Monday, March 5, 2012

So It's Come to This: Jordyn Does the Best Picture Winners

It was Friday, May 6, 2004. I was a sophomore in high school without a boyfriend or prospects or anything to do. While channel surfing, I inevitably clicked to Turner Classic Movies. The next movie up? 1934's screwball rom-com, It Happened One Night. Sure, I thought to myself, why not? So Robert Osborne* came on screen and, as he usually does, briefed the audience on the upcoming film. This is when I learned It Happened One Night won the Academy Awards' coveted Best Picture Oscar.

Luckily, It Happened One Night is one of the best Best Picture winners and it was then that I was cast under Oscar's golden spell. I became a woman possessed and immediately needed to watch all 76--at the time--BPW's. Over the next 8 months, after renting, borrowing, studying TCM's schedule, and buying, I reached my goal. As you can imagine, I remained as single as ever in those 8 months.

Since then, I have been pretty on the ball about catching movies before they are even nominated--with a few exceptions, of course--and as of February 26, 2012, I have seen all 84 films to take the top prize. Yes, yes, thank you, thank you, hold your applause. However, it's been nearly 8 years since I've seen most of the BPW's. Happily, my tastes have changed since I was 16 so I was thinking I would watch them all again to see just how damn refined my cinematic taste has become.

As with all my reviews, this will entirely be based on my non-film historian/student/critic opinion. Remember, I think Son-in-Law is good entertainment so don't expect me to cum all over myself while watching A Beautiful Mind...graphic, sorry. Some of the BPW's are on My List* and have already been reviewed, but I will be looking at them as BEST PICTURE WINNERS not just films I like...still, don't expect that much of a difference.

It's not my intention to discuss the history/politics surrounding the films. Nor will I attempt the Academy's reasoning behind picking one film over another. I will be viewing these films chronologically and discussing them as stand alone entities...that just so happen to hold the most respected and inflated honors in cinema history.

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