Out of all the movies that have won the Oscar for Best Picture what are your choices for the best five?
The nominees are:
1928 Wings
1929 The Broadway Melody
1930 All Quiet on the Western Front
1931 Cimarron
1932 Grand Hotel
1933 Cavalcade
1934 It Happened One Night
1935 Mutiny on the Bounty
1936 The Great Ziegfeld
1937 The Life of Emile Zola
1938 You Can’t Take It With You
1939 Gone With the Wind
1940 Rebecca
1941 How Green Was My Valley
1942 Mrs. Miniver
1943 Casablanca
1944 Going My Way
1945 The Lost Weekend
1946 The Best Years of Our Lives
1947 Gentlemen’s Agreement
1948 Hamlet
1949 All the King’s Men
1950 All About Eve
1951 An American in Paris
1952 The Greatest Show on Earth
1953 From Here to Eternity
1954 On the Waterfront
1955 Marty
1956 Around the World in 80 Days
1957 The Bridge on the River Kwai
1958 Gigi
1959 Ben-Hur
1960 The Apartment
1961 West Side Story
1962 Lawrence of Arabia
1963 Tom Jones
1964 My Fair Lady
1965 The Sound of Music
1966 A Man for All Seasons
1967 In the Heat of the Night
1968 Oliver!
1969 Midnight Cowboy
1970 Patton
1971 The French Connection
1972 The Godfather
1973 The Sting
1974 The Godfather, Part II
1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
1976 Rocky
1976 Annie Hall
1978 The Deer Hunter
1979 Kramer vs. Kramer
1980 Ordinary People
1981 Chariots of Fire
1982 Gandhi
1983 Terms of Endearment
1984 Amadeus
1985 Out of Africa
1986 Platoon
1987 The Last Emperor
1988 Rain Man
1989 Driving Miss Daisy
1990 Dances With Wolves
1991 The Silence of the Lambs
1992 Unforgiven
1993 Schindler’s List
1994 Forrest Gump
1995 Braveheart
1996 The English Patient
1997 Titanic
1998 Shakespeare in Love
1999 American Beauty
2000 Gladiator
2001 A Beautiful Mind
2002 Chicago
2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2004 Million Dollar Baby
2005 Crash
2006 The Departed
2007 No Country for Old Men
2008 Slumdog Millionaire
Of course we'll have another nominee right after tonight's Oscar Presentations. No matter which picture wins tonight my choices are, in chronological order:
1939 Gone With the Wind
1962 Lawrence of Ariabia
1970 Patton
1972 The Godfather
2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
I must confess, in all fairness, that I haven't seen the vast majority of films. But with this qualification in mind, I'd say that 'Casablanca' and 'The Sting' are two of my all-time favourite films that I have watched 30+ times each (and am still happy to watch them over and over again). 'One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest', 'Gandhi', and 'Schindler's List' strike me as excellent films that are more than just entertainment, they all have some kind of ethical message to them. So I guess these would be my choice of the five best Oscar winners, but I may choose differently if I knew more of the other films.