Best Picture Winners

Lili’s Pick: Rocky

Lanie’s Pick: The Sting

There seems to be an endless amount of Oscars best picture winners to choose from because there have been 92 Oscar best picture winners—and yet none of them are Jennifer’s Body. We knew that Rocky would be making an appearance at some point, because I had yet to see it (I know, I know), so we decided to pair it with another winner for best picture: the 1974 winner The Sting. Everyone who encouraged me to watch Rocky assured me that this film was nothing like it seems, and they were 100% correct. What I expected from this film was machismo and physical violence, what I was not expecting was a tender, funny, self-aware story about a guy, his turtles, and the shy lady at the pet store he has a crush on. Rocky is the ultimate underdog story, brought to you by the ultimate underdog, Sylvester Stallone. Rocky’s not your typical tough guy, neither was the charismatic Apollo Creed—a character I expected to be as one-dimensional as Khal Drogo, but Apollo is hardly even a villain! The Sting was not as instantly-lovable, but one can see how and why it won best picture, in 1974. It’s not that I was entirely disappointed by The Sting, it’s just that before I had seen this movie, I’d already seen Oceans Eleven, and about 40 other movies just like it. It’s a classic for a reason, but something about it felt positively antique.