Cavalcade

Along with Cimarron (1931), this movie is considered one of the worst winner of the prestigious Best Picture at the Academy Awards. And I agree that it didn't deserve to win. Cavalcade was a very popular movie that year, but does not hold up well. It's just so dreadfully boring. There is just something about the atmosphere of Fox Film productions at this time that lacks the splendor and visual creativity that the other studios was able to create.

Two of the more excruciatingly boring hours of my life. And the worst Best Picture winner of all time, for sure. 'nough said. [Edit: I have now seen 'Tom Jones' and is no longer confident that 'Cavalcade' is, indeed, the worst. Stay away from both at all costs!]

While ambitious in some respects, the complete lack of plot tension and character development make this a slog to get through. Great mustaches though.

It's not as bad as a lot of people say, but it is kind of a movie about important things happening off screen.

Noël Coward was a good writer, this isn't news, but in terms of CAVALCADE, this isn't really evident anywhere but the moment-to-moment of each individual scene. As a whole, this is too disjointed, too marginally related from one scene to another, and maybe the rich mother is the best we get to a main character -- the best chance we have at an half-decent arc as she's ravaged by the onslaught of the 20th century -- but she herself is too reserved and statuesque to really care for.

So is this movie canon with the Titanic movie that would also eventually win Best Picture?

Production effort is notable but movie's way too histrionic and cheaply melodramatic. Dialogues don't help, and the screenplay doesn't find a way for everything to come together.

Perhaps the most obscure Best Picture winner of all time, and certainly one of the least memorable. It follows the aristocratic Marryot family from the turn of the century, through war and loss, to the present day. There are agreeable moments of spectacle and a stunning WWI montage by William Cameron Menzies, but the script (from a Noel Coward play!) is generally lacking in depth, subtlety, or insight. The acting is often theatrically overwrought, though Una O'Connor is the worst offender.

Really, REALLY boring. The points almost all come from the "what-a-twist" scene aboard the Titanic, which, to its credit, makes this a more memorable movie than Cimarron, if only for the one scene. It well may have been a great film in its time, but today, it's really just boring.

Maybe I'm judging this too harshly as it was nominated for several Academy Awards, but Cavalcade really does not hold up on any level. The film aims to be a historical epic but feels more like a half assed Cliffs notes of the first third of the 20th century. We are given little reason to care about the bland characters, who merely react these events but instead of being changed by them. The direction is sub par and acting can be downright awful. My pick for the Worst Best Picture winner.

Better than I thought it would be. A bit too episodic but very earnest in its way. And not so much a history lesson as a portrait of people.

The content struggles mightily to overcome the mediocre packaging and only partially succeeds. The camerawork shows occasional flair and the story is grand and full of meaning even if it is predictable. The acting is pretty terrible though, the montages are tiring, and the hamfistedness of the grandiose enterprise gets old.

Decent, but you wonder why it won the Oscar for Best Picture that year. Nobody *really* cares about this movie anymore; it took years and years to make it to home video