So, I have now watched all 95 winners of the Best Picture Oscar. My preferences are clear, but I thought I might do a bit of comparison between them all.
Sources
28 (29.5%) are original stories written for the film, with little bearing on any other source. The first of these was the very first winner, Wings, and the last the most recent, Everything Everywhere All at Once. The one I liked most was An American in Paris, and the one I liked least (indeed, least of all the Oscar-winning films) was Platoon.
14 (14.7%) are based on earlier dramatic treatments, whether for the stage (all but two), television (once, Marty) or a direct remake of an earlier film (also once, CODA). The first of these was Cavalcade and the most recent CODA. I liked Casablanca the most – it’s my top Oscar-winning film overall – and Cavalcade the least. (I’m counting The Sound of Music, A Man for All Seasons and Oliver! here, because although the first two are based on history and the third on a novel, the films are directly adaptations of the stage plays.)
38 (40.0%) are adapted from written fiction – mostly novels, short fiction in five cases, and two epic poems (the sources of The Best Years of Our Lives and Braveheart). The first of these was All Quiet on the Western Front and the latest Slumdog Millionaire. I liked Schindler’s List most and Cimarron least.
Finally, 15 (15.8%) are filmic treatments of real events. The boundary is a little blurry here, but I am counting all dramatic treatments of non-fiction books which did not go through stage treatment, and also Spotlight and Green Book, which are dramatisations of real-life events The first was The Life of Emile Zola, and the most recent was Nomadland (which I am counting because although the film is clearly fictional, the book of the same name that it is based on is clearly not). Of these I liked The King’s Speech the most and Argo the least.
Time of setting
The punctuation points of history here are the two World Wars, and to a certain extent the Vietnam war and the turn of the millennium.
18 (18.9%) are clearly set entirely before the first world war. Two of those films are set during the US Civil War (Gone with the Wind and Dances with Wolves). To those 18 I would add My Fair Lady, because the King is clearly Edward VII, but not How Green Was My Valley – although the book is set in the late nineteenth century, the film feels more mid-twentieth.
Three (3.2%) are largely set during the First World War – Wings, All Quiet on the Western Front and Lawrence of Arabia – and several others straddle the war with more or less attention given to it: Cavalcade, Cimarron, The Last Emperor, Gandhi, The Great Ziegfeld..
13 (13.7%) are set between the wars, including How Green Was My Valley, for reasons given above, also Rebecca, which is based on a book published in 1938, and The Lost Weekend which is based on a novel set in 1936. This doesn’t count Cavalcade, Cimarron and The Great Ziegfeld, which all conclude in this period, or The Last Emperor and Gandhi, which continue. I guess I should also count half of The Godfather, Part II.
Roughly equal numbers are set before and after the Second World War. Seven (7.4%) are set in the Second World War directly. I would add Going My Way, which doesn’t mention the war but is clearly contemporary, and The Best Years of Our Lives, set in the immediate aftermath. Again, The Last Emperor and Gandhi continue through this period.
15 (15.8%) are largely set between the Second World War and the Vietnam War; also the chronologically later half of The Godfather, Part II. The Last Emperor and Gandhi also conclude during this period. Most of these are datable to a precise year.
Only three (3.2%) actually feature the Vietnam War, The Deer Hunter, Platoon and Forrest Gump, but of course it looms over the rest.
Another 12 (12.6%) are set in the last third of the twentieth century, and 13 (13.7%) are set in the twenty-first century. And The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is set in a different Age entirely.
36 (37.9%) are set in more or less the present day, at the time of making. Another eight (8.4%) are set in identifiably the last decade (plus Cimarron and Cavalcade which both have most of the action earlier but end almost in the present day). Eleven (11.6%) are set between a decade and a quarter-century in the past (counting How Green Was My Valley, and stretching a a bit for Patton in 1970). Ten (10.5%) are set between a quarter-century and a half century before they were made, fourteen (14.7%) between a half century and a century before. There’s a jump between the 85 years of Titanic (1912-1997) and the 112 years if Unforgiven (1880-1992). Then there’s a steady progression to Ben-Hur (33 AD-1959). I find that I rate the contemporary settings slightly higher on average than the historicals.
Place of setting
It will not astonish you to learn that a clear majority of the Oscar-winners, 54 (56.8%) are set entirely or largely in the United States. Of those, 19 (20% of all winners, 35% of American ones) are set in New York and New Jersey, plus the start and end of Green Book and the end of It Happened One Night.
Another four and a half are set elsewhere in the North-East (Spotlight, The Departed and CODA in Massachusetts, and Rocky and half of The Deer Hunter in Pennsylvania). Still in the neighbourhood, The Shape of Water and much of The Silence of the Lambs are set in Maryland.
Ten (10.5%) are set broadly in the West; five in California, one each in Oregon (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), Wyoming (Unforgiven), Colorado (Dances with Wolves), Oklahoma (Cimarron) and on the open road (Nomadland). You could add a large part of Rain Man as well.
Nine (9.5%) are set in the South, counting The Greatest Show on Earth whose location is not specified but was filmed in Florida. Georgia is the most popular Southern state (Gone with the Wind, Driving Miss Daisy, part of Moonlight), followed by Texas (Terms of Endearment, No Country for Old Men) with Louisiana (12 Years a Slave), Mississippi (In the Heat of the Night) and a fictional state (All the President’s Men) all represented.
Of the major regions, the Midwest is least prominent with four and a half – the start of Rain Man, also The Best Years of Our Lives, The Sting, Ordinary People and, indeed, Chicago. Forrest Gump roams all over Lower 48 (as well as Vietnam). And then there’s Hawaii, with From Here to Eternity.
25 out of 95 are set in Europe. Nine of those are set entirely in England, and another two partly there (Chariots of Fire and Patton). Five are set in France, plus the other parts of Chariots of Fire and more parts of Patton. Two are set in Austria, with one each for Denmark (Hamlet), Germany (Grand Hotel), Poland (Schindler’s List), Scotland (Braveheart) and Wales (How Green Was My Valley), with maybe one and a half for Italy (Gladiator and parts of Patton and The English Patient).
Counting the films set in Asia is a bit blurry. As mentioned already, The Deer Hunter, Platoon and Forrest Gump all feature the Vietnam war. Moving east to west, Parasite is in Korea, The Last Emperor in China, The Bridge on the River Kwai in Myanmar, Gandhi and Slumdog Millionaire in India; and if we can include the Middle East, there’s Argo in Iran, The Hurt Locker in Iraq, Lawrence of Arabia in, er, Arabia and Ben-Hur in Palestine. That’s twelve-ish.
Two and a bit are in Africa – Out of Africa, Casablanca and parts of The English Patient.
That leaves one in the Pacific Ocean (Mutiny on the Bounty), one in the Atlantic (Titanic), one Around the World in Eighty Days, and one in Middle Earth.
So, the representative Oscar-winning film is adapted from written fiction, set in the USA (probably New York), around the time of the Second World War, set not in the present day but a couple of years earlier. That actually fits The Lost Weekend rather well; I ranked it 42nd of the 95 winners, very close to the middle, and I think it probably is a fairly good taster for the project of watching all of the Oscar winners. Not that I am necessarily recommending that as a course of action.
Winners of the Oscar for Best Picture
1920s: Wings (1927-28) | The Broadway Melody (1928-29)
1930s: All Quiet on the Western Front (1929-30) | Cimarron (1930-31) | Grand Hotel (1931-32) | Cavalcade (1932-33) | It Happened One Night (1934) | Mutiny on the Bounty (1935, and books) | The Great Ziegfeld (1936) | The Life of Emile Zola (1937) | You Can’t Take It with You (1938) | Gone with the Wind (1939, and book)
1940s: Rebecca (1940) | How Green Was My Valley (1941) | Mrs. Miniver (1942) | Casablanca (1943) | Going My Way (1944) | The Lost Weekend (1945) | The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) | Gentleman’s Agreement (1947) | Hamlet (1948) | All the King’s Men (1949)
1950s: All About Eve (1950) | An American in Paris (1951) | The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) | From Here to Eternity (1953) | On The Waterfront (1954, and book) | Marty (1955) | Around the World in 80 Days (1956) | The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) | Gigi (1958) | Ben-Hur (1959)
1960s: The Apartment (1960) | West Side Story (1961) | Lawrence of Arabia (1962) | Tom Jones (1963) | My Fair Lady (1964) | The Sound of Music (1965) | A Man for All Seasons (1966) | In the Heat of the Night (1967) | Oliver! (1968) | Midnight Cowboy (1969)
1970s: Patton (1970) | The French Connection (1971) | The Godfather (1972) | The Sting (1973) | The Godfather, Part II (1974) | One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) | Rocky (1976) | Annie Hall (1977) | The Deer Hunter (1978) | Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
1980s: Ordinary People (1980) | Chariots of Fire (1981) | Gandhi (1982) | Terms of Endearment (1983) | Amadeus (1984) | Out of Africa (1985) | Platoon (1986) | The Last Emperor (1987) | Rain Man (1988) | Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
1990s: Dances With Wolves (1990) | The Silence of the Lambs (1991) | Unforgiven (1992) | Schindler’s List (1993) | Forrest Gump (1994) | Braveheart (1995) | The English Patient (1996) | Titanic (1997) | Shakespeare in Love (1998) | American Beauty (1999)
21st century: Gladiator (2000) | A Beautiful Mind (2001) | Chicago (2002) | The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) | Million Dollar Baby (2004, and book) | Crash (2005) | The Departed (2006) | No Country for Old Men (2007) | Slumdog Millionaire (2008) | The Hurt Locker (2009)
2010s: The King’s Speech (2010) | The Artist (2011) | Argo (2012) | 12 Years a Slave (2013) | Birdman (2014) | Spotlight (2015) | Moonlight (2016) | The Shape of Water (2017) | Green Book (2018) | Parasite (2019)
2020s: Nomadland (2020) | CODA (2021) | Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)