It feels like trying to score a cheap hit on famous celebrities by stating that any Oscar win is more like a Lifetime Achievement award, but after really taking a look at the movies they won for it’s hard to say that it’s not accurate since, well, it is. Depending on where and in what company this might be said it feels safe to say that many people would leap to the defense of the supposedly maligned celebrities and even the Oscars, but the truth is that the roles that won these people their awards are usually seen as not quite as convincing as some of their other roles that truly had people in tears or gnashing their teeth since they couldn’t help but be impressed at the depths of emotion displayed by those on screen. Before those folks get too wound up though, let’s just say that some of these actors have done a tremendous job in the past, and the fact that they weren’t awarded for previous roles kind of indicates that the Academy might have been trying to make it up to them by finding some way to get an award into their hands to make up for the unplanned slight that happened in the past. That might not be as soothing as it should be, but at the very least it’s an explanation.
Here are a few Oscar wins that felt more like Lifetime Achievement awards.
5. Sean Connery – The Untouchables
With everything that Connery did in his life, it’s hard to think that this was the movie that managed to win him an Oscar, no matter that he played a great role for something that was a bit of revisionist history. If anyone picks up a history book and reads the story of the group that laid the basis for The Untouchables they’ll find that this group never existed in this capacity. Plus, Connery became the most Scottis-sounding Irish-American in the history of movies at that time, though his acting did manage to win through that particular challenge. But to think that this is the movie that won him the award is a little confusing.
4. Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
There are likely many people that would gladly argue that Bullock earned this award since the movie was such a touching story. But much like a lot of movies based on true stories, this one went wide of the mark just to make a more entertaining tale that people would lock on and think was inspiring in such a huge way. There’s no doubt that the real story was inspiring in some ways, but it’d be nice to see a true story actually play out the way it went in real life for once since otherwise what we’re getting are movies that many people tend to think of as real and the result from that is kind of a mess.
3. Leonardo DiCaprio – The Revenant
This really felt more like the “It’s about time” award since people had been clamoring for Leo to win an award for a long time before this finally happened. But thinking that this was the movie that managed to win him the award is conflicting since despite what anyone would say, this still doesn’t feel like DiCaprio at his best. If he was going to be granted an award like this one might have thought that something like Titanic or What’s Eating Gilbert Grape might have been seen as better options to award him in this manner since his performances in those were absolutely great.
2. Martin Scorsese – The Departed
Be honest with this one. There are several other movies that Scorsese has made that might have deserved an Oscar before this one since he’s the kind of guy that does revisionist history like everyone else, but at the very least he makes it entertaining. His movies are usually something that makes people think and perhaps even pick up a history book or do a Google search to see what they can find on the subject to parse fiction from reality. But this movie ended up being about who was the biggest rat and eventually who was the nastiest rat that would be standing at the end.
1. Al Pacino – Scent of a Woman
It’s true that this movie was enjoyable and it did show Pacino in one of his best roles possible, but it still feels as though he should have been piling up the awards before now since he’s been such a great actor for so long. While this movie was great and he did an awesome job, the idea is that he could have won the award earlier and this would have been seen as an Oscar win that continued to establish him as a legend. This guy has been great for quite a while after all.
There’s no attempt to invalidate the wins, but they do feel slightly lesser for some reason.
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