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W hen Dustin Hoffman heard that his second major movie, Midnight Cowboy , had been given a dreaded X certificate, the actor was deeply apprehensive. “We thought this could end everybody’s career,” he later told Larry King. Director John Schlesinger’s film is now regarded as a classic and 50 years on, the rumpus over its sexual themes seems like something from a bygone age.
Midnight Cowboy , which stars Jon Voight as the naïve male prostitute Joe Buck and Hoffman as the streetwise hustler bum Enrico Salvatore (Ratso Rizzo), came out on 25 May 1969 and remains the only X-rated film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. Midnight Cowboy was a window into the counter-culture, through the eyes of an adult innocent. The story of a Texan dishwasher trying to find riches in New York – which featured bold themes about prostitution, homosexuality and drug abuse – was funny, bleak and moving, and full of sparkling dialogue.
The film was caught in a controversy even before its release, when the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) decided to change its initial R for restricted rating (under 16s not admitted without an adult) and impose, for only the third time, their harshest rating.
The 40 best film soundtracks Show all 40 1 /40The 40 best film soundtracks The 40 best film soundtracks 40. High Fidelity (2000) Before Garden State and 500 Days of Summer, the team behind the adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel compiled 15 tracks like a mixtape. It was one its lead character would have approved of: as with many of the soundtracks on this list, High Fidelity’s success lies in a balance between old-school gems by the Velvet Underground, The Kinks and Elvis Costello to Noughties newcomers like Stereolab and Royal Trux.
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The 40 best film soundtracks 39. Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights (2004) This may seem like sacrilege given that the first Dirty Dancing soundtrack is indisputably the more iconic of the two. And yes, the sequel (essentially a remake set in Cuba during the 1950s), starring Romola Garai and future Rogue One star Diego Luna, suffered from a plot loaded with clichés and lack of chemistry between its two lead actors. But the soundtrack – featuring the Grammy-nominated Latin fusion band Yerba Buena, Colombian rock band Aterciopelados, and the Cuban hip hop group Orishasis – is what draws me back to this guilty pleasure of a film. Dirty Dancing 2 didn’t really deserve such a soundtrack, but it adds some actual heat to a film that, asides from the superb dance routines, leaves you cold.
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The 40 best film soundtracks 38. Goodfellas (1990) Martin Scorsese had strict rules for the soundtrack to his film Goodfellas: each song had to have been around during the time in which the scene was set, and the tracks had to make some kind of comment on the scene or character in question “in an oblique way”. A staggering 48 songs are heard during the film, including classics by Dean Martin, Fred Astaire and The Drifters, Sid Vicious, The Who and The Rolling Stones. One of the most unforgettable moments is when Bobby Darin’s “Beyond the Sea” plays as the Wise Guys cook dinner, which was “always a big thing” in prison.
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The 40 best film soundtracks 37. Scott Pilgrim vs The World (2010) When it comes to soundtracking your movie, it helps if the director is a massive music nerd. Of course, music was always going to play a huge part in a film about a boy in a band and his video game quest to win the girl of his dreams. But Edgar Wright, a former music video director, found a way to seamlessly integrate his soundtrack into Scott Pilgrim vs the World’s narrative. Beck, who wrote the music for Scott Pilgrim’s garage band Sex Bob-omb, was a perfect match for their chaotic, DIY approach, while Metric’s song “Black Sheep” was used for a performance by ex-girlfriend Envy Adams’s (Brie Larson) band The Clash at Demonhead.
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The 40 best film soundtracks 36. Drive (2011) Drive wouldn’t have worked as well as it did without the soundtrack. Steven Soderbergh's go-to composer Cliff Martinez assembled the songs for Nicolas Winding Refn’s ambitious indie project, showing an understanding that the most effective soundtracks are often the ones that transport you into the movie without you realising. By using a set of mostly female vocalists, all of whom sing over dry electronic beats, Martinez achieved a sonic portrayal of Drive’s startling juxtaposition between beauty and violence.
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The 40 best film soundtracks 35. The Bodyguard (1992) It’s the biggest movie soundtrack of all time and the 15th best-selling album in the US. Whitney Houston breathed new life into songs by Dolly Parton (“I Will Always Love You”) and Chaka Khan (“I’m Every Woman”). Five of the songs performed by Houston were hits: "I Will Always Love You", "I'm Every Woman", "I Have Nothing", "Run to You" (both Oscar-nominated), and "Queen of the Night"
Rex
The 40 best film soundtracks 34. Magical Mystery Tour (1976) Yes, it was the Fab Four's worst film, but the soundtrack is packed with some of their best songs: “I am the Walrus”, "She Loves You" and “Hello, Goodbye”. Where A Hard Day’s Night, Yellow Submarine and Help were undoubtedly more influential on popular culture, Magical Mystery Tour is the most fun to listen to – regardless of how much effort is required to watch.
Getty
The 40 best film soundtracks 33. Belly (1998) Few films offer as comprehensive a look at hip-hop stars during the heights of their creative powers – even though the movie itself was a clumsily written crime drama. Belly’s soundtrack captured the East Coast rap scene as it stepped towards a grittier sound and underwent one of the most important transitions for any genre in music history – with contributions from the likes of D’Angelo, members of the Wu-Tang Clan, Nas and Jay-Z.
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The 40 best film soundtracks 32. Donnie Darko (2001) At the time, it felt like Richard Kelly’s dark and gloomy film starring a young Jake Gyllenhaal was one of the few to truly capture what it meant to be a confused, alienated teenager. With composer Michael Andrews, Kelly picked some the best songs from an era that dealt in existential angst via upbeat synth-pop: Echo and the Bunnymen, Duran Duran, Tears for Fears, The Pet Shop Boys and more. By choosing to close the film on Michael Andrews’ cover of Tears for Fears’ “Mad World”, Kelly underpins both the self-absorbed attitude of teenagers convinced that only the artists singing these songs truly understood them, and the nostalgia felt by their parents who were there in the moment.
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The 40 best film soundtracks 31. Midnight Cowboy (1969) Midnight Cowboy – the first X-rated film to win the Oscar for Best Picture – took original material and pre-existing songs to complement the theme of a naïve cowboy/wannabe sex worker trying to survive in a big city, and the juxtaposition between Jon Voight’s character Joe Buck and dying con artist “Ratso” (Dustin Hoffman). Fred Neil's song “Everybody's Talkin'”, which underscores the first act, won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Male (for Harry Nilsson).
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The 40 best film soundtracks 30. Lost Highway (1997) Trent Reznor’s work on David Lynch’s 1997 neo-noir movie is loaded with stark electronics and instrumentals by Angelo Badalamenti. In between, you have Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails and, of course, This Mortal Coil’s “Song to the Siren” – a track that caught Lynch’s attention and inspired him to co-write two albums for Twin Peaks chanteuse Julee Cruise.
Rex
The 40 best film soundtracks 29. The Last Days of Disco (1998) Whit Stillman’s 1998 indie-classic starred then-virtual unknowns Kate Beckinsale and Chloë Sevigny as friends and roommates in early-Eighties New York. Add that to a wall-to-wall disco soundtrack and you’ve got an intoxicating film, set 20 years after the genre’s heyday, with classic dancefloor anthems from Chic, Diana Ross, and Sister Sledge belted out one after the other.
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The 40 best film soundtracks 28. Singles (1992) In the summer of 1992, the soundtrack to a film that flopped at the box office offered the masses the gateway they needed into the Seattle grunge scene. Cameron Crowe wanted the Singles soundtrack to be “more like a simple mixtape of Seattle’s finest”, and ended up with a veritable who’s-who of every important band from that moment in music history: Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden and Mudhoney… everyone apart from Nirvana. Regardless, almost three decades after the film’s release, the soundtrack serves as a landmark for one of the most pivotal moments in music history.
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The 40 best film soundtracks 27. Cruel Intentions (1999) Adapting literary classics to modern-day high-school scenarios was the big thing in the Nineties. Cruel Intentions came from Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s 18th-century work, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and starred Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe as Kathryn and Sebastian: two spoilt, bored rich kids toying with the naïve and virtuous Annette (Reese Witherspoon). John Ottman was originally enlisted to compose the score, but producers decided that wouldn’t sit well with the teenage demographic it was going for and instead plumped for a soundtrack of Placebo, Blur, Skunk Anansie, Aimee Mann and Counting Crows. This mix of credible and corny mirrors a typical experience we go through as adolescents, discovering individuality via the music we listen to and trying to leave the theatrics behind. The cult status of both the featured music and the film itself suggests we can never let the drama go completely.
Studiocanal
The 40 best film soundtracks 26. Flashdance (1983) Flashdance, the first collaboration between producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, is important because it actually changed how some of the most popular films of the Eighties were shot. For each song featured in the film there is a scene presented in the same way as a music video, like the use of “Maniac” as Alex (Jennifer Beals) trains for her dance audition, or the lead song of the film “What a Feeling”, which plays during the opening montage of the steel mill. The latter, written by Italian composer Giorgio Moroder, Keith Forsey and Irene Cara (who performed the track), became the singer’s first and only number one hit. It also won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, a Golden Globe, and a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Michael Sembello’s “Maniac”, meanwhile, went on to become one of the highest-grossing songs ever written for a film.
The 40 best film soundtracks 25. Half Nelson (2006) While Half Nelson isn’t as highly regarded as Lars and the Real Girl or Drive, it’s the one that helped Ryan Gosling break away from his status as the heartthrob from The Notebook. It also has a phenomenal soundtrack steered by Broken Social Scene, whose brilliant collection of B-sides proved indispensable for this film about a drug-addicted middle-school teacher struggling to deal with the aftermath of a breakup. In between those tracks you’ve got gritty hip hop that shows Dan's crossover into the world of his pupil, the stoic Drey (Shareeka Epps) – from New York collective Dujeous, to Rhymefest.
ThinkFilm
The 40 best film soundtracks 24. Lost in Translation (2003) Sofia Coppola has a history of needle drops that encapsulate certain moods that can’t be expressed through dialogue, particularly if it involves a medley of shoegaze from Air and My Bloody Valentine, and the full-throttle debauchery of Peaches on “Fuck the Pain Away”. The soundtrack was so influential that several critics suggested it had something to do with the rebirth of shoegaze in the mid-Noughties. Either way, there a few better songs to close a film than Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Just Like Honey”, that plays just after the kiss goodbye between Bob (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) and that indecipherable whisper.
Rex
The 40 best film soundtracks 23. Romeo + Juliet (1996) Former Massive Attack producer Nellee Hooper is the brainchild behind one of the greatest film soundtracks of all time. Working with composers Craig Armstrong and Marius de Vries, he beta-tested many of the tracks that ended up on the album by playing them at 5am to afterparty guests at his house in London. Others took direct inspiration from Shakespeare’s original text, with Justin Warfield of One Inch Punch and Art Alexakis of Everclear both allowed to watch early edits of scenes from the film to inspire them. Like the soundtracks for Kill Bill, Trainspotting and Marie Antoinette, it’s the vast eclecticism of the songs featured in Romeo + Juliet that make you remember each one, and the scene where each is used, for years after first seeing the film.
The 40 best film soundtracks 22. The Harder They Come (1973) As well as making a star of reggae singer Jimmy Cliff, both the film and soundtrack for The Harder They Come exposed mainstream audiences to the emerging Kingston recording industry, helping bring the genre to the US and beyond. Only the title track was an original recorded by Cliff for the movie; the rest were singles released in Jamaica between 1967 and 1972, including Cliff’s superb “You Can Get it if You Really Want”, plus songs from seminal artists like Toots and the Maytals and Desmond Dekker.
New World Picures/YouTube
The 40 best film soundtracks 21. The Beach (2000) A veritable masterpiece: The Beach soundtrack is what gives this film starring a fresh-faced Leonardo DiCaprio its vitality, capturing the essence of the trance music heard during Thai beach parties during the Nineties. It was supervised by Pete Tong, who said the songs, including Moby’s “Porcelain” and Dario G’s “Voices”, are what make the film “watchable time and time again”. The way the music progresses mirrors the grit and darkness that begin to emerge out of paradise.
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The 40 best film soundtracks 20. Pretty in Pink (1986) John Hughes virtually pioneered the formula for teen movies soundtracked by angsty British post-punk rock. Echo & the Bunnymen, The Smiths, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and New Order all appeared on what is essentially Hughes’s checklist of what cool kids were – or should have been – listening to in the Eighties.
The 40 best film soundtracks 19. Black Panther (2018) Curated and co-executive produced by Kendrick Lamar, the Black Panther soundtrack brought on a select group of extraordinary talent that would understand the themes in the film, from Anderson .Paak to Earl Sweatshirt. Leading this group is Lamar himself, undoubtedly the best choice of artist for a film that explores responsibility, black power, family dynamics and loyalty. Where Jay-Z failed to step aside on the Great Gatsby soundtrack and let other artists do their thing, Lamar is more interested in highlighting the skills of his fellow artists, like South African singer Babes Wodumo, or Jorja Smith. It’s true that the Black Panther album pales in comparison to some of Lamar’s solo work, but it’s rare to see a soundtrack that so deeply considers the subject matter it has been presented with, and the responsibility of continuing the story through music.
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The 40 best film soundtracks 18. Dazed and Confused (1993) Dazed and Confused was relatable even if you didn’t happen to spend your teenage years riding shotgun in a 1975 Chevy El Camino. This is largely due to director Richard Linklater highlighting an era of raucous butt-rock anthems and stoner jams, from Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” to Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold”.
Gramercy Pictures
The 40 best film soundtracks 17. Marie Antoinette (2006) In a year that was saturated with serious historical and period dramas, from a remake of Jane Eyre to The Queen, Marie Antoinette stood out for its highly stylised and fun approach to a well-known figure. Director Sofia Coppola took a similar approach with the music as James Gunn did for Guardians of the Galaxy, mixing new wave and post-punk – including The Strokes, New Order, Adam and the Ants and The Cure – with period music by Baroque composers Vivaldi and Couperin. By doing so, Coppola gave her audience something to relate to, and a soundtrack that suited Marie Antoinette’s rebellious teenage spirit. The best example of this is in the shopping scene – set to the song “I Want Candy” by Bow Wow Wow – that famously included a pair of purple Converse: one of the most defining fashion items of Nineties teen culture. It is a brilliant yet subtle alignment of modern Western consumerism and the outrageous decadence at Versailles during the 18th century.
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The 40 best film soundtracks 16. Call Me By Your Name (2017) One of the most eclectic compilations to grace cinema-goers’ ears in recent years: the Call Me By Your Name soundtrack wins for those three songs by Sufjan Stevens alone. The American singer-songwriter remixed his 2010 track “Futile Devices” and also wrote two new songs specifically for the film: “Visions of Gideon” and “Mystery of Love”, the latter of which was nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar. Director Luca Guadagnino worked with film editor Walter Fasano and music supervisor Robin Urdang, all understanding that music would play a “vital role”. He wanted the music to give the film a “precise identity” that would act as a “voice” in the movie, he told Billboard. “That’s when I thought of Sufjan Stevens.” Other tracks, like the buoyant “Love My Way” by The Psychedelic Furs, captured the wistful, heady nature of hot, endless summers in Italy during the Eighties.
Sony Pictures Classics
The 40 best film soundtracks 15. Straight Outta Compton (2015) Of course, any biopic about the rise and fall of gangsta rap collective NWA had to have a killer soundtrack – especially if its former members were involved in its production. Even so, the meticulous care with which the soundtrack for Straight Outta Compton was assembled is impressive, and provides backdrop for an origin story about some of the most influential and important records – and artists – of the Eighties and Nineties.
Universal Studios
The 40 best film soundtracks 14. 500 Days of Summer (2009) This offbeat romantic comedy has developed cult status over the years and stood out at the time for its original take on the “boy meets girl” genre. Music is what first drew characters Summer (Zoe Deschanel) and Tom (Joseph Gordon Levitt) together (they start talking after Summer overhears The Smiths playing on Tom’s MP3 player). Each song mirrors the various highs and lows the characters go through, helped by director Marc Webb’s background making music videos for indie pop artists. Regina Spektor’s song “Hero” is the perfect backdrop for the scene where Tom realises his hopes of getting back with Summer are futile; the track closes on the lyric “no one’s got it all”, as if to point out that not everyone gets the fairytale ending they hope for.
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The 40 best film soundtracks 13. Baby Driver (2017) A veritable smorgasbord for any self-respecting music nerd: Baby Driver took movie soundtracks to a whole other plane. The Fault in Our Stars actor Ansel Elgort stars as “Baby”, a skilled getaway driver who relies on a steady stream of music in order to counteract the effects of tinnitus.There are vintage cuts from The Beach Boys, Beck and Barry White, and Seventies rock gems by Queen and Golden Earring. Yet it was the slightly more unassuming song “Bellbottoms” from the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion album Orange that initially inspired the film. A then 21-year-old Edgar Wright was sitting in his bedroom, “completely broke”, when he began to visualise a car chase set to the songs on that album. “It was almost like the closest thing to having action-movie synesthesia, [where] I would listen to that song and imagine this car chase.” he said.
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The 40 best film soundtracks 12. American Graffiti (1973) George Lucas managed to amplify the already-nostalgic mood on his “summer of ‘62” film by choosing songs from the mid-to-late Fifties as the lead tracks on the American Graffiti soundtrack. Songs from Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry to The Beach Boys are all presented by legendary disc jockey Wolfman Jack.
NBC Universal/YouTube
The 40 best film soundtracks 11. 10 Things I Hate About You If Pretty in Pink captured teenage angst in the Eighties, 10 Things I Hate About You achieved it for the decade that followed. Unlike many films of the Nineties, which attempted to capitalise on the major rock stars of the day, 10 Things managed to select what is essentially a list of one-hit wonders, from Letters to Cleo and Semisonic to Save Ferris. When you watch the film today, it only serves to fuel that feeling of nostalgia and add to its ever-growing cult status.
The 40 best film soundtracks 10. Do the Right Thing (1989) Spike Lee’s Brooklyn-based masterpiece is set to a breathtaking jazz score conducted and composed by his father, Bill Lee. It’s also punctuated by summer jams and blissful ballads, or the urgent demands of Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power”, which is played from Radio Raheem’s boombox a number of times through the film.
The 40 best film soundtracks 9. Eden (2014) Until Eden, there was no film about club culture that took the scene seriously. French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Love’s character Paul (Felix de Givry) is based on the experiences of her brother Sven – a relatively popular DJ who had to look on as his peers, including Daft Punk, achieved global fame by pioneering the early EDM scene. Its soundtrack offers a comprehensive look at the house, jungle and garage music that was the lifeblood of Paris youth culture in the Nineties, but is also carefully chosen to match the situation of the film’s characters. Daft Punk’s “Veridis Quo” signals a mood-change at a celebratory dinner, while “Happy Song” by Charles Dockins conveys Paul’s euphoria as his hero Tony Humphries works the decks in a New York club.
The 40 best film soundtracks 8. The Graduate (1968) This was one of the first films to be defined by its music; Mike Nichols also helped pioneer the practice of curating pre-existing songs that would appeal to a pop radio audience. Simon & Garfunkel’s music was the perfect fit when it came to music that would show Dustin Hoffman’s character’s intensifying feelings of isolation, particular whenever “The Sounds of Silence” was used.This was one of the first films to also be defined by its music; Mike Nichols also helped pioneer the practice of curating pre-existing songs that would appeal to a pop radio audience. Simon & Garfunkel’s music was the perfect fit when it came to music that would show Dustin Hoffman’s character’s intensifying feelings of isolation, particular whenever “The Sounds of Silence” was used.
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The 40 best film soundtracks 7. Super Fly (1972) Curtis Mayfield’s third studio album was released as the soundtrack to the Blaxploitation film of the same name. It was groundbreaking for its themes of poverty and drug abuse which made the record stand out among the less socially aware music of its time. It would go on to influence everyone from TV score composers to soul singers in the decades that followed.
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The 40 best film soundtracks 6. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) How do you make a film with aliens, a talking tree and an anthropomorphic tree feel believable? This is the question director James Gunn asked himself during production for Guardians of the Galaxy, before deciding on a mixtape of Sixties and Seventies classics – many of which would be played on the lead character’s Walkman. Arguably the best moment is right at the beginning of the movie, where Quill [Chris Pratt] dances through a deserted temple on a post-apocalyptic planet to Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love”, using a very angry lizard like you would a hairbrush for lip-syncing in front of the mirror. “The music and the Earth stuff is one of those touchstones that we have to remind us that, yeah, Quill is a real person from planet Earth who’s just like you and me," Gunn explained. "Except he’s in this big outer space adventure.”
The 40 best film soundtracks 5. Trainspotting (1996) The soundtrack for Danny Boyle’s adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s novel was so popular it promoted a release of a second soundtrack a year later, in 1997. After two decades, it still holds up as one of the greatest and most lovingly curated collections of songs in music history. The use of “Lust for Life” in the opening scene triggered something of a career renaissance for Iggy Pop (one that many would argue didn’t do him many favours). There’s a romanticised overdose set to Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day”, and Heaven 17 soundtrack a club scene with “Temptation”. A particularly disgusting toilet scene is set to Brian Eno’s “Deep Blue Day” and French composer Georges Bizet’s “Carmen Suite No.2”.
The 40 best film soundtracks 4. Pulp Fiction (1994) Quentin Tarantino didn’t commission a traditional film score for what is arguably his most adored film, 1994’s Pulp Fiction. Instead, he mixed American surf music and classic rock and roll, including the late Dick Dale’s “Misirlou” in the iconic opening scene. The track was suggested to Tarantino by musician Boyd Rice, via their mutual friend Allison Anders. The soundtrack had such an impact – reaching number 21 on the Billboard 200 and selling more than two million units by 1996 – that it was credited with “reinvigorating” surf rock and sparking a trend by advertisers to use it in their commercials, “to help sell everything from burritos to toothpaste”. Chuck Berry’s song “You Never Can Tell”, also known as “C’est la Vie”, also enjoyed a resurgence in popularity thanks to its use in the famous dance scene with Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta).
The 40 best film soundtracks 3. Almost Famous (2000) Neither Cameron Crowe nor his music coordinator Danny Bramson wanted to pander to the charts for this story based on the director’s years as a teenage rock journalist. If anything, they avoided tracks that seemed like potential radio favourites, choosing lesser-known songs like “Sparks” from The Who’s album Tommy as the theme for Crowe’s alter-ego William Miller. The music is essentially a whole other character – a narrator who offers running commentary on the scenarios the others find themselves in. And there are few scenes more uplifting than the one in Almost Famous where, having retrieved guitarist Russell Hammond (Billy Crudup) from a drugs and alcohol-fuelled party, the fictional band Stillwater and their crew take up a rowdy singalong to Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer”.
Rex Features
The 40 best film soundtracks 2. Purple Rain (1984) Prince's acting debut took place in a film that also produced one of his greatest works. The concept for the plot, about a talented but tortured frontman of a band in Minneapolis, was developed by Prince during his 1999 tour. Purple Rain was one of the 10 highest-grossing films of 1984 and shows Prince as his best and most outrageous self. Yet the songs also provided a window through the Purple One's enigmatic facade, to reveal the soul beneath.
Alamy
The 40 best film soundtracks 1. Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003) The Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA worked with director Quentin Tarantino on the collection of music that would accompany Uma Thurman’s character The Bride on her bloody quest for revenge. What is particularly brilliant is the alternation between non-diegetic sound and the silence that precedes and lasts during some of the most tense action sequences. When it comes to the most crucial battle between O-Ren Ishii and The Bride at the end of the film, they first chose the disco flamenco intro from Santa Esmeralda's Latin arrangement of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”. At the gory conclusion, where O-Ren falls, RZA and Tarantino used Meiko Kaji’s “The Flower of Carnage”. The song was first used in the 1973 martial arts film Lady Snowblood, in which Kaji starred. She sings: “I’m a woman who walks at the brink of life and death/ Who emptied my tears many moons ago” and then: “I’ve immersed my body in the river of vengeance.” It's as though the song was written with The Bride in mind.
Miramax
When the MPAA handed a film an X rating – as they did in 1969 with Medium Cool and Last Summer , both because of “language and nudity” – they did so because in their view the film was “not suitable for children”. The system was created by MPAA president Jack Valenti, who had worked as a press officer for President Lyndon Johnson. Texas-born Valenti believed that X-rated pictures were usually “trash and garbage made by people out to exploit”. He did not like the story of a gigolo from his home “cowboy” state.
Valenti was unhappy with the original classification for Midnight Cowboy and was particularly disturbed by a scene involving Buck and a young student played by Bob Balaban, who was appearing in his first film role. “It was heavily implied that I performed oral sex on Jon Voight in a Times Square movie theatre,” recalled Balaban.
Director Schlesinger initially thought Hoffman ‘too good looking’ to play Ratso (Rex)
(Rex Features)
Balaban, who was 22 at the time, recalled telephoning his parents to tell them that his Hollywood career had started. “Do you have any lines?” his mother asked. “Not many,” Balaban replied, “but at least it’s with the star – I give him a blowjob.” His uncle Barney Balaban, who was president of Paramount Pictures, watched a preview of the film. He refused to ever discuss it with his nephew, who went on to have a glittering career that included earning an Oscar nomination for producing Gosford Park .
The MPAA morality guardians were especially agitated by the thought that impressionable young adults might be swayed by the sexual exploits of the handsome, bisexual young Buck, in his western hat and boots (“I ain’t a for-real cowboy, but I am one helluva stud,” Buck shouts. The board were reported as saying they did not like the film’s “homosexual frame of reference”. According to Tino Balio’s book United Artists Volume 2, 1951-1978: The Company That Changed the Film Industry , the film makers were told that the MPPA consulted with a Columbia University psychiatrist called Dr Aaron Stern, who warned that the homosexual scenes “could have an adverse effect on youngsters”. His advice persuaded them to deliver the first X rating to a major studio.
Stern, who was a freelance advisor, had levels of influence over what constituted acceptable morality for public consumption that seem anomalous today. His rigid stance over Midnight Cowboy went down well with his paymasters, and two years later he was promoted to become chief of MPAA’s Code and Rating Administration. When he appeared on the Dick Cavett Show a year after Midnight Cowboy ’s release, he warned, rather sinisterly, that those who made explicit films “have to pay the price for what they do”. Mel Brooks, a guest on the same show, described Stern as “an old fogey”.
In his new elevated role at the MPAA, Stern added an R rating to the film Garden of the Finzi‐Continis , because of a few seconds of bare breast. He advised that a shot of Jack Nicholson’s tongue be cut from a kissing scene in A Safe Place and also warned writer-director Ernest Lehman that any emphasis on masturbation in the adaptation of Philip Roth’s Portnoy’s Complaint would earn that film the unwanted X certificate. Stern was still involved in films in the 1980s, reportedly earning more than $1,000 a day for advising studios on what behaviour during sex scenes would affect classification.
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Try for free In the late 1960s, there was little benefit to film companies from having a movie labelled X-rated. The small gain in notoriety was offset by more commercially damaging consequences. More than 50 per cent of cinemas in America refused to screen X-rated films, and the rating virtually precluded a sale to network television. In addition, many newspapers in America refused to carry advertisements for films marked X.
It took time for the actors to accept that they would receive praise and reward for being part of such a contentious film (Rex)
(Rex Features)
Midnight Cowboy also faced a political backlash, with campaigns aimed at dissuading people from seeing the film. Right-wing senator Ralph Hall, another Texan who was possibly antagonised not only by the film’s homosexual content but also by Buck’s fictional origins in a rural town in his home state, called for legislation imposing a “dirty movie tax” of 50 cents levied on the film. He said he was “disgusted” that people wanted to see Midnight Cowboy . One only hopes he never sat through the 1971 porn parody it inspired, Midnight Plowboy , about a promiscuous hillbilly called Buckalew.
James Leo Herlihy’s graphic tale of a gigolo and his friendship with a lame hustler had been published in 1965. Herlihy, a friend of playwright Tennessee Williams, admitted that he was drawn to writing about “life’s marginalised people”. He wanted his novel to be a realistic account of New York’s underbelly, including the prostitution and drug taking. Herlihy, who was working as a teacher in New York when the film was made, stayed out of the controversy over the X rating. After the film came out, he hardly wrote again and took his own life at the age of 66 in 1993.
London-born Schlesinger, who was gay and Jewish, had always felt like an outsider in New York. He was the ideal man to bring Herlihy’s book to the screen. He chose his staff carefully, bringing in the former blacklisted screenwriter Waldo Salt to help adapt the novel. Michael Childers, who worked as a production assistant and photographer on the movie, said that Schlesinger did not hide his sexuality during the making of the film. “We were one of Hollywood’s first out couples,” Childers told Vanity Fair . “He took me everywhere. I felt a little bit uncomfortable at times, but John never did. He said ‘F**k ’em.’”
Schlesinger was initially ambiguous about the casting choices for the main characters. He thought Hoffman was “too good looking” to play Ratso. United Artists initially considered Elvis Presley for the role of Buck, but his manager Colonel Parker did not like the ethos of the film and reportedly turned the offer down without consulting the singer. Michael Sarrazin was cast to play Buck, but could not get a release from a rival studio. He filmed They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? with Jane Fonda instead.
The studio then turned to unknown actor Voight, who had impressed casting director Marion Dougherty in his screen test. Voight, then 30, was so desperate to play the role that he worked for scale: “Tell them I’ll do this part for nothing,” Voight recalled saying. “They took me at my word, and they gave me minimum for Midnight Cowboy .” At the end of the shoot, they sent him a $14.73 bill for meals on the last day of filming.
Schlesinger sounded out friends and colleagues about his new project. His long-time producer, Joseph Janni, with whom he had worked on a number of films including 1967’s Far from the Madding Crowd , declined to work on Midnight Cowboy . In the book Tales of Hollywood: Rebels, Reds, and Graduates and the Wild Stories Behind the Making of 13 Iconic Films , Milan-born Janni is reported to have told the director: “John, oh my God, are you crazy? This is faggot stuff. This will destroy your career.”
Jerome Hellman, a former marine who had produced films starring Peter Sellers and Sean Connery, was brought in to oversee production. He said he thought the relationship between the two main characters was full of potential but cautioned Schlesinger that the content could spark a furore.
It was undoubtedly the themes explored in the film, rather than the minimal amount of actual nudity, that caused trouble. Even so, Schlesinger remained worried about the sex scenes in the film. Brenda Vaccaro, who portrayed the socialite character Shirley – a woman who pays Buck $20 for sex – said that the cast were aware of a possible backlash. “John’s lament was ‘Oh, good God! Everybody thinks I’m doing a blue movie,’” she later told Vanity Fair.
David V Picker, the president of United Artists, has said that among his greatest career achievements was taking the “risky” decision to stand by Schlesinger’s authentic adaptation of the “terrific little book” by Herlihy. “There are movies I don’t think would have been made had we not done them at United Artists. Certainly Midnight Cowboy and Last Tango in Paris are in that bracket,” he said in 2013 in an interview about his memoirs. The only thing Picker and Schlesinger disagreed about was the soundtrack. Picker wanted Bob Dylan to sing the main tune, but in the end he went with Schlesinger’s preferred choice of Harry Nilsson, whose magnificent version of “Everybody’s Talkin’” went on to win a Grammy.
Schlesinger was delighted with the completed movie, especially the brilliant work of its debutant Polish cinematographer. Adam Holender, who had been recommended by Roman Polanski, captured the “gritty and realistic” nature of the seedier parts of 1960s New York.
Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events The crew and cast were nervous about how their X-rated film would be received at its first low-key preview screening. Hoffman said they feared problems with the rating and recalled that he began to seriously worry “when people walked out in droves after the gay sex scene in the balcony between Balaban and Voight. We thought this could end everybody’s career,” Hoffman told King in 1994. “We felt it was a great movie. We knew they were walking out because they were simply offended.”
The early reviews were also scathing. Variety called the film “generally sordid”. Rex Reed, critic for The New York Observer , described the film as “a collage of screaming, crawling, vomiting humanity”. Pauline Kael, the influential critical for The New Yorker , dismissed Midnight Cowboy as a “cult film” that relied on “grotesque shock effects and the brutality of the hysterical, superficial satire of America” to tell its story.
Everything changed on that Sunday night in May 1969, when the film opened exclusively at the Coronet Theatre on Third Avenue in New York. “There was a 10-minute ovation at the opening night premiere,” Childers told Hollywood Tales . “The next day a friend of ours called and said, ‘You’ve got to go down and check out the lines – they’re all the way round to the 59th Street Bridge, like 14 blocks over.’ John Voight said, ‘I can’t let anybody see me.’ So I said, ‘Hide in the men’s department of Bloomingdale’s and look at the lines through the window.’” The film’s first week gross of $61,503 was the biggest for any film in the history of New York’s East Side.
They told me to appear in a love story where you look like a respectable person, because you could be finished otherwise. I was talked into doing a movie I wished I hadn’t done
Dustin Hoffman on ‘John and Mary’
A buzz had been created and Midnight Cowboy soon had a limited nationwide release. The film split opinion in Hollywood. “Right-wing old-guard reactionaries were shocked that this movie could be made,” Childers told Little White Lies magazine in 2018. “Rosalind Russell said it was filth. But at the same time, there were old-guard people like Joan Crawford, who wrote a beautiful letter about how moving Midnight Cowboy was. So did Lucille Ball, of all people, saying what an important film it was. Gregory Peck wrote a beautiful letter to John, and Gene Kelly loved it too.”
It took time for the actors to accept that they would receive praise and reward for being part of such a contentious film. Hoffman’s agent told his client that his involvement may have “buried his career” and made the actor “so frightened” that he was cajoled into appearing in a mediocre romantic drama called John and Mary , in which he played Mia Farrow’s boyfriend. “They told me to appear in a love story where you look like a respectable person, because you could be finished otherwise,” Hoffman told King. “I was talked into doing a movie I wished I hadn’t done.”
Hoffman’s agent’s warnings could not have been more misguided. When the 42nd Academy Awards were held on 7 April 1970, Midnight Cowboy was, in Hellman’s blunt description, “a f**king smash hit”. Midnight Cowboy won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay (Salt). In addition, Voight and Hoffman were nominated for Best Actor, but lost out to macho cowboy John Wayne for True Grit . There were additional nominations for Sylvia Miles (Best Supporting Actress), and for the film’s editor, Hugh A Robertson, the first African-American nominee in this category. He went on to edit Shaft in 1974.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Show all 90 1 /90Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Scroll through for every single Best Picture winner there has ever been
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Wings (1928) The realistic air-combat sequences – a benchmark for all future aviation scenes – set this film apart from the competition at the very first Academy Awards ceremony (the category was then named Best Picture Production).
Paramount/Rex
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Broadway Melody (1929) This was the first "talkie" to win the main prize. It follows a pair of sisters from the vaudeville circuit who try to make it big on Broadway.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) One of the most harrowing accounts of WWI, All Quiet on the Western Front was the first Best Picture winner to win Best Director too (Lewis Milestone accepted the trophy).
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Cimarron (1931) Westerns don't usually win the main prize at the Oscars, but Cimarron proves a rare exception.
RKO Radio Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Grand Hotel (1932) Grand Hotel , starring Joan Crawford and John Barrymore, is the only Best Picture winner that received no nominations in any other category.
Getty
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Cavalcade (1933) This film presents a view of English life during the first quarter of the 20th century from New Year's Eve 1899 to New Year's Day 1933, from the point of view of well-to-do London residents Jane and Robert Marryot (Diana Wynward and Clive Brook).
Fox Film Corporation
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards It Happened One Night (1934) The first of three films to win in all the five main categories (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay) alongside One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Silence of the Lambs .
Columbia Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) Another win for Cavalcade director Frank Lloyd that inspired the creation of the Best Supporting Actor category after three of its lead stars – Clark Gable, Charles Laughton and Franchot Tone – were nominated for Best Actor. Interestingly, they were all beaten by Victor McLaglen for The Informer .
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Great Ziegfeld (1936) This lavish and extremely lengthy MGM production remains a standard in musical filmmaking, even if critics have fallen out of love with it over the years.
Getty Images
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Life of Emile Zola (1937) Paul Muni failed to win the Best Actor trophy for his portrayal of French playwright Émile Zola, but the film took home Best Picture beating out the likes of The Awful Truth and A Star Is Born .
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards You Can't Take It with You (1938) It Happened One Night filmmaker Frank Capra's third Best Director win came with his second victory in the Best Picture category.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Gone with the Wind (1939) One of the most successful films of all time, Gone with the Wind swept the board at the Oscars, winning 10 out of 13 nominations.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Rebecca (1940) Alfred Hitchcock's first American film, an adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's gothic drama, won Best Picture, but failed to win any awards in any of the acting, writing or director category – one of the only instances in Oscar history.
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards How Green Was My Valley (1941) Otherwise known as: the film that beat Citizen Kane . It's also said to be future Oscar-winner Clint Eastwood's favourite film.
20th Century Fox
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Mrs Miniver (1942) This drama, depicting the life of an unassuming British housewife (Greer Garson) in rural England during World War II, won six Oscars in total.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Casablanca (1943) After almost missing out on a nomination due to a technicality, Casablanca went on to win three Oscars, including Best Director for Michael Curtiz.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Going My Way (1944) Leo McCarey's collaboration with Bing Crosby wasn't just the biggest hit at the 1944 box office, but a ten-time Oscar nominee that marked a first: a Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor nomination - for the same actor (Barry Fitzgerald).
Getty Images
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Lost Weekend (1945) This drama, following Ray Milland's alcoholic writer, was the talk of the 1946 ceremony, winning four trophies in total.
Paramount Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) This war drama was the talk of Hollywood after winning nine Oscars, including two for veteran and non-professional actor Harold Russell, who remains the only person to have won two awards (Best Supporting Actor and an honorary trophy) for the same role.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Gentlemen’s Agreement (1947) Controversial in its time, Gentlemen's Agreement follows a journalist (Gregory Peck) who poses as a Jew to research an exposé on the widespread distrust and dislike of Jews in New York City. It won three of the five Oscars it was nominated for.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Hamlet (1948) Hamlet stands tall as one of the most successful Shakespearean adaptations at the Oscars, as well as the first British film to win Best Picture.
Getty Images
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards All the King’s Men (1949) This adaptation of the Robert Penn Warren novel of the same name starred Broderick Crawford as the ambitious and occasionally ruthless politician, Willie Stark.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards All About Eve (1950) This Best Picture winner won six Oscars, but left lead stars Bette Davis and Anne Baxter – both nominated for Best Actress – empty-handed.
Getty
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards An American in Paris (1951) Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron lead this musical version of George Gershwin's orchestral composition that won six Oscars in all.
Getty
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) Many consider this film to be one of the worst Best Picture winners in Oscar history, and was the last victor to win fewer than three trophies until Spotlight in 2016. Many believe it beat its competitors as it was a chance to honour Cecil B DeMille whose films had failed the main prize.
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Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards From Here to Eternity (1953) Fred Zinneman's romantic drama took home an impressive eight out of 13 nominations, including a Best Supporting Actor win for Frank Sinatra.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards On the Waterfront (1954) Marlon Brando won his first Oscar in this Best Picture winner from Elia Kazan.
Getty
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Marty (1955) Marty – starring Best Actor victor Ernest Borgnine – was also the fourth American release to win the coveted Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Around the World in 80 Days (1956) The adaptation of Jules Verne's classic novel won five Oscars, beat out a particularly tough category that included epics The Ten Commandments , Giant and The King and I .
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) The 30th Oscars ceremony awarded David Lean's epic war film that saw Alec Guinness take home Best Actor.
Columbia Pictures/AP
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Gigi (1958) Leslie Caron fronted classic MGM musical Gigi , which won nine Oscars – a record for just one year.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Ben-Hur (1959) Ben-Hur is the first of only three films to win 11 Academy Awards (see also: Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ). It was nominated 12 times, losing only to Room at the Top in the Best Adapted Screenplay category.
TCM
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Apartment (1960) One of the last black-and-white Oscar winners as Hollywood moved towards colour in films a matter of years after The Apartment 's release. The most recent black-and-white films to win Best Picture are Schindler's List and The Artist .
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards West Side Story (1961) This film, from directors Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, holds the record for most wins for a musical (10 out of 11 nominations).
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Lawrence of Arabia (1962) David Lean's next film following The Bridge on the River Kwai earned him yet another Best Picture and Best Director Oscar win.
Getty
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Tom Jones (1963) None of the producers of adventure-comedy film Tom Jones showed up to accept the trophy, which is now in possession of Albert Finney.
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards My Fair Lady (1964) Eight-time Oscar winning My Fair Lady is considered one of the greatest musicals to this day.
Warner Bros Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Sound of Music (1965) It's hard to believe that Julie Andrews didn't win for her lead role in The Sound of Music , but it did take home the Best Picture trophy in 1965.
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards A Man for All Seasons (1966) Oscar favourite Fred Zinneman (From Here to Eternity ) was the talk of the town after his film about the final year of Sir Thomas More walked away with six awards.
Getty
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Oliver! (1968) No U-certificate film has won Best Picture since Oliver! – the last musical to do so since Chicago in 2002.
Getty
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Midnight Cowboy (1969) On the flip-side, Midnight Cowboy became the first and last X-rated film to win Best Picture (the classification no longer exists).
Getty
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Patton (1970) Seven-time Oscar-winning film Patton made headlines when George C Scott refused to accept his Best Actor trophy due to a dislike of the voting process.
20th Century Fox
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The French Connection (1971) Two years after the US introduced its age certificate system, the first R-rated film scooped Best Picture.
20th Century Fox
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Godfather (1972) The highest-grossing film of 1972 was also the year's biggest Oscar winner, even though both Marlon Brando and Al Pacino boycotted the ceremony (the former won Best Actor and sent American Indian Rights activist Sacheen Littlefeather in his place).
Paramount Pictures.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Sting (1973) The Sting won seven out of its 10 Oscar nominations, with Julia Phillips becoming the first female producer to be nominated for and to win Best Picture.
Reuters
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Godfather Part II (1974) The first and second sequel to have won Best Picture to date (see also; The Return of the King .
Paramount Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) Only three films have won an Academy Award in the five top categories, and this is one of them. It beat out fierce competition from Jaws , Barry Lyndon , Nashville and Dog Day Afternoon .
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Rocky (1976) Rocky became a sleeper hit at both the box office and the Academy Awards after receiving 10 nominations and winning three.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Annie Hall (1977) Annie Hall beat Star Wars to Oscars glory at the 50th edition of the ceremony.
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Deer Hunter (1978) This Best Picture winner also marked the first ever nomination for Meryl Streep who is currently the most nominated actor in Oscars history.
Universal
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Kramer vs Kramer (1979) Another Meryl Streep nomination followed for Kramer vs Kramer , which won five trophies in total.
Columbia Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Ordinary People (1980) Robert Redford's tear-jerking drama beat out hot favourite Raging Bull to the main prize.
Paramount Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Chariots of Fire (1981) The Brits found glory when Chariots of Fire won Best Picture and three other awards.
Enigma Productions
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Gandhi (1982) Richard Attenborough's epic historical drama received several trophies – and beat Steven Spielberg's E.T. to the top prize.
Columbia Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Terms of Endearment (1983) Terms of Endearment slipped through the cracks and won five Oscars from its impressive 11 nominations.
Paramount Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Amadeus (1984) Miloš Forman's lengthy fictionalised tale of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart rightly won the main prize and is one of the few films to have two nominations in the Best Actor category (Tom Hulce and F Murray Abraham).
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Out of Africa (1985) Director Sydney Pollack's Best Picture winner saw Meryl Streep receive yet another nomination.
Universal Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Platoon (1986) This Vietnam drama is the only film to have won Oliver Stone a Best Director Oscar (he also won Best Adapted Screenplay for Midnight Express almost 10 years before.
Orion Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Last Emperor (1987) Bernardo Bertolucci's epic film about the life of Chinese Emperor Puyi won out in what was a rather eclectic range of Best Picture nominees (Fatal Attraction , Moonstruck ). It won all nine Oscars it was nominated for.
Columbia Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Rain Man (1988) Yet another Best Picture winner that was the highest-grossing film of that year.
United Artists
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Driving Miss Daisy (1989) The only film based on an off-Broadway production ever to win an Academy Award for Best Picture, and the first actor since Grand Hotel to not earn a nomination for its director (this would be repeated with Ben Affleck's Argo ).
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Dances with Wolves (1990) Kevin Costner's film became the first Western to win Best Picture since Cimarron in 1931.
Orion Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Silence of the Lambs (1991) The Silence of the Lambs is considered to be the only horror film that has ever won Best Picture – and is also the third of three films to take home trophies in the five main categories.
Orion Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Unforgiven (1992) Clint Eastwood capitalised on Dances With Wolves ' win a few years before by steering this Western to Oscars glory.
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Schindler's List (1993) Steven Spielberg's acclaimed drama failed to win any acting awards but took home seven Oscars in total, including the coveted Best Picture prize.
Universal Studios
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Forrest Gump (1994) Tom Hanks's first Oscar win came with Robert Zemeckis's Best Picture winner. Hanks would win the next year also for Philadelphia .
Paramount Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Braveheart (1995) Braveheart was considered an outside bet until it won Best Film – Drama at the Golden Globes the month before the Oscars were due to take place. Sure enough, it won the main prize.
20th Century Fox
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The English Patient (1996) This major award-winner took home nine out of 12 nominations.
Miramax
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Titanic (1997) Titanic is one of the most successful films in Oscars history. It tied All About Eve for the Oscar nominations (14) and won 11, tying with Ben-Hur .
20th Century Fox
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Shakespeare in Love (1998) Shakespeare in Love won seven of its 13 nominations.
Universal Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards American Beauty (1999) Sam Mendes's drama may have not been considered an immediate favourite, but one tactical DreamWorks campaign later and it went home with four five Oscars.
DreamWorks Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Gladiator (2000) The second highest-grossing film of 2000 went on to win five Oscars.
Dreamworks & Universal Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards A Beautiful Mind (2001) This drama, based on the life of Nobel Laureate John Nash (Russell Crowe), was a surprise winner at this year's ceremony.
Dreamworks & Universal Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Chicago (2002) Chicago was the first musical to win Best Picture since Oliver! in 1968.
Miramax Flms
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) The second sequel to win Best Picture won all 11 Academy Awards it was nominated for, and holds the record for the highest clean sweep in Oscars history.
New Line Productions
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Million Dollar Baby (2004) This Best Picture winner scored Clint Eastwood his second directing Oscar after Unforgiven .
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Crash (2005) Crash was the first Best Picture winner since Rocky (1976) to win only three Oscars.
Lionsgate Films
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Departed (2006) The first and last Martin Scorsese film to win Best Picture (it also won him a belated Director Oscar).
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards No Country for Old Men (2007) It was No Country for Old Men vs There Will Be Blood in one of the greatest Oscar races on record. It was the Coen brothers's crime thriller that reigned supreme.
Miramax Films
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Slumdog Millionaire (2008) Danny Boyle's sleeper hit Slumdog Millionaire became an Oscars success story, winning eight trophies in total.
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Hurt Locker (2009) One of the lowest-grossing films to ever win the main prize, The Hurt Locker also marked the first Best Picture winner by a female director (Kathryn Bigelow). This was also the first time the Best Picture nomination count went above five for the first time since 1943.
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The King's Speech (2010) Many thought The Social Network could reign supreme over The King's Speech , but they were wrong - Tom Hooper's historical drama won four Oscars.
Momentum Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Artist (2011) The first fully black-and-white film to win since The Apartment Schindler's List had moments of colour), this film was also the first French-produced film to ever win the top prize.
Weinstein Company
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Argo (2012) Argo was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won three – although lead star and director was, in the words of Bradley Cooper, "robbed" of a Best Director nomination.
Warner Bros
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards 12 Years a Slave (2013) Steve McQueen's film was considered one of the best of the year, and its three Oscar wins reflected this. It made McQueen the first black British producer to ever receive the award.
Lionsgate
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Birdman (2014) Michael Keaton may have missed out on Best Actor, but Birdman won the main prize.
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Spotlight (2015) Spotlight was the first Best Picture winner to win fewer than three Academy Awards since The Greatest Show on Earth in 1953
Open Road Films
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards Moonlight (2016) Barry Jenkins's drama became the first film with an all-black cast, the first LGBTQ film and the second-lowest-grossing film domestically (behind The Hurt Locker ) to win the Oscar for Best Picture.
A24
Oscars: Every single film to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards The Shape of Water (2017) Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water is the second fantasy film to win Best Picture alongside The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King .
Twentieth Century Fox
The Academy’s stamp of approval was a problem for the MPAA, who were already taking flak for their puritanical approach. A 14-year-old girl even sued the Tedd Mann Circuit for denying her admission to a screening of Midnight Cowboy at one of their cinema chains in Minneapolis. Although she lost the case, her fight for the right to see the film went all the way to the Minnesota Supreme Court.
After the film’s triple Oscars triumph, United Artists re-submitted Midnight Cowboy to the MPAA for a re-rating, after removing the film from cinemas for a requisite 60 days. The ratings board reportedly suggested symbolically deleting one frame from the movie to allow them to say it was “a re-cut version”. Hellman and Schlesinger stood their ground and refused to cut a single frame. The MPAA reverted to its original decision to categorise the film R – a rating it retains. It went back out on general release and ended up grossing $44.8m at the box office.
Schlesinger remained proud of a film he believed was ahead of its time. On its 25th anniversary, the late director said it would not be approved in the modern era. “You couldn’t make Midnight Cowboy now,” Schlesinger said in 1994. “I was recently at dinner with a top studio executive, and I said, ‘If I brought you a story about this dishwasher from Texas who goes to New York dressed as a cowboy to fulfil his fantasy of living off rich women, doesn’t, is desperate, meets a crippled consumptive who later pisses his pants and dies on a bus… would you take it?’”
“I’d show you the door,” the executive answered.
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