10 Huge Oscar-Winning Movies That Nobody Really Likes

8. Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

FILE - In this March 26, 1990 file photo, producers Richard D. Zanuck, and Lili Fini Zanuck accept Oscars for best picture of the year for
REED SAXON/AP

Oscar Wins: Best Picture, Best Actress In A Leading Role, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Makeup (4)

When is there ever a good time to put on Driving Miss Daisy? When is anybody ever in the right mood to sit through this 1989 Academy Award winner, starring Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman as a grouchy old Jewish woman and her African American driver?

The answer to that question, perhaps, is "never." Driving Miss Daisy might have taken home the grand prize back in 1990, but nowadays it's rarely brought up in conversation unless people are talking about films that didn't deserve to win Best Picture. There was probably a brief period where audiences felt that they needed to like Driving Miss Daisy, due to a) the subject matter and b) because it's based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning play.

There's a reason the world has turned its back on this one in recent times, though, unshackled from the constraints of having to pretend to like it: in retrospect, it's a heavy-handed picture, free of any subtly and nuance - a lesson in race disguised as a film.

Contributor

Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.