The Great Ziegfeld (1936): 9th Oscar Winner for Best Picture

The Great Ziegfeld (1936)

Here we have another average film featuring loads of stage show scenes (and thankfully not as bad as Broadway Melody). There was a pretty okay story, but it had a load of decent music and stage show scenes for its time. It did drag on for a while, but it was also half a bio-pic, looking at Ziegfeld's life and career. If you like a bit of stage show history, then watch this film. I felt it was pretty average, but was good to watch.

Why did it win Best Picture? Probably more a film for its time, with the whole stage show culture and bio of Ziegfeld. Also probably for its music.

Mutiny on the Bounty (1935): 8th Oscar Winner for Best Picture

Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)

So far I might have moaned about history in a few of these films, but this one is definitely an exception. It was a great film, great storyline and a great historical representation of an integral part of naval history in the Western world. This was a great film to follow It Happened One Night. Outstanding photography throughout the film and great acting. I'd also like to note that there was a glimpse of some partial nudity for the first time with the Polynesian women scenes. If you like to see a good representation of naval history, definitely check this film out.

Why did it get Best Picture? I believe it won due to the historical representation of naval history, a great story, great photography, and possibly for the partial nudity (okay, that's not really a reason, but it's worth a mention).

It Happened One Night (1934): 7th Oscar Winner for Best Picture

It Happened One Night (1934)

It Happened One Night was our first relatively 'chick flick' film so far. It still emphasised the male perspective a bit, but it was a really enjoyable romantic comedy. Beautifully done and the story was of good quality. A great relief after Cavalcade. I thought it was a wonderful film, and if you'd like to sit back to a classic romantic comedy I'd definitely recommend this.

Why did it get Best Picture? I believe it would have got best picture because it was the first real romantic comedy (without involving too much history or other genres). The acting was superb - so possibly for that reason as well.

Cavalcade (1933): 6th Oscar Winner for Best Picture

Cavalcade (1933)

Following Grand Hotel, Cavalcade was a good film to watch. The only major problem I had with it, was that it felt like they were trying to cram a ton of history into the film. This sort of made the film drag on, I felt. It was definitely interesting, but I think it was more a film for its time. It felt like they placed history together and tried to place a story over the top of it - sometimes this does work, but it didn't work for this film, I felt. If you're into history being represented in film, feel free to watch it.

Why did it win Best Picture? I believe it would have won it for the record on film of history and possibly its use of history and the story.

Grand Hotel (1932): 5th Oscar Winner for Best Picture

Grand Hotel (1932)

Following Cimarron, this was fairly much the same, except the storyline was something I couldn't effectively follow or understand. All I know is that there were a lot of phones and phone calls involved and there was a hotel. No idea what it was about, but it seemed like an okay storyline if you did understand what was going on. Feel free to watch it for yourself, and if you can understand what's going on, let me know. Good if you like lots of people using telephones in a hotel setting.

Why did it win Best Picture? The only thing I can think of is that there were a lot of telephones used in the film in a hotel.

Cimarron (1931): 4th Oscar Winner for Best Picture

Cimarron (1931)

Following All Quiet On The Western Front was Cimarron. This was pretty average. It was the first western style film, and was great to watch, but was nothing spectacular to me. One topic this film touched on was how women cope with their man away for work. I think this was very much a film for its time. If you feel that an average western explaining life for women and men when they are away from each other in the 1930s is your film, feel free to watch it.

Why did it win Best Picture? At a guess, most likely to give Western style films a go in the spotlight and the role of women when men are away on work across distances and for long periods of time.

All Quiet On The Western Front (1930): 3rd Oscar Winner for Best Picture

All Quiet On The Western Front (1930)

This was the first war/historical film. It was great in restoring my hope in the best pictures after Broadway Melody. This was a fantastic film. There was a great storyline that keeps you in the whole way throughout the film, great action shots in the war scenes and amazing photography throughout! I'd definitely consider it a classic war film - and amazing photography for its time! I've seen it in shops around the place, so if you're into war films make sure you see or own this film.

Why did it win Best Picture? I believe that it won best picture for it's incredible photography (it's even good photography for nowadays), for the great story and also the capturing of Western history and what, at that time, was a significant battlefront. Definitely deserved to win.

Broadway Melody (1929): 2nd Oscar Winner for Best Picture

Broadway Melody (1929)

Following Wings, this film was quite a disappointment. Sure it had decent music featured in the film, but the storyline was average and it dragged on, I felt. It was admittedly the first film to show plenty of slender, feminine legs, but this seemed the only reason it won best picture. So if you want to see some legs in a black and white film, see this film.

Why did it win Best Picture? I believe it mainly won best picture for the amount of bare, slender and feminine legs, but also for the music featured as well as it being about a stage show. I certainly hope there were better nominations that year...

Wings (1928): 1st Oscar Winner for Best Picture

Wings (1928)

Kicking off with Wings was really a great start. This was the first and only silent film that we have discovered so far in the Best Pictures. I personally had never seen a silent film before - only excerpts and take-offs of Charlie Chaplin films, if anything. It was very entertaining, and the storyline was easy to follow (even without dialogue). It had a bit of every genre in the film - drama, action, romance, war and comedy. If you can get hold of this film, it's definitely worth a watch. I found it incredible that a silent film that old can still make sense to someone like me generations later.

Why did it win Best Picture? I believe that it would have one best picture (and definitely deserved it) for the great storyline, the fact that it was a silent film, and the range of genres featured in the film therefore catering to a broad audience.

Let me introduce...

I would like to introduce and explain more about this blog. My wife, a friend of our's and myself have decided to  watch all the Oscar Winners for Best Picture chronologically from 1928 to the present. We haven't put a time limit on this, as it has been quite difficult to track down a lot of the earlier films, but we are doing it whenever we can. You may/may not hear from the others' points-of-view as they may/may not be effectively blogging like me (despite their much more vast experience with films than I). But I at least will be posting my opinions, knowledge and views about each film as we go. We don't exactly have a perfect record of the dates we have watched these films, but we started two years ago (with massive breaks in between each one) and will progress until we are up to date (whenever that will be).

Just a few things to note about my blog posts. When I refer to 'first film' or 'second film' it refers to the 'first film in the best picture winners' - not the first film ever. I'm not that much of a movie buff to be able to say that, so I just wanted to make that clear.

Also, one question as we've been going through these is why each of them won best picture. Of course we can't compare the nominees in line for most of them, but we could think about the historical context and the film itself and make our own assumptions or opinions about why it would have won. I will answer my opinion as to why each film won.

We welcome comments, so feel free to follow us on our journey through the history of the Best Pictures. If you wish to do this between you and your friends, feel free, but we will most certainly not be providing the films - we have made such an effort to track most of these down. If you wish to find them, either find them on Ebay, or if you hear of any film store (anywhere in the world) that sells DVDs, VHS, etc of the majority of these films, we'd love to hear about it.

Enjoy the blog, and come and experience the world of the Best Pictures with us.