Courtesy of Emily Zavada

Courtesy of Emily Zavada

In this third part of my retrospective Oscar Outlook, I’ll be eliminating some of the Oscars’ most forgettable champions.

86. “How Green Was My Valley” (1941)

Oh, dear. The Academy picked “How Green Was My Valley” over “Citizen Kane” as their Best Picture of 1941. Let’s remember: This list is one that’s meant to judge a movie based on what it is, not what it isn’t. But the Oscars’ clear mistake is worth mentioning, particularly because “How Green Was My Valley” is about as safe as it gets. It gets points from me for the great Donald Crisp performance and the coal mining backdrop, but otherwise there’s not much to say. It’s just fine.

85. “Cavalcade” (1932/33)

This is a movie that’s under two hours, but it feels like a lot more. “Cavalcade” tries to follow the “Forrest Gump” formula of plopping a bunch of blank slate characters into historical events. Some work, such as the sinking of the Titanic and World War II. Some don’t, such as the relatively obscure Second Boer War. Like “Gump,” it relies on the audience’s nostalgia for certain moments, but that simply doesn’t exist for most, if not all, of the film’s events. Forgotten is unfortunately the fate for films that are so of their time. It’s not a complete failure, but it’s no triumph.

84. “A Man for All Seasons” (1966)

Before the New Hollywood era put the Golden Age to sleep, a final old school Best Picture was crowned in the form of “A Man for All Seasons.” Dry might be putting it lightly. Similar stories of British monarchy and their extremely unrelatable issues rarely are a hit with me, and this is not the exception to that rule. The focus is actually on Sir Thomas More — not a king — but who’s counting? It’s just visually dark enough to be cool on a single viewing, but I have no interest in revisiting “A Man for All Seasons” in the near future.

83. “Gentleman’s Agreement” (1947)

There is one thing on the mind of “Gentleman’s Agreement,” and it goes no further than that one thing. Every scene, it seems, ties back to the wrongs of anti-semitism, which is, of course, a stain on society. “Gentleman’s Agreement” is so insistent on bashing you over the head with this one message over and over that it quickly becomes stale. Out of nowhere, in the last minutes, there’s a truly interesting conversation about complacency, but it happens so late that the impact is lessened. Before you get to the only interesting moment, you need to make it through two hours of the most heavy-handed morality you can imagine.

82. “Cimarron” (1930/31)

“Cimarron” is, frankly, another very boring film to have won Best Picture, but there are a few good ideas in here. I like the main character as a sort of proto-Atticus Finch, and he’s a newspaperman to boot. The fact that he’s also an attorney and a sheriff stand-in is kind of odd. Where did he pick up all of these skills? He definitely instructs the narrative, another bit of irony considering he vanishes from the film at multiple points. Because it’s a western, it feels like a bunch of cowboy television episodes stitched together. It has a serialized feel. If presented in that way rather than a film, “Cimarron” might be more acclaimed.

81. “Around the World in 80 Days” (1956)

Shirley MacLaine plays an Indian princess in “Around the World in 80 Days,” and that about says it all. For a movie that has its entire premise resting on a trip around the world, it couldn’t care less about actually taking in any kind of culture. I understand the film is framed as a race, so there’s not a ton of time to take very much in, but what does David Niven’s character learn after a whirlwind tour of the world? He’s the same British dandy he was at the beginning. Jules Verne’s concept is great. The execution in this very ‘50s movie is not.

Sam Zavada is counting down his ranking of every Best Picture winner in the history of the Academy Awards in the lead up to this year’s ceremony on March 2. Participate in the Times Leader Readers’ Ballot for the 97th Oscars by filling out the form at https://bit.ly/4hd8n6F. The Readers’ Ballot will close on Friday, Feb. 27, at 8 p.m. and will be revealed in the Saturday, March 1, edition of the Times Leader.

Sam Zavada is counting down his ranking of every Best Picture winner in the history of the Academy Awards in the lead up to this year’s ceremony on March 2.