Best Picture: 1998

[The Original BJ]

The Thin Red Line is unquestionably the best directed and photographed. Shakespeare in Love is unquestionably the best written and acted. Choosing between these two very different films almost seems like a declaration of cinematic standards. Ultimately, I think I'd choose the weightier and more ambitious The Thin Red Line, though I might rather watch over and over the joyous Shakespeare.

Saving Private Ryan is a very good film whose merits have been pretty overrated. Its finest achievement is not either battle sequence but the degree to which Spielberg (and Robert Rodat) maintain an almost black comic level of absurdity throughout much of the narrative. That the film ultimately veers into schmaltz and flag-waving is its great disappointment.

Half of Life is Beautiful is filled with very moving moments. The other half is a complete joke -- a totally unrealistic, pretty irresponsible Holocaust film. I give Roberto Benigni the writer-director plenty of points for daring to make a Holocaust picture that replaces the usual pomposity with humor, even when such an attempt proves quite problematic. But Roberto Benigni the actor is a complete loon.

Elizabeth has pretty costumes. But the corset crowd really went overboard this time. Near-misses The Truman Show and Gods and Monsters would have been wonderful nominees, and I'm flabbergasted voters went with a merely routine period piece.

[Hollywood Z]

Saving Private Ryan. It was my best film of that year and I think it still holds up to this day as one of the most influential and powerful war films ever made. Elizabeth would have been close second, but it was my fifth best of that year (would have loved to have seen more respect shown towards Dark City, The Truman Show and Pleasantville respectively). Life is Beautiful was a very good heart felt film, but there were many better choices that year. Shakespeare in Love was a good enough movie, but it was one of those safe choices for the academy: nice costumes, self-congradulatory witty script with passable performances. Nothing really noteworthy, but a fun romp for the time being. I've always said that in The Thin Red Line, there's a lot of clever stuff going on, but ultimately, it's a movie that doesn't work. It tries too hard to be arty, it's message is lost in it's incoherancy, and the vernacular of the soldiers is so far off to the point of detachment that both the time period and social class. It's such a pretentious piece, but can only find an audience among the arty avant garde crowd that like to think their opinion is more refined than others. This is exactly the kind of film to help that crowd reaffirm these thoughts.

[dreaMaker]

Saving Private Ryan, definitely...
i loved The Thin Red Line and think it was a poetry, but SPR was the best war film of all time... (i haven't seen Letters and Flags yet)

[Sabin]

Were 'The Thin Red Line' replaced by 'Waking Ned Devine' or 'The Truman Show' (as, really, should have been the case; Malick's movie has no business being nominated, as it operates on such a grander scale than I would imagine any voter could comprehend), 'Shakespeare in Love' would be my hands-down choice. I like 'Saving Private Ryan', but it's such a "war movie" war movie. It says War is Hell while saluting for two and a half hours. 'Shakespeare in Love''s pleasures are so much more real to me. Just a delight. It didn't deserve all of its seven wins but considering that Malick didn't have a chance in hell, its win for Best Picture pleases me.

And I feel like it is always viewed in tandem with Paltrow's win. She's neither a deserving winner nor an abomination of a choice. I can think of ten or twenty other worse choices this decade alone. Yes, Blanchett would have been a better choice, but that's because her film is so hollow a the core that her work feels more like a boon. Montenegro or Streep are superior in my mind, but there is no revelatory nod for me.

[OscarGuy]

I voted for it. I've always loved Thin Red Line. After one viewing I loved it. Sadly, none of my friends did because they thought it was boring deriding the waving grass metaphor.

[kooyah]

That being said, Shakespeare In Love is one of the best movies ever to win Best Picture.

I think I love you. Since Malick was not going to win, I was very happy to see SIL win.

Hell, I love this board. Where else would The Thin Red Line win a poll like this?



Edited By kooyah on 1165843043

[Damien]

It's hard to think of another year in which one nominee was so much greater than any of the others that it was in its own sphere. And I admit I didn't get Thin Red Line on a first viewing, but this is a movie which becomes more extraordinary every time you see it.

And Thin Red isn't even my favorite picture in the amazing year that was 1998. I think Taste Of Cherry, Gods and Monsters and Rushmore are even more impressive.

That being said, Shakespeare In Love is one of the best movies ever to win Best Picture.

[criddic3]

There were long stretches of narration about what war means and blah, blah, blah that I nearly walked out on the film.

God forbid a movie actually deal with the nature and consequences of combat.

I think I described why the narration bothered me, and it had nothing to do with a film being willing to have thoughtful meaning behind it. First, it was WWII and I've not come across anyone who spoke in such Vietnam-ish tones about that conflict as the narrator does in The Thin Red Line. Second, you don't need long, endless narration about the meaning of it all if you have a strong enough story and actors to begin with. Malick was aiming for something other than a depiction of WWII. If he wanted to make an anti-war movie that took place in that period, he could have done so in a more period-appropriate fashion. I don't think the narration and the mood of much of the film is in sync with the supposed period in which it takes place. Plus, the movie did drag on in many places. Even so, I admired the technical aspects of it. The look was beautiful. Nick Nolte had some good scenes. There were too many star cameos and characters that went nowhere. A mixed bag of a movie, but I gave it 3 stars at the time. Not best picture.

[dws1982]

Taste of Cherry's probably my number two of 1998. And then there's Beloved, which, next to The Thin Red Line I think is the best American film of 1998. And then Gillies McKinnon's Regeneration and Herzog's Little Dieter Needs To Fly. Need to give Gods and Monsters another whirl some day too.

Actually a good year for movies, but I can't remember an Oscar show that was more like torture to sit through.

[Eric]

I think Taste of Cherry is usually considered a '98 film in the U.S., so that's my favorite for the year, but Rushmore's up there. Voted The Thin Red Line here cause, duh!

[Sabin]

The real Oscar smack-down between a sparkling romantic comedy and the greatest war movie ever was not to be, as 'Rushmore' was not nominated and Malick's film was deemed a bore. Thus, 'The Thin Red Line' is the 2nd best movie of both the year and the decade, and its nomination absolutely mystifies me that voters could have such good taste. Then it came up snake eyes, and the world made a little more sense.

'Saving Private Ryan' and 'Shakespeare in Love' are both excellent films.

(Incidentally, my four favorite movies of '98 are in preferential order 'Rushmore', 'The Thin Red Line', 'Gods and Monsters', and 'Out of Sight', a slew of films that I cannot begin to describe my adoration for.)

[dws1982]

There were long stretches of narration about what war means and blah, blah, blah that I nearly walked out on the film.

God forbid a movie actually deal with the nature and consequences of combat.

[Franz Ferdinand]

The Thin Red Line was deadly boring in the theaters (I was only a young chap back then), but there have been some lingering images from it even to this day, so I might revisit it.
I'd have to agree with criddic and give the win to The Truman Show, AND agree that (at the time) Life is Beautiful was indeed an uplifting movie that found hope in the face of unspeakable horror. Benigni's Actor win pretty much killed that movie as anything serious, though.
Out of those nominees, Shakespeare In Love was entertaining, but merely Miramax buying the Oscar. Saving Private Ryan is the superior film in that list.

[Reza]

Shakespeare in Love

[criddic3]

Saving Private Ryan out of these choices, although at the time I named The Truman Show best picture.

I recently re-viewed Shakespeare in Love and found it to be terrificly entertaining, but nowhere near the brilliance of Spielberg's WWII drama. Tom Hanks gave among his best performances (though I gave my award to Jim Carrey). Jeremy Davies gave a sensitive portrayal of young Upham. I gave him my award that year.

I admired the ambition behind The Thin Red Line, but found it lacking in focus and direction. There were long stretches of narration about what war means and blah, blah, blah that I nearly walked out on the film. There was a confusion about what war was being portrayed, since the sentiments were a lot closer to Vietnam than to WWII. Beautiful images and a few fine performances, but not a best picture-quality film in my opinion.

Life is Beautiful is not well-loved here, but at the time it was a superb and heart-felt film about survival in the face of the horrors of war. Benigni may not have deserved his Oscar for best actor over Hanks but he balanced comedy and drama quite well I thought, as both actor and director.

Elizabeth featured some excellent performances and was enjoyable, but perhaps not best picture material.