Blog Song For the Moment
Richard Burton, Camelot, from 1960 Original Broadcast Recording.
Apropos of nothing, I'm presenting my top five movies of all time (my time, anyway). Not feeling well, missing a dinner with dear old friends from Wabash days (did manage to make their daughter's commencement at MSU in which she received her M.D.), and I'm tired of trying to keep up with Lost's plot twists.
Top five dramas
Top five comedies
Top five horror
Top five with spiritual themes
Top five guilty pleasures
Top five war movies
Top five musicals
Top five cop and crime
Top five sci-si/fantasy
Top five Latin American
Richard Burton, Camelot, from 1960 Original Broadcast Recording.
Apropos of nothing, I'm presenting my top five movies of all time (my time, anyway). Not feeling well, missing a dinner with dear old friends from Wabash days (did manage to make their daughter's commencement at MSU in which she received her M.D.), and I'm tired of trying to keep up with Lost's plot twists.
My brother, Dan, has been working on a careful way to measure a movie's value, but I developed these lists without too much thought. My criteria were basically two, what stands out in my immediate memory as being memorable, what would I watch again without much question. So here goes. You'll see that my lists don't go back further than the sixties--except for Wizard of Oz and Singing in the Rain. My brother is much more cinematically literate--his favorites include movies from the 1950s and 1940s. And you'll see that movies could be in other categories (e.g. Dr. Horrible, to my mind, could be a cop and crime flick, or in the comedy or drama categories). The order within each list is according to when I thought of them.
The Year of
Living Dangerously (1982)
Quiz
Show (1994)
Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
The Royal
Tenenbaums (2001)
Dr. Zhivago (1965)
Monty
Python’s Life of Brian (1979)
Monty
Python’s Meaning of Life (1983)
Monty
Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
Raising
Arizona (1987)
Dr.
Strangelove (1964)
Poltergeist (1982)
Pan’s
Labyrinth (2006)
Mulholland
Drive (2001)
Psycho (1960)
Silence of
the Lambs (1991)
Out of
Africa (1985)
Broadcast
News (1987)
Terms of
Endearment (1983)
Accidental
Tourist (1988)
When Harry
Met Sally (1989)
Top five with spiritual themes
Doubt (2008)
Donnie
Darko (2001)
Flesh and
Bone (1993)
Magnolia (1999)
Crimes and
Misdemeanors (1989)
Angel Heart (1987)
Wild Things (1998)
Lost Boys (1987)
Basic
Instinct (1992)
Underworld (2003)
Platoon (1986)
Gallipoli (1981)
Breaker
Morant (1980)
Apocalypse
Now (1979)
The Thin Red Line (1998)
The Thin Red Line (1998)
Dr.
Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog (2008)
Camelot (1967)
Wizard of
Oz (1939)
Funny Girl (1968)
Singing in
the Rain (1952)
Godfather I (1972)
Godfather
II (1974)
Miller’s
Crossing (1990)
The Departed (2006)
Cop Land (1997)
Brazil (1985)
Alien (1979)
Princess
Bride (1987)
Serenity (2005)
Wall-E (2008)
City of God (2002)
Kamchatka (2002)
The Secret in Their Eyes (2009)
The Official Story (1985)
The Silence of Neto (1994)
Top five documentaries
Hoop Dreams (1994)
Roger and Me (1989)
The Fog of War (2003)
Spellbound (2002)
Jesus Camp (2006)
Hoop Dreams (1994)
Roger and Me (1989)
The Fog of War (2003)
Spellbound (2002)
Jesus Camp (2006)
7 comments:
These movie lists are gut-wrenching tasks. You make it easier when you put in selection notes, as you did. I’d be interested to see Dan’s more procedurally worked out criteria and method. My selection process is personal favorites as opposed to claiming the best of all time by genre. Also, in several instances of genres as you’ve layed them out, I’m glad that I’m not faced with which of your selections I’d leave out if I had to settle on a top five.
For romance, I’d definitely include The Graduate (could also fit into best of comedy), State and Main (I’m surprised you didn’t have Mamet represented), and American in Paris; for musicals, Oklahoma; for horror, American Werewolf in London, Lost Boys, and Dracula (with Bela Lugosi). If we can add more categories, Western, The Searchers; teen movie, Sixteen Candles and Dazed and Confused. Netflix has an interesting classification in cerebral. I’d put Clockwork Orange there. If sports as a major theme in a movie, I’d select Breaking Away, Rocky, Red Belt, Hoosiers, and Chariots of Fire.
Your Guilty Pleasures got me thinking along another line—movies that had such a huge personal impact at least in part because of the conditions (timing, ambience, etc.) in which I saw them, in which case, I’d include Razorback, Caddy Shack, and Last Temptation of Christ.
I know what you mean about plot twists getting out of control in Lost. For the made for TV series of that type, I’ve got to say Breaking Bad, although it was making me sick before it was over. I also like Mad Men.
Looking further down on your blog lists, I charge heresy that you did not include Blade Runner under Sci Fi/Fantasy. I also recommend For Latin American movies, I recommend two from Mexico, El Mariachi and El Patrullero. For spiritual, I'd include Match Point, even though it has big overlaps with Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Sorry. Left blank in Sci Fi/Fantasy point. I also nominate Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris.
You're right, Jack. How could I forget Bladerunner?! It would knock Wall-E out of the top five. Yes, American Werewolf in London would be in the next five, along with Coppola's Dracula (Lost Boys was in my Guilty Pleasures category). And I would add The Descent, the only movie since Alien to physically scare me . Terminator II could be in my next five of Sci Fi/Fantasy.
Yeah, I don't have any Mamet in there. If we went with the "Cerebral" category, I'd include The Spanish Prisoner," and Glengarry Glen Ross. And The Heist might sneak in into the Cop and Crime category.
I don't have any John Sayles movies either. Maybe he'd get his own category. Lone Star, Passion Fish, Return of Secaucus Seven, Men with Guns, City of Hope.
And only one Coen Brothers movie? What was I thinking? Another category just for them: Raising Arizona, Fargo, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, True Grit (along with Miller's Crossing, already included).
Not usually fond of Westerns (pax, you, and friend Lori Pierce), so only Unforgiven made it in there, along with addition here of True Grit. Maybe The Long Riders, but that may be more a time and place thing (remember the Carradine, Keach, and Quaid brothers in that one?).
For a teen category, I guess I would put in Say Anything, maybe Can't Hardly Wait, and cheating here, the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
For Sports, yes, Breaking Away and Chariots of Fire. Rocky has lost its luster for me, probably because I saw some of its sequels. Last Temptation of Christ would be in the next five of Spiritual, and Razorback would be in a category of its own--the movie only two Peace Corps vols liked while in service in Guatemala. We ID editors had cinematic taste.
I never saw The Descent, but I read a novel by that name that was a terrific summer read and left a long-time impression on me. It was about a species of humanoids who live beneath the surface of the Earth and the central character was an outdoor adventure leader who had been taken prisoner by them. Does it sound similar?
I liked the Spanish Prisoner a lot. Glengary Glenross was lost on me, but I watched it with two eggheads who liked it a lot. The F word was so profusive that I didn't get why many of them wanted to stay in the profession.
Sayles is a super director. I'm looking forward to when my twins are old enough to appreciate the one with the Irish mysticism. I also liked Lone Star a lot.
Big Lebowski was lost on me as well. I appreciated the humor of several lines, and I liked Sam Elliot as the spiritual presence, but I didn't see the bum as hero. Phillip Seymour Hoffman did a great job. So sorry to see him pass on.
Yes, sounds like the book you read was the one on which "The Descent" was based.
The "Dude" in "The Big Lebowkski" wasn't a hero, but, hearkening back to the 70s, I think, an anti-hero. I'll add that "Miller's Crossing" is still my favorite Coen Brothers movie, from the opening with the ice tossed into the glass, to the end, "I have no heart."
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