Best Picture: #31Original Release Date: June 25, 1958Rating: GRuntine: 1 hour, 55 minutesDirector: Vincente Minnelli Quick Impressions:I can’t help thinking that the idea of restoring one’s joy in life by cavorting around with young women in the first bloom of youth is somewhat distastefully vampiric. (Then again, I hang around …
Best Picture: #30Original Release Date: December 14, 1957Rating: PGRuntime: 2 hours, 41 minutesDirector: David Lean Quick Impressions:Doing this Best Picture project with my daughter has caused me to think of 1950s film in a new way. I’ve always associated movies from this era with the childhood of my mother (who …
Best Picture: #29Original Release Date: October 17, 1956Rating: GRuntime: 2 hours, 47 minutesDirector: Michael Anderson Quick Impressions:“Is this a children’s movie?” my daughter would ask in concern every few minutes. “I don’t think they would have conceived of it that way at the time,” I kept answering. “It has an …
Best Picture: #28Original Release Date: April 11, 1955Rating: Not RatedRuntime: 1 hour, 30 minutesDirector: Delbert Mann Quick Impressions:Marty is that rare thing–a Best Picture winner that my mother actually likes. (There are others, of course. She’s a Casablanca fan, too, but in general, my mom and the Academy have vastly …
Best Picture: #27Original Release Date: July 28, 1954Rating: ApprovedRuntime: 1 hour, 48 minutesDirector: Elia Kazan Quick Impressions:On the Waterfront is a great film. As far as entertainment goes, it is every bit as suspenseful and captivating as more recent movies about crime syndicates and whistle blowers (movies that have the …
Best Picture: #26Original Release Date: August 28, 1953Rating: PassedRuntime: 1 hour, 58 minutesDirector: Fred Zinnemann Quick Impressions:So many movies and television shows have parodied From Here to Eternity. I’m pretty sure that everyone knows that iconic image of waves crashing over two prone lovers locked in a sandy embrace. Even …
Best Picture:#25Original Release Date: January 10, 1952Rating: PassedRuntime: 2 hours, 32 minutes Quick Impressions:Since childhood, I have seen The Greatest Show on Earth denounced as the worst ever Best Picture winner again and again. But I’m always wary of such claims because it’s also enduringly popular to bash Oliver!, the …
Best Picture: #24Original Release Date: November 11, 1951Rating: PassedRuntime: 1 hour, 54 minutesDirector: Vincente Minnelli Quick Impressions:I’d never seen An American in Paris before. My mother’s not a huge fan, and now that we’ve seen it, my daughter isn’t either. For her, Gene Kelly’s character’s particular style of being a …
Best Picture: #23Original Release Date: October 27, 1950Rating: PassedRuntime: 2 hours, 18 minutesDirector: Joseph L. Mankiewicz Quick Impressions:All About Eve has such a great script that my daughter and I hardly talked while we watched the movie, quite unusual for us. I’ve seen the film several times, but I’m only a …
Best Picture: #22Original Release Date: November 8, 1949Rating: ApprovedRuntime: 1 hour, 50 minutesDirector: Robert Rossen Quick Impressions:All the King’s Men is a timely and emotionally exhausting movie about the journey of a narcissistic and dangerous would-be dictator who becomes increasingly morally flawed on his meteoric rise to power until he …
