The Oscar Project Interlude #4: Best of the 1960s

by Chris Marshall:

Here we are, on the brink of the 1970s. I couldn’t be more excited. The musical-heavy 1960s weren’t as bad as I expected, but I’m still glad they’re over, if only so I can get into what promises to be the best decade of Oscar winners from top to bottom. There are individual winners in other decades that may match up, but no time period matches the overall quality of the 1970s.

The 60s were somewhat uneven, but in addition to the musicals, which I’ve talked about ad nauseum, there was also a glut of British-made films: Lawrence of Arabia, Tom Jones, and A Man for All Seasons. Between 1961 and 1968, In the Heat of the Night was the only American-made non-musical Best Picture winner. As opposed to the 1970s, which contains 10 American-made non-musical winners.

I’m currently in somewhat of a difficult position with The Oscar Project. Since I’ve been working on my thesis so much in the past few days, I’ve fallen behind on my movie watching for the first time since the project began. I still haven’t watched Patton, the 1970 winner, and that post has to go up tomorrow. And most troubling, it’s three hours long, so I really have to set aside some serious time.

Sidney Poitier wins for Lilies of the Field

But don’t worry, Faithful Readers, because I have every intention of staying on schedule, even if it means pulling an all-nighter. Luckily The French Connection is somewhat short; it shouldn’t be too hard to fit it in somewhere. And the better news is that my thesis is completed, except for whatever edits my committee members suggest/demand. After I defend on Wednesday, I will (presumably) be a Master of Communication, but more importantly, I’ll be able to focus exclusively on my Oscar winners. It’s important to have your priorities straight.

It’s times like these when I’m really glad I decided to write these Interludes after each decade. They also tend to be my most-read posts, for whatever that’s worth. Of course, I assume it’s because they’re reading my favorite of the decade list, not because they’re interested in hearing my bloviate about Life, the Universe, and Everything. So, on that note, let’s get into it.

There were actually some difficult decisions this time around. As I mentioned in my Lawrence of Arabia post, for example, I appreciate the greatness of the film, but I didn’t particularly enjoy watching it. But since this list represents the movies from each decade that I liked the best, its ranking suffers. At least the movie on the bottom of the list was an easy choice.

Here we go, my favorite Best Picture winners of the 1960s:

1. The Apartment (1960)
2. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
3. The Sound of Music (1965)
4. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
5. My Fair Lady (1964)
6. A Man for All Seasons (1966)
7. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
8. West Side Story (1961)
9. Tom Jones (1963)
10. Oliver! (1968)

All of the British films fell in the bottom half of the rankings, something I didn’t notice until I typed it out just now. I don’t know what this says about me, or about British movies, but I just wasn’t crazy about any of them. Maybe I’m some kind of Anglophobe.

From a logistical standpoint, I’m glad to be finished with the 1950s and 1960s because I believe they’re in a close race with the 1990s for greatest average length of the movies that won. I don’t mind long movies in general, but it’s really hard when you’re trying to write a post every day. Granted, the 1970s have Patton and both Godfather movies stacked in the first half, but it’s much more reasonable after that.

Well, at the halfway point of the project, I feel freshly reinvigorated, and I hope I can finish this thing on schedule. As Bette Davis said (was that really 20 movies ago?!), “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.”