If “CODA” does win Best Picture over “The Power of the Dog” then it’ll be yet another shameful moment in Oscar history.
Of course, the Oscars were never meant to award the actual best movie of the year. A lot of variables come into play, especially in the way you campaign and market a film to voters. Critics can only help so much.
I remember vividly “Pulp Fiction” losing over “Forrest Gump” and thinking “man, they really messed this one up.” There was a time when Tarantino’s masterpiece was actually considered too radical for the Academy’s tastes.
Then again, maybe it still is. Of course, I had heard all the stories about “Raging Bull” and “Goodfellas” losing over far lesser films. Scorsese’s “The Departed,” which has turned out to be another classic in his cannon, was justly given the top prize in 2007 as a “consolation prize” for his two masterpieces losing out in 1981 and 1991.
Regardless, the shameful BP winners might continue come Sunday evening. A “Coda” win would join these shameful moments in Oscar history:
“Ordinary People” over “Raging Bull”
“Crash” over “Brokeback Mountain”
“Dances With Wolves” over “Goodfellas”
“Forrest Gump” over “Pulp Fiction”
“The English Patient” over “Fargo”
“The Artist” over “The Tree of Life”
“Rocky” over “Taxi Driver”
“Kramer vs Kramer” over “Apocalypse Now”
“Going My Way” over “Double Indemnity”
“How Green Was My Valley” over “Citizen Kane”
