The 1988 Academy Awards — when John Huston’s The Dead and Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket didn’t get nominations, but Fatal Attraction did. (Photo by Alan Light.)
We love the Oscars. The glitz, the glam, the flicks, the bawling starlets and on-air fuck-ups. Even when the awards plow on, past midnight and into the next morning, we nonetheless cling to our TV sets (and our empty bottles of vodka) to see who picked up the award for Best Picture — despite the fact that this honorific has a spotty track record. To be sure, on many occasions, the Academy has gotten it right: bestowing awards on the silent movie masterpiece Sunrise, the comedy classic It Happened One Night, Gone With Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, Godfather I and II, and, more recently, Schindler’s List. But sometimes, they get it horribly, horribly wrong: handing out awards to atrocious pictures, such as the stilted, early talkie Cimarron, the cloying Rain Man and Forrest Gump (which are basically the same movie), the treacly Titanic, the bus-wreck of Crash and the vastly overrated Slumdog Millionaire (which is basically a retread of Millions).
With the Academy Awards just around the corner, our esteemed chief, C-Monster, asked us to compose a list of the best classic flicks that failed to earn a Best Picture Nomination. So, we set down our martini long enough to flip through our movie memory and present you, lucky reader, with the official list of Best Movie Classics Snubbed by the Academy. Like Nixon’s Enemies List, it’s an esteemed and vivacious club, whose members include everyone from Fritz Lang to David Lynch.
Don’t forget to tune into the Oscars, this Sunday at 8pm to find out if, this year, the Academy will get it right. We’re giddily chilling our bottle[s] of Grey Goose in preparation. À Bientôt!
Find the full list of biggest Academy Award snubs (dating back to the ’20s!) after the jump.
METROPOLIS (1927), by Fritz Lang – Zero Nominations. The original sci-fi classic devoted to class struggle has inspired everything from C-3PO’s design to the cityscape of Blade Runner to 80’s pop diva videos. (We can’t wait for the latest restored version to hit American movie screens!) Despite his later landmark contributions to the film noir genre, Lang would never receive any major film award of any kind. Oh, the ignominy.
Other worthwhile snubs from the 1920s: The General, The Wind and The Passion of Joan of Arc.
CITY LIGHTS (1931), by Charlie Chaplin — Zero Nominations. Poor Charlie. He was so talented, the Academy removed his name from the nominees list in 1927 for fear he would sweep the awards for writing, acting, directing and producing The Circus — and gave him a special Oscar for “versatility and genius” instead. They might have actually awarded him a competitive Oscar in any of those categories for City Lights, three years later, a touching love story about a tramp and a blind girl. SPOILER ALERT! The above clip contains the ending to this gorgeous film.
Other notable snubbed films from the 1930s: M, The 39 Steps and Bringing Up Baby.
HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940) by Howard Hawks — Zero Nominations. Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell, Howard Hawks. Three of the towering names in film history gather together to remake the 1931 Oscar-nominated The Front Page into a rip-roaring, fast-talking comedic gem — and what do they get for their efforts? Nothing. (Please, do yourselves a favor and avoid both the 1974 and 1988 retreads of this comedy classic.)
Other notable 1940s snubs: Laura, The Big Sleep and Red River.
SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (1952) by Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly — Two Nominations. Thank the movie gods that Jean Hagen at least received a Best Supporting Actress nod for this pic, but the greatest of all movie musicals would have to make do with charming movie audiences for the next five decades — because as far as the Academy was concerned, it got bubkes.
Other 1950s snubs: The Third Man, The Night of the Hunter and Touch of Evil.
PSYCHO (1960) by Alfred Hitchcock — Four Nominations. Ah, Hitch…what happened? You began the Hollywood phase of your career so well with the Best Picture of 1940, Rebecca. And then Oscar ignored you for the remainder of your brilliant oeuvre. Five Best Director nominations overall, including one for this master work — but no little, bald, gold man to take home. And worse, no Best Picture nominations for: Lifeboat, Notorious, Strangers on a Train, Rear Window or Vertigo! The horror. The horror…
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) by Stanley Kubrick – Four Nominations, One Oscar. If Metropolis helped to invent the sci-fi movie genre, 2001 helped define it with its break-through visuals and avant-garde narrative. Kubrick did indeed win an Oscar for this quintessential classic – for his contribution to the Visual Effects. Despite his four career noms, he would remain one of the greatest directors never to win the top honor. Shame.
Other notable snubbed films from the 1960’s: Spartacus, In Cold Blood and The Wild Bunch.
McCABE & MRS. MILLER (1971) by Robert Altman – One Nomination. This brilliantly evocative deconstruction of the Western, starring Warren Beatty and Julie Christie, has only gotten better over the years. At least the Academy saw fit to nominate Christie for her luminous performance, but Bob Altman would go to his grave without a justly deserved Best Director win despite five nominations. He would have to make due with an honorary Oscar a year before he passed away.
Other notable snubbed films from the 1970s: Paper Moon, The Man Who Would Be King and Days of Heaven.
BRAZIL (1985) by Terry Gilliam – Two Nominations. This famously troubled production became a cult classic that continues to age beautifully. After nabbing the L.A. Film Critics’ top prize, it was snubbed by the Academy in favor of more stoic fare like Out of Africa. Twenty-five years later, which would you rather watch? Enough said.
Other notable snubbed films from the 1980’s: Diner, Ran and Blue Velvet.
THREE COLORS TRILOGY (1993-94) by Krzysztof Kieślowski – Three Nominations. Fourteen years after his untimely death, Kieślowski remains an incredibly influential director. His near perfect trio of films — inspired by the French motto of liberty, equality and fraternity — reaped one Best Director and Best Screenplay nomination, but no major awards. The maestro, Stanley Kubrick had this to say about Kieślowski’s genius with the art of visual storytelling: “Such dazzling skill, you never see the ideas coming and don’t realize until much later how profoundly they have reached your heart.” Well said, Stanley, well said.
Other notable snubbed films from the 1990’s: Barton Fink, Short Cuts and Election.
MULHOLLAND DRIVE (2001) by David Lynch – One Nomination. David Lynch’s twisting, macabre, dreamlike homage to film noir and to the art of movies in general was recently listed by Film Comment as the “Best Movie of the Decade” — and we couldn’t agree more. Thank God the Academy nominated him for Best Director…only to give the award to Opie for A Beautiful Mind. Gee Paw, now why’d you have to go and do that?
Other notable snubbed films from the 2000s: American Splendor, City of God and A History of Violence.
Love this. You speak for me.
speaking of 10… follow this link to read c-monster asking james cameron the important question… http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1969722,00.html
LOL. i hadn’t even seen that! thanks for the heads up!
Thank you, movie gods, for bringing back Yvonne. I’ve been clamoring for you on that bloody red carpet, girl. C-mon needs to do an “Oscar night with Yvonne” giveaway.
Great historical list. How many hours did it take to research all the snubbed, but deserving, movies? I agree with your taste in movies, C-mon, but of course I have to focus on the negative…what’s wrong with the movie “Crash”? Undeserving? I thought it was a very good movie. But anyway, what’s with the Oscar snub towards the movie “Sin Nombre”? I thought that was better than all of the American movies up for best picture this year. A very tepid selection of movies up for best picture this year.
it would seem that the academy doesn’t have as eclectic and sophisticated taste as c-mon. Perhaps things need a lower common denominator, but I was really pleased in ’08 when they chose, “No Country for Old Men.” Great article!
Tonight’s going to be interesting!
um…#11 AVATAR!
just kidding