The Best Pictures

One of my Mighty List items is to watch all of the Academy Award Best Picture winners. Those I haven’t seen are in bold.

2011 – “The Artist”

February 3, 2012. Rockford and I saw this on our annual anniversary movie extravaganza. It was unlike any movie I’d seen before, but I didn’t love the characters.

2010 – “The King’s Speech”

2009 – “The Hurt Locker”

2008 – “Slumdog Millionaire”

2007 – “No Country for Old Men”

2006 – “The Departed”

I saw this with a group of moms I’d never met before. I loved the movie. I never did anything else with the group, though.

2005 – “Crash”

2004 – “Million Dollar Baby”

2003 – “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”

My mother-in-law refers to the LOTRs trilogy as “The Movie.”

2002 – “Chicago”

2001 – “A Beautiful Mind”

2000 – “Gladiator”

I remember walking out of the theater laughing with Rockford about how terrible this movie was. I still can’t believe it won best picture.

1999 – “American Beauty”

I saw a plastic bag caught on the wind the other day. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. (Or at least it made me think of “American Beauty.”)

1998 – “Shakespeare in Love”

1997 – “Titanic”

1996 – “The English Patient”

1995 – “Braveheart

1994 – “Forrest Gump”

I will always love “Forrest Gump.”

1993 – “Schindler’s List

1992 – “Unforgiven

1991 – “The Silence of the Lambs”

1990 – “Dances With Wolves”

1989 – “Driving Miss Daisy”

1988 – “Rain Man”

1987 – “The Last Emperor”

April 5, 2012.

1986 – “Platoon”

1985 – “Out of Africa”

March 17, 2012. “‘Out of Africa’ is a languid movie, by which I don’t necessarily mean boring, really, just that it’s an excellent film for watching while you convalesce on your couch while an early-spring breeze gently stirs your curtains.

1984 – “Amadeus

1983 – “Terms of Endearment

1982 – “Gandhi

1981 – “Chariots of Fire

1980 – “Ordinary People

1979 – “Kramer vs. Kramer

1978 – “The Deer Hunter

1977 – “Annie Hall

1976 – “Rocky”

1975 – “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest

1974 – “The Godfather Part II”

1973 – “The Sting”

1972 – “The Godfather”

Rockford and I went to see this when a local theater showed it as a fundraiser. Rockford got the chills midway through the movie. It was the full-blown flu by the time we got home. I liked the movie anyway.

1971 – “The French Connection”

1970 – “Patton

1969 – “Midnight Cowboy”

August 30, 2013. Well I sure did hate that.

1968 – “Oliver!

1967 – “In the Heat of the Night”

March 1, 2012. “I stayed up far too late last night watching ‘In the Heat of the Night.’

1966 – “A Man for All Seasons

1965 – “The Sound of Music”

1964 – “My Fair Lady”

1963 – “Tom Jones

1962 – “Lawrence of Arabia

1961 – “West Side Story

1960 – “The Apartment

1959 – “Ben-Hur

1958 – “Gigi

1957 – “The Bridge on the River Kwai

1956 – “Around the World in 80 Days

1955 – “Marty

1954 – “On the Waterfront

1953 – “From Here to Eternity

1952 – “The Greatest Show on Earth

1951 – “An American in Paris”

March 16, 2012. “Perhaps I did “An American in Paris” a disservice by watching it while taking dialaudid during a thunderstorm. I’m not sure that it would’ve made much more sense had I not been drowsy and occasionally hallucinating, though. …

1950 – “All About Eve

1949 – “All the Kings Men

1948 – “Hamlet

1947 – “Gentleman’s Agreement

1946 – “The Best Years of Our Lives

1945 – “The Lost Weekend

1944 – “Going My Way

1943 – “Casablanca”

1942 – “Mrs. Miniver

1941 – “How Green Was My Valley

1940 – “Rebecca”

March 16, 2012. “I’ve come to realize that everyone in ‘Rebecca’ annoys me.”

1939 – “Gone with the Wind”

I was mildly obsessed with this book when I was a teenager. Rockford took me to see the movie when it was re-released in 1998. It was very long, and my seat was weird and slopey. I felt like I was sliding out the whole time.

1938 – “You Can’t Take It with You”

April 3, 2012. “… And then when the kids were done with their shows they came up and watched the end of it with me, and Poppy wanted to know why there were so many grandpas in the basement. (Which would entirely make sense if you’d seen the movie, which is heavily peppered with white-haired men.) …

1937 – “The Life of Emile Zola

1936 – “The Great Ziegfeld

1935 – “Mutiny on the Bounty

1934 – “It Happened One Night

1932/1933 – “Cavalcade

1931/1932 – “Grand Hotel

1930/1931 – “Cimarron

1929/1930 – “All Quiet on the Western Front

1928/1929 – “The Broadway Melody

1927/1928 – “Wings

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