> I watched Dances with Wolves one time...

Related trivia. In Oscar history, there have only been three westerns to win Best Picture. Cimarron, in 1931; Dances With Wolves, in 1990; and Unforgiven, in 1992. Two of these, obviously, occurred after the western had pretty much died off as a popular genre sometime in the 1970s. If you are right about Dances With Wolves, none of the three are among the best westerns ever made (although I do respect Unforgiven). Musicals, another once immensely popular genre that died off around that time, were slightly better treated by Oscar, particularly in the 1960s, but not since, and now we are on the verge of a likely Chicago win, which is not likely among the best musicals ever made.

Do hugely popular genres have to die off before entries in them can be respected as art instead of merely populist entertainment, at which time revival films are overrated?