I found this link earlier today: 50 Films to See Before You Die. It's a weird list. It avoids a lot of obvious and more famous movies - no Citizen Kane or Casablanca - and yet it has some warhorses - like the first two I moved to my "overrated" list. It does have a nice sampling of non-English language films, and a wide range of genres. It seems targeted roughly at my contemporaries given some of the choices from the last 20 years. After you have a chance to look over the original list, here is my version. Original rankings in parentheses.
Yes, I agree:
Alien (11)
The Shawshank Redemption (13)
Pulp Fiction (15)
Heavenly Creatures (22)
A Night at the Opera (23)
Trainspotting (25)
All About Eve (30)
Scarface (31)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (32)
Three Colors: Blue (33)
The Royal Tenenbaums (34)
Fight Club (36)
Mulholland Drive (38)
Dawn of the Dead (42)
Princess Mononoke (43)
Raising Arizona (44) *
Cabaret (45)
Brazil (47)
Aguirre, the Wrath of God (48)
Secrets & Lies (49)
* although I prefer The Big Lebowski
Overrated / suggested alternatives:
Apocalypse Now (1) / Dr. Strangelove
The Apartment (2) / Sunset Boulevard
Chinatown (4) / L.A. Confidential *
Sexy Beast (5) / The Limey
2001: A Space Odyssey (6) / Blade Runner
North by Northwest (7) / Vertigo
Breathless (8) / The Wages of Fear
Donnie Darko (9) / 12 Monkeys
Back to the Future (10) / Grease
Lost in Translation (12) / Ghost World
Touch of Evil (16) / The Third Man
Black Narcissus (18) / The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg
Boyz N the Hood (19) / Do The Right Thing
The Player (20) / Short Cuts
Come and See (21) / Burnt by the Sun
Erin Brockovich (24) / Out Of Sight
Hero (26) / The Road Home
The Breakfast Club (27) / Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Pink Flamingos (29) / Hairspray
The Ladykillers (35) / The Lavender Hill Mob
The Searchers (37) / Unforgiven
The King of Comedy (40) / Goodfellas
Manhunter (41) / The Insider
* or One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Some comments:
I moved #15 Pulp Fiction back into the "I agree" camp after a long discussion with Jika.
I am torn between #16 Touch of Evil and The Third Man - both are great.
I also was asked why not Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to replace Hero. That's an interesting idea and I am still thinking about it. Certainly CTHD is a great film and one I saw multiple times on the big screen.
I haven't seen:
City of God (3)
Lagaan (14)
Walkabout (17)
Fanny and Alexander (28)
The Ipcress File (39)
This Sporting Life (46)
Badlands (50)
Next up: the AFI 100
7 comments:
Why don't you like Apocalypse Now? That's my favorite movie.
Apocalypse Now has moments of brilliance but it drags and is heavy-handed. And Brando is a disaster. I assume if you like it you've seen the documentary Hearts of Darkness. If not, you really must.
I think it is a good movie, maybe even a flawed great movie. I don't think it is the best movie ever made though, or even close. I was oh so tempted to put Braindead (US title: Dead Alive) as my suggested #1 replacement since it is my favorite movie ever. However in good faith I can't say it was the best movie ever.
Not to say my proposed alternative - Dr. Strangelove - is the best movie ever, either. I decided it was a tall order to list anything as the #1 movie. Instead I listed Strangelove as an example of another - more coherent - classic anti-war movie. The Bridge On The River Kwai would have worked also, or Patton or Johnny Got His Gun or The Outlaw Josey Wales or ... [not Platoon or Hair please but there are many others].
Strangelove in particular should be seen by everyone, which was AFAIK the criterion for making the original list.
"I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids." -- Gen. Jack D. Ripper
A problem I have with these kinds of lists is that when saying "the best" about anything, you necessarily end up comparing apples and oranges. Every creative person has a distinct artistic vision. Even worse, I doubt it is possible to talk about the quality of something without one's personal preference playing a role. In other words I doubt the possibility of a truly neutral perspective. -- that's getting far afield from your question though.
Well, Strangelove is indeed high on my list of must see movies so I could not disagree with that.
Brando is always a problem.
I wonder why thye chose "Night at the Opera" over "Duck Soup"?
I agree about "Ghost World" vs. "Lost in Translation." Sofia Coppolla's film loses a lot in repeated viewing, and all the characters are spoiled and unlikable. But then, I guess everyone Sofia Coppolla knows is probably like those characters.
Speaking of some films that are DEFINITELY not the best films, but are personal favorites, I really like "The Presdient's Analyst" with James Coburn, a very, very uneven, but sometimes brilliant spy satire from the 1960s.
I never really saw "Patton" as an antiwar film, like Harlan Ellison did--or as a conservative film, like Nixon did. It's basically just a picture of the man and people tend to take away from it what they bring to it.
There are some great, but obscure war movies I wish more people would see. "The Bridge" is a great movie from 1950s Germany about some teenage boys who are called up to defend their town at the end of WWII. And Richard Attenborough's frist film, "Oh What a Lovely War," has been unjustly overlooked as a great anti-war film (perhaps because it is a musical).
How can they leave "M" off this list?
I made some changes to this post based on a conversation I had with my friends Jika and Carrie. Especially note that Pulp Fiction has moved into the "I agree" list.
Willie - I almost put Duck Soup as my suggested Marx Bros. film but to be honest I would be glad if anyone watched any of their movies.
Saaay... where's "The Bicycle Thief"? Although maybe an obvious choice that's left off because it's so obvious (like Citizen Kane and Casablanca, which you mentioned), I am hard-pressed to find anyone who's seen it, except maybe film nerds in film-appreciation classes. It has like zero exposure here, today.
Regarding Apocalypse Now - I still love it, but I hate the new Director's Cut. Blech! Fortunately, the nifty new dossier-style packaging contains both versions and is available for $12 at Costco. Nice treat! I hope Blade Runner takes a cue when they finally get around to releasing a third version on DVD. Maybe give us an interactive DVD where we can put together the parts we want! Ha ha. If Ridley Scott can't ever be happy with it, maybe at least we can be.
Don't be torn between "Touch of Evil" and "Third Man" - "Third Man" is the better film. I watched A Touch of Evil recently. Second viewing but first time on DVD. I was bored to tears. IMHO of course and my opinion may change tomorrow.
Mostly I agree with you though and I really enjoy your substitutions. And there's probably a dozen movies on here that I've never heard of, so this is a great recharger for my netflix queue.
But - Royal Tennanbaums? Jeez that's a crappy movie. Three of my least favorites actors rolled into one big crapfest. I'm sure you've seen "The Squid and the Whale"? Similar dysfunctional-family material. Much funnier.
Cheers
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