F**k The Best!- The Best Best Pictures in History

No! I did not watch the Oscars last night! Maybe I was scared of what I would do if Glenn Close lost the Best Actress contest. Maybe I was scared I'd have nightmares of David Korin's wig-shaped set. Maybe I'm a lonely old movie queen who got drunk, watched Spike Jonze's her (2013) and cried into his MacBook.

Whatever the case, it wasn't until this morning that I learned the winners and losers of the coveted statuette. One winner in particular stood out. Whether it's comparisons to the old-fashioned Driving Miss Daisy (1989), the Shirley Family's disgust with Nick Vallelonga's version of the story about their relative, or Seth Meyer's pretty-spot-on parody of white-written black rights narratives, Green Book (2018) is the most maligned Best Picture winner since Crash (2004).

What struck me is the idea that whether or not Green Book is the Best Picture of the class of '18 or not, the mantle of Best Picture often carries with it the idea that the winner will be a superlative example of film for many years. I don't think that happens as often as the Academy would like.





So whether it's a sense of firsts, unmistakable artistry that is constantly copied or remade,  or a movie that's worked it's way into our popular zeitgeist, here's my list of Best Picture winners that have that special something that I think will stand the test of time:

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
It Happened One Night (1934)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Rebecca (1940)
Casablanca (1943)

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
All About Eve (1950)
On the Waterfront (1954)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
Ben Hur (1959)

The Apartment (1960)
West Side Story (1961)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
The Sound of Music (1965)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
The Godfather (1972)
Rocky (1976)
Annie Hall (1977)

Terms of Endearment (1983)
The Silence of the Lambs (1993)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Titanic (1997)






That's my list. You think I left something off? Feel free to tell me what you think.

In the meantime, let's see whether Olivia Colman finds a rabbit boiling on her stove...