Best Pictures That Never Were: Day 11

Year: 1976

Movie: Taxi Driver

Best Picture Winner: Rocky

Disrguntled war vet and cabbie Travis Bickle (DeNiro), a lonely man obsessed with pornography and violence. As events in Travis' life begin to turn for the worse, he slowly descends into the depths of his own paranoia, driving away the one woman willing to love him, eventually exploding in an orgy of killing against the "scum" of the streets he hates so intensely.

Rocky did deserve best picture but Taxi Driver should not be forgotten, because it is one of those movies that stays with you long after its done.

Martin Scorsese does a fantastic job with this film. It's one of those movies that you need to see multiple times in order to really see it all.

Best Pictures That Never Were: Day 10

Year: 1975

Movie: Jaws

Best Picture Winner: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Here is one of my favorite movies from director Steven Spielberg and based off of the best selling novel by Peter Benchley.

In this movie it’s the height of the beach season at a Massachusetts resort town of Amity Island. Soon this peaceful summer town begins to be terrorized by a man eating shark.

It is then up to three unlikely partners to team up to hunt down the shark and destroy it. We have Chief Brody (Roy Scheider), a young university-educated oceanographer Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) and a crusty old-time fisherman Quint (Robert Shaw), which is one of the best casts I’ve seen in a movie.

This film was the first to ever surpass 100 million dollars and it is also the reason for so many people to be scared to go into the water.

The shark is also one of the notorious movie villains of all time. If you haven’t seen this movie you really need to invest and watch this movie, it’s a classic.

Also, the theme by John Williams has become a theme of doom.

Jaws had everything that a best picture needs. I fine this movie more effective and far more enjoyable than One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, in my opinion. Yes, Nest has a lot of good things going for it but Jaws is a movie that has lived on generation after generation only proving the amount of power the film has.

Best Pictures That Never Were: Day 9

Year: 1973

Movie: The Exorcist

Best Picture Winner: The Sting

I'm a huge horror fan and when a horror movie is nominated for Best Picture it's just a big deal for me, because it doesn't happen that often.

The Exorcist, the movie many consider the scariest movie ever made. The film was released to the public in 1973 and quickly became a nationwide success. People were actually fainting in theaters after seeing the horrific images the movie shows and religious groups constantly boycotted it. Yet, it had huge box office returns.

The film centers around a young girl named Regan (Linda Blair), a 12 year-old who has been recently possessed by a demon. Her mother, Chris (Ellen Burstyn), becomes aware of her daughters strange behavior and exhausts ever medical effort to find a cure. She soon discovers that her daughter’s condition can’t be solved medically but spiritually and recruits Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller) to perform an exorcism.

Karras is not only dealing with the supernatural in this film, he also has scarce faith and displaced quilt over his mother’s recent death.During the exorcist he is joined by a strange Jesuit exorcist Father Merrin (Max von Sydow) and together they have to confront the evil that possesses young Reagan.

The great thing about this movie that I really admired about it is how it grounds itself in realism and has the everyday tone, and then it lets the terror come in slowly and then hits you hard with it.

Watching the movie now, it still holds up and remains a classic. This film should of won best picture, forget about The Sting - The Exorcist and American Graffiti were better films in my opinion.

Best Pictures That Never Were: Day 8

Year: 1973

Movie: American Graffiti

Best Picture Winner: The Sting

For those of you who don't know there was a George Lucas before Star Wars and he made some great films and one of those films was American Graffiti.

The movie is about four teenagers on their last summer night before they head off to college. They rediscover drag racing, inspiration point and the classic drive-ins, in this nostalgic look back at the early '60's.

Besides the story and the performances from Ron Howard, Richard Dreyfuss, Cindy Williams, Suzanne Somers and pre-Han Solo Harrison Ford, the movie is all about it's music. The soundtrack that the film has brings back all those memorable rock 'n' roll hits from the '60's, surrounding you in that time period.

The Sting has a classic score and it's a good movie but not one of my favorites. American Graffiti was definitely a better film in my opinion but for the year of '73 there was another film that was nominated that also deserved a best picture win and I'll talk about that tomorrow.

Best Pictures That Never Were: Day 7

Year: 1971

Move: A Clockwork Orange

Best Picture Winner: The French Connection

The French Connection is a great movie but the effect of A Clockwork Orange will stay with you forever.

Derby-topped teddy-boy hooligan Alex (Malcolm McDowell) has his own way of having a good time - at the expense of others. His journey from amoral punk to brainwashed proper citizen and back again forms the dynamic arc of Stanley Kubrick's future-shock vision of Anthony Burgess' novel. Controversial when first released, A Clockwork Orange won New York Film Critics Best Picture and Director awards and earned four Oscar nominations, including best picture. The movie still has the power to grab you and keep you tangled up in the messed up world of Alex until the very end.

The French Connection is a great movie that everyone should watch but A Clockwork Orange is an experience that you won't get from any other movie.

Best Pictures That Never Were: Day 6

Year: 1967

Movie: The Graduate

Best Picture Winner: In the Heat of the Night

a social satire that launched the career of Dustin Hoffman and cemented the reputation of acclaimed director Mike Nichols. Pulsating with the rebellious spirit of the '60s and a memorable score sung by Simon and Garfunkle, The Graduate is a classic and a landmark in film making.The movie is about Benjamin Braddock (Hoffman) who returns home from college with an uncertain future. He soon meets the wife of his father's business partner, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft) and she seduces him, and the affair only deepens his confusion. That is, until he meets the girl of his dreams.
This film had tough competition going up against In the Heat of the Night but also deserved a Best Picture win. Some years you get multiple movies that deserve the title, but this should have been a tie at least.

Best Pictures That Never Were: Day 5

Year: 1964

Movie: Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Best Picture Winner: My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady is a good movie, but it’s not a film that I can watch again and again but when it comes to Stanley Kubrick’s black comedy about an “accidental” nuclear attack, well now there something that’s worth multiple viewings.
Dr. Strangelove came out when the paranoia about the Cold War was at an all-time high. A crazed General (Sterling Hayden) is convinced that communist are polluting America’s “precious bodily fluids”, so he orders a surprise nuclear air strike on the USSR.
His aide Captain Mandrake (Peter Sellers) sees the Generals’ crazy ways and tries to figure out a recall code to stop the bombing.
In America the President (Peter Sellers) gets on the hot line to try and convince the drunk Soviet premier hat the attack is a mistake. This is all happening as the President’s ex-Nazi scientist, Dr. Strangelove (Peter Sellers), confirms the existence of the Doomsday Machine. A machine that is a secret Soviet retaliatory device guaranteed to end the human race.
This movie has so much to keep you entertained and to keep coming back for more. The performances by Peter Sellers is what made this film, they were all funny, strange and unique. This film had a lot of competition when it came to My Fair Lady but it should have won Best Picture.
Dr. Strangelove was a unique experience, something no one had thought of or could ever recreate.