Ranking What Was Really The Best Film Of Every Year 1990-2021

32. 1990 - Goodfellas

Actually won: Dances with Wolves.

Despite being a busy year for the movies, the Best Picture of 1990 should have been fairly cut and dry thanks to Martin Scorsese's mob masterpiece Goodfellas, but it just wasn't meant to be. Just like at the Golden Globes, the drama was beaten to the punch by Kevin Costner's dreary Western Dances with Wolves.

It may look pretty and harken back to the days of Old Hollywood, but Dances with Wolves is melodramatic and clumsy all the same, unlike the tightly plotted thrills offered up by what remains Scorsese's magnum opus.

Like many unjust victories, Dances with Wolves is a clear example of how obvious the Academy likes their top prizes, even though Goodfellas - and the unnominated Miller's Crossing - was the better film by a large margin.