@Vivaci i always found the Smithsonian to be overrated and confusing. i love all of the history museums. The one in Cincinnati was ruined a bit by moving it to the union terminal. they added quite a bit but i miss the tyrannosaurus Rex and the native American trails.
@bijouxbroussard Really good German movie and some incredible acting.
And someone should also mention "The Big Lebowski". I was skimming over here and saw Revenant mentioned "Das Boot" ... that's also an incredible German movie.
@SW-User Excellent film but it gave me such a dip in mood at the end, I've never been able to rewatch it.
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True it is sad but the big Indian throwing the sink through the window at the end is meant to lift us.... That film, it’s just Jack at his finest. Watch it again. You won’t regret it..@PhilDeep
Thanks everyone, for your contributions so far. I still don't rate Merchant-Ivory as masterpieces but I do find them under-represented and so wonder that "A Room with a View" and "The Remains of the Day" haven't been mentioned.
Also films based on Jane Austen novels: "Bridget Jones's Diary" and "Clueless" spring to mind as non-obvious favourites from these :)
@bijouxbroussard Well... the entire goal of both movies is not a history lesson. One portrays a romance between a stuck up stupid woman that makes a lot of bad descisions and even gets people killed, with an overly manly almost heroic romantic that chases his own wants but at some point allows himself to fall in love. And the other depicts a children story of a couple of kids that grow up in the south and loose themselves in a fantasy world that is created by the slave that is friendly to them and tells them stories.
Both are romantic stories, and both are drenched in this romantic southern simplistic world where everything is good and fine because no one cares about the slaves which are seen as property. For the author of "Gone with the Wind"... that's incredibly clear. It's romanticism, it's not meant to be real and thus it downplays the stains in favor of a cleaned up fantasy version. It's only dangerous when people start seeing it as a history lesson, if you are aware what it is, then you can still enjoy the narrative without the greater scheme. If slavery however would have been romanticised instead of being put on the background... I think that would be more problematic for the movie. Just like your example of the KKK, you can have the characters in the book look up to the KKK because they were from the south and had that mindset, that doesn't mean that the director can't portray the cruelty of it all... But he decided to cut it out completely.
@SW-User Yes. Andy Griffith was a more talented and nuanced actor than many realized.
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@bijouxbroussard He shocked me when I first saw it. He was riveting in his ability to turn on and off the good old boy persona and show how conniving and manipulative his character was. I saw part of a movie with him a number of years ago, might have been one of the last ones he made, in which he played an innocent acting but evil grandfather. Scary as hell! lol.
@PhilDeep ye I'd say 2001 would be a classic in the sci fi genre. The original blade runner and the recent ones are both excellent we can't compare them both. I love them both equally. Interstellar on the other hand is more focused on the reality which is what I like most.
“12 Angry Men“. I recently watched it again, the 1957 original as well as the 1997 remake, and it amazed me how well it’s held up in just about every detail.
@PhilDeep Mulholland drive on top for me. Always. But I find it fascinating that something like collaboration between Marc Caro, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Angelo Badalamenti existed. It's no surprise that The City of Lost Children is so outstanding.
I would definitely list The Godfather, Shawshank Redemption and Rebecca in this list, however all 3 are excellent novels that have been made into great movies.
I would also like to list Sixth Sense and Thelma and Louise.
And finally, even if a little cheesy I suggest Grease for that great 1970s take on the 1950s.
@SubstantialKick What did you think of parts two and three, I wonder? Coppola did a re-edit for television, putting the first and second parts into chronological order and I think it was an improvement. I love the first two. Only watched the third one once at the cinema and once on disc. Wasn't a bad film in my opinion, but nowhere near the first two.
Just thought of another few: Bonnie & Clyde (Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway). Thomas Crown Affair (Steve McQueen & Faye Dunaway again). The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Robert Shaw & Walter Matthau)......
@UpForItNow I've not seen Midnight Cowboy; all the others you mention I'd say are technically brilliant, though I've never been able to rewatch Taxi Driver, and much as I love Kubrick, I have to be in a very dark mood to rewatch "Clockwork". If you've not read the book, I recommend it. There are two versions - with different endings. Read the fuller ending, the way the author intended it, I believe. Kubrick, I think adapted the other ending. Been a long time so can't really remember.
@PhilDeep Have indeed read the book, noting most of it isn't even in English, and as with most of these favourites - I should have added Easy Rider and The Graduate - I only watch them late at night when pissed so can enjoy them each time anew!
@SW-User the thing with citizen kane is... when i saw it i found it terribly boring, i seen that a dozen times before...
but then i realized i seen that so many times because everys fucking film copied citizen kane in story structure, camera and cut
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@Strawberrry exactly it has defined films ever since.
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@PhilDeep King Kong was on the BBC iplayer recently in the UK in lockdown I watched it again. Set the whole definition for special effects in films until the digital age.
I've tried this exercise many times and cannot settle on one film. I have considered some the very best of their era (Citizen Kane, 2001: A Space Odyssey) but modern audiences don't get and then a I see a film which really touches something deep and although it might not win awards, for me it has done the job of reaching into me (Collateral Beauty, Bridge of Spies). Then there are the ones I just watch over and over as a kind of 'safety blanket' when I'm feeling too tired to use my brain.
I would put Rear Window in the great films of the 60s (and definitely in the top work ever in cinema history) and Vertigo is wonderful, but when viewed from 2020 the way women are objectified and pushed around in the narrative makes uncomfortable watching.
Interstellar has to be a modern sci-fi classic and the legacy of 2001 can be seen in it.
Fortunately, as in the famous art galleries, there are many masterpieces.
@PhilDeep I enjoyed both. Arrival was interesting and engaging and I think I'd like to watch it again since I didn't get everything the first time. The new Blade Runner was good, but I don't think I was as involved as I had been with the first. The trouble with a sequel to a seminal work is that it has to work hard for more of the originality that the first audiences saw. With the exception of the second Terminator film, I haven't really seen one that made me go 'Wow!' like the first film did.
Both of these are amongst those many film which make me pleased I saw them but didn't make me rush out and tell others to see them.
Have you seen The Age of Adaline? It's a gentle, quirky sci-fi romance which I thought the female members of my family would enjoy. They found it too quirky. ☹️
@Frank52 I haven't. I ran out of enthusiasm and funds somewhat simultaneously some years back, but I'll do some catching-up when able, so will put that on my list. I quite liked the US remake of Solaris, actually, though many might have preferred the original.
@Kwek00 Well, it certainly goes well with the practical character of Heston. 😅😆 I mean, I actually thought that it was the most natural response... albeit a bit stupid. 🤭
@Kwek00 Jaws was superb, in my opinion. Platoon seemed over-rated to me. Planet if the Apes interesting but probably more relevant when it was first released. Not watcged Ben Hur.
@PhilDeep nobody I have known has ever regretted watching this great movie. I was totally uninterested myself because "war movies" are not exactly my favourites . Great suspense !🙂
I love most of the films mentioned here, but I'll add Ridley Scott's ALIEN. Incredible tension, terror, and first-class acting from the entire cast. And yes, I think that this film ushered in the "ensemble cast in space" genre that has been imitated but rarely duplicated.
@uncalled4 i was just talking about the fact that i didn't know anyone in that film when i went to see it...a long version at the college...and i didn't know anyone and now...sheesh! everyone of them became a house hold name
@PhilDeep you really should. In Tombstone you realize why Val Kilmer is so well respected as an actor. And why everyone loves Kurt Russell. The Holy Grail has been my number one comedy favorite since the 70's.