Oscars: Every Best Picture Winner Ever Ranked From Worst To Best

59. Terms Of Endearment (1983)

Terms of Endearment
Paramount Pictures

While James L. Brooks' classic weepie shouldn't have triumphed over the effortlessly superior The Right Stuff, Terms of Endearment is ruthlessly efficient in reducing all kinds of audiences to floods of tears, largely thanks to the brilliant work by Shirley MacLaine and Debra Winger, not to mention a terrifically entertaining Jack Nicholson.

It's hard to imagine a film this shamelessly emotionally manipulative winning the Big One nowadays, but the movie's emotional core still holds true, helping it feel halfway timeless even while it paradoxically feels like a quintessentially 80s awards movie.

Let's be honest: if you didn't cry watching this one, you were probably busy on your phone or something.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.