Stanley Fish's Best Ten American Movies Ever

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Alex the SF Vertigo Heretic!

Probly Double Indemnity out of those, however huge a Hitchcock fanboy I am.

Vertigo and Double Indemnity would be the closest.

I also like Shane and Red River, but seriously come on. Also worst Kazan pick ever.

I never get Raging Bull being one of the only modern classics. Maybe I should see it again. Never seen it with sound quality high enough to follow all the dialogue easily.

when I see Fish on campus, I'm going to jump on his face and yell, 'SHAAAA-NNNE!'

Out of these, Vertigo wins hands down. St. Louis a strong runner up.

I think when you see him on campus you should beat the shit out of him for having impure thoughts about Cathy Moriarity.

I don't understand the Raging Bull love either. It's maybe Scorsese's fifth or sixth best movie.

Second ten's a little more interesting, in both senses.

let me guess: dude spent a lot of time at the movies as a kid, was stuck in a shitty marriage in 1980, then had a midlife crisis around '93.

i voted red river.

lol @ ignoring 30s & 70s

let me guess: dude spent a lot of time at the movies as a kid, was stuck in a shitty marriage in 1980, then had a midlife crisis around '93.

Uh, hello, he's a Milton expert!

"Second ten's a little more interesting, in both senses."

True.

quiz show in his top 20, oy

I like Raging Bull and Groundhog Day just fine, but don't think of them as the two best American films of the last 50 years.

Groundhog Day

Best comment:

"50. As a 26 year old Minnesotan, I am absolutely astonished as to how my personal top 10 aligns with this list."

how many of us have seen A Tree Grows in Brooklyn? not me.

It's the only one I haven't seen either. Right now I'd watch Meet Me in St Louis over Double Indemnity.

I saw it ages ago. It's good, but compared to A Face In The Crowd or On The Waterfront? Gimme a break.

I voted for the one I've seen.

You've only seen one of these?

Yeah, I've only seen one of these movies in its entirety ("Vertigo", which I love). I've seen parts of "Sunset Blvd", "Raging Bull" and "Groundhog Day".

Should I rewatch Best Years of Our Lives. I saw that when I was like 12-13 and my memories are fuzzy at best.

I've only seen three of these.

I was going to see Shane, but there are total spoilers at the end of that one Samuel Jackson police movie

Double Indemnity is the only one of these on my personal 10 so it's the one for which I voted. Also lol @ nabisco having seen The Negotiator starring Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey.

Shane is one of those movies you have to accept now seems a) really dated and b) really predictable.

We have to accept those facts or we have to accept the movie itself?

Well if you are going to watch it now and attempt to enjoy it, I think you have to accept that. I think you also have to accept that people who first saw it and loved it in 1953 were watching a different movie.

It's not a great film either way, but it's better if you don't nitpick it's more cliche and dated elements (which is probably true of all old movies, I guess.)

I generally tend to like old movies whose cliche/dated elements have become charming or mysterious or even campy

afaik this entering into the spirit of the '50s audience, which I heartily endorse, would best be done with the eighty or so '50s westerns that are better than Shane.

Yeah, but there is a kind of nuance going on here. This isn't the kind of "seems dated to people used to watching contemporary movies, but once you get into the style you won't worry and be charmed and perhaps even prefer this type of movie" this is the kind of "50s not as good as the 40s society changing studio system competing with television and slowly falling apart" dated.
(xpost)

Ha, Morbius otm.

I.e., not a matter of aesthetics, just a matter of sucking?

"afaik this entering into the spirit of the '50s audience, which I heartily endorse, would best be done with the eighty or so '50s westerns that are better than Shane."

Okay eighty seems like too many.

Yeah, not like "Why are those chappies bursting into song all of the sudden?"

ahem The Searchers

I didn't say ONE seemed like too many.

never heard of the guy, like his list though (any list that includes Beast Years of Our Lives) (so that gets my vote, obviously, off to find out what Shane, River, Louis and Brooklyn are all about)

Beast years heh.

so Shane and River are westerns, I'll add A Tree Grows in Brooklyn to my watch-list.

Weird list. Fetishizes the weakest era of American film.

the 1940s was the weakest era of american film?

Late 40s and 50s.

The 50s sucked for American film? News to me.

when I see Fish on campus, I'm going to jump on his face and yell, 'SHAAAA-NNNE!'

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Monday, January 5, 2009 1:10 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

loooooool

everybody needs to see double indemnity!!

this is a mediocre list.

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"No Deer Hunter?" I know that's what my dad would say. Raging Bull was/is an awesome movie. I also never understood why many vote Killing of a Chinese Bookie. Can someone explain this to me? I liked the movie, but never understood why some automatically drool at the mere mention of said film. Anyhow, I voted RB.

Shit, maybe I should have picked Vertigo. Hmm. Too late now.

I also never understood why many vote Killing of a Chinese Bookie. Can someone explain this to me?

seymour cassel and ben grazza and the enitre sequence where cosmo breaks into the chinese dude's place and the gambling and comso getting kicked out by his girlfriend's mother it breaks your heart

afaik this entering into the spirit of the '50s audience, which I heartily endorse, would best be done with the eighty or so '50s westerns that are better than Shane.

srsly. Shane and not The Searchers? Feh.

i almost died of boredom during 'bookie' and i think cassavetes is usually ok.

it's not only a bad list but a badly reasoned one.

ilx poster special guest stars mark bronson, are you actually leslie halliwell?

no.

halliwell would approve of this list, no? middlebrow fare.

cassavetes is not exactly middlebrow, insofar as lots of highbrows like him. cult o' primitivism thing? his shtick seems to be 'anti-intellectual'.

Vertigo for me with Double Indemnity a close second, because the fucked-ness of glamour and stardom and money is even more salient in the Hitch film. But Stanwyck rules.

I'm almost sure most everyone in the '50s really thought Shane was a better film than The Searchers.

I'm almost sure most everyone in the '50s really thought Shane was a better film than The Searchers.

=proof it wasn't.

Um, make that

"

most everyone in the '50s really thought Shane was a better film than The Searchers

Your observation, itself, is spot-on.

why are we talking about killing of a chinese bookie? it's not on the list. anyway, i like cassavetes but don't see that movie as being regarded as one of his best, but that stuff changes all the time so who knows. this list is pretty dull. vertigo, i guess.

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