Best ??? well some

[ericcoleman]

 

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IMDB's Top 100 Best Movies of All Time generate this HTML for your own page at ObeytheFist.com
Rank Movie Didn't See It/ Started It/ Finished It/ Hated It! 1 Godfather, The (1972) Finished It 2 Shawshank Redemption, The (1994) Finished It 3 Godfather: Part II, The (1974) Finished It 4 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003) Finished It 5 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002) Finished It 6 Casablanca (1942) Finished It 7 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001) Finished It 8 Schindler's List (1993) 9 Shichinin No Samurai [Seven Samurai] (1954) Finished It 10 Star Wars (1977) Finished It 11 Citizen Kane (1941) Finished It 12 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) 13 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) Finished It 14 Rear Window (1954) Finished It 15 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Finished It 16 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Finished It 17 Memento (2000) 18 Usual Suspects, The (1995) 19 Pulp Fiction (1994) 20 North by Northwest (1959) Finished It 21 12 Angry Men (1957) Finished It 22 Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le [Amelie] (2001) 23 Psycho (1960) Finished It 24 Lawrence of Arabia (1962) Finished It 25 Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il [The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly] (1966) Finished It 26 Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) Finished It 27 It's a Wonderful Life (1946) Finished It 28 Goodfellas (1990) Finished It 29 American Beauty (1999) 30 Vertigo (1958) Finished It 31 Sunset Blvd. (1950) 32 Matrix, The (1999) Finished It 33 Apocalypse Now (1979) Finished It 34 Pianist, The (2002) 35 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) Finished It 36 C'era una volta il West [Once Upon a Time in the West] (1968) Finished It 37 Some Like It Hot (1959) Finished It 38 Third Man, The (1949) 39 Taxi Driver (1976) Finished It 40 Paths of Glory (1957) 41 Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi [Spirited Away] (2001) 42 Fight Club (1999) 43 Boot, Das (1981) 44 Double Indemnity (1944) Finished It 45 L.A. Confidential (1997) 46 Chinatown (1974) Finished It 47 Singin' in the Rain (1952) Finished It 48 Maltese Falcon, The (1941) Finished It 49 M (1931) Finished It 50 Requiem for a Dream (2000) 51 Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957) Finished It 52 All About Eve (1950) 53 Se7en (1995) 54 Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) Finished It 55 Saving Private Ryan (1998) 56 Cidade de Deus [City of God] (2002) 57 Raging Bull (1980) Finished It 58 Rashômon (1950) Finished It 59 Wizard of Oz, The (1939) Finished It 60 Sting, The (1973) Finished It 61 Alien (1979) Finished It 62 American History X (1998) 63 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Finished It 64 Léon (1994) 65 Vita è bella, La [Life is Beautiful] (1997) 66 Touch of Evil (1958) Finished It 67 Manchurian Candidate, The (1962) 68 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Finished It 69 Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948) Finished It 70 Great Escape, The (1963) Finished It 71 Wo hu cang long [Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon] (2000) 72 Reservoir Dogs (1992) 73 Clockwork Orange, A (1971) Finished It 74 Amadeus (1984) Finished It 75 Modern Times (1936) Finished It 76 Ran (1985) Finished It 77 Annie Hall (1977) Finished It 78 Jaws (1975) Finished It 79 On the Waterfront (1954) 80 Braveheart (1995) Finished It 81 High Noon (1952) Finished It 82 Apartment, The (1960) Finished It 83 Fargo (1996) 84 Sixth Sense, The (1999) Finished It 85 Aliens (1986) Finished It 86 Shining, The (1980) Finished It 87 Strangers on a Train (1951) Finished It 88 Blade Runner (1982) Finished It 89 Metropolis (1927) Finished It 90 Duck Soup (1933) Finished It 91 Finding Nemo (2003) Finished It 92 Donnie Darko (2001) 93 General, The (1927) Finished It 94 City Lights (1931) Finished It 95 Princess Bride, The (1987) Finished It 96 Toy Story 2 (1999) Finished It 97 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) 98 Great Dictator, The (1940) Finished It 99 Sjunde inseglet, Det [The Seventh Seal] (1957) Finished It 100 Lola rennt [Run Lola Run] (1998)
Which movies have you seen?

Comments

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Hmm.. haven't seen ten or eleven of them, all fairly recent. While I'm glad they have underappreciated films like Amelie and Life is Beautiful on the list, I don't think any list with Resovoir Dogs on it can be taken seriously. More importantly, they list one (1) silent film, The General, which is good but not that good, and completely leave out films that should clearly be on the list: Sunrise, Intolerance, etc.

I generally appreciate IMDB's list, and if you go out to 250 (as they do), then other really great films pop up. But still. More an exercise in the popularity of films seen by people willing to vote on IMDB than a qualitative ranking of movies.

My completely objective judgment: Ignorable.

[ericcoleman]

I think that Intolerance is a mess, but I would agree with Sunrise, although I do think that The General is as good as Sunrise and a much better film than Intolerance.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Sunrise, my all-time favorite film, is out on DVD. I rarely watch silent films on tv/video/DVD since the speed is always wrong. But Sunrise was released as a sound film, and might actually work. but I digress.

Sticking with comedies for a moment (so I don't rant about Eric von Stroheim), I don't think The General is Keaton's best work, though it's probably his best full-length movie. Silent comedies that are better: The Gold Rush, The Kid, City Lights, at least one Ernst Lubitsch, more... hmmm... wonder if I can slow down DVDs if I play them on my computer...

[ericcoleman]

What do you think is Keaton's best work?

I disagree totally with Gold Rush, it's too static, too unfocused. It has some of his best work in it, but it wildly uneven as a film. City Lights is much better, but never comes close to Chaplins best work, which was in the sound era. I haven't seen The Kid in too long to really comment on it, wonder if it's on any of the Chaplin DVDs I have ???

I would say that I love Keaton and despise Chaplin, but would never discount his brilliance and the power of his best work. My guess is that you feel the same in the opposite.

My reasoning, and this is from this very quick conversation, you bring up three Chaplin films, one that I remember as not being his best work (the Kid, but like I said it's been a long time) and one that is vastly over-rated, mostly due to one absolutely brilliant scene, and nothing else by name. I mean really, off the top of your head run any other scene in The Gold Rush other than the shoe sequence through your head and laugh.

Then you discount The General completly, a film that every film critic of the last 50 years has said is one of the greatest films of the silent era. From these observations I would say that you are not giving Keaton the same due I am giving Chaplin ... but this is just a guess of course, mileage may vary. I find this is a common thing among silent film fans. The Chaplin/Keaton argument is almost religious in it's fervor. I don't like Chaplin's work generally, but I think he was brilliant.

I would say that from this short conversation, you are someone that I would love to hang out and talk silent film with ... I'd need to do some research first though (AKA pull out videos of my favorite films and watch them, heh, like I need an excuse)

Sunrise was released as a sound film ???

I have seen some silent films where the speed is corrected (those damn crank and projector speeds)

Now I need to hook a VCR up again ...

Now don't take any of this personally, just guesses from this conversation, and many many others like it. Feel free to tell me why I am wrong.

This is fun, no one else I know knows much about silent film.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Actually, I like Keaton better than Chaplin. I think he's funnier. But Chaplin is a better filmmaker, and when he's on he's really on. I agree with you about The Gold Rush: It's uneven and not really a comedy. But it's a great film, and the funny parts are very funny (another hysterical scene: The cabin almost falling off the cliff).

I should point out in here that I haven't seen most of these films for perhaps 30 years. I was a silent film buff in High School and college, but you need a good variable rheostat projector to show them properly, and few people go to the trouble.

Which Keaton shorts do I like better than The General? Well, gee. I'm not sure I remember them by title. Safety Last, of course. Sherlock Jr. I dunno. He made a lot of really good stuff. The General suffers from his supporting the secessionists (hey, leave that to DW Griffith) and attempts at pathos which only work sometimes. I don't discount it completely, I just don't think it's his best work and, more on point, doesn't deserve to be the only pre-1930 movie on a Top 100 list

Too many critics who make "greatest" lists completely discount the shorts, the one and two-reelers, that are perhaps half the output of the silent era. To pick a related by completely different example: I think all of the silent Laurel and Hardy is better than any of the sound Laurel and Hardy. Several of their shorts are great... if shown at the right speed. The one where they dismantle a guy's house while he dissects their car is a classic.

Most of Chaplin's shorts are better comedy than his longer efforts. The Kid is funny, but also works as pathos (and to introduce the world to Uncle Fester).

We haven't even talked about Harold Lloyd or Fatty Arbuckle...

(And I disagree that Intolerance is a mess. It's supposed to be that way, and works brilliantly. Modern cinema owes more to Birth of A Nation and Intolerance than all of the films on the imdb list put together.)