With the Oscars less than two weeks away on March 2, we're gearing up with a March Madness style bracket for the ultimate best picture battle.
Our WTOP staff has narrowed the field to 32 of history's most popular and most acclaimed best picture winners. Now it's your turn to decide the best best picture of them all.
Click through the gallery to vote in our head-to-head match ups. Check back to see how your picks are doing as more votes are tallied. Voting closes at 7 p.m. each night. Then return the next morning to vote in the next round!
"The Godfather" and "The Godfather Part II" remain the only original film and sequel to both win best picture. The former provided career roles for Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, while the latter added Robert DeNiro as Young Vito Corleone and John Cazale as Fredo, both of whom returned for "The Deer Hunter." Who is the better supporting actor -- Robert Duvall or Christopher Walken? Who is the better supporting actress -- Diane Keaton or Meryl Streep? And will Cimino's Russian roulette force your vote or will Francis Ford Coppola make you an offer you can't refuse?
Dustin Hoffman and Jon Voight had a moment of brilliant improv in "Midnight Cowboy" as Hoffman yelled, "I'm walkin' here!" Later, in "Forrest Gump," Lt. Dan yells the same thing from a wheelchair. "Midnight Cowboy" remains the only X-rated film to win best picture, while "Gump" is that rare example of the year's top grossing film winning best picture.
This match up is all about acting. Marlon Brando pioneered the use of method acting in Elia Kazan's "On the Waterfront." Decades later, Dustin Hoffman memorably played an idiot savant in Barry Levinson's "Rain Man." Which will you pick -- "Judge Wapner" or "I coulda been a contender?" It was you, Charlie Babbitt. It was you.
This is a match-up between characters with deep emotional scars. In one film, Clarice Starling must silence the lambs of her past by working with Hannibal Lecter to catch Buffalo Bill. In the other, a trio of World War II vets must overcome the lost limbs and PTSD of battle. Will "Best Years" force "Lambs" to put the lotion in the basket, or will "Lambs" eat "Best Years" with some fava beans and a nice Chianti?
Steven Spielberg's "Schindler's List" dealt with the horrors of the Holocaust, while Norman Jewison's "In the Heat of the Night" dealt with America's own struggle against white supremacy. Liam Neeson cried saying, "I could have done more," while Sidney Poitier defiantly yelled, "They call me, Mr. Tibbs!" Both are classics.
Clark Gable or Kevin Spacey? Claudette Colbert or Annette Bening? Rose petals or The Walls of Jericho? These are your tough decisions in this match-up. Can "It Happened One Night" hitchhike its way into the next round, or will "American Beauty" float on like a plastic bag on a breeze?
Robert Wise directed both "The Sound of Music" and "West Side Story" just four years apart, and won best picture both times. Now comes your impossible decision: Do you go with the Sharks v. Jets or the Von Trapps v. the Nazis? Do you snap your fingers and sing "Tonight, Tonight" or spin atop a mountain and sing "The Hills Are Alive?" It's your call.
Jack and Rose captured this generation as star crossed lovers the way Rhett and Scarlett did to audiences in the 1930s. Both films are filled with heaving chest melodrama set against massive loss of life, one with the sinking of an unsinkable ship and the other with the bloody battlefields of the Civil War.
Time to choose between "I'm the king of the world" and "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."
"Casablanca" and "Kramer vs. Kramer" are two vastly different takes on the idea of two lovers who simply can't be together. While Ingrid Bergman debated leaving Victor Laszlo for Humphrey Bogart, Meryl Streep divorced Dustin Hoffman for a powerful custody battle over their young son. This one is a battle between "here's looking' at you kid" and "who gets to look after our kid?" and between "we'll always have Paris" and "you'll always have parents."
Will the world welcome lovers as time goes by? Or is this the beginning of a beautiful divorce?
David Lean s. the Coen Brothers. A catchy whistling tune v. a deadly coin flip. Alec Guinness falling on a TNT plunger v. Javier Bardem pulling the trigger of a cattle gun. Call it, friendo.
Bette Davis and Diane Keaton respectively gave two of the best female performances of all time as Margo Channing and Annie Hall, two New Yorkers looking for love. But what makes this best picture battle so interesting is the witty dialogue of both of the screenplays.
Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman's script was voted the WGA's No. 6 greatest screenplay of all time, while Joseph Mankiewicz's script was voted one spot ahead at No. 5.
Which quote do you say more in your personal life -- "La di da" or "fasten your seat belts." Both started with these scripts.
Director Milos Forman won best picture twice for two vastly different movies. "Cuckoo's Nest" was a powerful look at a mental facility that inspired many of the same institutionalized themes as "The Shawshank Redemption," where Andy Dufresne played Mozart over the prison speakers. That brings us to "Amadeus," a story of prodigy and jealousy over one of history's greatest musical geniuses. Who was a better foil -- Nurse Ratched or Salieri? Mozart or McMurphy? You decide.
T.E. Lawrence was one of the most famous military leaders of World War I, while George Patton was one of the most famous generals of World War II. Both leaders were brought gloriously to life by Peter O'Toole and George C. Scott in two of the most epic war movies ever, with powerful music by Maurice Jarre and Jerry Goldsmith, respectively.
A prominent Roman figure mistakenly becomes a slave before rising up to do battle against the Roman Empire in a public arena. The premise for "Gladiator" and "Ben-Hur" is identical, only one battles in hand-to-hand combat, while the other competes in a high speed chariot race. Now, Charlton Heston squares off against Russell Crowe in a battle for the ages. Are you not entertained?
If you compared Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" to "Rocky," the latter is clearly the more influential boxing picture. But if you take Eastwood's western gem "Unforgiven," things get far more interesting. "Rocky" follows a rags to riches underdog who just wants a chance, while "Unforgiven" follows an over the hill gunslinger trying to forget his deadly past. Can Stallone go the distance as an underdog in our entire bracket? Or will Eastwood pull a Dirty Harry and say, "Go ahead. Make my day?"
Who would win in a sword fight -- William Wallace or Aragorn? Which cry would echo louder from the mountaintops -- "Freedom" or "My precious?" And which would force you to take fewer bathroom breaks -- the 177 minutes of "Braveheart" or the 201 minutes of "Return of the King?" This will no doubt be an epic battle.
