The nuILx Poll of All-Time Greatest Movies

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By popular demand? Here it is! Top Ten Greatest Movies. Not favorites, but greatest. Definition: It must be a motion picture. Still photos are not allowed (even the one of Mitchum being busted for pot). Still paintings are not allowed, either. Cartoons, on the other hand, are allowed. Feature films are allowed. Music videos are allowed. TV commercials are allowed. TV shows are allowed, but as discrete units, not as series. That is, My So-Called Life: the episode where Rayanne ODs at her birthday party is allowed, but simply My So-Called Life is not. You have to vote for The Godfather and Godfather 2 separately. (The first was much better anyway.) By the way, if someone wants to tabulate votes at some point, go ahead, but I'm not going to.

This just in from the Rules Committee: May Pikachu's Vacation be voted for separate from the horrible movie to which it was attached? YES!

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Saturday, 10 August 2002 20:31 (twenty-two years ago)

The Searchers
Donovan's Reef
Morocco
The Shanghai Express
In a Lonely Place
L'Avventura
Letter from an Unknown Woman
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The Earrings of Madame de...
Sansho the Bailiff

I was going to say "Hah! Nothing after 1959!" until I realized I had three from the 1960s. But the '60s still sucked as a movie decade.

Sorry, in this Top Ten my oddities just don't show up, except maybe for Donovan's Reef, which is all oddities, but they're Ford's, not mine. And if I'd been honest, I'd probably have included a couple more Fords (along with several haytrucks more oddities; I mean, do you remember Drums Along the Mohawk? a boring movie mostly, but then there's the scene where the preacher is saying, "I've heard" - deadly crazed look in his eyes - "that some of the young women here have been seen in the company of men from" - spits this out venomously - "from Vermont"; and oh yes [he tells us], there's news that the Indians are about to attack, too) and a couple more Sternbergs. And if I'd been "idiosyncratic" I'd have included Night Moves and The Dirty Dozen and an episode each of Magnum P.I. and Rocky & Bullwinkle.

Oh, and don't be boring like me. Say something about the movies you voted for. In fact, say something about the movies I voted for.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Saturday, 10 August 2002 20:33 (twenty-two years ago)

All right, I'll say something about the movies I voted for.

The Searchers = Buddy Holly
Donovan's Reef = "Sunshine Superman"
Morocco = Gene Pitney
The Shanghai Express = Timbaland
In a Lonely Place = the Rolling Stones
L'Avventura = "Memphis Blues Again"
Letter from an Unknown Woman = "Vietnamese Baby"
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly = Augustus Pablo
The Earrings of Madame de... = "Remember Walking in the Sand"
Sansho the Bailiff "I Can Never Go Home Anymore"

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Saturday, 10 August 2002 20:35 (twenty-two years ago)

"saturday night fever"

nine more on the way

― geeta, Saturday, 10 August 2002 21:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, let me comment on it.

saturday night fever = The Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack. Or am I wrong?

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Saturday, 10 August 2002 21:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Answers and explanations given with extreme willfulness and subject to general change:

Manos: The Hands of Fate as interpreted by MST3K = "Filmed on location in a vacant lot."
Brazil, uncut version = for predicting 2001 and after scarily well
The Avengers, "The Correct Way to Kill" w/Emma Peel = "How do you feel?" "Like someone who has been tied up and placed in a box."
Repo Man = "No communists in my car! No Christians either!"
The Uninvited = Ray Milland, Edith Head costumes, "Stella By Starlight" and sheer creepiness via exquisite subtlety
The Haunting, original version directed by Robert Wise = for the sniffing around the door
The Simpsons, Halloween episode with Bart dressed as Droogie Alex from A Clockwork Orange = I just gave my reason
Coil, "Tainted Love" video = for the moment Marc Almond comes in, eats a grape, smirks at John Balance, then leaves
Absolutely Fabulous, "Forty" = Edina comes down the stairs into the kitchen all smiles to where the cake is and blows out the candles with a fire extinguisher
The Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson version = um, duh. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 10 August 2002 21:45 (twenty-two years ago)

1. DON'T LOOK BACK

― the pinefox, Saturday, 10 August 2002 21:58 (twenty-two years ago)

[I don't even *care* who threw that GLA-ss - I just wanna know who threw that *glass!*]

― the pinefox, Saturday, 10 August 2002 22:00 (twenty-two years ago)

2. RIO BRAVO

― the pinefox, Saturday, 10 August 2002 22:00 (twenty-two years ago)

[I brungee some dyneemite!]

― the pinefox, Saturday, 10 August 2002 22:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Urga: Mongolian/French Film featuring heart-melting/life-affirming girl-plays-accordion scene and the greatest wide-open spaces ever.

Amelie: Real Life Meets & Beats Cartoon.

The Simpsons "Lisa's Substitute": Where cartoon meets real life. Where to begin? "You are Lisa Simpson." *sob*

As Good As It Gets: More Simpsons, a feast of one-liners, but a beautiful piece of film.

Billy Liar: as per the above, w/o Simpsons

Un Coeur En Hiver: Emmanuelle Beart plays violin and plays Daniel Auteil. And the rain - oh god, the rain.

Blackadder Goes Forth, The Last Episode: England, utterly.

Life Is Beautiful: A movie as a melody which you learn and join in with and then right at the end...

Pet Shop Boys, Where The Streets Have No Name / Can't Take My Eyes Off You: non-stop line-dance of funk n feathers.

Tom Waits, Big Time: cigar-throwing, set-climbing lushness.

― stevie mitch, Saturday, 10 August 2002 23:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Carebears 1 thru 10

― Matt, Sunday, 11 August 2002 00:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Cable Hogue
Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia
The Wild Bunch
The Getaway
October (Uncut)
The Battleship Potemkin
The General Line
Two or Three Things I Know About Her
Contempt
Dawn of the Dead

No real surprises, I guess.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Sunday, 11 August 2002 00:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Ratcatcher - Because

Eureka - movies about silent men, about the self and the differing reactions different selfs have to the same scenario, and long films with heat haze cinematography, I swear best description of the look of the pictures: wirring - I'm unsure as to whether it's best with or without the h.

Quincy - Pick any one.

Breaking The Waves - parce que I like being hurt walking from the cinema.

The Spirit of the Beehive
Assault on Precinct 13
The Taking of Pelham 123
Rear Window
Tenacious D's video to Tribute (haha)

I don't really know is the answer. Polls are stupid because they are unanswerable. It justs involves looking through yr collection and cherry picking either the coolest ones, the ones you think had more effect, the ones that etc. If I'm stuck here in front of this computer I never can answer things like this so I have to go look and as soon as I do the list becomes distorted.

― david h (david h), Sunday, 11 August 2002 05:40 (twenty-two years ago)

The entrance movie in Half-Life. The first time in a computer game that someone had invoked the Utopia of Nothing: videotaping empty playgrounds for hours upon end. Err, yeh, so yr in the ship an yr being carried to the bit you get to shoot things and this lasts 5 minutes - until then you can do nothing but listen to the assistant brief you on the center and walk around a little in this cubicle. Can that count? 'Cos it's one of the most important moments in gaming history.

― david h (david h), Sunday, 11 August 2002 05:44 (twenty-two years ago)

* THE BLACK MASK! Jet Li rules!
* LEGALLY BLONDE! Resse Witherspoon rules!
* AMERICAN MOVIE! Those dudes rule!
* RETURN OF THE JEDI! - er, it's Star Wars, duh!
* BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE

I can't think of anymore

― jel -- (jel), Sunday, 11 August 2002 07:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Frank's movies - v. heavy on the ornate/roccoco. Two Ophuls, two Sternberg, a Leone, a Mizogouchi - a bit like eating one too many cream cakes all at once (hello, Keiji Haino!) The he-man humour of 'Donovan's Reef' seems esp. hard to reconcile w/ Antonioni's elegant anomie.

Here's ten I like:

1. La Maman et al Putain (1973, Jean Eustache)

2. Dawn of the Dead (1979, George A. Romero)

3. Suspiria (1976, Dario Argento)

4. Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974, Jacques Rivette)

5. Vivre Sa Vie (1962, Jean-Luc Godard)

6. Psycho (1960, Alfred Hitchcock)

7. Tokyo Story (1953, Yasujiro Ozu)

8. Mouchette (1967, Robert Bresson)

9. The Conversation (1974, Francis Ford Coppola)

10. Funny Games (1997, Michael Haneke)

― Andrew L, Sunday, 11 August 2002 07:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Yay Suspiria (esp. soundtrack). Boo Funny Games (esp. Funny Games).

― david h (david h), Sunday, 11 August 2002 07:55 (twenty-two years ago)

What's the difference between favourite and greatest again?

― N., Sunday, 11 August 2002 10:31 (twenty-two years ago)

The results of the ole-ILE poll

― N., Sunday, 11 August 2002 10:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I love Sterl for choosing Contempt.

― Nicole, Sunday, 11 August 2002 12:43 (twenty-two years ago)

looked at the old list, puzzled why everyone loves rushmore so. bottle rocket was genius but it has been downhill for the boys since with royal tenenbaums ending up nearly unwatchable, i hope they don't make another. luke wilson should stick to making movies about attack helicopters and french fries.

― keith, Sunday, 11 August 2002 22:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Donovan's Reef = he-man rococo
L'Avventura = he-man anomie
Celine and Julie Go Boating = Rococo and Bullwinkle

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Sunday, 11 August 2002 22:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Better Rushmore than Amelie...

― Nicole, Sunday, 11 August 2002 23:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Here are my favorite movies and why:

Gods and Monsters - Brendan Fraiser the most underrated actor alive today. Ian Mckellen is James Whale, and the strength of the source material (Whale's life and movies) make this movie wonderful.

The Seventh Seal - A man seeks answers about life, death, the existence of god, all while trying to prolong his own life by challenging death to a game of chess.

Manhattan - My girlfriend tells me this is a boy chick flick. I suppose. I like the Gershwin and the cinematography.

Aguirre, The Wrath of God - One of two Werner Herzog films on my list. Klaus Kinski has one of the best performances I've seen by any actor, ever. I suppose it's easy to portray someone going mad, if you are already mad yourself.

A Christmas Story - A great movie that is built on a string of perfect moments. You know those things that you can say, "boy, i sure can relate to that", but you could never portray them on screen like Ralphie did.

The Tin Drum - My favorite foreign film ever. For many reasons, first of all, it has dwarfs in it. Three of the movies on my list have dwarfs in it. I'm a big fan of little people in film. Secondly, Oskar stunts his growth because he is sickened by the behavior of adults. Who isn't? Finally, one of my favorite scenes in any movies is when Oskar is underneath the bleachers at the Nazi rally thing and starts playing his drum and reduces the rally to chaos. The official band loses concentration and the Nazi officials can't keep in step. The local people keep breaking into Blue Danube waltz. It's Oskar's own little way of protesting against these silly people.

Taxi Driver - Back when Deniro was in good films, instead of clunkers like Analyze This. Travis is fucking feed up, he sees a darkness in the streets of NYC, whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Best. Scenes. Ever. of a person acting alone.

Office Space - I think this is the most recent movie on my list. I don't really like most comedies, but I like Office Space because it's a slightly skewed vision of reality. Not too far off base that I lose interest though.

Even Dwarfs Started Small - Another Werner Herzog film. This film has some of the littlest little people I've ever seen in it. It's surreal how much chaos this little folks can cause. The tiny Hombré has the best laugh ever too, at the end of the film, he laughs at a defecating camel for 5 minutes.

Tetsuo: The Iron Man - Surreal. I can't think of any other way to describe this movie. It uses stop action to animate the man turning into a scrap heap. It's like watching Gumby on some really good acid. Great ending when he faces the evil that lives inside of him.

Clerks - The only Kevin Smith movie that I would consider one of my favorites. The rest of his were disappointing to me.

The God of Cookery - One of my favorite Asian films ever. I like Stephen Chow, and I like any film that breaks out into song when you least expect it. The ending battle is great, but the judge steals the show.

Freaks - The third film in my list that has a good amount of dwarfs in it. Real sideshow freaks used! and the ending is one of the creepiest moments ever captured on film.

That's my list. 7 foreign (non-american) films, 3 of which are German. 3 films with dwarfs in them. Most American films with normal sized people in them can't compare.

― Jeff (Jeff), Sunday, 11 August 2002 23:52 (twenty-two years ago)

(favourite films off the top of my head)

Run Lola Run - a sense of motion is a sense of place
Donnie Darko - softboiled wonderland & the end of the world
Songs From The Second Floor - apocalypse (not apocalypse)
Ikiru - all i want is to BREATHE
Akira - panic sights
Tetsuo : The Iron Man - Mark E Smith X David Lynch otaku slashfic
The Waiting Place - cherry farm award
Mulholland Drive - & then they lez up
Heavenly Creatures - see above
Fight Club - token queer flick

― Ess Kay (esskay), Monday, 12 August 2002 02:07 (twenty-two years ago)

favorite is much more important than greatest!!

― ron (ron), Monday, 12 August 2002 02:32 (twenty-two years ago)

(in no particular order, and pardon lack of HTML skills)
Seconds - Frankenheimer 1966 (my fav. for technique and pathos too)
Network - Lumet 1976
Asphalt Jungle - Huston 1950
M - Lang 1931
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari - 1919
Rome, Open City - Rosselini 1945 (sometimes I think Paisa is better)
Los Olvidados - Bunuel 1950
The Killer - Woo 1989
Crimes and Misdemeanors - Allen 1989
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life - Gilliam 1983

It is hard to pick movies from the nineties if we are talking greatest instead of personal favorites. Picks for 90's canon: The Ice Storm, Boogie Nights, Being John Malkovich, Slacker, Seven (whatta gimmick).

― Aaron Grossman (aajjgg), Monday, 12 August 2002 02:40 (twenty-two years ago)

jel - did you ever see that dude's movie, "coven"??

― ron (ron), Monday, 12 August 2002 05:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I never saw it Ron, I think it's on the US DVD, which we can't get here, and there was no British video/DVD release! :(

― jel, Monday, 12 August 2002 08:02 (twenty-two years ago)

the tami show
chuck & buck
charlie is my darling
p.i.l. tom snyder interview ("no more of this twelvebar ditty, flap your flares in the breeze nonsense")
harlan county
salesman
grey gardens
PBS war on drugs documentary series (the episode about the beginnings of the cocaine trade)

godfather 1, godfather 2, mean streets, goodfellas, casino, carlito's way, scarface, angels with dirty faces, the killer, the killing, the killers, the grifters, hardboiled, bullet in the head, sonatine, tokyo drifter, state of grace, pope of greenwich village, the krays, chopper, reservoir dogs, the petrified forest - basically anything about the mafia, yakuza or westies. especially westies.

― Fritz, Monday, 12 August 2002 14:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Only got time for this one just now....
Alien - Seen alone, on a miserable winter afternoon, in a near-empty cinema at the dismal end of its 70's existence (ie old-style cinemas when there was just one screen and the place was HUGE and being in the middle of the back row of the empty stalls felt like being entombed in an old ocean liner thousands of fathoms under the ocean...)
The music, the downbeat acting, the grimy realism vs. gee whiz tech of the sets and the physicality, the terse lack of explicit 'romantic' connections between any of the characters, the Giger designs (visually fresh and disturbing at that point - exciting to see his work in 3D for the first time), the sense of doom and inevitable disaster, the themes and allusions and layers the film works on.....
Oh Yes.
Every 'Alien' sequel has been a 'movie' - this was a film.

― Ray M (rdmanston), Monday, 12 August 2002 16:06 (twenty-two years ago)

top 15 (sorreeee): not in order of merit

1. 'Brazil' ~ Terry Gilliam 1985

Gilliam's Orwellian comic masterpiece of a world drowning in pointless, petty, inhumane, illogical bureaucracy Any resemblance to the real world is purely coincidental, of course.
"You must have hopes, dreams?"
"No. Nothing. Not even dreams".

2. 'Kes' ~ Ken Loach, 1969

Lacking both the smugness and middle-class voyeurism of Mike Leigh and the dreary student politicking and fatalism of his later work, Loach manages to portray Northern, working class life with a delicacy and understanding. Heartbreaking, funny and, overall, almost unbearably poignant adaptation of Barry Hines' 'A Kestrel for a Knave'. Probably the best British film of all time. We've just got the soundtrack, how 'bout the DVD?

3. 'Dazed & Confused' ~ Richard Linklater 1993

Linklater not only updates 'American Graffiti' but betters it. The cast of unknowns, Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, Joey Lauren Adams, Parker Posey and Matthew McConaughey would go onto other and bigger successes, but none of them have (yet) bettered this. The final scene alone tells more about youth, freedom and rock music than 'Almost Famous' does in it's entirety.

4. 'Lawrence of Arabia' ~ David Lean 1962

Obviously. Peter O'Toole is an absolute prince in this. A peerless performance.

5. 'Heavenly Creatures' ~ Peter Jackson 1994

Jackson cuts the gore and Kate Winslet goes supernova in what is surely her greatest performance and one of the most dazzling debuts in cinema history. Playful, magical, shocking and true.

6. 'Saturday Night Fever' ~ John Badham, 1977

Unfairly burdened with it's 'disco movie' image (though that's not a bad thing, in itself) 'SMF' is one of the great New York/'realism' movies of the 70s - far better than the overrated 'Taxi Driver'. An air of quiet desperation hangs heavy with Travoltas downtrodden character who's looking for an escape. Stallone stole a lot of it's ideas for his inferior 'Rocky' movie a few years later.

7. 'The Company of Wolves' ~ Neil Jordan 1984

Based on Angela Carter's interpretations of 'Little Red Riding Hood' and other fairy tales, this remains the best movie about European folklore ever. It's rather stagy (read: cheap) sets actually help give it a necessary unreal, fantastical quality. Beautifully dream-like and beguiling, I'll watch this movie for the rest of my life. Oh, and the werewolf effects wipe the floor with both 'American Werewolf' and 'The Howling'. So there.

8. 'Ferris Beuller's Day Off' ~ John Hughes 1986

"I did not achieve this position in life by having some snot-nosed punk leave my cheese out in the wind".

9. 'Suspiria' ~ Dario Argento, 1977

I really love Dario Argento's 'Inferno', 'Opera' and 'Tenebrae' movies, but you gotta go with 'Suspiria' ain't cha? What I like about this is it marries the best suspenseful, creepy/haunted house feeling since Robert Wise's 'The Haunting' with some top notch, inventive gory deaths.
Then there's the unusual lighting with primary colours and the stilted performances by a cast from different parts of Europe all
speaking in a halted English which, in this movie, just adds to the unnerving surrealism.

10. 'Blade Runner' ~ Ridley Scott 1982

I was obsessed with this movie as a teenager. Much less so now, I'm happy to report. Even so, how many films by how many different directors (including George Lucas and Spielberg) using how much money has gone into attempting to capture just an essence of this dark-jewel of a masterpiece? Keep trying guys, keep trying.

11. 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' ~ Nic Roeg 1975

Nothing Happens. Turn of the 20th century schoolgirls wander around the Australian countryside. They walk up a rocky hill. They don't return. Movie ends. Unbelievably haunting. Oh, and also true!

12. 'If... ' ~ Lindsay Anderson 1968

Malcolm McDowell is a rebellious, angry, violent teen who wants to fight against the oppressive, class-ridden British society. Sound like a good idea for a movie? Stanley Kubrick certainly thought so, that's why he then made a film just like it. Only it wasn't as good.

13. 'Week End' ~ Jean-Luc Godard 1967

Godard [literally] loses the plot ten minutes in, in this French New Waver. Social and political decay is manifests itself in bonkers-to-tha-maxx scenarios and characters. Outré, experimentalism can be fun. Kinda.

14. 'In A Lonely Place' ~ Nicholas Ray 1950

Bogart at his lugubrious best in this heart-rending, ink-black film noir.

15. 'Twin Peaks: Fire, Walk With Me' ~ David Lynch 1992

Movies don't always have to be comprehensible, y'know. At least when they are as beautifully filmed and as unsettling as this impossible puzzle. Lynch at his perverse, surreal and (for fans of the TV show) contrary best.

In contention: fave movies from the past five years or so that may well end up in my top 20, unless I get bored of them:

'The Virgin Suicides'; 'Gattaca'; 'A.I: Artificial Intelligence'; 'Requiem For A Dream'; 'Mulholland Dr'; 'Swingers'; 'The Thin Red Line'; 'The Blair Witch Project'; 'Boogie Nights'; 'Ghost World'

― DavidM (DavidM), Monday, 12 August 2002 16:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Stallone stole a lot of it's ideas for his inferior 'Rocky' movie a few years later.

Not unless he went back in time. ;-) Rocky came out in 1976.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 12 August 2002 17:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't care from greatest but my favorites are: Spies Like Us, Kingpin, Band of Outsiders, Weekend, Dazed and Confused, Cannonball Run, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Godfathers 1& 2, Caddyshack, and Rocky 4.

― Kris (aqueduct), Monday, 12 August 2002 18:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I doubt that Rembrandt's charcoal crayon o' me
Has lips as gray as he-man anomie

This has been a dreary several days for me, as you can ascertain from the above couplet, which is not only dreary but specious, given that Rembrandt did neither crayon nor brush of me, nor anything else of me, either. But if you believe that that is the worst I can do, I give you the following:

I doubt that Warhol's Campbells can o' me
Has lips as gray as he-man anomie

Not as dreary as the Rembrandt, I'll concede, but twice again as specious, since neither Warhol's Campbells nor Campbells's own Campbells have lips of anything, much less of me.

I doubt that Em, who made a Stan o' me
Has feet as clay as he-man anomie

I won't even try to list the many ways that that one is lame. (And are we not all fortunate that I've never been Channed, either Charlie or Jackily?)

So I am counting on you, dear friends, to do better. The rules are that your couplet must begin with either "I doubt" or "I think that I shall never" and must end with "he-man anomie," and that it must rhyme "anomie" entirely. "Operas phantomy" would be disqualified due to the interloper "t." "Hats Panamy" are permitted, though if you can connect them in verse to anomie, you are a better poet than I. (But one could argue, I suppose, that you'd be a better poet yet if you didn't try to connect them at all.)

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Monday, 12 August 2002 19:04 (twenty-two years ago)

1) Giant-Rock Hudson Liz Taylor and the house- American Noh

2) Barry Lyndon- haunting in its sense of class, also beutiful

3) Rebel Without a Cause- its not about james dean, its about Sal Mineo

4) Decamoren(sp)- Perverse and funny

5) Umbrellas of Cherbourg- Denuve in the back of the black caddy, with snow falling around her and the esso, and its all so plain

6) Midnight Cowboy-John Voight as Gabriel

7) Les Vampires/Pandoras Box-The sexiest vampire movies ever.

8) M- Scariest movie ever, not only in symbloic violence and suspense, but as a medation on evil r>
9) Whos Afraid of Virginia Woolf,Butterfield 8, The Sandpiper- The great accidental trilogy of Americas most Operatic actress. Verges on Camp because of its grand theatircallity but settles into a strange unknown place.

10) If... - The best movie about vietnam, mostly because it had nothing to do with jungles and saigon.

― anthony, Monday, 12 August 2002 20:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I doubt he ever said "Dano!" Me?
I think Jack Lord had he-man anomie.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 12 August 2002 20:29 (twenty-two years ago)

goodfellas, mad max, wild strawberries, catch-22, sweet smell of success, one flew over the cuckoos nest, pulp fiction, planes trains and automobiles

― Michael Bourke, Monday, 12 August 2002 23:34 (twenty-two years ago)

sooo many good suggestions - i think i know what i'm doing this weekend.

― Dave M. (rotten03), Tuesday, 13 August 2002 13:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Dave M in FREAKY TIME TRAVEL SHENANIGANS. Does it say August 14th there?

― Alan (Alan), Tuesday, 13 August 2002 15:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Wah! ME TOO! G-graham! H-help

― Alan (Alan), Tuesday, 13 August 2002 15:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Caddyshack. I forgot Caddyshack.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 13 August 2002 16:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Why not, I'm bored at work after all!

Top-Ten greatest films. In the order they come to mind.

01) The Deer Hunter
I had take 10 mins to calm down after watching this.
02) Akira
It's a Cartoon. It's a "Real Film"(tm). It's MENTAL.
03) Ring (1)
A good horror is hard to find.
04) The Red Shoes
It's about ballet. It made me cry. I'm such a soppy boy.
05) This Is Spinal Tap
Laughed 'till I was actually sore.
06) Get Carter
Expected to see a brit-flick. Got something else. It's kind of a hitman movie (see below), but I'm letting that go
07) Return of the Jedi
Formative years. Carrie Fisher. Gold bikini (& chain!). Nice
08) Grosse Point Blank
Which gets my "Hitman movie" vote. It's my favourite genre, I decided I'd only put one in to spare you the tedium of a list of ten films featuring assasins... BTW - I hate Bridget Fonda.
09) The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Mayhem. Spawned a few wild nights at the cinema. Not many films can say that.
and I wasn't going to put it in but
10) Don't Look Now
scares the living bejeezus out of me and is therefore, GRATE. Can't watch it again yet. I'm trying to get over my red-cloak-o-phobia.

Nice, shiny new boreds.

― Calumn, Wednesday, 14 August 2002 14:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Boringly obvious, in vaguely chronological order, and too long by half, but anyway....

Intolerance
L'Atalante
It's A Gift!
M
Dumbo
The Palm Beach Story
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon
The Big Sleep
Notorious
Ugetsu
Lola Montes
High and Low
Marnie
Pierrot Le Fou
F For Fake
The Long Goodbye
Up!
God Told Me To
Blue Velvet
Fallen Angels

― James Blount, Friday, 16 August 2002 06:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Um, comments:

It's A Gift! - Whatta Asshole!

Dumbo - best Disney flick, with great seperation-from-mother anxiety (better than Bambi, which keeps the action offscreen like Sophocles or something), great universal aspiration (the ability to fly), and fine enough moral (believe in yourself, pre-1970s). And a mouse gets drunk in it.

The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye - Raymond Chandler in the house! I knew I HAD to include Notorious and I think The Big Sleep is a better movie than Notorious (they came out the same year, I think), so it makes the list. Plus, unlike The Maltese Falcon or Casablanca, it doesn't end with Bogart having to sacrifice the girl on principle. The Long Goodbye's my favorite Altman, and somehow Elliot Gould's Marlowe has seemed to have more in common with Bogart's than say Robert Mitchum's. Plus this is the one great Altman movie (well, until Gosford Park anyway) where the cynicism and misanthropy crack just enough to glimpse the wounded angry idealist underneath. And - Arnold Schwarzneggar!

Notorious and Marnie - Okay, Vertigo's the better movie maybe but Marnie somehow seems less clunky (the psychology isn't quite so archaic) and more extreme and bizarre. It's barely a thriller - there's a great setpiece of a heist a little ways into it - but mostly it's just Hitch torturing poor Tippi Hedren. The culmination of his misogyny - it was all downhill from here on out. Notorious has Cary Grant AND Ingrid Bergman for Chris'sake.

F For Fake - Welles' last finished movie, although he couldn't have known it at the time, and it manages to close the circle with "War of the Worlds" and Orson Welles, Magician (which he trotted out on 'I Love Lucy') while holding it's own with Citizen Kane, Magnificent Ambersons, Touch of Evil, Chimes at Midnight, et. al

Up! - It's got a strap-on AND a Greek chorus, what more could you want? Plus, better CB humor than anything in the Burt Reynolds canon. Oh, and big titties.

Blue Velvet - "Heineken? Fuck that shit - Pabst Blue Ribbon!"

L'Atalante and Fallen Angels - Happiest Endings Ever!

― James Blount, Friday, 16 August 2002 06:45 (twenty-two years ago)

not preferential order, its hard enough for my brain to list...here goes
Stalker
Dolly-(russian)
Fallen Angels
A christmas Story -whoever said that previously, thanks.
Gong Li
Devil at your heels-(that title sounds wrong- if you like documentary and hubris search this out)
Ice Storm
Les amants du pont neuf
thats only 8. shit *goes to take memory drugs*

― jeskam, Friday, 16 August 2002 13:56 (twenty-two years ago)

The Crying Game
Fite Club
Blade Runner
Interview with a Vampire
Biloxi Blues
Out of Site
Harry Potter & the Philosophers Stone
that StarTrek movie with the sexy borg
Armageddon
One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
About A Boy
The Last Starfighter
Dune

― toraneko, Friday, 16 August 2002 17:13 (twenty-two years ago)

I wrote: "11. 'Picnic at Hanging Rock' ~ Nic Roeg 1975"

My mistake, Peter Weir directed 'Picnic'. Can't believe none of you noticed. Shame on you all.

― DavidM (DavidM), Saturday, 17 August 2002 10:41 (twenty-two years ago)

ferris Bueller's day off
The Simpsons episode where Homer stops going to church on Sundays
Usual suspects
Raging Bull
The televisation of the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics
Bring it on
Roman Holiday
Grosse Point Blank
National Lampoon's European vacation
the filming of the penalty shoot-out in Rome when Bruce Grobelaar did his bendy legs routine.

― chris (chris), Saturday, 17 August 2002 12:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Casino

Wonder Boys

Midnight Run

Fargo

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

GoodFellas

The Devil and Daniel Webster

McCabe & Mrs Miller

Manhattan

Vertigo

(runners-up: The Godfather/Rear Window/Some Like It Hot/The Big Sleep/The Man Who Would Be King/You Can Count on Me/This Is Spinal Tap/The Taking of Pelham 123/Mighty Aphrodite/The Apartment/M/The Man Who Fell to Earth/The Lady Vanishes/The 39 Steps/Jaws/Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore/Gattaca/Duck Soup/The Conformist/Rope/The Hard Way/Topsy Turvy)

― james bennet, Saturday, 17 August 2002 17:48 (twenty-two years ago)

oh, and I meant to include The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, one of the most beautiful, subtle, and poignant films ever made.

― james bennet, Saturday, 17 August 2002 18:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Three votes for Suspiria and even one for Marnie... hooray!!

― Sean (Sean), Sunday, 18 August 2002 08:43 (twenty-two years ago)

My top ten movies are:

that werner herzog film where he says 'a galaxy of chaos hurts my head.'

Caspar Hauser.

Fear eats the soul.

andrei rublev.

abigails party.

the breakfast club.

on the buses. ha ha ha ! no really, i mean the final episode of 'League of Gentlemen.'

a trinh ti min ha documentary about vietnamese women.

no john waters film.

life is sweet.

the episode of 'hancock's half hour' where he goes on a boat and a plane and frightens everyone by talking about it crashing or sinking.

pretty in pink.

― maryann, Sunday, 18 August 2002 09:41 (twenty-two years ago)

"pretty in pink" is tied equally with "even dwarves start small."

― maryann, Sunday, 18 August 2002 09:43 (twenty-two years ago)

allowing only individual episodes of tv shows in is like asking them to be movies and then laughing when they fail!

some feature films I like a load: office space, the big lebowski, hannah and her sisters, blade runner, andrei rublev

― Josh (Josh), Monday, 19 August 2002 05:11 (twenty-two years ago)

VALLEY GIRL, a movie about the importance of using your will and the best blue-eyed Cage performance EVAH - still skinny and "fast-forwarding to the future of acting" (c) his oscar speech years later when accepting an award for seargant piccolo's accordion

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 19 August 2002 05:28 (twenty-two years ago)

My favorites:

Dazed and Confused
Animal House
Vacation
Wonderboys
The Dirty Dozen - What a cast
Platoon
Silence of the Lambs
Kicking and Screaming - my favorite of all time
Braveheart
Office Space
Goodfellas
Casino
Easy Money

― Chris V. (Chris V), Monday, 19 August 2002 13:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Dancer in the Dark, Showgirls, Up in Smoke, The Idiots, Gimme Shelter, Freddy Got Fingered, Hills Have Eyes, The Brood, Lost Highway, Caddyshack

― dave q, Tuesday, 20 August 2002 11:42 (twenty-two years ago)

(did you forget salo dave q? or do you really think lost highway is bettah?)

― mark s (mark s), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 11:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Dunno 'bout greatest and dunno a lot about films but these are some I have liked off the top of my head. It's been a while since I watched some of them.

Annie Hall
Citizen Kane (Am I really the first person to vote for this?)
The Hudsucker Proxy
A Long Day's Journey Into Night
The Last Picture Show
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Monty Python & the Quest For the Holy Grail
Slacker
Rear Window
Fast Times At Ridgemont High

― sundar subramanian, Tuesday, 20 August 2002 12:17 (twenty-two years ago)

mark s - watched 'Salo' again recently, seemed very much like an 'Animal Farm'-type rilly obvious (not a bad thing tho) allegory with everybody being symbolic, also seemed like a filmed Restoration comedy or something, but then, I've seen it about 12 times so maybe I'm getting nitpicky. 'Lost Highway' choice based on self-congratulation euphoria on finally 'getting' it (i think?) on 2nd viewing (first time I watched it I practically demanded my money back from the cinema, watched it again and thot 'OK this makes sense now'), so my opinion isn't really to be trusted on this one either

― dave q, Wednesday, 21 August 2002 08:59 (twenty-two years ago)

The Filth and the Fury!

― Miss Laura, Wednesday, 21 August 2002 10:35 (twenty-two years ago)

two years pass...

Manos: The Hands of Fate as interpreted by MST3K = "Filmed on location in a vacant lot."
...
-- Ned Raggett (ne...), August 10th, 2002.

Least surprising choice on the whole thread. ;)

― L'Histoire d'Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 19:00 (twenty years ago)

There are a lot of people calling Simpsons episodes "movies," when they are sort of not. But, hey, I've probably toyed with the idea of putting a CD-Rom on my list of films ("Immemory").

― L'Histoire d'Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 25 May 2005 19:19 (twenty years ago)

greatest:
tokyo story
hiroshima mon amour
rules of the game
decalogue 1
the passion of joan of arc
persona
earth (silent russian one)
battleship potemkin
vivre sa vie
repulsion

favorite:
hiroshima mon amour
tokyo story
ordet
nashville
ten (the abbas kiarostami one)
through a glass darkly
vivre sa vie
blue velvet
rules of the game
once upon a time in the west

― t0dd swiss (immobilisme), Thursday, 26 May 2005 04:28 (twenty years ago)

Eschewing the actual thread question, here are 20 current personal favorites instead of 10 all-time 'greatest':

End of Evangelion
Donnie Darko
Pulp Fiction
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
LOTR: Return of the King
Serpico
Magnolia
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The Big Lebowski
Blade Runner
American Beauty
Akira
The Shining
Lost in Translation
Trainspotting
Blue Velvet
Reservoir Dogs
Annie Hall
Apocalypse Now: Redux

― sleep (sleep), Thursday, 26 May 2005 14:56 (twenty years ago)

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