40 Years of Movies - Champion!

 

After six weeks and 63 match ups, we have reached the end and can crown a champion.  In a close final vote, Raiders of the Lost Ark has defeated The Princess Bride to claim the title as the best movie from the past 40 years.  It is a deserving movie indeed as it still stands up as a classic rewatchable film all these years later. Indiana Jones is no doubt one of the most iconic characters in film history.  And along the way, Raiders took out a Star Wars movie, a Terminator movie, a Jurassic Park movie, and Die Hard.  So it wasn't exactly an easy path to victory.  But congrats to Raiders of the Lost Ark!  

It is amusing to me that the winner of the bracket ended up being a movie that was released the year I was born, 40 years ago.  There is something ironic about that.  Well, maybe not actually ironic, but Alanis Morissette ironic, at least.  The 80s certainly dominated the bracket, which is probably more a result of nostalgia felt by those in my same age bracket doing the voting.  This was fun for me to look back on all the movies I've loved over my lifetime, and while they are all my favorites to a certain degree, it still hurt to see some get voted out each week.  And I want to thank everyone who participated.  This is something I enjoy doing each year and look forward to making.  Which brings me to the reveal for next year's theme.

Every option on the list of choices for next year received at least four votes, which tells me there is continued interest in me doing this every year.  But the winner, with 19 votes, is Movie Quotes!  So next year we will have a showdown to determine the best quote in movie history.  I can't wait!  I might actually crowdsource your help in gathering movie quotes so be on the lookout for that.  And join in the fun next March when the new bracket is revealed.

For those of you who like to look at the complete bracket from this year, here it is! 

40 Years of Movies - Championship

 

Here we are, the championship.  We've made it to the end and there are only two movies left standing.  It's fitting that there are two 80s movies left as that has been the constant theme in this bracket.  And now it all comes down to this, Raiders of the Lost Ark vs The Princess Bride. Indiana Jones vs the Dread Pirate Roberts. Sallah vs Fezzik. Belloq vs Prince Humperdink.  Ok, I may be taking this too far.  But let's take a quick look at how these two movies advanced.  The Princess Bride actually won quite easily over The Goonies, pulling ahead early and never looking back.  Raiders of the Lost Ark was engaged in a tight back and forth battle with Jurassic Park and managed to pull out a one vote victory at the very end.  The Princess Bride has already taken down one heavyweight franchise, knocking out Return of the Jedi to get to the Final Four.  We'll see if it has what it takes to take down another.  Meanwhile, in its last two matchups, Raiders has taken out Die Hard and Jurassic Park, two movies which had been winning by huge margins up until that point.  And now it comes down to this.  One vote to determine the winner.

But before we get to the vote, here's a few interesting facts from the bracket.  The actor with the most movies in the bracket is Samuel L. Jackson with six.  Although, one of those movies just used his voice and three others were just a cameo.  Behind that, there were four actors with four movies in the bracket: Daniel Craig, Don Cheadle, Chris Pratt, and Nicolas Cage.  The director with the most movies in the bracket was Steven Spielberg, who had four, two of which made the Final Four.  He was also a producer on five other movies in the bracket, so he definitely had a stamp on my movie watching life.  Another interesting fact about the bracket is that it included eight Best Picture nominees, but no winners.  I guess the Academy and I have different views on good movies. But enough with the useless trivia, let's get to the vote!  Thank you to all who have participated, and as a bonus, I've included an extra question to help me decide on next year's bracket.