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.