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Author Topic: Bottom of the Barrel: Finishing up the Best Picture Winners  (Read 1415 times)

Jared

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Bottom of the Barrel: Finishing up the Best Picture Winners
« on: December 09, 2009, 11:17:26 PM »
At lunch breaks during work Ive been watching short films and stuff on youtube, and something or another that I was watching had Wings (1927) in the Related Videos column. That night when I got home, I watched it. When I went to Netflix I rated it by going into the "Award Winners" section and realized that there are only a few Best Picture winners I havent seen.

The Broadway Melody of 1929
Calvacade
Cimmaron
The Life of Emile Zola
Hamlet
The Greatest Show on Earth.

all rate among the lowest on RT if Im not mistaken...and to be honest the only one Im truly looking forward to is Hamlet. But what the hell, maybe something will suprise me.



Jared

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Re: Bottom of the Barrel: Finishing up the Best Picture Winners
« Reply #1 on: December 10, 2009, 11:10:12 AM »
Calvacade

heh. This one was somewhat of a drag. Ive only seen one of the other nine nominees from the year though (She Done Him Wrong) so Im no expert on what should have won. Not to mention I dont really care all that much about such hindsight arguements. oh well.

The movie plays out in sort of a Forrest Gump manner. You get a look at two families through a couple of decades (starting on new years eve 1899) and the impact that several major events in history have on them. You see them toil on as time passes by..the good moments and the bad ones. Its a little hard to stick with at times. There is a WW1 montage that seems to take 5 times as long as it should. There are music sequences that seem out of place for what is overall a non musical. The whole thing is very stagey from start to finish.

It isnt the most exciting movie, but unlike a lot of the BP winners I would say the same thing to, I wasn't bogged down by its length (talk about your backhanded compliments).

This is one of th 2 BP not available on DVD. I watched it on youtube by searching for "cagata1". The movie is in English, but you have to have Spainish subtitles at the bottom.

1SO

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Re: Bottom of the Barrel: Finishing up the Best Picture Winners
« Reply #2 on: December 10, 2009, 11:14:39 AM »
I have seen none of the films left on your list and I'm in no hurry to get to any of them.

sdedalus

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Re: Bottom of the Barrel: Finishing up the Best Picture Winners
« Reply #3 on: December 10, 2009, 01:06:44 PM »
Hamlet's good.  Oliver makes it look like a film noir.

Cimarron has the cool Land Rush sequence in the beginning, but that's all I've seen from the others on your list.
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pixote

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Re: Bottom of the Barrel: Finishing up the Best Picture Winners
« Reply #4 on: December 11, 2009, 03:23:36 AM »
The Greatest Show on Earth has Jimmy Stewart as a clown and a lot of awful, flat-to-flat editing.  Two things that still plague my dreams.

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Colleen

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Re: Bottom of the Barrel: Finishing up the Best Picture Winners
« Reply #5 on: December 12, 2009, 10:44:04 AM »
Hamlet's good.  Oliver makes it look like a film noir.


I saw Olivier's Hamlet in the mid-1980s and all I remember is thinking how much he looked like Sting in his acting period (Brimstone and Treacle, Dune etc).