Recommended: Heavyweights, Tier 1
Submitted by jim on Thu, 05/24/2001 - 12:14
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- A Midnight Clear (1991) ... While I really need to see this again, I remember it as my favorite war movie. It's the tragic story of what happens when an isolated group of American soldiers encounters a similar group of German soldiers and they agree to a tentative cease-fire.
- Blade Runner (1982) ... I have to see this again.
- Blood Simple (1984) ... Having just watched the disappointing The Man Who Wasn't There, it seemed like a good time to see the critically-acclaimed Blood Simple, the only other Coen Bros. movie I hadn't seen. The brothers are retroactively redeemed - what a fantastic crime-of-passion movie. While the big picture is clear to the audience, each character is dangerously unaware of the truth, creating a very tense atmosphere. The plot twists and turns are tight and controlled, and the performances are fantastic. Easily the Coen's most successful thriller. I just wish the DVD wasn't a "director's cut" - damn their revisionist history.
- Das Boot (1981) ... Terrific war movie told from the perspective of one German U-boat's crew. Terrific evocation of claustrophobia and tension, and I couldn't help rooting for the crew.
- Fight Club (1999) ... Dark (in every respect, including lighting) satire about violence and blind obedience. Sports a terrific script that is both funny and eminently quotable. Pitt, Norton, and Bonham-Carter are fantastic. Violent, but not gratuitously so (how can a movie about violence be gratuitous?).
- Gallipoli (1981) ... I remember loving this, but I remember almost nothing about it except the central tragedy. Really must see again someday.
- Henry V (1989) ... After watching piles of Olivier Shakespeare, which always bugged me as "too stagey", I really latched onto Branagh's rendtions, which seem to me to love not only the source, but also the medium. This is my favorite Branagh Shakespeare.
- In the Company of Men (1997) ... You won't find uglier behavior than that exhibited by the guys in this movie. Two middle manager types are assigned to a branch office for six weeks. Both mysogynists, both having been dumped, they make a pact to simultaneously romance an insecure woman and then dump her at the end of their six weeks. "She'll be reaching for the sleeping pills inside of a week." They look for a viable target and pick a deaf secretary. My first impulse when watching this movie was "nobody could behave that way", but that was just the idealist in me. I have to face up to the fact that some guys will watch this movie as a call to arms rather than an indictment. As hard as it was to watch, there are so many things to like about this movie. In particular, I thought they did a wonderful job making me wonder if either of the guys were developing geninue affection for their target. The interstitial music (the only music in the film, I think), was terrific. The performances were fantastic, and I would have guessed Stacy Edwards really was deaf (she's not). I can't recall at the moment a more Machiavellian villian than Aaron Eckhart's "Chad". Finally, a wonderful job illustrating not only malevolence, but the evil that can spring out of weakness as well.
- Ju Dou (1990) ... I have to see this again.
- Life is Beautiful (1998) ... Everybody has said it, I'll second it: Benigni pulls off the risky "comedy in a concentration camp" (although I must say that his motive for maintaining his clowning in the face of unimaginable adversity made the film much more poignant for me than laugh-out-loud funny). I haven't been a fan of Benigni's comedy in the past, but here he really shines. His irrepressibility and obvious joy in life and his family make him glow. Everybody else was terrific, but this is clearly Benigni's movie to win or lose, and he triumphs.
- The Mission (1986) ... I have to see this again.
- The Pianist (2002) ... A wonderful holocaust movie. But have there been any bad ones? The material is horrifying and heart-wrenching by nature, and you've got to have a fair amount of confidence (and presumably that confidence comes from skill) to tackle such a subject. It seems to me that if you were a gambler and wanted to bet you could pick a good movie at random from a given genre, you'd stay away from the romantic comedies and gravitate toward the holocaust movies. But I digress, and this movie doesn't deserve such meandering. Thank goodness we got the Chinatown Polanski rather than his Ninth Gate doppelganger, and Adrien Brody is masterful. How has he avoided my attention until now? The unfolding of the Holocaust as viewed from his perspective is gripping and moving, and even relaying the story to my wife the next day (who is wise enough to stay from depressing movies) almost brought tears to my eyes, as I described the scene in which Brody opens a package and discovers a completely mundane object, shattering in its simple thoughfulness in a sea of tragedy.
- Raise the Red Lantern (1991) ... Everything a Shakespearian tragedy would be, were Shakespeare Chinese. Simply marvelous.
- Reservoir Dogs (1992) ... This movie would make a great play. It has that legendary bantering dialog that good actors can really cruise on, and the set design would be a piece of cake. You would think, given that most of the movie is just a handful of guys talking in various rooms or cars this movie would watch like a play, but it never does; it's always wonderfully cinematic. What a remarkable one-two punch Tarantino delivered with this then Pulp Fiction. I'm hard pressed to pick a favorite. I vaguely recall thinking Pulp Fiction lost something on my second viewing, but I liked Reservoir Dogs every bit as much the second time around. I'm sure I'll have to do third viewings of each, and they'll stay neck-and-neck.
- Saving Private Ryan (1998) ... The legends are true. The first 27 minutes of this movie are amazing. It's a minor miracle that an opening action sequence can carry so well for a full sixth of a three-hour movie without numbing the viewer. While no movie can ever truly deliver the horrors of war to someone who has never experienced it first-hand, this does a good a job as any--certainly the best I've seen. And it was a timely viewing for me, as I am numb to wartime death as reported in the newspaper. It's good to be reminded, in an age when *even one* U.S. casualty makes the front page, how many thousands of soldiers have given their lives in the past. It is impossible for the rest of the film to live up to the opening, but it does an admirable job trying.
- Sling Blade (1996) ... Billy Bob Thornton's transformational powers are impressive. A marvelous performance here, and a great movie. Shamefully under-nominated come Oscar time.
- To Live (1994) ... A multi-generational Chinese epic. Zhang Yimou is incapable of making a bad movie, but this is one of his best. Gong Li is terrific, as usual. I need to see this again.
- Trainspotting (1996) ... As good a drug movie as I've ever seen. At times comic, at times horrific, it treads a thin line: our protagonists are interesting enough that the movie is in constant danger of glamorizing the Edinburgh drug scene. But it never succumbs, and the horrible moments really are horrible. A great movie about bad influences, both chemical and social.
- Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991) ... Bleed Ghost of the treacle, special effects, and superfluous bad-guy subplot, and you're left with Truly, Madly, Deeply, my nominee for "best tearjerker."
Author Comments:
If you're going to use these lists for recommendations, you really should read how they're organized.
Jim, it's strange the way memory works. For a long time now the 'tear jerker' slot in my Favorite Movies By Genre list has been empty because no appropriate title would come to me. But just now I was reading your list here and when I came to THE MISSION my experience of that movie came back in a rush. I remembered walking out of the cinema trying to hide my face because of the tears running down it. I'm not religiously inclined, but one doesn't have to be to be moved by this film (and no doubt the great Ennio Morricone's music played its part in jerking my tears). Of course, this film is much more than a simple 'weepie', but given the effect it had on me I feel justified in deeming it my favorite of that genre.
I agree - while it doesn't fit precisely the traditional "tearjerker" pigeonhole, it can be shoehorned in there with a small amount of effort. Congrats on filling your final TBA. Along with everything else on this list, I really should watch The Mission again one of these days.
Re: Saving Private Ryan. If you'd have seen the film in the theater, trust me, you would have been numb.
YES! Trainspotting rocks. I'm glad to see you appreciate it. If I expand my top 30 films to a top 50, you'll be seeing it.
Trainspotting is one of my favorite films as well. It's a shame that Danny Boyle peaked with that film. I keep holding out for glimpses of that brilliance but it hasn't happened since.
Glad to see Trainspotting is so well-supported by Listologists - it certainly deserves it. Although there are parts of that movie my wife doesn't even want me to *describe* to her. :-)
Jim, you've probably already heard this, and in fact, you've probably already posted it somewhere on this site, but according to www.digitalbits.com, "To Live" comes out on DVD July 1st.
I have heard that, but it's still great news! I hope the rest of his movies follow. Maybe if we all buy a copy...
Hey Jim!
As I peruse your lists, I'm enjoying a drink out of my Listology Mug! Very snazzy indeed.
I just wanted to mention that I saw Gallipoli a few months ago for the first time, and I thought it was very powerful without becoming sappy or preachy. I thought that spending so much of the movie in Australia really created the necessary atmosphere and identifying with characters that made the actual events in Gallipoli so horrifying.
And it's a reminder that Mel Gibson has always been a good actor...
Johnny Waco
Sir Johnny! Always nice to see you here, and thanks for buying a mug! CafePress is lousy at telling me when somebody has bought something, so I'll turn off that nag box for you now - sorry about the delay.
I'm also happy to get some affirmation that Gallipoli was a good movie. I hesitated listing it on my highest tier given the haziness of my recollection, but I agree that Gibson has always been good. I'm particularly curious to see how The Passion of the Christ comes out (even if he's not acting in it).
So will be seeing more of you? No pressure, of course, I'm grateful for even your brief appearances. :-) I hope all is well with you and yours!
I'm certainly looking forward to The Passion of the Christ as well; the controversy surrounding the movie is interesting, and I want to decide on the issue of anti-Semitism for myself, but I would have wanted to see it anyway, just for the ambition of the film, using only Aramaic and Latin, being as graphically accurate as possible, etc.
Speaking of Gallipoli, I also just rented another Australian film from the period that criticizes the British military and its hypocritical attitudes toward commonwealth troops: Breaker Morant. I haven't watched it yet, but it is supposed to be very impressive, and it is directed by Bruce Beresford, who directed Tender Mercies when he came over to America. Have you seen it?
I certainly hope to be around a little more. I have my comprehensive exams in April, which means if I pass tests in three areas of specialty, then I am free to begin planning and writing my dissertation. So I'm stressed, but that's why we all need listology, right?
Johnny Waco
Good luck on the exams! My wife just took hers (which sounds just like yours) two weeks ago, and we are sweating the time until she finds out the results, which should be any day now!
We intentionally held off on celebrating Valentine's Day until this weekend; the stress really would have kept us from enjoying the dinner out!
I really like Breaker Morant. I watched it in high school (maybe even junior high) and thought I had discovered a gem. I was pleasantly surprised to discover later that it has its fair share of fans!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
I haven't seen Breaker Morant; let me know what you think so I can add it to my "to see" list (although maybe I'll do that anyway based on LBangs' comments below).
Best of luck on your comprehensive exams!
Breaker Morant is definitely worth a viewing.
The recommendations were right on the money; I thought Breaker Morant was great. It certainly complements Gallipoli in a lot of ways; both films really indict the condescending attitude that the British held against colonial and commonwealth troops. The idea in both films that Aussies, as well as others, should be honored to waste their lives in service to the "empire" sickened me.
I also find it intersting that Breaker Morant took place in roughly the same time frame as the "Dreyfuss Affair" in France, where a Jewish officer was railroaded in a court-martial as a scapegoat. I know the French government was eventually pressured into admitting its mistake and bad intentions, but I'm curious as to whether the British government ever acknowledged what really happened. I'll have to look into it, or does anyone know?
Johnny Waco
I'm afraid I don't know, although I'd certainly be curious to hear the answer.