3: Shakespeare in Love beats Saving Private Ryan

Saving Private Ryan

By 1999 sending out screeners was common practice in the Academy, saving voters travelling to cinemas to watch movies they could then watch in the comfort of their own homes. This could be the only possible reason for Shakespeare in Love’s victory over Saving Private Ryan.

Saving Private Ryan is a breath taking and exhilarating movie, right up there with Speilberg’s finest and it is a movie that really needs to be seen on the big screen. Shakespeare in love is a cutesy film that is relatively easy to watch and suits a small screen.

Saving Private Ryan’s loss is one of the biggest upsets in the history of the Academy and it’s easy to see why. Those opening moments on the D-day beaches are some of the finest war scenes in the history of cinema, Shakespeare is memorable for nothing, other than being the film that somehow beat Saving Private Ryan.