Every year, when it comes to the Academy Awards, everybody is backing a different horse and has their own opinions about which movies were snubbed and which didn't deserve all the praise. The big award of the night, the award for Best Picture, causes so much of an upset every single year, and according to Reddit, the Academy very rarely gets it right.
While there have been a few clear mistakes in the ceremony's history, Redditors defend some of the movies they feel were the most neglected over the years. According to users, these films deserved Best Picture more than the movies that the statues were actually awarded to.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
1994 was a stacked year for Best Picture nominees, and it was no doubt a stacked race, as not only was Pulp Fiction nominated, but so was The Shawshank Redemption and Forrest Gump. The latter, a dramedy that expertly intertwines historical events with fiction, ended up winning, but Air6400 thinks that was the wrong choice.
The Redditor explains that "Forrest Gump is awesome, but two other movies should've won: Pulp Fiction or The Shawshank Redemption." While the prison drama is exactly that kind of movie the Academy eats up, Pulp Fiction's a much tougher sell. Though it did popularize non-linear writing in Hollywood and is one of the best neo-noir thrillers, it isn't the typical movie that would win Best Picture.
There Will Be Blood (2007)
No Country for Old Men swept up at the 2008 Academy Awards, winning not just Best Picture but Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay too, taking many awards from There Will Be Blood. The two movies are easy to confuse, as both have very wordy titles and are very serious westerns with two of cinema's most iconic villains, Daniel Plainview and Anton Chigurh. The movies were even being shot so close together that the black smoke in the gas blowout scene in There Will Be Blood ruined No Country For Old Men's set, according to Indiewire.
RegularsizedSteve thinks that "No Country is a great film, but I feel like Blood is slightly better." And while No Country For Old Men deserved all of its awards, There Will Be Blood director Paul Thomas Anderson still doesn't have a single Oscar to his name, which is almost blasphemous given how many classics he has under his belt.
Goodfellas (1990)
It wasn't until 2006 when celebrated director Martin Scorsese won his first Academy Award. And many think that it was more of a legacy win than anything, meaning that the Academy voted for him based on his past achievements rather than for just The Departed. By that point, he had already directed classics like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Casino, and so many others.
But it's the 1990 gangster epic Goodfellas that Cato_iii thinks should have won Best Picture. The movie lost to the Kevin Costner-driven western Dances with Wolves, and the Redditor recalls when "my friend's dad tried to convince me that Dances with Wolves was better...I tuned out REAL quick."
The Social Network (2010)
There are a select few Best Picture winners that don't hold up that well and, in hindsight, probably shouldn't have been awarded the statue. The King's Speech is one of those films. It was even surprising when it happened 11 years ago. The win wasn't the biggest upset seen in the history of the Academy Awards, but as it was the second year in which there were 10 nominated films instead of five, there were a ton of other more deserving movies.
Carolinemathildes thinks that it should have been "The Social Network instead of The King's Speech." And while the Mark Zuckerberg biopic was recognized in all the areas in which it excelled, as it won Best Original Score and Best Adapted Screenplay, it was just as deserving for Best Picture. However, if Social Network 2 ever gets made, that could have a shot too.
Whiplash (2014)
Though it wasn't undeserved, Birdman's Best Picture win was a little surprising considering that it doesn't have the broadest appeal and doesn't fit in with the dramas that the Academy generally root for. However, given how it's a part satire and criticism on the current Hollywood landscape being filled with superhero movies, it makes a little more sense that the Academy would vote for it.
But while they enjoyed the ambiguous dramedy, Tairajonzu thinks the Academy voted for the wrong movie. They "feel like Whiplash was the better movie that year. J. K. Simmons crushed every second of it." The drama about a music conductor tormenting a first-year student drummer is riveting, but Simmons did win the award for Best Supporting Actor that year, and one great performance doesn't mean it should win Best Picture. Having said that, Whiplash is the best 2015 Best Picture nominee according to IMDb.
Raging Bull (1980)
It's hardly surprising that Redditors mention several Martin Scorsese-directed movies when debating which films should have won best picture, as the Academy had always strangely overlooked them. Along with Goodfellas, Raging Bull is brought up as one of the filmmaker's many movies that should have won the award.
In 1981, Raging Bull lost to Ordinary People, a movie that's harrowing and emotionally exhausting. The film follows a husband and wife's attempt to deal with the accidental death of one of their sons and the attempted suicide of the other. In the 40+ years since their releases, out of the two, it's Raging Bull that is held in such high regard and is considered a true classic. Jre239 puts it best by explaining that "Ordinary People is great, but Raging Bull is all-time great."
Do The Right Thing (1988)
JDriley is irked that Do the Right Thing "lost to Driving Miss Daisy." However, unbelievably, Do the Right Thing wasn't even nominated for Best Picture, even though it was the best film of 1988. Even Spike Lee himself has been very vocal about how he and his masterpiece was neglected.
The filmmaker brought it up when his movie BlacKkKlansman lost to Green Book in 2018. According to Chicago Tribune, the director mentioned backstage at the Oscars that "every time somebody's driving somebody, I lose." Interestingly, both Driving Miss Daisy and Green Book tackle racism too, and they have stirred up some controversy due to the idea of the "white savior."
The Dark Knight (2008)
The Dark Knight made history when Heath Ledger posthumously won Best Supporting Actor, as no actor had ever won an Oscar for a role in a superhero movie before. But it could have made even bigger history by winning Best Picture. PowersIave believes that "The Dark Knight should have won. It's one of the defining movies from the last 15 years."
The Redditor has a great point, as the film started so many trends, such as the villain intentionally getting captured as part of their grand scheme. However, a superhero movie has not only yet to win Best Picture, and it doesn't look likely that it'll happen any time soon.
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Apocalypse Now is another example of a movie that didn't win Best Picture totally eclipsing the movie that did in the years since. The movie that won Best Picture in 1980 was Kramer vs. Kramer, a movie about a couple's divorce and its impact on their young son.
Director Francis Ford Coppola set his sights on more than just a Best Picture win, which seemed relatively trivial compared to his ambitions of winning a Nobel Prize. According to Ibbonline, the director genuinely thought his movie would end all war and win the most prestigious accolade in the world. Unfortunately, that didn't happen, and Coppola didn't even win Best Picture as a consolation prize. However, Angeleyez1989 thinks Apocalypse Now should have won over the "Oscar bait" that was Kramer vs. Kramer.
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
When Shakespeare in Love won Best Picture in 1999, it was undoubtedly the biggest upset in the entire history of the award ceremony. SuperDillan322 defends the Steven Spielberg-directed war epic Saving Private Ryan, arguing that "the fact that Shakespeare in Love beat that movie for Best Picture boggles my mind."
Saving Private Ryan wasn't the only acclaimed war drama that deserved the statue over the actual winner either. The Thin Red Line was released in the same year, which was just as much of a sweeping epic that should have gotten more recognition.