"A celebration of mediocrity."
That's actor-director Mel Gibson, referring to the Oscars, while speaking to an interviewer at the Catholic Eternal Word Television Network.
By the way, Empire magazine agrees with him.
"The Oscars aren't about quality. They're peer group nods of approval and, as a result, there has been a surfeit of unworthy Best Pictures and, rest assured, there will be many more to come."
Empire magazine writer Patrick Peters, in reference to the magazine's list of the 10 worst films ever to win a Best Picture Oscar. The very worst was Mel Gibson's Braveheart (1995, "dialogue has all the thudding subtlety of a parody"), followed by A Beautiful Mind (2001, "clunkingly intricate direction"), The Greatest Show on Earth (1952, "tawdry circus spectacle of hoary cliches and caricatures"), Ordinary People (1980, "nothing more than a TV-movie that got lucky"), Forrest Gump (1994, "revisionist nonsense"), Terms of Endearment (1983, "a weepie espousing family values"), Around the World in 80 Days (1956, "A-list co-stars confined to blink'n'miss 'em cameos"), Cavalcade (1932-33, "patronizing politics underpinning sentimental storylines"), Rocky (1976, "given Watergate and Vietnam, hardly surprising the Academy should hail a picture restoring the American dream"), and How Green Was My Valley (1941, "Hollywood's eagerness to show solidarity with war-torn Britain").
Now, is How Green Was My Valley really worse than The Life of Emile Zola, The Broadway Melody, Grand Hotel, or Cimarron? And what about Gladiator?
HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY is, for me, one of the most emotionally shattering films I have ever seen.
I also love BROADWAY MELODY and think CAVALCADE, while no masterwork, is maligned more than it needs to be.
TRAFFIC, GLADIATOR and SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE would be high on my list of worst Oscar-winning offenders.