Perfect American Movies

[63dot]

...or ones you would give a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10

there are many foreign movies i would rate as a 10, too many to list here, but very few american movies of late i put as a 10...

but among them are, imho:

"when harry met sally"
"annie hall"
"the family stone"
"forrest gump"

and a mini-series i put in that category:

"band of brothers"

and for a documentary:

"an inconvenient truth"

[bartelby]

Off the top of my head:

Alien

Apocalypse Now

Blade Runner

Clerks / Clerks II

Dogma


EDIT:

You and Me and Everyone We Know

Gerry

Elephant

Last Days

Secretary

Crash (the JG Ballard one)

[jczubach]

but among them are, imho:

"when harry met sally"
"annie hall"
"the family stone"
"forrest gump"

and a mini-series i put in that category:

"band of brothers"

and for a documentary:

"an inconvenient truth"

are you a chick?

Off the top of my head:

Alien

Apocalypse Now

Blade Runner

Clerks / Clerks II

Dogma
you are definitely a guy!!!;)

[ErikCLDR]

4 Words...

Snakes on a Plane

Obviously kidding, I've seen budget movies on the Sci-Fi channel that were more complex and better done

[63dot]

are you a chick?

yeah, like chicks like to watch "band of brothers" and the three hours of world war II commentaries that come with it...band of brothers makes private ryan, letters from iwo jima, flags of our fathers, and thin red line look like disney flicks :) :)

no, i am a guy, but not a war/gun fan per se, since i have had the unfortunate experience of having a lot of machine guns pointed at me in belfast when i was a missionary there, scoping out for a full time pastoral job/therapist job...my predecessor, an englishman and missionary of the anglican church, had his brains blown out by the british SAS since they thought he was IRA by accident...luckily i came out of there alive and it was during an especially hot-button time in that city

i am asian american so nobody would see me as an IRA man with a bomb in my backpack :)...my backpack my have had bible tracts in it though...both the protestant and catholic sides treated me nicely...but not the case with the ulster constables and their SAS partners who had become extremely battle hardened

when i came back to the states, a christian neutral belfast group called and asked my wife and i to work in falls road, belfast full time...but i chickened out and those guns and the freshly bombed out places scared me and made me a little shaky for years

i did a short stint with the us "intelligence community" against the soviets right after belfast and that did not help my nerves all that much

as you can see, i tend toward peaceful movies

but, he he, i loved pulp fiction :)

[Markleshark]

Transformers. The new one. Fantastic.

[jczubach]

yeah, like chicks like to watch "band of brothers" and the three hours of world war II commentaries that come with it...band of brothers makes private ryan, letters from iwo jima, flags of our fathers, and thin red line look like disney flicks :) :)

no, i am a guy, but not a war/gun fan per se, since i have had the unfortunate experience of having a lot of machine guns pointed at me in belfast when i was a missionary there, scoping out for a full time pastoral job/therapist job...my predecessor, an englishman and missionary of the anglican church, had his brains blown out by the british SAS since they thought he was IRA by accident...luckily i came out of there alive and it was during an especially hot-button time in that city

i am asian american so nobody would see me as an IRA man with a bomb in my backpack :)...my backpack my have had bible tracts in it though...both the protestant and catholic sides treated me nicely...but not the case with the ulster constables and their SAS partners who had become extremely battle hardened

when i came back to the states, a christian neutral belfast group called and asked my wife and i to work in falls road, belfast full time...but i chickened out and those guns and the freshly bombed out places scared me and made me a little shaky for years

i did a short stint with the us "intelligence community" against the soviets right after belfast and that did not help my nerves all that much

as you can see, i tend toward peaceful movies

but, he he, i loved pulp fiction :)

just funning you, that's all...
one of my all time favourites is "A Patch of Blue" cry like a little girl every time i see it. really, no offence intended and cannot argue with your choices, even the harry/sally one has it's moments, and i 'stress', moments
Reservoir Dogs was better IMHO.

[poopyhead]

easy rider
the elephant man
fear and loathing in las vegas
eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
fight club
the last king of scotland (I think it is american)

[rockthecasbah]

4 Words...

Snakes on a Plane

Obviously kidding, I've seen budget movies on the Sci-Fi channel that were more complex and better done

I loved it for that reason! That was the appeal, it was just hilarious.

Off the top of my head:
...

You and Me and Everyone We Know

...


I agree! I thought it was very clever and not well known. I would classify it as an "adult" Napoleon Dynamite with less awkwardness and more flat out humor.

As for my own list:

Harold and Maude
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
I Am Sam
Garden State
What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Office Space
Billy Elliot
Stranger Than Fiction (more of just an odd emotional connection than thinking the movie itself is actually amazing :) )

[1020]

Off the top of my head:

The Godfather
Goodfellas
Carlito's Way
Taxi Driver
Dog Day Afternoon
Silence of the Lambs
Schindler's List
The Boondock Saints
Pulp Fiction
American History X
Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
High Noon
Star Wars

There are also some comedies that I would rate 10/10, but I can't think of any right now.

[raggedjimmi]

Transformers. The new one. Fantastic.

I thought that was possibly one of the best American films I've seen, but I'd still only give it an 8/9 out of 10 (¨are you ebay user...¨ and other bits of dialogue made me cringe.)

I'd give the 1955 War of the Worlds and Donnie Darko a 9/10. I don't find Hollywood (or American film or TV in general) can do comedy but they're good for action/adventure.

[TheAnswer]

Here's the English language films on my watch and rewatch list, I don't know that any of them are 100% flawless, though:

The Searchers (Ford, 56)
Stagecoach (Ford, 39)
Citizen Kane (Welles, 41)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (Ford, 62)
Casablanca (Curtiz, 42)
His Girl Friday (Hawks, 40)
Double Indemnity (Wilder, 44)
The Big Sleep (Hawks, 46)
Rear Window (Hitchcock, 54)
Vertigo (Hitchcock, 58)
North by Northwest (Hitchcock, 59)
Psycho (Hitchcock, 60)
Bringing Up Baby (Hawks, 38)
The Lady Eve (Sturges, 41)
Sunset Blvd. (Wilder, 50)
C'era una volta il West (Leone, 68)
Bonnie and Clyde (Penn, 67)
Chinatown (Polanski, 74)
The Conversation (Coppola, 74)
Mean Streets (Scorsese, 73)
The Godfather (Coppola, 72)
Goodfellas (Scorsese, 90)
Jaws (Spielberg, 75)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Spielberg, 77)
E.T. (Spielberg, 82)
Die Hard (McTiernan, 88)
Star Wars: Episode IV (Lucas, 77)
Little Miss Sunshine (Dayton/Faris, 06)
Black Hawk Down (Scott, 01)
Se7en (Fincher, 95)
Léon: The Professional (Besson, 94)
The Usual Suspects (Singer, 95)
Trainspotting (Boyle, 96)
Lock, Stock.... (Ritchie, 99)
L.A. Confidential (Hanson, 97)
Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, 94)
The Matrix (Wachowski, 99)
American Beauty (Mendes, 99)
The Sixth Sense (Shyamalan, 99)

A caveat: this is just from the movies I have watched this year (when I started tracking stuff like this).

[zioxide]

The Departed

[Henri Gaudier]

Just American ones eh? A bit of an odd limitation but .. here goes. I share the odd film with other people so I wont repeat them but a few not mentioned so far are:-

Magnolia
The Straight Story
Dark Passage

What constitutes an American film anyway? The money or the talent? Lock Stock is wholly Brit crap surely?:p Or something I do like - Bladerunner has an English director with a fantastic Dutchman. Without either of these two it would be an entirely different film.

[it5five]

Here's the English language films on my watch and rewatch list, I don't know that any of them are 100% flawless, though:

The Searchers (Ford, 56)
Stagecoach (Ford, 39)
Citizen Kane (Welles, 41)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence (Ford, 62)
Casablanca (Curtiz, 42)
His Girl Friday (Hawks, 40)
Double Indemnity (Wilder, 44)
The Big Sleep (Hawks, 46)
Rear Window (Hitchcock, 54)
Vertigo (Hitchcock, 58)
North by Northwest (Hitchcock, 59)
Psycho (Hitchcock, 60)
Bringing Up Baby (Hawks, 38)
The Lady Eve (Sturges, 41)
Sunset Blvd. (Wilder, 50)
Once Upon A Time In The West (Leone, 68)
Bonnie and Clyde (Penn, 67)
Chinatown (Polanski, 74)
The Conversation (Coppola, 74)
Mean Streets (Scorsese, 73)
The Godfather (Coppola, 72)
Goodfellas (Scorsese, 90)
Jaws (Spielberg, 75)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Spielberg, 77)
E.T. (Spielberg, 82)
Die Hard (McTiernan, 88)
Star Wars: Episode IV (Lucas, 77)
Little Miss Sunshine (Dayton/Faris, 06)
Black Hawk Down (Scott, 01)
Se7en (Fincher, 95)
Léon: The Professional (Besson, 94)
The Usual Suspects (Singer, 95)
Trainspotting (Boyle, 96)
Lock, Stock.... (Ritchie, 99)
L.A. Confidential (Hanson, 97)
Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, 94)
The Matrix (Wachowski, 99)
American Beauty (Mendes, 99)
The Sixth Sense (Shyamalan, 99)

A caveat: this is just from the movies I have watched this year (when I started tracking stuff like this).

Add Annie Hall and take off a few of the movies and we have almost identical lists.

[TheAnswer]

What constitutes an American film anyway? The money or the talent? Lock Stock is wholly Brit crap surely?:p Or something I do like - Bladerunner has an English director with a fantastic Dutchman. Without either of these two it would be an entirely different film.

That's why I went with English-language for my list...much easier that way. After all "Léon" is directed by a frenchman with a french main star (playing an italian) and an american supporting cast. I don't know if it was originally filmed in English or not.

"C'era una volta il West" had a french actress, an italian director, writers and crew, predominantly american cast, filmed in Spain. Normally, it would be considered an Italian movie, but because of the italian tradition of shooting silent and dubbing dialogue and adding all sound in post-production, the lines become significantly blurred.

Add Annie Hall and take off a few of the movies and we have almost identical lists.

"Annie Hall" actually is one of my favorites, I just haven't seen it yet this year. I took the easy way out in creating my list because there are films on my watch and rewatch list that are there for limited reasons, for example "Black Hawk Down" is on there mainly for camerawork and sound editing, not because it's perfect. Same for "Diehard", which is on there for the prototypical hero characterization and it's strict adherence to classical Hollywood script formula.

[Mistershark]

Bourne Ultimatum
Best in Show
For Your Consideration
Rear Window
Secret Window
Stranger Than Fiction
School of Rock
The Good Shepherd
X-Men 3
Vertigo
Dial M for Murder
Back to the Future 1,2,3

EDIT: I almost forgot.
Dead Poet's Society

[steamboat26]

Snatch
Transformers
300
Office Space
Bourne Trilogy
Saving Private Ryan
Why We Fight (Jarecki Documentary)
An Inconvenient Truth

[mkrishnan]

I agree that it's too hard to keep US, Canadian, and British movies separate....

Lots of good ones on the list so far. I'll add a couple random ones of mine that are at least fairly close to my notion of a 10:

Big Fish
Antwone Fisher

And these are obviously limited in that they're not dramas, but they're pretty perfect comedies as far as I'm concerned:

Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny
Zoolander

I think there are plenty of American films that give me as good or better visceral satisfaction as the best movies from anywhere else in the world do, but I guess you have to look harder. I mean, you have to bear in mind that 95% of the movies that the rest of the world makes are crap also.

If you're in the US, you hear about, what, the four or five best movies that get made in France every year, if you pay avid attention? And the four or five best in the last decade if you're a casual watcher? But you hear about most of the lousy movies that are A-released in your own country.

but, he he, i loved pulp fiction

And actually, although I don't care to see many movies like that one, it is pretty much spot-on perfect at what it tried to be. Definitely Tarantino at his best from what I've seen.

[raggedjimmi]

The Italian Job (The older version)

That's a British film.

[Mistershark]

That's a British film.

Oops, my mistake. It's been awhile.

[mpw]

Nothing gets a 10/10, but here are some of my favourites.

Goodfellas
A Wonderful Life
Boyz in da Hood
Reservoir Dogs
Shawshank Redemption
Finding Nemo
St Elmo's Fire

[Kamera RAWr]

The Bourne Trilogy
Fight Club
American History X
Walk The Line
Blood In, Blood Out
Tombstone
The Usual Suspects
Full Metal Jacket
Blood Diamond
Hotel Rwanda

[j/k/Andy]

Rocky
Raising Arizona
The GodFather Part II
Shane
North by NorthWest

[®îçhå®?]

TOP GUN
Best. Film. Ever (Seriously, i have watched it over 20 times)

Apart from that:
Gone In 60 Seconds
Band Of Brothers
Shawshank Redemption
Saving Private Ryan

British Films:
The Italian Job
Hot Fuzz
Billy Elliot (note to post high above, it is British)
Mean Machine

[mac-er]

Schindler's List
Some Like it Hot
The Departed
The Green Mile
Brokeback Mountain
Crash

[Don Bagles]

Amadeus.

[Henri Gaudier]

TOP GUN
Best. Film. Ever (Seriously, i have watched it over 20 times)

Apart from that:
Gone In 60 Seconds
Band Of Brothers
Shawshank Redemption
Saving Private Ryan

British Films:
The Italian Job
Hot Fuzz
Billy Elliot (note to post high above, it is British)
Mean Machine

This post is a bad ,, bad joke n'est pas?

[solvs]

I just had a couple that are already mentioned:

Citizen Cane
Casablanca
The Godfather
It's A Wonderful Life
E.T.

Those are the obvious ones though. You could almost say anything by Hitchcock as well. Same with other Orson Welles movies and a lot of Jimmy Stewart's and Humprey Bogart's work. Some people might say Gone With The Wind makes it up there. Neverending Story was my favorite as a kid, and it still stands up, but I don't know if I'd call it perfect. Hoop Dreams is one of the best documentaries I've ever seen, but it's a little slow at times. David Lynch stuff is up there too, but it's an acquired taste.

For things you wouldn't normally think of I'd suggest a little known film called Rumble Fish, or a little known director named Jim Jarmusch.

[Abstract]

One word: Showgirls.

TOP GUN
Best. Film. Ever (Seriously, i have watched it over 20 times)


I hated the sexual tension between the pilots in the first 110 minutes (1 hour + 50 minutes) of that movie.

[latergator116]

A few of the top of my head:

Broadway Danny Rose
Trainspotting
Ghost World
Shaft (original)
A Perfect World
Streetwise
A Home at the End of the World
Map of the Human Heart
Happy Gilmore

[yg17]

Animal House and Office Space

2 best movies evar :D

[furious]

I cannot believe no-one has mentioned Stand By Me :hs:

[DoFoT9]

TOP GUN
Best. Film. Ever (Seriously, i have watched it over 20 times)


naaaah hot shots is waaaaaaay better :rolleyes:

[eMac4ever]

For some reason, I am just uninterested in films. (I have only seen six of the movies listed so far!)

Anyway, I thought the Harry Potter movies were good; Mean Girls is my favorite comedy.

So, yeah...

[it5five]

"Annie Hall" actually is one of my favorites, I just haven't seen it yet this year.

Get to watchin'. We're more than halfway through the year.

[®îçhå®?]

Harry Potter

British

[Virgil-TB2]

Just American ones eh? A bit of an odd limitation ... What constitutes an American film anyway? The money or the talent? Lock Stock is wholly Brit crap surely?:p Or something I do like - Bladerunner has an English director with a fantastic Dutchman. Without either of these two it would be an entirely different film.I agree completely.

If you are going to make that weird "American" designation, then they should be movies that are seriously American, and about America, steeped in Americana etc. And BTW, it should really be "USA" or "US" not "American." ;)

We all know that the majority of Hollywood type films are remakes and copies of other foreign films (or classic literature), so for true "made in the USA" films, I would nominate stuff like:

- Smile
- Easy Rider
- Dirty Harry
- Full Metal Jacket
- Nashville
- The Long Riders

Those are all hard-core US movies about US subjects by US directors that "say something" about the USA and are all absolutely fantastic.

[mkrishnan]

We all know that the majority of Hollywood type films are remakes and copies of other foreign films (or classic literature)

This is really a separate (and fairly absurdist) issue... Shakespeare copied almost all of his stories too. This is important in understanding Shakespeare. But if you characterize Shakespeare purely this set of actions, you misunderstand him completely.

[BoyBach]

the elephant man


I'd class The Elephant Man as a British film with it's British writers, cast, locations and story. (OK, so it was directed by David Lynch and produced by Mel Brooks, but British cinema is in such a bad state and I want to claim one for us! ;) )


As for great US films, I vote for Taxi Driver and The Straight Story.

[TheAnswer]

Get to watchin'. We're more than halfway through the year.

I might not even get a chance this year. I'm only averaging about 1.6 movies a day so far this year and my pace will have to drop off a bit when I start school the end of next month. :(

[Virgil-TB2]

This is really a separate (and fairly absurdist) issue... Shakespeare copied almost all of his stories too. This is important in understanding Shakespeare. But if you characterize Shakespeare purely this set of actions, you misunderstand him completely.I think you overstate the case in your reference to Shakespeare, but I am not so attached to the idea that I want to debate it. I don't especially think of Shakespeare as a great writer but more of a great craftsman. If he were alive today he would likely be working in sitcoms as opposed to writing for the stage or screen perhaps.

In the context of the thread, I think my remark about borrowed and reworked themes makes a lot more sense than the same statement usually does in the more general context one usually sees it.

My main thought was that since are talking about American movies, the focus should really be on American stories and things quintessentially American. Simple.

[vicious7]

The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, The Magnificent Seven, Blade Runner, King Pins. :D

[barr08]

Here's the English language films on my watch and rewatch list, I don't know that any of them are 100% flawless, though:

--List--

A caveat: this is just from the movies I have watched this year (when I started tracking stuff like this).

Nice list.

[Corrosive vinyl]

For a good documentary check out dark days with music by DJ Shadow

what about Pi:Faith in Chaos or Requiem for a Dream by Darin Aronofsky
American History X... a definite must see
The Royal Tenenbaums

For those who like Val Kilmer in Top Gun, check out Top Secret! and Real Genius... it will change your mind about him quicker then falling off a log.

[dsnort]

Shane
High Noon
The Quiet Man (Best John Wayne movie ever!!!)
Full Metal Jacket
Unforgiven
Million Dollar Baby
Sleepless in Seattle
Top Secret (This is NOT Mel Torme!)
The Longest Day
The Longest Yard ( Old version)
An American Werewolf in London
Blazing Saddles
Young Frankenstein

[Xfujinon]

Fight Club
Terminator II
The Blue and the Gray

I can't think of any more right now, I'm at work...not near the DVD pile.