I thought it would be fun to post the flip side to Harold’s thread. There are plenty of movies I have been a bit nervous about watching again, in case they don’t stand up to my rose-tinted memories, but then I have been overjoyed to find them to be every bit as good as they always were:
– ET is emotionally manipulative, but is a joy to watch and is a relatively young film maker at the absolute height of his powers.
– Cool Hand Luke, The Hustler, The Sting, Torn Curtain… Just about anything with Paul Newman in it really! His imperial phase is just unbeatable.
– Tarantino films, i think, have aged magnificently. I reached both Pulp Fiction and Reservior Dogs recently and found them both vibrant and exhilarating. Apart from, ahem, some problematic language that wouldn’t be allowed today.
– All the Monty Python films. I think they set a bar for comedy that has never really been surpassed.
– The Back to the Future trilogy. While so many eighties films have dated so badly, this film series still seems timeless. Probably because, erm, it’s about time travel. But also because it uses a proper orchestral score instead of making the mistake of so many of its contemporaries and using Yello or Paul Hardcastle for the soundtrack. But mainly, it’s just such a well crafted, joyous trilogy with genuine humour and thrills.
Kaisfatdad says
Frank Capra’s It happened one night (1934) starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert was brilliant when I first saw it in 1975. I rewatched it recently and it is still as funny, romantic and vivacious as ever. I’ve aged a tad. It hasn’t.
Gary says
My favourite pre-me films are Freaks, 12 Angry Men and Whatever Happened To Baby Jane. All fall into the ‘still brill’ category. I watched the latter recently after the brillsville The Feud telly series. I made everyone else everywhere watch it too and they all loved it.
Neela says
First time I saw 2001 I was in my late teens. Mid nineties. Didn’t get it, but my mind was blown. Saw it again recently on big screen. Mind blown again. Still don’t get it though.
Twang says
Old faves…
Blazing Saddles
Animal House
A bridge too far
Battle of Britain
Patton
Wild Geese
Connery Bond movies
Room with a view
When Harry met Sally
Good the bad and the ugly
Un Coeur en hiver
Amile
Conspiracy
Blues brothers
Bird
Trading places
Groundhog day
….I could go on. All seen multiple times. Yes I am running my eyes along the shelf and yes they are vaguely in order…
Gary says
If you be liking A Room With A View (as do I – big EM Forster fan) there’s an interesting telly versh on YouTube. It’s not as good as the Merch-Ivory film, but it’s interesting and free and the chap who plays Cecil is more believable than D-Day Lewis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mldXUTz3yg
Twang says
No HBC? Come on.
Vulpes Vulpes says
Wot?
Casablanca?
Jean de Florette & Manon des Sources?
Lawrence Of Arabia?
Bridge On The River Kwai?
Empire Of The Sun?
Heresy!
😉
You should have gone on at least that far!
Lunaman says
Jean de Florette & Manon des Sources – def’ on my list. Wonderful films.
Twang says
Agreed.
count jim moriarty says
Thirded.
Arthur Cowslip says
I’ve never actually seen them! I have been kind of put off by the reputation they have as wispy period dramas. Have I got them wrong?
Twang says
They are actually quite dark. Not at all wispy. Go for it.
Lunaman says
Arthur Cowslip – I’d like to think you will enjoy them. Have a go and let us know.
NigelT says
There are some films I will watch over and over again until my grave….
American Graffiti
2001
Goldfinger
Battle Of Britain
Sink The Bismark
Back To The Future Trilogy
Independence Day
Woodstock
A Hard Days Night
Help!
Terminator 2
The Sting
Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid
Apollo 13
Arthur Cowslip says
ooh I forgot about American Graffiti, yes that’s terrific.
Have you seen Dazed and Confused and Everybody Wants Some, both by Richard Linklater? They basically take the template of American Graffiti and apply it to (respectively) the last day of school in 1976, and the first day of college in 1981 (or 80 maybe). Two of my all-time favourite films.
fishface says
Everybody Wants Some…..
Track two on Van Halen’s “Women And Children First”
Released in 1980…so i’m guessing that year.
Arthur Cowslip says
I didn’t know it was named after a Van Halen song! I did think it was an odd title…
slotbadger says
goodfellas. gets better with age
Moose the Mooche says
Airplane. The ultimate trip.
Feedback_File says
Bullitt – brilliant script, action, soundtrack and McQueens crowning glory
Alien, Aliens – 2 very different films but both look just as good today as then
dai says
Many Hitchcock films, Wilder, Welles, Kubrick etc. Great films remain great. I watched the Back to the Future trilogy recently with my daughter, they are great, but we were laughing at 2015 scenes, they didn’t get that right!
Gary says
Talking of the Hitch, I watched Rope the other day. It’s good, but you can see the joins. Especially if you read on IMDB where they’re coming before you watch. “Single take” my bottom!
It’s inspired, very loosely, by the Leopold and Loeb case. There hasn’t been a decent proper film of that case. There should be. It’s a fascinating case and Clarence Darrow’s defence speech is worthy of a movie on it’s own (although he did go on a bit).
dai says
Yes. I like it, but it is basically an experiment of 10 minute takes. Never thought it was the calibre of Vertigo, Rear Window, Shadow of a Doubt etc. Seemed more dated than others from same period when I first saw it in the 80s.
One thing I wonder about Hitchcock is whether his sometime attitude to women holds up. e.g. Stewart is basically a stalker and a bully in Vertigo, but I view him as deranged.
dai says
And Rope couldn’t be filmed in one take as the cameras only had enough film for around 10 minutes. I think it was always clear where the takes started and ended with him focusing on the back of someone’s jacket or something.
Gary says
Dunno why but I’d thought it was supposed to be one take.
The back of jacket thing is there (twice I think) but there are also two or three “blink and you’ll miss them” straight cuts.
dai says
It’s supposed to look like one take, like a play. Impossible to do, so he approximates it. Generally between 7 and 10 min takes, which must have been a challenge for the actors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rope_(film)#Long_takes
Moose the Mooche says
Steptoe and Son did that all the time… In front of an audience. Come to that a lot of drama and comedy shows were done straight-no-edits before about 1970, recorded or not. Those actors must have had titanium sphincters.
dai says
Yeah, good point. Most film actors who didn’t have stage experience may have found it more of a challenge.
duco01 says
Wasn’t there a recent episode in “Inside No.9” season 4, where they recorded the whole thing live with no editing, in exactly 30 minutes in front of an audience? I seem to recall reading something about that.
Gatz says
There was a ‘live’ one which turned out to be a homage to Ghostwatch.
Arthur Cowslip says
Oooh I must have missed that. I love that show but I didn’t know anything about a special live episode.
dai says
There have been live Corrie episodes and actually if you go back to 40s and 50s a lot of TV plays etc were broadcast live.
Sewer Robot says
Yes, once upon a time the bulk of tv was live. American sitcoms are weird, though, with their “fumed in front of a live studio audience obsession and, in recent years, the trend of an “all live episode” once a season (and, being America, that means doing it twice – once for each coast) – a bit like skipping the entire Jackie Chan movie and just going straight to the goof reel at the end…
Gary says
Eastenders has done a few live specials.
I’m of the opinion that Eastenders is superb telly. Given the dichotomy of having to be vaguely believable while also having to provide constant drama, I think it’s pretty well written and I find the acting, for the most part, astonishingly good.*
*A notable exception being Danny Dyer. He’s a shite actor.
dai says
Eastenders is just so miserable. If anything good ever happens to a character you can be sure they will get their comeuppance soon.
Gary says
It can be. It can also be hilarious. Gary Oldman’s sister’s character, Big Mo, cracks me up sometimes. As does the character Kim.
Rufus T Firefly says
I remember “Swoon” as being pretty good and based on the Leopold and Loeb case. Although given the thread that inspired this one, maybe it’s another that might not stand up! Incidentally, I once briefly met Armand Deutsch, who was said to have been the murderers’ original target. That must have been interesting to live with…
retropath2 says
It’s a Wonderful Life makes my Christmas completer every year. Ee-yaw ee-yaw.
fentonsteve says
See also The Third Man.
I saw it on a fresh print at the cinema a few years ago and thought “who needs colour, or surround sound?”
Arthur Cowslip says
Ooh good one. I saw it in the cinema a couple of years ago, must have been the same re-release you saw. It was amazing – even having watched the Blu Ray a few times I still noticed stuff in the background and the scene composition I had never noticed before. You can’t beat the big screen.
dai says
Love The Third Man. Most of older films that are amongst my favourites were seen at one time or another in the cinema. Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The Apartment, It’s a Wonderful Life, Vertigo, Rear Window, 2001 etc. A coincidence?
fentonsteve says
The Cambridge Arts Cinema moved building about a decade ago to about 200 yards from where I was working at the time. To celebrate re-opening, it screened classics for a year. I used to pop in for the 5pm showing on my way home each week. Happy days.
exilepj says
Gregory’s Girl … a film I could watch any number of times
dai says
Started watching Local Hero the other night. Struggled.
Arthur Cowslip says
Noooo! Really?? Local Hero? One of my favourites, and I could have added that to my list above. I find it endlessly rewatchable! “Are there two “G”s in “Bugger off”?”
dai says
Probably just me, it was always a bit twee and relied a lot on a type of Ealing comedy situation. But the Burt Lancaster character is annoying and I found the first half an hour to be a bit all over the place in terms of narrative structure and character development.
fishface says
Midnight Cowboy…
I watch it every couple of years and it seems to get better.
Arthur Cowslip says
Great choice. “I’m walkin’ here! I’m walkin’!”
Uncle Wheaty says
True Lies
The Graduate
A Bridge Too Far
The Eagle Has Landed
Zulu
as a start
Arthur Cowslip says
Ooh, True Lies, really? That’s an interesting choice. I don’t remember it really having an impact on me at the time. Does it have hidden depths?
Gatz says
Cynical young adult stuff that still works for me as a cynical adult – Heathers and Clerks.
John Walters says
For me the 1970’s was the best decade for great films and I am a big fan of the auteur film directors from that period. So here we go :
Both the Godfather movies
Apocalypse Now
Taxi Driver
Raging Bull ( prob early eighties)
The Deer Hunter
Mash
Badlands
Jaws
Close Encounters
Don’t Look Now
( Great shout for “The Third Man” Fentonsteve )
Carl says
Straying further overseas, Akira Kurosawa’s films: Rashomon, Throne Of Blood, Seven Samurai and his late masterpiece Ran.
Black Type says
Singin’ In The Rain
High Society
Dead Poets Society
Shadowlands
JFK
Gary says
Dead Poets? God I loathed that film. Hollywood formula pap pretending to be profound. Mind you, I loathed pretty much every film Robin Williams made, with the very notable exception of One Hour Photo. I think cos that was the only film where his usual somewhat creepy on-screen persona was perfect for the character and story.
Martin Hairnet says
I thought he was good in The Birdcage.
Moose the Mooche says
HWEITP.
Sewer Robot says
I didn’t even know he was in Trading Places! Was he in the gorilla suit?
Gary says
I like to think we all were, in a funny kind of way.
Arthur Cowslip says
I see what you did there…
ISWYDT
Black Type says
To be fair, I don’t think the writer and director fit into a typically “Hollywood” mode, and most of the cast were young and as-yet-unknown actors. I certainly don’t consider it formulaic.
Arthur Cowslip says
Hm, I remember really liking it, even if it felt a bit syrupy. Will need to give it another watch.
Gary says
Totes formula.
(https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheHollywoodFormula)
Neil is the protagonist. His goal is to be an actor. His antagonist is his father. The relationship character is Mr Keating. The plot follows the Hollywood Formula (see link) to a tee.
Rigid Digit says
Quadrophenia
Blues Brothers
Trainspotting
Life Of Brian
Spinal Tap
Get Carter
The Italian Job
Long Good Friday
Never disappoint
Gary says
What did you think of Trainspotting 2, Rigid? While not quite scaling the heights and sheer wowza of the first, as sequels go I thought it was pretty darn good. An excellent ‘companion piece’ to the first.
Rigid Digit says
Enjoyed it. Couple of times it felt like back-references to the original were being levered in. T2 is also a stand-alone film without needing to see the original
Certainly not a “let’s get the band back together” rehash.
Lunaman says
OK – although I had a quick look at the thread I haven’t really spent any time thinking about this but here are a few that I would still watch if the time was there.
Jean de Florette & Manon des Sources
The Big Blue
Hannibal
Jaws
Nuts in May – it may look dated but i love it.
Roxanne
Martin Hairnet says
Camping with Keith and Candice Marie. Love it.
Freddy Steady says
The Wizard of Oz. I was sure it was in colour though…
Mike_H says
There was a recoloured version, I think.
Cross of Iron is one of the few WWII movies I still enjoy.
Sewer Robot says
Eh?
Kansas is in black & white and Oz is in Colour.
(Cos, as we know, if you dream in black & white, that means that you’re a psycho…)
count jim moriarty says
As opposed to the magnificent A Matter Of Life And Death, where the real world sequences were in colour, and the ‘heaven’ sequences in black and white.
Now that’s a film I never get tired of seeing. One of a string of superb Powell/Pressberger movies, and easily the best work David Niven ever did.
Arthur Cowslip says
(oooh, I didn’t like A Matter of Life and Death. Sorry. I was really looking forward to it and had heard lots of great things about it. I just found it too cloying and sentimental. Same reason I dislike It’s A Wonderful Life…. )
Neela says
A Matter Of Life And Death was their best since Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son.
dai says
It’s a Wonderful Life is an incredibly dark film.
Hamlet says
It’s amazing that Casablanca was actually made during WW2. It still feels fresh.
Neela says
Watched for the first time maybe five years ago. Really liked it. It had a lot to live up to, to say the least. Obviously it has so many classic scenes, I almost felt I had already seen it. It has also been spoofed many times.
And the most classic line, “play it again, Sam”, isn’t even in it.
Moose the Mooche says
….and Kenneth Williams never said “Oooh Matron” and Jimmy Cagney never said “You dirty rat”.
History is wrong.
Neela says
Especially on social media, very often people didn’t say what they said. It’s been taken out of context. It was a joke. Some of my best friends are drummers. I really think Danes are lovely people.