My Favorite Movies
The last Clublog entry yesterday was my Top 10 Favorite Books. It seems only appropriate that I talk a little bit about my favorite movies.
Films for me are what they are for just about everyone: An easy means of entertainment. I can take films more seriously than that, and I often do over analyze them. These films on my Top 10 Favorite Movies list influence me, even after having seen some of them 60 or 70 times (The Empire Strikes Back), for what they mean and how very precise and creatively they show it.
#1. 2001: A Space Odyssey. I consider this my favorite film because for how well it was filmed, considering that other science fiction films, both before and mostly since, have failed to capture the stylized unity of space and time, sight, sound, movement, story and character, that Kubrick accomplished. He had to invent a whole new way of film making to make this. It is a near flawless production, if you can stay awake; it doesn’t have a lot of dialogue.
#2. The Seventh Seal. This film by Swedish cinema genius Ingmar Bergman is one of the greatest philosophical debates on good and evil, mortality and fate I believe ever done in movies. Set amidst the plague of Crusade-era Europe, how else would one cheat death except by playing chess. Even if one cheats, it does buy a little time. Time to do what? That is the lesson of seize the moment.
#3. The Empire Strikes Back. This is the best “movie” movie of the entire six part Star Wars mega-saga. Irwin Kershner did a keen job in directing, the script was well written, the score was emotive and darkly evil-inspiring, and the editing was exact. A true cliff-hanger living up to Mega-genius George Lucas’ vision for it, this movie is the pinnacle of science-fiction adventure movie making.
#4. Raiders of the Lost Ark. This movie, the first in the Indiana Jones series (a fourth one is supposed to come at some point), even though it follows no real-life historical time line in its story telling, is how one makes a ripping adventure movie that is never-ending action.
#5. Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. This 1920s silent German film by director Robert Weine is a great spectacle of Pi Kielty’s theory of “alternative realism.” Normal things from a certain perspective, as can normally happen, have a distorted place in our reality when humans are in the grip of their fears. This is a wonderful mind-#*%@, one of those that will live for centuries in the halls of modern art appreciation centers (what are those, anyway?).
#6. Lawrence of Arabia. While my favorite book is the second-written war time memoir of T.E. Lawrence, this movie captures the ideas of Lawrence, puts him squarely in the middle of his own ego and brilliance, and makes a visually stunning film. In this movie, a parched, deadly desert never looked so real except in person. David Lean accomplished here what few movie makers have ever done, creative or documentary: an authentic account of an insignificant piece of history made larger than life by the even larger than life legend, especially when the legend is more real than the man himself.
#7. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. Of all the John Wayne movies that I love to watch for entertainment, this is my favorite western of all time. It is my favorite because it deals with the story of sacrificing one’s happiness for the sake of someone one loves. It is a noble story, about a hard man, and the “legend” has indeed become history and truth.
#8. Treasure Island. This Disney film starring Robert Newton as Long John Silver had a special place in my childhood. It is all about swashbuckling, pirates, treasure maps, ships, and it revolves around a kid. When I read the book in high school, I realized why the story had such appeal to a rather plain kid like me.
#9. The Man Who Would Be King. This John Huston movie, based on my favorite short story, written by Kipling, is a unique piece of 1970s film making. It is a story of how ambition, even with the best of benign selfish intentions, always ends bad. A story about two British soldiers in Imperial India who stumble onto Alexander’s gold while seeking to be kings, it is a story about how even tempting fate is ignoring the will of God himself.
#10. Notorious. This is one of the best Hitchcock films. It is certainly one of Cary Grant’s best. It is about a Nazi sympathizer, Ingrid Bergman, turned American spy, and how love really does save everything when it is all at risk.
These are my favorite movies. There are many more which deserve honorable mention–Citizen Kane, for instance is next in line. But the ones listed here struck my taste and have a message in the very highest achievement of the cinema art that they are.
Films for me are what they are for just about everyone: An easy means of entertainment. I can take films more seriously than that, and I often do over analyze them. These films on my Top 10 Favorite Movies list influence me, even after having seen some of them 60 or 70 times (The Empire Strikes Back), for what they mean and how very precise and creatively they show it.
#1. 2001: A Space Odyssey. I consider this my favorite film because for how well it was filmed, considering that other science fiction films, both before and mostly since, have failed to capture the stylized unity of space and time, sight, sound, movement, story and character, that Kubrick accomplished. He had to invent a whole new way of film making to make this. It is a near flawless production, if you can stay awake; it doesn’t have a lot of dialogue.
#2. The Seventh Seal. This film by Swedish cinema genius Ingmar Bergman is one of the greatest philosophical debates on good and evil, mortality and fate I believe ever done in movies. Set amidst the plague of Crusade-era Europe, how else would one cheat death except by playing chess. Even if one cheats, it does buy a little time. Time to do what? That is the lesson of seize the moment.
#3. The Empire Strikes Back. This is the best “movie” movie of the entire six part Star Wars mega-saga. Irwin Kershner did a keen job in directing, the script was well written, the score was emotive and darkly evil-inspiring, and the editing was exact. A true cliff-hanger living up to Mega-genius George Lucas’ vision for it, this movie is the pinnacle of science-fiction adventure movie making.
#4. Raiders of the Lost Ark. This movie, the first in the Indiana Jones series (a fourth one is supposed to come at some point), even though it follows no real-life historical time line in its story telling, is how one makes a ripping adventure movie that is never-ending action.
#5. Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. This 1920s silent German film by director Robert Weine is a great spectacle of Pi Kielty’s theory of “alternative realism.” Normal things from a certain perspective, as can normally happen, have a distorted place in our reality when humans are in the grip of their fears. This is a wonderful mind-#*%@, one of those that will live for centuries in the halls of modern art appreciation centers (what are those, anyway?).
#6. Lawrence of Arabia. While my favorite book is the second-written war time memoir of T.E. Lawrence, this movie captures the ideas of Lawrence, puts him squarely in the middle of his own ego and brilliance, and makes a visually stunning film. In this movie, a parched, deadly desert never looked so real except in person. David Lean accomplished here what few movie makers have ever done, creative or documentary: an authentic account of an insignificant piece of history made larger than life by the even larger than life legend, especially when the legend is more real than the man himself.
#7. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence. Of all the John Wayne movies that I love to watch for entertainment, this is my favorite western of all time. It is my favorite because it deals with the story of sacrificing one’s happiness for the sake of someone one loves. It is a noble story, about a hard man, and the “legend” has indeed become history and truth.
#8. Treasure Island. This Disney film starring Robert Newton as Long John Silver had a special place in my childhood. It is all about swashbuckling, pirates, treasure maps, ships, and it revolves around a kid. When I read the book in high school, I realized why the story had such appeal to a rather plain kid like me.
#9. The Man Who Would Be King. This John Huston movie, based on my favorite short story, written by Kipling, is a unique piece of 1970s film making. It is a story of how ambition, even with the best of benign selfish intentions, always ends bad. A story about two British soldiers in Imperial India who stumble onto Alexander’s gold while seeking to be kings, it is a story about how even tempting fate is ignoring the will of God himself.
#10. Notorious. This is one of the best Hitchcock films. It is certainly one of Cary Grant’s best. It is about a Nazi sympathizer, Ingrid Bergman, turned American spy, and how love really does save everything when it is all at risk.
These are my favorite movies. There are many more which deserve honorable mention–Citizen Kane, for instance is next in line. But the ones listed here struck my taste and have a message in the very highest achievement of the cinema art that they are.
1 Comments:
At 1:42 PM , Smitty said...
What? Where's Strange Brew? Maybe you need to do a list of your top 10 comedies...
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