March Movie Madness 2018: Best Picture Oscar-Winning Films – Final Round

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

March Movie Madness 2018: Best Picture Oscar-Winning Films – Semi-Final Round

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!

Voting: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/T3CPXB7

March Movie Madness 2018: Best Picture Oscar-Winning Films – Round 3

Round 3 has begun, and things are starting to get interesting now. Some of last week’s surprise juggernauts took a dive against their competitors, but a few of them took down the giants of their brackets.

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?

For the sake of making it easier to vote, I’ve condensed all four brackets into one poll, so hopefully it’ll take less time for everyone to vote. This is also convenient for me now that we’ve whittled through enough films to fit all the questions into one bracket. So now that that’s been taken care of, get out there and vote!

Voting: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/L2NT7TF

March Movie Madness 2018: Best Picture Oscar-Winning Films – Round 2

A week into March and round one of March Movie Madness is over. Much like the Oscars this year, it mostly went as expected, with most of the 32 eliminated films serving as obvious cannon fodder. But then there were a few surprises along the way, some that legitimately shocked me as to how popular they are.

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 other big surprise in Bracket A comes in the form of Braveheart upsetting All Quiet on the Western Front. Turns out Hacksaw Ridge may have restored audience faith in Mel Gibson just as much as critic and Academy faith, enough for it to pull ahead against one of the first great Best Picture winners. It now stares down the battlefield against another battle epic, Ridley Scott’s Gladiator. Between the two mighty warriors William Wallace and Maximus Decimus Meridius, only one will live to fight the next battle.

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.

Don’t like some of these results? Then what are you waiting for? Go to the links below and vote up the films you want to see advance to the next round. As before, the polls will be open for one week, so don’t delay!

Bracket A: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KFRYBWV

Bracket B: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KFNMTM3

Bracket C: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KF3KBNY

Bracket D: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KF35NKX

March Movie Madness 2018: Best Picture Oscar-Winning Films

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!

Bracket A: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CWN8KQS

Bracket B: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CW52QNY

Bracket C: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CSLNCWR

Bracket D: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/CSD73S7

Oscar Commentary 2017: Roger Deakins

Roger Deakins prepares yet another iconic shot.

If you’re a film buff like I am, you’ve probably heard the name Roger Deakins before. Even if you haven’t, chances are you’ve seen his cinematography in films like The Shawshank Redemption, Fargo, and Skyfall. As one of the best and most well-known DP’s (director of photography) in the filmmaking business, it’s easy to see why he’s been nominated for fourteen Academy Awards for Best Cinematography. But like many great artists, he has continued contributing to hit after hit after hit without ever winning an Oscar. This is not uncommon in Hollywood. Many great directors like Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese went through most of their careers and several nominations without winning anything, and the same can be said for actors like Leonardo DiCaprio. So when the time has come and Deakins finally has a shot at winning an Oscar for his stellar work on Blade Runner 2049, we must ask the same question we think but are too afraid to ask when every great artist gets to this point: does he deserve it?

Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) sees the car in front of her, but Roger Deakins sees the whole picture in Fargo.

Now since Roger Deakins has earned fourteen Oscar nominations to date, there have been fourteen chances so far for him to win. I’m going to examine five or six of those examples and figure out if he has deserved to win before, and if he deserves to win now. The most important thing to remember about the Oscars is that whether the politics come into play or not, it’s a competitive race. But it’s unique among competitive races in that you’re not actively playing against anyone. It’s kinda like figure skating in that sense. You can’t really one-up your opponent unless you pull a Tonya Harding, but given the nature of film production that’s almost impossible to do when you get this close to the awards season and the movies have already been released. You can give the performance of your career or craft the most amazing shots you’ve ever composed, but none of that matters if someone else does it even a little better. Voting statistics are never released, so it’s impossible to know for sure how close Deakins or anyone has come to winning in the past. But we can compare his work to the actual winners, and then we’ll see who actually deserved to win that year.

Roger Deakins captures Andy Dufresne’s (Tim Robbins) freedom in The Shawshank Redemption.

For this first example, we’ll go back to the beginning of Deakins’ streak with the Academy: The Shawshank Redemption. This is a movie that was robbed of nearly every Oscar it was nominated for, and even a few where it was left out of the race completely. But one of the things that helped it stand the test of time so well was Deakins’ cinematography. There are so many iconic shots throughout this movie that it’s hard to keep track of them all. But more than that, he understands what the audience would think to look at, and then highlights that while keeping important plot elements visible enough to be seen, but not as the main focus of the shot until they come back later. The winner that year was Legends of the Fall. Be honest, have you even heard of that movie? Has it lasted in the public eye? Has it played on TV for over two decades like The Shawshank Redemption? This is a movie that bombed at the box office and missed out completely in the Oscar race, but somehow managed to find an audience and stake its claim as one of the greatest movies of all time. Roger Deakins played a huge part in that, and absolutely should’ve won an Oscar here.

Through Roger Deakins’ lens, we see a dead body in the opening shot of True Grit.

But while he peaked early, he still kept doing great work. His collaborations with Joel and Ethan Coen have found him a lot of success in the Oscar race, particularly with films like Fargo and True Grit. His wide shots took full advantage of the lighting and atmosphere surrounding the actors, creating grim environments that you want to dive deeper into and explore. Fargo lost to The English Patient, and while we all have many passionate things to say about that movie, it was also beautifully shot. Should it have beat Fargo for cinematography? That’s debatable, but it was clearly a closer race in my mind than his previous loss. True Grit lost to Wally Pfister’s work on Inception. Are we really gonna argue with this one? Pfister made the impossible look possible, even if only in dreams. Despite the extensive visual effects used in that movie, the VFX artists still had wonderfully inventive shots to work with.

Only Roger Deakins knows exactly where Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) is in No Country for Old Men.

But the biggest one to many people seems to be No Country for Old Men, which lost to There Will Be Blood. To be honest, I vote for Robert Elswit on this one, especially if you’ve seen the opening scenes of his film. The camerawork has to play a huge part in telling the story since it takes so long for anyone to say a word in this movie, and yet thanks to him and Daniel Day-Lewis, we understand everything that’s going on in Daniel Plainview’s mind. But I don’t think that’s why Deakins lost this one. I think he lost because he had another film in the race that year: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Because he had two films in the race, he likely split votes with himself, and that could’ve put even Atonement ahead of him. Remember, it’s a competition. And while you can’t one-up your opponent, you can very easily sabotage yourself by putting too many credits in the race.

James Bond (Daniel Craig) fights what he could have been and what he is through Roger Deakins’ cinematography in Skyfall.

But one of the things we can infer so far is that after Fargo, other DP’s were showing up more than he was. He had many nominations in between, but they lost to films like Titanic, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and Slumdog Millionaire. These are some of the examples where his work was not as memorable compared to the competition. But that all changed when he joined the crew for Skyfall. As an action film, the expectations were for fast-paced editing and camerawork that was hard to make out, but Deakins brought artistry and fluidity to the shots. Yes, some of the edits were quick, but it was always going from one steady shot to another, and Deakins’ mastery of the camera was still present in all of them. At first glance, it seemed like this would finally be his year, and I would’ve loved to see that happen. But then Claudio Miranda took it home for his work on Life of Pi, which is kinda like Inception in terms of being very reliant on visual effects, but at the same time they also had beautiful shots to work with. While I might prefer Skyfall‘s cinematography, it’s understandable to see how Deakins lost this one.

Joi (Ana de Armas) bestows love on K (Ryan Gosling) just as the Academy may bestow love upon Roger Deakins for Blade Runner 2049.

So now we come to the present. After losing the Oscar to Emmanuel Lubezki three times in a row (Gravity, Birdman, The Revenant), Roger Deakins is now the frontrunner to win Best Cinematography for Blade Runner 2049. For the most part, his competition isn’t that noteworthy, but he is once again up against a Christopher Nolan film: Dunkirk. There are many technical aspects to this film that, if even a hair off, would’ve brought the overall product down immensely. But they all work together in a truly experiential harmony, starting with Hoyte van Hoytema’s cinematography. Whether you feel like you’re trapped on the beach or inside a Navy ship, the camerawork builds constant suspense throughout the entire runtime and never lets up. Roger Deakins brought us back to the world of Blade Runner, and even expanding on the world thanks to modern camera technology. But unlike Skyfall where he brought something new to the franchise, all he did was expand on the work of Jordan Cronenweth, the DP for the original Blade Runner. So while Deakins probably will take home an Oscar next month after fourteen nominations, but does he deserve it over Dunkirk?

The Dude (Jeff Bridges) does not abide The Big Lebowski missing out on a Best Cinematography nomination for Roger Deakins.

If Roger Deakins did win the Oscar, would it be his win? Or would it be more akin to an Honorary Academy Award celebrating his entire body of work? Whatever the case may be, this is a guy who genuinely deserves an Oscar for something. And while I don’t think this should be his year, he will definitely have at least one on his shelf before he’s done.