12 MEMORABLE BEST PICTURE WINNERS #8

ORDINARY PEOPLE (1980)

53rd Academy Awards

Nominated With:
Coal Miner’s Daughter
The Elephant Man
Raging Bull
Tess

Directed By:
Robert Redford

Starring:
Donald Sutherland, Mary Tyler Moore, Judd Hirsch, Timothy Hutton, M. Emmet Walsh, Elizabeth McGovern, Dinah Manoff, Fredric Lehne, James Sikking

Synopsis:
Everything is in its proper place in the Jarrett household -- except the past. Mary Tyler Moore won an Oscar nomination for her role as a repressed mother whose favorite son has died, leaving her with another (Timothy Hutton) she can barely tolerate. Robert Redford's first directorial effort netted four Academy Awards, including Best Director, Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for a young Hutton.

Why this is a great choice:

The Best Picture award for Ordinary People is one that many today view as one of the Academy’s big mistakes, notably for failing to honor Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece Raging Bull. While I agree that my own choice would have been for Raging Bull, yet that still does not deny what a great film Ordinary People is. Here is a film so emotionally powerful and masterfully written that it has held up just as strong over time. Many films have been similarly made, but none of them leave the same emotional impact in the minimal and un-forceful way that this film does. It would have been nice to see Scorsese walk him with the Best Director and this film take the Best Picture and Screenplay award, but either way Ordinary People is a worthy winner.

12 Memorable Best Picture Winners -- previous enteries:

- Annie Hall (1977)

- The Godfather (1972)

- The Apartment (1960)

- The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

- The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

- Casablanca (1942)

- How Green Was My Valley (1941)