10 Awesome Blockbusters That Deserved More Oscar Love

Earlier this year, the inherent king of the box office, James Cameron, had a lot to say about the Academy and their alleged “bias” towards big blockbusters, not “rewarding the films that people really want to see.” He connects the annual award show’s declining ratings to the idea that the members of the Academy use it to propagate movies audiences aren’t that interested in – the last Best Picture winner to gross over $100 million was Argo in 2013. In hindsight, Cameron, the Titanic director who seems to be an exception to his own rule, may have a point. I remember talking to my uncle after Birdman’s big win at the Oscars in 2014. Having seen the movie two times prior to the broadcast, I thought for the most part that people were on the same boat with their predictions. And that's why I was shocked when he told me that no one saw it. We had the same conversation the next year with Spotlight, and again this year with Moonlight. Whether or not this pattern is a meticulous plot by the Academy to corral audiences into seeing smaller films, a quick glance at a list of the show’s past champions and competitors will make you ask one of two questions: “how did (blank) not win?” or “what is (blank)?” And so, on that note, here are 10 movie blockbusters that didn't win the Oscars' grand prize, but probably deserved to. Raiders Of The Lost Ark I know, I know, Raiders of the Lost Ark was nominated for Best Picture in 1981 – so I guess the Oscars didn’t miss it, per se. However, when they gave the award to Chariots of Fire, they certainly snubbed what's perhaps the greatest adventure movie ever made. A film which I admittingly have never had much interest in watching, Chariots of Fire didn’t even make $60 million at the box office, whereas Indiana Jones’ debut nearly reached an astonishing $400 million! And with Steven Spielberg at the helm, and Harrison Ford’s spilled-over celebrity from Star Wars, this shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. Also, Raiders is just a wonderfully made film, in every regard. Having never seen anything else aside from the iconic beach sequence, I cannot deny Chariots of Fire’s reputation as a great movie, but I can nearly guarantee there aren’t any scenes in that picture as ingrained in our culture as when Indy's getting chased by that boulder, or when Ford topples over and groans, “why did it have to be snakes?” The Empire Strikes Back To say the least, the Academy is fickle. Way back in 1978, they acknowledged Star Wars (NOT A New Hope, but Star Wars) as the cinematic phenomenon that it was by awarding it a whooping ten nominations – it lost Best Picture to Woody Allen’s masterful Annie Hall, a decision I'm 100% behind. However, when the now-experienced production team released The Empire Strikes Back three years later, the Academy failed to duplicate their affection – giving the sequel only three nominations (Sound, Set Direction, Original Score) and one win (Sound). Really? Grossing well over $500 million and hosting the epic battle on Hoth, the introduction of Yoda, and the realization that Luke Skywalker has some major daddy issues (NOOOO!!!!), Empire is widely regarded as the highlight of the franchise, exhibiting a stronger plot, enhanced character development and a better sense of direction. Come on, where’s the Best Picture nomination? Regardless, there's no doubt that Martin Scorsese’s black-and-white boxing tale, Raging Bull should have been the big winner that night, even if Episode V had been nominated. Listen, I like Donald Sutherland, but seriously, Ordinary People cannot beat Jake LaMotta AND Darth Vader. Back To The Future Back to the Future is the one of the best of its kind. I feel safe saying that most people agree on that point. However, when it came out back in 1985, no one – including director Robert Zemeckis – expected it to turn out as well as it did. I have conversations with people all the time about how hard it is to tell if a new film will become a classic (the debate sprung up in discussion of Dunkirk, neither me nor my friend thought that it will be one of the great war movies). I suppose the Academy had the same issue with Back to the Future, recognizing it primarily as a teen comedy, as opposed to a science fiction chef-d'oeuvre. The film earned four nominations, with only one in the “Big Five” categories (Writing, which it did not win). Like Raiders of the Lost Ark, there aren't many movies as iconic in American culture as this, with few lines as memorable as “I’m your density” or “are you telling me that you built a time machine…out of a DeLorean?” Who Framed Roger Rabbit In 1998, the Academy actually gave the Best Picture award to the biggest blockbuster of the year: Rain Man. Too bad Who Framed Roger Rabbit, the year’s box office runner-up by nearly $6 million ($349,200,000) – and perhaps the superior achievement – didn’t even get nominated. The film, which followed a hard-nosed detective (Bob Hoskins) living in a cartoon world, found deserving success at the Oscars, mechanically speaking – it took home three awards: one for Film Editing, another for Sound Effects, and the last one most deservingly for Visual Effects. I mean, we see Donald Duck partake in a musical duel with Daffy Duck, we see real men shoot guns with animated bullets, and we meet a strangely beautiful “toon” who isn’t bad but's just drawn that way. Technically speaking, Roger Rabbit is a marvel. Not only do we see classic Bugs Bunny and Disney characters unite, but this was the FIRST time animators combined the cartoon world with the real world, and got it right. As deserving as those three Oscars were though, there's no doubt that Roger Rabbit deserved a lot more. Dead Poets Society Not a traditional blockbuster in the action sense, Dead Poets Society is a beautiful film centered around a group of school boys who find meaning and camaraderie in their shared passion for poetry. Led by Williams’ second most powerful performance of his career, this film ended its run at the box office with $236 million. The big award, however, went to Driving Miss Daisy starring Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy. This win seems to have political ties; the Academy seemed to want to say something about race. But, if that’s what they wanted to do, Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, and the Civil War epic Glory also came out that year. Driving Miss Daisy has not held up well, either; it always appears in lists of worst Best Picture Winners. Especially since Williams’ untimely death in 2014, Dead Poets Society has gathered a strong following, all of them agreeing that this film deserved more than it got. The LEGO Movie The LEGO Movie was certainly a surprise when it came out in 2014. Kids went in expecting a spectacular array of flashing lights and adventure, whereas parents went it expecting not much more than a bombardment of product placement. To everyone’s pleasure, The LEGO Movie was one of the year’s funniest films. A tale featuring a maniacal Will Ferrell and LEGO Batman (whose own flick came out earlier this year, and is AWESOME), The LEGO Movie made over $450 million at the box office. I won't say that it was the best movie of 2014 – that award rightly went to Birdman – but what shocked just about everybody when the nominations were released was the film’s absence in the ANIMATED category. Seriously, how did that happen? If it wasn't in the Best Picture category, fine, it probably shouldn’t have been there anyways. But how could it possibly not be up there for Best Animated Film? It was a beautiful movie to look at, filled with animatronic plastic toys and youthful jokes. The LEGO Movie’s complete absence from the show perfectly demonstrates the Academy’s inconsistency in awarding the films people want to see. The Dark Knight If there's anything that gets a harder time from the Academy than blockbusters, it's superhero movies. Fortunately, the recent escalation in their popularity and their production has forced the members to take another look. Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight has, in the years since its release, become a cinematic classic – I mentioned earlier how difficult it was to point out a classic: The Dark Knight was easy. With a story following the Caped Crusader and his arch nemesis, the Joker (Heath Ledger), the film made over an astounding $1 billion! Ledger posthumously won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his instantly iconic portrayal as the Clown Prince of Crime, and The Dark Knight has landed the #4 spot on IMDb’s Top 250. The fans certainly did their part in showing the film the love it deserved, then. However, when Oscar season came, The Dark Knight didn’t land a Best Picture nomination. A very dark portrayal of metropolitan life and terrorism, it's very possible that this movie was “too disturbing” for the members of the Academy. I’m playing the devil’s advocate here by trying to give reason for this absurd absence, but obviously, this was a flick that they just missed. Superman 1978’s Superman was the first major superhero movie to be nominated for an Oscar – winning only one: a special achievement award for visual effects (with no competition). This epic, which starred Christopher Reeves as the iconic Kryptonian, seemed to have marked the beginning of a trend, one where superhero movies could only be recognized for their visual dazzle. Of the eighteen Oscar-nominated superhero movies, fourteen of them were up for visual effects. Though it's a little corny and has had some difficulty aging, Superman was a critical and box office success, earning almost $300 million worldwide. Despite its popularity though, it didn't receive any of the “Big Five” nominations – not that Reeves deserved one. This is a prime example of not only the bad rap superhero films get at award shows, but also how the Academy ignores the movies that people like. Saving Private Ryan Saving Private Ryan lost Best Picture in 1999 to Shakespeare in Love…yeah, I’m just going to leave that up there for a while. Unlike many of the other movies featured on this list, Saving Private Ryan had a great showing at the Academy’s big night, taking home five Oscars, including one for director Steven Spielberg and getting nominated for another six. In fact, it's nearly impossible to say that the film was “overlooked,” but its subsequent loss that evening was and still is considered to be one of the biggest foul-ups in the history of the awards. It’s a question no one, even 18 years later, can answer, especially since the war epic has reached its inevitable iconic status. Saving Private Ryan made over $100 million more than its conqueror. Given, you could argue that Shakespeare was a blockbuster itself, but obviously not to the same extreme the Spielberg film was. In my eyes, the victory boiled down to members choosing to watch heels and gowns over blood and guts, but as is the case with these other nine pictures, the audience chose the better movie. Pulp Fiction As a writer, Quentin Tarantino has had some success at the Academy Awards. He's won twice for his work in Django Unchained, and in this film, Pulp Fiction. However, one of his efforts has yet to win Best Picture, and since he claims to only have two more rounds left in the chamber, time's running out. The award in 1995 went to Robert Zemeckis’ jolly Forrest Gump, an important film in every sense. But was it better than Tarantino’s masterpiece? Many don’t think so (me being one of them). The debate rages on, and there's no doubt that Forrest Gump was a big money maker that year (earning over $300 million at the US box office), but compared to the majestic and pioneering filmmaking on display in Pulp Fiction, Gump just looks like a brown-nose win. Maybe the Academy doesn’t like Tarantino? Who knows, but we certainly want to ask them one question: “does Quentin Tarantino look like a bitch?” Because, despite years of reforming the cinematic landscape and inserting himself into popular culture, he can’t get any kind of recognition from the Oscars.