Now that the dust has settled on what was surely the longest awards season in Hollywood history, how does Chloe Zhao’s history-making Nomadland compare to other Best Picture winners? Today, I’m looking back at every single Best Picture-winning film in Oscar history to determine the greatest Best Picture-winning film and the best moments each has to offer.
What are some of your favorite Best Picture winners? Share in the comments and scroll down to see how your favorites measure up!
The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)
Largely a career Oscar honoring legendary director Cecil B. DeMille’s entire body of work, this bland circus melodrama unjustly snuck away with the Best Picture Oscar over great films like High Noon, The Quiet Man, and an un-nominated Singin’ in the Rain.
Best scene: A spectacular train crash and derailment with boxcars tumbling and animals escaping.
92.
My Fair Lady (1964)
From the overtly misogynistic narrative to Rex Harrison’s grating sing-talking, My Fair Lady is a largely unpleasant adaptation of the Lerner and Loewe stage musical and squanders the divine talents of the leading lady Audrey Hepburn.
Best scene: Eliza Doolittle’s debut to upper-class society at a horse racetrack where she crassly cries “Move yer bloomin’ arse!” while cheering on her horse.
Around the World in 80 Days (1956)
A massive box-office hit in its day, Michael Anderson’s Cinemascope adaptation of the Jules Verne novel likely claimed the title of Best Picture because literally, every working actor in Hollywood at the time made a cameo appearance, including Frank Sinatra, Marlene Dietrich, and Buster Keaton.
Best scene: The bullfighting scene starring a game Cantinflas (who in real life had bullfighting experience) surrounded by some 10,000 extras.
Gigi (1958)
The opening number, sung by a pedophilic old man, is called “Thank Heavens for Little Girls” and that’s all you need to know about how creepy and sexist this musical is about a young girl being trained to become a prostitute is. Yet, somehow, it swept the Academy Awards, winning all nine of its nominations
Best scene: “I Remember It Well” tenderly sung by aging couple Maurice Chevalier and Hermione Gingold.
Cavalcade (1933)
This sprawling tale of a British couple’s life throughout historical events of the first decades of the 1900s is as stale and unexciting as you would fear an early talkie film would be.
Best scene: A young couple unsuspectedly finds themselves honeymooning on the R.M.S. Titanic.
Cimarron (1931)
Within its historical context, Cimarron weaves a surprisingly feminist Western yarn, making great use of Irene Dunne’s unparalleled talents, yet its stodgy storytelling offers very little to the modern viewer.
Best scene: The thrilling charge of hundreds of carriages and horses racing across unclaimed territorial land during the Oklahoma land rush of the scene.
The Great Ziegfeld (1936)
Despite a strong performance from an Oscar-winning Luise Rainer and show-stopping musical numbers from the likes of Fanny Brice (yes, *the* Fanny Brice) and a limber Ray Bolger, this biographical musical of the life of Florence Ziegfeld fails to thrill like it did in its zeitgeist.
Best scene: Heartbroken French singer, Anna Held, calls her ex-husband, Florence Ziegfeld, to tearfully congratulate him on his recent marriage.
Crash (2005)
implicitly racist. Cash winning Best Picture against Brokeback Mountain will remain one of the greatest travesties in Academy Awards history.
Best scene: Christine Tayer (Thandiwe Newton), a victim of a sexual assault by a racist police officer, must rely on her perpetrator to save her from a fiery car wreck.
The Broadway Melody (1929)
For one of the first films of the post-silent era, one could do a lot worse than The Broadway Melody, the story of two sisters, Hank and Queenie, struggling to find success on the Broadway stage – the first talkie and musical to ever win Best Picture. Modern audiences will reap few benefits.
Best scene: Emotionally distraught stage actress, Hank (an Oscar-nominated Bessie Love), breaks down in her dressing room, alternating between wrenching sobs and hysterical laughter, after selflessly giving up her love interest so that he may find happiness with another woman.
Braveheart (1995)
Though sporadically rousing, Braveheart stinks with Mel Gibson’s distinct brand of toxic masochismo.
Best scene: “They may take our lives but they will never take our freedom!”
Dances With Wolves (1990)
If there’s one thing the Academy loves, it’s actors turned directors. Fresh off the success of Field of Dreams, Kevin Costner tried his hand behind the camera and was handsomely rewarded at the Oscars for his white savior tale of a Union soldier being accepted into a Lakota tribe.
Best scene: The breathtaking buffalo hunt that required 7 cameras and 8 days of filming.
Gandhi (1982)
Ben Kingsley is half Indian, but actor-turned-director, Richard Attenborough, still found it necessary to put the Best Actor winner in brown face. A biased and oddly racist autobiography of a lawyer turned activist Mahatma Gandhi.
Best scene: The chilling and unflinching recreation of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre which left hundreds of Indian civilians dead.
Rain Man (1988)
Awkwardly ableist, Rain Man, with its central Dustin Hoffman performance as a man living with autism, feels more cringey than heartfelt nearly 30 years after its release.
Best scene: Raymond Babbitt becomes distressed when his estranged brother, Charlie, runs a hot bath.
The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
Paul Muni was the Daniel Day-Lewis of his day, effortlessly transforming into various, often historical, roles. Muni, alongside Best Supporting Actor winner Joseph Schildkraut, delivers a meaningful interpretation of the real-life Dreyfus Affair and the involvement of French novelist, Emile Zola in exonerating Dreyfus’ name.
Best scene: The innocent Captain Alfred Dreyfus is falsely accused of being a German spy simply because of his Jewish heritage.
Forrest Gump (1994)
Forrest Gump is profoundly problematic (a mentally disabled Forrest is essentially) coerced into a nonconsensual sexual encounter, for example), yet there are moments of whimsy and earned sentimentality that has allowed Forrest Gump to endure in the hearts of movie fans.
Best scene: A recently widowed Forrest visits the grave of his lifelong love, Jenny, after learning she has birthed his son.
Going My Way (1944)
Two-time Academy Award-winning director Leo McCarey, known for slapstick comedies, went full Conservative in the latter half of his career, and Going My Way is among his most pleasant, if undemanding, offerings and gave star Bing Crosby a role that would define his career.
Best scene: Bing Crosby’s Father Chuck O’Malley conducts a group of choir boys in singing “Swinging on a Star”.
You Can’t Take It With You (1938)
Frank Capra’s adaption of the Broadway play of the same name about a kooky family clashing with their highly-tightly in-laws is charming, if not Capra’s finest work.
Best scene: The patriarchs of the rival Sycamore and Kirby families make amends and play “Polly Wolly Doodle” on harmonicas leading both families – and eventually the whole neighborhood – into dancing and singing in the Sycamore’s apartment.
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
A thrilling and well-paced first act dissolves into a heavy-handed and melodramatic greatest hits of living with mental illness in Ron Howard’s biopic of real-life mathematician, John Nash.
Best scene: Alicia Nash (an Oscar-winning Jennifer Connelly) discovers her schizophrenia-suffering husband, John (a career-best Russell Crowe), has stopped taking his antipsychotic medication as he prepares a bath for their infant child.
Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)
The story of a journalist posing as a Jewish man to investigate the depths of anti-semitism in New York City perhaps feels less controversial and more tedious than it did upon its initial release, but it still offers an interesting glimpse into prejudice in post-war America.
Best scene: Any scene with Oscar-winner Celeste Holm as fashion editor Anne Dettrey, who quietly represses her love for widowed journalist, Philip Green.
Hamlet (1948)
A straightforward adaptation of the Shakespeare play.
Best scene: Laurence Olivier’s masterful delivery of the iconic “to be or not to be” monologue.
Argo (2012)
Ben Affleck staged a stunning career comeback in the late noughties and the Academy was quick to recognize his work, which perhaps explains how the actor-turned-director was able to claim the Best Picture prize without even a Best Director nomination for this intense if unexceptional, thriller.
Best scene: CIA operative Tony Mendez makes a last-minute decision to push ahead with the canceled rescue operation of American hostages in Tehran during the Iranian Revolution.
Gladiator (2000)
Ridley Scott revived the historical period epic with this magnificent melodrama that brought ancient Rome to bloody and violent life with stunning CGI.
Best scene: Maximus Decimus Meridius battles tigers in the Roman Colosseum and after defies the orders of the emperor Commodus to finish off his opponent.
An American in Paris (1951)
Eye-popping and entertaining, Vincente Minelli’s MGM musical, featuring Gershwin hits like “I Got Rhythm”, helped to usher in the age of lavishly produced musicals that became a staple of Hollywood.
Best scene: The extravagant 17-minute “An American in Paris Ballet” with stunning choreography masterfully performed by Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron.
Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Heavy-handed, glorified propaganda, Mrs. Miniver successfully resonates thanks to some key sequences masterfully directed by William Wyler, and a commanding Greer Garson
Best scene: British housewife, Kay Miniver, is held at gunpoint by a wounded German soldier hiding in her garden following the evacuation of Dunkirk.
Chariots of Fire (1981)
A surprising choice for Best Picture, this theological intersection of sports and religion is best remembered for its iconic opening scene of runners racing across a beach set to Vangelis’ stirring score.
Best scene: Scottish track runner, Eric Liddell, delivers a sermon from Isaiah 40 after refusing to participate in the qualifying races for the Olympics and choosing his religious faith over national glory.
All the King’s Men (1949)
Adapted from the Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel of the same name, this fable of a small-town politician, Willie Stark’s (a tour de force Broderick Crawford) rise in political ranks and eventual corruption and downfall has a softer bite than it should, but still manages to gnarl its teeth.
Best scene: “It could have been – the whole world, Willie Stark”
A Man For All Seasons (1966)
A handsome and stately adaptation of the stage play, A Man For All Seasons was a huge box office and critical success in its day and managed to win six Oscars, including a well-deserved Best Actor for Paul Scofield.
Best scene: A scene-stealing Roy Scheider as King Henry VIII throws a petulant tantrum ordering the honorable Sir Thomas More to permit an annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon so that he may marry Anne Boleyn.
Out of Africa (1985)
Though perhaps an undeserving winner over its competition, The Color Purple or Prizzi’s Honor, Out of Africa largely succeeds on the strengths of its performances, including a captivating Meryl Streep and Klaus Maria Brandauer, and its stunning photography of Africa.
Best scene: Karen Blixen shares a romantic plane ride with her secret lover, Denys, over the lush landscapes of Kenya.
65. Green Book (2018)
Green Book has problems subscribing to harmful racial stereotypes (fried chicken, anyone?) but there’s no denying the megawatt energy generated by its central performances from Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen as a black pianist and his white driver touring the racially segregated American South.
Best scene: Classical pianist Don Shirley’s “if I’m not black enough and if I’m not white enough” monologue.
64. The King’s Speech (2010)
Bolstered by a towering performance from Colin Firth as the stammering King George VI, The King’s Speech overcomes convention to provide solid and moving, entertainment.
Best scene: King George VI triumphs over his stammering to deliver his first wartime radio broadcast declaring Britain’s war on Nazi Germany, underscored by Beethoven’s stirring Symphony no. 7.
63. Grand Hotel (1932)
The only Best Picture winner to walk away with one sole Oscar, Grand Hotel remains a fun series of vignettes with some of Old Hollywood’s greatest stars.
Best scene: Greta Garbo’s iconic “I want to be alone”.
62. Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
Overshadowed by its undeserved Oscar win over worthy competition (both nominated and unnominated – *ahem* Do the Right Thing) and its pat handling of racism, Driving Miss Daisy is at its core a tender story of friendship and aging with a profound emotional payoff.
Best scene: The moving final encounter between an aging Hoke Colburn and dementia suffering Miss Daisy in her retirement home.
61. From Here to Eternity (1953)
One can only imagine how From Here to Eternity, a story of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, resonated with post-war audiences upon its release; some 70 years later, From Here to Eternity feels less potent and more melodramatic, but still offers some fine performances from its star-studded cast including Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Deborah Kerr, Frank Sinatra, and Donna Reed.
Best scene: The sensuous beach kissing scene as cresting waves cascade over Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr’s entwined bodies.
60. How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Unfairly criticized for triumphing over Orson Welles’ masterpiece, Citizen Kane, How Green Was My Valley stands on its own as a sweetly sentimental coming of age story in a musical Welsh coal-mining town.
Best scene: After temporarily losing the use of his legs, a young Welsh boy, Huw, learns how to walk again with gentle support from the new preacher, Mr. Gruffydd.
59. Ben-Hur (1959)
If one is able to look past all the cultural appropriation and brown face, Ben-Hur thrills as one of Hollywood’s greatest Golden Age biblical epics.
Best scene: The exhilarating, 9-minute long chariot race.
58. The Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)
One of the biggest box office hits of 1935, The Mutiny on the Bounty is the only film in Oscar history to earn three Best Actor nominations (for Clark Gable, Charles Laughton, and Franchot Tone) and was largely responsible for the creation of the Supporting acting categories the following year.
Best scene: When the crew of the HMS Bounty, led by Fletcher Christian, stage their mutiny against the ruthless Captain Bligh.
57. Oliver! (1968)
Carol Reed’s Oliver! may appear to be a lukewarm Oscar drivel, but Lionel Bart and John Green’s dynamic musical score, exhilarating musical numbers, and a narrative that does not shy away from the grim material elevate Oliver! above standard musical fare.
Best scene: The climactic violent murder of Nancy at the hands of her boyfriend Bill Sikes, played by an electrifying Oliver Reed, witnessed by terrified orphan Oliver.
56. The Sound of Music (1965)
Robert Wise’s sentimental romance World War II musical – openly reviled by star Christopher Plummer, but equally beloved by decades of moviegoers – has the technical prowess to match its heart on its sleeve and features a career-best Julie Andrews as the free-spirited nun turned governess.
Best scene: A naive Maria discovers she has loving feelings for the stern Captain Von Trapp while they tenderly dance the Laendler Waltz on his garden terrace.
55. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
A groundbreaking divorce drama in its day, Kramer vs Kramer still retains all of its potency thanks to honest and vulnerable performances from Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep, and Justin Henry, who remains the youngest Oscar nominee to this day.
Best scene: “You put that ice cream in your mouth and you are in very, very, very big trouble”
54. Patton (1970)
The ruthless World War II general, General S. Patton, is brought to stunning life by George C. Scott in one of the greatest biopic performances ever committed to film and single-handedly atones for any other sins committed by director Franklin J. Schaffner.
Best scene: Patton’s opening monologue delivered against the stars and stripes of an enormous U.S.A. flag.
53. Rocky (1976)
Contrary to its reputation, Rocky succeeds largely as an intimate character study and is bolstered by a stellar cast including Sylvester Stallone, Talia Shire, Burt Young, Burgess Meredith, and Carl Weathers who each breath nuanced life into their fictional counterparts.
Best scene: The iconic training montage set to Bill Conti’s triumphant “Gonna Fly Now”.
52. Tom Jones (1963)
An unconventional Best Picture winner, Tom Jones is a bawdy sex comedy that defied the decency required of the Hays code and harkened the cultural revolution of the swinging sixties, with a gusto performance from Albert Finney as the titular rapscallion, Tom Jones.
Best scene: The lusty dinner scene between coy Tom Jones and the busty Mrs. Waters where they ravenously tend to their insatiable appetites.
51. The Departed (2006)
Martin Scorsese won his long-overdue Best Director Oscar for this complex and twisty yarn of undercover mobsters and policemen.
Best scene: A shocking elevator execution.
50. Annie Hall (1977)
Diane Keaton delivers the best performance of her illustrious career as Annie Hall in this game-changing, non-chronological, romantic comedy.
Best scene: Flirting couple Annie Hall and Alvy Singer have an awkwardly formal conversation on Annie’s apartment balcony while subtitles reveal their unfiltered inner thoughts.
49. The Shape of Water (2017)
The Shape of Water’s Best Picture win can largely be considered a consolation prize for director Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar loss a decade prior for Pan’s Labyrinth, which is not to detract from the technical wizardry, cinematic pastiche, and emotional honesty of his “woman and fish” love story, masterfully played by Sally Hawkins, the mute Elisa who rescues a tortured Amphibian Man from the government laboratory where she works as a cleaner.
Best scene: Elisa and the Amphibian Man fill her washroom with water and share an intimate underwater embrace.
48. Ordinary People (1980)
Robert Redford made his directorial debut with this devastating look into one wealthy family’s troubled path to healing following the death of their son in a tragic boating accident.
Best scene: During a round of golf, an Oscar-worthy Mary Tyler Moore, as grieving mother Beth Jarrett, argues with her husband, Calvin (Donald Sutherland), about how they failed their son, Conrad (Best Supporting Actor winner Timothy Hutton)
47. Birdman: or, the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance (2014)
Aleandro G. Inarritu utilizes a mock single take to transform the routine story of a fading actor in a midlife crisis into a dazzling cinematic adventure into a man’s fractured psyche.
Best scene: During the final preview performance of his comeback Broadway show, faded superhero actor, Riggan Thompson, accidentally locks himself outside the theatre and must wander through a crowded Times Square wearing only his briefs.
46. The Sting (1973)
Following the critical and financial success of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, director George Roy Hill reunited with leading men Paul Newman and Robert Redford to deliver this breezily entertaining tale of two grifters conning a dangerous mob boss during The Great Depression.
Best scene: The final sting.
45. The Last Emperor (1987)
Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci could always be relied on to capture masterful photography in his films, but none of his works since The Conformist were quite as elegant as The Last Emperor, the retelling of Pu Yi, who became the final Emperor of China at only 2 years old.
Best scene: The flashback scenes with toddler Pu Yi roaming through the lush, colorful architecture and decor of the Forbidden City.
44. Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Clint Eastwood took the 2004 awards season by surprise with his nuanced and devastating boxing drama about a cantankerous gym owner, an aging former boxer, and the enthusiastic boxing hopeful they take under their broken wings.
Best scene: The solemn finale where, Frankie Dunn, sneaks into a hospital room to execute the final request of his prize-fighting champion and “million dollar baby”, Maggie Fitzgerald.
43. The Hurt Locker (2009)
Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman Best Director winner with her explosive examination of PTSD among bomb diffusers in the Iraq War.
Best scene: The nerve-shattering opening sequence where bomb diffuser Staff Sergeant Matt Thompson unsuccessfully attempts to disarm an improvised explosive device.
42. Shakespeare in Love (1998)
Widely looked down upon for its aggressive awards season campaign and upset Best Picture win over Saving Private Ryan, Shakespeare in Love is a triumphant romantic comedy in its own right, told with uncommon intelligence thanks to Tom Stoppard’s clever screenplay about William Shakespeare’s romantic woes and encounter with a wealthy merchant’s daughter that ultimately inspire Romeo and Juliet.
Best scene: The climactic performance of Romeo and Juliet attended by an all-knowing Queen Elizabeth I.
41. American Beauty (1999)
Though the personal history of its lead actor has made American Beauty somewhat cringey viewing, Sam Mendes’ directorial debut remains a masterful work of suburban dysfunction.
Best scene: The sardonic dinner scene where a bitter Carolynn Burhnam (an Oscar-worthy Annette Bening) berates her midlife-crisis husband, Lester, for quitting his job.
40. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
After three years and nine hours of storytelling, the Academy at last recognized Peter Jackson’s towering cinematic achievement when The Return of the King swept the 76th Academy Awards winning every single one of its eleven nominations.
Best scene: The climactic and long-anticipated showdown on the fiery summit of Mount Doom where Frodo must confront personal and external evil to at last destroy The One Ring.
39. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
With its predominant white savior narrative and liberal use of brown face, Lawrence of Arabia is tough to process through a modern lens, but there is no denying the epic scope of David Lean’s camera and the tour-de-force performance of Peter O’Toole as T.E. Lawrence
Best scene: The attack on Aqaba.
38. Spotlight (2015)
Taut, tense, and riveting, Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight parallels All the President’s Men as one of the greatest cinematic portrayals of journalism.
Best scene: Boston Globe journalist, Sascha Pfieffer, on a hunt to find victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church encounters a priest who freely and unashamedly admits to molesting young boys.
37. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Slumdog Millionaire was a game-changing milestone upon its initial release, heralding in the age of global filmmaking with its upbeat, Dickensian tale of a young orphan boy who must overcome personal and interpersonal obstacles to survive life on the streets of India; experiences that eventually contribute to him becoming a top contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
Best scene: The joyful Bollywood-style finale dance.
36. Wings (1928)
Underappreciated director William A. Wellman innovated many genres throughout his illustrious career, but no single film in his filmography was as innovative and influential as the first, and only fully silent, Best Picture winner, about two small-town boys who enlist as pilots in World War I.
Best scene: Any one of the spectacular aerial dog fight sequences.
35. 12 Years A Slave (2013)
Difficult but essential viewing, director Steve McQueen is unflinching in his portrayal of Black suffering during the era of slavery in the United States.
Best scene: A haunting continuous shot of an unsuccessful lynching.
34. The English Patient (1996)
Contrary to a particular episode of Seinfeld, The English Patient is a rich, complex love story, brimmed with stunning visuals and performances of aching beauty, most notable a Best Supporting Actress winning Juliette Binoche as a French nurse, who tends to be a mysterious patient in a bombed-out Italian monastery in the aftermath of World War II
Best scene: Disagreeable cartographer, Count Laszlo de Almasy, and prim British wife, Katharine, discover romantic feelings for each other one night while stranded in a desert sandstorm.
33. Platoon (1986)
Oliver Stone’s visceral Vietnam saga goes deeper than its war movie conventions to become a ruminative exploration on the good and evil of human nature, manifested by the tense conflict between Sgt. Elias and Sgt. Barnes, portrayed by Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger.
Best scene: The violent death of Sgt. Elias in the Vietnam jungle after being left for dead by the amoral Sgt. Sgt. Barnes.
32. The Artist (2011)
Pastiche has never been done quite as elegantly as in French director Michel Hasanivicius’ throwback to the silent film era and 30s films, The Artist, who brilliantly reimagines tropes and archetypes of classic Hollywood within a modern cinematic context.
Best scene: In a vivid dream, silent film actor, George Valentin, hears the sounds of his environment – the clinking of a water glass, a dog barking, women’s heels walking – yet cannot make a sound himself, as he comes to grips with the end of the silent film era.
31. Chicago (2002)
Nearly 40 years after Oliver! became the final musical to win Best Picture, Chicago brought the musical genre back to rip-roaring life with its tale of two-stage starlets and murderers, Roxy Hart and Velma Kelly, who manipulate the media for public sympathy, and gentle inspiration from Bob Fosse.
Best scene: The Cell Block Tango with the Six Merry Murderesses of Cook County Jail.
30. The Lost Weekend (1945)
Billy Wilder would later become well known for his comedies like Sabrina, The Seven Year Itch, and Some Like it Hot, but it was this harrowing neo-noir drama about a man succumbing to alcohol addiction that won the legendary director his first Best Director and Best Picture Oscars and scored a Best Actor win for the committed leading man, Ray Milland.
Best scene: Don, in a drunken delirium, hallucinates a bat in his apartment.
29. No Country For Old Men (2007)
The Coen Brothers, at last, earned their well-deserved Best Director Oscar with their tense, beautifully photographed adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel about evil and the good men who try to make sense of it.
Best scene: A desert chase at dawn, as an unsuspecting hunter, Llewyln Moss, returns to the scene of a deadly drug deal only to be pursued by two men in a truck with attack dogs.
28. Terms of Endearment (1983)
James L. Brooks excelled at writing complex adult relationships, and no adult relationship was as complex as mother and daughter, Aurora and Emma Greenway, brought to authentic life by Shirley Maclaine and Debra Winger, who alternatively love and despise one another.
Best scene: “Give my daughter the shot!”
27. The Deer Hunter (1978)
The Vietnam war left a traumatic scar on the American psyche, and few films depicted the personal toll of that trauma better than The Deer Hunter, which follows a group of young blue-collar workers as they leave for Vietnam and return home as physically and emotionally traumatized shells of their former selves.
Best scene: The grim reunion of Vietnam war veteran Mike and the traumatized Nick over a game of Russian roulette.
26. Unforgiven (1992)
Clint Eastwood reinvented the Western when he showed what happens to deadly gunslingers in the twilight years of their lives in Unforgiven; a violent, parabolic tale of good, evil, and amorality.
Best scene: The climactic, gun-slinging showdown between aging, retired outlaw and murderer William Munny and the menacing, cruel sheriff, Little Bill.
25. West Side Story (1961)
Musicals have been a staple in Hollywood since the dawn of the talkie, but few movie musicals are as exhilarating as Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise’s reimagining of the Romeo and Juliet story. With pirouetting gangsters, electrifying choreography, and sweeping camera movements, West Side Story is the rare musical adaptation that transcends its Broadway origins.
Best scene: Rita Moreno’s astonishing, show-stopping performance of “America”
24. Marty (1955)
Boy-meets-girl love stories don’t come much simpler than Marty, but what Marty lacks in narrative complexity it more than makes up for with its big heart and tender treatment of its human subjects, led by a sweet-natured and Best Actor winning Ernest Borgnine, playing against type in the titular role.
Best scene: The touching and understated first encounter between unlucky-in-love butcher, Marty Piletti, plain schoolteacher Clara as they spend the evening dancing, walking the nightlife streets, and chatting in a diner.
23. Casablanca (1943)
Considered the most quotable film of all time, with utterances like “Here’s looking at you, kid”, “We’ll always have Paris”, and “Round up the usual suspects”, Michael Curtiz’s wartime romance endures thanks to fine performances from Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Peter Lorre, and a perennially underappreciated Claude Rains, and a complex, expertly crafted plot.
Best scene: The plane tarmac finale where Rick selflessly bids goodbye to Ilsa one final time and delivers the iconic closing line “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship”.
22. Nomadland (2020)
Few movies touched the cultural psyche like Nomadland: in the age of social distancing and self-isolation, director Chloe Zhao and leading actor Frances McDormand as Fern, managed to capture the feelings of immense loss caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. With deliberate pacing, a naturalistic Frances McDormand, and stunning cinematography, Nomadland might just be one of the most deeply felt films of all time.
Best scene: Fern’s new nomad companion, Swankie, reveals her cancer diagnosis.
21. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
In the aftermath of World War II, William Wyler’s The Best Years of Our Lives seemed to capture the United States’ need for meaning and healing. Three war veterans return home and struggle to readjust to regular civilian life, achingly portrayed by Fredric March, Dana Andrews, and real-life wounded war veteran, Harold Russell.
Best scene: Fred Derry, struggling to adjust to post-war suburban life, climbs aboard a discarded plane in an aircraft boneyard and has intense recollections of flying in the war.
20. Gone With the Wind (1939)
For modern audiences, Gone With the Wind is a tough film to digest with its sympathetic stance towards the Confederacy and idealization of slavery. If one is able to interpret Gone With the Wind within its historical context though, it is tough to ignore its sweeping scope, grand production design, complex narrative, and all-time great performances from the likes of Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Olivia de Havilland, and Hattie McDaniel.
Best scene: Scarlet O’Hara, desperate to find a doctor to help deliver Melanie’s baby, stumbles through a train depot swamped with the bodies of injured and dying soldiers during the Civil War.
19. Schindler’s List (1993)
Steven Spielberg’s World War II masterwork owes as much to Claude Lanzmann’s seminal Holocaust documentary Shoah as it does the real-life heroics of its subject, Oskar Schindler, a German industrialist and Nazi who used his factories to save over a thousand Jewish people during the Holocaust. Photographed in stunning black and white – with notable use of red – and featuring a terrifying Ralph Fiennes as sadistic SS commander Amon Göth, Schindler’s List endures as the most wrenching film of Spielberg’s career
Best scene: The Schindlerjuden and their descendants line up to cast rocks on the grave of Oskar Schindler in the shape of a cross.
18. All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Lewis Milestone’s seminal World War I epic was the first to strip patriotism away from war to expose its brutal, dehumanizing impact. Balancing visceral sequences of intense trench warfare with intimate moments of humanity, like when a persevering Paul, beautifully played by Lew Ayres, carries his mortally wounded commander and mentor to a faraway field hospital, All Quiet on the Western Front is not only a triumph of the early sound film but filmmaking in general.
Best scene: The stirring final moments as a weary soldier, Paul, reaches out from the trenches for a butterfly.
17. Titanic (1997)
Many a criticism have been unfairly made about Titanic’s central love story (Leonardo DiCaprio essentially plays a subversion of the manic pixie dream girl trope, before said trope was even firmly rooted in Hollywood culture), but even the most cynical viewer would have a difficult time griping James Cameron for his magnificent technical achievements in recreating the R.M.S. Titanic’s ill-fated maiden voyage. Sweeping, majestic, and breathtaking, Titanic left audiences’ jaws agape and eyes wet and changed the landscape of blockbuster films.
Best scene: Every astonishing moment of the Titanic’s sinking from the sealing of the boiler rooms, with Irish workers trapped inside, the panic for lifeboats, water pouring over the ship’s deck, the stern rising vertically into the air, the breaking of the ship in half, and the Titanic’s final plunge into the Atlantic, leaving hundreds of terrified passengers helpless in the icy Atlantic water.
16. The French Connection (1971)
In the midst of the Vietnam War, counterculture revolution, and rise of the Black Panther Party, the United States was as tightly wound as director William Friedkin’s unbearably taut thriller, The French Connection, about a New York City police detective obsessively tracking an international drug deal. Add Gene Hackman’s commanding and stoic performances as Detective Popeye Doyle, and The French Connection towers above other thrillers as a masterclass in sustained tension.
Best scene: The frantic and tense car chase through the streets of New York as hard-boiled police Detective Popeye Doyle pursues a suspect of the international drug trade as he escapes on an elevated train.
15. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
LGBTQ+ director, John Schlesinger, excelled at telling honest narratives of people living in the margins of society, and Midnight Cowboy, the first (and only) X-rated Best Picture winner, about a naive Texan, and aspiring prostitute, in New York City Joe Buck who sparks an unlikely friendship with a crippled and chronically ill con man, Ratzo Rizzo, is arguably the director’s finest work. Intimate, penetrative, and achingly human, Midnight Cowboy is ultimately a moving character study of two men desperate for companionship.
Best scene: The final, solemn bus ride to Florida where Joe Buck and a rapidly deteriorating Ratso Rizzo hope to start a new life.
14. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster forged themselves into the books of Oscar history with their dynamic pas-de-deux as headstrong, yet inexperienced, FBI upstart, Clarice Starling, and psychologist and cannibal, Hannibal Lecter, recruited to help her track serial killer, Buffalo Bill in Jonathan Demme’s genre-defining thriller. Each winning an Oscar for their performance, The Silence of the Lambs became only the third film to ever win the Big Five Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay.
Best scene: When Clarice Starling meets the discomfitingly calm Hannibal Lecter in his prison cell for the first time (“Closer, please. Closer”).
13. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Norman Jewison’s multilayered In the Heat of the Night belongs to an elite group of films that take on a relevant social issue from their time with such unflinching honesty that it resonates well past its initial release to become even more relevant in the present day. Sidney Poitier delivers a career-best performance as Virgil Tibbs, a homicide detective from Philadelphia waiting for the early morning train out of a small Mississippi town, who becomes reluctantly involved in the investigation of a prominent land developer’s murder. Thrilling, intelligent, and sensuous, In the Heat of the Night is one of the most enduring films from the Civil Rights era.
Best scene: Prickly and reformed racist police chief Gillespie (an Oscar-winning Rod Steiger) has a rare late-night moment of vulnerability when he invites Virgil Tibbs into his home.
12. Parasite (2019)
History was made at the 92nd Academy Awards when Parasite and its director Bong Joon-ho won Oscars for Best International Film and Best Picture, the first non-English language film to accomplish the feat, and deservedly so; Parasite is a complex and thrilling metaphor for social inequity and the differences between the classes, with jaw-dropping plot reveals and pitch-perfect performances from Song Kang-ho, Jang Hye-jin, Choi Woo-Shik, Park So-dam, and Cho Yeo-Jeong.
Best scene: To reveal the best scene of Parasite would be an incredible injustice to the first-time viewer. If you know, you know.
11. The Godfather Part II (1974)
Francis Ford Coppola turned the studio-produced sequel into a high-art form with his follow-up to seminal gangster hit, The Godfather. Telling simultaneous narratives of Michael Corleone taking over the family crime empire and young Vito Corleone’s harrowing immigration to turn of the century New York City, The Godfather Part II is authentic in its human relationships, rich in period detail, and broad in scope to the point of it becoming operatic
Best scene: “I know it was you, Fredo. You broke my heart. You broke my heart!”
10. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
David Lean’s rich, complex World War II drama is an acutely psychological battle of wills between a proper British Colonel and POW in a Japanese prison camp, Colonel Nicholson, and the stubborn Japanese commander, Colonel Saito, who refuses to follow his wartime codes, that is as intimate as it is epic. Alec Guinness and Sessue Hayakawa masterfully stand off against each other and truthfully speak to the principles underlying each man’s motivation. That the Pacific island scenery is photographed by David Lean and frequent cinematographer collaborator, Jack Hildyard, is merely a bonus.
Best scene: “What have I done?”
9. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Jack Nicholson delivered the single greatest performance of his 60-year career as Randall McMurphy, the dangerous criminal who feigns mental illness to serve his sentence in a psychiatric ward instead of a working prison and goes head-to-head with the vengeful Nurse Ratched. The power struggle between McMurphy and Nurse Racthed serves to represent 60’s counterculture defying institutional power structures, but under Milos Forman’s steady direction, the metaphorical subtext harmoniously exists alongside its rich human drama.
Best scene: The harrowing final scene when Chief Bromden performs a merciful act after Nurse Ratched has inflicted her full institutional evil on Randall McMurphy.
8. Moonlight (2016)
A miraculous event occurred at the 89th Academy Awards: after a decades-long history of ignoring Black and LGBTQ+ narratives, the Academy awarded Barry Jenkins’ exquisite coming-of-age drama, Moonlight, about black, gay impoverished youth, Chiron, struggling with social oppression and self-isolation at various stages of his life, with Oscars’ top prize. Anchored by nuanced performances from its ensemble cast, notably Alex R. Hibbert, Naomie Harris, Trevante Rhodes, Andre Holland, Janelle Monae, and an Oscar-winning Mahershala Ali, Moonlight is devastating and unforgettable, speaking truth beyond its marginalized characters to communicate a pain felt by anyone who has felt desperate to belong.
Best scene: A young Chiron sits at a dining table and innocently asks his mentor, drug dealer Juan, “what’s a faggot?”.
7. Rebecca (1940)
Alfred Hitchcock was an established success in his native England, with films like The Lodger, The 39 Steps, and The Lady Vanishes, so when the legendary director settled across the Atlantic, Hollywood was ready to greet him with open arms. And what a welcome he received when the Academy crowned his debut American film, Rebecca, an adaptation of the Daphne DuMaurier novel about a naive young bride overshadowed by the specter of her new husband’s deceased first wife, as the Best Picture of 1940. With nerve-wracking tension, foreboding cinematography of the Manderley estate, and masterful performances, none more unsettling than Judith Anderson’s vindictive Mrs. Danvers, Rebecca stands among the Master of Suspense’s filmography as one of his finest works.
Best scene: Mrs. Danvers persuades the psychologically tormented second Mrs. DeWinter, a tightly wound Joan Fontaine, to commit suicide.
6. Amadeus (1984)
Milos Forman’s magnum opus. This fictionalized account of a rivalry between Classical composers Mozart and Salieri is tuned to the highest operatic pitch and crescendos and swells with dazzling cinematic cacophony. F Murray Abraham won the Oscar for his portrayal of the deeply bitter Salieri while Tom Hulce’s Mozart’s laugh still rings in our ears. Lush and opulent, Amadeus is a tour de force that will endure for many decades to come. An unparalleled triumph.
Best scene: A physically ailing, bedridden Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dictates to his jealous rival, Antonio Salieri, the notation of his Requiem in D minor.
5. On the Waterfront (1954)
Based on a series of Pulitzer-Prize winning articles exposing union violence and widespread corruption among dockworkers on the shores of New Jersey, Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront is an explosive and harrowing crime drama that is as thought-provoking as it is entertaining. Brimming with outstanding performances by Eva Marie Saint, as the grieving sister of a murdered dockworker, Lee J. Cobb, as the ruthless mob boss, Friendly, Rod Steiger, as his obedient right-hand man, and Karl Malden, as the concerned priest, the chef-d’oeuvre in On the Waterfront’s ensemble is Marlon Brando: as Terry Malloy, Brando changed the face of screen acting forever. As the tormented dockworker who stands up to the criminal bosses, Brando is masculine and tough but doesn’t shy away from exposing Terry’s conflict and vulnerability. It’s an electric performance whose method approach broadened the emotional landscape men could occupy onscreen.
Best scene: Marlon Brando’s impassioned “I coulda been a contender” monologue.
4. The Apartment (1960)
Inspired by great works of silent cinema and German expressionism, Billy Wilder’s deft blend of drama, comedy, and social commentary, stands alongside the likes of Sunset Boulevard and Some Like it Hot as one of the director’s finest masterpieces. Jack Lemmon stars as C.C. Baxter, an insurance clerk who lends his apartment to company executives to carry out their extramarital trysts in hopes of one day climbing the corporate ladder. Matters become complicated when C.C. ‘s love interest, elevator operator, Fran Kubelik, winds up in his apartment after a love affair gone wrong. At the center of Wilder’s brilliant commentary on loneliness, alienation, corporate greed, and mental health are Jack Lemmon and Shirley Maclaine’s vibrant performances as the wounded C.C. and Fran mutually struggle to adapt to an inhumane world.
Best scene: One masterful scene after another brilliantly culminates in the film’s iconic “shut up and deal” ending.
3. It Happened One Night (1934)
Frank Capra single-handedly invented the screwball comedy with It Happened One Night, following the riotous misadventures of carrot-chomping reporter, Peter Warne, and spoiled socialize, Ellie Andrews, as they bumble across the East coast to return Ellie to her pilot and fortune-hunting fiance, King Westley in New York after the Greyhound bus they are on breaks down. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert ignite the screen with their combustible chemistry and cemented It Happened One Night in Oscar history: it became the first of only 3 films to win the Top Five Oscar awards.
Best scene: Peter attempts to teach Ellie how to hitchhike.
2. The Godfather (1972)
In adapting Mario Puzo’s best-selling novel, Francis Ford Coppola reinvented the gangster film for the post-Golden Age and crafted the first true gangster epic, aided and abetted by an Oscar-winning Marlon Brando as the head of a Sicilian crime family in New York and a career-best Al Pacino as Michael Corleone, the do-good son who gets lured into his family’s criminal business dealings.
Best scene: How does one choose between the severed horse head in the bed, “leave the gun, take the cannoli”, the double murder in the Bronx restaurant, the assassination of Sonny Corleone, the various assassination attempts on Don Vito Corleone and his final moments with his grandson in the garden, or the final shot as new Don Michael Corleone slowly closes the door on Kay?
1. All About Eve (1950)
All About Eve, Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s sophisticated and scathing critique of the entertainment industry, seamlessly moves from one masterful set-piece to another. Its dialogue is a glorious marriage of intellectual wit and condescending sarcasm, its a dynamic cast of actors includes no less than 5 tour de forces in Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders, Thelma Ritter, and Celeste Holm, its camera framing is elegant and controlled, its aesthetic oozes vintage 50s glamour and 70 years later its scathing condemnation of the entertainment industry remains unparalleled. All About Eve is not only a pinnacle of classic black and white films; it is one of Hollywood’s greatest achievements, ever.
Best scene: All glorious 2 hours and 18 minutes of it, from Addison DeWitt’s acerbic opening narration to Eve’s final comeuppance.
James
