Oscar Winners from the Late 1940s
The Lost Weekend, The Best Years of Our Lives, Gentleman's Agreement
These 1940 Oscar winning films are strong examples of powerful filmmaking. All were well received in their day and are all still highly regarded even now.
All five of these Oscar winning best pictures are dramas. Four of them deal with social problems ranging from addiction to post-war recovery to prejudice to political corruption. The fifth turned to Shakespeare and his view of human foibles. All are worthy of viewing by true film buffs and others who like old films.
1945 Best Picture: The Lost Weekend
- Director Billy Wilder’s tale of a hopeless alcoholic on a three day binge is bleak, depressing and horrifying. Ray Milland, in an Oscar winning performance, is an unlikable, selfish anti-hero who is not afraid to lie, steal, and manipulate people in order to get his needed drinks. Filmed in New York, excellent cinematography contrasts the real everyday world from the hazy, alcoholic prison that Milland lives in. Although some features of the film seem antiquated based upon today’s knowledge of addiction, Wilder still deserves kudos for this realistic portrayal of alcoholism.
1946 Best Picture: The Best Years of Our Lives
- This story of three World War II veterans returning from conflict and adjusting to post-war life in their small Midwestern home town pre-dated and set the stage for the later Vietnam War related films Coming Home, The Deer Hunter, and Born on the Fourth of July. The film features flawless performances from the entire cast, outstanding photography, a powerful story with complex characters, and many memorable scenes. Although it has a “happy” ending, the astute viewer is still left wondering if the three men can really have normal lives.
1947 Best Picture: Gentleman’s Agreement
- In an era when the United States was not yet ready to face the issue of racial prejudice, legendary Oscar director Elia Kazan broke the taboo with this film about anti-Semitism. Gregory Peck portrays a gentile writer who passes himself as Jewish and discovers that racism can take many subtle forms. Although the movie is sometimes murky and seems outdated by today’s standards, Kazan deserves credit for approaching social and racial problems. Two years later he would tackle black-white relationships in Pinky and fifteen years later, Peck would play a similar role as a defender of racial justice in To Kill a Mockingbird.
1948 Best Picture: Hamlet
- Laurence Olivier both directed and starred in this first sound version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It is stagy in parts and has been criticized by some purists because Olivier cut the four hour play to two and half hours, thus removing many scenes and some of the Bard’s dialogue. And he changed the order of other scenes in order to simplify the plot. Despite these “transgressions,” the result was a movie that was accepted well by the general public, many of whom were unfamiliar with Shakespeare. Hamlet also became the first foreign (British) production to win as best picture.
1949 Best Picture: All the King’s Men
- This movie was based on the book by Robert Penn Warren which was, in turn, loosely based on the Louisiana governor, U.S. senator, and demagogue, Huey Long. The character of Willie Stark, an initially well meaning backwoods politician who becomes more corrupt as he becomes more powerful, was brilliantly played by Broderick Crawford. Crawford deservedly won an Oscar as did John Ireland and Mercedes McCambridge in Oscar supporting actor roles. The theme that power not only can corrupt a politician but also people around him has never been better portrayed on the screen. The movie was remade in 2006 starring Sean Penn.
These Oscar winning best pictures are still enjoyable today as are those from the earlier half of the decade.
The copyright of the article Oscar Winners from the Late 1940s in Classic Film Dramas is owned by John K. Davis. Permission to republish Oscar Winners from the Late 1940s must be granted by the author in writing.
