This Can't be Said Enough
I think it is generally accepted that Saving Private Ryan lost to Shakespeare in love because Harvey Weinstein bought oscar votes. There are always going to be people who like one movie better than another, and I certainly can't say that it is impossible to like SIL more than SPR, or even that its a better film. But it is hard to come up with an example of the academy getting it more wrong than it did in 98. SPR had veterans puking in their seats and people passing out in aisles. It was one of the most powerful film experiences I have ever had, and that is certainly the experience hundreds of thousands of audience members had. It is also a cheesy, sentimental, cliched piece of film-making, but that was totally appropriate considering the subject matter (it was accessible to a wider audience - this is an asset of the film, not a detriment). The bottom line is that SPR changed the way people make war movies. There's before SPR and there's after. It created a new legion of war movie fans as well. And it started a national craze around the 'greatest generation' that lasted for years. SIL's impact? Beyond chat rooms frequented by shakespeare fans (and paltrow's career), there was none.
Remember, this is best picture, not best film. The best written, best directed movie shouldn't necessarily win the award. SPR was revolutionary; SIL is just an ordinary, well done movie...utterly forgettable other than for the fact that it beat SPR in the best picture race.
It's not really a close call, and history has certainly recognized that fact (SPR is considered one the greatest films of all time, while SIL has been all but forgotten). That SIL fans protest this inevitability is not surprising; SIL is a literary film made for an audience that will never understand why SPR, populist as it is, is a far superior picture.