Thursday, February 24, 2011

A Shocking Best Picture Oscar Quiz!

This is an original Oscar Trivia Quiz that's all about Best Picture.  There's so much fiendishly good history in this category that this is far from a complete representation.


Maybe I'll make this an annual game.  This year, it's the Best Picture Shockers!  (Much of that is tongue-in-cheek...)


We'll look at incredible choices, snubs, a few fun facts, and finally a gruesome look at the images some Best Picture Winners have offered their viewers.  Who said the Academy was a group of intellectual snobs?


I'll post the results in an upcoming post.  Feel free to put your guesses in the comments, or send them to me via e-mail (on my Full Profile).


Enjoy!

1. Which of the following Actors/Actresses has NEVER appeared in an Oscar-Winning Best Picture?
___Katherine Hepburn
___Spencer Tracy
___Susan Sarandon
___Heath Ledger
___Jeff Bridges
___Helena Bonham-Carter
___Glenn Close
___Denzel Washington
___Nicole Kidman

2. Which of the following performers, all of whom became famous from their TV appearances, went on to appear in an Oscar-Winning Best Picture?
___Mary Tyler Moore
___Tony Danza
___Danny DeVito
___Woody Harrelson
___Sally Field
___Donna Reed

3. What is the only Oscar-Winning best Picture with no speaking parts for women?

4. Which Best Picture Winner features a scene in which the lead characters appear briefly as animated cartoons?

5. I counted 3 Best Pictures in which one man kisses another man on the mouth.  Name the films. 

6. What was the first year that all (5) Best Picture nominees were in color?

7. What was the last year that more than one black-and-white film competed for Best Picture?


8. The late John Cazale, a well-known actor from the 1970's, appeared in only five (5) movies before his untimely death at age 43 in 1978.  What do these films have in common?




9. After 1932 only one film has won for Best Picture whose Director was not nominated.  Name the film (and the Director for meaningless extra credit!)

(The following is not for the faint-hearted.)

10. And now....For those who cite this year's Best Picture race as evidence that Oscar is always too genteel, I disagree.  Especially in the last few decades, the Motion Picture Academy has shown itself to have a rabid appetite for the Grand Guignol! 

To prove that Oscar does not always go for  "feel-good" ,  I have compiled a list of horrendous, or just plain gross, images that have been dished up by Best Picture winners for the delectation of Oscar fans the world over.  We Oscar-film devotees have been subjected to cumulative trauma!  Name the Oscar-Winning Best Films in which these intense images and sequences have appeared..... 

A--The title character smashes his pet mouse against a wall
B--An old man is beaten and has a telephone receiver stuffed into his toothless mouth
C--The lead character is drawn and quartered
D--A woman's face is disfigured with a knife
E--The leading lady is bludgeoned to death while the killer's dog looks on (HINT: this was actually the last 
       G-rated Best Picture winner!)
F--The protagonist is attacked and almost eaten by an enormous spider
G--The heroine attempts a suicidal pill overdose on Christmas Eve
H--A man's thumbs are cut off, without anesthesia, by a nurse
I--A wife beater is strangled to death--he kicks in a car windshield during the struggle
J--The hero's eyelid wound is lanced, as blood spurts
K--The leading lady attempts to chew out her own tongue
L--While the hero pleads with him to come home, the hero's best friend shoots himself in the head
M--To settle an old score, the main character slices an old man's stomach with a knife
N--The romantic lead drowns in an icy ocean
O--The protagonist, weak from a bloody gunshot wound, turns toward the camera and vomits
P--A mobster casually waves a corpse's severed hand
Q--A little boy jumps into and swims through a pile of excrement
R--Another little boy hides in a latrine chest-deep in excrement

...Is it any wonder that Oscar may embrace something more comforting this year? 

3 comments:

  1. AWESOME post! I just spent some time working on it, so it must've been a success. :) Here goes...

    1) Trick question perhaps? I know more than a couple of these haven't appeared in BP winners...
    2) Mary Tyler Moore in Ordinary People
    3) Well, Wings would almost count since no one "speaks," but you're probably looking for Lawrence of Arabia?
    4) Annie Hall! Love that part!
    5) Well, I know American Beauty and The Godfather Part II for sure... maybe Kramer vs. Kramer? But I doubt Justin Henry counts as a "man."
    6) 1956?
    7) Consequently, 1955?
    8) They were all nominated for BP
    9) Driving Miss Daisy (ex. Bruce Beresford)

    ...now with these I only got a few... a good lineup though. :)

    (b) Midnight Cowboy
    (c) Braveheart
    (e) Oliver!
    (f) Return of the King
    (g) not sure, but guessing The Apartment
    (n) Titanic
    (p) The Departed
    (r) Slumdog Millionaire

    Well done sir!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow - incredible (and I know so very little) but filling in some gaps from Lukes answers:

    10d Unforgiven
    10h The English Patient
    10i Godfather
    10j Rocky
    10k Million Dollar Baby
    10l Deer Hunter
    10m Godfather Part II
    10o Forest Gump
    10q Slumdog Millionaire (but that leaves r, wich I'm unsure about)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nice job, both of you! Thanks for giving it a a shot!

    ReplyDelete