Misery, Home Alone, Edward Scissorhands, Die Hard 2, Back to the Future 3 and Arachnophobia were better than this movie.
How this movie won an Oscar for best picture of THE YEAR lol? This was solid (7/10), at best. Should've been shorter 2 hours.
I thought this was good, an 8/10, but not the best film of the year. The Godfather Part III and Goodfellas were better films and either of those would have been a deserving winner, in my opinion.
shareI've seen all those films and, yes, I would say Dances with Wolves is better.
shareDTW was the best picture of the year, and it wasn't close.
Home Alone was great, but The Academy (TM) never seems to like comedies.
If it was two hours shorter it would've been one hour long if we're talking about the theatrical cut.
Dances with Wolves is a great movie and is equal or better than every film you've mentioned. It's certainly better than Die Hard 2, Godfather III and BTTF 3, even though I do enjoy Die Hard 2 and think that Godfather III is underrated.
The one film that probably deserved to beat it is one you didn't even mention: Goodfellas.
Goodfellas is roughly a gazillion times better than DWW. In every way.
shareWell, not a gazillion times.
I'm sure a lot of people would agree that Goodfellas is better, but they are entirely different films in different genres, and both are masterworks, so I find them difficult films to compare.
I enjoy both but I'll agree that Goodfellas is probably the "better" film. It's at least far more rewatchable.
Oscars can be very political sometimes.
ET losing to Ghandi....Brokeback Mountain losing to Crash....Fargo losing to English Patient.
Many of these pictures lose their impact as well. Remember Chariots of Fire?
Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of any of that year's nominees. Both Dances and Goodfellas fall into the very good-not great column for me, and as Scorsese's entry has always had the more vocal cheering section, I'd give the lovely if overlong Dances the edge. It was as good a choice as any.
Of those mentioned by the OP I'd only consider Edward Scissorhands to be worthy of consideration. 1990 was not a good year for American cinema imo.