[ISiddiqui]

SIL gets a bum rap basically due to all the people butt hurt over the movie it beat. It never gets judged on its own merits - most people hate it without having watched it. It's an amazingly witty movie with some fantastic acting.

Same thing with Annie Hall. One of the greatest movies ever, but a bunch of folk are still pissed off it beat Star Wars.

If SIL came out a year early and ended up beating Titanic, Good Will Hunting, LA Confidential or a year later and ended up beating American Beauty, The Green Mile (and its better than all of them) - it would be remembered as a fantastic winner and judged on its own merits.

(FWIW, the movies I'd consider fighting it out for #2 in the 1990s are Pulp Fiction and Unforgiven; Shindler's List, Fargo, and LA Confidential, Good Will Hunting, Saving Private Ryan, and The Thin Red Line are right under those).