Dang, I would probably rate all 23 of the Lang movies I've seen as at least "worth a look" and all but 3 or 4 as "recommended." (Ironically, Metropolis would rank near the bottom of my list.)
"As this article goes to press, [Charles] Burnett is in the final editing stages on what may be his most ambitious project to date — a biopic of Sam Nujoma, the first president of Namibia — and the folks at the invaluable Milestone Film & Video confirm that their long-standing project to issue both Killer of Sheep and My Brother’s Wedding on DVD should reach fruition by year’s end."
Destiny (Lang, 1921)
The Navigator (Keaton, 1924)
Mother (Pudovkin, 1926)
The Wind (Sjöström,1928)
The Fall of the House of Usher (Epstein, 1928)
The Circus (Chaplin, 1928)
Morocco (Von Sternberg, 1930)
Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde (Mamoulian, 1931)
Monkey Business (McLeod, 1931)
I Was Born, But… (Ozu, 1932)
Counsellor at Law (Wyler, 1933)
Twentieth Century (Hawks, 1934)
La Signora di Tutti (Ophuls, 1934)
A Tale of Two Cities (Conway, 1935)
Ruggles of Red Gap (McCarey, 1935)
The Devil is a Woman (Von Sternberg, 1935)
Show Boat (Whale, 1936)
You Only Live Once (Lang, 1937)
Easy Living (Leisen, 1937)
A Star Is Born (Wellman, 1937)
Stage Door (La Cava, 1937)
Quai des brumes (Carne, 1938)
The Roaring Twenties (Walsh, 1939)
Midnight (Leisen, 1939)
Foreign Correspondant (Hitchcock, 1940)
Ball of Fire (Hawks, 1941)
Meet John Doe (Capra, 1941)
Day of Wrath (Dreyer, 1943)
Cabin in the Sky (Minnelli, 1943)
Hail the Conquering Hero (Sturges, 1944)
The Ministry of Fear (Lang, 1944)
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (Sturges, 1944)
The Woman in the Window (Lang, 1945)
Dead of Night (various, 1945)
Shoeshine (De Sica, 1946)
Body and Soul (Rossen, 1947)
Pursued (Walsh, 1947)
Unfaithfully Yours (Sturges, 1948)
Late Spring (Ozu, 1949)
Night and the City (Dassin, 1950)
The River (Renoir, 1951)
El (Bunuel, 1952)
The Importance of Being Earnest (Asquith, 1952)
Othello (Welles, 1952)
Les Diaboliques (Clouzot, 1955)
Elevator to the Gallows (Malle, 1958)
The Human Condition (Kobayashi, 1959-1961)
Nazarin (Bunuel, 1959)
Fires on the Plain (Ichikawa, 1959)
Cruel Story of Youth (Oshima, 1960)
The Innocents (Clayton, 1961)
Une femme est une femme (Godard, 1961)
La Jetee (Marker, 1962)
The Birds (Hitchcock, 1963)
This Sporting Life (1963)
Kwaidan (Kobayashi, 1964)
Band of Outsiders (Godard, 1964)
I Am Cuba (Kalatozishvili, 1964)
Séance on a Wet Afternoon (Forbes, 1964)
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1965)
The Loves of a Blonde (Forman, 1965)
Bad Girls Go to Hell (Wishman, 1965)
Sword of Doom (Okamoto, 1966)
Le Samourai (Melville, 1967)
Don't Look Back (Pennebaker, 1967)
Branded to Kill (Suzuki, 1967)
Death by Hanging (Oshima, 1968)
The Lion in Winter (Harvey, 1968)
Medium Cool (Wexler, 1969)
Macbeth (Polanski, 1971)
Cocksucker Blues (Frank, 1972)
The Gambler (Reisz, 1974)
Lacombe Lucien (Malle, (1974)
Lenny (Fosse, 1974)
3 Women (Altman, 1977)
Blue Collar (Schrader, 1978)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Kaufman, 1978)
Vengeance is Mine (Imamura, 1979)
Demon Lover Diary (DeMott, 1980)
The Road Warrior (Miller, 1981)
Pennies from Heaven (Ross, 1981)
A Sunday in the Country (Tavernier, 1984)
Sid and Nancy (Cox, 1986)
Mauvais Sang (Carax, 1986)
The Last Temptation of Christ (Scorsese, 1988)
Midnight Run (Brest, 1988)
Field of Dreams (Robinson, 1989)
Jesus of Montreal (Arcand, 1989)
Heathers (Lehmann, 1989)
The Exorcist III (Blatty, 1990)
Miami Blues (Armitage, 1990)
Fearless (Weir, 1993)
Sonatine (Kitano, 1993)
In the Name of the Father (Sheridan, 1993)
Maborosi (Kore-eda, 1995)
Flirting with Disaster (Russell, 1996)
Hana-bi (Kitano, 1997)
Donnie Brasco (Newell, 1997)
After Life (Kore-eda, 1998)
Fucking Amal/Show Me Love (Moodysson, 1998)
The Talented Mr. Ripley (Minghella, 1999)
The House of Mirth (Davies, 2000)
Gosford Park (Altman, 2001)
Waking Life (Linklater, 2001)
25th Hour (Lee, 2002)
Femme Fatale (De Palma, 2002)
Mystic River (Eastwood, 2003)
Tropical Malady (Weerasethakul, 2004)
Kings and Queen (Desplechin, 2004)
That's 250 out of about 3500, so I think very highly of any film on this list. What didn't you like about Donnie Brasco? Aside from the great performances (it's beginning to look like this was the last great Pacino performance), you have a piercing study of a man who goes undercover and truly loses his identity. The film doesn't romanticize the mob, is understated and realistic, and ultimately rather touching when the final betrayal comes, as it must.
Thanks... this may take some time, but I'll get it done eventually.
Dang, I would probably rate all 23 of the Lang movies I've seen as at least "worth a look" and all but 3 or 4 as "recommended." (Ironically, Metropolis would rank near the bottom of my list.)
It's #474 in my Netflix Queue, which means I should get to it some time in late 2008.
From Masters of Cinema's home page:
"As this article goes to press, [Charles] Burnett is in the final editing stages on what may be his most ambitious project to date — a biopic of Sam Nujoma, the first president of Namibia — and the folks at the invaluable Milestone Film & Video confirm that their long-standing project to issue both Killer of Sheep and My Brother’s Wedding on DVD should reach fruition by year’s end."
Not on either list, and all are must-sees:
Destiny (Lang, 1921)
The Navigator (Keaton, 1924)
Mother (Pudovkin, 1926)
The Wind (Sjöström,1928)
The Fall of the House of Usher (Epstein, 1928)
The Circus (Chaplin, 1928)
Morocco (Von Sternberg, 1930)
Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde (Mamoulian, 1931)
Monkey Business (McLeod, 1931)
I Was Born, But… (Ozu, 1932)
Counsellor at Law (Wyler, 1933)
Twentieth Century (Hawks, 1934)
La Signora di Tutti (Ophuls, 1934)
A Tale of Two Cities (Conway, 1935)
Ruggles of Red Gap (McCarey, 1935)
The Devil is a Woman (Von Sternberg, 1935)
Show Boat (Whale, 1936)
You Only Live Once (Lang, 1937)
Easy Living (Leisen, 1937)
A Star Is Born (Wellman, 1937)
Stage Door (La Cava, 1937)
Quai des brumes (Carne, 1938)
The Roaring Twenties (Walsh, 1939)
Midnight (Leisen, 1939)
Foreign Correspondant (Hitchcock, 1940)
Ball of Fire (Hawks, 1941)
Meet John Doe (Capra, 1941)
Day of Wrath (Dreyer, 1943)
Cabin in the Sky (Minnelli, 1943)
Hail the Conquering Hero (Sturges, 1944)
The Ministry of Fear (Lang, 1944)
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (Sturges, 1944)
The Woman in the Window (Lang, 1945)
Dead of Night (various, 1945)
Shoeshine (De Sica, 1946)
Body and Soul (Rossen, 1947)
Pursued (Walsh, 1947)
Unfaithfully Yours (Sturges, 1948)
Late Spring (Ozu, 1949)
Night and the City (Dassin, 1950)
The River (Renoir, 1951)
El (Bunuel, 1952)
The Importance of Being Earnest (Asquith, 1952)
Othello (Welles, 1952)
Les Diaboliques (Clouzot, 1955)
Elevator to the Gallows (Malle, 1958)
The Human Condition (Kobayashi, 1959-1961)
Nazarin (Bunuel, 1959)
Fires on the Plain (Ichikawa, 1959)
Cruel Story of Youth (Oshima, 1960)
The Innocents (Clayton, 1961)
Une femme est une femme (Godard, 1961)
La Jetee (Marker, 1962)
The Birds (Hitchcock, 1963)
This Sporting Life (1963)
Kwaidan (Kobayashi, 1964)
Band of Outsiders (Godard, 1964)
I Am Cuba (Kalatozishvili, 1964)
Séance on a Wet Afternoon (Forbes, 1964)
The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1965)
The Loves of a Blonde (Forman, 1965)
Bad Girls Go to Hell (Wishman, 1965)
Sword of Doom (Okamoto, 1966)
Le Samourai (Melville, 1967)
Don't Look Back (Pennebaker, 1967)
Branded to Kill (Suzuki, 1967)
Death by Hanging (Oshima, 1968)
The Lion in Winter (Harvey, 1968)
Medium Cool (Wexler, 1969)
Macbeth (Polanski, 1971)
Cocksucker Blues (Frank, 1972)
The Gambler (Reisz, 1974)
Lacombe Lucien (Malle, (1974)
Lenny (Fosse, 1974)
3 Women (Altman, 1977)
Blue Collar (Schrader, 1978)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Kaufman, 1978)
Vengeance is Mine (Imamura, 1979)
Demon Lover Diary (DeMott, 1980)
The Road Warrior (Miller, 1981)
Pennies from Heaven (Ross, 1981)
A Sunday in the Country (Tavernier, 1984)
Sid and Nancy (Cox, 1986)
Mauvais Sang (Carax, 1986)
The Last Temptation of Christ (Scorsese, 1988)
Midnight Run (Brest, 1988)
Field of Dreams (Robinson, 1989)
Jesus of Montreal (Arcand, 1989)
Heathers (Lehmann, 1989)
The Exorcist III (Blatty, 1990)
Miami Blues (Armitage, 1990)
Fearless (Weir, 1993)
Sonatine (Kitano, 1993)
In the Name of the Father (Sheridan, 1993)
Maborosi (Kore-eda, 1995)
Flirting with Disaster (Russell, 1996)
Hana-bi (Kitano, 1997)
Donnie Brasco (Newell, 1997)
After Life (Kore-eda, 1998)
Fucking Amal/Show Me Love (Moodysson, 1998)
The Talented Mr. Ripley (Minghella, 1999)
The House of Mirth (Davies, 2000)
Gosford Park (Altman, 2001)
Waking Life (Linklater, 2001)
25th Hour (Lee, 2002)
Femme Fatale (De Palma, 2002)
Mystic River (Eastwood, 2003)
Tropical Malady (Weerasethakul, 2004)
Kings and Queen (Desplechin, 2004)
Sorry if that's too many!
Sansho the Bailiff (Mizoguchi, 1954)
I saw it as a film student at the Univ. of Colorado several years ago.
That's 250 out of about 3500, so I think very highly of any film on this list. What didn't you like about Donnie Brasco? Aside from the great performances (it's beginning to look like this was the last great Pacino performance), you have a piercing study of a man who goes undercover and truly loses his identity. The film doesn't romanticize the mob, is understated and realistic, and ultimately rather touching when the final betrayal comes, as it must.