Best Screenplay vs. Best Picture

Yglesias opened the debate, then Pandagon picked it up.

This is good.

Historically, the better films, the ones that stand the test of time, are the ones that get handed the best original screenplay Oscar, not the best picture.

Case in point: John Ford's "How Green Was My Valley" won best picture in 1941.
The picture that got the best original screenplay Oscar was "Citizen Kane," which is now regarded, at least by the AFI, as America's greatest movie.

Other films on that list that won best original screenplay: "Annie Hall," "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," "The Apartment," "Pulp Fiction," "Fargo," "On the Waterfront," "Sunset Boulevard," and quite a few others.

It should be noted that quite a few others on that list won the best adapted screenplay ("The Best Years of our Lives," "Casablanca," etc).

As for best picture winners on the AFI list: "All Quiet on the Western Front," "It Happened One Night," "Gone with the Wind," "Casablanca," "The Best Years of Our Lives," and on from there.

With maybe one or two exceptions, the films that won best picture and appear on the AFI list won either best original screenplay or best adapted screenplay.