Greetings, reader!
And so we reach the penultimate instalment in my countdown of the greatest movies of all time. This has been quite the project, and next week it shall reach its conclusion. But first, here are the immensely praiseworthy, pretty much perfect all-time favorites that very barely missed out on the top 10!
20. Bowling for Columbine (2002)
"If more guns make people safer, then America would be one of the safest countries in the world. It isn't"
Kicking off today's portion of my mega-list is my favorite documentary of all time. In this honest, factual and heartbreaking exploration of the gun epidemic in the United States, Michael Moore uses the school shooting in Columbine, Colorado as a case study in just how fucked up America's gun situation is. The documentary explains the background of the baffling culture of gun worship in my dear second homeland, all while hitting us with hard and cold facts and statistics that leave little to be argued with.
Whether he's helping victims sue the Walmart from which the Columbine shooter casually bought his bullets (you know, how people tend to do in normal and healthy societies), confronting the head of the N.R.A. and making him look at the picture of a young girl who isn't with us very much due to the N.R.A.'s actions, or boldly going after President Bush and the Iraq war in his acceptance speech for the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature that he deservedly won, Michael Moore is somewhat of a hero to me largely due to this film.
There are many things wrong with the world, but almost none as egregiously and outrageously immoral than the fact that my second home country is run by people who value the unchecked rights to own weapons made to kill more than they value the lives of innocent children, and this documentary is a hellishly strong testament to just how deep this problem goes. As long as they keep driving their pro-mass-shooting legislation, I reckon every Republican senator should be strapped to a chair and forced to watch this film - and if you think this sounds extreme, I recommend you watch Bowling for Columbine as well, and chances are that after seeing it you just might agree.
19. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)
"After all this time?"
"Always"
Now that I got today's societal rant out of the way, it's time to shift the tone into the love I have for the Harry Potter franchise, as both the books and their cinematic adaptations are a huge favorite from my childhood and continue to impress me to this day. Just like in their literary counterparts, the Potter movies managed to save the best for last, as The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is easily my favorite out of the many great instalments in this magical franchise. Not only does it capture many of the book's best parts with perfection (the Gringotts heist, the otherworldly King's Cross sequence and especially the massively emotional Pensieve sequence come to mind), but it deviates from the literary material in a very smart fashion.
This is especially evident in the final duel between Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes), which is one of those extremely rare instances where a scene is even better in the movie adaptation than in the original book. I won't go into detail as to avoid spoilers, but the way this climax goes down was the one thing that fell a bit flat in the otherwise perfect final book, but it's a lot more powerful and fitting in the film. All in all, an astonishingly well-made final chapter for a beloved and nostalgic franchise. Speaking of childhood nostalgia...
18. Home Alone (1990)
"This is my house. I have to defend it"
There is a poetic feel to my ultimate childhood favorite being right next to the last Harry Potter film in this all-time ranking; especially when considering the fact that Home Alone was directed by Chris Columbus (not the one who slaughtered all those Native Americans, but the one who also directed the first two Harry Potter films, thus being responsible for many warm childhood memories). It speaks to the nature of the subjectivity of my list that I have Home Alone ahead of the likes of Citizen Kane and Casablanca, but for the type of cinema enthusiast that I am, that's exactly as it should be: critical acclaim, production value and the overall technical side of filmmaking is certainly a huge part of what makes movies great and why I love cinema, but I find the notion of those being the only meaningful factors to be quite depressing. I believe the best movies are the ones you can't imagine life without.
I'm an emotional viewer, so often the factor of utmost importance in films is the emotional response they provoke, whether it be the manifestation of an important value or life lesson, the emotional investment in the story of a well-written character, the account of a heartbreaking or perhaps uplifting true story, or any number of things. Therefore, the fact that watching Home Alone every other Christmas (I watch Home Alone 2: Lost In New York (1992) in the in-between years to keep things fresh) makes me shed tears of joy every damn time as the film is so tied to my childhood, my family and my weirdly deep-running love for Christmas, is something immeasurable and certainly worthy of an all-time Top 20.
Home Alone is my ultimate comfort film, and it is further boosted by the fact that it is a pretty damn good movie even when looking beyond my personal connection to it: Chris Columbus certainly knows how to direct a quality family flick, the John Williams score goes from eerie to glorious, the chemistry between Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern as cinema's most hilarious villains is hysterical, and the adrenaline rush of the final act where Kevin (Macaulay Culkin) takes the crooks down with a series of clever booby traps is downright exhilarating. Then there's the immensely moving sequence of events in the film's final scenes, thus the waterworks every time I re-watch the film.
17. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the war room!"
Quoted above is my #1 favorite movie line of all time. Stanley Kubrick's feelings about the senselessness of war come across many of his works, from Paths of Glory (1957) to Full Metal Jacket (1987), but never as thoroughly as in Dr. Strangelove, as the ingeniously ironic War Room quote demonstrates. This obscure 60's classic criticizes the cold war through the lens of dark comedy and sharp societal satire, as we follow a fictional but troublingly real-seeming scenario where one mistake leads to an escalating series of events at the brink of a full-scale nuclear war.
Peter Sellers plays the triple role of military captain Lionel Mandrake, U.S. President Merkin Muffley, and nuclear war expert Dr. Strangelove. Here's how great he is at making each role his own (and how well the film's make-up and costume departments did their job): when the film's closing credits started to roll, I hadn't realized that those three major roles were played by the same actor. Apart from Sellers' magnificent acting and Kubrick's state-of-the-art directing, Dr. Strangelove is a classic first and foremost for how powerfully it criticizes the Cold War and overall military culture, and how well it balances hysterical comedy and serious world issues. Truly one of the best.
16. Top Gun (1986)
"Tower, this is Ghost Rider requesting a flyby"
This 80's action classic is certainly beloved in its own way, but I'm guessing it doesn't make it into many all-time top twenties in movie circles. It's difficult to analyze just why I like this film so much more than is conventional, especially since I'm not into aviation at all. Something about the combination of subjective nostalgia (I've seen this film countless times, the first few being when I was so small that my Dad would skip a certain emotional death scene so that I wouldn't get traumatized), kick-ass soundtrack and overall cool action atmosphere just really works for me. Top Gun is adrenaline and speed, excitement and rebellion, with a touch of heroics and a ton of heart put into the mix as well. Simply put, it's a film that just gets to me each and every time.
No other film has a soundtrack as badass as this one - the Kenny Loggins classic Danger Zone adrenalizing the opening sequence, the Cheap Trick banger Mighty Wings making multiple flying scenes infinitely cooler, the Berlin ballad Take My Breath Away winning the film an Oscar for Best Original Song, the integration of the Righteous Brothers song You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' into the story and the iconic scene where the main characters jam to Jerry Lee Lewis's Great Balls of Fire are just a few examples, not to mention Harold Faltermeyer's ice-cold instrumental score. To this rocking soundtrack, Top Gun provides awesome action sequences, legendary Tom Cruise moments, and some surprisingly powerful scenes - not just the aforementioned death scene, but possibly even more so the scene where Viper (Tom Skerritt) tells Maverick (Cruise) the truth about his father.
All in all, if you feel the need for speed, I highly recommend watching this film and checking out its upcoming sequel when it's finally released! I, for one, am extremely excited that one of my all-time favorite films is getting a sequel, which looks extremely true to the original based on the trailer.
15. Avengers: Endgame (2019)
"Avengers...assemble"
There have been quite a few comic book movies in my all-time Top 100, proving just how far the genre has come in terms of quality cinema. And here, at fifteenth place, is the crown jewel of superhero cinema: Avengers: Endgame. There are few things in storytelling that I appreciate more than a good, well-built payoff, and that is what the climactic Avengers film accomplishes to a staggering degree. The Marvel Cinematic Universe, spanning over 20 movies in its interconnected storytelling, is one of the most unique and well-built film franchises of all time, as nothing of the sort had been done before. And after these films had taken the slowly built grand-scheme-of-things story to a point of climax, Endgame took it home and did so quite gloriously.
The film isn't just a good ending for the so-called "Infinity Saga", even though that is the film's primary function. At first, it takes us on an unexpected journey as we get an excellent Marvel film that would work as a standalone story, with well-written time travel and great action sequences et cetera. Endgame is also a masterclass in balanced writing of a large ensemble cast: few films have as many major characters as this gargantuan coming-together of all MCU heroes, but everyone seems to get just the right amount of screen time and their own fitting character arch. But, yes, the film's greatest accomplishment is just how great of an ending it is for the Avengers story - if you've followed my Top 100 countdown this far, you'll know that I'm a sucker for good endings. Emotional payoffs and poetic moments ensue, as the massive story is brought to a fitting end.
14. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
"I'm the answer to a fucking Trivial Pursuit question"
Fun fact: Alejandro G. Iñárritu's Birdman isn't the only film in today's selection of 10 films that was filmed with a one-shot technique. Any film successfully consisting of one long camera take (or a few long ones, seamlessly woven together to seem like just one) gains a whole lot of points for ambition and technical wizardry alone, but there are two such films that have tons of substance in them in addition to being absolute technical marvels, and they both found it into my all-time Top 20. Read the whole post to find out what the other tracking-shot masterpiece is - but first, Birdman.
This odd and quirky Best Picture winner follows the weeks leading up to the opening night of a Broadway play - more accurately, a fictional stage adaptation of Raymond Carver's What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, written and directed by Riggan Thompson (Michael Keaton), a washed-up former superhero flick star who is trying to get the public to take him seriously again. Birdman's comedic side features sharp and often hilarious dialogue, coupled with hard-hitting satire of show business and theater critics, while its artistic side delves into some memorable symbolism and deep ponderings on themes such as legacy, the value we put on appearances, and the chaos dominating our lives.
The film's cast is one of the best ensembles I've come across in cinema - Michael Keaton provides a dynamite lead performance, Edward Norton is sheer perfection as carefree actor Mike Shiner, Emma Stone is fantastic as Riggan's daughter Sam, Zach Galifianakis combines his trademark humor with the trademark stress of pre-opening night theater in his role as Riggan's lawyer Jake, and Naomi Watts is her usual amazing self as actress Lesley. While the remarkable cinematography, envisioned by Iñárritu and realized by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, may be the film's greatest strength, it is brought to further glory by the ever-talented cast, the sharp humor and intriguing themes, as well as the film's fantastic ambiguous ending.
13. Interstellar (2014)
"Mankind was born on Earth. It was never meant to die here"
Whenever I listen to a piece of Hans Zimmer's mind-bending score to Interstellar, I'm brought back to the exact feeling that I had when I was sitting in the cinema, watching this science fiction masterpiece unfold for the first time. The atmosphere of the film is so unique and the viewing experience so memorable, that the rush of feelings and thoughts when first experiencing it is something I'll always remember and cherish, at least whenever those memories are triggered by hearing the (insanely magnificent) soundtrack.
The A-list cast, the genius script by Christopher Nolan and his severely underappreciated brother Jonathan, and the Oscar-winning visual effects make for one hell of a spectacle. The way the film introduces whole new worlds, while toying with the concepts of space and time, makes for a film that represents science fiction at its very best; despite the deeper and darker themes of Interstellar, it is an adventure film at heart, with humankind "going where no one has gone before" in the tradition of Star Trek (1966-) and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - but with updated visual imagery and Nolan's limitless imagination giving new twists to the formula. A truly breathtaking film if I ever saw one.
12. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
"It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why"
I suppose that the presence of two of the Hobbit films earlier in my Top 100 countdown was a dead giveaway to the fact that all three Lord of the Rings movies would be found much, much higher on this list. And here we arrive. Just how good is Peter Jackson's cinematic adaptation of Tolkien's legendary fantasy novels? Well, the least good instalment of cinema's greatest trilogy is right here, sitting comfortably on the #12 spot on my list of the all-time greatest films. That's quite something.
But seriously, they all deserve to be in the absolute top tier on cinema. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is, as a whole, a work of ambitious art that accomplished the impossible and gave Tolkien's books the film adaptation they deserved. In this second instalment, we follow multiple storylines as Frodo (Elijah Wood) and Sam (Sean Astin) make their way closer to Mordor with the help of the treacherous Gollum (Andy Serkis), while Aragorn (Viggo Mortensen) and company become involved in the war between the kingdom of Rohan and the rise of Saruman's (Christopher Lee) Isengard. Many of the best chapters in the Two Towers book, such as the Three Hunters encountering the mysterious "White Wizard" in the woods and the battle of Helm's Deep, come alive in a brilliant fashion. Whatever changes are made from the books are all made in good taste, while always retaining the feel of Tolkien's fantasy world even when deviating from the source material.
Jackson's grandiose vision, the expert set design and visual imagery of his take on Middle-Earth, and Howard Shore's heart-melting and fist-pumping score are as awe-inspiring as they are throughout the entire trilogy. My favorite moment from the film just has to be Sam's speech to Frodo, a part of which is quoted above as the line I chose to represent this film. Sean Astin acts the hell out of that scene, and the substance of the speech taps into the very essence of the core values and themes in the Lord of the Rings books and Tolkien's overall lore. The Lord of the Rings truly is one of the stories that really mattered.
11. 1917 (2019)
"They're walking into a trap. Your orders are to deliver a message calling off tomorrow morning's attack. If you fail, it will be a massacre"
And so we arrive at today's other masterclass of one-shot cinematography, and the very slightly better of the two films in question. With 1917, the concept of the film reading like one long camera take is far from just a trendy stylistic choice - writer and director Sam Mendes felt a deep connection to the subject matter as the film was inspired by stories told to him by his late grandfather Alfred, and Mendes felt that this style of shooting the film would best capture the intensity of the war and the feel he was going for.
And boy, was he right. With its sledgehammer cinematography in its grim setting, 1917 makes for a brutally intense look at the war, as we really get into the mindsets of the two young soldiers whose journey is followed. The amount of work that went into building the sets, coordinating the massive action set pieces and making the practical effects work, all while fitting it into several long camera takes, is beyond comprehension. Adding to the film's sense of mounting tension is the absolutely brilliant, heart-pumping score by Thomas Newman - the track Sixteen Hundred Men, creating the soundscape for the most intense and emotionally powerful moment in the film, is one of the greatest pieces of music ever written for a movie. All in all, 1917 is a harrowing cinematic journey, with its technical achievements and thematic choices mixing to create an unforgettable viewing experience.
Thank you for reading! Be sure to tune in next week for the culmination of this series: my top 10 favorite movies of all time. Films from six different decades, nine different directors and ten different genres have made the cut. Stay tuned!
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