[Of course they were gonna miss some things, but no Dances with Wolves in either epic or western (which somehow included the lame Cat Ballou)? A double western stiff for Costner, with Open Range not in there either. No Aliens or Poltergeist or Spielberg's Close Encounters, Minority Report or War of the Worlds in science fiction, with slots wasted on Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Day the Earth Stood Still? Another best picture that was snubbed was Million Dollar Baby in sports (and Chariots of Fire), which had National Velvet in above Seabiscuit, Black Stallion, Hidalgo and Phar Lap, all much better horse racing films. Somehow they missed Double Indemnity in Mystery Suspense…. But that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong…. The Jman]
Worst Best Picture Snubs (among many): Silence of the Lambs, The Departed, Dances With Wolves, Million Dollar Baby, Chariots of Fire, The Last Emperor, Patton, The Bridge On the River Kwai, Out of Africa, My Fair Lady (romantic comedy!)
Animation (pretty good choices but Nemo belongs in the top 5, and where is Hoppity Goes to Town, and Cars?)
1. Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs 2. Pinocchio 3. Bambi 4. The Lion King 5. Fantasia 6. Toy Story 7. Beauty and the Beast 8. Shrek 9. Cinderella 10. Finding Nemo
Fantasy (good 10 but move Oz down to about 8 and Kong to 10, and Harvey is a one joke movie, give me Babe instead and in the top 5, and maybe Batman or Spiderman here, each better than Kong or Thief)
1. Wizard of Oz 2. Lord of the Rings 3. It’s a Wonderful Life 4. King Kong 5. Miracle on 34th St. 6. Field of Dreams 7. Harvey 8. Groundhog Day 9. Thief of Baghdad 10. Big
Science Fiction (where’s Aliens and Close Encounters? Minority Report? Dr. Strangelove?)
1. 2001-A Space Odyssey 2. Star Wars IV-A New Hope (Empire Strikes Back is far better) 3. E.T. (the only Spielberg here?) 4. A Clockwork Orange (read the book!) 5. The Day the Earth Stood Still 6. Blade Runner 7. Alien 8. Terminator 2-Judgment Day 9. Invasion of the Body Snatchers 10. Back to the Future
Sports (missing Million Dollar Baby is a travesty; should also have Hoop Dreams, a three hour documentary that was 5 yrs in the making. Rocky is way overrated (maybe the most ever), even Golden Boy was better, and especially Cinderella Man, a true story and film by Ron Howard)
1. Raging Bull 2. Rocky 3. Pride of the Yankees (great choice, coulda been #1) 4. Hoosiers 5. Bull Durham 6. The Hustler 7. Caddyshack 8. Breaking Away (!) 9. National Velvet (ouch; I prefer Seabiscuit, Black Stallion, Hidalgo) 10. Jerry McGuire (yuck)
Westerns (I always liked She Wore a Yellow Ribbon better than the Searchers or any other Ford western, 5 and 9 are boring, and Open Range is a new top 5 of mine, but where the heck is Dances with Wolves? Ballou is a farce...on both levels, so is Butch Cassidy)
1. The Searchers 2. High Noon 3. Shane 4. Unforgiven 5. Red River 6. The Wild Bunch 7. Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid 8. McCabe and Mrs. Miller 9. Stagecoach 10. Cat Ballou
Mystery-Suspense (pretty good choices, but Out of the Past is an all-time top 3 missing here; Blue Velvet is a stretch over Double Indemnity, unbelievably snubbed; also missing is best picture winner Silence of the Lambs)
1. Vertigo 2. Chinatown 3. Rear Window 4. Laura 5. The Third Man 6. The Maltese Falcon 7. North by Northwest 8. Blue Velvet 9. Dial M for Murder 10. The Usual Suspects
Romantic Comedy (are you kidding with Chaplin? Hannah and Her Sisters is as good as Annie Hall, and Woody's Alice and Manhattan were as good as half of these, and where is The Graduate, or Parenthood? Harry Met Sally and Adam’s Rib were good surprises, each better than 1, 3, or 4. 8-10 are just average)
1. City Lights 2. Annie Hall 3. It Happened One Night 4. Roman Holiday 5. The Philadelphia Story 6. When Harry Met Sally 7. Adam’s Rib 8. Moonstruck 9. Harold and Maude 10. Sleepless in Seattle (avg, I prefer You've Got Mail)
Gangster (pretty good but missing Once Upon a Time in America, as good as the top 3 here; best pic The Departed was snubbed)
1. Godfather 2. Goodfellas 3. Godfather II 4. White Heat 5. Bonnie & Clyde 6. Scarface, The Shame of a Nation (31) 7. Pulp Fiction 8. Public Enemy 9. Little Caesar 10. Scarface (remake, boring...)
Courtroom Drama (ok but gimme Caine Mutiny over Few Good Men, and get rid of Kramer altogether for Runaway Jury; and In Cold Blood doesn’t belong here, not a courtroom movie any more than is Goodfellas)
1. To Kill a Mockingbird 2. 12 Angry Men 3. Kramer vs Kramer 4. The Verdict 5. A Few Good Men 6. Witness for the Prosecution 7. Anatomy of a Murder 8. In Cold Blood 9. A Cry in the Dark 10. Judgment at Nuremberg
Epic (great #1, and kudos for Reds, but missing Bridge On the River Kwai and Patton; take off 6, 7 and 10, and drop Ben-Hur to about 9-10; add in Dances with Wolves here also or even Doctor Zhivago or the Russian War and Peace by Sergei Bondarchuk, or The Last Emperor)
1. Lawrence of Arabia 2. Ben-Hur 3. Schindler’s List 4. Gone with the Wind 5. Spartacus 6. Titanic 7. All Quiet on the Western Front 8. Saving Private Ryan 9. Reds 10. The Ten Commandments
PS - Of all the great Billy Wilder films only Witness for the Prosecution got a mention; Sunset Boulevard should have been in mystery-suspense. Voters are always idiots, you normally get the "lowest common denominator" - that's what makes the picks of 2001, Mockingbird, and Lawrence so surprising.
