Greetings, reader!
Last Thursday, I started my long-planned countdown of my personal Top 100 movies of all time, by sharing my picks from #100 to #91. Today, the countdown continues, from #90 to #81. Without further ado, let's go!
90. Spartacus (1960)
"I'm Spartacus!"
"I'm Spartacus!"
"I'm Spartacus!"
Like many cinema enthusiasts, I love the more experimental side of Stanley Kubrick's filmography. Many such Kubrick fans are adamantly against this film, more or less forced by the studio to be 'mainstream' and not as unconventional as most Kubrick pictures. However, I absolutely love Spartacus - Kubrick was such a great overall filmmaker, that he was able to turn a mainstream script into a mainstream masterpiece just as easily as he turned strange scripts into strange masterpieces. The end result in this case was - and my apologies to runners-up Ben-Hur (1959) and Gladiator (2000) - the greatest sword-and-sandal film of all time.
The massive production value, the epic music by Alex North and the over-3-hour runtime make Spartacus into one behemoth of a film. The acting performances from maestros like Kirk Douglas, Laurence Olivier and Tony Curtis are impeccable. The final act is nothing short of iconic, and emotionally powerful to the maximum. All in all, Spartacus is a hellishly ambitious and more or less flawless work of cinematic art.
89. Inland Empire (2006)
"What is going on? What the bloody hell's going on?"
If Spartacus is an example of an experimental filmmaker making a mainstream film, then Inland Empire is what happens when an experimental filmmaker goes off the deep end and makes something completely bizarre and indecipherable - yet ultimately quite glorious. The filmmaker in question is, naturally, David Lynch, and this movie (sadly his most recent and possibly final feature length film) feels no boundaries, recognizes no norms, and bows to no one. It's Lynch at his most creative and cryptic, and it is a thing to behold.
Headlined by a powerful performance by Lynch's mainstay leading actress Laura Dern, Inland Empire follows an actress on a film set as things start to get meta (but not in the usual way). Lines between reality and fiction are blurred, as narratives on different canonical levels mix and match with one another in a fascinating way. One can debate endlessly about what it all means, from the role that different languages play all the way to the rabbit sequences, but one thing is for sure - my eyes were glued to the screen from beginning to end when watching this surrealistic madness unfold.
88. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
"Be ready for me. I'm going after that truck"
"How?"
"I don't know. I'm making this up as I go"
For every movie genre, there seems to be one film in particular that always comes first to mind as the ultimate representation and full form of that genre. Die Hard (1988) is the action film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) is the comedy film, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly is the western film and so on. And for the category of adventure films, there is no piece of cinema that screams pure adventure as loudly and gloriously as the first Indiana Jones flick, Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Every aspect in the movie, from John Williams's exciting score and the exotic locations all the way to the creative action set-pieces and Harrison Ford's iconic look and cynical charm, makes for an atmosphere like no other. The legendary opening sequence gets the ball rolling (literally) on a plot that leads the story's heroes on a memorable search of an ancient artifact, with no dull moments whatsoever as every twist and turn keeps the viewer fascinated. While the franchise has produced some awesome sequels, there is no beating the original.
87. The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
"Farewell, Master Burglar. Go back to your books, and your armchair...plant your trees, watch them grow. If more people valued home above gold...this world would be a merrier place"
And now, for the (so far) most controversial pick of my Top 100. I'm aware that most movie buffs wouldn't have the final film of the Hobbit trilogy anywhere near their top 100 or even top 1000 - the trilogy in itself was seen as vastly inferior to the previously made Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the third instalment was especially considered by many to be a flop. And I see their reasoning. The Battle of the Five Armies could've been better, and is one of the only movies in my top 100 that I admit to be deeply flawed. But it still makes it into my top 100, because my love for Tolkien's works and Peter Jackson's masterful cinematic adaptation of Middle Earth runs so deep that even a flawed entry into such a franchise is something incredibly dear to me.
While all three Lord of the Rings films can be found much, much higher on this list, I'm of the opinion that the Hobbit films are excellent cinema even though they don't quite reach the same astronomical heights. At its best, The Battle of the Five Armies has multiple moments that sent shivers down my spine or moved me to tears.
When people criticize aspects like comic relief character Alfrid having too much screentime or unnecessary Lord of the Rings easter eggs being shoehorned into the plot (very valid criticisms, mind you), they shouldn't overlook the moments of absolute Middle-Earth greatness throughout the movie - Richard Armitage doing a pitch perfect job portraying Thorin's gripping character arch, the original set of dwarves gloriously charging into battle at a desperate moment, the somber yet amusing dialogue between Bilbo (Martin Freeman) and Gandalf (Ian McKellen) after the battle, and the final scene that serves as the best possible ending for the epic six-film saga. Those are the moments that make me love this film despite its occasional shortcomings, and that love is certainly worth a spot in my top 100.
86. Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood (2019)
"What are you reading?"
"It's a biography of Walt Disney. It's fascinating - he's a genius, you know. I mean once in every fifty or hundred years kind of genius"
"What are you, twelve?"
"I'm eight. What are you reading?"
After 56 years and nine feature films of being Quentin Tarantino, the masterful filmmaker finally went full Tarantino - instead of making a film in his style to fit a certain genre or a certain script, he made a film where every single element is as Tarantino as it can possibly be. If there's a cinema buff who hasn't seen this film yet for some reason, I guarantee that you could show any 20-second clip of this movie to them and they'd know for sure which director is behind the product. All of Tarantino's beloved trademarks are in full form - the snappy dialogue, the gratuitous violence, the strangely light and comedic approach to serious subjects, and especially the director's unbridled love for old-school Hollywood.
With the runtime, soundtrack nostalgia and entertainment value all turned to the max, Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood really has it all. You'll sit in awe of Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt's impeccable chemistry, as well as their individual acting chops - if Edward Norton in Birdman (2014) taught us that it's hard for an actor to play the role of a very talented actor, and James Franco in The Disaster Artist (2017) taught us that it's extremely hard for an actor to believably play a terrible actor, then Leo in this movie certainly proves how challenging and praise-worthy it is for an actor to nail the nuanced role of an actor who is very talented, but a bit past his prime, and struggling to get his lines just right.
Also, the final act is damn glorious.
85. Heat (1995)
"You know, we are sitting here, you and I, like a couple of regular fellas. You do what you do, and I do what I gotta do. And now that we've been face to face, if I'm there and I gotta put you away, I won't like it. But I tell you, if it's between you and some poor bastard whose wife you're gonna turn into a widow, brother, you are going down"
How to make a cops-and-robbers movie better than all the other cops-and-robbers movies, you ask? It's simple, really. You just have to cast Al Pacino as the main cop and Robert De Niro as the main robber. Sure, you can throw in well-directed shootout sequences and whatnot as an extra spice, but really, the two main actors will take it from there.
Seriously, while there are many things to respect in Heat, the main selling point and the main reason for it being in my top 100 is the fact that it finally brought together the pair of actors that are the greatest of all time in the type of acting they produce. Pacino and De Niro both bring their larger-than-life gravitas into the end product, and nowhere is this as evident as it is in the iconic diner sequence. In a film full of chase sequences, heists and shootouts, the most tense and exciting scene manages to be one where two characters sit and talk in a diner. The sheer acting talent and dramatic presence of these two cinema giants, in the narrative context of the yet-to-be-officially-caught criminal meeting with the police officer on his case, makes for one hell of a conversation. The rest of the film is absolute dynamite as well.
84. The Dark Knight (2008)
"You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain"
Just like last week, there's a Christopher Nolan flick in today's selection of 10, as well as a superhero flick. This time, they're the same movie - a movie that won an Academy Award, scored a 9.0 on IMDB, and generally became known in cinema history as the point where comic book movies could be counted as great cinema just as well as other genres. Mind you, The Dark Knight isn't a typical superhero film, as much as a great crime thriller where the characters just happen to wear masks and capes.
There's a lot to love in The Dark Knight - the pitch-perfect atmosphere of grittiness in Christopher Nolan's take on Gotham City, the epic high-stakes atmosphere in Hans Zimmer's score, and the final scene which is dramatic and unforgettable in a manner that only Nolan can nail. The element that is most often praised when discussing the film's greatness is quite rightfully Heath Ledger's spine-chilling performance as the Joker, which won him a posthumous Academy Award. Ledger's tragic take on the clown prince of crime is definitely one of the most well-written, well-acted and frightening villains in Hollywood history.
83. Citizen Kane (1941)
"I don't think there's one word that can describe a man's life"
Ah, Citizen Kane - truly the Citizen Kane of movies, wouldn't you say?
This Orson Welles classic, much like the joke I just cracked for the fourth or fifth time in the history of my blog, is a masterpiece that will never get old. While some people may find the film boring (looking at you, Mom and Dad, who both gave up and went to sleep when your mature and sophisticated teenage son wanted to watch this 40's classic with you), there's at least no denying the fact that the film's cinematography and directing style have affected Hollywood and cinema in general in a major fashion, possibly more than any other individual movie. The film's camerawork and overall look was a huge gamechanger for the film industry, and the world of movies is better off for it.
In addition to the film's vast impact on movie history, Citizen Kane is quite the fascinating story. In addition to writing the script and directing the damn thing, Orson Welles also starred as Charles Foster Kane, a media tycoon representing the aspirations and pitfalls of the American dream (while also very much being a jab at real-life tycoon William Randolph Hearst). The narrative structure reels you in, as the very first scene follows Kane uttering the word "Rosebud" before passing away, after which the rest of the film follows a team of reporters trying figure out the meaning of Kane's final words while flashbacks shed light on the man's journey. The powerful ending scene will stick with you, which is why Citizen Kane is very much worth watching till the end, even if you find old and black-and-white movies to be tiring (again, I'm very bitter towards my parents about this one thing).
82. Malcolm X (1992)
"Being born here does not make you an American. I am not an American, you are not an American. You are one of the 22 million Black people who are the victims of America"
The world of biopics is filled with glorious tales of real-life heroes, as well as gripping films about famous people who did horrible things. Telling the story of a real-life anti-hero, someone whose life was embroiled in both greatness and controversy, both noble values and questionable morals, must be its own challenge. The best filmmaker for such a job might very well be Spike Lee, with his knack for layered societal criticism and portraying moral shades of gray.
The story of controversial civil rights leader Malcolm X is told in an unapologetic fashion, as the film paints him not as a hero nor as a monster, but rather 'tells it like it is' and shows all sides to the fascinating, complicated historical figure. Truly bringing the story to life is one of the greatest leading performances I have ever seen, as Denzel Washington takes on the ambitious role and absolutely nails it. Not only does 1992 Denzel look like the real-life Malcolm so much that the film is able to switch between real-life footage and material shot for the film in the middle of a scene without the viewer noticing, but he also brings the title character's unique way of speaking, polarizing mindset and incredible passion to life with pure class and skill.
The film is filled with dialogue that will make you think - even if you don't agree with Malcolm X's rather extremist views at all, chances are that this movie, with its depiction of the pain that he and his family had to endure under racist institutions, will help you understand where he was coming from and why he insisted on the country needing such radical change.
81. Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it"
I can legitimately say from the bottom of my heart that I believe this goofy 80's comedy to be one of the most important films I've seen. Mind you, it's not important in a "This film exposes horrible things about society that need changing" way, or even in a "This film impacted cinema and art in a major way" way, but rather in a more personal fashion. Ferris Bueller's Day Off has an extremely important lesson for individuals to learn from, especially in today's hectic and stressful culture. I know that the film had an immense impact on me: I happened to watch it for the first time at the best possible moment, as studying stress and various deadlines had me riled up and feeling beaten. This wonderful movie served as a stark reminder of some of my core values that I had momentarily forgotten due to the nasty ability of stress and hurry to wind one up - studies aren't everything, grades shouldn't be taken too seriously at the expense of one's well-being, and there's simply a lot more to life than working one's ass off all day long.
The same message comes across in various TED talks, self-help books and analytical articles, and while I greatly admire that, I have to say that it feels much more fun to soak the message in by watching a hilarious (yet oddly profound) movie. As funny and entertaining as the film is with all its shenanigans, it also becomes incredibly touching when you stop to think about its themes - Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) isn't helping his friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) play hooky just to break the rules and stick it to the authorities; he's doing it because he cares deeply about his friend and realizes that this is exactly what the stressed-out, anxious over-achiever needs. Ferris Bueller's Day Off ends up being as beautiful and moving as it is ridiculous and silly.
Thank you for reading! Tune in next Thursday as my countdown continues from #80 to #71 - next week's post features cinema from Lynch to Zemeckis, from black-and-white to animation, and from coming-of-age tales to riveting crime thrillers.
No comments:
Post a Comment