Hi folks! With the Oscars in our rear view mirror, there is going to obviously be a lot of varying opinions over last night’s winners, and who should have won in various categories. So, with that in mind, I thought there might be a fun thought experiment to look back at the past 50 Oscar ceremonies, and change one thing about each ceremony. Obviously, this is all just for fun as there is no changing the past, but hey, there is a long time between now and the next Oscar season, so might as well have some fun. So, let’s begin!
The 1970’s
43rd Oscars: James Earl Jones over George C Scott for Best Actor
Scott declined his win for Patton, so it seems like since he didn’t want it in the first place (Even though he’s a deserving winner) we might as well give it to the long celebrated, but never Oscar decorated, Jones in his only nomination.
44th Oscars: Stanley Kubrick for Best Director
Kubrick is considered one of the all time greats when it comes to directing, but he never won an Academy Award in that category. Give it to him here for A Clockwork Orange, and let The French Connection keep its Best Picture win.
45th Oscars: James Caan over Joel Grey for Best Supporting Actor
Nothing against Joel Grey, who is wonderful in Cabaret as the MC, but in Caan’s only nomination, it would have been nice to see a win here for his role in The Godfather (there are other Godfather performances worth recognizing, but we will get there).
46th Oscars: Barbara Streisand over Glenda Jackson for Best Actress
Not a lot of categories worth changing here as most are very deserving winners, but Streisand in The Way We Were is one of her defining performances, so I chose to reward her. Tough call over changing Best Song from The Way We Were to Live and Let Die, but deciding to stick with Babs.
47th Oscars: Al Pacino over Art Carney for Best Actor
Carney won what was essentially a lifetime achievement award here, but Pacino should have won his first Oscar for his masterful performance as Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part 2. One could also argue that Madeline Kahn should have won Supporting Actress for her role in Blazing Saddles and that Young Frankenstein should have won Adapted Screenplay, but they are not the egregious error that this one was.
48th Oscars: Robert Shaw is nominated and wins Best Supporting Actor
Here are the five nominees for Best Supporting Actor that year: Brad Dourif for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Burgess Meredith for The Day of the Locust, Chris Sarandon for Dog Day Afternoon, Jack Warden for Shampoo, and winner George Burns for The Sunshine Boys. Are any of those five performances as strong and memorable as Shaw as Captain Quint in Jaws? I would argue they are not.
49th Oscars: Sylvester Stallone over Peter Finch for Best Actor
Again, this is a year where there isn’t much worth changing. Finch in Network is deserving, but I would have liked Stallone to win an Oscar for his most iconic character. You could easily argue DeNiro in Taxi Driver should have won, but considering that he has multiple, I let that slide.
50th Oscars: Star Wars over Annie Hall for Best Picture
It has taken this long into the post to change a Best Picture outcome, but here it is. Star Wars should have won Best Picture over Annie Hall, and that’s all there is to it.
51st Oscars: Robert DeNiro over Jon Voight for Best Actor
Another year where there aren’t many worth changing, so I choose DeNiro in The Deer Hunter over Voight instead of Streep over Maggie Smith because no one should consider taking an Oscar away from Maggie Smith.
52nd Oscars: “The Rainbow Connection” for Best Original Song
The fact that this song didn’t win Best Original Song is nothing less than a shame and an outrage. We fix that here.
The 1980’s
53rd Oscars: “9 to 5” for Best Original Song
Two years in a row with a change to song, though this lost to ”Fame,” no where near as egregious as the previous one. I chose this instead of Scorsese over Robert Redford for Best Director because I didn’t want to take Radford’s Oscar away as much as I wanted to give one to Dolly Parton.
54th Oscars: Raiders of the Lost Ark over Chariots of Fire for Best Picture
My second best picture change, and it also involves an iconic Harrison Ford character walking away with the prize. Nothing against Chariots of Fire, but Spielberg’s adventure classic should have won.
55th Oscars: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial over Gandhi for Best Picture
This was also a tough year as there weren’t many worth changing, as many great movies came out this year. Ultimately I chose to creat a split where Gandhi retained Best Director but E.T. takes Best Picture so that Richard Attenborough could keep his Directing Oscar.
56th Oscars: John Lithgow over Jack Nicholson for Best Supporting Actor
Both actors were nominated for Terms of Endearment, but considering Nicholson has other Academy Awards and Lithgow has none, I chose to change which actor won for this film.
57th Oscars: Pat Morita over Haing S. Ngor for Best Supporting Actor
Morita was nominated for his role as Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid, and should have earned an Academy Award for it. He does here.
58th Oscars: Oprah Winfrey over Anjelica Huston for Best Supporting Actress
Looking back, it’s very hard to believe that The Color Purple went 0-11 in its nominations. As much as I love Anjelica Huston, I think that the easiest correction to that would be to give a win to Oprah.
59th Oscars: Stand By Me for Best Adapted Screenplay
This is one of those years with very few “corrections” so I thought it would be nice for Stand By Me to walk away with the only category it was nominated for.
60th Oscars: Glenn Close over Cher for Best Actress
Glenn Close is one of the most nominated people without an Oscar win in history, and her performance in Fatal Attraction deserved Oscar glory. So, tough break Cher, but Glenn is taking this one now.
61st Oscars: Sigourney Weaver over Jodie Foster for Best Actress
This was a tough one because I was tempted to elevate Die Hard from non-nominated to Best Picture (or Alan Rickman for supporting actor, but didn’t want to take Kevin Kline’s win away), but ultimately chose to reward Weaver in a double nominated year for her first Oscar win (and since Foster has multiple, I bumped her instead of Geena Davis for supporting).
62nd Oscars: Spike Lee is nominated and wins Best Director
So, I almost changed screenplay, but didn’t want to remove Dead Poet’s Society’s only win, so I decided to follow the film’s title, and do the right thing and give Spike a win for Director, which has long eluded him.
The 1990’s
63rd Oscars: Goodfellas wins Best Picture
I obviously wanted to reward this with both Picture and Director, but could only change one, and this seemed the better decision.
64th Oscars: Barbara Streisand is nominated for Best Director
This is a first here where I only change a nominee and not a win, because Silence of the Lambs pulled off the coveted 5 for 5 of Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay and I didn’t want to change that, but she deserved a nomination for The Prince of Tides. I would remove Barry Levinson for Bugsy to make room for Barbara.
65th Oscars: Denzel Washington over Al Pacino for Best Actor
Pacino won his long overdue Oscar for Scent of a Woman, but since I corrected the initial error and gave it to him for Godfather II, I chose to give it here to Denzel as Malcom X. I was tempted to give it to Robert Downey Jr for his role as Charlie Chaplin in Chaplin, since Denzel already has multiple, but Denzel was already denied in reality, I couldn’t do it here also.
66th Oscars: Angela Bassett over Holly Hunter for Best Actor
Bassett’ portrayal of Tina Turner was Oscar worthy, and while I hate to take one away from Holly Hunter, it would have been great to see Bassett win.
67th Oscars: The Shawshank Redemption wins Best Adapted Screenplay
This is a divisive year, as many believe Forrest Gump shouldn’t have won Best Picture over Pulp Fiction and Shawshank, but I think any of the three were worthy winners, so I didn’t want to change that. Nor did I want to remove Hanks win for Actor. And while I wanted to give Director to Tarantino, he did win Screenplay, so he didn’t go away empty handed. But what was worth correcting was the fact Shawshank didn’t win a single Oscar, so Screenplay was the biggest one where I felt ok making a change.
68th Oscars: Toy Story wins Best Original Screenplay
This is a tough one, because there are a lot of things I think that deserve changing here, including nominations for Tom Hanks and Ron Howard for Apollo 13, but it’s another Tom Hanks movie that went winless that I want to give an Oscar to. So, I’m giving screenplay to Toy Story (at the expense of another excellent screenplay in The Usual Suspects, a deserving winner) since there wasn’t yet a best animated picture category.
69th Oscars: Tom Cruise over Geoffrey Rush for Best Actor
I was very tempted to give Best Picture to Fargo over The English Patient, but I believe Tom Cruise should have won an Oscar at some point in his career, and it unfortunately comes at Rush’s expense.
70th Oscars: Joan Cusack over Kim Basinger for Best Supporting Actress
I think In and Out is a criminally underrated movie, and Cusack is hilarious in that movie, so as its lone acting nominee, I wanted to see a win for her.
71st Oscars: Saving Private Ryan over Shakespeare in Love for Best Picture
While I would also love to give Hanks another win for his role in Saving Private Ryan, it’s the Best Picture race where it really deserved a win that it didn’t get. Plus, get to take one away from Harvey Weinstein, so that’s a bonus.
72nd Oscars: “Blame Canada” for Best Original Song
Nothing against Phil Collins, but I want Trey Parker and Matt Stone to get the O for their EGOTs, so let’s give it to them for the hilarious “Blame Canada” from South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut.
The 2000’s
73rd Oscars: O Brother Where Art Thou for Best Adapted Screenplay
One of those years where there isn’t much to change, but I have a soft spot for this Coen Brothers film, so let’s throw it to them.
74th Oscars: The Fellowship of the Ring over A Beautiful Mind for Best Picture
75th Oscars: The Two Towers over Chicago for Best Picture
Ok, so I’m only doing one write-up here, but I think all three of the Lord of the Rings films deserved Best Picture, so even though I think A Beautiful Mind and Chicago are great, I’m giving the first two installments of this trilogy Best Picture wins also.
76th Oscars: Bill Murray over Sean Penn for Best Actor
I honestly wanted to give this to Johnny Depp for Pirates of the Caribbean because he is excellent in the first film, but decided to go Bill Murray for Lost in Translation since that’s his only career nomination and a world where Bill Murray is an Oscar winner is a better world.
77th Oscars: Two Cars, One Night for Best Live Action Short
Not many complaints with this Oscars, so give one to Taika Waititi and let’s move on.
78th Oscars: Brokeback Mountain over Crash for Best Picture
Crash winning is already considered one of the biggest mistakes in Oscar history, so we fix it here. Brokeback gets the honor it should have in the first place.
79th Oscars: Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep tie for Best Actress
So, this is a bit of a cop out, but there has been a tie in this category before, so I’m calling for one here, because Mirren deserved hers for The Queen but Meryl also deserved one for The Devil Wears Prada, so in my corrective world, they both win. (Honorable mention correction: Eddie Murphy for Supporting Actor in Dreamgirls. I’m sorry Eddie, Meryl edged you out, buddy).
80th Oscars: Ellen Page over Marion Cotillard for Best Actress
I think Marion Cotillard is a wonderful actress, but since comedy is rarely awarded, I’d enjoy a win here for Page in her breakout role of Juno.
81st Oscars: The Dark Knight is nominated and wins Best Picture
This movie getting snubbed sparked the Academy to alter its Best Picture nomination process, moving from five nominees to ten. In this alternate version, it gets in the group in the first place, and wins Best Picture. (Runner up choice: Robert Downey Jr. ties Heath Ledger for Supporting Actor, because his Tropic Thunder role is hilarious).
82nd Oscars: Inglourious Basterds over The Hurt Locker for Best Picture
I was going to give Tarantino the director nod, but decided against undoing the only win for a female director in Oscar history, so instead I gave his excellent WWII film the Best Picture award. Seems a fair deal.
The 2010’s
83rd Oscars: The Social Network over The King’s Speech for Best Picture
I think The King’s Speech is a perfectly fine movie with good performances, but The Social Network was and is more relevant to our current world, in addition to being an expertly made movie. I also think Inception or Toy Story 3 would have been suitable winners this year, but Social Network has aged the best, so I’m going with it.
84th Oscars: Bridesmaids over Midnight in Paris for Original Screenplay
There were a few things that I could have changed in a relatively weak Oscar year, but I felt that Woody Allen didn’t need another Oscar on his shelf, and so I wanted to reward a comedy script that should have been recognized all along.
85th Oscars: Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio share Best Supporting Actor
Leo wasn’t nominated for his role in Django Unchained while his costar Waltz earned his second win for his role. In this world, there would have been six nominees as Waltz and Leo become the first duo to win.
86th Oscars: Amy Adams over Cate Blanchett for Best Actress
I was incredibly tempted to say Leo for Wolf of Wall Street over McConaughey, but I didn’t want to take away his only Oscar, and since Blanchett has multiple, I decided to take one of hers and give to the long nominated but never decorated Adams.
87th Oscars: Michael Keaton over Eddie Redmayne for Best Actor
Let me say, I like Eddie Redmayne a lot in The Theory of Everything, but Keaton’s reflective performance in Birdman required a level of laying himself bare that is seldom seen in movies. I believe he deserved an Oscar for this role.
88th Oscars: Straight Outta Compton for Best Original Screenplay
There is a case to be made for Mad Max: Fury Road to take Best Picture, and also one for Sylvester Stallone for Best Supporting Actor (though since I gave him one for Rocky earlier, in this reality, he already has one). However, I chose to reward Straight Outta Compton in the biggest category it earned a nomination.
89th Oscars: Moonlight wins but with no drama this time
Really, all I’m doing is making sure that the envelope is read correctly so that this infamous moment isn’t the first thing people think of when they think of this movie or La La Land.
90th Oscars: Get Out over The Shape of Water for Best Picture
This was tough because I actually really like The Shape of Water, but I believe that Get Out is an instant classic and will become one of the greats of the 21st century. Del Toro still gets to keep his well deserved directing win.
91st Oscars: Paddington 2 is nominated for and wins Best Picture
This is the only one on the list where I take a non-nominee and award it Best Picture, but that’s how much I love this movie. I could only change one thing, otherwise I would have said Hugh Grant is also nominated and wins Best Supporting Actor. Justice for Paddington, and the world becomes a kinder and more polite place.
92nd Oscars: Knives Out wins Best Original Screenplay
So, this is obviously way too soon to be saying this Oscars should have changed anything because they literally just happened, and I feel pretty good about them overall, actually. Some personal rooting interests lost, but nothing particularly egregious. So really I just wanted to change one so that another movie I really liked could get recognized for something instead of going home empty handed. I decided to change this instead of give Visual Effects to Endgame since Parasite won really big without this category and Endgame already won by making all the money in the world.
Non-Year specific: John Williams wins way more
I am making one exception to my one correction per year rule, and that is because John Williams, who is for my money the best movie composer of all time, has a career 5 wins and 47 losses for Best Original Score and/or Best Original Song. That is a winning percentage of 9.6%. This is unacceptable. He won for Fiddler on the Roof, Jaws, Star Wars: A New Hope, E.T., and Schindler’s List. That means he lost for 5 other Star Wars movies (Was only nominated for the original trilogy and sequel trilogy. He should have been up for The Phantom Menace and say what you will about that movie, but Duel of the Fates is a banger.), the first three Indiana Jones, Superman, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (he lost to himself there), Harry Potter (twice), Home Alone (also twice), Saving Private Ryan, Catch Me if You Can, and Lincoln among others. He wasn’t even nominated for Jurassic Park! So, in my new correction, he has at least double digit wins, because it’s crazy he doesn’t already.
So, there you have it. Fifty years of corrections to the Oscars. I’m sure that even these corrections won’t be unanimously agreed on, so let me know what you think should have won some of these years and categories!