Oscar Mishaps? Jack's Thoughts: 1998

Hello, before I begin my predictions on who is going to win the Oscars come late February, I thought I would take a look back at some Oscar Picks I didn't really think was honestly the best move, today I will talk about the Best Picture winner of 1998:

71^st Academy Awards: Films of 1998

Nominees for Best Picture:

Elizabeth

Life is Beautiful

Saving Private Ryan

Shakespeare in love

The Thin Red Line

Initial Thoughts: You don’t generally come across foreign language films being nominated for best picture (Life is Beautiful and Il Postino were the only foreign films nominated in the ‘90’s, Crouching Tiger and Letter’s from Iwo Jima in the ’00 decade). It was a good film, but I don’t think it was necessarily best picture material, though definitely deserving of foreign film Oscar. I am rather disappointed Truman show was not nominated; it was definitely one of the year’s best, if not one of the decade. You can’t deny Terrence Malick’s genius; Thin Red Line is definitely a deserving. For Saving Private Ryan, the first half an hour deserves enough of best picture glory, but Spielberg continues with amazing film making. Cate Blanchett was amazing in Elizabeth that alone gives it my vote for a best picture nomination. American History X is also a missing piece, though not horribly missed; it was good but not amazing. We also saw a brilliant job from Ian McKellen from God’s and Monsters which was awesome.

Oscar’s Pick: Shakespeare in Love

Reaction: I am actually rather surprised. Not saying Shakespeare in Love is a bad film, I just didn’t really consider it a “best picture.” I personally would have gone with either Saving Private Ryan or the Truman Show. With Saving Private Ryan, more so being nominated, it was a movie that was really fantastic in the way it showed warfare. It made you feel like you were in the middle of the siege of Normandy. Spielberg won a very deserving Oscar for best director that year. This is one of the few years where best picture did not win best director, or even film editing (which apparently has also been a big signifier in picking best picture). I think Saving Private Ryan will be remembered more so than Shakespeare in Love in the future, which I think is what makes a best picture what it is (they age like fine wines they do). So, I am rather surprised and somewhat disappointed in the Academy in picking Shakespeare in Love over other great films. As a side note, if they bumped the best picture nominees to 10 like they did last year, would Big Lebowski be nominated (food for thought)?