All strong selections but ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ is simply more substantive and insightful regarding the human condition. Peak Nicholson, great cast who all bring something to the table, and a bittersweet but beautifully stuck landing. It simply adds something to your true self for the better.
Nick Potter - 3 months ago
I know it's not how the poll will play out (in all fairness, it's a stacked list), but I'm putting all of my money behind Dog Day Afternoon. It's a perfect film that I have been thinking about constantly since the first time I watched it, and I don't know if Pacino has ever been better in my book.
gers - 3 months ago
An impossible poll question.
It's like asking me to pick my favourite child, which I cannot do, due to it's inherent unfairness to to any of the others should one be singled out.
Fine, have it your way. Nashville.
Wade McCormick - 3 months ago
It's been a while since I've seen Cuckoo's Nest so I'm probably underrating it. Even still, this is by far the best group of nominees in Oscar history. Each one is arguably the best film by a legendary director. They're all great, but Barry Lyndon would be on my short list of greatest films of all time. It's certainly the most beautiful. Kubrick's masterpiece gets my vote.
Jonathan Anderson, Denver CO - 3 months ago
Just a heads up for Denverspotters, Nashville is playing at the Mayan in September so if you, like me, badly need to rewatch it that'll be as good a time as any!
Bruce from Portland - 4 months ago
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest might be a perfect film if not for the boating sequence, which somehow made the movie seem too long to me by exactly the length of that sequence. (It felt like a nod to studio executives who were afraid the hospital setting was too grim for audiences.) Nashville won our alternate universe best film of the 1970s. Upon a rewatch, I still think it's the MOST 1970s film. Barry Lyndon is gorgeous. I can't help but wonder what it would have been with anyone other than Ryan O'Neal at its center. Jaws, of course, is the movie I've seen the most over the years in theaters. Both at the time and today it would get my vote for best movie if not best picture. Of the four movies listed, the one I'd be most likely to get off my butt and see in a movie theater would be Dog Day Afternoon. Back in the day, I saw it by myself after its run (when it was back in theaters as an Oscar contender) and talked my dad into driving 54 miles (from Tinley Park to Palatine) the next Friday so he, my neighbor, and my brother could see it. Suspense, humor, great ending. Thanks for the memories.
What a jaw-dropping slate of nominees.
Remarkably, three of these nominees were also in the top five at the box office that year. Imagine how much our culture would improve if studios made more movies like these and more people actually saw (and discussed) them.
With five perfect movies to choose from, I voted for the one that is most mystifyingly perfect: Nashville. I mean, how could something so rambling possibly be so perfect? It feels like a time capsule, but it could’ve been filmed last year without changing a thing.
Josh - 4 months ago
That’s a Murderers Row of movies. But for ambitious reach, and ambition achieved, Nashville is the standout. With hindsight of a half century, also an incredibly prescient movie, even more relevant to today’s America than that decade’s. (And I lived through that one too!)
Joel Aarons - 4 months ago
I am aware I’m probably the only person in the world who hates Nashville. It’s either Cuckoos Nest or Jaws for me.
Curt Hansman - 4 months ago
Tough choice!! But Cuckoo's Nest has stayed with me the longest and just for Milos Forman's audacity and the fact that the movie is still being unpacked and discussed seriously
The gut says Kubrick and Lyndon and all that glorious natural light in darkened interiors. The gut is hardly ever wrong.
Mark Friedman - 4 months ago
This is a splitting-hairs exercise and kinda frustrating. All four of these films are truly great, but my vote is for Cuckoo's Nest because I believe it's literally flawless, and I can't quite say the same about any of the others.
Ooooo... tight race so far. I'd take Dog Day Afternoon over Jaws.
Carol Levenson - 4 months ago
From Chicago
I recall vividly watching this in a movie theater with an approved when it first came out. We all knew
this was something new and different and not your typical Hollywood product. It’s shagginess was its glory.
Ofer Liebergall - 4 months ago
“You may say that I’m ain’t free
But it don’t worry me”
The Anthem for the majority that just accept the horrible reality is more relevant than ever. Nashville shows the weakness of democracy in a funny but also painful way. But, equally important, it does love almost every character in it - loves human behaviour, no matter how strange. I need to be reminded of that love and beauty in mankind. And the world needs a mirror of the cruelty around us.
In a lineup of masterpieces, Nashville is the strangest, somehow the simplest and the most complex. It must be doing something right to last 50 years.
Ben - 4 months ago
Barry Lyndon! Even if Jaws was included. Maybe even Nashville over Jaws. Maybe I should rewatch Jaws.
All strong selections but ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ is simply more substantive and insightful regarding the human condition. Peak Nicholson, great cast who all bring something to the table, and a bittersweet but beautifully stuck landing. It simply adds something to your true self for the better.
I know it's not how the poll will play out (in all fairness, it's a stacked list), but I'm putting all of my money behind Dog Day Afternoon. It's a perfect film that I have been thinking about constantly since the first time I watched it, and I don't know if Pacino has ever been better in my book.
An impossible poll question.
It's like asking me to pick my favourite child, which I cannot do, due to it's inherent unfairness to to any of the others should one be singled out.
Fine, have it your way. Nashville.
It's been a while since I've seen Cuckoo's Nest so I'm probably underrating it. Even still, this is by far the best group of nominees in Oscar history. Each one is arguably the best film by a legendary director. They're all great, but Barry Lyndon would be on my short list of greatest films of all time. It's certainly the most beautiful. Kubrick's masterpiece gets my vote.
Just a heads up for Denverspotters, Nashville is playing at the Mayan in September so if you, like me, badly need to rewatch it that'll be as good a time as any!
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest might be a perfect film if not for the boating sequence, which somehow made the movie seem too long to me by exactly the length of that sequence. (It felt like a nod to studio executives who were afraid the hospital setting was too grim for audiences.) Nashville won our alternate universe best film of the 1970s. Upon a rewatch, I still think it's the MOST 1970s film. Barry Lyndon is gorgeous. I can't help but wonder what it would have been with anyone other than Ryan O'Neal at its center. Jaws, of course, is the movie I've seen the most over the years in theaters. Both at the time and today it would get my vote for best movie if not best picture. Of the four movies listed, the one I'd be most likely to get off my butt and see in a movie theater would be Dog Day Afternoon. Back in the day, I saw it by myself after its run (when it was back in theaters as an Oscar contender) and talked my dad into driving 54 miles (from Tinley Park to Palatine) the next Friday so he, my neighbor, and my brother could see it. Suspense, humor, great ending. Thanks for the memories.
What a jaw-dropping slate of nominees.
Remarkably, three of these nominees were also in the top five at the box office that year. Imagine how much our culture would improve if studios made more movies like these and more people actually saw (and discussed) them.
With five perfect movies to choose from, I voted for the one that is most mystifyingly perfect: Nashville. I mean, how could something so rambling possibly be so perfect? It feels like a time capsule, but it could’ve been filmed last year without changing a thing.
That’s a Murderers Row of movies. But for ambitious reach, and ambition achieved, Nashville is the standout. With hindsight of a half century, also an incredibly prescient movie, even more relevant to today’s America than that decade’s. (And I lived through that one too!)
I am aware I’m probably the only person in the world who hates Nashville. It’s either Cuckoos Nest or Jaws for me.
Tough choice!! But Cuckoo's Nest has stayed with me the longest and just for Milos Forman's audacity and the fact that the movie is still being unpacked and discussed seriously
The gut says Kubrick and Lyndon and all that glorious natural light in darkened interiors. The gut is hardly ever wrong.
This is a splitting-hairs exercise and kinda frustrating. All four of these films are truly great, but my vote is for Cuckoo's Nest because I believe it's literally flawless, and I can't quite say the same about any of the others.
Ooooo... tight race so far. I'd take Dog Day Afternoon over Jaws.
From Chicago
I recall vividly watching this in a movie theater with an approved when it first came out. We all knew
this was something new and different and not your typical Hollywood product. It’s shagginess was its glory.
“You may say that I’m ain’t free
But it don’t worry me”
The Anthem for the majority that just accept the horrible reality is more relevant than ever. Nashville shows the weakness of democracy in a funny but also painful way. But, equally important, it does love almost every character in it - loves human behaviour, no matter how strange. I need to be reminded of that love and beauty in mankind. And the world needs a mirror of the cruelty around us.
In a lineup of masterpieces, Nashville is the strangest, somehow the simplest and the most complex. It must be doing something right to last 50 years.
Barry Lyndon! Even if Jaws was included. Maybe even Nashville over Jaws. Maybe I should rewatch Jaws.