Revisiting the 1991 Oscars -- What They Got Wrong, and What Should've Won Best Picture

[@legochickenguy4938]

3:34 completely agree. All of Kurosawa's 90s movies have always felt like that to me

[@tfred6403]

The hunt for red October or Miller's Crossing would be my picks. The hunt probably is the favorite of many as re watched multiple times.

[@LearningaboutMovies]

I know at least two people whose favorite movie is "Hunt."

[@adrianhough5059]

Spot on…..Goodfellas should have won. It should also be a favorite for best 90’s film too

[@SophiaLambton-hb4it]

Thank you for The Godfather: Part III praise! I am a fellow lover.

[@brooklineg7727]

Total Recall edges out Ghost to take the Oscar...

[@drdavid1963]

Of course, Goodfellas deserved the Oscar over Dances With Wolves. Everybody knows that now. But back 34 years ago, Scorsese wasn't that popular with the Academy and we were still living with a hangover from the ultra conservative 1980s so Dances With Wolves was the politically correct choice, though it is a good movie. It is no Driving Miss Daisy (Interesting to note that another Scorsese film, The Wolf of Wall Street was up against a more serious movie in 2013, 12 Years A Slave, though, in that case, that actually deserved to win imo) Honorable mentions Cyrano De Bergerac Edward Scissorhands The Field Metropolitan Miller's Crossing Misery Pretty Woman Sweetie White Palace My Draft of Nominees Close Up (not eligible) Dances With Wolves Days of Being Wild (not eligible) Goodfellas Green Card Ju Dou (not eligible - though it is not on the list, it was nominated for best international film so it had to be eligible) Men Don't Leave Pump Up The Volume Slacker (not eligible) Trust (not eligible) - my personal favourite of the year Wild At Heart Final list of nominees Dances With Wolves Goodfellas *Ju Dou* - *WINNER* Pump Up The Volume Wild At Heart

[@stevef4010]

wow Millers crossing is that old.? Didn't see it til decades later. Didn't know who the Coen's were in 1991. Same year as Godfather 3 and Goodfellas. Nice trifecta of gangster movies.

[@chanceotter8121]

In 1990, I admired Goodfellas but didnt like it. That opinion holds true today. At the time, I would have chosen Reversal of Fortune or White Hunter Black Heart. I also championed Texasville and Q&A and The Sheltering Sky as my top 5. Now, 34 years older, I would pick Miller’s Crossing as best film: It seems like the Coens first true masterpiece. Blatty’s Exorcist III is the film I actually watch every year and must say is my fave on the list of eligible titles, despite its flaws and compromises.

[@LearningaboutMovies]

Thank you for your expertise

[@chanceotter8121]

@ Thank you. That is very generous and kind to say.

[@movie-mandan]

Sure Scorsese moves his camera in cool ways, but Costner is able to make each and every single frame of that multi-hour film look as gorgeous as prestigious paintings in European art museums. That's something that had not been done since Kubrick did Barry Lyndon. It is as lovely as Lawrence Of Arabia and The Searchers as well. So I find it weird that you find a few others better looking.

[@keefer-k8266]

Another questionable year for the Oscar choices. I'm going with you (and most contemporary critic groups) on Goodfellas as best film that year with honorable mention to Miller's Crossing, After Dark My Sweet (forgotten noir classic), and Mountains of the Moon.

[@LearningaboutMovies]

I could not find a watchable copy of "Mountains." Interlibrary loan DVD had a VHS transfer, and it looked so bad.

[@keefer-k8266]

@@LearningaboutMovies About two months ago, Dr. Matthews, a beautiful hd version of "Mountains" was an iTunes sale item ($7.99) so I immediately purchased it. I just checked, and it's, unfortunately, no longer available from iTunes. However, KL Studio Classics is releasing the blu-ray on November 26th (Amazon pre-order price $18.55).

[@alexhuxley3355]

Come on it's nothing to do what what's actually the best... who's in favour, who's "owed one", studios, politics, political correctness, what message the Oscars wants to send all come into play.

[@RohanDasgupta-f7x]

Goodfellas deserved it infinitely more than that basic noble savage story

[@EddieHenderson92]

I think Goodfellas is a little overrated and the movie has a drop off after Pesci gets killed off, but I still think it deserved best director over Dances with Wolves which is a good movie. I would give Miller's Crossing Best Picture which is a better movie overall in my view. I agree with you on After Dark My Sweet, that is a very cool movie.

[@wallygropius4451]

“Goodfellas is bullshit. It is the lousiest film ever, ever made. After Raging Bull, he was a lousy amateur.” -Aki Kaurismäki

[@LearningaboutMovies]

I need a quote fact-check here.

[@wallygropius4451]

@@LearningaboutMovies Seven rounds with Aki Kaurismäki from The Guardian

[@RohanDasgupta-f7x]

I guess I can kind of see where he’s coming from, since Goodfellas was much more mainstream than his previous auteuristic films

[@cabana85]

I can also see where he's coming from. Technically goodfellas is perfect, especially the cinematography and the acting. But it's basically a mainstream comedy and shameless romantization of mafia life. The characters are pretty one-note. It's like a perfect amusement park ride, which is cool. Avalon is another great nostalgic little movie from that year by Barry Levinson with the great Armin Müller-Stahl

[@RohanDasgupta-f7x]

@@cabana85 It didn’t romanticize the mafia tho, that’s what Godfather did

[@postmodernrecycler]

Not necessarily best picture, but certainly best director was Stephen Frears for The Grifters, which went beyond neo-noir and expressed a completely auteur vision.

[@LearningaboutMovies]

A bunch of people really like Frears, so for anybody reading this, he's worth checking out.

[@raygardiner4723]

@@LearningaboutMovies My Beautiful Laundrette followed by Sammy and Rosie Get Laid are both good films from Frears

[@Where_Have_All_My_Files_Gone]

I am sorry but you are wrong. The oscars did not get it wrong. Dances with wolves is by far the better movie.

[@LearningaboutMovies]

I am wrong, but I don't know why . . .