Best Picture winners ranked (DEPARTED added)- Page 2

[best12bars]

Posted: 2/26/07 at 7:48pm

"Just watched THE APARTMENT for the first time last week. While I thought it was a great plot and script, I didn't care so much for it in general. Acting was good. I had trouble getting emotionally involved with the protagonists."

Capn---That's very common actually, and it has to do with the attitudes of the era. We can understand the way men & women interacted at work (and at play!), but since we weren't a part of that time, it's hard to relate to it. Instead of trying to process these characters with a modern sensibility, I tried approaching it with the believe that "this is the way things ARE in the world" mentality. The movie actually became very powerful then. You should also know that the subject matter in this film was practically taboo back then. Think about it... this is a guy's apartment that he loans out to his coworkers for profit and advancement of his own career... so they can cheat on their wives and have sex with other women?! It's tame today, but it wasn't tame in 1960 (which was still basically the "fifties" for most sensibilities). Billy Wilder got away with it because it was a comedy, and because the characters were so engaging to the audience. But most studios would have refused to make such a movie. (Amazing just how much changed during the next decade of film making, right?)

Another movie with a story that is hard for many to process today is "Gigi." The young girl who is coming of age, and her aunt and grandmother are basically training her to be a high-class whore! A "kept" woman... aka a courtesan. There were so few opportunities for women in general and even less with young women in Gigi's "class." The only opportunity someone like her had for a comfortable, trouble-free life was if she were to be a courtesan... or if she were to actually marry a wealthy man (but few men would agree to do that, since it would be beneath them). Gigi is also a very daring and surprisingly risque story that is "softened" by its charming characters and romantic setting. It's also hard for us to stomach the idea that Gigi would be ready for a wealthy man's bed at 15 or 16 years of age. That was quite normal back then, as well. (So were a lot of other horrifying things.) I absolutely love this film... but I see it understanding "the way things were" back then... the hopes that people had, and the expectations society placed on them... certainly not with a modern sensibility.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 2/26/07 at 10:13pm

I think it's absurd that THE DEPARTED ranked so high. Sure, it's a good movie, but better than:

Million Dollar Baby
My Fair Lady
Rain Man
Ben-Hur
American Beauty
Midnight Cowboy
The Deer Hunter
Oliver!
Titanic
The Sound of Music
Braveheart
Gladiator

No. That's just laughable.

[Mrs.LinkLarkin2]

Posted: 2/27/07 at 6:12pm

I'm happy that The Departed ranked so high, but Titanic 61! Please! Bump that up!

[purpleprince101]

Posted: 2/27/07 at 6:28pm

I don't even think departed deserved it but ohh well, i have no say