Oscars: What Should Have Won Best Picture 1970-1979
Welcome to part 5 of this exercise. As a reminder, we’re going through every year at the Oscars and looking at which film should’ve won Best Picture. I’m only sticking to the films that were nominated. I haven’t seen enough films from every year to choose from all available films, at least not yet.
Today we’re looking at the Academy Awards of the 1970s.
1970 – The Forty-Third Academy Awards
What Won Best Picture: Patton
What Should Have Won Best Picture: Five Easy Pieces
Just a year after the Academy rewarded Midnight Cowboy and announced to the world the direction Hollywood and the United States were headed, they reverted back to their old ways.
Patton is a classic Academy film. A war epic, anchored by a great George C. Scott performance. The best film of the year, at least in this lineup, is the polar opposite film Five Easy Pieces. It’s an intimate character study with a brilliant Jack Nicholson performance. George should keep his win but Five Easy Pieces should’ve been our big winner.
1971 – The Forty-Fourth Academy Awards
What Won Best Picture: The French Connection
What Should Have Won Best Picture: The Last Picture Show
Friedkin’s indelible crime classic contains one of the great car chases ever put to screen. However, he has another film that I will award Best Picture just two years after this. Plus, there is a better film in this lineup.
Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show is a brutally honest film about growing up in a small town and the limitations that come with it. It’s Bogdanovich’s masterpiece and the best film of 1971.
Four of the films in this lineup are worth watching. These two, are Fiddler on the Roof and A Clockwork Orange. Nicholas and Alexandra is surprisingly boring given that it is about the Russian Revolution of the early 1900s.
1972 – The Forty-Fifth Academy Awards
What Won Best Picture: The Godfather
What Should Have Won Best Picture: The Godfather
As much as I want to be cool and pick Cabaret, which is my personal favorite from this lineup, there is no denying The Godfather is one of the most important American films made. Thankfully, Fosse made a second masterpiece later this decade that takes home the top prize in my opinion.
The entire lineup is good to great, I’d recommend all of them to watch. The Godfather, Cabaret, Deliverance, The Emigrants, and Sounder.
1973 – The Forty-Sixth Academy Awards
What Won Best Picture: The Sting
What Should Have Won Best Picture: The Exorcist
Four years prior George Roy Hill lost BP to Midnight Cowboy, he wasn’t going to lose again. The Sting is a fun con film. Redford and Newman’s chemistry is off the charts. But it does not compare to Friedkin’s horror masterpiece.
The Exorcist is one of, if not the best and most important American horror film ever made. It’s a miracle that an out-and-out horror film received 10 Oscar nominations. Likely genre bias is why it did not win the top prize, but it deserved to.
The only other recommendation I have from this lineup is American Graffiti, a personal favorite.
1974 – The Forty-Seventh Academy Awards
What Won Best Picture: The Godfather Part II
What Should Have Won Best Picture: The Godfather Part II
What is there to say that has not been said about this masterpiece? It’s one of the best films ever made. I think it is better than the first film. It is the ultimate American epic. It’s absolutely perfect.
This whole lineup sans one film is brilliant. Chinatown, The Conversation, Lenny, then The Towering Inferno which is just happy to be here. In its spot should’ve been The Parallax View. Another dour look at America.
1975 – The Forty-Eighth Academy Awards
What Won Best Picture: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
What Should Have Won Best Picture: Nashville
Widely considered the best Best Picture lineup ever. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws, Nashville. Two 5-star and three 4.5-star films. The only lineup that comes close is 2007.
Though Cuckoo is a good film, all of these films are good. Nashville is Altman’s masterpiece and changed film forever. His revolutionary technique for capturing sound by putting mics on all actors eventually became standard. It also remains prescient about America’s fear and hope.
1976 – The Forty-Ninth Academy Awards
What Won Best Picture: Rocky
What Should Have Won Best Picture: Taxi Driver
I’ve never cared for Sylvester Stallone as an actor. I got nothing out of Rocky. Maybe if I was able to watch it upon release I would’ve gotten more out of the film. But I don’t think it is a very good film.
Especially when sitting in these five are All the President’s Men, Taxi Driver, and Network. Any of the three would’ve been worthy and better winners than Rocky.
Through much internal deliberation, I picked Taxi Driver. Scorsese’s indictment of mental health and toxic masculinity in America remains prescient.
1977 – The Fiftieth Academy Awards
What Won Best Picture: Annie Hall
What Should Have Won Best Picture: Star Wars
The Oscars really loved Woody Allen for a long time. He’s gross, I don’t connect with his films, and I find him repulsive. I don’t care for this lineup overall but there is no denying Star Wars is likely the most important and influential film of these five.
Well, I don’t know. I do get into daily conversations about the film Julia.
1978 – The Fifty-First Academy Awards
What Won Best Picture: The Deer Hunter
What Should Have Won Best Picture: The Deer Hunter
I will never forget the effect this film had on me the first time I watched it. It’s a profound masterpiece about the effects war has on the soldiers and their families at home. Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken turned in brilliant performances.
Coming Home is another good Vietnam War film in this lineup. Smaller and more intimate but with the same message. Heaven Can Wait and An Unmarried Woman are also excellent films in these five.
1979 – The Fifty-Second Academy Awards
What Won Best Picture: Kramer vs. Kramer
What Should Have Won Best Picture: All That Jazz
Kramer vs. Kramer was a revolution for the time. A film about divorce and the mother leaving the family. It’s a good film, which was the highest-grossing film of 1979. Wild right? Many people think Apocalypse Now should have won here.
However, It’s Bob Fosse’s semi-autobiographical masterpiece that should’ve taken the top prize. Roy Scheider disappears in the role and you forget you’re not watching Bob chain smoke to death. It’s one of the best-edited films ever and best directed. It’s one of the all-time great films.
This is actually a sneaky good lineup. Of course, the three aforementioned, but also Norma Rae and Breaking Away are good films as well.
If I had my way the 1970s would’ve had 8/10 5-star films win Best Picture.
