The time has come, the day is near. We have reached the end of March. With it, the end of March Movie Madness. And with that, the end of this tournament. Only four films remain in play, the winners of each of the individual brackets we started out with on March 1. But now, there can only be one. So on Sunday, the final winner will be revealed, but until then, you must cast your vote to determine that winner. Here are the nominees for the best Best Picture winner of all time.
The winner of Bracket A was The Godfather, the first of Francis Ford Coppola’s acclaimed trilogy. Boasting an Oscar-winning performance from Marlon Brando as the titular character, Vito Corleone, the film is really about Vito’s son Michael (Al Pacino) as he walks the line between supporting his family of mafioso and becoming one himself. While the first film only won three Academy Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay, The Godfather Part II (which also won Bracket D) was an awards juggernaut, taking home six Oscars as it chronicled Vito’s origins from Sicily and Michael’s rapid descent into darkness.
Bracket B was won by Casablanca, a rather interesting conundrum by Oscar standards. Not only did this film only win three Academy Awards, but it has an interesting slight with its year of release. While the film is so often credited as a 1942 release, it was actually the Best Picture winner of 1944, celebrating the best films of 1943. What this proves is that one of the greatest films of the early days of Hollywood was still a victim of the limited release system that plagues the rest of the world today. But hey, that was before studios used that to qualify for Oscars sooner rather than later, so this January 1943 release also proved that you don’t need an elaborate awards campaign to win Oscars (though it does help nowadays), rather you just need a great movie.
Finally, the winner of Bracket C was The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the epic conclusion to Peter Jackson’s fantasy trilogy. While all three entries of this tale of elves, dwarfs, and men were nominated for Best Picture and took home a number of awards, The Return of the King holds the distinction of being one of three films to win eleven Academy Awards (the other two being Ben-Hur and Titanic), as well as the only of the three to have won every single Oscar it was nominated for. Because of its excellence in all elements of fantasy cinema, as well as film in general, it remains a game changer in Oscar history that even the most recent Best Picture winner cannot live up to.
And there you have it, the four finalists. This time the polls will close on Saturday at midnight, so don’t delay in voting. If you haven’t seen any of these movies, I encourage you to take a day and catch up on them. If you’re all caught up, click the link below and pick your favorite of the bunch.
Voting: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SZFVLHN
We’ve reached that point in the tournament when most of the expected contenders have started to match up against each other. The underdogs have fallen against the behemoths, and we now have eight Best Pictures left. After this week, four of these films will move on to the final round, and only one of them will be crowned champion of March Movie Madness. The Godfather and its first sequel are both still in this race, and both will face their hardest adversaries yet in Titanic and The Silence of the Lambs. Meanwhile, Annie Hall famously beat an epic fantasy film for Best Picture in 1977, but can it repeat its success today against The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King? But I suppose the toughest match this round will be between Casablanca and Schindler’s List, and it’s not exactly a black-and-white match-up despite both films having little-to-no color. We’re going to lose some iconic films in this round, but this will be a true test as to how iconic they are compared to the present competition. Vote now and secure the future of your favorite film before it is left in the past!
In Bracket A, we saw Gone with the Wind get blown away by The French Connection, and Braveheart defeated Gladiator. Both winners power their way to round three where The French Connection tries to slow down Titanic, and Braveheart is targeted for a hit by The Godfather. I think the expected winners will take it home this week, but if there’s anything this tournament has shown us, it’s that anything can happen.
Meanwhile in Bracket B, it’s become clear that more people need to see the works of David Lean, as for a second week in a row his film got trampled by Dances with Wolves. The Kevin Costner vehicle certainly has more mileage than you’d expect, but its current destination is in Casablanca. It’s been a great run, and two top-tier films were unseated last week, but it’s gonna be tough for Dances with Wolves to move forward to the next round.
Bracket C went pretty much as expected, with the surprise juggernaut Gandhi, having survived far longer than expected, was caught and jailed by In the Heat of the Night. The murder mystery starring Sidney Poitier now squares off against Annie Hall, while a battle of epic proportions takes place between Ben-Hur and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Bracket D has also had some significant upsets, starting with Forrest Gump outrunning The Sound of Music. On the other side of the ring, Rocky went the distance against It Happened One Night. Now these two heartfelt classics might get their hearts shot at or eaten as they go up against The Godfather Part II and The Silence of the Lambs. It’s about to become a bloodbath for somebody, but that’s what this tournament is about, right?
The first big surprise is The Sting beating out On the Waterfront. The Elia Kazan-directed film is widely considered an all-time great, but it just couldn’t take the beating dealt by the prototype for Ocean’s Eleven. Now in round 2, it faces off against James Cameron’s historical epic Titanic, one of only three films in history to win eleven Academy Awards. Will The Sting sink Titanic, or has this operation come to a halt?
The surprises continue in Bracket B, where the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men took on Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca, proving that sometimes two directors are better than one. But now their relentless pic goes to Casablanca in round 2, and only one of them will get on the plane to round three. But the real shocker here is Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves, a film that is wildly reviled for winning against GoodFellas, beating David Lean’s war epic The Bridge on the River Kwai. While this was truly a surprise, Lean may yet get his revenge with his other magnum opus, Lawrence of Arabia. The terrain ahead is treacherous for both, but one of them will cross into the next round.
Not too many surprises here, as most of the big winners (Annie Hall, Ben-Hur, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King) were expected. But here we have perhaps the biggest surprise of the entire first round. All About Eve, one of Hollywood’s favorites (and one of mine), lost to the film that stole Best Picture from E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. That infamous film is Gandhi, one of only a few films that the Academy wishes it could take back the Oscar from, and even its own director admitted almost immediately that Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece should’ve won. But though the man was a pacifist, Gandhi is known for stealing awards and victories. Its current competition is In the Heat of the Night, but this one really could go either way. But if Gandhi somehow makes it to the next round, its journey will become that much harder.
And finally we come to Bracket D, where things more-or-less went as expected. You had some upsets, like Forrest Gump out-pacing An American in Paris, Rocky out-lasting The Apartment, and The Deer Hunter out-shooting The Hurt Locker. But none of these were massive surprises as seen in the other three brackets. Now for round 2, Forrest Gump races over the hills against The Sound of Music, Rocky goes one-on-one with It Happened One Night, and The Deer Hunter will be tormented by The Silence of the Lambs. Those that weren’t cannon fodder before will likely become cannon fodder now, but anything can happen. After all, it’s not called March Movie Madness for nothing.
Everybody likes tournaments, right? Well I like tournaments, and I’ve noticed that people seem to love tournaments even more in March. I guess it has something to do with basketball, but my sports expertise is in football, hockey, and football. The other football. No, not that football, the OTHER football! You know, the one you’re not thinking abou- you know what, forget it. The point is, it’s tournament time, and this tournament shall last throughout all of March and be voted on by the one and only, you! The plural you, not the singu- whatever, you get it. It’s time to vote!
Since the Oscars are being held in March instead of February this year, I’ve decided to theme this year’s March Movie Madness tournament around the Best Picture-winning films. Haven’t seen all of them? Well voting will last for a week each round, so you’ll have plenty of time to do your research. I’ve chosen sixty-four films for everyone to vote on for the first of six rounds, and separated them all into four brackets of sixteen. Now for the sake of getting this tournament started in a timely fashion, I will not include whatever wins Best Picture at the 90th Academy Awards to be held on Sunday, March 4. However, everything that won from 1927-2016 was up for consideration.
The links to the polls will be posted below for all of you to access. There will be one for each bracket to make voting a little simpler for you, and also so the brackets are easier for me to make without paying a ton of money to make them. I would also appreciate it greatly if you shared this blog post with your friends so they can vote too. As the saying goes, the more the merrier!
So what are we waiting for? The polls are open! Time to vote!
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