6. Shakespeare In Love - 1998
I can sense the anger building. Another rough one here. Shakespeare in Love went home with EIGHT Academy Awards at the 71st ceremony. It beat out two absolute classic war films in Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan and Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line. Saving Private Ryan's opening salvo alone was enough for it to beat out Shakespeare in Love. I'm sorry, the Academy actually got this one right because watching Joseph Fiennes scowl his way through a love story relegating Shakespeare's genius to being in love is actually great moviemaking. (that's a bit of sarcasm in case you missed it) Gimme a break. Anyone who follows cinema closely will attest to the fact that not only was Saving Private Ryan a superior film, Terrence Malick crafted what many consider to be the greatest war film of all time with The Thin Red Line. It was more a meditation of man's desire for violence and of the idea of war itself than it was a tried and true "war" film. A film that never ceased to astonish, frame to frame, it was left in the dust by the soap opera-ish, trivial Shakespeare In Love.