[mousepod]

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.