Unforgiven

4. "Million Dollar Baby," Best Picture and Best Director, 2005
Seeing the great Clint Eastwood win Best Director and Best Picture awards for "Unforgiven" in 1993 was one of the few unqualified thrills of Oscar memory. First, a perfect film made by the only director who ... morecould fully realize it, and second, the narrative: An artist underestimated as a lightweight former TV and action movie actor finally arrives to the glory and recognition he had long deserved. Perfect. Well done, academy. Now flash forward to 2005, just one year after Eastwood's abominable, though heavily nominated, "Mystic River" was edged out by Peter Jackson's triumphal "The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King." Lo and behold, an even worse Eastwood production, a film that begins with the gripping story of a female boxer and her grizzled trainer, then devolves into a moribund morality play about the right to die, walks home with the statues. Clearly a case of the academy feeling good about itself for Talking About Issues and wanting to extend the "Unforgiven" narrative. No such luck. For another tale of directorial tokenism, see also: "The Departed," Best Picture/Best Director, 2007, in which Martin Scorsese, after years of benign and malicious neglect, was finally given his first Oscar. For his least-deserving film. Even "The Aviator" (up against "Million Dollar Baby") would've been better. But that's for another article. (Warner Bros. Pictures)