And the winner of Best Picture is: "La La Land."
Oops, back it up. The winner of Best Picture is "Moonlight."
Shawn RyanThe humiliating snafu on Sunday night's Academy Awards ceremony will probably go down as one of the worst moments in the show's history. Yes, even worse than Marisa Tomei winning Best Supporting Actress for "My Cousin Vinny."
Imagine the horror and disappointment that descended on the cast of "La La Land" while they were standing onstage, Oscar in hand, only to have it taken away. Ouch.
Actually, the Oscars have had many horrifying moments over the years, except these travesties were the Academy's final selections for who took home the Oscar. While "La La Land" was a fun movie, "Moonlight" was emotionally wrenching and told a much deeper and nuanced story, so its win is not a travesty.
However, there have been many occasions when the Best Picture selection was. Of course, there are always disagreements. I would've picked "A Clockwork Orange" over "The French Connection" in 1971, for instance, but both films were excellent. I just think "Clockwork" was more daring and jarring, but its nauseating violence was too shocking at the time.
Still, looking just through the winners from the 1970s until now, several bad decisions stand out.
* 1973 - "The Sting" over "The Exorcist. " A feelgood movie beats a feel-terrified movie. "The Exorcist" changed the direction and status of horror movies forever.
* 1976 - "Rocky" over "All the President's Men" or "Network" or "Taxi Driver." Underdog movie, underdog win. Didn't deserve it.
* 1977 - "Annie Hall" over "Star Wars"? Outrageous! "Star Wars" is a cultural icon, "Annie Hall" is, well, Woody Allen. Of course, this could just be my inner geek talking.
* 1985 - "Out of Africa" over "The Color Purple." Yes, Steven Spielberg's "Purple" was emotionally manipulative, but at least it made you feel something. "Out of Africa" only made you feel like you were chewing on a boring piece of stale bread.
* 1996 - "The English Patient." As a friend of mine said, "A 90-minute movie crammed into two and a half hours." Remember the scene where Ralph Fiennes walked across the desert for days trying to rescue Juliette Binoche? Filmed in real time, I swear.
* 1997 - "Titanic." Won because it made a lot of money. End of story.
* 2000 - "Gladiator." Never should have been nominated. A C-grade plot with A-grade special effects.
* 2005 - "Crash" over "Brokeback Mountain" and "Munich" and "Capote" and "Good Night, and Good Luck." Really?
* 2008 - "Slumdog Millionaire." Oscar loves it some feelgood.
Contact Shawn Ryan at sryan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6327.