As a build up to the Academy Awards broadcast on ABC this coming Sunday, March 2, 2014, ABC News conducted an online poll to determine the best "Best Picture" winner since 1949.
The contest pitted 64 "Best Picture" winners in bracket form, similar to what sports fans to for the NCAA college basketball tourney, known as "March Madness."
"And the winner is … ‘Forrest Gump,’ the gripping, timeless classic that features Tom Hanks playing a man who might not have the highest I.Q., but possesses the biggest heart," ABC News reports, adding, "The 1994 movie follows this man’s quest to be united with his true love Jenny."
The story adds, "In an astounding upset, ‘Gump’ garnered 54.8 percent of the vote against ‘The Godfather.’ ‘Gump’ had previously knocked off Hollywood classics like ‘Braveheart’ and ‘Rain Man’ on its way to the coveted honor.
"Overall, nearly 529,000 votes were cast over the six rounds."
The oldest movie in the competition was "All the King’s Men," which won the 1949 Oscar for ‘Best Picture."
That means that some of the all-time favorite Academy Award winners that won for Best Picture before 1949 — such as "Gone With the Wind," "Casablanca," "The Best Years of Our Lives," and "It Happened One Night" — were not included in the poll/contest.
“Gump” is a profoundly silly, saccharine, boring, absolutely NOT “gripping” waste of film and talent. One of the worst films of the 1990s, and that’s saying a lot. Further proof that the tastes and sensibilities of the viewing public will always plunge below the lowest common denominator – at least when it comes to worthless online polls.