It is baffling to me that "Tom Jones" is a Best Picture winner, as it is actually the worst movie I have seen from 1963 at this point in time. This movie is just a strange one. Period pieces are not usually my thing, but I do think they can be done well. If I'm being honest, if you've seen Stanley Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon," there is almost no reason to watch this movie, as that film does everything in a better and more interesting way. I feel the humor doesn't work for me and the story is not engaging. That being said, the performances are solid and the costumes and sets look very nice. Overall, this is easily one of my least favorite Oscar-winning movies and maybe there's an audience for it out there, but for me, it was just boring and unengaging.

This movie of the year features Albert Finney's greatest performance.

DAD *vigorously lifts man onto horse and agressivly kisses him on the lips*

Richardson's fascination with and examination of the basest impulses of all people (regardless of class) works well within the story's madcap antics. I think the word "irreverent" was written specifically to describe this movie.

Hilarious movie! Can't wait to watch it again. I'm a big fan of Fielding's work and they all did a fantastic job here. Well done!

Don't see the comedy part, but interesting to see a movie made from a 1749 novel.

Very bawdy comedy won Best Picture Oscar!

Albert Finney is wonderful as the scorned foundling who has a good heart as well as a healthy libido who wins in the end.

You go from Lawrence of Arabia to this trash?!?! And I thought no film could rival The Greatest Show on Earth for worst best picture but I was wrong. I think it is just a product of its time. That being said, 1963 is a really bad year for film which is probably why this odd film was even nominated. Did I mention that I thought it was awful?

Some of the worst production quality I've seen from any film. Weirdly this bawdy almost carry on type British film somehow won An Oscar for best picture. It's weird but it's not entirely awful. The saving grace are some larger than life but brilliantly funny characters and a simple but engaging plot.

With a rambunctious and lovable protagonist, Tom Jones is a wonderful film. A great cast leaded by Albert Finney makes this story of a illegitimate young man whose fortune turns for better a classic.

Here's a riddle: what do you get when you hire Baz Luhrmann to direct Barry Lyndon? You get Tom Jones, an eccentric and zany picture telling the adventures of the bastard child Tom Jones (Albert Finney). The suave handsome womanizer falls in love with Sophie (Susannah York), to the disapproval of her parents. She leaves Tom heartbroken, because she discovers his lusty reputation with women, whether finding a harlot under the bridge or hearing his engagement to Lady Bellaston (Joan Greenwood). When I first saw the movie in college, I thought it was okay, aside from David Tomlinson's performance as the horny awkward London courtesan who stole the movie's final act. Looking back on it now, my criticism remains the same. Part of my problems with the movie stem from it being tame and formulaic compared to other period comedies like Blackadder the Third. Jones is humorous, but not hilarious, as I'm appreciating the sets rather than the comedy. Tony Richardson wasn't satisfied with the way his movie turned out and part of me cannot miss why. While certainly wild and not without charm, it's not unusual to say that Tom Jones is okay and not one of the Academy's best choices. (3 Gallow Hangings out of 5)

I didn't get one second of amusement or joy out of the entire film.

Fascinating look of a trend-setting movie which helped changed British cinema. Numerous entertaining characters mixed together with delightful comedic scenes.

It's a madcap movie. It's loud and brash. It makes no apologises. It's silly and very fast paced. Albert Finley looks like he is enjoying himself and is very likeable as the rogue. The sound is very cheeky and I really enjoyed. The scenes change very quickly, a lot does happen which does frustrate as parts seem a little rushed as the story moves on. Visually it's very striking, it has a great look about it with the costumes and locations giving a feel of the period. The comical narrative adds to the satire of the times, it's has its funny moments, including the flirty eating scene, the sword fighting and the chase in the inn. Tom Jones sleeps around but still feels in love with Sophie, which at times I don't get! Susan York is the stand out supporting cast with many others playing crazy including Hugh Griffith as Squire Western. The film is a little short to fully embrace the character Tom Jones. It's entertaining but I can understand why some people won't like it. Very surprised it won best picture as comedies are unusually not films that win. Plus I don't think it fully merits best picture. I enjoyed watching it though.

Crass, zany and bawdy! This film was a slow burn of humor and satisfaction. Albert Finney plays the titular character in the 1964 Oscar winning best picture, Tom Jones. This British film is an adaptation of the 1749 novel, "The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling", and set in the same time period. A narrator shares passages from the original texts throughout the film. The story follows the trials and tribulations of a bastard child taken in and raised by a family of means. That bastard child grows up to be an extremely lovable rascal, both to the other characters around him, and to the audience. The movie employs a plethora of what one could either call techniques or gimmicks as it lays out the full story. It opens with a silent film style of setting things up with written word and no dialogue. It later employs freeze frames, fast forward motion and sound, time lapsed still frames, and breaking of the 4th wall. The latter always done as a way of acknowledging the audience, but never actually engaging them… until the final time! There is some fantastic camera work, with a hunting scene near the beginning of the film being a particular standout. It contains a large gathering of hunters on horseback, a large pack of hunting dogs and a single small deer as the prey. As the viewer you are alternately looking from above and then immersed right in the action. The scene lasts almost 7 minutes and is breathtaking not only for its pacing, but it's camera intricacy given all the activity going on. While the film is a comedy, and full of sexual bravado, it also conveys the brutality and crudeness of the era. The way that animals are treated is particularly unnerving, but also the way that people eat and food falls out of their mouths because they are chewing and talking, and the food just stays in their beards!! It's raw, and makes for a fascinating contrast of how really, our ability to develop manners and civility is the only thing that separates us from other species that run rampant throughout the film. As I watched the movie, it reminded me of when I discovered Monty Python in high school. At first it's so different in tone and presentation that it takes a bit of opening your mind to really appreciate it. But then once you get it, it just gets funnier and funnier as it continues. That's how I felt about this film. By the time it gets to the food fest scene (Two characters literally devour food in the most disgusting, and yet hilarious, attempt to express what they want to do with each other sexually…. and it goes on, and on, and on!!) I couldn't stop laughing. The movie marquis claims, "The whole world loves Tom Jones!" I don't know if that's true, but I know I did!

Based on Henry Fielding's novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, Tony Richardson's 1963 Tom Jones eschews a straight forward adaptation. Instead, Richardson takes the spirit of the original book and produces a rip-roaring comedy that makes great use of many of the film-making tools at his disposal. Tom Jones loosely shares Fielding's story of the titular foundling's misadventures, but turns it into a series of comic set-pieces that exploit both the witty dialogue of John Osbourne's screenplay and the slapstick potential of the format. This is immediately apparent from the opening scenes, filmed in the style of a silent movie, complete with intertitles. It simultaneously amuses and establishes the visual feel of the film. Richardson exploits all manner of visual gimmicks to hilarious effect: the first time Tom breaks the fourth wall, it's genuinely surprising. Later, mid-argument, he asks the audience if we have seen anything. At one point, he hangs his hat over the lens, ending a scene. Near the end of the film, Mrs Waters turns to camera and explains what the two Squires are talking about. This is a wonderfully visual film. Cinematographer Walter Lassally makes great use of the Engish location filming, the hunt sequence is impressively shot for example, the giddying carousel of different shots use capturing the unruly chaos of the enterprise, culminating in Hugh Griffith triumphantly exposing the deer's slit throat (this is one of several examples of sudden, brief, uncompromising depictions of violence that pepper the film). Hilariously (and slightly revoltingly) Tom and Mrs Waters devour a huge meal before they go to bed. At one point, Square is revealed in Molly's bed wearing only a bonnet, a shot that requires no dialogue and reflects the film's jaw-dropping bawdiness. Tom's flight from the inn when Squire Western turns up is speeded up, adding to the slapstick feel (the sequence ends with Fitzpatrick getting into bed with Mrs Waters, whom he previously mistook for his wife). The film's two fights – Tom's scrap with Northerton and his later duel with Fitzpatrick – are both stylishly choreographed, and filmed with a sweaty urgency: in the later, Finney and George A. Cooper both give impressive fencing performances. The contribution of John Addison's merry score should not be underestimated and it reaches its high point when Tom is sent to Tyburn Gaol and lyrics take up the narrative. The raucous comic feel is added to by the cartoonish characters, mostly brought to life by the cream of British acting talent at the time, most of whom ham their roles up for all they are worth. As well as Albert Finney in the lead role, there are great performances from Hugh Griffiths, Susannah York, Peter Bull, Julian Glover and – in his first film role – David Warner. Griffith – whose character is often seen lying in hay bales or on the floor with his dogs for no obvious reason – steals the show whenever he's on screen and gets some of the best lines, for example the outrageous "What a misery it is to have daughters, when one has a good mare and dogs". The movie blends both the cringe-worthy sexism of the time (Lord Fellamar molesting Sophie in a way that should be played for laughs) with indomitable matriarchs such as Lady Bellaston (who seduces Tom) and Edith Evans magnificent Miss Western, who wins every verbal duel with her brother and at one brilliantly dismisses a luckless highwayman by refusing to stand and deliver on the grounds that she isn't a travelling midwife. There are also femme fatales, such as Diane Cilento's frankly terrifying Molly and Joyce Redman's Mrs Waters. Tom Jones is a triumph of style over substance, but with this much style that is really all it needs. It was successful enough at the time to woo America and win the Academy Awards for Best Picture plus three other Oscars and nominations for a handful more and it is easy to see why: decades after it was made, it still provides a feast for the eyes and remains very, very funny.

Likely the wackiest film that ever won, or ever will win, the coveted Best Picture Oscar, Tom Jones benefits from Albert Finney's energetic, infinitely likable performance, its scathing attitude towards the British aristocracy, and its over the top comedic tone. However, the sound balance renders large stretches of dialogue practically inaudible, and the films zany pace slows considerably when the characters converge in London. It's remarkable to think that a film of this nature won the big award, when its usually reserved for stuffy, languid epics, not madcap comedies. It's the kind of film I can see winning nowadays, where the nominations are of a more diverse nature. It's a story about self-discovery that manages to be both funny and strangely moving, largely because of the late Albert Finney, and his innate ability to make us care deeply for him, even if no one else in the film does. The runtime feels stretched, especially in the languid 3rd act where it feels like the film actually needed a breather, considering how fast things had been moving up until that point. I can't recall many characters name, but its their crazy shenanigans that stand out and make the film so memorable. Too weird for some people, but for, just weird enough.

Don't get me wrong, Tom Jones has plenty of funny moments and better production value than the tone might warrant, but much of the reputation for raucousness that this film has is only warranted when compared to the relatively dry standard for British humor. (2.5/5)

The Academy's infatuation with British cinema during the 1960s caused some great films to earn top honors, The Sound of Music (1965) and Lawrence of Arabia (1962), but also allowed strange, lethargic little films like A Man for All Seasons (1966) and this confusing literary adaptation to be rewarded. I was befuddled by the fact that a dressed up sex comedy won Best Picture, an honor usually reserved for stuffy epics, because of this I wanted to like it but it wasn't particularly funny, the actors seemed miscast and the resolution was unsatisfactory. I have enjoyed Tony Richardson's other works as a director, A Taste of Honey (1961) and The Hotel New Hampshire (1984), but he seems to misunderstand the material he is working with as he fails to juggle the various tones needed to make this story work. 1963 was a weak year for Best Picture nominees but even then I would not have rewarded this weak offering. Tom Jones, Albert Finney, was adopted as a baby by the wealthy Squire Allworthy, George Devine, despite being the biological child of lower class parents. As an adult he is randy and sex obsessed but genuinely falls in love with the noble Sophie Western, Susannah York, who returns his affections but can not marry him due to his being born to poor parents. He is set off on a series of misadventures when Miss Western's betrothed turns against him and he continues to have sexual encounters that get him into trouble as he endeavors to return to his true love. In the end we discover that he was born to the noble Bridget, Squire Allworthy's sister, and he is therefore able to marry Miss Western. The real star of the film is Joan Greenwood in the supporting of role of Mrs. Bellaston, a wealthy older woman who financially supports Jones in exchange for sexual favors. She is delightful as she employs her signature husky voice and Anne Bancroft like sexual charm to convince as a predatory, manipulative cougar who plays with Tom simply because she is bored. She pulls off the camp style of acting necessary for this style of comedy and brings the best out of all around her, she's a delight to watch and she was a bright spot in an otherwise dull film. The fact that Diane Cilento, Edith Evans and Joyce Redman received Academy Award nominations for lackluster performances and Greenwood got nothing prove that the Academy was making wrongheaded decisions in 1963. The one laugh that this film managed to draw out of me came from an oedipal joke and even that could have been pulled off better. The other comedic set pieces include a scene in which Jones and Mrs. Waters, Joyce Redman, eat food suggestively and the climactic scene in which Tom is saved from being hanged, neither of them were as smart as they thought they were. The film attempts to make meta comments on the nature of storytelling as Micheal Mac Liammoir's narrator informs us that a hero simply cannot die and that censors prevent them from showing sexual content. This was one of the more promising ideas that the film attempts to work in but it never fully commits to this premise and therefore it feels out of place instead of being an entertaining running gag. For all the talk of Finney's lead performance I was disappointed as I felt that for as talented a dramatic actor he was he was not suited to comedy. Yes, he was handsome and he does have a certain twinkle in his eyes but that would make him more suited to playing a villain in a Sidney Lumet movie than the lead of a bawdy British sex comedy. If you want to see a fantastic Finney performance watch Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007) and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960). I would have chosen the charming Elia Kazan directed family drama America America (1963) to win Best Picture over this overblown mess because it functions as a moving piece of drama with a timely message. This film should not have earned the Best Picture Award or any award but Best Supporting Actress for Greenwood, not a film worth your time.