movie years

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

I just watched a 1967 double-feature (actually it was a Conrad Hall double-feature, the amazing cinematographer whose more recent credits include American Beauty and Road to Perdition -- great-looking movies, whatever else you may think of them). Anyway, the movies were:

In Cold Blood (Robert Blake's defining moment, in more ways than two)
Cool Hand Luke (the best Christ parable ever?)

and here are some other movies from 1967:

The Graduate
Bonnie and Clyde
In the Heat of the Night
The Dirty Dozen
A Fistful of Dollars
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
To Sir With Love (a Poitier double-feature!)
El Dorado

Wonderful movies, every one. And I got to thinking, 1967 may have been one of the best movie years ever.

Agree or disagree? If not 1967, then what? What's your favorite movie year?

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 04:25 (twenty-two years ago)

1913–14

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 04:44 (twenty-two years ago)

or maybe 1994

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 04:44 (twenty-two years ago)

You must name movies so we can all relate.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 04:47 (twenty-two years ago)

1913-14 off the top of my head: ingeborg holm, fantomas, die landstrasse, the mysterious x, the mothering heart...

1994: through the olive trees, chungking express, satantango, pulp fiction...

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 04:58 (twenty-two years ago)

to actually see satantango someday is like my holy grail

― ryan (ryan), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 04:59 (twenty-two years ago)

It's no El Dorado. John Wayne AND Robert Mitchum? Does Saturday afternoon get any better than that?

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 05:01 (twenty-two years ago)

crap i need to see that too!!

― ryan (ryan), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 05:02 (twenty-two years ago)

the answer is NINETEEN NINETY NINE!!!!!! office space, south park bigger longer etc, american pie, ghost dog, blair witch project, election, dogma, cruel intentions, austin powers two, mystery men, the mummy, and BABY GENIUSES!! also LIFE with eddie and martin

― trife (simon_tr), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 05:09 (twenty-two years ago)

honestly if i were to make a list of the best films of all time i wouldnt need many more than those, and i forgot IRON GIANT too!!

― trife (simon_tr), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 05:10 (twenty-two years ago)

1939

― anthony easton (anthony), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 05:57 (twenty-two years ago)

wizard of oz, they made me a criminal, stagecoach, babes in arms, destry rides again,hound of the baskerviles(the first sherlock movie with basil rathbone),private lives of elizabeth and essex,

and a slew (maybe a dozen) precode, sexy,violent protonoirs and cowboy flicks with tities like i was in the underground and riders of the black river

― anthony easton (anthony), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 06:13 (twenty-two years ago)

You forgot Gone with the Wind, Mizoguchi's The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums, Renoir's The Rules of the Game etc.

1939 is a good contender, yes.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 06:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I checked my unerring IMDb favourites list. Apparently 2001 was my favourite year, followed closely by 2000 and 1998. There were no less than eighteen tremendously entertaining films...

Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Amelie
The Devil's Backbone
Fulltime Killer
Go
Gosford Park
A Knight's Tale
Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
Metropolis
Mulholland Dr.
Ocean's Eleven
Rivers and Tides
Royal Tenenbaums, The
Spirited Away

...four of which were German, which is unprecedented.

Ende der Saison
Nichts bereuen
Nirgendwo in Afrika
Das Weiße Rauschen

― Sommermute (Wintermute), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 10:22 (twenty-two years ago)

For me personally, the best year was probably 1999, when the following brilliant films were released:

Beau travail (aka Good Work)
Bringing Out the Dead
El Coronel no tiene quien le escriba (aka No One Writes to the Colonel)
Eyes Wide Shut
Flawless
Garage Olimpo
Gekko no sasayaki (aka Moonlight Whispers)
Grass
Guo nian hui jia (aka Seventeen Years)
Human Traffic
L'Humanité (aka Humanity)
An Ideal Husband
The Iron Giant
Magnolia
Malli (aka The Terrorist)
Nordrand (aka Northern Skirts)
Office Space
Oodishon (aka Audition)
Phörpa (aka The Cup)
Ressources humaines (aka Human Resources)
Sheidî gurôvu (aka Shady Grove)
South Park
The Straight Story
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Three Kings
Todo sobre mi madre (aka All About my Mother)
Tuvalu
The War Zone
Wege in die Nacht (aka Paths in the Night)

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 10:44 (twenty-two years ago)

some films mentioned in these '99 lists are SO worse than The Matrix and Phantom Menace! but each to his own...

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 11:02 (twenty-two years ago)

anthony 1939 wouldn't be precode. code went into effect in 1933, i believe. unless you're talking about some kind of canadian code.

1939 is good though, for 3 ford films alone (drums along the mohawk + young mr. lincoln + stagecoach) not to mention the rules of the game (renoir) and story of the last chrysanthemums (mizoguchi)....

i guess all of this is a classic "matter of taste" though.

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 12:00 (twenty-two years ago)

whoops just noticed tuomas's post...

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 12:00 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, im sorry, i knew that.
as i said to steve though, it took some years for the code to take its full effect.

― anthony easton (anthony), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 14:26 (twenty-two years ago)

It just might be 1984: Amadeus, Blood Simple, Dune, Footloose, Ghost Busters, Gremlins, The Karate Kid, Nightmare On Elm Street, Repo Man, Sixteen Candles, The Terminator, This is Spinal Tap, and Top Secret all came out that year.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 14:46 (twenty-two years ago)

whoa. i can see it's a fools' errand to find common ground here.

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 14:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Surely the canonical answer is therefore 1977 when both Star Wars and Annie Hall came out...

(NB I have never seen Star Wars, but I believe it's quite popular)

― ailsa (ailsa), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 17:25 (twenty-two years ago)

(haven't seen enough movies to make a decision myself)

isn't the standard canonical line = 1946? only movie I can remember is The Big Sleep.

― g--ff c-nn-n (gcannon), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 18:03 (twenty-two years ago)

any year between 1950-1959 works pretty good.

― ryan (ryan), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 21:40 (twenty-two years ago)

for some reason talking about the films of 1999 just depresses me, probably because that was my last year of college.

― Millar (Millar), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 21:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Ryan OTM.

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 23:03 (twenty-two years ago)

1939: cause these movies could bring a tear to my eye:

An Affair to Remember ;
Dark Victory; and
Mr Smith Goes To Washington

― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Tuesday, 1 July 2003 23:15 (twenty-two years ago)

It's hard enough for me to understand that someone likes Phantom Menace, but Karate Kid???

By the way, most of your lists are quite Anglo-centric. Have you no love for foreign films?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 08:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Gove me any year and I'll find you at least twenty films worth seeing so this is a bit of a moot question for me.In the end the only way to come up with my favourite year would be to look down my list o'favourite films and see what kind of conjunction there is. Since that list don't exist it all seems rather pointless.

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 08:31 (twenty-two years ago)

You can do that in IMDb. That's how I came up with my favourite year.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 08:34 (twenty-two years ago)

IMDB doesn't have a list of MY favourite movies since I don't have a list of My favourite movies.

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 08:53 (twenty-two years ago)

It's hard enough for me to understand that someone likes Phantom Menace, but Karate Kid???

Wax on, wax off, baby.

― o. nate (onate), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 17:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I think 1969 is my favourite year as for innovative films:

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Invasión
The Milky Way
Once Upon a Time in the West
Satyricon
A Touch of Zen
Wild Bunch
Z

Invasión stands out - it's like The Trial, Eraserhead and Sonatine wrapped into one.

― Sommermute (Wintermute), Thursday, 3 July 2003 11:09 (twenty-two years ago)

It is my firm conviction that each year brings the same amount of quality. Except for war-years (when their is no production).

It is completely senseless to look for your movie-year, quality is of ALL time.

And anyway, the years when you were 16-18 tend to everyone's faves - the age when you are most impressionable. In my case this was http://www.jahsonic.com/1981.html .

This is my 1981 list:
Scanners (1981) - David Cronenberg
Pixote (1981) - Hector Babenco
Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981) - Marco Ferreri
The Howling (1981) - Joe Dante
Eureka (1981) - Nicolas Roeg
Beau Pere (1981) - Bertrand Blier
Coup de Torchon - Bertrand Tavernier (1981)

― Jan Geerinck (jahsonic), Thursday, 3 July 2003 22:28 (twenty-two years ago)

How did you get from 16 to 18 in one year? It took me twice that long, but perhaps I was slow.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 4 July 2003 16:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I checked my list and I have a tie between 1987 and 1990 with 76 movies each.

1987
The Adventure of Denchu Kozo
Angel Heart
Au revoir les enfants
Babette's Feast
Bad Taste
Barfly
The Belly of an Architect
The Big Easy
The Brave Little Toaster
Broadcast News
The Camp at Thiaroye
Castaway
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock and Roll
The Cyclist
Damned If You Don't
Dark Eyes
Daughter of the Nile
Dead of Winter
The Dead
The Death of Empedocles
The Decalogue
Dirty Dancing
The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On
Empire of the Sun
Fatal Attraction
Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle
Full Metal Jacket
Gap-Toothed Women
Good Morning, Babylon
Hamlet Goes Business
Hellraiser
The Hidden
Hope and Glory
House of Games
Intervista
King of the Children
La Bamba
The Last Emperor
The Last of England
Law of Desire
Lethal Weapon
Life Classes
Light of Day
The Lighted Field (The Adventures of the Exquisite Corpse, Part VI)
Long Farewells (A Long Goodbye)
Made in Heaven
Matewan
Maurice
Moonstruck
Near Dark
No Way Out
Orphans
The Peddler
Pelle the Conqueror
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
Predator
Prick Up Your Ears
The Princess Bride
Raising Arizona
Red Sorghum
RoboCop
The Sicilian
Someone to Watch Over Me
Spaceballs
The Stepfather
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
Under the Sun of Satan
The Untouchables
Vincent
Wall Street
Wedding in Galilee
Where Is the Friend's Home?
Wings of Desire
Withnail and I
Yeelen (Brightness)

1990
AIDS-Trilogie: Feuer unterm Arsch
AIDS-Trilogie: Positive
AIDS-Trilogie: Silence = Death
Alexandria Again and Forever
American Dream
An Angel at My Table
Arachnophobia
Ay, Carmela!
Back to the Future III
Blue Steel
Boiling Point
The Bonfire of the Vanities
Bullet in the Head
The Civil War
Close-up
The Comb
Come See the Paradise
The Comfort of Strangers
Creature Comforts
Cry-Baby
Cyrano de Bergerac
Dances with Wolves
The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia
Desperate Hours
Dick Tracy
Dreams
Edward Scissorhands
Europa, Europa
La Femme Nikita
The Freshman
The Garden
Ghost
The Godfather III
Goodfellas
Green Card
Gremlins 2: The New Batch
The Grifters
Henry and June
Hidden Agenda
Hiruko the Goblin
Home Alone
The Hot Spot
House Party
The Hunt for Red October
I Hired a Contract Killer
Jacob's Ladder
Ju Dou
Korczak
The Krays
Life Is Sweet
Love at Large
Metropolitan
Miller's Crossing
Misery
Mo' Better Blues
Night Sun
Once a Thief
Paris Is Burning
Presumed Innocent
Q & A
Reversal of Fortune
Riff-Raff
Son of the General
Song of Exile
Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol
The Thing
Tilai (The Law)
To Sleep with Anger
Total Recall
Tremors
Trust
Twin Peaks
Vincent and Theo
White Hunter, Black Heart
Wild at Heart
The Witches

Hmm.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Saturday, 5 July 2003 15:43 (twenty-two years ago)

1968:
Once Upon a Time in the West
2001: A Space Odyssey
Planet of the Apes
Rosemary's Baby
The Producers
Bullitt
Night of the Living Dead
Yellow Submarine
Barbarella
The Party
The Thomas Crown Affair
Hang 'em High
Head

Oliver! was released that year, too, but unlike the other ones I've listed I'm not sure if it's one of those movies that's aged well.

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Saturday, 5 July 2003 19:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Better yet - 1997:
L.A. Confidential
Boogie Nights
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery*
Chasing Amy
The Full Monty
Jackie Brown
Donnie Brasco
Wag the Dog
The Spanish Prisoner
Princess Mononoke
The Game
Good Will Hunting*
Men In Black

Of course, this was also the year that Batman & Robin and GI Jane and Anaconda and the Postman and were released. So it's obviously a mixed bag. And Titanic... urgh.

*stop looking at me like that

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Saturday, 5 July 2003 19:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I like Anaconda.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Saturday, 5 July 2003 22:17 (twenty-two years ago)

And you hate the Roots. It's all coming together! ;)

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Sunday, 6 July 2003 00:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I do not hate the Roots. I think the Roots are way overblown, and a little pretentious.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Sunday, 6 July 2003 01:32 (twenty-two years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.