Greetings, reader!
Once again, it is time for me to resume my countdown of the hundred greatest movies ever made. Today's journey takes us from my sixtieth-favorite film of all time all the way to my fifty-first-favorite one. Let's go!
60. Jurassic Park (1993)
"God creates dinosaurs. God destroys dinosaurs. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates dinosaurs"
I can't recall any other movie that ended up being as different from my initial expectations as this groundbreaking Steven Spielberg film. I had seen parts of the famous T-Rex scene and maybe confused some horror/thriller films for this one before I ever saw it, so what I expected was a nerve-wracking dinosaur thriller full of close calls and jump scares. Mind you, Jurassic Park does have its share of those elements in its more tense sequences - but walking into it, I had no idea that I was about see one of the most beautiful movies ever made.
But that's exactly what Jurassic Park is. When it's not keeping viewers on the edge of their seats with intense velociraptor sequences or delving into vaguely profound Jeff Goldblum dialogue, the movie bathes in its amazing scenery, untouchable John Williams score, and some seriously spectacular visual effects. If you asked me what movie has the best visual effects of all time, I couldn't give you an answer right away, but if you asked me what movie has the all-time best visual effects in relation to when it was made, there is no other right answer in my mind than Jurassic Park. The dinosaurs look so real and majestic that the visuals honestly look like the film could've been released today, which is quite the feat for a film from 1993. Suspenseful and thrilling at parts, and beautiful and moving at others, this wonderful film is one for the ages.
59. Braveheart (1993)
"Aye, fight and you may die. Run, and you'll live - at least a while. And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willing for once chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they will never take - OUR FREEDOM!"
How good is William Wallace's (Mel Gibson) battle speech, a part of which is quoted above, you ask? Well, I'm a full-blown pacifist to the degree that I chose not to go through Finland's traditional and more-or-less mandatory military service, but I'm pretty sure that if I was one of the characters in this historical epic, that speech would've inspired me to take up arms and run straight into battle. Braveheart is in some ways a hard film to love, as the star and director has disgraced himself time and time again, not to mention the strange position that this film has gotten as a political tool for modern Scottish nationalism. But if you separate the art from the artist (a skill that one simply must acquire in modern times if one wants to enjoy art, as an incredibly upsetting amount of people have turned out to be huge assholes), and take the film as a historical account of what happened back in medieval times and maybe shouldn't be used as a metaphor for today's politics, there's no denying the fact that this Best Picture winner is a breathtaking piece of cinema.
From the well-crafted battle sequences and impeccable set design to James Horner's heart-piercing score and the fact that Wallace's aforementioned battle speech is one of my top 10 favorite movie scenes of all time, Braveheart is nothing short of a cinematic masterpiece.
58. Halloween (1978)
"I met him, 15 years ago. I was told there was nothing left; no reason, no conscience, no understanding in even the most rudimentary sense of life or death, of good or evil, right or wrong"
In last week's post, I marveled at how great of movie a slasher flick can be when discussing A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). But here's the thing - Halloween is somehow even better. The perfect movie can exist in any genre when made well enough, and Halloween is a prime example of that. The script by John Carpenter and Debra Hill is flawless in its building tension and creepy themes. The directing by John Carpenter, as he makes one of the scariest films of all time without any unnecessary blood and gore but by simply being so good at camera angles and editing cuts etc. that the mere appearance of villain Michael Myers (Tony Moran) standing in the bushes will creep the living hell out of you, is a work of genius.
And the film's score, composed by John Carpenter (I'm sensing a pattern here), is built on a spine-chilling main theme that will forever be my favorite horror movie soundtrack and one of the greatest-ever pieces of music written for a movie. Couple this with a chilly Halloween setting full of pumpkins and shadows, as well as a killer performance by Jamie Lee Curtis as the ultimate 'final girl' Laurie Strode, and you have a pure and untouchable horror masterpiece on your hands.
57. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)
"Do you know why you're on trial here?"
"We carried certain ideas across state lines. Not machine guns or drugs or little girls. Ideas. When we crossed from New York to New Jersey to Pennsylvania to Ohio to Illinois, we had certain ideas. And for that, we were gassed, beaten, arrested and put on trial"
My #1 favorite movie of last year was always going to have some societal relevance to it, as it deals with some age-old questions in America that people are still fiercely debating about. But it was a stroke of strange fortune that The Trial of the Chicago 7 became as incredibly topical as it ended up being - Aaron Sorkin wrote the Oscar-nominated script before the summer of 2020, when George Floyd's murder and the subsequent Black Lives Matter protests happened. And so, in the fall of 2020, this film based on a true story from the late 60's that deals with issues of protests, police violence, and the question of where the blame lies when protests turn violent, felt poignant to a powerful degree.
And what an overall powerful film it is. Eddie Redmayne provides an inspiring lead performance as social activist Tom Hayden, while Sacha Baron Cohen expertly combines humor and heart with his performance as hippie leader Abbie Hoffman. As one might expect from a Sorkin film, the dialogue is smart and and tight, the flow between scenes is entertaining and addictive, and the overall story has a lot to say about the world today while also taking a deep look into our history. The final scene, that had me in tears, is truly the icing on the cake.
56. Mulholland Drive (2001)
"Silencio"
If any film can and should be called a "puzzle box", it is this one. What begins as a relatively standard (by David Lynch standards, anyways) thriller about a woman who wakes up with amnesia after a car accident, ends up taking several unforeseen turns throughout an exciting, unconventional narrative. Headlined by a mesmerizing Naomi Watts performance, Mulholland Drive is one of the greatest mystery films ever made as the sense of mystery is so well-crafted by a ton of small but important details in the dialogue, cinematography and other places where Lynch likes to hide his clues.
While I don't consider any of Lynch's works to be exactly pretentious, I do admit that he has been known to occasionally delve into randomness for the sake of randomness, at least as an extra spice. It's interesting how in this particular film he doesn't do one bit of that: everything in Mulholland Drive seems to have a sharp focus and clear reason, even if the exact nature of said reason is left open for interpretation. Just strange enough to satisfy art house fans who found The Straight Story (1999) boring, and not quite so strange that it shuts off mainstream viewers like Lost Highway (1997) did, this movie is often considered Lynch's magnum opus and it truly lives up to its reputation.
55. Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)
"I used to wonder about that myself. Thought it was a bunch of mumbo jumbo. A magical power holding together good and evil, the dark side and the light. Crazy thing is...it's true. The Force, the Jedi. All of it"
And then, for the controversial section of today's post - trust me, this film isn't nearly as feather-ruffling of a choice as the next one, but at least places #53 - #51 are very conventional choices and might calm my cinema enthusiast readers down.
When reading a movie buff's list of the 100 greatest movies ever made, one might expect to see the original Star Wars trilogy there, but not any other films from the franchise. However, the entire franchise is so dear to me, that a film from outside the pure and holy original trilogy also managed to make it into my Top 100 (a few others were also very close to making it - my Top 150 would probably have a total of six Star Wars films in it). The Force Awakens is the beginning to the new trilogy that revived the franchise, and what an absolutely epic beginning it was. I remember seeing in the cinema, absolutely enthralled as John Williams' iconic score starts to play and the opening text starts to roll, as I had spent my childhood in love with this franchise while never believing that I'd get to see an all-new Star Wars film in the movie theater.
I'll admit that when they first announced a new trilogy being made, I was skeptical - did we really need more Star Wars? But then I saw the first teaser trailer - one of my all-time favorite movie trailers - and all of my cynicism faded. It was clear from that point on that Episode VII was going to be exciting, epic, loyal to the original trilogy's style and values, and most importantly, not just a cash grab. That turned out to be extremely true when I saw the film, as it had me emotionally hooked and on the edge of my seat for the entire runtime. The Force Awakens manages to pay tribute to the original cast (Harrison Ford knocks it out of the park as an old, lone-wolf Han Solo) while also paving the way for a new generation of heroes with exciting characters like heroine Rey (Daisy Ridley), unlikely hero Finn (John Boyega), and fleshed-out villain Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). The film exceeded my sky-high expectations, culminating in a final scene that is one of the greatest moments in the entire Star Wars franchise.
54. Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018)
"The whole thing's a metaphor: he thinks he's got free will, but really he's trapped in a maze, in a system. All he can do is consume, he's pursued by demons that are probably just in his own head and even if he does manage to escape by slipping out of one side of the maze, what happens? He comes right back in the other side. People think it's a happy game. It's not a happy game, it's a fucking nightmare world and the worst thing is, it's real and we live in it. It's all code. If you listen closely, you can hear the numbers. There's a cosmic flowchart that dictates where you can and where you can't go"
I know that many fans of the Black Mirror (2011-Present) series didn't like this film, and even the ones who did might not have it anywhere near an all-time top 100. But for whatever reason, I really, really like this film, and even consider it to be a modern masterpiece. It's unfortunate that it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, which I can't figure out for the life of me. Sure, these types of 'gimmick movies' are bound to get criticized, but in my view, Bandersnatch is the perfect gimmick movie: the gimmick in question is very creative and groundbreaking (for those not familiar, this is a Choose Your Own Adventure movie, where the plot progresses based on decisions that the Netflix viewer makes, wonderfully blurring the line between cinema and video games), but the film doesn't just stick to its gimmick but goes way beyond it to produce a fantastic piece of narrative art.
There are layers to this film. First off, I just find the fact of a Choose Your Own Adventure movie to be extremely cool, as it simply hadn't been done before. Secondly, one has to appreciate just how much work went into the film: there are so many different paths and different endings, with even the same scenes having tons of different versions to them based on what choices the viewer has made so that the details add up, that writing and shooting the film must've been one heck of a chore to get through but the end result is definitely worth it. Finally, there's the layer of writer Charlie Brooker using the concept of choosing your own narrative to get meta in the darkest and most amazing fashion, as the whole thing escalates into a mind-boggling and deep-as-hell look at free will. The action of choosing the story's progression becomes so intertwined with the dialogue about questioning free will and not having control in life, that this movie will seriously mess with your brain (but, as my avid readers will know, I love such movies when in the right state of mind). All in all, a vastly over-hated piece of experimental art.
53. Schindler's List (1993)
"Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire"
The movie everyone should watch once, and no one should have to watch twice. Out of all the films in my Top 100, this the most likely one for me to never re-watch, because it does indeed live up to its reputation as a seriously depressing movie. Mind you, there is a strong sense of hope and the actual story of Oskar Schindler (played here by Liam Neeson) and his deeds is profoundly uplifting in many ways, but that doesn't change the fact that the 3-hour-15-minute film takes place in World War II Poland, and paints a grim and realistic picture of the atrocities that took place there.
The horrors of the holocaust are brought to life in a grim fashion - a movie about such things isn't obviously fun to watch, but as this is something that really happened in our world less than 100 years ago (not to mention the fact that there are people who deny it ever happened), it is absolutely vital that films like this exist, to remind us what humanity is capable of at its worst when not kept in check. Inside this bleak portrayal of a brutal era, we follow the beautiful true story of a man who found goodness in his heart and fought to do what was right in a time of persecution and discrimination.
Neeson's lead performance is supported by great roles from Ralph Fiennes and Ben Kingsley, and Steven Spielberg's directing coupled with Janusz Kaminski's cinematography makes for a heart-stopping atmosphere. The use of color is especially striking, as the film is black-and-white but not entirely: I don't think I'll ever gets the image of the girl in the red coat making her way through the crowd out of my head. 'Gripping' doesn't begin to describe it.
52. The Elephant Man (1980)
"I am not an animal! I am a human being! I am a man!"
There's one extremely strange thing about this David Lynch movie: it's not a very strange movie. And, for Lynch, that's pretty much the most experimental and unexpected thing you can do. The filmmaker's mainstream effort was rewarded with eight Academy Award nominations, proving that Lynch is capable of making great films even if he replaces his trademark red curtains, psychedelic narratives and worlds-within-worlds aesthetic with simple and straightforward storytelling.
And a great film it certainly is. John Hurt provides a gripping performance as John Merrick, a disfigured man seen as a freak by some and a medical marvel by others, while Anthony Hopkins is equally sublime as Frederick Treves, the surgeon who cares for Merrick and uncovers the tender soul behind the disfigurement. The Elephant Man is a well-directed and immensely moving film, headlined by two state-of-the-art leading performances.
51. Paths of Glory (1957)
"Gentlemen of the court, there are times that I'm ashamed to be a member of the human race and this is one such occasion"
While not quite on the same level as Schindler's List in terms of being a total bummer (no film is), I'd reckon that Paths of Glory still makes the all-time Top 10 in the category of depressing films. While almost all of the greatest war movies are "anti-war" to some degree, as glorifying war doesn't play well with audiences, there is no other film I've seen that is as strongly anti-war as this early Stanley Kubrick masterpiece.
The story exposes the brutality and senselessness of war, and the hypocrisy of leaders solving their problems by sending their young men to die and kill each other, so thoroughly, that the film is bound to leave the viewer wondering just what the hell is wrong with humanity - a question worth asking. The dialogue in the final scene is so inhumane and infuriating in such a casual fashion, that watching Paths of Glory might very well make you temporarily lose your faith in humanity - I recommend watching Dead Poets Society or It's a Wonderful Life right after it in order to boost one's hope.
Thank you for reading! Tune in next week as I begin the second half of my countdown, with the movies from #50 to #41 - this selection of ten includes one of the only three films to win 11 Oscars, a Christmas classic, the debut film of a world class director, and more than one film from IMDB's top ten highest-rated movies of all time.
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