How To Succeed as a Movie Buff Without Really Trying
- African Queen (jgandcag's 100 Best list)
- Aguirre, Wrath of God (Roger Ebert)
- All About Eve (AAA's 30 Best list)
- Amadeus (2)
- Apocalypse Now (JohnnyW's top 15)
- The Apostle (JohnnyW's top 15)
- Badlands (JohnnyW's top 15)
- Battleship Potemkin (Sight and Sound)
- Blowup (lbangs)
- The Blue Angel (lbangs's SYWTBFF - TBOTB)
- Blue Velvet (JohnnyW's top 15)
- Bonnie and Clyde (jgandcag's 100 Best list)
- Breaker Morant (5)
- Breathless (lbangs's SYWTBFF - TBOTB)
- Das Boot (jblack's top 25)
- The Deer Hunter (2)
- Dekalog (Roger Ebert)
- Do The Right Thing (jgandcag's 100 Best list)
- La Dolce Vita (Roger Ebert)
- 8 1/2 (5)
- The Elephant Man (jblack's top 25)
- The Exorcist (jgandcag's 100 Best list) Note: There is no way in hell I'll see this before I'm 17.
- Five Easy Pieces (JohnnyW's top 15)
- The Godfather, Part II (3)
- Goldfinger (4)
- Gone With the Wind (3)
- Goodfellas (jgandcag's 100 Best list)
- The Grand Illusion (lbangs's SYWTBFF - TBOTB)
- A Hard Day's Night (jgandcag's 100 Best list)
- The Hidden Fortress (slipkid71)
- I am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang (jblack's top 25)
- Jaws (1)
- Jules and Jim (lbangs's SYWTBFF - TBOTB)
- The Last Picture Show (jgandcag's 100 Best list)
- Last Year at Marienbad (jblack's top 25)
- Lola Montes (lbangs's SYWTBFF - TBOTB)
- M (lbangs's SYWTBFF - TBOTB)
- The Man Who Fell to Earth (jblack's top 25)
- The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (jgandcag's 100 Best list)
- Midnight Cowboy (jblack's top 25)
- Miller's Crossing (jgandcag's 100 Best list)
- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (lbangs's SYWTBFF - TBOTB)
- Nashville (lbangs's SYWTBFF - TBOTB)
- Nights of Cabiria (Paul Mazursky)
- Nobody's Fool (jim's top 10)
- The Passion of Joan of Arc (lbangs's SYWTBFF - TBOTB)
- Planet of the Apes (1968) (4)
- Pulp Fiction (AAA's 30 Best list) Note: See "The Exorcist."
- The Quiet Man (5)
- Raging Bull (1)
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (1)
- Raise the Red Lantern (jim's top 10)
- Rear Window (3)
- Rebecca (3)
- Reds (jblack's top 25)
- La Regle du jeu (Sight and Sound)
- The Right Stuff (jgandcag's 100 Best list)
- The Seven Samurai (jim)
- Shadow of a Doubt (3)
- Stagecoach (5)
- Stop Making Sense (AAA's 30 Best list)
- La Strada (lbangs's SYWTBFF - TBOTB)
- Stranger Than Paradise (AAA's 30 Best list)
- A Streetcar Named Desire (5)
- Sunrise (Sight and Sound)
- Taxi Driver (jblack's top 25)
- Tokyo Story (lbangs's SYWTBFF - TBOTB)
- Tom Jones (lbangs's SYWTBFF - TBOTB)
- Touch of Evil (jgandcag's 100 Best list)
- Truly, Madly, Deeply (jim's top 10)
- Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf? (jblack's top 25)
- The Wild Bunch (jgandcag's 100 Best list)
- Wings of Desire (AAA's 30 Best list)
I want to start expanding my horizons to include plenty of classics instead of restricting myself to comedies. So please, suggest as many essential classics as you want, and I'll add them to my list.
Restrictions: The movie should not be impossible to find. Please don't suggest a 1908 Indonesian silent movie that's on sale at eBay for $80. Also, as I am a minor, I would prefer to focus on movies that aren't rated R, but if you think an R-rated movie is essential, please post it and I'll try to convince my parents. Finally, this may seem shallow, but really long movies tend to irk me...so if you're recommending a movie that's over two and a half hours, it better be pretty damn good.
I've started off the list with some movies that:
1) I own on VHS but haven't watched yet
2) I own on DVD but haven't watched yet
3) My parents own
4) My brother owns
5) I have taped off TCM
I also took a look at some lists of the greatest movies from some Hall of Famers. However, some of the films on the lists, I realized that they fall into one of the first 5 categories, but I forgot them - in this case, I didn't credit the writer of the list.
P.S. In case you didn't realize, (lbangs's SYWTBFF - TBOTB) stands for lbangs's list "So You Want to Be a Film Fanatic - The Best of the Best." Also, I didn't want the list to get REALLY cluttered, so I only considered the top 50 of jgandcag's list.
Most Recent Update (8/11/02): Added all films from the top 10 Sight and Sound lists. I also added all films nominated by Roger Ebert (a critic I highly respect) and Paul Mazursky (7 of his picks are ones I loved - Bridge on the River Kwai, Citizen Kane, City Lights, Dr. Strangelove, Rashomon, Sunset Boulevard, and Treasure of the Sierra Madre - so I figured I'd add his other 3; well, actually, 2 were already on this list so I only added "Nights of Cabiria.")
Films I've Watched Since the Commencement of This List:
2001: A Space Odyssey (7/27/02)
Night of the Hunter (7/29/02)
Birth of a Nation (8/1/02)
Bridge on the River Kwai (8/1/02)
Blade Runner (8/2/02)
Red River (8/3/02)
Dances With Wolves (8/5/02) (Okay, so it was never actually on the list, but I saw it, and it's a classic. Kinda.)
Out of the Past (8/7/02) (See "Dances With Wolves.")
Notorious (8/8/02) (See "Out of the Past.")
McCabe and Mrs. Miller (8/11/02) (Hate to say this, but see "Notorious.")
Patton (8/12/02) (Yes, this one actually was once on the list.)
From Here to Eternity (8/17/02) (See "Patton.")
The Adventures of Robin Hood (8/18/02)
Cool Hand Luke (8/25/02)
Laura (8/27/02) (I hate to say this, but see "McCabe and Mrs. Miller." Maybe I should change this to just being classics that I've seen, especially ones on this list.)
Psycho (8/28/02)
Chinatown (9/1/02)
The Lady Vanishes (9/3/02)
High Noon (9/7/02)
The Great Escape (9/15/02)
The Big Sleep (9/21/02) (See "Laura")
Alien (10/19/02)
Ordinary People (12/1/02)
Double Indemnity (12/26/02)
Whoops, I haven't been keeping this list updated. Since the last update, I've seen "Cabaret", "Children of Paradise", "42nd Street", "The Magnificent Ambersons", "The Third Man", "White Heat."
(7/9/03) Jeez, I haven't been keeping this updated at all. Lemme delete the following: "Anatomy of a Murder", "The Best Years of Our Lives", "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", "Schindler's List", "Sweet Smell of Success", and "The Wizard of Oz." I also finally realized that "Regle du jeu" is the same thing as "Rules of the Game", so I deleted one.
Well that is certainly a good starting list. Look up some of Lbangs lists about being a film fanatic. I think he wrote those with someone exactly like you in mind.
The Only one on this list I would say you could skip as a movie essential is Planet of The Apes but it is too much fun to not watch.
AJ, what did you think of Night of the Hunter?
I loved its sheer bizarreness. It was creepy but still very strange. Also, Robert Mitchum was *fantastic* - my favorite part was when he gave his LOVE / HATE speech, with visuals. All in all, a great movie. Perhaps I'll add it to my "List That's Not About Comedies" in the future, but right now I'm too lazy.
How did you like 2001 and Bladerunner?
I loved "2001", it was visually amazing and the score was probably the best I've heard in a while. The HAL scenes were probably the best, but the ending was also cool. Downsides, in my opinion: Its somewhat slow pace (but I don't think the filmmakers can be blamed for that, since I heard Kubrick had to make a deadline and didn't get to edit the film as much as he'd have liked), and the completely gratuitous death of a perfectly innocent monkey. I don't mind violence in movies, but when innocent monkeys are dying, I am often disturbed.
Also, while I enjoyed "Blade Runner", I don't think it should be considered a classic. I liked it, but I just didn't get that feeling when you just know you're watching a great film, you know what I'm saying? If not, I can't really explain it.
How'd you like Cool Hand Luke?
Oh, I loved it. I like Paul Newman and George Kennedy, and they were fabulous in it. The cinematography was also great. It's hard to pick a favorite scene, I liked so many: the eggs, the multiple escapes, the sneezing dogs , the poker game; I also thought the "Lucille" scene was very amusing.
So, what did you think of Laura?
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
I thought it was a great mystery, yet it was so bizarre at the same time. I think the moviemakers were laughing behind the camera at all the absurdities they put into it, especially Clifton Webb's "nude" scene. I also thought Webb's performance was *amazing*. The only thing I didn't like about it is this: This may just be a personal bias, but when I see a mystery movie or read a mystery novel, I like to be able to guess who did it (I usually don't, but nevermind that). "Laura" is not that kind of mystery. Virtually any one of the suspects could've logically committed the murder. The screenwriters could've just chosen Lydecker at random; at least 3 other logical endings could've been written. Ah, but this is just a minor flaw, and the ending is very well-done although arbitrary.
I'm just going to keep nagging reviews out of you. :-) What did you think of High Noon and The Great Escape?
D'oh, I just wrote a rather long post but my other, virus-ridden computer sent it hurtling into the oblivion. Here's a consensed version of my post:
High Noon - Pretty good. Gary Cooper = great performance. Small town environment cool. Bored me on occasion.
Great Escape - Loved first 2 hours. Bronson, McQueen awesome. Well-written. Loved score. Disliked last 40 minutes.
Oo, Alien! What did you think? I'm curious if it's as scary now to a first-time viewer as it was to me in the early 80s.
Definitely. Scared the hell out of me! I loved the movie except for the first half-hour or so when nothing much was happening.
There were a lot of odd things that scared the crap out of me last night. First, I watched "Alien." Also, I was on the computer when my parents weren't home and my brother was asleep, and I hear this siren go off in my neighborhood. Now, I live in the middle of nowhere, and I can't remember the last time I heard a siren go off. And to add to my terror, just before I went to sleep, I logged off of AOL, and my computer informed me, "You have spend 666 minutes online." I thought, "Oh my God! My computer is possessed by the Devil!" But, I made it through the night. Yeah, that was an odd tangent - but yeah, I really liked "Alien", very scary movie.
:-) Well, glad to hear both that you made it through the night and that you liked it.
I'm recommending The Horse's Mouth, Alec Guiness is hilarious. You must be trying just a little bit, if you're asking for recs that is. :?)
:?)
I haven't used this list for a while, but I'll put the film on my 1950's list.