TrekBBS Academy Awards: #11 - Best Picture 1995

[Star Treks]

11th in a series of polls examining which, of the original Academy Award nominees, should have won. Up next: Best Picture, 1995. Comments encouraged.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

For comparison, the top-rated English language feature films of 1995 on IMDB are:

The Usual Suspects (8.7)
Se7en (8.6)
Braveheart (8.3)
Heat (8.2)
Casino (8.1)
Toy Story (8.1)
Twelve Monkeys (8.1)
Before Sunrise (8.0)
Dead Man (7.7)
Sense and Sensibility (7.7)
Dead Man Walking (7.6)
Leaving Las Vegas (7.6)
Apollo 13 (7.5)
Land and Freedom (7.5)
A Little Princess (7.5)
Richard III (7.5)

Babe scores a 7.3. Il Postino, one of the rare foreign language films to be nominated for Best Picture, scores a 7.6.

In a very strong year a lot of great films were overlooked for Best Picture nominations. The Usual Suspects, Se7en, Heat, Casino, Toy Story, Twelve Monkeys, Dead Man Walking, and Leaving Las Vegas were all strong enough to be worthy of Best Pic nominations (and Bruce Willis gave a performance worthy of a Best Actor nomination in Twelve Monkeys).

John Lassetter was given a special award for Toy Story, and if I recall correctly it was announced early enough in the voting process that he'd be getting it that it probably sabotaged the film's chances at a Best Picture nomination (since some Academy voters would figure, "Hey, he's getting an Oscar anyway, I'll vote for something else.")

Out of the nominated films my vote goes to Braveheart. As with many historical epics it's by no means accurate as history, but it's rousing cinema.

 

[Star Treks]

One of the few years where I've seen most of the films and am familiar enough with the one I haven't (Il Postino) to know that it probably wouldn't grab my vote.

I was only 12 when these awards happened, and I was rooting hard for Braveheart. I thought it was one of the most solid filmgoing experiences I'd ever had... and I thought Apollo 13 wasn't quite as good. I had a friend who swore he was certain the latter would win, so I enjoyed my moment when he was wrong.

Today I probably wouldn't be rooting for it because Mel Gibson has turned out to be such a douche (in my book, anyway)... but in all fairness, looking back, I still think that, of the nominees, Braveheart deserved to win, and I'm happy it did.

I'd like to throw in a little plug for 1995's Before Sunrise... that, and Before Sunset, together, constitute two of the most honest and compelling movies about love & friendship that I've ever seen.

 

[Star Treks]

Whoops, double post.

This space for rent.

 

[stj]

Well, finding out afterwards helped Braveheart a lot.

Of the other films, Land and Freedom should have been nominated.

Of the ones that were, Il Postino, naturally.

 

[Hermiod]

Apollo 13 by a roughly the distance between Earth and the Moon.

 

[Harvey]

I voted for Apollo 13, although it's another year where plenty of other films deserved a nomination. Michael Mann's Heat for one. And the devilishly creative adaptation of Richard III for another. Perhaps even The Usual Suspects, which was quite good at doing what it wanted to do.

I haven't seen Il Postino, though. The cheesy soundtrack album that Harvey Weinstein pumped out to inflate the film's award profile with a bunch of American actors who had nothing to do with the film in the first place sort of put me off from it. I'll get around to it sometime.

 

[TheArsenal]

Well this is a year where I've seen most of the pictures, Il Postino (The Postman) being the odd man out. Of the remaining, Braveheart was the most deserving for me.

 

[Roger Wilco]

Out of the nominated films Apollo 13 I guess, but I wouldn't be thrilled about it. I've seen Braveheart and Babe and hated both, and and you'd get me to watch the other two nominated films only over my dead body.

I think I would have given the Oscar to Casino.

 

[Starbreaker]

Apollo 13. I've always thought Braveheart was a little overrated.

In all honesty, my favorite movie of the year was probably Bridges of Madison County...

 

[CaptainCanada]

Braveheart has all the historical accuracy of your average WWII propaganda reel, and Mel Gibson stuff is retroactively less cool, but it's still a great movie. It gets my vote.

 

[Garak]

I think I would have given the Oscar to Casino.

Ditto. Such a great flick.

 

[Daneel]

From the ones I've seen on that list, I'll go with Apollo 13.

However, I think Se7en and Twelve Monkeys would have been more worthy contenders.

 

[trevanian]

Se7en is easily the best pic of the decade for me, so that's really a no-brainer.

In another year, I'd put 12 MONKEYS up there, too.

 

[Kira's Mom]

I'd have given it to Apollo 13, one of my all time favorite films. I didn't like Braveheart as much.

 

[aladinsane]

I would give it to Heat or The Usual Suspects before any of those nominees. What a weak year. None of those deserved an Oscar.

 

[BigFoot]

Damn this one was a close call between Apollo 13 and Braveheart. I voted for Apollo 13.

 

[Piper]

I voted for Apollo 13 not because it's the best film on that list - Il Postino probably is - but it is my favourite.

 

[Othello]

Apollo 13 with Braveheart close behind....

 

[DBR]

At the risk of being flambéd, Babe was a very well done film and I think it was deserving of a Best Picture win. More, Cromwell played such a huge part of the film's success: he conveyed so much emotion and provided so much warmth through only a handful of lines throughout the movie. I think he should have been up for Best Actor. The movie had a few glaring flaws, but I've chalked them up to the fact that this movie was aimed at children.

The end of this movie was one of only two or three where I cried a little (while not under the influence of anything). It was just very well done.