Best Picture Winners 1995 - 1999

Nearing the end of the century with some really heinous choice for Best Picture in this five year streak.

1995 - Movie star love strikes again, with Mel Gibson's Braveheart winning Best Picture. I'm okay with the choice, though I probably would have voted for nominees Apollo 13 or Babe. I do like Braveheart over nominees The Postman (Il Postino) and Sense and Sensibility.

1996 - In an episode of Seinfeld, Elaine Benes rants about so much she hates The English Patient. She was right. How ever did a film that glorifies a Nazi traitor win Best Picture? The Brothers Coen finally had a film nominated for Best Picture (Fargo), and it should have won. Nominee Jerry Maguire is infinitely better than The English Patient as is nominee Shine. I never have seen nominee, Secrets and Lies, but sight unseen it is better than The English Patient.

1997 - I'd like to say that the Best Picture winner, Titanic, shouldn't have won, but I can't. I enjoy the nominee L.A. Confidential more. But Titanic as the second highest grossing film of all time, that is widely beloved and took on incredible challenges and risks... Well, it's deserving. I prefer James Cameron's Terminator and Aliens, but like Gone With the Wind and Sound of Music, sometimes the popular favorite should be honored. (Personally don't have much use for nominees Good Will Hunting, As Good As It Gets or The Full Monty.)

1998 - Shakespeare in Love, the winner, is a nice, entertaining film. Nominee Saving Private Ryan is a great film. But the academy loves films about show biz, even real old fashioned show biz. So Spielberg's World War II classic was passed by. (The other nominees all also take place in old England, Elizabeth or WW II, Life is Beautiful and The Thin Red Line.)

1999 - Another winner I really hate, American Beauty, that teaches us that the American suburbs are full of corruption, hypocrisy and misery. Why can't every community be as swell as Hollywood, that model of healthy families and functional lifestyles. I almost hate the pro-abortion nominee The Cider House Rules as much. Nominee The Green Mile is okay, The Insider was much better. Of the nominees, the one really deserving film was The Sixth Sense made back in an amazing time when M. Night knew what he was doing.

I believe 2 out of 5 brings the total 40 good choices out of 71.