During Oscar season, it’s always fun (at least for me) to go back and look through history, at Best Picture Oscar winners of year’s gone by. Some of these movies age like fine wine, others curdle and wilt from our collective consciousness over time.
So here’s a little reindeer game for you: ranking the Best Picture Oscar winners in different decades. Let’s start with what is probably the most difficult of all the decades, the 1970s. Difficult because this was the turning point in American cinema. Difficult because all of these films, deserving of the Best Picture statue or not, are truly wonderful and important – at least, in the sense that movies can be important. Here goes nothing…
8. The Sting (1973)
Nestled in between the Godfather winners is a small story about two con men and double crosses stacked on top of each other. The Sting is probably the most fun 70s winner to rewatch, because the intricacies of David S. Ward’s screenplay are a marvel. And Newman and Redford are, as always, fantastic to watch play off each other. Throw into the fold a crusty villain in Robert Shaw, and George Roy Hill’s story sings.
