The Academy Awards are supposed to represent the last word in Hollywood quality, and to make a practice of honoring the best, not just the best-connected. But a quick glance through the best picture winners of the last two decades shows another side of Oscar. It would appear that Academy voters are absolute suckers for shameless tear-jerkers, and will always reward raw emotion over substance and relevance. It’s that preference for over-the-top melodrama that explains how Forrest Gump beat out Quiz Show, how Saving Private Ryan lost out to Shakespeare in Love, and it’s also the reason that such thought-provokig films as Syriana, Munich, and Good Night and Good Luck haven’t got a chance against Brokeback Mountain.