Dave Tompkins :: DVD Library :: Academy Awards (Oscars) :: Best Picture


(text-only version)

2013  12 Years a Slave (2013)

In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.

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2012  Argo (2012)

A dramatization of the 1980 joint CIA-Canadian secret operation to extract six fugitive American diplomatic personnel out of revolutionary Iran.

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2011  The Artist (2011)

A silent movie star meets a young dancer, but the arrival of talking pictures sends their careers in opposite directions.

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2010  The King's Speech (2010)

The story of King George VI of Britain, his impromptu ascension to the throne and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch become worthy of it.

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2009  The Hurt Locker (2009)

Iraq. Forced to play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in the chaos of war, an elite Army bomb squad unit must come together in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb.

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2008  Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

A Mumbai teen who grew up in the slums, becomes a contestant on the Indian version of ''Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?'' He is arrested under suspicion of cheating, and while being interrogated, events from his life history are shown which explain why he knows the answers.

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2007  No Country for Old Men (2007)

Violence and mayhem ensue after a hunter stumbles upon some dead bodies, a stash of heroin and more than $2 million in cash near the Rio Grande.

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2006  The Departed (2006)

Two men from opposite sides of the law are undercover within the Massachusetts State Police and the Irish mafia, but violence and bloodshed boil when discoveries are made, and the moles are dispatched to find out their enemy's identities.

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2005  Crash (2004)

Several stories interweave during two days in Los Angeles involving a collection of inter-related characters...

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2004  Million Dollar Baby (2004)

A hardened trainer/manager works with a determined woman in her attempt to establish herself as a boxer.

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2003  The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

The former Fellowship of the Ring prepare for the final battle for Middle Earth, while Frodo & Sam approach Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring.

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2002  Chicago (2002)

Murderesses Velma Kelly (a chanteuse and tease who killed her husband and sister after finding them in bed together) and Roxie Hart (who killed her boyfriend when she discovered he wasn't going to make her a star) find themselves on death row together and fight for the fame that will keep them from the gallows in 1920s Chicago.

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2001  A Beautiful Mind (2001)

After a brilliant but asocial mathematician accepts secret work in cryptography, his life takes a turn to the nightmarish.

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2000  Gladiator (2000)

When a Roman general is betrayed and his family murdered by a corrupt prince, he comes to Rome as a gladiator to seek revenge.

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1999  American Beauty (1999)

Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation for his daughter's attractive friend.

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1998  Shakespeare in Love (1998)

A young Shakespeare, out of ideas and short of cash, meets his ideal woman and is inspired to write one of his most famous plays.

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1997  Titanic (1997)

Fictional romantic tale of a rich girl and poor boy who meet on the ill-fated voyage of the 'unsinkable' ship.

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1996  The English Patient (1996)

At the close of WWII, a young nurse tends to a badly-burned plane crash victim. His past is shown in flashbacks, revealing an involvement in a fateful love affair.

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1995  Braveheart (1995)

William Wallace, a commoner, unites the 13th Century Scots in their battle to overthrow English rule.

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1994  Forrest Gump (1994)

Forrest Gump, while not intelligent, has accidentally been present at many historic moments, but his true love, Jenny, eludes him.

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1993  Schindler's List (1993)

Oskar Schindler uses Jews to start a factory in Poland during the war. He witnesses the horrors endured by the Jews, and starts to save them.

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1992  Unforgiven (1992)

Retired Old West gunslinger William Munny reluctantly takes on one last job, with the help of his old partner and a young man.

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1991  The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

A young FBI cadet must confide in an incarcerated and manipulative killer to receive his help on catching another serial killer who skins his victims.

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1990  Dances With Wolves (1990)

Lt. John Dunbar, exiled to a remote western Civil War outpost, befriends wolves and Indians, making him an intolerable aberration in the military.

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1989  Driving Miss Daisy (1989)

An old Jewish woman and her African-American chauffeur in the American South have a relationship that grows and improves over the years.

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1988  Rain Man (1988)

Selfish yuppie Charlie Babbitt's father left a fortune to his savant brother Raymond and a pittance to Charlie; they travel cross-country.

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1987  The Last Emperor (1987)

The story of the final Emperor of China.

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1986  Platoon (1986)

A young recruit in Vietnam faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man.

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1985  Out of Africa (1985)

In 20th century colonial Kenya, a Danish baroness/plantation owner has a passionate but ultimately doomed love affair with a free-sprited big-game hunter.

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1984  Amadeus (1984)

The incredible story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, told in flashback mode by Antonio Salieri - now confined to an insane asylum.

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1983  Terms of Endearment (1983)

Aurora and Emma are mother and daughter who march to different drummers. Beginning with Emma's marriage...

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1982  Gandhi (1982)

Biography of Mahatma Gandhi , the lawyer who became the famed leader of the Indian revolts against the British through his philosophy of non-violent protest.

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1981  Chariots of Fire (1981)

The story of two British track athletes, one a determined Jew, and the other a devout Christian who compete in the 1924 Olympics.

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1980  Ordinary People (1980)

The accidental death of the older son of an affluent family deeply strains the relationships among the bitter mother, the good-natured father, and the guilt-ridden younger son.

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1979  Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)

A just divorced man must learn to care for his son on his own, and then must fight in court to keep custody of him.

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1978  The Deer Hunter (1978)

An in-depth examination of the way that the Vietnam war affects the lives of people in a small industrial town in the USA.

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1977  Annie Hall (1977)

Neurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer falls in love with the ditsy Annie Hall.

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1976  Rocky (1976)

A small time boxer gets a once in a lifetime chance to fight the heavyweight champ in a bout in which he strives to go the distance for his self-respect.

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1975  One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Upon arrival at a mental institution, a brash rebel rallies the patients together to take on the oppressive Nurse Ratched, a woman more a dictator than a nurse.

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1974  The Godfather: Part II (1974)

The early life & career of Vito Corleone in 1920's New York is portrayed while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on his crime syndicate stretching from Lake Tahoe, Nevada to pre-Revolution 1958 Cuba.

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1973  The Sting (1973)

In 1930s Chicago, a young con man seeking revenge for his murdered partner teams up with a master of the big con to win a fortune from a criminal banker.

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1972  The Godfather (1972)

The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son.

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1971  The French Connection (1971)

A pair of NYC cops in the Narcotics Bureau stumble onto a drug smuggling job with a French connection.

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1970  Patton (1970)

The World War II phase of the controversial American general's career is depicted.

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1969  Midnight Cowboy (1969)

A naive male prostitute and his sickly friend struggle to survive on the streets of New York City.

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1968  Oliver! (1968)

Musical adaptation about an orphan who runs away from an orphanage and hooks up with a group of boys trained to be pickpockets by an elderly mentor.

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1967  In the Heat of the Night (1967)

An African American detective is asked to investigate a murder in a racist southern town.

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1966  A Man for All Seasons (1966)

The story of Thomas More, who stood up to King Henry VIII when the King rejected the Roman Catholic Church to obtain a divorce and remarriage.

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1965  The Sound of Music (1965)

A woman leaves an Austrian convent to become a governess to a Naval officer widower.

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1964  My Fair Lady (1964)

A misogynistic and snobbish phonetics professor agrees to a wager that he can take a flower girl and make her presentable in high society.

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1963  Tom Jones (1963)

Tom Jones, the adopted son of a British country squire, is a love-'em-and-leave-'em lady charmer who goes blithely from bed to bed, while managing to get into enough other mischief to come within moments of being hanged.

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1962  Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

Epic rumination on a flamboyant and controversial British military figure and his conflicted loyalties during wartime service.

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1961  West Side Story (1961)

Musical about two youngsters from rival NYC gangs who fall in love.

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1960  The Apartment (1960)

A man tries to rise in his company by letting its executives use his apartment for trysts, but complications and a romance of his own ensue.

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1959  Ben-Hur (1959)

When a Jewish prince is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend, he regains his freedom and comes back for revenge.

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1958  Gigi (1958)

Weary of the conventions of Parisian society, a rich playboy and a youthful courtesan-in-training enjoy a platonic friendship, but it may not stay platonic for long.

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1957  The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

After settling his differences with a Japanese PoW camp commander, a British colonel co-operates to oversee his men's construction of a railway bridge for their captors - while oblivious to a plan by the Allies to destroy it.

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1956  Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)

Adaptation of Jules Verne's novel about a Victorian Englishman who bets that with the new steamships and railways he can do what the title says.

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1955  Marty (1955)

A touching story about two lonely people who have almost resigned themselves to never being truly loved.

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1954  On the Waterfront (1954)

An ex-prize fighter turned longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses.

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1953  From Here to Eternity (1953)

In 1941 Hawaii, a private is cruelly punished for not boxing on his unit's team, while his captain's wife and second in command are falling in love.

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1952  The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

The dramatic lives of trapeze artists, a clown, and an elephant trainer against a background of circus spectacle.

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1951  An American in Paris (1951)

Jerry Mulligan, a struggling American painter in Paris, is ''discovered'' by an influential heiress with an interest in more than Jerry's art...

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1950  All About Eve (1950)

An ingenue insinuates herself in to the company of an established but aging stage actress and her circle of theater friends.

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1949  All the King's Men (1949)

The rise and fall of a corrupt politician, who makes his friends richer and retains power by dint of a populist appeal.

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1948  Hamlet (1948)

William Shakespeare's tale of tragedy of murder and revenge in the royal halls of medieval Denmark. Claudius...

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1947  Gentleman's Agreement (1947)

A reporter pretends to be Jewish in order to cover a story on anti-Semitism, and personally discovers the true depths of bigotry and hatred.

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1946  The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Three WWII veterans return home to small-town America to discover that they and their families have been irreparably changed.

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1945  The Lost Weekend (1945)

The desperate life of a chronic alcoholic is followed through a four day drinking bout.

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1944  Going My Way (1944)

A new priest shows up at the parish of a crusty old priest named Father Fitzgibbon. The new man, Father O'Malley...

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1943  Casablanca (1942)

Set in unoccupied Africa during the early days of World War II: An American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.

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1942  Mrs. Miniver (1942)

The Minivers, an English ''middle-class'' family experience life in the first months of World War II. While dodging bombs...

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1941  How Green Was My Valley (1941)

At the turn of the century in a Welsh mining village, the Morgans (he stern, she gentle) raise coal-mining...

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1940  Rebecca (1940)

When a naive young woman marries a rich widower and settles in his gigantic mansion, she finds the memory of the first wife maintaining a grip on her husband and the servants.

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1939  Gone with the Wind (1939)

American classic in which a manipulative woman and a roguish man carry on a turbulent love affair in the American south during the Civil War and Reconstruction.

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1938  You Can't Take It with You (1938)

A good-natured but decidedly eccentric family meets a new friend.

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1937  The Life of Emile Zola (1937)

The biopic of the famous French muckraking writer and his involvement in fighting the injustice of the Dreyfuss Affair.

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1936  The Great Ziegfeld (1936)

This biography follows the ups and downs of Florenz Ziegfeld, famed producer of extravagant stage revues.

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1935  Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

Fletcher Christian successfully leads a revolt against the ruthless Captain Bligh on the HMS Bounty. However, Bligh returns one year later, hell bent on avenging his captors.

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1934  It Happened One Night (1934)

A spoiled heiress, running away from her family, is helped by a man who's actually a reporter looking for a story. But then he falls for her...

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1933Cavalcade (1933)
1932  Grand Hotel (1932)

Berlin's plushest, most expensive hotel is the setting where in the words of Dr. Otternschlag ''People come...

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1931  Cimarron (1931)

A newspaper editor settles in an Oklahoma boom town with his reluctant wife at the end of the nineteenth century.

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1930  All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

A young soldier faces profound disillusionment in the soul-destroying horror of World War I.

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1929  The Broadway Melody (1929)

Harriet and Queenie Mahoney, a vaudeville act, come to Broadway, where their friend Eddie Kerns needs...

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1928Wings (1928)

Count: 84 / 86