The Greatest Films of All Time

[Uncle Spielberg]

Part 1

Schindler's List
ET - The extraterrestiral
Close Encounters of the third kind
Magnolia
The Machinist
Saving Private Ryan
Glengarry Glen Ross
Downfall
The Shawshank Redemption
The Lost Weekend
Eraserhead
The Elephant Man
Gladiator
Somewhere in Time
United 93
Koyanisqatsi

 

[Jam The Man]

Where Eagles Dare anyone?

 

[Man of Harveys]

Vertigo isn't the best Hitchcock film

Oh yes it is - I love all the films of his that I've seen but that one is just out of this world. It's like a film of what's inside a vividly dreaming head; I started a thread once about films like dreams prompted by it. It's brilliant and just so strange.

 

[Buffalo Seagull]

Dr Strangelove would be on my list, and of more recent years, The Usual Suspects would be up there too

 

[shingle]

What kind of a f***ed up list is that

No Shawshank Redemption
No Schindlers List
No Outlaw Josey Wales

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

What kind of a f***ed up list is that

No Shawshank Redemption
No Schindlers List
No Outlaw Josey Wales

Shingle its the smug critics innit, the ones who think a Polish sub titled film that 50 people across the country see is in fact a mastperpiece because it is sub titled and no one saw it whereas the maintream movies never make it into the lists.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Any list without 'Escape to Victory' at No.1 is frankly, not worth the paper it is printed on.

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

Part 1

Schindler's List
ET - The extraterrestiral
Close Encounters of the third kind
Magnolia
The Machinist
Saving Private Ryan
Glengarry Glen Ross
Downfall
The Shawshank Redemption
The Lost Weekend
Eraserhead
The Elephant Man
Gladiator
Somewhere in Time
United 93
Koyanisqatsi

I'm surprised that you didn't include "Duel"! I think that it's one of Spielburgs best films!

 

[severnside gull]

There's a lot of films in the category arty / worthy films there...... presumably on the basis "no-one watches them now but if I put them in the list I will look intelligent"

Trouble is a list of the most popular films based on box office take is misleading because trends and social habits have changed and using video/DVD. is unfair on may earlier films.

The result is that you end up with a lst like this which is a bit of a dog's dinner and is effectively meaningless.

My guess is that right now Close Encounters/Star Wars/ET would be on many peoples' list of "influential" films if not the best

This list also highlights that musicals are an entirely separate genre...watched and enjoyed by millions but not worthy of mention

My personal choices would include Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile but that is another much-overlooked genre when it comes toowning up to what you really like as oopposed to saying what makes you sound intelligent

 

[Simster]

Vertigo isn't the best Hitchcock film

I see MoH has already said this, but I think you're wrong. Vertigo is a breathtakingly BRILLIANT film. I'm just looking at his filmography for films that IMO are nearly as good as Vertigo. The Man Who Knew Too Much was superb (personally I preferred the second 1950s version) and so was The 39 Steps. But definitely, Vertigo stands out as far as I'm concerned.

As for SOCCERDOG - good point well made.

 

[The Large One]

Shingle its the smug critics innit, the ones who think a Polish sub titled film that 50 people across the country see is in fact a mastperpiece because it is sub titled and no one saw it whereas the maintream movies never make it into the lists.

There's a bloody good reason for that too.

If anyone ever reached out for the lowest common denominator...

As an example, Schindler's List is an EXCELLENT film. However, while the first two hours are an absolute blunt assault on your senses regarding the horrors of the holocaust - and he does get a level of those horrors across to us, although nothing like what it would have been like to live in that time, Speilberg still can't resist the tempatation to lapse into a level of tear-jerking and mawkishness in the last hour, just in case anyone should forget what a good guy Oskar Schindler turned out to be. As if he hadn't made a fairly decent layered appraisal of his character in the first two hours.

We didn't need the story slapped on to us like Barbara Cartland's make-up. Believe me, we'd got the scenario by then, we can work it out for ourselves.

That for me, is a classic Speilberg trait, and it's not necessarily a good one.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

severnside gull has hit the nail on the head. I liked 'Citizen Kane' really, but just said 'Escape to Victory' to sound intelligent.

 

[Simster]

There's a bloody good reason for that too.

If anyone ever reached out for the lowest common denominator...

As an example, Schindler's List is an EXCELLENT film. However, while the first two hours are an absolute blunt assault on your senses regarding the horrors of the holocaust - and he does get a level of those horrors across to us, although nothing like what it would have been like to live in that time, Speilberg still can't resist the tempatation to lapse into a level of tear-jerking and mawkishness in the last hour, just in case anyone should forget what a good guy Oskar Schindler turned out to be. As if he hadn't made a fairly decent layered appraisal of his character in the first two hours.

We didn't need the story slapped on to us like Barbara Cartland's make-up. Believe me, we'd got the scenario by then, we can work it out for ourselves.

That for me, is a classic Speilberg trait, and it's not necessarily a good one.

We've done this to death. I think you're not allowed to find any film better than any Spielberg effort unless it's been on 4 of the 16 screens at any one time in your local multiplex for a period of 6 weeks. Only the good films get this sort of treatment, you see.

 

[Man of Harveys]

There's a bloody good reason for that too.

If anyone ever reached out for the lowest common denominator...

As an example, Schindler's List is an EXCELLENT film. However, while the first two hours are an absolute blunt assault on your senses regarding the horrors of the holocaust - and he does get a level of those horrors across to us, although nothing like what it would have been like to live in that time, Speilberg still can't resist the tempatation to lapse into a level of tear-jerking and mawkishness in the last hour, just in case anyone should forget what a good guy Oskar Schindler turned out to be. As if he hadn't made a fairly decent layered appraisal of his character in the first two hours.

We didn't need the story slapped on to us like Barbara Cartland's make-up. Believe me, we'd got the scenario by then, we can work it out for ourselves.

That for me, is a classic Speilberg trait, and it's not necessarily a good one.

Alan, don't forget that, in US' own eyes, any criticism of that particular film immediately renders you a "holocaust denier". What an arsepiece.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

Alan, don't forget that, in US' own eyes, any criticism of that particular film immediately renders you a "holocaust denier". What an arsepiece.

That is a gross misinterpretation of the truth, the fil poll marks out of 1-10 was just abused with a whole load of 1's from people trying to be stupid so I basically called them holocaust deniers and they f***ing deserved it.

Schindler's List's only sentamentality come in the last 10 minutes not last hour when he left the factory and when the survivors came over the hill.

Anyway I don't really give a flying f*** if you rate the film or not or indeed think Spielberg is a big pile of poop at all.

 

[The Large One]

That is a gross misinterpretation of the truth, the fil poll marks out of 1-10 was just abused with a whole load of 1's from people trying to be stupid so I basically called them holocaust deniers and they f***ing deserved it.

Schindler's List's only sentamentality come in the last 10 minutes not last hour when he left the factory and when the survivors came over the hill.

Anyway I don't really give a flying f*** if you rate the film or not or indeed think Spielberg is a big pile of poop at all.

Yes you do. You said me criticising ET and Lassie was a personal insult against you.

 

[Questions]

Where is ''One flew over the cuckoos nest'' in that list ?


Fantastic stage play as well.

 

[Les Biehn]

Never went much on Hitchcock although he does deal with a lot of themes I am interested in. In fact I think North By Northwest is embarrassing. Cary Grant was a terrible terrible actor. Jamesa Stewart wasn't much better. If you are talking films of that era Powell and Pressburger were much more interesting. Black Narcissus is a brilliant film. You can't beat sexually repressed Nuns.

 

[Pevenseagull]

enough Schindler's Ark already, back to 'Vertigo'

I am more than happy to accept Vetigo being regarded as the best, I just think Rear Window edges it slightly but then I am a voyeur

Hitchcock & Stewart

1954 Rear Window
1956 The Man Who Knew Too Much
1958 Vertigo
1959 North By Northwest

and within that period Hitch also knocked out The Wrong Man, Dial M for Murder, To Catch A Thief and The Trouble With Harry

I'd be suprised if anyone could come up with a list of 5 films from the last 5 years from any/all directors that would be better than the pick of that bunch

 

[Man of Harveys]

I am also a dedicated voyeur but - I've watched Rear Window once and loved every frame of it but didn't feel an urge to see it again. I've seen North By Northwest and Vertigo about 10 times and could very happily sit down and watch either again now, esp. the latter - if only to TRY and perfect my James Mason impression. Vertigo is just a deep, weird film.