So I guess it is safe to say I have been on a movie watching rampage recently – more specifically watching the movies that not only were nominated for Best Motion Picture but actually ended up winning the award like this year’s Slumdog Millionaire (rated 8.5/10).
First let me get out of the way that I have not seen either of The Godfather films that won the award and I have only seen three movies in the stretch of 20 years spanning from 1969 to 1988. However, I have seen nine of the 10 that won from 1959-1968 and 1999-2008 as well as a total 30 of the past 50 award winners. I am sure as I watch more of these films the list will continue to change and hopefully the next time I post a list like this, I’ll have watched the other 20 that are left off.
When I first started to think about ranking them, I did not want to give too many films a perfect score as that leaves very little wiggle room to adjust for a following movie if it exceeds expectations or sets the bar even higher. I don’t think I had much of a problem with that as I watched the movies with The Departed being the only one getting a perfect 10/10 and only one other scored above a 9.0 which was The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King at 9.5.
The more I watch the older movies, the bigger fan I become of them. As of now, 12 of the top 22 movies that I have rated were produced in 1989 or earlier… that is 20 years is old at the earliest. Two of those movies I have even ranked in my top 6 (Annie Hall and Driving Miss Daisy) which both got a solid 9.0 out of 10.
Take a look through the list of those that I have seen and let me know what you think. Also, to view the list by year, look after the break, and let me know which ones I should see next from the list. Currently I have Chicago and The French Connection lined up before I hit the weekend.
