How did this not win Best Picture??
The Sting won over The Exorcist for Best Picture at the Academy Awards; that's crazy!!!!
sharebecause this was a scary
share
MovieChat Forums > The Exorcist (1973) Discussion > How did this not win Best Picture??
The Sting is a pretty damn great movie too imo.
share[deleted]
Maybe it would’ve been too controversial to be chosen for Best Pic. The Sting does have a great A-list cast and climax. It was also pretty impactful because it resurrected the ragtime era a little bit.
The Sting is a fine film, as others have pointed out. And as others have pointed out The Exorcist is seen as a horror film. Horror/sci-fi/fantasy rarely get much of any credit in the academy aside from the technical aspects of the films. Had The Exorcist appealed more to the drama side it would have been a real contender against The Sting but few people remember that side of the film.
shareI love both The Sting and The Exorcist. Both are great movies and it most certainly isn't a case of one film being robbed.
shareBecause a person's head can NOT spin around.
sharePart genre prejudice, the AMPAS doesn't like horror films any more than it likes sci-fi and fantasy, action movies, comedies, animated films, teen movies, or comic-book movies. And "The Exorcist" was notorious, during its theatrical run it was famous for making people vomit or faint, which in the opinion of the stuffier members of the AMPAS, put it in the same class of films as the work of William Castle.
And there was a lot of genuine admiration for "The Sting", which was not only a very good movie, but a very Hollywood movie, with a clever script and the screen being dominated by movie stars rather than special effects, and it was such a huge hit that ragtime music was played on Top 40 radio for months. The AMPAS deeply admires character-driven stories, star vehicles, and huge amounts of money.
It would not had been nominated if was put it in the same class of films as the work of William Castle. He made low-budget films that never rated as high as The Exorcist. For all we know, the 'Best Picture' that year was neither The Sting or The Exorcist. The nom was it's win.
I took ten seconds to look up the 1974 Oscars, and guess what was nominated for "Best Picture", when "The Exorcist" was not? Come on guess... guess what the AMPAS considered a better movie than "The Excorcist"...
"THE TOWERING INFERNO"!!! Yes, that ridiculous camp fest was nominated for Best Picture in 1974, while "The Exorcist" was not.
And that right there tells you everything you need to know about genre prejudice at the Oscars, that they'd nominate a monumentally bad movie full of big stars, and not a really gripping horror movie. At least the actual winner was genuinely good, that's a mercy.
Youre looking under the wrong year. Exorcist was in fact a Best Picture nominee in '74 for movies that came out in '73. Towering Inferno was nominated in '75 for movies that came out in '74
shareWell that just goes to show, always take that extra five seconds to find a reputable source, when doing a google search.
shareBoth The Sting/ Exorcist were 3 1/2-4 star rated films; it could've gone either way, or not knowing how close the votes came, a virtual tie. With Freidkin being a two-hit wonder, you have to wonder if his editor and cinematographer were responsible for his hits as much as he was.
The bigger mystery (and very tight race) in 1973 was over Best Actress due to Ellen Burstyn. Glenda Jackson was not even a favorite that year. Joanne Woodward had won other film society awards--and if Burstyn was not meant to win due to genre prejudice, it likely should have been Woodward.