10 Oscar Winning Films That Are Actually Bad
4. The English Patient
The English Patient will always be the archetype for critics of the Oscars to go back to and use in their favour. The film is a 162-minute slog that somehow won 9 of its 12 Oscar nominations. The WWII war-romance-drama beat out Jerry Maguire and Fargo to take home the top prize; an accolade it vehemently didn’t deserve.
It’s not that the film isn’t deserved of its Best Picture win, it’s that it’s a terrible movie. Ralph Fiennes and Willem Dafoe are the only source of recourse in a film that’s as slow as a film can be.
The film offers two theories as to what’s consistently wrong with the academy; they’re all cinema-goers who’re so off of with what the public enjoys they genuinely think this is quality cinema or they sincerely don’t watch all the nominated films and think that a movie such as this just sounds perfect for a win.
The English patient gets a branded bad for being a non-worthy Best Picture win, but I’d argue against that; it should get branded bad for being a bad film.