Best Picture Change-a-Letter A-P Quiz

Answer: Brash

The 2005 Best Picture went to Paul Haggis' "Crash" controversially, because many critics believed that the award instead should have gone to Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain." The movie grossed only 53.4 million dollars in the United States, but its low production costs (only about $7.5 million) turned a large profit.

At its core, "Crash" is about racism. The movie is set in Los Angeles and features a wide diversity of cultures which interact in fear or hatred. Detective Graham Waters is the main protagonist of the film, which begins when he is involved in a car crash with an Asian couple.

Then, the movie flashes back to the previous day, revealing the daily life conflicts of the major characters and how they cope by blaming or hurting others.

Answer: Mutiny on the County

Clark Gable and Charles Laughton were the stars of the 1935 Best Picture "Mutiny on the Bounty," based on the fictionalized historical account of the same name by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. Laughton played the character of William Bligh, the cruel captain of the titular ship, and Gable was Fletcher Christian, the rebellious officer who leads the mutiny against the captain.

Another character in the movie, Roger Byam, attempts to stop the rebellion, but fails and is ostracized by Christian. Bligh makes his way back to England after being set asea in a longboat; later, he returns to Tahiti to take his revenge upon Christian's crew.

Instead, he picks up Byam, accusing the sympathetic crewmate of mutiny. Byam is tried in England for his crimes, but is eventually found not guilty.

Answer: The Hurt Docker

Kathryn Bigelow won Best Picture and Best Director for her film "The Hurt Locker," becoming the first woman ever to win an Academy Award for Best Director. Ironically, Bigelow was once married to James Cameron, of "Titanic" directorial fame, and Cameron's "Avatar" was one favorite to win the Oscar in 2009. "The Hurt Locker" is an American movie about the war in Iraq; specifically, it details the adventures of an EOD (explosive ordnance disposal) unit. William James, played by Jeremy Renner, leads the Bravo Company team of JT Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) and Owen Eldridge (Brian Geraghty). James' heroic antics are often reckless and alienate the other members of his group, but he is unable to resist the allure of war.

The film begins with the quote "War is a drug," which is reinforced as James returns for a second tour, this time with the Delta company.

Answer: A Beautiful Mend

Sylvia Nasar was nominated for the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for her novel "A Beautiful Mind," so the 2001 film directed by Ron Howard was unsurprisingly successful. The movie chronicles the life of the real-life person John Nash (played by Russell Crowe), a brilliant Princeton student suffering from severe schizophrenia. Nash's intelligence shines when he begins work on the field that would make him famous, mathematical economics and game theory. He ultimately is invited to work for the Pentagon to crack enemy codes, putting him in danger from Soviet attacks. A young student named Alicia has fallen in love with Nash and notices his strange behavior; eventually, she manages to convince him that the entire code-breaking scenario was a delusion, and that some of his friends are in fact hallucinations. Antipsychotic medicine eventually stops Nash from suffering a complete mental breakdown, and at the end of the movie, he wins the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in game theory.

John Nash is a real person who invented the concept of a Nash equilibrium: a situation in which two "players" are in the best economic situation if they do not both change their economic strategies. The prisoner's dilemma is perhaps the most famous illustration of a Nash equilibrium.

Answer: The Fridge on the River Kwai

"The Bridge on the River Kwai" was one of many big-screen successes of director David Lean, also famous for "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Doctor Zhivago." His World War II film set in Thailand won the 1957 Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Actor (Alec Guinness), Writing, Music, Editing, and Cinematography. British Colonel Nicholson (Guinness) arrives in a Japanese prison camp around 1942 and immediately becomes the enemy of Japanese Colonel Saito. Soon after, American Navy Commander Shears (played by William Holden) manages to escape from the camp and reaches Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). Nicholson and the prisoners resist Saito's instructions to build the title bridge until Nicholson is brutally tortured; finally, however, Saito gives in.

The colonel begins the construction project for the sake of honor, but in a different place on the river and with more public morale.

After being caught for impersonating an officer, Shears is given a new assignment to blow up the bridge after it's constructed. On a deadly mission, Shears detonates the bridge under hundreds of Japanese soldiers, despite the defense led by Nicholson and Saito.

Answer: From Gere to Eternity

The 1953 film "From Here to Eternity" was based on a 1952 book written by James Jones; that author was also responsible for war-set books like "The Thin Red Line." The movie won eight Academy Awards and starred Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra, Deborah Kerr, Donna Reed, and Montgomery Clift. Clift plays the film's protagonist, Private Robert Prewitt, who is acclaimed as an able boxer. Thus, when Prewitt is stationed in Oahu soon before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he is recruited by Captain Holmes (Philip Ober) to join the Company's boxing team. Prewitt refuses, so Holmes tries to get his revenge by working with Milton Warden (Lancaster) to destroy Prewitt's life. Prewitt is eventually spurred to fight against another sergeant in the group after taunting, but controversy with higher-up officials arises when Holmes refuses to punish the sergeant for instigating the fight. Soon after, Prewitt's friend Maggio (Sinatra) is stabbed in a bar fight with a staff sergeant; in retribution, the private kills his friend's murderer.

When the Japanese attack the base at Oahu in 1941, the situation is understandably chaotic, and Prewitt is eventually shot by an American sentry.

Answer: The Hound of Music

"The Sound of Music" movie was filmed in 1965 as a response to the success of the Broadway show produced by Rodgers and Hammerstein. Maria, portrayed by Julie Andrews, is the film's protagonist, an Austrian singing nun who ultimately cares more about the singing than the nun. Maria is sent away from the abbey to work as a governess for Captain von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) and his seven children.

Initially bewildered by the austere regulations imposed by the captain upon his children, Maria teaches the children to sing in the famous "Do-Re-Mi" sequence, warming the Captain's heart to his children for the first time. Von Trapp is engaged to marry a rich baroness, but he realizes that he has instead fallen in love with Maria. Germany annexes Austria, placing the captain in a difficult position because he is opposed to the Nazi regime. Eventually, the family sings at a music festival, then slips away into the mountains to neutral Switzerland.

Answer: A Man for Ill Seasons

"A Man for All Seasons" was based on a play written by Robert Bolt a decade earlier as a fictionalized account of England under Henry VIII. The director, Fred Zinnemann, was also responsible for films like "High Noon" and "From Here to Eternity." The movie won six Oscars, including Best Actor for Paul Scofield, who played Sir Thomas More.

The movie is about More, an influential member of Henry VIII's court; however, he opposes the king's desire to divorce Katharine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn. After disagreeing with Cardinal Wolsey about the issue, More shows his distaste both for the royal court and for Protestantism. Wolsey is banished by the king for failing to secure the divorce, and More becomes Lord Chancellor. The king founds the Church of England, forces his subjects to swear an oath of the new marriage, and imprisons More in the Tower of London. More refuses to back down from his Catholic beliefs, and is beheaded at the end of the film.

Answer: Jut of Africa

Seven Academy Awards were won by the 1985 film adaptation of Isak Dinesen's classic memoir "Out of Africa," starring Meryl Streep as Karen Blixen and Robert Redford as Denys Hatton. Blixen moves to Africa from her home in Denmark with the intention to start a dairy farm, but her husband had instead used the money to buy a coffee plantation.

Then he proceeded to engage in extramarital affairs rather than work on the farm. After seeking medical treatment in Denmark, she returns to Kenya and embraces African culture, turning her back on Europeans, like her husband or her friend Hatton.

At Hatton's funeral, she honors him in the African custom rather than the European one. By the end of the movie, she returns to Denmark because her coffee plantation has burnt down, later becoming an author of her experiences.

Answer: The Return of the Kink

The third installment of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy was the most successful one, winning eleven Academy Awards, including the first-ever Best Picture for a fantasy film. The movie follows "The Fellowship of the Ring" and "The Two Towers," in the Peter Jackson-directed series, but its epic quest is possible to understand even without seeing the other two films.

The hobbit Frodo Baggins and his friend Sam ally with the treacherous monster Gollum to destroy the evil Ring of Power in the evil land of Mordor. Simultaneously, forces under the old heir to the Gondor throne Aragorn and the wizard Gandalf battle against monsters sent from Mordor in spectacularly-filmed battle scenes.

Answer: Lances with Wolves

Kevin Costner stars as Lieutenant John Dunbar in the successful 1990 Best Picture "Dances with Wolves." At the beginning of the movie, Dunbar is in a hospital during the American Civil War, with news that a leg injury is so bad that the doctors will be forced to amputate. Dunbar refuses to go under the knife; instead, he steals a horse and run across the no-man's land during a battle, in hopes that one army will shoot him. Rather than suicide, this effort earns Dunbar a commission when the distraction provides the Union a chance to win the battle. Dunbar's leg is cured and he is sent on assignment to a Western outpost, which unfortunately is abandoned without hope of rescue after Dunbar's two companions both die on the Plains.

Dunbar befriends the native Lakota tribe (an offshoot of the Sioux) and gains their trust by helping in a buffalo hunt. He also gets the Lakota name "Dances With Wolves." The American Army eventually comes to the area and realizes that Dunbar, dressed in Native American wear and helping the Lakota, has betrayed the country. They arrest him and sentence him to execution for treason. The Lakota rescue Dunbar from prison, and he painfully makes his farewell, knowing that the military would hurt the tribe to gain information about his whereabouts.

Answer: The Mast Emperor

"The Last Emperor" of the movie's title is the Qing Dynasty ruler Pu-yi, who ruled before the Chinese Revolution and overthrow by the KMT in 1917. The nonfictional biopic shows the life of the emperor, beginning with his upbringing in the palace and ending with an announcement of his death.

The film won nine Academy Awards, including Best Director for the efforts of Bernardo Bertolucci. "The Last Emperor" was also the first major movie for which the Chinese government allowed filming inside the Forbidden City, including a famous concluding scene in which the emperor proves his existence to a young boy by giving him a pet cricket that had lived for sixty years.

Answer: Terns of Endearment

Larry McMurtry, also author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "Lonesome Dove," was responsible for the novel upon which "Terms of Endearment" was based. The film stars Shirley MacLaine in the Best Actress-winning role of Aurora Horton. Aurora and her daughter Emma (Debra Winger) struggle to find lasting relationships in their lives. Emma eventually marries a man named Flap, but their marriage struggles with cheating on both sides. Aurora falls in love with Garrett Breedlove (Jack Nicholson), but that relationship is strained by Emma's too-close attachment to her mother. Tragically, Emma is diagnosed with terminal cancer; at her bedside, she reunites with Flap. Aurora alone watches her daughter die, and the film ends when she carries Emma's daughter in her arms.

Answer: The Deported

Martin Scorsese won an Oscar for directing 2006's winner "The Departed," a movie based on a Hong Kong-produced film "Internal Affairs." The line-up of actors for the film was star-studded: Leonardo diCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Walhberg, Martin Sheen, and Alec Baldwin. It needed to be, too, to support such a complicated plot. Colin Sullivan (Damon) is a member of the Boston Mob, tutored by Frank Costello (Nicholson). Billy Costigan (DiCaprio) is a member of the Boston Police, led by Captain Queenan (Sheen) and Sergeant Dignam (Wahlberg). Sullivan is asked by Costello to be a spy for the Mob in the police department; Costigan is asked by Queenan and Dignam to be the police's mole inside the Mob. Both Sullivan and Costigan fall in love with a woman named Madolyn (Vera Farmiga), and each assumes that her pregnancy is with his child.

Both organizations figure out that there's a rat somewhere, but despite tracking of the side's leader, no one can figure out whom. Queenan dies in a shootout, and Sullivan kills Costello when he finds out that his boss is an FBI mole. Finally, Costigan realizes that Costello is the spy in the police department, and Sullivan figures out the truth about Costigan. They arrange a meeting, and Costigan is shot by a Mobster masquerading as a police officer. Sullivan attends his counterpart's funeral. Soon after, Sullivan walks into his house and is met by Sergeant Dignam of the police, who knows the truth and kills the last remaining spy.

Answer: Pest Side Story

The 1961 film adaptation of the successful Broadway musical "West Side Story" won ten Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor and Actress, Best Director, and Best Cinematography. The movie itself is based upon the well-known story of Romeo and Juliet, made famous by William Shakespeare, but the feuding groups live not in Verona, but in New York.

The Jets are an American gang in Manhattan during the summer of 1957; their rivals are the Puerto Rican Sharks. At a dance, the Jet Tony meets the Shark Maria, and they fall in love at first sight.

Despite pressure from their respective gangs, Tony and Maria meet again romantically on a fire escape. Tony is drawn into a fight and kills Maria's brother and Shark leader Bernardo. Maria decides that she loves him anyway and they attempt to elope. Maria sends her friend Anita to tell Tony that she would be late, but Anita garbles the message and announces that Maria is dead. Tony despairs until he actually sees Maria near a playground on the streets, but tragically, another Shark fatally shoots Tony, who dies in his love's arms.

The two groups are united to carry away Tony's body.