Comments on: Best Film Ever To Not Win Oscar – Shawshank

By: eternal spirit

eternal spirit — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 07:38:05 +0000

I did not get to watch The Shawshank Redemption in 1994 but did watch Forrest Gump, I was 15 and I loooooooooooooved it and was most happy it took home that many awards. I would see the trailer of Shawshank Remption here and there and the line “hope can drive a man insane” and the image of some guy throwing his hands up in the air in the rain, stayed with me. I watched the movie Shawshank Redemption in 2000 and was MOVED, INSPIRED, and heck..words fail me here. I watch it for inspiration now when I feel hope is leaving me and it works. I definitely think it should have won the best picture oscar in 1994 and it is possibly one of the best movies ever made, one of the all time top 3 definitely, if not the BEST EVER. When I realise that it didn’t win the best picture and that it wasn’t a hit in the year it was released, I am disappointed in human beings. I hope someday EVERYONE understands the power of “hope”. I hope.

By: bad

bad — Mon, 30 May 2005 04:16:42 +0000

who the fuck says shawshank is not the best movie of all times?this person needs some ass kickin.

By: Simone

Simone — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 11:41:47 +0000

Triflic, thanks for the taking the time to reply.

By: Triflic

Triflic — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 05:29:34 +0000

Triflic’s A BEAUTIFUL MIND tirade:

I would not have had a big problem with A Beautiful Mind, if it was not based on a true story. There are so may liberties taken with the story over ‘the real-life story’ that any ‘complexity’ has been white-washed out of the story. Furthermore, The movie is both obvious, telegraphing nearly everything that is going to happen with amateurish foreshadowing (‘cue-ing ominous/romantic/sentimental music at every opportunity!) and sleight-of-hand with the spy-plot.

Forgive me for upsetting anyone, but it is a movie designed to let those with ‘poor taste in film’ feel like they ‘get’ an art film. Yes, I know how snobbish that sounds, and I don’t mean to be a prig, but this is my point…To appreciate most artforms (literature, poetry, cuisine, wine, cinema) you have to spend a little time thinking on things, perhaps noticing subtlety, complexity, a flourish, and some balance. OK, it’s official, I’m a snob…there is no way to communicate it (that I’m capable of) that doesn’t sound ‘elitist’…But if you watch a lot of movies (and actually look a the full spectrum, from high-culture to low-culture…Hollywood Movies to All the different World Cinema, Independant to Government Subsidized etc. etc. From 2005 to 1895, B&W to Colour, Silent to Talkie, Animated to Documentary…You get the point)…Anyway, if you watch the full spectrum of film, I think you begin distinguish between artistic quality, and sentimental hackery…

A Beautiful Mind Is Hackery (don’t get me wrong, the technical aspects of A Beautiful Mind are mosty fine… but everything else is painful…It is melodramatic, obvious (often trite)…The dialogue is bad…The acting is good, but the script is awful.

Nash isn’t a human being…he is a Saint in the film…And Jennifer Connelly (an actress I like very much) is a cipher and a more of a prop than a character. I wamt my drama to have real humanity, not cereal-box morality.

I really don’t mean to be insulting, but if you watch most of the Studio films that come out…Yes I could understand how A Beautiful Mind could stand out compared to something like “The Chronicles of Riddick” or “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”…But it’s like comparing gummy worms to gourmet jelly beans….They are still $0.25 cent candy and only make your teeth hurt after eating them.

Also, don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of fantastic American (even Hollywood) Films (take this years Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, for example, or even last years Master and Commander (which starred two of the actors from A Beautiful Mind: Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany)

Wow this has been a long rant…Sorry to have bored you with my ‘pretentions’…I’m not trying to offend anyone really, It just rankles me that “A Beautiful Mind”, “The English Patient”, “Shakespeare in Love”, “Titanic”, and friggen “Braveheart” are considered the ‘best pictures’ of their year by an academy of film professionals…

By: Simone

Simone — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 02:15:26 +0000

Is that all that can be said about it? That it sucked? It was boring?

What other films could have been nominated that year (2001) that would have deserved the Best Picture award?

By: john

john — Thu, 03 Mar 2005 00:07:22 +0000

one word on a beautiful mind: boring.

and some more words. Look it would have been alright if the guy had made some sort of innovation in an area that matters, but game theory? that’s boring and useless.

yay!

By: adam

adam — Wed, 02 Mar 2005 00:43:27 +0000

They set it up like it was going to be all cloak and dagger and interesting and then it was like “Just kidding, he’s just crazy.”

By: mario

mario — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 15:45:09 +0000

Beautiful Mind simply sucks. That’s what it is.

By: Simone

Simone — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 00:34:30 +0000

To those who didnt like “A Beautiful Mind”, can you tell us why you hated this movie?

By: adam

adam — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 00:10:36 +0000

Glad to see that I’m not alone in my hatred of A Beautiful Mind!! Should have never been made.

By: jackie

jackie — Mon, 28 Feb 2005 21:16:52 +0000

I absolutely love The Shawshank Redemption, it was so moving. It really should have won best picture. Also, Morgan Freeman finally won an oscar last night for best supporting actor in Million Dollar Baby, but if you ask me, he should have gotten one a looooooong time ago.

By: Triflic

Triflic — Sun, 27 Feb 2005 21:35:52 +0000

Which ironically received the oscar for it’s bafflingly chopped-to-hell “Return of the King” theatrical cut…easily the worst of the trilogy…Things were massively improved by the Recent Extended cut of the third film…
That is if you can sit down for 4 hours to watch it all.

For me, however, the best film not to win an Oscar is “FARGO”…and the oscar went to THE ENGLISH PATIENT…WTF? dumbest movie ever.

And for the record (see also one of the other movie blog threads…Braveheart is also deserving of the “Worst Best Picture Oscar Ever Awarded” But there are at least 20 pictures which fall under that category…