Article By: Kevin Thompson (OptimusSolo)

My colleague, MovieRevolt (Dan Clark) just recently published a great blog on the Top 10 – Best Picture Classes of All Time. Being the movie buff that loves rankings and making lists I couldn’t help it but to post my own response to his fantastic idea. You can’t get enough movie talk when it comes to Oscar season right? The only difference here is that instead of looking at an “All-Time” ranking, as I love to do with movies, I will simply look at movies from ‘Our Generation” aka, 1980-onward. A few things to keep in mind while perusing my list. First of all this is not about ONE or TWO movies. This is about the entire CLASS. Any class is only as good as its weakest link, so to speak.  Another thing I considered was if the class truly represented the best of their year.  Finally, I considered the overall value, impact and longevity of the films in question. So, without further ado, here are my Top Ten Best Picture Classes of Our Generation!

10. Class of 1991

Movies Nominated: Silence of the Lambs, Beauty and the Beast, Bugsy, JFK, Prince of Tides.

Best Picture Winner: Silence of the Lambs

Quick Take: 1991 definitely was a year in which the Oscar Class represented the best the year had to offer. Outside of What About Bob and Terminator 2, neither of which I would expect to be mentioned in Oscar Talk, these five films are what this year had to offer. Silence of the Lambs is on everyone’s list of best movies from the 90s and Beauty and the Beast is one of the Top Animated Films of all-time. There really isn’t a ‘weak link’ amongst these films but there are some years that are stronger one through five.

9. Class of 1981

Movies Nominated: Chariots of Fire, On Golden Pond, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Reds, Atlantic City

Best Picture Winner: Chariots of Fire

Quick Take: I know I will probably be called out for having this be the only entrant on the list from the 80s but lets not kid ourselves here, the 80s overall were a somewhat weak decade when it comes to great movies. All five of these movies have merit and value. If there was only going to be one entrant from the decade, then 1981 surely should be it. Plus, its my birth year so what would you expect??

8. Class of 2002

Movies Nominated: Gangs of New York, Chicago, Pianist, Lord of the Rings Two Towers, The Hours

Best Picture Winner: Chicago

Quick Take: 2002 provided a real strong class one through four. Gangs of New York was a masterpiece that could be used in classrooms across the country to illustrate a remarkable time in our countries history. Chicago, set the stage for a revival in broadway/musical films that continues a decade later. Lord of the Rings continued to break ground in the fantasy/epic genre when it comes to being acknowledged by the Academy.  The Hours is really the only weak link here keeping 2002 from a higher ranking. I am really baffled how The Hours was included here over Count of Monte Cristo, Catch Me if You Can or Road to Perdition…

7. Class of 1990

Movies Nominated: Goodfellas, Dances with Wolves, Awakenings, Godfather III, Ghost

Best Picture Winner: Dances with Wolves

Quick Take: Say what you will about Ghost but there is no denying that it is on every girl’s top list as well as a guilty pleasure for many men. I also, realize that Godfather III according to everyone outside of the academy was no where near the quality of the first two chapters in that franchise. However, Goodfellas is arguably one of the top three gangster films of all-time. Dances with Wolves is an astonishing look at the history of our country as well as a film that captured Kevin Costner in his prime. Not to mention Awakenings which I guarantee is one of the best films most people haven’t seen! Edward Scissorhands may have bolstered this class had it been nominated.

6. Class of 1998

Movies Nominated: Saving Private Ryan, Shakespeare in Love, Life is Beautiful, Elizabeth, Thin Red Line

Best Picture Winner: Shakespeare in Love

Quick Take: At first glance 1998 had the makings of being a top 3 Oscar Class…unfortunately the inclusion of a Thin Red Line shattered any chances of that. If we ignore the inclusion of one of the worst films of all-time we still have a pretty remarkable class here.If we switch out Thin Red Line for American History X, Pleasantville or the Truman Show, we may be looking at the #1 spot on this list! Saving Private Ryan is one of the greatest war films of all-time and then you get Life Is Beautiful showing the other side of one of the worst wars of our history. Throw in a romantic masterpiece with that special Shakespeare edge and you really have a strong class here. It’s nice to see the top three films of the year all being nominated by the academy!

5. Class of 1994

Movies Nominated: Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, Shawshank Redemption, Quiz Show, Four Weddings and a Funeral

Best Picture Winner: Forrest Gump

Quick Take: I probably would have put Legends of the Fall or The Lion Kind in place of Four Weddings and a Funeral to round up a great class but outside of that the Academy definitely got it right this year. Forrest Gump alone defined the decade and perhaps our generation, Pulp Fiction is perhaps the most popular film out there when it comes to our age group and it really solidified Tarantino as a top director. Its hard to find a better 1-2 punch than ’94 offered.

4. Class of 2010

Movies Nominated: Inception, The Fighter, Social Network, Kings Speech, True Grit, Toy Story 3, Black Swan, Winters Bone, 127 Hours, Kids are All Right

Best Picture Winner: King’s Speech

Quick Take: So, maybe its an unfair advantage with the larger nominee pool but there was just so much to watch in 2010! It would have been nice to see The Town and Book of Eli get some recognition here but one can not argue with Inception, Fighter, Social Network and of course the winner, King’s Speech. Not to mention perhaps one of the best animated films in history by most accounts.

3. Class of 2000

Movies Nominated: Gladiator, Chocolat, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Traffic, Erin Brockovich

Best Picture Winner: Gladiator

Quick take: The difference between 2000 and some of the classes we saw earlier in this count down is that each of those classes had a weak link so to speak and even though some may consider Erin Brockovich a weak link, I really don’t agree. Are these all 5 star films, maybe not quite, but I still don’t see a weak link like I do in most of the other classes. Gladiator in my mind was the best film of the decade and that has to give a lot of weight to the Class of 2000 (hmm I graduated this year as well…was I destined to be a movie buff??) Chocolat remains in my mind one of the top romantic films I have ever seen and one cannot argue with the impact Crouching Tiger had on the industry.  If you switch out Erin Brockovich with Memento or heck even O Brother Where Art Thou or American Psycho you may be looking at the best class overall!!

2. Class of 1999

Movies Nominated: American Beauty, Green Mile, Cider House Rules, The Insider, Sixth Sense

Best Picture Winner: American Beauty

Quick Take: Like I was just mentioning in the previous entry, this is another example where you have no weak link. What a great year for movies this was! Think about it, not a weak link in the nominees and they didn’t even include Matrix, Arlington Road, Hurricane, Boondock Saints or FIGHT CLUB! I shouldn’t need to say much about this Oscar class because each one of these is an obvious selection.

1. Class of 2012

Movies Nominated: Lincoln, Life of Pi, Les Miserables, Django Unchained, Silver Linings Playbook, Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Amour

Best Picture Winner: Undecided

Quick Take: I know, I know, everyone is going to say I am making this selection in the moment and that its too early to say something like this, that I wouldn’t probably say this in a couple years from now, blah, blah, blah, blah. Sorry folks, a lot of the time you would be right and this is true when you see a ‘current’ item placed at the top of a ranking like this. I honestly think that is not the case in this situation though.  Think about it, the probable winner, Argo, is not even in the Top Five for movies this year!! Lincoln was one of the best historical biopics of all-time, let alone our generation. Life of Pi was a complete masterpiece both visually and by touching on one of the most passionate and important topics in human history. Les Miserables took what was done by films like Chicago and Moulin Rouge and mastered it. Django Unchained was yet another victory from one of the most loved directors of our generation. Silver Linings Playbook would probably have won best picture in a lot of the other years of our generation. Seriously, the list of great films just goes on and on here.

So, there you have it. Those are the…I mean my Top 10 Oscar Classes of Our Generation! What are yours?