After I logged out of the chat last night, I started thinking about why some people were pissed that Peter O'Toole didn't get the award though he might not have been the "best actor" and were equally pissed that Scorsese/The Departed won when they might not have been last year's best Director/Picture. Or to be more accurate, I started thinking about why I didn't care, and was happy for Marty. So I decided to compare Scorsese's filmography to the award winners from each year. Here's what I found:

Year-Scorsese Film- Best Picture
1967-Who's That Knocking At My Door*-In The Heat of the Night
1972-Boxcar Bertha*-The Godfather
1973-Mean Streets*-The Sting
1974-Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore*-"The Godfather, Part II"
1976-Taxi Driver-Rocky
1977-"New York, New York*"-Annie Hall
1980-Raging Bull-Ordinary People
1983-The King of Comedy*-Terms of Endearment
1985-After Hours*-Out of Africa
1986-The Color of Money*-Platoon
1988-The Last Temptation of Christ*-Rain Man
1990-Goodfellas-Dances With Wolves
1991-Cape Fear*-The Silence of the Lambs
1993-The Age of Innocence*-Schindler's List
1995-Casino*-Braveheart
1997-Kundun*-Titanic
1999-Bringing Out the Dead*-American Beauty
2002-Gangs of New York-Chicago
2004-The Aviator-Million Dollar Baby
2006-The Departed-The Departed

*not nominated

What did I learn? Not much except that this year is not really an exception. The "best" doesn't always win. ...and given the choice between watching the Scorsese film from any given year vs the winner from that year, I'll almost always pick the Scorsese flick. Except 1972 and 1974.... and maybe '86 and '93.

I thought Taxi Driver and Goodfellas were way better than Rocky and Dances With Wolves.
:)

I totally agree with GC here. And mousepod, while I would never give Alice a nod over Godfather II, it was a film I enjoyed a good deal and very different from the (now) sterotypical Scorsese film.

I do not dispute the win last night of The Departed. I thought for a best adapted screenplay, remake, it was a fine film. Richly deserved the editing nod and I was grateful beyond measure that The Queen did not win best picture (although given the Academy history, it would not have suprised me on iota). Having seen The Departed only Saturday night, I thought it was a rock solid film from top to bottom and, in this case to me, let the naysayers complain it's a remake, I still thought it was worthy and long overdue for a best direction nod. Ask me about the remake of Cape Fear and I will give you a different answer ;)

For me, the Scorcese movie loses out to the best picture winner in 1967, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1977, 1985, 1991, 1997, 1999, and 2004.

I love Scorcese for being consistently great but for me with only a few exceptions he has been among the best but not the best. But yeah, this should have been at least his third one.

Anybody else dying to see someone make the obvious connection between Hellen Mirren and Judi Dench? Wouldn't you love to see them present together?

Other than being old British ladies, what is the obvious connection?

Both are Dames (in the Biritish sense, obviously)

Maggie Smith and Judi Dench would be a more obvious since they're both good old friends and their careers are really quite parallel. At least it makes me think it would be an obvious choice.

I include political subject matter in the broader scope of comtemporary social comentary. Politics is just one aspect of "hot belief topics", religion, gay rights, and environmental causes being others (there are certainly more). But, politics seems to bring out the "best" (ha) of all of us when it comes to social beliefs.

I think there are quite a few people who view An Inconvenient Truth as a political film even though Gore attempts to catagorize it as "not a political issue but a moral one".

I was pissed about O'Toole not winning because I thought he was brilliant and riviting. I couldn't take my eyes off of him the entire film. But, I haven't seen "King....." yet, so maybe I'll feel differently after I see it.

Those instances are the only two that I think the Academy chose the wrong film. But, I'm now looking at them as to which I think has stood the test of time.

However, in 1976 I probably would've voted for Network over Taxi Driver.

Scorsese dyes his eyebrows, yes?