Andrew's Top Ten Films - "The Classics"
Jun 3, 2017 14:13:48 GMT -5
xNickyUrinex, aquafina, and 1 more like this
Post by v9733xa on Jun 3, 2017 14:13:48 GMT -5
So I figured at first, we would stick to the classics, right?
And what’s my definition of “classic”? I dunno. Regardless of my high movie count on letterboxd.com, I’m really no expert. I just enjoy good films. So with that said, I haven’t seen lots of movies that I probably should have, and they naturally won’t appear on this list. (Tell me what they are! Comment away.)
But I’ve seen a lot! And I think I have a good opinion. Ha, right? Therefore, to me, I’ll say that “classic” is anything before the year of my birth, 1983. Makes sense, right? I probably won’t have anything all that close to then anyway, but it’s a nice arbitrary meaningless barrier.
With that, here we go.
Honorable mentions (because after making this list I was like “WTF mate?! You ignored like a million incredible films”): The Wizard of Oz, Roman Holiday, Paths of Glory, Taxi Driver, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, M, Mean Streets, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Raging Bull, probably 6 or 7 other Hitchcock films that could just have their own list
10. Duck Soup (1933)
It would be unfair, and impossible, to not include a Marx Brothers picture, so I’ll put my favorite and the universally agreed-upon best of the best at number 10. If you don’t like the Marx Brothers, you are lame, and you should at least give this one a try. Incredible that a movie that is now more than 80 years old is still REALLY funny. Most comedies don’t hold up. Even a couple Marx Brothers movies (I’ve seen all that I know of) don’t – see The Cocoanuts and Go West among a couple more, which are honestly pretty weird. Groucho Marx as Rufus T. Firefly is probably the best comedic character in cinema history. Yes, the puns are merciless and groan-inducing (“All I can do is offer you a Rufus over your head.” “I got a good mind to join a club and beat you over the head with it.”). Yes, there are arguably-cheesy musical interludes. It was the 1930s, people! They didn’t think audiences could sit and laugh for 80 minutes straight. But nearly a century later, you won’t find a funnier movie ever made.
9. The Conversation (1974)
It’s the underdog pick! The sleeper of this list is the criminally under-seen (a word?) thriller directed by Francis Ford Coppola, made between his masterpieces you will see later on this list. But this film is no less impressive. You could, in fact, make the argument that it’s more impressive because it didn’t have a magical source material. Gene Hackman is out-of-this-world amazing as a “sound surveillance expert” Harry, as the film begins with one of the greatest opening scenes in history, the electronic eavesdropping on the titular conversation. What was said? What could be taken literally? Is he reading too much into it? How did they have that incredible technology in the early 1970s? If you like “art films” that aren’t boring, and that will keep you guessing up to (and through!) the brilliant final scene, you can’t miss this one.
8. The Big Sleep (1946)
(God I love that trailer.) With many Humphrey Bogart pictures from which to choose (I could make a top 10 of just his films, all of which are great), I had to settle for one. My favorite is The Big Sleep, when America was at peak Bogey and Bacall. Lauren Bacall, that is, her of the sultry voice and “come hither” stare. While more might cite The Maltese Falcon, I argue that Raymond Chandler’s best source material was the one used for this film. It’s so good, and there are so many plot twists, that legend has it that the screenwriters needed to consult with Marlowe to help explain his novel, and his response was that he was just as confused as they were as to how to make it into film. With all that collaboration, the end result is one of the greatest film-noirs ever made, and for 1946 a hell of a lot of sexual tension between the real-life newlyweds that just oozes off the screen. As heralded film critic James Agee from Time put it, it’s “wakeful fare for folks who don’t care what is going on, or why, so long as the talk is hard and the action harder.”
7. Chinatown (1974)
Roman Polanski directed the shit out of this movie. It’s one of the best directing efforts ever, because once again you have source material here that is so hard (brilliant screenwriter Robert Towne) and so freaking brilliant, that putting this into meaningful cinema was nigh-impossible. Well Polanski did it, aided by tour-de-force performances by “very nosey fella” Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. And oh my gosh John Huston!! John Huston is amazing. Somehow, a movie twisting together incest, murder, Los Angeles water privatization, adultery, land use, and conspiracy comes out making sense. If any of you have seen the awesome L.A. Confidential but somehow missed this other film about pre-war L.A., you made a mistake. Before Nicholson essentially became a parody of himself in films (but still great! Just weirder), he was young and exciting and on the top of his game. You don’t get a better lead acting performance in any movie you can name. Really. This is the one.
6. 12 Angry Men (1957)
Saying that Sidney Lumet directed some of the best American movies of all time is no understatement. Listen to this lineup: Network, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, etc. But it was 12 Angry Men – his FIRST goddamn film, are you kidding me? – that stands above everything else. This movie is unquestionably the best courtroom drama ever made, and with that about 95% of it takes place in the jury deliberation room. Henry Ford (classic “good guy” role) as Juror #8 – the men are not given names in the film – keeps poking holes in the story. What if this, what about that, didn’t you find it odd that, how it is possible for, etc. What follows is a brilliant dissertation about what “reasonable doubt” really means. When the burden of proof is on the prosecution, what really constitutes “guilt”? And just how impartial can a jury of one’s peers really be? This is a short film, just about an hour and a half. You won’t regret taking the time to watch it.
5. Dial M for Murder (1954)
Is this the first Alfred Hitchcock film you expected to see? I’ll bet not. This is my second sleeper pick of this list, and for some reason an underappreciated masterpiece of wit, thrill, and keep-em-guessing-how and whodunit by the master of suspense himself. I’m not sure what it is that other critics aren’t grabbed by in this film, at least to the extent that I am, but when I first saw this picture I was practically giggling with delight at the twists until the “reveal” in the closer. I watched this by myself (I’m not counting my cat) and I literally said “wow” as it finished. All I will tell you aside from the trailer, because giving hardly anything away would be criminal (no pun intended), is thus: a man discovers his wife is having an affair, and he sets to have her killed, but only by blackmailing a former friend into it from following him about for months… and let’s just say, the shoe is on the other foot. John Williams (not the composer), incredible British actor playing a chief inspector, is the bona fide star of this pic. Just wait for him to rip apart every fabricated story. It’s the most fun Hitchcock film, to me at least. And it’s easily one of his greatest.
4. Citizen Kane (1941)
I don’t think it’s clichéd to put this film so far up the list. It’s still just that good. If you haven’t seen it before, simply because you think it’s “too old” or probably just carries a reputation and really can’t be as good as people thought it was at first, you’re sadly mistaken. Oh! And if you also think “wait, I know the ending, I know what ‘Rosebud’ means,” first don’t spoil it for someone else, and second it’s actually no big deal! This film, Orson Welles’ masterpiece, is so much more than what the old man means by “Rosebud.” The beginning of this movie is stunning: from the smashed snow globe shot directly into a newsreel storytelling of the titular Kane (Charles Foster Kane, played by director Orson Welles, his first motion picture), a self-made millionaire meant to mimic newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. It’s groundbreaking and incredible what Welles did here, but mostly it’s because he was the first to incorporate the noir-ish deep focus cinematography of 1920s and 30s German Expressionist film (see M, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Metropolis) into one picture. And while non-linear storytelling is common for fans of Tarantino, Nolan, Altman, and P.T. Anderson, this was unheard of for the 1940s. There’s no exaggeration to say this is the most important, and most influential, movie ever made.
3. The Godfather Part II (1974)
1974 was quite a year for film. Aside from this, and the other two 1974 pictures I have here, look at what else came out that year: Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, The Towering Inferno, Murder on the Orient Express, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, and for you horror fans The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So is it possible that a sequel (and also a prequel) to the king of all films could be almost as good as the original? In a word: capisce? Coppola’s follow-up to what you know will be on the list shortly is no less brilliant, no less shocking and enthralling, no less of a masterful screenplay adaptation with the help of writer Mario Puzo. This time, a non-linear story is a little simpler, because essentially what you have is two plots that seamlessly bounce back and forth in a feat of remarkable editing: Vito (Robert de Niro) as a child and then young man in the first half of the 1900s, and his son Michael (Al Pacino) having taken over for his father in the late 1950s. However, the plot points are numerous, the characters complicated and ever changing (or dying), so it’s impossible to make any more of a synopsis. The final half hour or so of this movie might be better than any half hour stretch of the first. Still, sorry, you can’t beat the original.
2. Vertigo (1958)
But before we get to that, a quick detour to what many do in fact call the greatest film of all time (the influential British film magazine Sight & Sound indeed has crowned Vertigo as king, after years of Citizen Kane at the top). There’s no question that this is the best film made by Alfred Hitchcock though, but dear lord the man made like 8 or 10 legitimately brilliant movies. Did your Literature teacher/professor ever have you read the strange short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce? If so, you have a small idea of what goes on here, albeit this is far more complicated. Absorb what you can from the trailer. Certainly this the toughest film to digest on this list. It’s not for everyone. It’s not as simple as other Hitchcock films, and it’s not as fun, and maybe it’s not even the most edge-of-your-seat type either. That’s no matter; what you do get is a mind-twisting film of paranoia, suspense, double-crossing, and a couple “holy shit” moments that any Christopher Nolan fan would love. Watch for the simple yet amazing “vertigo effect” in the film shot, simultaneously zooming in while physically backing the camera up. You’ll briefly feel just what James Stewart’s character is supposed to feel. Again, I don’t want to give anything else away. I first watched this picture knowing absolutely nothing about it, and I feel that’s the best way to do it. Dive right in, hold on tight, and don’t get dizzy.
1. The Godfather (1972)
As I finished making this list, I paused for a second. I mean, I’m no film critic. I’ve just seen a lot of movies. What does my opinion matter? Is it just lame to throw The Godfather at the top when so many others do the same? I dunno. But regardless, I’m not just taking others’ opinions and massing them here, this is really it; Francis Ford Coppola’s master work truly is, to me, not only the greatest classic, but it’s the best film ever made. Well, that’s just my opinion. For those living under a rock on Mars who somehow have not seen this, do it today. No, it’s not so violent that you can’t sit through it (like my mother would have said). No, it doesn’t feel old (I know people who, other than cartoons, never watch older films, what’s wrong with you people?). Yes, you will find a line or a scene that will stick with you forever, more than the usual clips and dialogue everyone knows and repeats. What’s that one for me? I’ve provided a clip of it here for anyone who has seen the film. DON’T WATCH IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT! Like, it’s not a major spoiler, but you need the full context of the movie. I have it set to start at the right moment.
You don’t get better film-making than that, you really don’t. Through all the iconic scenes (the horse head, the toll booth, the wedding, the christening, the restaurant murders - a close second to the hospital scene above) and the iconic lines (“Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes,” “revenge is a dish best served cold,” “forgive, forget, life is full of misfortunes,” “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse,” “it’s not personal, it’s strictly business”) you’ll know that seeing this movie for the first or tenth time, you’ll discover something new. For me, it was in the aforementioned hospital scene. Watch Enzo’s hands. Just watch, and now turn to Michael. That was it right there. The moment we knew.
~~
Stay tuned til next time! I’ll try to think of another list in the next week or two. Feel free to comment, disagree, or ask questions. I love talking about film.
And what’s my definition of “classic”? I dunno. Regardless of my high movie count on letterboxd.com, I’m really no expert. I just enjoy good films. So with that said, I haven’t seen lots of movies that I probably should have, and they naturally won’t appear on this list. (Tell me what they are! Comment away.)
But I’ve seen a lot! And I think I have a good opinion. Ha, right? Therefore, to me, I’ll say that “classic” is anything before the year of my birth, 1983. Makes sense, right? I probably won’t have anything all that close to then anyway, but it’s a nice arbitrary meaningless barrier.
With that, here we go.
Honorable mentions (because after making this list I was like “WTF mate?! You ignored like a million incredible films”): The Wizard of Oz, Roman Holiday, Paths of Glory, Taxi Driver, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, M, Mean Streets, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Raging Bull, probably 6 or 7 other Hitchcock films that could just have their own list
10. Duck Soup (1933)
It would be unfair, and impossible, to not include a Marx Brothers picture, so I’ll put my favorite and the universally agreed-upon best of the best at number 10. If you don’t like the Marx Brothers, you are lame, and you should at least give this one a try. Incredible that a movie that is now more than 80 years old is still REALLY funny. Most comedies don’t hold up. Even a couple Marx Brothers movies (I’ve seen all that I know of) don’t – see The Cocoanuts and Go West among a couple more, which are honestly pretty weird. Groucho Marx as Rufus T. Firefly is probably the best comedic character in cinema history. Yes, the puns are merciless and groan-inducing (“All I can do is offer you a Rufus over your head.” “I got a good mind to join a club and beat you over the head with it.”). Yes, there are arguably-cheesy musical interludes. It was the 1930s, people! They didn’t think audiences could sit and laugh for 80 minutes straight. But nearly a century later, you won’t find a funnier movie ever made.
9. The Conversation (1974)
It’s the underdog pick! The sleeper of this list is the criminally under-seen (a word?) thriller directed by Francis Ford Coppola, made between his masterpieces you will see later on this list. But this film is no less impressive. You could, in fact, make the argument that it’s more impressive because it didn’t have a magical source material. Gene Hackman is out-of-this-world amazing as a “sound surveillance expert” Harry, as the film begins with one of the greatest opening scenes in history, the electronic eavesdropping on the titular conversation. What was said? What could be taken literally? Is he reading too much into it? How did they have that incredible technology in the early 1970s? If you like “art films” that aren’t boring, and that will keep you guessing up to (and through!) the brilliant final scene, you can’t miss this one.
8. The Big Sleep (1946)
(God I love that trailer.) With many Humphrey Bogart pictures from which to choose (I could make a top 10 of just his films, all of which are great), I had to settle for one. My favorite is The Big Sleep, when America was at peak Bogey and Bacall. Lauren Bacall, that is, her of the sultry voice and “come hither” stare. While more might cite The Maltese Falcon, I argue that Raymond Chandler’s best source material was the one used for this film. It’s so good, and there are so many plot twists, that legend has it that the screenwriters needed to consult with Marlowe to help explain his novel, and his response was that he was just as confused as they were as to how to make it into film. With all that collaboration, the end result is one of the greatest film-noirs ever made, and for 1946 a hell of a lot of sexual tension between the real-life newlyweds that just oozes off the screen. As heralded film critic James Agee from Time put it, it’s “wakeful fare for folks who don’t care what is going on, or why, so long as the talk is hard and the action harder.”
7. Chinatown (1974)
Roman Polanski directed the shit out of this movie. It’s one of the best directing efforts ever, because once again you have source material here that is so hard (brilliant screenwriter Robert Towne) and so freaking brilliant, that putting this into meaningful cinema was nigh-impossible. Well Polanski did it, aided by tour-de-force performances by “very nosey fella” Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway. And oh my gosh John Huston!! John Huston is amazing. Somehow, a movie twisting together incest, murder, Los Angeles water privatization, adultery, land use, and conspiracy comes out making sense. If any of you have seen the awesome L.A. Confidential but somehow missed this other film about pre-war L.A., you made a mistake. Before Nicholson essentially became a parody of himself in films (but still great! Just weirder), he was young and exciting and on the top of his game. You don’t get a better lead acting performance in any movie you can name. Really. This is the one.
6. 12 Angry Men (1957)
Saying that Sidney Lumet directed some of the best American movies of all time is no understatement. Listen to this lineup: Network, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, Long Day’s Journey Into Night, etc. But it was 12 Angry Men – his FIRST goddamn film, are you kidding me? – that stands above everything else. This movie is unquestionably the best courtroom drama ever made, and with that about 95% of it takes place in the jury deliberation room. Henry Ford (classic “good guy” role) as Juror #8 – the men are not given names in the film – keeps poking holes in the story. What if this, what about that, didn’t you find it odd that, how it is possible for, etc. What follows is a brilliant dissertation about what “reasonable doubt” really means. When the burden of proof is on the prosecution, what really constitutes “guilt”? And just how impartial can a jury of one’s peers really be? This is a short film, just about an hour and a half. You won’t regret taking the time to watch it.
5. Dial M for Murder (1954)
Is this the first Alfred Hitchcock film you expected to see? I’ll bet not. This is my second sleeper pick of this list, and for some reason an underappreciated masterpiece of wit, thrill, and keep-em-guessing-how and whodunit by the master of suspense himself. I’m not sure what it is that other critics aren’t grabbed by in this film, at least to the extent that I am, but when I first saw this picture I was practically giggling with delight at the twists until the “reveal” in the closer. I watched this by myself (I’m not counting my cat) and I literally said “wow” as it finished. All I will tell you aside from the trailer, because giving hardly anything away would be criminal (no pun intended), is thus: a man discovers his wife is having an affair, and he sets to have her killed, but only by blackmailing a former friend into it from following him about for months… and let’s just say, the shoe is on the other foot. John Williams (not the composer), incredible British actor playing a chief inspector, is the bona fide star of this pic. Just wait for him to rip apart every fabricated story. It’s the most fun Hitchcock film, to me at least. And it’s easily one of his greatest.
4. Citizen Kane (1941)
I don’t think it’s clichéd to put this film so far up the list. It’s still just that good. If you haven’t seen it before, simply because you think it’s “too old” or probably just carries a reputation and really can’t be as good as people thought it was at first, you’re sadly mistaken. Oh! And if you also think “wait, I know the ending, I know what ‘Rosebud’ means,” first don’t spoil it for someone else, and second it’s actually no big deal! This film, Orson Welles’ masterpiece, is so much more than what the old man means by “Rosebud.” The beginning of this movie is stunning: from the smashed snow globe shot directly into a newsreel storytelling of the titular Kane (Charles Foster Kane, played by director Orson Welles, his first motion picture), a self-made millionaire meant to mimic newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. It’s groundbreaking and incredible what Welles did here, but mostly it’s because he was the first to incorporate the noir-ish deep focus cinematography of 1920s and 30s German Expressionist film (see M, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Metropolis) into one picture. And while non-linear storytelling is common for fans of Tarantino, Nolan, Altman, and P.T. Anderson, this was unheard of for the 1940s. There’s no exaggeration to say this is the most important, and most influential, movie ever made.
3. The Godfather Part II (1974)
1974 was quite a year for film. Aside from this, and the other two 1974 pictures I have here, look at what else came out that year: Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, The Towering Inferno, Murder on the Orient Express, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, and for you horror fans The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. So is it possible that a sequel (and also a prequel) to the king of all films could be almost as good as the original? In a word: capisce? Coppola’s follow-up to what you know will be on the list shortly is no less brilliant, no less shocking and enthralling, no less of a masterful screenplay adaptation with the help of writer Mario Puzo. This time, a non-linear story is a little simpler, because essentially what you have is two plots that seamlessly bounce back and forth in a feat of remarkable editing: Vito (Robert de Niro) as a child and then young man in the first half of the 1900s, and his son Michael (Al Pacino) having taken over for his father in the late 1950s. However, the plot points are numerous, the characters complicated and ever changing (or dying), so it’s impossible to make any more of a synopsis. The final half hour or so of this movie might be better than any half hour stretch of the first. Still, sorry, you can’t beat the original.
2. Vertigo (1958)
But before we get to that, a quick detour to what many do in fact call the greatest film of all time (the influential British film magazine Sight & Sound indeed has crowned Vertigo as king, after years of Citizen Kane at the top). There’s no question that this is the best film made by Alfred Hitchcock though, but dear lord the man made like 8 or 10 legitimately brilliant movies. Did your Literature teacher/professor ever have you read the strange short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce? If so, you have a small idea of what goes on here, albeit this is far more complicated. Absorb what you can from the trailer. Certainly this the toughest film to digest on this list. It’s not for everyone. It’s not as simple as other Hitchcock films, and it’s not as fun, and maybe it’s not even the most edge-of-your-seat type either. That’s no matter; what you do get is a mind-twisting film of paranoia, suspense, double-crossing, and a couple “holy shit” moments that any Christopher Nolan fan would love. Watch for the simple yet amazing “vertigo effect” in the film shot, simultaneously zooming in while physically backing the camera up. You’ll briefly feel just what James Stewart’s character is supposed to feel. Again, I don’t want to give anything else away. I first watched this picture knowing absolutely nothing about it, and I feel that’s the best way to do it. Dive right in, hold on tight, and don’t get dizzy.
1. The Godfather (1972)
As I finished making this list, I paused for a second. I mean, I’m no film critic. I’ve just seen a lot of movies. What does my opinion matter? Is it just lame to throw The Godfather at the top when so many others do the same? I dunno. But regardless, I’m not just taking others’ opinions and massing them here, this is really it; Francis Ford Coppola’s master work truly is, to me, not only the greatest classic, but it’s the best film ever made. Well, that’s just my opinion. For those living under a rock on Mars who somehow have not seen this, do it today. No, it’s not so violent that you can’t sit through it (like my mother would have said). No, it doesn’t feel old (I know people who, other than cartoons, never watch older films, what’s wrong with you people?). Yes, you will find a line or a scene that will stick with you forever, more than the usual clips and dialogue everyone knows and repeats. What’s that one for me? I’ve provided a clip of it here for anyone who has seen the film. DON’T WATCH IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN IT! Like, it’s not a major spoiler, but you need the full context of the movie. I have it set to start at the right moment.
You don’t get better film-making than that, you really don’t. Through all the iconic scenes (the horse head, the toll booth, the wedding, the christening, the restaurant murders - a close second to the hospital scene above) and the iconic lines (“Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes,” “revenge is a dish best served cold,” “forgive, forget, life is full of misfortunes,” “I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse,” “it’s not personal, it’s strictly business”) you’ll know that seeing this movie for the first or tenth time, you’ll discover something new. For me, it was in the aforementioned hospital scene. Watch Enzo’s hands. Just watch, and now turn to Michael. That was it right there. The moment we knew.
~~
Stay tuned til next time! I’ll try to think of another list in the next week or two. Feel free to comment, disagree, or ask questions. I love talking about film.
