6. Out Of Africa (1985)
Whether because of my gender or my expectations of cinema, I've never been a sucker for romantic epics. There's two of them on this list, and both of them won the Best Picture Oscar in their respective years. But while
Out of Africa is the shorter of the two, it is also the least deserving of this award. In fact, I'd go so far as to say it's one of the least deserving Best Picture winners ever. Sydney Pollack, like Richard Attenborough, was a director who also acted, and brought a great respect for actors to his directorial work. Sometimes, as with
Tootsie, the results were really good, but sometimes this respect turned into an unwillingness to "cut his luvvies", i.e. to get rid of scenes that weren't necessary to telling a given story. Even by epic standards,
Out of Africa is a story in which almost nothing happens, and Pollack's attempts to make something out of the central relationship generally fall flat. Most of the sub-plots in the film are so under-developed that they simply shouldn't be there. When Meryl Streep's character contracts syphilis, it may seem like a big deal - but then she goes home to Denmark and comes back cured within 20 minutes of screen time, as though nothing had happened. The same goes for the border war, and for all the pretty shots of the landscape: they're pretty in passing, but they don't disguise the lack of chemistry or development between the leads.