan Freeman is so great, and this role gave him a different side that I hadn't seen him do before. It was cute, fun, and just a nice movie. I like those kind too. 

4. Kramer vs. Kramer - 8.75/10

This is the movie that made me really like Dustin Hoffman. I'm too young to have really seen him in anything before, and I thought this movie was really good. I cried, and I laughed. Dustin was great, Meryl was goooorgeous, and their little boy was adorable. An interesting insight on divorce, when the dad is usually the one made out as the bad guy or the cheater. 

3. Titanic- 8.75/10

I'm a sucker for this movie, what can I say? I have a strange fascination with Titanic in the first place, so I'm pretty biased towards anything on the subject. Leonardo DiCaprio was great, and Kate Winslet was heartbreaking. I like romance, I like Titanic, and I cried a lot.

2. The Hurt Locker- 8.75/10

I'm really not sure why I liked this movie so much. I don't get into politcal movies, and I've never much been a fan of war films either, but I really, really liked this movie. It was different, gritty, and threw me right into the Iraq war. It had the interesting way of not being biased to one political take on the war or the other. It was more about the people, how they dealt with the war, and their feelings. I don't know why, but it was so good. 

1. Oliver!- 9/10

Childhood favourite, there's always a bias. This film never gets old, the music is fabulous and it's just so fun. I love this movie. 

So there you go, everyone. All 30 of the Best Picture's I've watched, ranked from worst to best. I know many will disagree, but I have a funny taste in movies. Enjoy!

Titanic

Titanic, 1997
Directed by James Cameron
Nominated for 14 Oscars, Won 11
Up Against: As Good As It Gets, Full Monty, Good Will Hunting, LA Confidental

We all know the story of Titanic, especially now, with the world reminding us of it's 100th anniversary since it's sinking. For those of you who've been hiding under a rock, Titanic was, at the time, the largest ship in the world, and was struck by an iceberg on it's maiden voyage, killing 68.2% of all people on board, around 1523 people. The movie follows 2 young people. Jack Dawson, a young man who wins his ticket onto the Titanic in a poker game. He's poor, but has big dreams and takes nothing in life for granted. When he sets eyes on Rose, he makes a connection that will change his life. Rose is an upper class lady, engaged to marry a very rich man. But Rose is unhappy with her life. She detests everyone around her, and wants to live life, and see the world, not to submit to a husband whom she doesn't love, or do what people tell her to. She meets Jack while trying to work up the courage to jump off the end of the Titanic, to kill herself. He convinces her to stay, and saves her life when she slips and almost falls into the water after trying to climb back onto the boat. After this, the two find themselves falling in love.

While watching this movie, I realized I had come to see it on an interesting day. April 14th. The Titanic went down very early (2:20am) on April 15th. It was uncanny timing, as I hadn't planned it, but it was eerie nonetheless. The Titanic is a topic I find extraordinarily interesting and a story I've always felt myself drawn to. While it definitely wasn't the largest boat accident/sinking, it sunk under such unusual circumstances, and on it's maiden voyage, leaving so many dead and frozen in the waters. I hadn't seen this film in a really long time. I've seen bits and pieces over the years when it plays on TV, but haven't watched the whole thing for probably 4 or 5 years. So it was almost like watching a whole new film, as I remembered so little.

If I'm correct, this film is what really brought Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio into the international limelight. Kate, playing Rose, received her first Academy Award nomination. Kate was delightful as Rose. She captured her spirit, her ambition, and her fire and really made her believable. Leonardo DiCaprio played Jack, who had initially turned the role down. Leo was also great in his role, playing the smart but poor young man who finds himself falling for Rose. Surprisingly, he received no nomination.

This film is incredibly stunning. The shots of the ship are gorgeous. James Cameron did a phenomenal job with everything set related. He studied everything he could on the Titanic for several years, and even organizaed several dives to the wreckage site over 2 years, and having filmed and looked farther into the Titanic than anyone else had been since it's original passengers. All the footage seen in the film was Cameron's own footage of his dives. Cameron constructed a replica of the Titanic which was almost to full scale, thought the lifeboats and funnels were 90% to scale and only the starboard side of the ships exterior was completed. The sets were reconstructed either by or under the supervision of researchers of the White Star Line, the company that created the original ship. Cameron studied the Titanic for 5 years before going into production. As a result, his film is made incredibly accurately. The interior set designs were based off the original blueprints of the ship, and modeled after her sister ship, Olympic.

The filming of the sinking scenes were 90% filmed on set. The replica boat was able to be put on an angle to make it appear as though it's sinking, and the destruction of the infamous staircase was truly destroyed by the water. The scene of the ship splitting was also the actual replica. It was split into several sections, and was actually sunk, and filmed. Cameron was really striving for accuracy when filming, and wanted to show it's sinking as it probably actually happened, and did this, for the most part, without computer generated effects.

James Horner, no stranger to the film world at that point, composed the music, as well as the song "My Heart Will Go On". The music in this movie is gorgeous, with a flicker of Irish, and really captures the love between Rose and Jack. And everything technical, whether it be costumes, art/set direction, cinematography, everything was so well done. It's even said that every single female extra wore corsets, even if they were in the background and hardly seen.

What I love about this film is how it portrays the sinking. It doesn't talk facts, or stats, or anything like that. It focuses on two people, who were there and experienced it, and makes you realize as interesting as something like the Titanic sinking was, it was a real story, and so many people were lost. And that's the point Cameron really wanted to get across. While the story of Jack and Rose is a little cliche, it made the story of the Titanic personal, and real. And that came across so well.

Titanic really is an epic film. We get the real story, and see what it was like from several different points of view. We see how the third class were locked in for so long, many of them drowning in the ship. We see the first class people in the boats, not willing to turn back and save those who were in the water, stranded. We see that only one life boat went back to find survivors, only to find it was too late. We see people jumping off the boat, people hanging on for dear life. We see the people who willingly stayed behind; an elderly couple who laid in bed as the water drifts in, and a mother with her two children telling them a story. We see things from all different kinds of perspectives, making this story all the more heartbreaking. We're frustrated with the workers on the ship when we hear they're sending out lifeboats not even half full, even though there's not enough boats for even half the people on board. We see the captain go down with the ship, and people killing themselves. All of this perfectly executed by Cameron, and most of it filmed, as I mentioned before, on set, rather than visual effects. 

This movie has come down as a classic. It's won 11 Oscars, tied for the most won. It was nominated for 14, tied for most nominated. It's the 2nd highest grossing film in the world (was the first until 2010). It's regarded as one of the best romance movies, and it spent the most weeks at the top of the box office, consecutively. It gave Leonardo DiCaprio international "hottie" status, and sprung both Kate Winslet's and Leonardo DiCaprio's career to a higher level. The film was made after dedicated research and even several Titanic historians were hired to validate much of what Cameron was doing.

Honestly, I really loved this movie. The acting is great, the story is tragic, and just everything is so accurate, you can tell James Cameron has such a passion for this story and for this event. He made it personal, instead of just facts and being an "interesting event". While many criticize it for being a love story, being long, etc, this is something I really liked. I like that sometimes romances win Best Picture. They're a part of the movie culture, and it's a part of most everyone's lives. The film was exceedingly well done, and had so much heart and soul put into it. Plus I'm a girl, and I'm allowed to love romance movies right?

8.75/10