Oscars: 10 Best Pictures That Actually Were The Best

7. Lawrence Of Arabia - 1963

When Peter O'Toole died last year, the one piece of work that all the obituaries and tributes focused on was this sweeping David Lean epic. O'Toole picked up his first Oscar nomination for Lawrence, although he lost out to Gregory Peck, with the film winning 7 other awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Lean. Lean's impressive biopic of the enigmatic T.E. Lawrence's First World War campaigns in the Middle East is widely regarded as the pinnacle of filmmaking on the grandest scale, described by Steven Spielberg as "a miracle" and scoring both 5th on the AFI's greatest films list and 3rd on the BFI's. Other nominees: Peck beat O'Toole to the Best Actor award for his role as honourable lawyer Atticus Finch in the adaptation of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and the film was probably the strongest contender with Lawrence for the big prize. Not at all made to the epic size of Lawrence, To Kill a Mockingbird was then, and remains today, one of the most loved American films, with the AFI naming Finch the greatest movie hero of the 20th century. D-Day drama The Longest Day did have an impressive scale and an incredible ensemble cast, but was made with perhaps less artistry than Lean's film and was in black and white at a point when all the Best Pictures started to be in colour. Other deserving contenders: Other quality black and white pictures to come out in 1962 included Cold War conspiracy The Manchurian Candidate, Stanley Kubrick's take on paedophilia comedy-drama Lolita, elegiac western The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and bitter psycho-drama Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? All remain highly regarded, but perhaps don't have the status of Lawrence.