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Greatest film ever made....Go!
- Thread starter CaptHenryMorgan
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Scepticalscribe
macrumors Haswell
Ah, excellent! Some foreign movies, - as in foreign language movies - too.
Great movies, there, and really well worth watching, and mulling over.
Some of my own favourites, (while not 'The Greatest Movie Ever Made', they would make my personal 'top ten' list) are foreign language movies, and I'll list a few, here.
"Au Revoir, Les Enfants" (a beautiful, exquisitely acted, utterly haunting movie, which was based on a true story. French cinema at its brilliant best.)
'My Life As A Dog' - a wonderfully bitter-sweet coming of age movie from Sweden.
'Jesus of Montreal' - the most intelligent, clever, and thought provoking take on the life of Christ I have ever seen. French-Canadian, and classy, and subtle. It also pulls off the Hamlet trick - where 'a play within a play' is performed. Exceptionally good.
An American movie from the 1990s that I was bowled over by was 'Lone Star' which was directed by John Sayles (by far his best movie). This is intelligent, thought-provoking, multi-layered, nuanced story telling, which looks at US identity, race (from several different angles, and features four separate cross ethnic relationships), history, and culture. A rare treat.
I'll also echo Shrink when I confess that 'The Third Man' has long been one of my all time favourites - sheer cinematic perfection, at every level, with a first rate plot, (written by Graham Greene - what more can one ask for?) which addresses the murky morality of people struggling to survive (and profit from) war torn societies, character, acting (Orson Welles as Harry Lime was spell-binding and his brilliant dialogue with Holly on the Ferris wheel was nothing short of perfection), direction, setting (postwar Vienna), soundtrack (Anton Karas and his haunting zither), all combine brilliantly to offer a superb film.
I totally agree this has to be one of the best films made about what it's really like to live in a occupied country.
phrehdd
Contributor
I have no idea what greatest means to you.
If it were about story line, cinematography, editing and everything combined - perhaps for the USA, Citizen Kane is the culmination of all facets of what goes into a film.
The above is not one of my favs but credit is due where it is due.
Films like Casablanca, Shawshank etc. are brilliant because they are well crafted and thoughtful in presentation. They too remain in my bucket of favs. For musicals - Singing in the Rain and Wizard of Oz. For stage to movie musicals - long list including Damn Yankees, The Music Man and the King and I.
Animated movies - plenty here too with most leaning towards earlier Disney productions.
If it were about story line, cinematography, editing and everything combined - perhaps for the USA, Citizen Kane is the culmination of all facets of what goes into a film.
The above is not one of my favs but credit is due where it is due.
Films like Casablanca, Shawshank etc. are brilliant because they are well crafted and thoughtful in presentation. They too remain in my bucket of favs. For musicals - Singing in the Rain and Wizard of Oz. For stage to movie musicals - long list including Damn Yankees, The Music Man and the King and I.
Animated movies - plenty here too with most leaning towards earlier Disney productions.
twietee
macrumors 603
I like how you mentioned Seven Samurai and especially La Dolce Vita, Happybunny. I don't get all the excitement over Shawshank, though. I thought it utterly pathetic, but anyway.
Nonsense apart, I'd ike to add The Great Dictator and thumbs up for Dr. Strangelove.
Best B-movie for me: probably Repo Man (the one by Alex Cox / '84).
Adding to your foreign country list: The Rocky Horror Picture Show from GB
Nonsense apart, I'd ike to add The Great Dictator and thumbs up for Dr. Strangelove.
Best B-movie for me: probably Repo Man (the one by Alex Cox / '84).
Adding to your foreign country list: The Rocky Horror Picture Show from GB
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Scepticalscribe
macrumors Haswell
Yes, Dr Strangelove, and The Great Dictator (apart from the stupid and somewhat sentimental ending) are superb movies. The Seven Samurai and La Dolce Vita are terrific, too.
Another of my own personal favourites from European cinema is Luchino Visconti's "Il Gattopardo" better known in English as 'The Leopard' (which featured an incredible performance by Burt Lancaster) based on Giuseppe di Lampedusa's brilliant and elegiac book of the same name.
Re the enduring and deep popularity of 'Shawshank Redemption', I think that it has something to do with that fact that is one of those rare movies that allows people to feel hope, that it is possible to overcome rotten luck, or sheer misfortune, or outrageous injustice. For it offers the possibility that things may get better, and that you may endure without having to sacrifice yourself or your core values - if you persevere; that is very different from a movie which offers a passing 'feel good' ending, where the momentary pleasure has dissipated almost as soon as you have left the cinema.
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Has Apocalypse Now been mentioned? *
This would be my favourite. Not just because of the result but the story of it's creation was such an epic by itself. (True art is often about the process as much as the result?).
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Edit * Ah I see Peace got there before me.
This would be my favourite. Not just because of the result but the story of it's creation was such an epic by itself. (True art is often about the process as much as the result?).
----
Edit * Ah I see Peace got there before me.
MonkeySee....
macrumors 68040
Huntn
macrumors Penryn
I'd place Lonesome Dove in my top ten list of books and was a good mini-series, true to the book. It's a Pulitzer Prize winner and one of those books where the author was in the zone. Wonderful read.
Mousse
macrumors 601
Ah foreign films. I forgot about those. I can't say definitively which on is my favorite, but anything directed by Akira Kurosawa AND featuring Toshiro Mifune ranks at the top. My all time favorite are The Seven Samurai (the ORIGINAL Magnificent Seven), Yojimbo (the Original Fist Full of Dollars) and the Samurai trilogy (the story about Miyamoto Musashi).
My all time favorite B-movie: Plan 9 From Outer Space. We're talking Ed Wood her folks, arguably the most famous B movie director of all time. Terrible acting, terrible FX, terrible plot, yet very, very funny. It must be something in our DNA, that same something that makes us laugh when someone slips and falls on a frozen lake.
Scepticalscribe
macrumors Haswell
'Life of Brian' is a modern British classic and utterly, spellbindingly clever, highly intelligent, original, and thought-provoking movie. Very very funny, and exceptionally well made. I love it.
A rather disturbing but very well made and acted and a wonderfully atmospheric movie. Great soundtrack, too.
rymack
macrumors regular
I love these types of threads!
I actually write film reviews for my local newspaper, but I always make the distinction that I am a movie reviewer as opposed to a film critic. I love movies and am the go-to guy for friends and family when it comes to all things movies, but I do not have the cinematic knowledge or historical background in filmmaking that guys like the late, great Roger Ebert have.
I approach my reviews in the sense that I am trying to make a recommendation to an audience. It is possible for me to like Transformers or Avatar and it is possible for me to like Black Swan or The Kings Speech. I dont look at a film like Black Swan, for example, the same way that I would look at a movie like Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The ability to look at films for what they are makes answering a thread like this difficult.
My favourite movie of all time? Star Wars. Easily. I am a Star Wars fanatic.
The best movie I have ever seen? Saving Private Ryan. I am not a huge war movie fan but for me personally, this movie checks off all the boxes and gets a 10/10 in all areas that I look at when I critique a movie. Great acting, compelling story, amazing production value, fantastic cinematography, etc. Also, Spielberg.
The best movie ever made? I would probably have to say The Godfather, but as others have mentioned, this is impossible to answer without taking into so many factors: the films influence on cinema; the films cultural impact; the technical achievements of the film itself (as in the quality of the production of the film), etc. hence the varied replies; not everyone can look at movies objectively and subjectively simultaneously. Thats why some people might proclaim the brilliant 2001: A Space Odyssey a masterpiece, while others wouldnt even be able to sit through it.
Anyways, sorry for the wall of text.
tl;dr: Star Wars, Saving Private Ryan, The Godfather 🙄
I actually write film reviews for my local newspaper, but I always make the distinction that I am a movie reviewer as opposed to a film critic. I love movies and am the go-to guy for friends and family when it comes to all things movies, but I do not have the cinematic knowledge or historical background in filmmaking that guys like the late, great Roger Ebert have.
I approach my reviews in the sense that I am trying to make a recommendation to an audience. It is possible for me to like Transformers or Avatar and it is possible for me to like Black Swan or The Kings Speech. I dont look at a film like Black Swan, for example, the same way that I would look at a movie like Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The ability to look at films for what they are makes answering a thread like this difficult.
My favourite movie of all time? Star Wars. Easily. I am a Star Wars fanatic.
The best movie I have ever seen? Saving Private Ryan. I am not a huge war movie fan but for me personally, this movie checks off all the boxes and gets a 10/10 in all areas that I look at when I critique a movie. Great acting, compelling story, amazing production value, fantastic cinematography, etc. Also, Spielberg.
The best movie ever made? I would probably have to say The Godfather, but as others have mentioned, this is impossible to answer without taking into so many factors: the films influence on cinema; the films cultural impact; the technical achievements of the film itself (as in the quality of the production of the film), etc. hence the varied replies; not everyone can look at movies objectively and subjectively simultaneously. Thats why some people might proclaim the brilliant 2001: A Space Odyssey a masterpiece, while others wouldnt even be able to sit through it.
Anyways, sorry for the wall of text.
tl;dr: Star Wars, Saving Private Ryan, The Godfather 🙄
rdowns
macrumors Penryn
I love Saving Private Ryan. Another I can watch over and over again. The opening scene is the finest movie scene ever filmed.
This post is useless unless you post it again tomorrow.
Shrink
macrumors G3
I truly terrific film. And as a film noir enthusiast, I would assert that it is the ONLY true "neo-noir", and the ONLY color film I consider film noir.
Now how's that for some snotty declarations!😱 😀
Scepticalscribe
macrumors Haswell
Oh, I agree; that is what I meant when I wrote 'wonderfully atmospheric', a dark and brooding film, and yes, I certainly remember it as having a sort of 'neo-noir' ambience in faded washed out colours, (and what seemed to be the endless rain contributed to that atmosphere.)
Die Hard - Not only the greatest action movie of all time but also the greatest Christmas movie of all time.
