1970s - Most DESERVING Best Picture Winner?

[toddpolt]

Wow, I was surprised Forest Gump holding off Pulp Fiction and Shawshank Redemption. Then again I guess the challengers splitting their own votes help allow Gump to retain his 1994 Oscar belt.

Anyway we'll eventually do a 1980s "Most Deserving" poll, but that idea just kinda bores me at the moment. Especially since look at these 1970s winners, many of which are among the best American movies ever produced. It's not like we had an embarrasing, can't-explain-to-future-generations-why-this-won winners like Crash or Shakespeare in Love or Driving Miss Daisy.

That "best" comment can also applied to some of the BP nominees that lost, some of which arguably & probably should have won that year:

Five Easy Pieces (1970)
M*A*S*H (1970)
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
The Last Picture Show (1971)
Deliverence (1972)
American Graffiti (1973)
The Exorcist (1973)
Chinatown (1974)
The Conversation (1974)
The Towering Inferno (1974)
Barry Lyndon (1975)
Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
Jaws (1975)
Nashville (1975)
All the President's Men (1976)
Taxi Driver (1976)
Network (1976)
Star Wars (1977)*
Midnight Express (1978)
Apocalypse Now (1979)

Wow.


*=Early prediction: That year will be landslide winner of 1970s "Least Deserving" Winner.

[Milkman Norm]

Some really great films made the top ten. Really the only one I don't think was the best picture was Rocky.

[DiBiase is Good]

The Godfather. It's the greatest film of all time.

[i.Sarita.com]

Annie Hall beat FREAKIN STAR WARS!!!!

I hate award shoes.

I voted The Deer Hunter though, as it was an amazing movie.

[Insomniac]

Feb 7, 2010 1:15:05 GMT -5 i.Sarita.com said:

I hate award shoes.

They aren't always bad. I recall Natalie Portman wearing some very nice high heels to the Oscars last year.

I'll vote Godfather.

[Rorschach]

The lack of JAWS in the voting options disturbs me greatly.

No one should be surprised that it gets my vote. I can kind of understand, due to Speilberg's youth and inexperience, why he didn't WIN for this film, but dammit...it doesn't change the fact that this movie even being WATCHABLE was a minor miracle, and that fact should have been recognized. Hell, Robert Shaw was ROBBED of an Oscar for his turn as Quint, that much I can safely say ought to be written in stone.

[4real]

Went for One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, easily my favourite film on that list.

[biafra]

The greatest movie of all time was obviously the best in 1972.

[Next Level was WRONG]

Best films by year:

1970 - Woodstock
1971 - Klute
1972 - Deliverance
1973 - Enter The Dragon
1974 - Blazing Saddles
1975 - Barry Lyndon
1976 - The Omen
1977 - Annie Hall
1978 - Coming Home
1979 - Manhattan


In conclusion, Annie Hall.

[MCMGM]

Only one vote aside from me for Deer Hunter?

You people depress me.

[Albino Heat]

Although Rocky is my favorite movie EVER, the answer is clearly the Godfather.

[Milkman Norm]

I could have voted for The Deer Hunter very easily if it hadn't been in the same decade as the two Godfathers. It's a fantastic movie. To me the big difference between the winners of the 70's and the winners of the 00's is that back then even if the winner wasn't very best film released that year it was pretty darn close. (I'd take American Graffiti over The Sting for example, but The Sting is still fantastic).

As for Star Wars and Annie Hall though I'm a lifelong Star Wars fan/mild geek I can not in good faith say that it was a more deserving film than Annie Hall. Woody Allen was at the top of his game with Annie Hall. His use of flashback, animation, his breaking of the fourth wall all of it was used perfectly. Never before or never again has he made a film that good. For those crappers who have never seen it and who will not have negitive reaction to any romantic comedy I strongly recomend it.

[Mattification]

The 70s produced some amazing films. For me, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest just edges out The Godfather.

[toddpolt]

Tell me folks, should I quit at the 70s or go back even further? I had this thought that maybe many folks wouldn't be able to have fun with the 60s Best Picture winners (much less the really wacky 50s winners) because generally (unless I'm mistaken) many people usually quit at the 70s when looking at movies.

If you all want it, I'll do it.

Feb 7, 2010 10:31:34 GMT -5 MCMGM said:

Only one vote aside from me for Deer Hunter?

You people depress me.

I'm more surprised with The French Connection not getting a single vote.

I mean that, along with another 1971 release in Dirty Harry, is one of the more influential cop movies ever produced. It's been so ripped-off, so emulated, that many people might have a hard time fanthoming what was so bold and potent about French Connection in the first place.

Feb 7, 2010 0:59:45 GMT -5 DiBiase is Good said:

The Godfather. It's the greatest film of all time.

We have a winner!

Feb 7, 2010 11:04:48 GMT -5 Milkman Norm said:

I could have voted for The Deer Hunter very easily if it hadn't been in the same decade as the two Godfathers. It's a fantastic movie. To me the big difference between the winners of the 70's and the winners of the 00's is that back then even if the winner wasn't very best film released that year it was pretty darn close. (I'd take American Graffiti over The Sting for example, but The Sting is still fantastic).

Yeah I think also for the most part (except maybe Kramer vs Kramer), people still talk about all those winners. Even The Sting is on TV alot. I mean remember That 70s Show episode with the guy (and his mother) going to see Annie Hall? That was good.

Feb 7, 2010 11:04:48 GMT -5 Milkman Norm said:

As for Star Wars and Annie Hall though I'm a lifelong Star Wars fan/mild geek I can not in good faith say that it was a more deserving film than Annie Hall. Woody Allen was at the top of his game with Annie Hall. His use of flashback, animation, his breaking of the fourth wall all of it was used perfectly. Never before or never again has he made a film that good. For those crappers who have never seen it and who will not have negitive reaction to any romantic comedy I strongly recomend it.

I recommend it too. This was back when Woody Allen actually made movies worth watching. And not out of polite respect for past work. No there was a time Allen was "Woody friggin Allen." And not just merely that guy who banged his step daughter.

[heyguesswhatidid]

I picked Rocky, it's the perfect movie IMO, not necessarily the best moive IMO, but it was a perfect movie for the time and I love it.

The 70's were the time when the greatest films of all time were made.

[i.Sarita.com]

Feb 7, 2010 10:31:34 GMT -5 MCMGM said:

Only one vote aside from me for Deer Hunter?

You people depress me.

I was the other vote.

Mobster movies aren't really "my thing" so I never thought The Godfather or II was as great as everyone said. Good movies, sure, but The Deer Hunter was amazing.

[Next Level was WRONG]

Feb 9, 2010 0:34:33 GMT -5 toddpolt said:

Tell me folks, should I quit at the 70s or go back even further? I had this thought that maybe many folks wouldn't be able to have fun with the 60s Best Picture winners (much less the really wacky 50s winners) because generally (unless I'm mistaken) many people usually quit at the 70s when looking at movies.

Dude, surely you cant start this and stop before reaching the greatest decade in film history?




The 50s I mean.

[mcmahonfan85]

Feb 7, 2010 0:59:45 GMT -5 DiBiase is Good said:

The Godfather. It's the greatest film of all time.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

I voted for the French Connection.

I liked Network and Taxi Driver a lot more than Rocky (the second film had a lot more weight), the Godfather movies were pretty good to me but not much else beyond that, and, I liked Star Wars and Annie Hall about the same.

Jaws certainly got robbed, though.

[MAGGLE]

The godfathr Part 1

I would have said Part 2, but Chinatown was in the same category