Do you guys think any of the recent Best Picture nominees have been genuine classics/masterpieces? For me, the films are usually pretty good, but not quite amazing ... and no "better" than plenty of other movies.
There Will Be Blood has been the lone exception for me. The film was very well-made, and I think it will be viewed favorably in the future.
Was that the year that
3:10 to Yuma came out? If so, that was an exceptional year, one of the only times I've seen almost all the nominees.
I think the nature of movie-going/-making, and therefore Best Picture, has changed in recent years. Take the year that had
Forrest Gump and
Saving Private Ryan, and even
The Thin Red Line, for example. They weren't just movies, they were
iconic movies. If you didn't see those movies, you were actively missing out on a part of pop culture. Not that it was impossible to go without seeing them -- I didn't see either until years later -- but even I knew the plots in detail and I had the Forrest Gump soundtrack, and we were all quoting the, "Life is like a box of chocolates," bit. They were everywhere.
And in the years directly before, we had, in order:
Driving Miss Daisy,
Dances With Wolves,
The Silence of the Lambs,
Unforgiven, and
Schindler's List. Whether or not anyone would agree that the right movies won (
Goodfellas vs.
Dances With Wolves still inspires heated internet flame wars), those movies all influenced the culture at the time, and it felt like everyone had seen them. They won Best Picture partly because they were very good movies, but also partly, I think, because they had become part of the zeitgeist. They were the best by virtue of the fact that they were what people wanted to see.
Compare that to today.
Black Swan is a good movie, and so is
The Social Network, but it's not as if I need to see them to get what is happening in pop culture. They're just sort of... there. In fact, none of the Best Picture winners in recent years have had that same changing effect on people. There's been the usual buzz, sure, but none of the winners have become part of the culture the way movies used to.
Even amongst the nominees, there are movies that just... they're good movies from an artistic standpoint, I guess, but the question for me is: If people don't want to see them, are they
really deserving of being nominated? I don't know anyone who saw
Michael Clayton, and only one person who had even heard of it before it started picking up Oscar buzz. Did that movie really belong in the Best Picture category?
I don't think about film as much some people do, so I'm not the one who can try to pinpoint the qualitative difference in movies between then and now. Personally, I feel like they've become more depressing, overall, which is not something I'm interested in paying for. Not that
In the Name of the Father or
Schindler's List were a barrel of laughs, but they were balanced by other movies that were released.
And, frankly, the economy wasn't in the ****ter then like it is now. In times of economic hardship, people use movies as escapism. And that's fine. It's definitely possible to make an uplifting film that is a work of art. But, for whatever reason, Hollywood hasn't gone that route. Or, if they have, the Academy doesn't seem as interested in awarding them. The films just keep getting darker and darker, and people aren't interested.
I think it's for several reasons. First, partly because of rising theater costs -- people actually stop and ask themselves whether their $10-$15 wouldn't be better spent elsewhere. And with everything being released on DVD, people see movies at different times, so nothing really takes hold. And then, of course, there's the fact that there are just so many more movies now. I could watch movies all year and not see the same movies as my friend.
Anyway, this is all a little disjointed (I was thinking while typing) and, as I said, I know very little about movies except which ones I like to watch, but even I can tell that there's something different about movie-going these days. People like what they like, what moves them or makes them feel good, but the Academy seems to be off doing its own thing and that's why the winners aren't going to stand up as well to the test of time.
That is one of the worst Best Picture winners ever. It's a fun movie, gorgeous to look at, beautiful score but it's not even close to being actually a good movie. From the films nominated there were at least two better movies, Traffic and CROUCHING TIGER and even more that didn't get nominated, like Requiem for a Dream, Dancer in the Dark, You can Count on Me, etc.
haha i LOVE that movie 
