Best Picture Award - Unforgiven

This movie was the 1992 Best Picture Academy Award winning movie.  My wife and I really enjoyed this movie.  It contains a lot of violence but the story is well told.  It contains Clint Eastwood, Gene Hackman, and Morgan Freeman.

The name of the movie comes from the fact that an incident that occurs in the beginning of the movie is never forgiven.

49 Best Picture movies seen.  Only 31 left to see.

Best Picture Award - No Country For Old Men

This movie was the 2007 Best Picture Academy Award winning movie.  I had high hopes that I would enjoy this movie because I had heard so much about it.  Well it really disappointed me.  It is full of violence and basically the plot goes nowhere.  I’d recommend that you skip watching this movie.

My guess is the name of the movie comes from the fact that a lot of people get killed in the move.

48 Best Picture movies seen.  Only 32 left to see.

Best Picture Award - Mrs. Miniver

This movie was the 1942 Best Picture Academy Award winning movie.  The setting was England during World War Two which is interesting since the movie was made during World War Two.  It is a story of war, of love, and of death.  Somewhat predictable but well done none-the-less.

Mrs. Miniver is the main character in the movie – thus the name.

47 Best Picture movies seen.  Only 33 left to see.

Best Picture Award - The Great Ziegfeld

This movie was the 1936 Best Picture Academy Award winning movie.  A long movie that was pretty boring to boot.  It is a musical and I admittedly don’t care for musicals but I think this one was worse than most.  The story line about Ziegfeld has some interest but not enough to keep me from dozing a couple of times.

The movie is named after the main character – Mr. Ziegfeld.

46 Best Picture movies seen.  Only 34 left to see.

Best Picture Award - Cimarron

This movie was the 1931 Best Picture Academy Award winning movie – the fourth year the award was given.  The movie is set in Oklahoma prior to 1900 when it was first opened up for settlers and takes the story through 1930.  There is a horrible love story about a guy that is never around and the lady that loves him.  It makes him out to be a star of some sort but I just think he was a jerk.  Interesting, at least to me, is that this movie also had a prominent character that had a stutter.  His stutter was different than the character in “The Broadway Melody” the movie that won the Academy Award two years prior.  Not sure I remember any other movies with a character that stutters.

The title of the movie comes from the name of the child of the main characters – although he doesn’t figure in the story very much.

44 Best Picture movies seen.  Only 36 left to see.

Best Picture Award - Annie Hall

This movie was the 1977 Best Picture Academy Award winning movie.  A love story between two very different people. The movie has its light moments, its humorous times, and parts that drag.  I picked up several lines and sayings from pop culture that obviously originated with this movie.  However, I didn’t like the movie.

Annie Hall is the name of the female character in the love story.

45 Best Picture movies seen.  Only 35 left to see.

FW: Best Picture Award - The Broadway Melody

This movie was the 1929 Best Picture Academy Award winning movie – the second year the award was given.  It was a musical but not too much music so that part was OK with me.  However, it was a cheesy love story that centered around a couple of women trying to break in on Broadway.  The love story takes a couple of predictable twists.  One guy I liked in the movie had a stutter which was humorous.  He had lines like, “I’m going to shoot you with my gg… g.ggg… ggg…… revolver.”

The title of the movie is the same as the Broadway show that was depicted in the film – The Broadway Melody.

43 Best Picture movies seen.  Only 37 left to see.

Best Picture Award - Crash

This movie was the 2005 Best Picture Academy Award winning movie.  This is a very interesting movie and well worth the time to watch it.  From the title I thought the movie was going to be some cheesy story about cars and crashes.  But it wasn’t and that is a good thing.  The story reveals and revolves around many ethnic and racial stereotypes.  No current stereotype is left untouched.  The movie is well done and not offensive.  In an interesting twist the characters portrayed initially as “good guys” end up being bad and “bad guys” as good, although some of them die.

The title Crash comes from the different people, cultures, and races all “crashing” into one another over a 36 hour period of time.

41 Best Picture movies seen.  Only 39 left to see.

Best Picture Award - Gigi

This movie was the 1958 Best Picture Academy Award winning movie.  A musical - I don’t like musicals and this movie was no exception.  The setting was France, a young girl maturing, and a rich guy falling in love with her.

A couple of interesting observations (at least to me).  First, several people were described as gay.  Most younger folks would not recognize the use of this word to describe someone as happy and carefree.  Secondly, the age of the young girl was never revealed but she seemed to be in her teens.  Today an older guy (late 20’s or 30’s) would be considered a pedophile for pursuing her.

Title for the movie is easy to determine its origin.  The young girl’s name is Gigi.

40 Best Picture movies seen.  Only 40 left to see.  I’ve reached the half way point.

Best Picture Award - A Man for all Seasons

This movie was the 1966 Best Picture Academy Award winning movie.  A movie that depicts the struggle between Henry the Eighth in England and one of his close friends.  In the end the friend is imprisoned and beheaded for his failure to sign an oath to the king.  I had trouble understand some of the dialogue due to the accents and the plot was hard to follow, although in the end I figured it out.  I’m not sure this movie is worth watching.

A Man for All Seasons – Not sure where the title came from.  In one scene when the “friend” was in jail the story showed a tree changing through all of the different seasons.  I guess the title could also reference the fact that the “friend” was steady in his belief system-even though he lost everything by holding on to it. 

39 Best Picture movies seen.  Only 41 left to see.

Best Picture Award - The Greatest Show on Earth

This movie was the 1952 Best Picture Academy Award winning movie.  In case you didn’t know the Greatest Show on Earth is a reference to the circus which is what this movie is about.  A couple of love stories and the love of the circus are all unrolled with the back drop of the circus.  The stories are predictable and enjoyable all at the same time.  I don’t feel as though I wasted time watching.

As I’ve already indicated the title of the movie is a reference to the circus.

38 Best Picture movies seen.  Only 42 left to see.

Best Picture Award - Casablanca

This movie was the 1943 Best Picture Academy Award winning movie.  A very famous movie that is shown on TV all the time but I have never watched the entire movie.  I did that today and came away not sure why there is so much hype around the movie.  The setting is during the Second World War and involves a love story.  I kept waiting for them to escape on the African Queen when my wife advised me that I was mixing up my Humphrey Bogart movies!

The movie is set in Casablanca Morocco from which the title is derived.

37 Best Picture movies seen.  Only 43 left to see.

Best Picture Award - The Best Years of Our Lives

This movie was the 1946 Best Picture Academy Award winning movie.  A movie about three soldiers returning from World War Two and the struggles they have adjusting to civilian life.  Employment was hard to come by (kind of like today) which created issues.  There are three different love stories and all are successful.  Different than today’s movies – almost every scene involved someone smoking a cigarette, men wearing suits and hats all the time, and women in skirts or dresses.  I enjoyed the movie.

The title “Best Years of Our Lives is a combination of the soldiers wondering if the war years were the “best” or if the years ahead would be the “best”.  In the end it became evident that the future years were going to be best.

36 Best Picture movies seen.  Only 44 left to see.

Best Picture Award - Terms of Endearment

This movie was the 1983 Best Picture Academy Award winning movie.  Somewhat of a chick flick, this was a funny and sad story all weaved together.  I enjoyed watching it and was left wanting more when the film ended.  I think that is a good thing.  Three different relationships are revealed in the story – the relationship between a mother and daughter, the mother and a neighbor man, and the daughter and her husband.

Terms of Endearment – hard for me to gather where the title comes from.  Maybe it is supposed to refer to the different “terms” that each of the persons in the relationships endeared themselves to the other?

35 Best Picture movies seen.  Only 45 left to see.

Best Picture Award - Grand Hotel

This movie was the 1932 Best Picture Academy Award winning movie.  The movie starred five of the biggest names of the era: Greta Garbo, John Barrymore, Joan Crawford, Wallace Berry, and Lionel Barrymore.  It started slow but was interesting from the middle until the end.  The setting is a fancy hotel in Berlin where lots of rich people and want to be rich people hang out.  There is a weak love story and the bad guy getting his due involved in the story.

The movie is named after the hotel setting, Grand Hotel.

34 Best Picture movies seen.  Only 48 left to see.

Best Picture Award - The Departed

This movie was the 2006 Best Picture Academy Award winning movie.  I did not enjoy watching this movie.  In fact, I had already seen it once and couldn’t remember the movie until about a quarter of the way through the movie.  The movie was not memorable, in my opinion, so had forgotten that I had seen it.  I watched it a second time and it is no better.  Lots of blood, use of the “f” word, and killing.  I could not pull a message from the movie other than “Being a bad guy doesn’t pay, being a good guy doesn’t pay”.  Not much of a message.

So where does the movie title come from?  Early on in the movie Matt Damon, when talking about a deceased person, puts emphasis on calling the person “departed” OR it could have come from the fact that so many people we killed in the movie.

33 Best Picture movies seen.  Only 47 left to see.

Best Picture Award - in the Heat of the Night

This movie was the 1967 Best Picture Academy Award winning movie.  I really enjoyed this movie and recommend it to all.  The movie exposes the prejudices of the South (Sparta MS) and how one black Philadelphia police detective (Sidney Poitier) changes the opinion of the white Sparta police chief as he helps him solve a murder.

Much of the movie takes place at night, in the South, during the summer which is where the name comes from.

32 Best Picture movies seen.  Only 48 left to see.

Best Picture Award - Kramer vs. Kramer

This movie was the 1979 Best Picture Academy Award winning movie.  A very well done movie about the breakup of the marriage and the fallout for a son and his father.  I thoroughly enjoyed the entire movie and would have liked for the movie to continue when it ended (something that doesn’t happen often for me.

The origin of the title is easy to discern as the movie  is about the divorce of the Kramer family.

31Best Picture movies seen.  Only 29 left to see.

Best Picture Award - Gandhi

This movie was the 1982 Best Picture Academy Award winning movie.  A long movie that is well worth the time.  It is about the life and times of Gandhi and about the fight for independence for the India.  The country of Pakistan was also created at the same time as India.  The non-violent methods advocated by Gandhi are very powerful.

The movie is titled after the subject, Gandhi!

30 Best Picture movies seen.  Only 50 left to see.

Best Picture Award - Ordinary People

This movie was the 1980 Best Picture Academy Award winning movie.  I did not like this movie.  It was about a dysfunctional family and ended nowhere.

The origin of the title, I guess, is supposed to indicate that the dysfunctional family in normal and ordinary.  I don’t agree but maybe my non-weird family is not ordinary?

29 Best Picture movies seen.  Only 51 left to see.