Oscar History Part 8: 2001-2009

This is it.  I work through to 2009 and talk about my overall agreement with the Academy's choices at the end of this post.  Coming up will be my 2010 Oscar predictions, my reactions to the winners, and my top ten of 2010. 

2001

Winner: A Beautiful Mind

My pick: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

Other notable films: Mulholland Drive, Amelie, In the Bedroom, Memento, Gosford Park, The Royal Tenenbaums

Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind is a terrible choice.  Peter Jackson's 3-part adaptation of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings begins, but the Academy chooses to wait to honor the total effort; I feel that the immersion into this fantastical world is accomplished best in this entry, while the other films become too involved in staging battle sequences.  Also: David Lynch's beautiful dream-turned-nightmare Mulholland Drive, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's whimsical romantic comedy Amelie, Robert Altman's parlor drama about the upper and servant classes Gosford Park, Todd Field's character study of a family tragedy In the Bedroom, Wes Anderson's estranged and eccentric family portrait The Royal Tenenbaums, and Christopher Nolan's mindfuck of a murder investigation Memento.

2002

Winner: Chicago

My pick: The Pianist

Other notable films: Road to Perdition, 25^th Hour, Minority Report, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

Chicago was the first musical to win the Oscar since Oliver!, reviving the genre.  But the best film to me is Roman Polanski's portrait of a Polish Jewish musician surviving the horrors of war The Pianist.  Also: Sam Mendes' tale of Irish gangsters and revenge Road to Perdition, Spike Lee's study of a man facing imprisonment and of post 9/11 New York in 25th Hour, Steven Spielberg collaborating with Tom Cruise in a science fiction masterpiece Minority Report, and Peter Jackson's 2nd Lord of the Rings film The Two Towers.

2003

Winner: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

My pick: City of God (Brazil, 2002)

Other notable films: Mystic River, Lost in Translation, In America

The Academy chose to honor Jackson's final part of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and more symbolically, the entire filmmaking effort.  But the best film to me was the 2002 Brazilian portrait of child criminals in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, Fernando Meirelles' City of God.  Also: Clint Eastwood's look at childhood friends reunited by a horrific crime in Mystic River, Sofia Coppola's tender but unlikely relationship Lost in Translation, and Jim Sheridan's autobiographical story of a family of immigrants In America. 

2004

Winner: Million Dollar Baby

My pick: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Other notable films: The Aviator, Sideways, Hotel Rwanda, The Incredibles, Before Sunset

Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby was an interesting character piece, but the best film for me was Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, mixing the genres of science fiction, comedy, and romance with great ease, and featuring sincere performances by Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet.  Also: Martin Scorsese's biopic of Howard Hughes The Aviator, the real-life tale of genocide in Hotel Rwanda, Alexander Payne's comedic drama about a miserable man Sideways, Pixar's superhero family adventure The Incredibles, and Richard Linklater's follow-up about lost loves crossing paths again Before Sunset.

2005

Winner: Crash

My pick: Brokeback Mountain

Other notable films: The New World, Munich, Kingdom of Heaven (directors cut), Good Night and Good Luck, A History of Violence, Cache

Crash is a terrible movie, dumbing down race relations and playing to the lowest common denominator.  The snubbing of Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain is a mistake that the Academy will never let down.  Also: Terrence Malick's portrait of Pocahontas and the arrival of the English into The New World, Steven Spielberg's dramatization of the 1970s Israeli hit squad retaliating for the deaths of Olympic athletes in Munich, Ridley Scott's meditation on religious pluralism in the historical backdrop of the Crusades in Kingdom of Heaven (see the directors cut), George Clooney's look at broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow facing down Senator Joseph McCarthy in Good Night and Good Luck, David Cronenberg's story of a family man's dark past in A History of Violence, and Michael Haneke's tensed drama about a terrorized family and class status Caché.

2006

Winner: The Departed

My pick: United 93

Other notable films: Children of Men, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Prestige, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly 

I love that Martin Scorsese was finally honored by the Academy, and The Departed is a great film.  But my pick is the real-time account of the fourth hijacked plane on 9/11 United 93.  The best direction was Alfonso Cuaron's dystopian vision of a dying world in Children of Men.  Also: Guillermo del Toro's wartime childhood fantasy Pan's Labyrinth, Julian Schnabel's portrait of a man struggling to communicate after a traumatic stroke The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and Christopher Nolan's film about rival magicians The Prestige.

2007

Winner: No Country for Old Men

My pick: There Will Be Blood

Other notable films: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Zodiac, Once, I’m Not There, 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days

The Coen Bros.' No Country for Old Men is a taut thriller and post-modern Western.  I would have preferred Paul Thomas Anderson's portrait of an oil man consumed by greed, featuring an iconic performance by Daniel Day Lewis, in There Will Be Blood.  Also: another unconventional Western film and character study The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, David Fincher's procedural look at the search for a serial killer in Zodiac, a beautiful romance between musicians in Once, a non-traditional biography of the lives (not a typo) and the influence of Bob Dylan in I'm Not There, and the Romanian character piece about a woman seeking an illegal abortion 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.

2008

Winner: Slumdog Millionaire

My pick: The Dark Knight

Other notable films: Milk, Rachel Getting Married, Wall-E, The Wrestler

Not really a fan of Slumdog Millionaire, though I appreciate the style that Danny Boyle brings to his films.  My pick is a film snubbed of major nominations for picture and director: Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins sequel The Dark Knight elevates the comic book genre and works as a successful crime film/tragedy, anchored by a strong cast.  Also: Gus Van Sant's chronicle of the life of the first openly gay public official and the 1970s movement for equality in Milk, Jonathan Demme's character piece about a broken family and an impending wedding in Rachel Getting Married, Darren Aronofsky's portrait of a washed-up athlete The Wrestler, and Pixar's science fiction masterpiece about a romance between two robots in Wall-E.

2009

Winner: The Hurt Locker

My pick: Inglourious Basterds

Other notable films: A Serious Man, The White Ribbon, In the Loop, Up, Summer Hours (France, 2008)

The awarding of the the Iraq war drama/thriller The Hurt Locker and the first female director Kathryn Bigelow was a solid choice for the Academy.  I would argue that the better film was Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds is a war film that knows it's a fantasy and a movie, and brings us into this world.  Also: the Coens' re-imagining of the biblical story of Job in A Serious Man, the darkly comedic political satire about the ramp-up to war In the Loop, Michael Haneke's terrifying portrait of the hypocrisies and outbursts of violence that plague a pre-WWI German village The White Ribbon, Pixar's story of aging and friendship Up, and Olivier Assayas' tale of three siblings relinquishing their past after their mother's death in Summer Hours. 

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So there you have it.  82 years of Academy Awards.  How often have I agreed with their choices? 17 times, or 21%.

All Quiet on the Western Front, It Happened One Night, Casablanca, The Lost Weekend, From Here to Eternity, On the Waterfront, The Bridge on the River Kwai, West Side Story, Lawrence of Arabia, The Godfather, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Deer Hunter, Platoon, The Silence of the Lambs, Unforgiven, Schindler's List, and American Beauty.

This doesn't look very good, especially over the last 10 years.  But I'm not being completely contrary.  Often, my picks are close to a coin flip.  The showdowns below are choices that I can live with.  Note that in all but three instances, my choice did receive a Picture nomination, and for those three instances, the directors (Alfred Hitchcock, Ingmar Bergman, Paul Greengrass) all received director nominations, indicating that the three films narrowly missed Picture nominations (and that the directors branch were ahead of the curve).
Academy over me:

Rebecca over The Grape of Wrath

All About Eve over Sunset Boulevard

The Apartment over Psycho (Academy did not nominate)

The Sound of Music over Doctor Zhivago

The Godfather Part II over Chinatown

Annie Hall over Star Wars

Terms of Endearment over Fanny and Alexander (Academy did not nominate)

The Departed over United 93 (Academy did not nominate)

No Country for Old Men over There Will Be Blood

The Hurt Locker over Inglourious Basterds

These 10 additional showdowns increase my acceptance of the Academy's 82 Best Picture choices from 17 to 27 times, or 33%. 

Counting my Best Picture picks, the Academy did have the brains to at least nominate my choices 51 out of 82 years, with the largest streak occuring from 1969 (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) to 1982 (E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial); the 1970s were truly the best decade for film, so much so that even the Academy couldn't ignore the output. 

I'll spare you the full list, but recognize that where the Academy and I parted ways were often foreign films, some of which may not have been eligible (Metropolis, Nosferatu, La Belle et La Bette, The Bicycle Thief, Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Fanny and Alexander, Ran, City of God), films that were critically divisive and/or commerically insignificant at the time of release- this is the beauty of hindsight (Sullivan's Travels, Vertigo, Once Upon a Time in America, Heat, Almost Famous, United 93), and genre films not taken seriously as films worthy of recognition as the best picture (King Kong, The Bride of Frankenstein, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Psycho, The Great Escape, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Princess Bride, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and The Dark Knight).

What do you think?