With the experience still painfully fresh, some will no doubt regard the decision to let Seth Macfarlane host the 2013 Academy Awards show as the worst Oscar call of all time. But as Charlie McCollum of The San Jose Mercury News reminds us, the Oscars have produced plenty of cringe-worthy moments over the years.
To make the point, McCollum lists the top ten most dubious “Best Picture” Awards in Oscar’s history:
1) “The Greatest Show on Earth” (1952)
2) “Oliver!” (1968)
3) “Crash” (2005)
4) “Gandhi” (1982)
5) “Shakespeare in Love” (1998)
6) “Ordinary People” (1980)
7) “How Green Is My Valley” (1941)
8 “Rocky” (1977)
9) “Forrest Gump” (1994)
10) “Dances With Wolves” (1990)
Click here to read the explanations of why those picks were so bad. Here, for instance, is what the piece said about the 1952 “Best Picture:”
Cecil B. DeMille’s circus extravaganza has gone down in history as the worst film ever to win best picture. (Except for a harrowing train crash scene, it’s almost unwatchable.) To make matters worse, it beat out Fred Zinnemann’s “High Noon” and John Ford’s “The Quiet Man” (probably the best-remembered film of the year, “Singin’ In the Rain” wasn’t even nominated). Although the political climate of Hollywood at the time might have played a role — “High Noon” producer Carl Foreman would soon be blacklisted — it’s more likely that the voters saw it as their last chance to honor the aging DeMille.
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