by Andrew
Because, as Michael Garibaldi wisely observed, not every conversation has to be life and death, here is my list of my ten favorite movies of all time. I fully expect that such a discussion will be heated and heartfelt…but at least it will be about something that doesn’t really matter.
A few notes before we get to the list. In defining a movie as great, it has to meet certain criteria. It has to be a solid production, first of all: well-written, good acting, and so on. It should also take on a larger truth, as it were. I don’t mean it has to be a ‘message’ movie, but it should have a theme that resonates. And it has to be watchable: yes, Citizen Kane is a damn good movie, but how many people pop it into the VCR DVD player (heh…dating myself) on a regular basis? So if it’s not something you can watch regularly, I don’t consider it a truly great film.
OK, on with the show. These films are in alphabetical order, as attempting to select the top ten in order is something I’m not prepared to attempt at this time.
Casablanca – Maybe it’s a cliche to include ‘Casablanca,’ but cliches exist for a reason. Unlike most drama in entertainment, ‘Casablanca’ actually offers a dramatic decision for the hero. Sure, Bogie makes the right decision in leaving Ilsa with Lazslo, but it’s hardly an easy decision, and it’s representative of a degree of sacrifice films rarely ask of their characters. The acting is, of course, sublime, and the dialogue is so memorable, ‘Casablanca’ lines made up six of the AFI’s top 100 lines of all time (PDF). (A subject I may tackle at another time.)
The Cowboys – It’s not the quintessential western. It’s not Wayne’s best role (although it’s among his best). It’s just a great movie, and a terribly underrated one. Wayne is brilliant as Wil Andersen, Montana rancher who must get his cattle to Belle Fuche with eleven young boys as his ranch hands. Bruce Dern almost steals the show as the villain, however. He’s so good I still hate him. And Roscoe Lee Browne is pitch-perfect as the cook for the trail drive; his speech in which he makes his peace with his maker is one of the best pieces of dialogue ever filmed. You don’t have to like westerns or Wayne to appreciate this film.
L.A. Confidential – Film noir at its best, with three brilliant acting performances (which, ironically, earned Kim Basinger an Oscar) and a convoluted and compelling story. The writing is absolutely superb. How can you not love a film with an exchange like this: "All I ever wanted to do was to measure up to my father." "Now’s your chance…he died in the line of duty, didn’t he?"
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – The entire trilogy was an amazing accomplishment, but Jackson was best before he’d gotten any feedback, as ‘The Two Towers’ and ‘The Return of the King’ both took unnecessary and ill-considered deviations from Tolkien’s storyline that detracted from the enjoyment. But with ‘Fellowship’ he was perfect, capturing the menace of the ring and the Nazgul, the courage of Frodo and Samwise, and the nobility of Aragorn and Boromir. Sean Bean’s performance as Boromir was particularly well done, illustrating the temptation of the ring and capturing the bitter taste of failure for a man ill-accustomed to it.
The Philadelphia Story – It’s hard to go wrong with a movie that puts Katherine Hepburn, Jimmy Stewart, and Cary Grant together on screen. But ‘The Philadelphia Story’ gives that excellent trio a clever script that is howlingly funny and rings true. This film is one of the reasons I almost miss the studio system; it’s almost impossible to make movies that put stars of such magnitude together today, because it drives the cost of the film through the roof. Yet here we have three of the best actors ever to grace the silver screen, all at their best.
The Princess Bride – "You truly love each other. And so you had the chance to be truly happy. Not one couple in a century has that chance, no matter what the story books say." Delightfully cynical, romantic without a sign of treacle, packed with witty lines, ‘The Princess Bride’ is a movie that you want to watch over and over again. Or, at least, one I do watch over and over again. It’s not some deep picture that offers the secrets to life…but in between the humor it offers some wisdom about life and love that rings surprisingly true.
Rocky – Yes, it spawned a series of progressively worse sequels, but the original is absolutely brilliant. The brutal reality of poverty, the grit of 1970s Philadelphia, the overtones of race and the nature of boxing’s dichotomy between the few top fighters and the struggling many all combine to make ‘Rocky’ a film worth viewing. Forget the sequels and focus on the moment, the night prior to the fight, when Rocky realizes he cannot beat Apollo Creed, and instead sets his goal as nothing more than going 15 rounds with the champ. Watch the later part of the fight when Rocky goes down, his face battered and bruised as the champ has hammered him, and his manager shouting at Rocky ‘Down…stay down!’ Simply marvelous.
Running Scared – I know…what are you talking about, Andrew? It’s not very well known, but ‘Running Scared’ is a howlingly funny buddy cop film that tells a simple story with style and humor. Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines have perfect chemistry as a pair of unorthodox detectives in Chicago trying to bring down Jimmy Smits, who plans to become the first Hispanic godfather of Chicago. Naturally, Crystal and Hines have something to say about that, but it’s never easy. Along the way they get into the best chase scene ever (they end up on Chicago’s El) and utter a great deal of highly entertaining dialogue. "Thanks to us, there’s twelve guys with machine guns in there." "You’re right…we’d better both go."
To Kill a Mockingbird – It is so rare that a movie can capture a book’s essence successfully; Hollywood is full of examples of good books made into often incredibly-bad movies. But Harper Lee’s classic tale is rendered beautifully in this film, anchored by Gregory Peck’s inspirational portrayal of idealistic lawyer and father Atticus Finch and Brock Peters’s wrongly accused Tom Robinson and backstopped by the marvelous performances of Finch’s children Jem and Scout. I’ll never forget watching it for the first time and listening to William Windom rail away at Peters, wondering how anyone could say such things, even for a movie. Yes, it’s a message picture, but it’s a message picture that actually works.
When Harry Met Sally – It may seem like nothing special, just a particularly well-executed romantic comedy that does a great job of capturing the dynamics of romance. Crystal and Ryan and fantastic together, and the use of other couples describing how they met throughout the film is a neat reminder of the many fascinating paths romance can take.
OK, flame on.
Yes, Citizen Kane is a damn good movie, but how many people pop it into the VCR DVD player (heh…dating myself) on a regular basis?
I do!!
If you haven’t, you should read The Princess Bride the book, it’s much better than the film.
In no particular order:
8 1/2; Persona; Wild Strawberries; The Discreet Charm of the Burgeousie; That Obscure Object of Desire; The Dreamlife of Angels; Behind the Sun; Amores Perros; The Return; Monsieur Ibrahim.
Honorable Mention: Talk to Her.
Quickly,
Lonely Are The Brave — Kirk Douglas, Gena Rowlands
Bridge Over The River Kwai — William Holden, Alec Guinness
A Hard Day’s Night — well, yeah.
Picnic — William Holden, Kim Novak
Something Wild — Melanie Griffith
Red River — John Wayne, Monty Clift
On the Waterfront — Marlon Brando
David Lean’s Oliver Twist — Alec Guinness
The Swimmer — Burt Lancaster
Mr. Deeds Goes To Town — Gary Cooper
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the original) — Kevin McCarthey.
Network — Faye Dunaway, William Holden
That would be 12.
A lot of black and white; the depth of field in some of the shots is breathtaking.
And, yes, Citizen Kane, The Philadelphia Story amd Godfather I and II and Lord of the Rings would be in there, too, when I’m in the mood. As would Olivier’s King Richard the III, Lawrence of Arabia, bits of The Graduate (some perfectly paced scenes). Chinatown for the same reason. Annie Hall. Ummm, JFK, for its depiction of preposterous, kinetically mounting American paranoia.
I realized I didn’t include a single American film in my top 10. My bad. Woody Allen’s Love and Death deserves Honorable Mention.
In no particular order:
Casablanca
The English Patient
Shall we dansu
Stalingrad
Animal House
Schindler’s List
Rashomon
Runaway Train
Unforgiven
The Usual Suspects
Ask me tomorrow, and I might replace as many as five of these with something else.
Bringing Up Baby — Kate Hepburn and Cary Grant.
Her character reminds me of an ex-girlfriend. I didn’t remind her of Cary Grant.
These lists need more comedy, dudes.
Some Like It Hot
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Young Frankenstein
Dr Strangelove
— and that’s just the first few off the top of my head. Epic sweaping soul-searing drama is easy, special effects just means you threw money at the screen and some of it stuck, comedy is *hard*.
Where I’ve seen your choices, I agree with them – though that amounts to agreeing with you about Casablanca, The Philadelphia Story, and The Princess Bride. (I disagree with you about the first LotR movie, mainly because there is one important deviation from the Tolkien storyline in it but also because I think the trilogy has to be considered as one movie.)
My ten – bearing in mind that I am changeable as a very changeable thing and think “top ten lists” can only amount to “the top ten I can think of right now” – are:
Casablanca, despite having the most boring first five minutes: I love the sacrifice made by Louis at the end of the movie. Ah, true love.
The Brave Little Toaster, which IMO is dramatically more successful than many a non-animated movie and better than the current crop of modern animations. Brave appliances struggling through difficulty and danger to find the boy who loved them. Really, honestly, truly, worth watching.
The Truman Show. Oh yes. This film stays in my mind whether or not I rewatch it – what it would be like to be Truman: what it would be like to be Truman afterwards: what happened next?
Cyrano de Bergerac. Gerard Depardieu is brilliant as Cyrano, and this is a film where even the subtitles were well-written – they used a proper blank verse translation.
Notorious. Hitchcock’s best movie: and another gift of the studio system, Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains all in the same movie. (Yes, I’d rather watch this than The Philadelphia Story, adorable though that is.)
The Fugitive Admittedly the only reason Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones could be in a movie together is that Jones wasn’t yet a star of Ford’s stature/expensiveness, but wow the two of them make the movie rock. The sequel sucked.
The Lion in Winter. Peter O’Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, and Timothy Dalton, and some of the most sizzling dialogue ever, ever written.
Aliens. It may not be the best of the four (though it’s certainly not the worst: that’s number three) but I really, really like it.
Nine to Five. Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, and they’re all having such a good time. I love this film.
And, yeah… The Princess Bride. Love the book, love the movie.
These lists need more comedy, dudes.
Life of Brian is one of the movies that could replace some of the ones I listed if you asked me tomorrow. Much, much better than Holy Grail, which was funny enough itself.
Jones wasn’t yet a star of Ford’s stature/expensiveness
WhatImeanis, The Fugitive turned Jones into star-in-his-own-right, rather than supporting actor. Obviously, Jones still isn’t in Ford’s league.
* La Nuit Fantastique
* Cornered (1945)
* Radio Days
* Midnight Run
* The Graduate
* Animal Crackers
* Hiroshima Mon Amour
* Contempt
* 8&1/2
* The Hustler
I’m not sure I can count that high (at least in terms of movies). Andrew, I beg to disagree with your definition of great: my all-time favorite songs are all songs I listen to no more than once every 2 or 3 years, because their impact on me is so great. I’ll go to great lengths to escape environments that are playing them when I don’t want to listen. I feel the same way about movies. That said, I’d count among my favorite movies “Runaway Train”, starring Jon Voight, Eric Roberts, and Rebecca deMornay (and based on a Kurosawa screenplay); “Grizzly Man”, because I find Herzog so shockingly wise and humane in the way he made the film; “Yojimbo”, “Sanjuro”, and “Seven Samurai”, cause of Toshiro Mifune and Kurosawa’s eye; “Unforgiven”, because of how ruthlessly and skillfully Eastwood guts any of the romance to be found in his earlier western films (I love all the Leone ones as well, but not as much as the Kurosawas they copied); “Casablanca”; that’s all I can think of right now.
Schindler’s List, Philadelphia Story, Sound of Music, Casablanca, Dr. Strangelove, The Great Escape, one of the Wallace and Gromit movies surely belongs there, so I’ll use A Close Shave, because I like the noise the terrified little sheep make, thanks to Jes for reminding me of A Lion In Winter, The Year of Living Dangerously, and — hmm, things aren’t springing to mind as readily, why not Truly, Madly, Deeply.
Night of the Hunter
Brazil
Vertigo
8 1/2
Band of Outsiders
Rules of the Game
Archangel
The Passenger
Blue Velvet
Sunrise
Chushingura.
Unforgiven.
Wild Bunch.
Phil. Story.
Mockingbird.
Little Big Man.
Godfather I & II.
Blue Angel.
Branaugh’s Much Ado & Henry V.
The Shining.
Cyrano.
Jeremiah Johnson.
I could go to 20, but then i could go to 50 too. These, though, I can be talked into watching just about any time.
It should also take on a larger truth, as it were. I don’t mean it has to be a ‘message’ movie, but it should have a theme that resonates. And it has to be watchable: yes, Citizen Kane is a damn good movie, but how many people pop it into the VCR DVD player (heh…dating myself) on a regular basis? So if it’s not something you can watch regularly, I don’t consider it a truly great film.
I don’t watch any movie on a regular basis, just like I don’t read any book on a regular basis. Or if I do, it usually means that the book/movie is light, doesn’t require a lot of attention, serves to kill time, or some such. The whole idea of something ‘taking on a larger truth in a way that resonates’ seems basically contradictory with the idea that you can pop it in the VCR (DVD player) just whenever. I mean, “Liar Liar” takes on a certain larger truth, but I would not say it resonates. I see a conflation here of favorite movies (sure, L.A. Confidential) and great movies (…but not Citizen Kane?). If ‘watchability’ is a measure of a greatness, you get Liar Liar over Citizen Kane, and (readability) Harry Potter over a Hundred Years of Solitude.
[Yeah, I know I’m taking this way more seriously than I’m supposed to, but this is important!]
How about movies released just in the last few years? I think these three reward repeated viewing:
Punchdrunk Love
Chuck and Buck
Shattered Glass
Lots of good ones named. I heartily endorse Casablanca.
I personally think “Blazing Saddles” belongs here.
off the top of my head (could’ve been different):
citizen kane
8 1/2
the sea inside
city of god
brazil
dr. strangelove
barry lyndon
the producers
rashomon
through a glass darkly
Tosdmonster,
I’m of the opinion that you can have resonance and still be entertaining. In fact, I forgot to put in The Full Monty, which is another favorite of mine. While it’s a very funny comedy, it’s also a very well done look at alienation and poverty. All of the movies I listed offer that, to varying degrees.
Whoops…Toadmonster. Sorry.
“The Stunt Man”. Love that movie.
Many of my favorites have already been mentioned, so I’ll just go with the ones that haven’t
Jaws: This is such a perfect movie. You get three just stellar performances from Dreyfuss, Scheider and Shaw. Spielberg does such a tremedous job it makes you cry thinking of how he diminished his later work with overblown sentimentality.
Outlaw Josey Wales: I’m much more of a fan of the Clint Eastwood western than the John Wayne western and this is pretty much the best of the bunch. Clint plays the same character he does in all his westerns, but there’s something just better about this one.
The Shootist: My favorite John Wayne western was his last. Wayne plays a aging gunfighter dying of cancer. The supporting cast is just outstanding and Wayne even figures out how to act a little bit.
Dragonslayer: Here’s one out of left field. Probably the best swords and sorcery fantasy movie every made until Peter Jackson tried his hand at it. Ostensibly a story of a wizard’s apprentice battling an ancient dragon, a close reading shows it to be a sly and cynical parable about politics and religion.
Annie Hall: Woody’s best, in my opinion, and the movie that warped my view of male-female relationships at a very early age.
Excalibur: Forget this crappy current obsession with portraying a “historical” King Arthur. Any man who would be a knight, follow a king…follow me!
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: The best “teen movie” ever made and a cinematic love letter to the great city of Chicago.
Risky Business: Tom Cruise showed such promise in this movie. Who knew he would grow up to be totally insane?
The Empire Strikes Back: Six movies in the Star Wars universe and this is the only one that’s worth a damn. It’s amazing how having a decent script really improves a film.
Well, that’s nine. I’ll leave the ten spot open for luck.
Chuchundra–
Actually, my favorite Tom Cruise-containing movie was “Taps”, which showed that he was already totally insane.
I’m not that much of a movie watcher and when questions like this come up I go aphasic. However these are movies I’d like to see again: Whistle Down the Wind, with Haley Mills, Little Big Man (never saw it the first time, actually) and McCabe and Mrs Miller.
There’s another movie in my mind but I can’t come up with the name . The plot concerned a minor English organized crime guy who was supppposed to be a bodyguard for a black call girl and ends up dying for love. Micheal Caine is in it. Anybody know what I’m talking about? I can remember individual scenes in it very vividly and I’d like to see it again.
lily–
Mona Lisa?
“The Stuntman”
Absolutely.
And then if you require more comedy, go get “My Favorite Year”, with Peter O’toole playing his best friend, Richard Harris.
A short comedy: W.C. Fields’ “The Dentist”, or the “The Dentist Visit”, or whatever.
Speaking of dentists, Steve Martin and Bill Murray playing dentist sadist and patient masochist, respectively, in, you know, the musical remake of that cheesy sci-fi film about the man-eating plant. Also had the lead singer of the Four Tops doing the voice of the carniverous plant. “Feed Me!”
“Little Shop of Horrors”.
I have a special place in my heart for “Miller’s Crossing”. Guys in hats. “What’s the rumpus?” Plus, it contains the best cold-cocking by a little guy I’ve ever seen.
Toadmonster,
“The Producers.” Yes. Glad to see someone else slipping Mel Brooks in.
Oh yes, Taps was a pretty good film.
There’s been some disussion of Red Dawn over at Tacitus.Org. For a mind-bending double feature, watch them back-to-back.
It would be imilar to experience I had reading Johnny Got His Gun and Starship Troopers in the same week.
Hayley Mills?
All of that breathy Brit girl sustained me through puberty. And then along came Julie Christie.
Also, I’ve discovered Harold Lloyd recently. Very funny. But not breathy.
John–
Now I am hearing:
“I thrill
When I drill
A bicuspid–
It’s swell
Though they tell
me I’m mad”
I love Casablanca, but it always grates on my ear to hear Ilsa refer to Sam as “the boy at the piano”.
And no other votes for The Maltese Falcon?
Tampopo
The Lion in Winter – Like Jes said, fantastic acting, witty dialog. Plus the young John Castle and Timothy Dalton, yum.
A Man for All Seasons – Eternal themes: power and loyalty. Too many immortal lines to quote.
Truly, Madly, Deeply – death! romance! Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman!
The Stunt Man – Mindf*ckery at its finest. Peter O’Toole as the Uber-Director: “If God could do the things we can do, he’d be a happy man.”
Grosse Point Blank: Delicious black comedy. John Cusak as a hit-man, attending his 10th High School Reunion. Dan Ackroyd appears as a rival hit man who wants to form a labor union.
A Clockword Orange: Malcolm McDowell makes murderous thuggery sexy and sympathetic. Plus, one of the best soundtracks ever.
Old Yaller: A relic of a time when even Disney didn’t think kids should be protected from traumatic death scenes. Along with Bambi (also from Disney, and also with a traumatic death scene), probably the real reasons my generation grew up to be animal-loving, anti-hunting eco-freaks.
Ben Hur (1950’s version): Forget the Christian stuff. It’s all about the chariot race, baby. And the subtext: the incredibly gorgeous Stephen Boyd, playing Massala as Charlton Heston’s spurned gay lover.
The Princess Bride: Of course.
Contact: For the opening shot alone.
Close Encounters (original version): That musical signature. The scene in India, where the huge chanting crowd answers the question, “Where was it [the music] coming from?” by pointing ecstatically at the sky. The arrival of the mothership.
“Mona Lisa” —I think so. Albert Finney was in it too, but I can’t quite come up with the name of the actress.
Boy I love movies, this is just so tough, and just saw Erice’s “Spirit of the Beehive” for the first time last night and “Serenity” this morning. But I must give an honest effort. So here goes:
Conan the Barbarian, Conan the Destroyer,The Terminator,Commando,Predator,The Running Man,Total Recall,Terminator 2,Rules of the Game,Out of the Past,Persona
Oh, and the original Fantasia.
#1 Dersu Uzala
#2 Cool Hand Luke
#3 McCabe & Mrs. Miller
#4 Contact
#5 MP & the Holy Grail
#6 Casablanca
#7 The Razor’s Edge (Bill Murray version)
#8 Mockingbird
#9 Godfather 1&2
#10 Apocalypse Now
All films I never tire of watching. There are a few others… but these especially.
I think it’s worthwhile to distinguish “favorite” and “best”. These are among the films I turn to again and again for comfort, for delight, for joy, for stimulation, for courage, all kinds of things. Some of them are in detached critical terms much better than others, but I love them all. And in keeping with earlier comments…
9 of my favorite comedies (along with The Princess Bride, The Stunt Man, Tampopo, Grosse Pointe Blank, and others listed already):
The Blues Brothers. Basically a perfect movie, flawless at what it does, a rollicking musical, and theologically quite sound, too.
Raising Arizona. The Coen Brothers have made better movies, but this the best-hearted, I think.
Harvey. I’ve long thought that in a better world, Jimmy Stewart’s performance here would be what bloggers aim to be, rather than the nasty independent soul.
The Three Musketeers, the Salkind one with Michael York as D’artangan and Charlton Heston as Richelieu. Not a comedy, but an extremely funny action drama, and the characters’ humorous exploits make their dramatic triumphs that much sharper, I think. It’s got the best carpet-pulling gag in the history of swashbuckling.
Brain Donors. Absolutely the finest Marx Brothers movie ever made not starring the Marx brothers. The young John Turturro is the literally ambulance-chasing lawyer of a Groucho figure. The story’s a mash-up of A Day at the Races and A Night at the Opera, with ballet. Produced by the Zucker Brothers back when. I love this movie very very much.
Airplane!. Brash, vulgar, dense beyond description with visual asides and background humor, very smart, very crude, so much better than pretty much any trash-talking comedy that’s followed.
A Night at the Opera. I think Duck Soup is probably the Marx Brothers’ consummation in film, but honestly the political part is too damn close to the news for me right now. So I go with this one.
Mr. Hulot’s Holiday. The nicest wimp in the world just tries to have a nice vacation. Trouble ensues. Almost-silent slapstick at a gentle perfect pitch.
Hopscotch. Walter Matthau is a brilliant CIA field agent pulled back to a desk job by his jerk boss, Ned Beatty. Matthau quits and goes for revenge, helped by the always-suave Glenda Jackson. This is a pure fantasy of the triumph of brains over all, and welcome it is.
Not Albert Finney. Bob something. Hoskins? Finey was in “Whistle Down the Wind”. Some day I will be like my mom and my conversation will contain no nouns at all.
Not mentioned so far, from recent years:
Sex and LucÃa.
High Fidelity.
Fight Club.
For the kids:
Rick Perlstein: What is Conservative Culture?
Ask a conservative activist to explain what anchors and unites their fractious movement, and he will point to ideas: to weighty tomes by Eric Voegelin, Russell Kirk, Wilhelm Roepke, Edmund Burke; to the development of the philosophy of “fusionism,” by which the furrow-browed theorists at National Review cogitated their way past the conflicts between the traditionalist, libertarian, and anti-communist strains of the American right. They will make it sound almost as if the 87 percent of Mississippians who voted for Barry Goldwater did so after a stretch of all-nighters in the library.
They will not mention an illustration popular among college conservatives in the 1960s: a peace symbol-shaped B-52 bomber with the words “Drop It” on the wings. Nor will they discuss the annual “McCarthy-Evjue” lecture that student conservatives in Wisconsin (among them, present-day right-wing luminaries David Keene of the American Conservative Union and Alfred Regnery, formerly of Regnery Publishing) put on to honor their favorite Wisconsin senator and to mock William Evjue, the editor of the Madison newspaper William F. Buckley labeled “Prairie Pravda.” (They advertised the lecture on pink paper.) They will not mention the Southern Californians who flocked to church basements, high school auditoriums, and VFW halls to hear hellfire-and-brimstone lecturers like World War I flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker, author of The Socialistic Sixteenth — A National Cancer, or the Reverend Billy James Hargis (“Is the Schoolhouse the Proper Place To Teach Raw Sex?”).
From:
http://www.designobserver.com/archives/016421.html#more
Oh movies, ah…
Apocalypse Now
Crimes & Misdemeanors
Reservoir Dogs
Los Angeles Plays Itself
(Do documentaries count?)
or, pretty much what xanax wrote.
Bruce’s list works pretty well for me, but I’ll add a few more:
The Sting
The Grifters (I seem to really like con artists much more than any other time of crime movies).
Network (at age 12, I was outraged that Rocky beat it for the Oscar).
Say Anything
E.T.
Fargo
Most of the above, with the addition of Memento and Sleuth.
Oef…. only 10…. in no specific order:
1- Birdy, which had an awfull description but was a beautifull and touching film.
2- six degrees of separation, because I loved who the mistrust crept in, how you were put on the wrong foot
3- The birdcage, because it made me laugh so much
4- the sting, for Pauls blue eyes and the wonderfull complications in it.
5- an american werewolf, I am not much of a horror fan, but this combination of gruesome and humor worked very well for me.
6- the world according to Garp, I can watch this film over and over again.
7-Spirited Away (or my neighbour Totoro… I cannot choose), for the beautifull animations and the nicely weird story
8- The Iron Giant, it’s a kids film, but after seeing it 10 times I still get wet eyes near the end.
9- Dead Man Walking, because the convict is completely guilty, they did not take the easy way out (like the green mile, which I didn’t like much) and they still mamage to show how awfull the system is.
10. Totall Recall. I’m a sucker for special effects, what can I say 🙂
But the list may be different tomorrow too.
I really liked the fight club, the full monty, shall we dansu and the original Star Wars trilogy from the films allready mentioned. And I hesitated about including sex, lies and videotapes or city of lost children.
I’m going for twelve, and adding To Kill A Mockingbird and Man For All Seasons. I am also tempted by Quiz Show, which I love.
Adam just made me think of Lovers of the Arctic Circle (from the director of Sex and Lucia). It has an enchanting ending. It alone makes the movie deserve an honorable mention.
Not going to add a list, but I have to say that The Truman Show blew me away. The whole concept was both disturbing and interesting.
I made up my list without looking at the comments; a good many of mine have already been named. I tend not to go for anything between comedy and dark documentaries, so on the Hollywood end this is my list.
Some Like It Hot
This Is Spinal Tap
Sleeper
Thelma and Louise
Play It Again Sam
Duck Soup
Ninotchka
Blazing Saddles
Bedazzled
Notorious
Dr. Strangelove
Chinatown
I see we share a lot of favorites. I have to say I like “Help!” better than “A Hard Day’s Night.”
One not mentioned so far… “A Thousand Clowns.”
“Casablanca,” oh, yes.
It’s definitely Mona Lisa (and definitely Bob Hoskins). When I think too hard about lists like this, I tend to start tyring to tweak the list to make myself look cooler, so here goes off the top of my head:
Paths of Glory
Breaker Morant
Ran
Nashville
Five Easy Pieces
The Magnificent Seven
The Great Escape (yeah, Hilzoy!)
The Godfather I & II
Saving Private Ryan
Swimming to Cambodia
Silence of the Lambs
Raising Arizona
st: Oh, YES! Silence of the Lambs. For God’s sake, Yes. How could I have forgotten? And other than Dersu my list is so American. Ran, Persona, Das Boot. So, so many more (my mind’s a wall…)
xanax – oh, YES! Das Boot. For god’s sake, how could I have forgotten?
Oh, and Akira, and Bullet in the Head. And Spirited Away. And Rosemary’s Baby.
And Clerks.
And Rope.
I have to stop.
What, no one liked One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest?
Don’t watch that many movies so can’t really add much. Love Marx Brothers movies, anything with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire, most of the Audrey Hepburn movies (especially How to Steal a Million), and the old swashbucklers: The Sea Wolfe, Robin Hood….
Oh, and the first three Thin Man movies.
Whatever happened to witty movies?
Love The Princess Bride but think the movie is much much better than the book which comes off to me as Too Bloody Arch For Words as well as Too Bloody Pretentious.
st – If you really like Saving Private Ryan, I highly recommend getting a hold of Stalingrad and watching that. It’s Private Ryan, but cynical instead of patriotic.
I just watched Heaven’s Gate again. Maybe it isn’t the greatest movie ever made, but each moment of it is a quality experience. And you really gotta give it to Isabelle Huppert, skinny-dipping thigh deep in the North Fork of the Flathead. Walken plays nuance, and Waterston plays arrogant and wicked.
For more recent movies, I’d put Atanarjuat on my list too.
J. M. N. – thanks for the recommendation. I just can’t get past that first twenty minutes of SPR. Just incredible. I’m not sure I breathed once the whole time. It’s like the opening shot of the Deerhunter times a thousand with machine guns. Beautiful, gripping, textured, amazing.
Oh, hey, The Deerhunter. That’s another good one.
CC – when I first read your comment, I thought you said “Heaven Can Wait,” and I spilled something on my keyboard.
Another “How could I have forgotten!?”
Jean de Florette &
Manon of the Springs
Emmanuelle Béart. Lord have mercy.
Uh, just to clarify, as well formed as Ms. Huppert was at 27, I was referring to the fact that the water in the Flathead River is very cold, but she played the scene as if it was filmed in James Cameron’s warm water Titanic pool.
– Birdy, which had an awful description but was a beautiful and touching film.
Posted by: dutchmarbel | July 29, 2006 at 09:18 PM
The music blew my little mind.
That soundtrack, the soundtrack to The Chocolate War and This Mortal Coil’s It’ll End in Tears rocked my world. I discovered them in the late ‘80s, for a semester or two, I became an obnoxious Anglophile!
Birdy (Alan Moore & Peter Gabriel)
http://www.solsburyhill.org/essays/birdy.htm
This Mortal Coil
http://www.online.i12.com/music/tmc/
The Chocolate War
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094869/soundtrack
I meant Alan Parker not Alan Moore, but Alan Moore was another Brit who rocked my young mind.
Anybody see Man Bites Dog?
Whoa, what is up with that!?
man.
Oh, how could I forget:
Wayne’s World.
Rushmore. (I think someone mentioned this.)
The Big Lebowski.
Brain Donors.
YES. I haven’t seen this in years and years, but it was just hilarious. Also way to go with Airplane!.
Also on reflection, I’d take Citizen Kane off my list, definitely one of the greatest but not one of my top personal favorites. Other possibilities, having read the thread:
alien
aliens
seven samurai
blue velvet
terminator
silence of the lambs, sure
la strada
virgin spring
the iron giant – I saw this recently and it just killed me. Though I’m not sure how I feel about the very end.
Also, I mentioned them on my first list, but everyone should see City of God and The Sea Inside.
dos mas:
Paris, Texas
Down By Law
I am hopeless at lists of favorites cause they change so quickly, but I want to recommend Millenium Actress, which I saw and then got the DVD last week. I’ve been on a diet of Japanese movies recently (got the complete set of Yasujiro Ozu’s works and have been going thru them.) so it might not have the same impact, but it uses some incredible animation techniques. see it if you can.
lj,
Mine have shifted over the years. And even now, looking over yesterday’s list, I’d put Bull Durham in over When Harry Met Sally. That’s why they’re so hard to build.
But they’re fun, and you get lots of good ideas in a good thread like this. I’ve seen a lot of movies, and there are still at least a few dozen listed here I haven’t seen (and often haven’t even heard of).
In no particular order (and noting that these are some of my favorite movies, which are not necessarily what I’d regard as the “best” movies that I’ve seen — although some would make that list too):
Tora! Tora! Tora!
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Dr. Strangelove
Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle
The Empire Strikes Back
Do The Right Thing (once you get past the hype, you realize that it’s a really well-made movie)
The Manchurian Candidate (original)
The Godfather
The Princess Bride
Caddyshack
The weird thing is, I (like Andrew) have suddenly reconsidered my list. What about (for instance) all the great tough-guy movies? Eastwood’s spaghetti westerns (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly? A Mule for Sister Mary? For a Fistfull of Dollars? For a Few Dollars More?)? Heck, I could almost do an all-Clint top 10 list if I include Kelly’s Heroes, Pale Rider, Unforgiven, Where Eagles Dare — as well as the movie that I always think of as an Eastwood movie (but ain’t), The Dirty Dozen. Why have I forsaken Bogart — Casablanca should be on that list, and maybe The Maltese Falcon as well. And were the heck is Indiana (Jones)?
Why, too, the glaring lack of romantic comedies? Harry/Sally is deserving, as Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Geez, von: Two Mules for Sister Sara!
I should probably also note that there is some intentional diversity to my picks, so The Maltese Falcon and the African Queen are not on the list because I’ve already got Bogart and Hepburn films. (Although I probably need an Audrey Hepburn film…so many good movies, and so little time.)
Well, after 70+ comments all my favorites (that I can think of at the moment) have been mentioned by someone else except for “Rob Roy” with Liam Neeson and Jessica Lange and evil personified by Tim Roth.
And although it probably doesn’t count, “Lonesome Dove” has spent more time in my DVD played than anything else.
Geez, von: Two Mules for Sister Sara!
One, two; Mary, Sara. It’s all pretty much the same, right? 😉
(Whoops. Thanks, CC.)
I’m certainly using this thread to fill up my Netflix queue.
Here’s a different sort of slice:
FILMS I LOVE SET IN IMAGINARY ENVIRONMENTS
Streets of Fire. “Another time, another place”, the movie tells at the outset, and it is – it’s the ’50s and the ’80s run together into a seamless garment and set to some mighty fine ’80s rock and pop. It’s also got Willem Dafoe in the scariest overalls ever.
The Warriors. Walter Hill sure worked this vibe well. The conceit of rendering an event from Greek history in terms of gang warfare is a good one, and there never were gangs like that, nor DJs.
Trouble In Mind. One of a bunch of unjustly neglected Alan Rudolph movies, set in a near-future rainy noir city, featuring Kris Kristofferson as the ex-cop just coming out of jail and running headlong into a bunch of people’s troubles. It includes Divine’s only non-drag role, as the awesomely creepy crime boss, and makes wonderful use of Seattle. (Equinox does the same thing for the southwestern desert.)
The Rook. A police procedural set in a Calvinistic, Gnostic land that may be Britain in some other history. Dark, quiet, intense, no happy outcomes.
Six String Samurai. Set forty years after the Soviets dropped the big one and won World War III, with Las Vegas as the last bastion of freedom, Elvis dead and Death among those wanting to take his place as the new king of rock and roll, and a whole lot more. Just a gloriously deranged fantasy. The music of the Red Elvises helps.
Just about all my favorites have been named. I will add two Mel Gibson films for consideration:
Gallipoli
Braveheart
I’m certainly using this thread to fill up my Netflix queue.
Here’s a different sort of slice:
FILMS I LOVE SET IN IMAGINARY ENVIRONMENTS
Streets of Fire. “Another time, another place”, the movie tells at the outset, and it is – it’s the ’50s and the ’80s run together into a seamless garment and set to some mighty fine ’80s rock and pop. It’s also got Willem Dafoe in the scariest overalls ever.
The Warriors. Walter Hill sure worked this vibe well. The conceit of rendering an event from Greek history in terms of gang warfare is a good one, and there never were gangs like that, nor DJs.
Trouble In Mind. One of a bunch of unjustly neglected Alan Rudolph movies, set in a near-future rainy noir city, featuring Kris Kristofferson as the ex-cop just coming out of jail and running headlong into a bunch of people’s troubles. It includes Divine’s only non-drag role, as the awesomely creepy crime boss, and makes wonderful use of Seattle. (Equinox does the same thing for the southwestern desert.)
The Rook. A police procedural set in a Calvinistic, Gnostic land that may be Britain in some other history. Dark, quiet, intense, no happy outcomes.
Six String Samurai. Set forty years after the Soviets dropped the big one and won World War III, with Las Vegas as the last bastion of freedom, Elvis dead and Death among those wanting to take his place as the new king of rock and roll, and a whole lot more. Just a gloriously deranged fantasy. The music of the Red Elvises helps.
Random thoughts
Ferris Bueller – just about every scene is perfect, I love the cuts between Cameron and Ferris before they leave their houses
Braveheart – only movie I’ve scene more than three times in the theater (other than the star wars trilogy)
Princess Bride – like Ferris, just about every scene is perfect (Fred Savage: “Can we stop with the kissing”)
Empire Strikes Back – most shocking twist in movie history; plus I love the saber fight at the end with Vader getting more and more vicious
E.T. – unbelievable performance by Henry Thomas; if you’ve seen the tape of his audition that was attached to one of the recent additions, Spielberg is just flabbergasted by him
The Ten Commandments – just something about the sweep of the film is stunning
xanax–
Last night I remembered I had forgotten to put “Un Coeur en Hiver” on my list. Did you see that? I was in love with Mmme. Beart for months after that.
Oh, and High Noon.
Erm, “recent editions” that is.
Blade Runner!
Lawrence of Arabia!
Slacker!
Dazed and Confused!
And double amen to Gallipoli and the original The Manchurian Candidate.
In no particular order, I’ve watched almost all of these multiple times
The Third Man
Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors
Les Enfins du Paradis
The Rules of the Game
La Strada
Apocalypse Now
Derzu Uzala
Blade Runner
Pulp Fiction
The Bad Lieutenant
True Romance
“Les Enfins du Paradis”
??
— Mais — ou sommes nous? Pourquoi y-a-t’il tant des nuages? — Ah! Je comprends! Paradis: enfin!
I want to apologize, in advance, for any grammatical mistakes in the above. Already the s on ‘des’ looks very dubious to me. Grammar was never my long suit.
And I apologize for spelling – just not in advance- but a good quick call Hilzoy – a least a better enfins than the other possibilities! Of course it should have been Les Enfants du Paradis with the incomparable Arletty.
oh, and also I think unmentioned above is Black Orpheus, which along with Les Enfants and a number of other great films – The Rules of the Game, too – has been completely redone with new “prints?” on Criterion DVD’s. The colors in Black Orpheus have made it a new movie, adding detail that I had never seen before.
Looking for a first-rate Sunday afternoon weeper? Try “Iphigenia.”
If Irene Papas’ heart-broken Clytemnestra doesn’t get you, you may be ungettable.
And Jake B. “I was in love with Mmme. Beart for months after that.”
You mean you got over it?
grackel: I could have gone with: enfin! un enfant! et a quatre-vingt-dixsept ans d’infécondité!
but I desisted.
apres quatre-vingt-dixsept ans, not a.
I should quit now.
xanax–
You didn’t notice I spelled it “Mmme.”?
Actually, she broke my heart when she starred in a movie with Tom Cruise (just as Kelly McGillis and Elisabeth Shue already had).
About 80% of the foregoing titles would be on my list (long list), but Bull Durham belongs at the top of the list of any great comedies. Annie Savoy is the best part for a woman in the last hundred years–and Susan Sarandon was perfect. Pride and Prejudice is wonderful in all three versions. I love the first one for Laurence Olivier’s Darcy, the second for the fact that they took their time and let it build (and for Colin Firth in a wet shirt), and the last most recent Keira Knightly version for its headlong romantic fire. Persuasion is the best Jane Austen film of them all. That’s one I watch when the world is going to hell and taking me with it.
JakeB: I’m illiterate in a variety of languages including French so your meaning is lost on me. Hell, I just thought you meant “Mmmmmmm!”
xanax–
don’t worry, you got the meaning.
I rewatched Bull Durham last year and I realized that it’s not nearly as good as I thought it was and it’s pretty much all Costner’s fault.
He’s really much too much of a pretty boy to be Crash Davis and he ambles and smirks his way through the role instead of showing the mix of contempt and love he has for the game that used him up and eventually tosses him away. The “I Believe” monologue is a great piece of writing, but the line-reading Costner gives almost kills it.
It includes Divine’s only non-drag role . . .
The devil, you say! He played male roles in both Female Trouble and Hairspray!
Chuchundra:
I like “Bull Durham”, but I agree with you on Costner. To my mind, his best role was as dead Alex in “The Big Chill”. There is a flatness in the way he delivers his lines in all of his roles that worked perfectly as, you know, a corpse.
I think this is why his better performances are as athletes.
von: Thanks for reminding me of Four Weddings and a Funeral. The Rowan Atkinson marriage ceremony (which included such classics as “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spigot”… also, as I recall, “The Father, The Son and The Holy Goat”). That one scene was malapropist humor at its best. All these years hence, can’t even think of it without laughing out loud. Much like the “Someday, son, all this will be yours!” … “What, the curtains?” line from MP & the Holy Grail.
And, of course, the Knights who say, “NI!”
And if I can put in a plug for most subtle comedy moment evar! (IMHO) – in The Naked Gun, there’s a scene where Leslie Nielsen walks around the wall of the set (i.e., the other actors go through the door between offices and he just walks around the wall). The camera work is so smooth if you’re not paying attention you miss it.
I rewatched Bull Durham last year and I realized that it’s not nearly as good as I thought it was
That is the other danger is that you have a memory of movies as being great and you sit down to rewatch them, and if you are lucky, you think ‘Ok, maybe it wasn’t that great’ and if you are like me, you think ‘what the hell was I thinking?’ This is especially true for comedies.
in no order…
Star Wars
Alien
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Blazing Saddles
Fight Club
Fellowship of the Ring
Rushmore
Goodfellas
Blue Velvet
Full Metal Jacket
Pulp Fiction
A Clockwork Orange
Ferris Beullers Day Off
The Hudsucker Proxy
Nightmare Before Christmas
I loved “Bull Durham.” And “Field of Dreams” too.
“Goodfellas”
All of it; the narration is effing compelling.
But there is that scene in which the main character, late in the game, whacked on cocaine and afraid of being whacked by the local Mafia, is arranging the flight to Pittsburgh by his cynical, punkish, not very responsible nanny to deliver the blow to the connection, and he has the marinara sauce going on the stove, and his brother in the wheelchair doesn’t quite know when to turn the veal cutlets, and his wife is liking the life a little too much, and he needs to go get the nanny’s hat, cause she can’t fly without the hat, which she announces as he’s making the meatballs and the black helicopter is following him like Kofi Annan bugging a Redstater, and the cutlets are burning, and you had to feel for the guy, cause everywhere he looks there is that freaking helicopter and nobody is cooperating ….
Scorcese at his kinetic filmmaking best.
My favorite Costner films are from earlier in his career:
Silverado, a glorious Western that doesn’t get nearly the attention it deserves.
No Way Out, a wonderfully tight espionage flick where he’s the military advisor to the secretary of defense, and having a fling with his boss’ mistress. He accidentally kills her, and then gets put in charge of the investigation to find the killer, whom his boss is sure is a Soviet mole…complications ensue.
He accidentally kills her
Er, who’s “he” in this sentence?
Yeah, this is an impossible task for me.
Some favorites, though:
Alien
Blade Runner
The Empire Strikes Back (the asteroid sequence is a work of art, ROTJ’s space battle beats it for scope, but not for sheer elegance)
The Big Lebowski
Finding Nemo
The Incredibles (amazing animation, superb action, terrific cast, whip-smart dialogue, it has everything you could want out of an action movie and more)
The Iron Giant (dutchmarbel, under no other circumstances could Vin Diesel make me cry, much less by simply whispering “Superman”)
The Wrong Trousers (the toy train chase puts this one above A Close Shave for me, Hilzoy)
Taxi Driver (since Goodfellas already got a nod in this thread)
Wild at Heart (actually, the only Lynch movie I don’t care for is Eraserhead)
Moulin Rouge (cinema at its best, simultaneously self-aware and transporting)
Fight Club (ditto, though in an entirely different way)
“Contact” would not make my list, though it might have shortly after my first viewing. The opening sequence is stunning, and the climactic scene is touching on a number of levels. But subsequent viewings have allowed me to gain a little distance from the subject matter, and to notice just how bad the script is in a lot of places. And having read Sagan’s novel, I can’t help but feel that the movie rendered his overall vision in crayon. Movie adaptations are rarely as good as the book, but hewing closer to the source material would have cut Matthew McConaughey’s character’s role down dramatically, and that would have been an unqualified good. The more I think about it, the more I just feel that the movie is a disaster. Though, any movie with John Hurt has to have some redeeming qualities (and he does a hell of a lot more with his meager role than his fellow “Alien” alum Tom Skerrit does with far more screen time).
I’m growing increasingly convinced that Robert Zemeckis, while he can capture some striking images, can’t cast a movie to save his life. “Cast Away” was gorgeous, and deeply moving in a lot of ways, but Helen Hunt for crying out loud?
Josh: Sorry for the ambiguity. Kevin Costner’s character accidentally kills his boss’ mistress, and his boss leaps to the conclusion that the killer must have been the Soviet mole that the boss has been hoping to find. Oh, the boss is played by Gene Hackman, who does a fine job conveying the sense of great intelligence not necessarily well socialized.
Blue Velvet
Brazil (director’s cut!)
Blade Runner (director’s cut!!)
Barton Fink
Big Lebowski
Stalker (Tarkowski)
French Connection
Touch of Evil
Alphaville
The Five Obstructions
some other ones
Just to stir the pot…
I’ve never understood the love people have for the Godfather II. The first one I found very interesting, as Michael Corleone was seduced into becoming the thing he tried to avoid. But the second one lacked any that depth. Two completely different storylines made the movie somewhat annoying to follow, and I didn’t really get the sense that there was much more going on than filling in Vito Corleone’s backstory and showing just how far Michael had fallen into darkness. The best thing I ever saw come out of Godfather II was a Bananarama song.
Metropolis (Of Course)
Breaker Morant
The Year of Living Dangerously
All Quiet on the Western Front
Paths of Glory
Gallipoli
Montenegro
The Haunting (The 1963 version, not the crappy 1999 remake)
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Rock n Roll High School
Stripes
That’s eleven. I notice all the comedies are from my high school and college years and I like a young Mel Gibson/Peter Weir combination before one revealed himself as an anti-semitic jesus freak and the other sold out to hollywood.
In alphabetical order:
Beauty and the Beast (the Cocteau version)
Casablance
Flesh and the Devil
It Happened One Night
On the Waterfront
Open City
Some Like It Hot
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Kid
The Maltese Falcon
Silverado, a glorious Western that doesn’t get nearly the attention it deserves.
Yes yes yes! Another movie where I think just about every scene is perfect.
Metropolis should be accompagnied by a year, though I assume you mean the original?
Do we have two Andrews now?
Birdy is really very underestimated. It made a hugh impact on me, both for the story and the beautiful camera handling.
Ugh: Ahhh, good to find other Silverado fans.
Damon: Stalker is one of the most visually stunning movies I’ve ever seen. Maybe I should assemble a list of favorite quiet films.
Metropolis should be accompagnied by a year, though I assume you mean the original?
I wasn’t aware that anything but the 1926 Fritz Lang masterpiece would appear in anyone’s list of great film. Besides, the “of course” refers to my pseudonym.
Ah, somebody else put Barry Lyndon into play. Should a movie be considered for an all-time list on the basis of cinematography alone? I am afraid to rent the DVD, believing that watching it on an old, small TV will be horribly disappointing.
I don’t think No Way Out is being described correctly in this thread. I don’t remember Kevin Costner’s character killing the mistress.
Great, underrated movie though.
Here’s the IMDB summary, if that helps.
This line, from that summary, made me chuckle:
“He now has only a few hours to find the killer before the computer regenerates the photo.”
Ah, the ’80’s.
That reminds me of what Tom Hanks had to say about making Apollo 13, where the Apollo spacecraft’s computer had ~20k of RAM. “We’re making a movie about going to the moon, and it’s a period piece.”
Of course, there’s also the scene where the onboard computer has been shut down, and the astronauts and the guys at mission control have to calculate the course corrections by hand. It was a nice way of conveying just how far the Apollo program was pushing the boundaries of human ingenuity. I don’t think much of Ron Howard as a director, but I did enjoy that movie.
It’s fun reading other people’s movie lists. Like Andrew, there are some mentioned here I’ve never heard of. My own list isn’t that different from Andrew’s, though there are some others listed here I’d maybe put ahead of his.
Interesting that the LOTR fans present seem to agree (with the possible exception of Jes) that FOTR was the best of the three. I loved the second and almost loved the third, and they all differ from the book, but the really annoying deviations come in the second and third movies. FOTR deviates, as I recall, mainly in leaving out Tom Bombadil (which I regret, but it’s understandable), and in putting Arwen in place of Glorfindel. But that, heretical as it might seem to a Tolkien fan, might actually be an improvement.
Donald,
I loved all three, but Jackson’s portrayal of Faramir and Denethor I found rather grating at times. And I thought he could have spent a little more time on Frodo and Sam’s journey to Mount Doom if he hadn’t spent so much building Denethor up as a nut.
I concur on Arwen in lieu of Glorfindel. Since she is going to appear later, introducing her earlier isn’t a bad idea.
Many a good film listed…I’d add:
Harold and Maude
The Nightmare Before Christmas
It’s a Wonderful Life
Toy Story
Good Night and Good Luck
Dreams (A.K.’s film)
Stripes
I agree with Andrew. Especially about Faramir actually though maybe that counts even more for Saruman. (wrong portrayal)
I thought the ‘funny Gimli’ bit brought the whole film down.
I do have an urge to go to New Sealand on a holiday 🙂
dutchmarbel.
Try The Chocolate War, it has the beautiful grays and rich overcast afternoons.
Alan Parker’s work in Birdy was dreamy.
Yes, the book had more depth; however Parker really made it his own, and it didn’t suufer for it.
I had mixed feelings about what Jackson did to Faramir–Jackson had built the Ring up to be even more powerful than it was in the books (it corrupts people faster), so it would have been an internal inconsistency to have Faramir overcome temptation too easily. But I loved the book Faramir and missed not having him in the movie.
But what Jackson did to Denethor’s character was a war crime. Oops, wrong thread. All the same, it was.
SoD: sounds interesting, but the dvd is not out yet appearantly.
Donald: FOTR deviates, as I recall, mainly in leaving out Tom Bombadil (which I regret, but it’s understandable), and in putting Arwen in place of Glorfindel. But that, heretical as it might seem to a Tolkien fan, might actually be an improvement.
Oh, I could live without Tom Bombadil (I like him, but he can be abstracted from the story without damage), and I think it was a perfectly valid dramatic decision to have Arwen be the elf who rescues Frodo from the Riders: I wish Jackson had followed through on that decision to have Arwen be a kick-ass elvish warrior through all three movies, rather than having her turn into Love-sick Elf Maiden in the third movie.
No, the deviation I mind about in the first movie is quite small but still significant: when Frodo slips on the Ring and is attacked by the Nazgul, in the book, when finally backed into a corner, he dives forward and stabs at the Rider with his knife, crying “O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!” It’s a moment I was keyed up, waiting for, when I first saw FotR, because it’s the first moment Frodo really fights back – and to me it was and is symbolic of all the moments of fierce resistence we see in Frodo and in the other hobbits, even in Gollum.
Only it didn’t happen: in the movie, Frodo fell on his back and writhed about a bit, till he was rescued by someone else.
One of the things I like about TLotR – and never knew I did until I saw the movies – is that you’d never know from reading Tolkien that a person who’s under 4 feet tall is inherently mockable. Gimli isn’t a figure of fun in the books: but neither director nor actor is bothering to think about Gimli as a person who can be taken seriously in the movies.
Jes,
Excellent points. The diminution of Gimli was a very annoying decision on Jackson’s part, and I would have liked to see Frodo calling on Elbereth and Gilthoniel as well.
Andrew, the thing is – I read The Lord of the Rings for the first time when I was 12. And in the next three or four years I read it god-knows-how-many-times. And since then I’ve read the whole trilogy probably about once every two or three years – just whenever the impulse comes over me.
I loved the movies. I thought they were a brilliant adaption of the novels. I can and will defend most of the major changes – I regret the Faramir of the novels, but I think the Faramir of the movies is a perfectly good character in his own right. (Likewise Denethor.) I can think of different adaptations that could have been made to reduce the three volumes into three watchable-length films, but mostly, I’m okay with how Jackson did it, and I think he set a good standard for next time someone sets out to do it.
It’s the little changes that bug me. (And the few big changes that are dramatically indefensible, like turning Gimli into a figure of fun, or having the Ents decide that they didn’t care about what Saruman was doing.) Having Eowyn be a bad cook and Aragorn be a terrible diplomat. Having Aragorn kiss Arwen in front of the entire crowd. That kind of thing.
I found the change in Saruman’s motivation to be very foolish (and unnecessary). He was someone who became evil by wanting to study evil to get more power to fight evil. I thought that was a very important point in the book.
What about Jackson’s abandoning of the Scouring of the Shire? In Ursula leGuin’s writing on LotR, she argues that we’re meant to identify with the Hobbits (as Tolkien himself, of course, thought of them as analogues to English yeomen), which is why the story ends with Sam. I remember reading somewhere that Jackson had no interest in the Scouring chapter; that made me wonder if he actually understood the perspective from which Tolkien was writing (as I understand it). I can see the argument against including it in the movie–after all the big dramatic stuff, it might seem sort of half-assed or comedic–but perhaps that’s a misjudgment of the same type as making a dwarf a comic character. I’ve wondered if the reason for those changes is because you’re bound to identify with the human characters in the movies, them being human and all, so the hobbit’s-eye-view that makes up so much of the book was abandoned as considered impossible to manage.
Good point, Sebastian. Jackson takes the most complicated characters in the book (Saruman, Denethor) and flattens them out. And yeah, Saruman in the book is fascinating–falling into evil because he studied it too deeply. And just the fact that it was a three-sided war made it more interesting than it is in the movie.
The height jokes were more of Jackson’s cheapening of the material, similar to the way he decided to make the Ents into wooden-headed morons. Or when he interrupts a rather stirring battle scene (Aragorn leading the charge against the Uruk-hai after the wall is breached) with Legolas doing some skateboarding trick. Ugh.
I could see why the Scouring was left out, but it might also be a reflection of Jackson’s mistaken reading.
All this criticism, when actually, I loved the movies. Even the last one, though I was a little disappointed with it.
Yes, I think making Saruman just another Sauron lackey wasn’t a good choice either (or is that in addition to the other changes in Saruman’s character?).
I actually really liked the movies, and respected a number of the changes he made. I just thought the change in the Saruman character changed the good-evil dynamic in a way that was both unnecessary and unhelpful. A huge theme of the book is that we all have a very strong capacity for evil. Jackson seemed to misunderstand how that functioned in the story. (The tin ear on this subject led to one of the only bad scenes in the Fellowship of the Ring, when Galadriel rejects Frodo’s offer of the ring.)
I humbly submit Rounders:
– Matt Damon
– Ed Norton
– John Malkovich (doing the craziest accent ever)
– Famke Janssen
’nuff said.
Also Three Kings.
George Clooney’s best performance, plus music video director Spike Jonze proving he can act. Holds up to repeated viewings.
Despite Jackson’s various failings (and they were numerous), I tend to forgive almost all of it for the charge of the Rohirrim outside Minas Tirith. When Theoden gets up before his men and charges down the line before leading them into battle, I get goosebumps. The expression on the orcs as they realize their arrows can’t stop the charge is a beautiful thing; a cavalry charge is a terrible thing to behold, and RotK captured that about as well as anything could, I think.
Of course, as a cavalryman, I may be a bit biased.
I stepped outside a few minutes ago to take a break for a few minutes, and I just want to say, “The sun! It burns us, precioussss!”