The Oscars are usually wrong. Here are the real best pictures. [View all]

1974

Nominees: Chinatown, The Conversation, Lenny, The Godfather Part II, The Towering Inferno

Best picture winner: The Godfather Part II

The actual best picture: Chinatown

“Chinatown” is a Top 10 film of all time: tight yet sumptuous, with a crackerjack script and legendary performances. (We will never recover from some of John Huston’s creepier line readings.) The movie’s central theme — good intentions humiliated by graft and turpitude — is timeless, and the movie stings no matter when (or how many times) you watch it.


1975

Nominees: Barry Lyndon, Dog Day Afternoon, Jaws, Nashville, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Best picture winner: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

The actual best picture: Jaws

The first summer blockbuster remade the way Hollywood does business, and not for the better. And yet “Jaws” itself remains a startlingly pure cinematic experience, a psychological study of fear and survival. Even now, Spielberg’s lumbering vintage mechanical shark is far more believable (and scarier) than most of today’s CGI effects. But the film’s power lies in the simple human dynamic of three men in a boat, trying to save a community and their own lives.


1976

Nominees: All the President’s Men, Bound for Glory, Network, Rocky, Taxi Driver

Best picture winner: Rocky

The actual best picture: Network

Tough year! And “Rocky” was actually a moody, refined piece of filmmaking, in addition to great popular entertainment … but “Network” transcended entertainment and became prophecy in perpetuity (Howard Beale’s latest incarnation is, of course, Donald Trump). The ambition of its writing, the wickedness of its cast, the firm hand of director Sidney Lumet — “Rocky” may go the distance, but “Network” wins by decision.


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