30 Oscar losers that should have been Oscar winners
By Emily Scott
The Shawshank Redemption losing to Forrest Gump – Best Picture (1995)
The Winner
Forrest Gump, the candy-colored tale of a mentally challenged man making his way through every significant historical moment in the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. Tom Hanks stars as the ping-pong-playing, shrimp-catching, running soldier. Robert Zemeckis directs. Feat. Robin Wright as the messed-up woman that Forrest’s love saves in the end, and Gary Sinise as the hard-ass paraplegic.
The Loser
The Shawshank Redemption, a movie about the manipulation and escape of Andy Dufresne, a prisoner at Shawshank State Penitentiary. Frank Darabont wrote and directed. Feat. Tim Robbins as the white-collar escapee, and Morgan Freeman as the fellow prisoner and friend who scores him a poster.
Why It Was Wrong
I don’t want anyone to get me wrong; Forrest Gump is a good movie. It is fun and funny and emotional. And I’m not here to tell you that Tom Hanks or Robert Zemeckis or anyone else involved in that movie don’t deserve recognition. It’s a classic. But The Shawshank Redemption, though.
Y’all. Can we just talk about how The Shawshank Redemption was nominated for seven Oscars that year? Picture, Actor, Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Score, and Sound Mixing. And it won NOT A SINGLE ONE. And my only question is, how?
Shawshank deals with very real problems surrounding the prison system. One prisoner is manipulated into money laundering and denied parole opportunities because of it. Another is beaten to death by the warden because he knows one of the men in the prison is innocent. Perhaps the most relevant and harrowing moment in the movie is the one in which, after 50 years of imprisonment, a character is paroled. And, because he doesn’t have the resources to help him adjust to life outside the prison, he commits suicide.
The point being, Shawshank is dealing with real stuff here. While there are moments of the dark elements of reality in Forrest Gump, the movie mainly glosses over them. It’s as if the movie is told from the perspective of Forrest, a man whose mental challenges keep him from being fully aware and understanding of what’s happening around him. The hints we get at the Watergate scandal or Jenny’s HIV don’t go more than skin deep. But The Shawshank Redemption doesn’t pull punches. It delivers.