Ok the day is coming. Oscars are next Sunday (March 23rd) and it's very possible that we will relive some of the greatest Oscar upsets in Academy History. Looking back at some of the events that happened are just sickening. Ok, let's get started, this is order of dates...

1972William Friedkin wins Best Director over Stanley Kubrick. Granted, I think French Connection deserved Best Picture over A Clockwork Orange, but his is like comparing cars to...well oranges. Kubrick's direction in A Clockwork Orange is of his best and should have been the movie in which he won Best Director.

1973Joel Grey wins Best Supporting Actor in Cabaret over Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, and James Caan. All three of the latter actors were in The Godfather, often considered the greatest movie of all time. Coppola's crime family saga was the starmaking origin for all three now-leading men. The Oscar should have gone to Al Pacino or James Caan.

1974Tatum O'Neal wins Best Supporting Actress in Paper Moon over Linda Blair from The Exorcist. Linda Blair was barely a teenager when she played the devil possessed little girl who spoke latin, vomited, and spun her head around. Some 15 people died on the set of the Exorcist and every day was a constant battle to complete filming. On top of that, Linda Blair won multiple awards. To this day, no movie has surpassed the terror of the orinial Exorcist and Linda Blair never recieved her Oscar.

1975Art Carney wins Best Actor over Jack Nicholson from Chinatown. To this day, not many people have seen Harry and Tonto but Jack's performance has stood the test of time and Mr. Polankski's detective thriller has become a milestone of moviemaking achievement. This is a perfect case of a huge upset.

1977Brace Yourself...Rocky wins Best Picture over Martin Scorsese's classic Taxi Driver. The simple minded boxing picture has proven to be a classic of sorts, but Taxi Driver is simply a better movie. This was the beginning of a string of insults to Martin Scorsese, he wasn't even nominated for Best Director.

1980Kramer vs Kramer wins Best Picture and Best Director over Apocalypse Now and director Frances Ford Coppola. Robert Benton was a nobody director and continued to be a nobody director. At the same time, Apocalypse Now is regarded as the best war movie of all time.

1981First off, I loved Ordinary People and I thought Robert Redford did a good job. But, this is round II of upsets for Martin Scorsese. Ordinary People wins Best Picture and Best Director over Raging Bull. This is one of the saddest days in Academy history.

1986Sydney Pollack wins Best Director over Akira Kurosawa's for his King Lear Adaptation: RAN. RAN is said to have one of the greatest directions of all time by probably the greatest director to ever live. Out of Africa was an exceptional movie, but when compared to Akira Kurosawa, nobody can compete.

1989Round III of upsets for Martin Scorsese. His beautiful classic, and one his best movies Last Temptation of Christ lost Best Director to Barry Levinson's Rain Man. Again, I really liked Rain Man, but it wasn't the direction that made it good, it was Dustin Hoffman, never forget that.

1990Driving Miss Daisy wins Best Picture over My Left Foot. Who is the greatest actor alive...that's right everybody, Daniel Day-Lewis. And in this movie he plays a man with cerebral palsy and gives possibly the greatest acting portrayel of all time. In no other movie are you this into the characters, I strongly suggest you check it out.

1991Round IV of upsets for Martin Scorsese. Dances with Wolves wins Best Picture and Best Director for Kevin Costner over Goodfellas. There really just isn't words to describe this mishap to someone who hasn't seen Goodfellas. In his prime, Costner made a helluva movie in Dances with Wolves, but there is no excuse for Kevin Costner to be regarded as the better director than Martin Scorsese that year for Goodfellas.

1994This may be considered heresy to many of you, but here is the upset of 1994. Tom Hanks wins Best Actor over Daniel Day-Lewis from In the Name of the Father. In Philadelphia, Hanks proves he is one of the greatest working actors, and he deserved his Oscar the next year for Forrest Gump, but once again, the greatest living actor should not lose.

1995Oh Wow, what a year. While Forrest Gump did deserve Best Actor (see above), it did not deserve the two other biggest awards it recieved: Best Picture and Best Director. For Best Picture, it won over both Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction. For Best Director, it won over Quentin Tarantino, Woody Allen, and my choice to win Krzysztof Kieslowski for Red.

1998This is a tough year to comment on, since Titanic won just about everything. It won some 11 awards. My stance is this...it deserved 10. It did not deserve Best Picture. James Cameron won Best Director over Curtis Hanson, and I am satisfied with that. But L.A. Confidential and Good Will Hunting were both better movies than Titanic and Titanic won. Everyone knew Titanic would win, but secretly everone knew it wasn't as good as it seemed. Just a big monster of a movie to grand to notice its flaws.

1999Very rarely does upsets like this happen. Shakespeare in Love wins over Saving Private Ryan, Life is Beautiful, and The Thin Red Line. This was the beginning of the political wars of the Oscar. Around this year, studios began posting For Your Consideration ads rather than letting the movies speak for themselves. Somehow Harvey Weinstein convinced the academy that Shakespeare in Love is a better movie than Saving Private Ryan, I just don't understand it. Furthermore, Roberto Benigni wins Best Actor for Life is Beautiful over Edward Norton's blistering performance in American History X. Everyone who has seen this will agree with me, I think.

2000You may as well start e-mailing/IMing me hate mail. In a huge cinematic upset American Beauty wins Best Picture, Best Actor (Kevin Spacey), and Best Director (Sam Mendes) over the INCOMPERABLE courtroom drama The Insider. The direction by Michael Mann was better, Russell Crowe's acting was better, and The Insider was a better movie than American Beauty. What do you think of that?

2001Once the academy realized what it did in 2000, it was too late. So, they decided to apologize to Russell Crowe by giving him the Best Actor award for Gladiator which he didn't particularly deserve. Who did deserve it, everyone else nominated that year. Tom Hanks (Cast Away), Javier Bardem (Before Night Falls), Geoffrey Rush (Quills), and of course Ed Harris (Pollock). I won't complain about Gladiator winning Best Picture. Furthermore, Julia Roberts wins Best Actress over Ellen Burstyn from Requiem for a Dream. This is an insult to anybody who likes movies. Requiem for a Dream was one of the boldest, disturbing movies ever made, and Mrs. Burstyn deservered that Oscar for the will and the way she achieved it.

2002Back to Russell Crowe. He DID deserve the oscar this year for A Beautiful Mind. Somehow, however, Training Day's Denzel Washington walked away with the Oscar. I dont' understand how this could've happened. Denzel is always good, there is no question to that. I just feel it wasn't his year. He deserved his award for Glory a few years back and it should've been left at that, at least for now.

2003To Be Announced on March 23rd, 2003.