Best Picture Rundown

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OscarGuy
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Post by OscarGuy »

One man's masterpiece is another man's soup can.

Call Masterpiece Excellent and we won't worry about the difference between the words. I really just used the word, not intending for it to be used as some badge of honor to all those receiving a rating of 5.
Wesley Lovell
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Penelope
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Post by Penelope »

FilmFan720 wrote:
Penelope wrote:I found 2 masterpieces on this list.

I know you love Crash and A Beautiful Mind, Pen, but really using the word masterpiece is a stretch there, don't you think? :D
Well, they're masterpieces of excrement.
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FilmFan720
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Post by FilmFan720 »

Penelope wrote:I found 2 masterpieces on this list.
I know you love Crash and A Beautiful Mind, Pen, but really using the word masterpiece is a stretch there, don't you think? :D
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Penelope
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Post by Penelope »

I found 2 masterpieces on this list.
"...it is the weak who are cruel, and...gentleness is only to be expected from the strong." - Leo Reston

"Cruelty might be very human, and it might be cultural, but it's not acceptable." - Jodie Foster
Big Magilla
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Post by Big Magilla »

I agree with Mister Tee. Very few films are masterpieces, certainly none of these are. Re-labeling the highest category as excellent might make a difference, but the way it stands I would have to rate all of these within the weak to good range.
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Post by OscarGuy »

I've already received responses, so changing it now would be pointless. And you don't have to use my descriptors of the scale, you can just assign as you see fit. If you want 5 to be excellent to masterpiece, go ahead.
Wesley Lovell
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Post by Mister Tee »

Any chance you could insert "Excellent" betwen Masterpiece and Good, downgrading the slots below by one digit (i.e., turning Awful into 0)? I'm averse to labelling any but the finest films I've ever seen Masterpieces -- only one on this list even merits consideration -- but Good would end up too broad a category if I didn't have some gradation for the 3 1/2 - 4 star movies.
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Post by OscarGuy »

Since it seems clear that there are widely ranging opinions on all of the Best Picture winners in history without a true measure of consensus, I'm going to start an 8-part series of polls to determine the board's general idea of what is the best and what is the worst.

Submit your answers by PM or by e-mail.

You will take each of the Best Pictures below and give them a rating based on your opinion of the film. Leave aside any personal preference of what SHOULD have won and merely give your honest opinion of the film itself. This SHOULD prevent people from downgrading How Green Was My Valley just because it beat out Citizen Kane. We're looking for honest merit, not victory-comparative merit.

We'll start at the most recent and work our way back.

2007: No Country for Old Men
2006: The Departed
2005: Crash
2004: Million Dollar Baby
2003: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2002: Chicago
2001: A Beautiful Mind
2000: Gladiator
1999: American Beauty
1998: Shakespeare in Love

The reason I ask for these by PM or e-mail is to protect the integrity of the results. If, let's say There Will Be Blood were in the race and someone who found the film merely OK were to see the film getting high 5 marks constantly, they might vote 1 just to bring it down a notch. I want honesty, not vindictiveness.

Your scale is thus:

5: Masterpiece
4: Good
3: Average
2: Weak
1: Awful

Start voting. The next 10-year span will go up as soon as I see how quickly responses come in, but it will be no later than each week.

I will not consider enough responses until I have at least 10 of them with a preference of 15 to 20 since I know there are at least that many opinionated people on this board. :P
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin
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