See all the films that have won the Best Picture Oscar

At 188 minutes, this one is an OCCASION. So J. and I got Indian takeout (see pic: my photography doesn’t do the yumminess justice!) and some beers and settled in for the long haul. Ben Kingsley was AMAZING, especially when we watched the bonus feature of the real Gandhi newsreels. I don’t think I could have told them apart.
It was very moving to see how far one person can go to change the world and himself, but at the same time a bit discouraging when one sees how never-ending of a task this is. I loved watching in his early days: insecure with speaking, unsure of what he’s doing, his first “protest” when about 25 people came. It’s sometimes astonishing to realize who “great people” were before they became great. They didn’t all emerge from the womb that way. There’s hope for the rest of us to acheive change.

This one made me feel emotionally ill. To watch people go through a divorce and see the person who was supposed to love you forever turn on you and do awful horrible things. This really resonated with me. Ugh divorce is so painful which makes me oh-so-super wary to try again.

This was the first one I would say I didn’t like. The story obviously had potential (book won the pulitzer after all) but the style of the film was quite disjointed and the pacing was so regular, it didn’t have much of a buildup. And then bang. It was over.
J. and I were left scratching our heads a bit.

This one’s been in my queue for ages. For such a famous “love scene” I was expecting it to go on a little longer. But hey, it was the 50s.
But again with the dreamy men!!! Yummy Burt Lancaster :)

Loved this movie! I’m not usually big on capers or con men but this was so well done and the plot was fantastic! Besides having Paul Newman and Robert Redford being dreamy in it :) :)

It’s kind of amazing that I made it to this point in life without knowing any more about this movie than a very basic plot. But it’s strange: I’ve seen so many parodies and jokes about the famous parts, that the movie itself didn’t seem as scary as it might have, and in fact, seemed like a parody itself. We’ll see if my subconscious mind agrees or not…I’ll report on the nightmares :)

At this rate I’m going to run out of non-depressing movies very soon! This one was very sweet. Luckily I was in the mood for it. And Bing Crosby is so dreamy….

War movies are so hard to watch, it’s no wonder I’ve been putting this one off for 20 years. They really do put things in perspective: all the stupid shit we all worry about all the time. I know this movie portays the worst of humanity and so many of us are trying to make the world a better place, but watching this made me sad to be a human being.

There aren’t too many comedies on the list, so I was relieved to watch this one. For much of the movie I was perplexed as to why this movie would win Best Picture when there’s been so many (in my opinion) better, more clever, and funnier movies over the years. When it reached the end, the MESSAGE just screamed at you: Enjoy your life; don’t worry about money and success; it’s how many friends who love you that’s important. Although obviously a good point, normally this would be too treacly, but the acting was so good (esp. Lionel Barrymore as the grandfather) that it didn’t make me wince and roll my eyes as it might have in the hands of a worse cast.

I have to say that Westerns aren’t my favorite genre….It was a bit slow at times, but it’s great to see Clint doing his signature moves. I prefered this ‘cowboys with heart’ to a traditional shoot-em-up…it also made me want to go to Wyoming again!