Ok I will do it.
List your top 10 films in order. Include year in case of any confusion. This format please (use dashes not dots or brackets):
1 – Some Like it Hot – 1959
2 – etc
(preferably without a blank line in between)
No. 1 gets 10 points down to 10 getting 1 pt. If no order given then 5pts each.
Please do not include multiple films as one entry. e.g. You cannot say Godfather Trilogy, you have to choose part I or part II (or both) nobody will choose part III.
Deadline is midnight UK time July 31st.
Thanks to all participants.
You first.
Still working on the positions
1 – The Apartment – 1960
2 – It’s a Wonderful Life – 1946
3 – Vertigo – 1958
4 – The Third Man – 1949
5 – Brief Encounter – 1945
6 – North by Northwest – 1959
7 – Groundhog Day – 1993
8 – Withnail and I – 1987
9 – Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – 1986
10 – Goodfellas – 1990
Change
10- The Purple Rose of Cairo – 1985
11 – Goodfellas – 1990
I’ll open the batting then. I won’t mention that this is impossible because I reckon everyone realises that so without further ado.
1 – A Matter Of Life And Death – 1946
2 – Tokyo Story – 1953
3 – Casablanca – 1942
4 – The Bride Of Frankenstein – 1935
5 – La Dolce Vita – 1960
6 – Double Indemnity – 1944
7 – Rear Window – 1954
8 – The Discrete Charm Of The Bourgeoisie – 1972
9 – Badlands – 1973
10 – The Good The Bad And The Ugly – 1966
I don’t what will be I my list yet, but the one thing I do know for sure is that my number one pick will be the same.
Tell us then if that’s the case anyway.
Awesome list
I felt bad not having room for Double Indemnity. Was the great Edward G. Robinson ever better? That’s a trick question, obviously, cos he was brill in everything.
I could have put together a list of just Billy Wilder films tbh and yes Edward G was a class act. My favourite of his many great performances was probably in Key Largo but as you say “brill in everything”.
Setting the bar high right from the off, there, Pencil.
A top five hundred would be easily doable but an alternative top ten might be…
Chinatown.
Body And Soul.
The French Connection.
Ace In The Hole.
Lee Diaboliques.
City Of God.
Akiru.
Spirit Of The Beehive.
Wings Of Desire.
This Sporting Life.
It really is impossible to narrow down. I could go on and on.
Lee Diaboliques chanteur principal de médecin de bonne humeur.
Ace in the Hole and This Sporting Life are great shouts. Oh and Spirit of the Beehive.
1-Where Eagles Dare-1969
2-Young Frankenstein-1974
3-Blazing Saddles-1973
4-Jason and the argonauts-1963
5-Jaws- 1975
6-Rocky-1976
7-Galaxy Quest-1999
8- Goodbye Mr. Chips-1939
9-The Matrix-1999
10-Sleeper-1973
Your numbers 4-7 are all films I have sat and watched with my son in the past 6 months!
Nice!
Broadsword calling Danny Boy – watching Jaws a couple of weeks ago on Amazon Prime I was blown away by the print quality – the film looking as good as I’ve ever seen it.
1 – Blade Runner – 1982
2 – Jaws – 1975
3 – Casablanca – 1942
4 – Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid – 1982
5 – Airplane! – 1980
6 – Groundhog Day – 1993
7 – The Magnificent Seven – 1960
8 – King Kong – 1933
9 – Manhattan – 1979
10 – It’s A Wonderful Life – 1946
Nice list. The majority of those were on my long list.
Yes all faves apart from Bladerunner which I don’t think I’ve seen.
You ought to watch it, cos it’s fantastic. It’s one of those films I could happily watch every week. And the soundtrack is also up there with the very best too. The collector’s edition Blu Ray also contains possibly the best ‘making of’ that I’ve seen, which, at 214 minutes long, is almost twice as long as the film. It’s incredible seeing how they did the effects, it being before they could do everything on computer. And the added bonus, if all that isn’t enough, is that the sequel is one of those rare treats, a sequel made decades after the original that was worth the wait (see also Doctor Sleep and Mad Max: Fury Road).
Consider it done.
Let us know what you think! It’s one of my faves as well and I’ve loved it since I was a teenager.
It came very close to making my top 10.
When I bought 2049 I bought the collector’s edition that comes with two of the Cool square tumblers that Deckard drinks from in the original film. Sadly, cos of my tummy* I stopped drinking shortly after, so they have to be content with sitting on the shelf looking cool.
*the tummy that a few days ago, when preparing to do the first exercises of my new lose weight/improve core stability regime, decided to burst through my abdominal muscles to make me look like John Hurt in Alien. It’s diastasis recti apparently, which is something ladies occasionally get after giving birth. It’s where your abdominal muscles (6 pack – not that mine ever resembled a 6 pack) separate and your stomach pops through the middle. Mine is all the way from the bottom of the breastbone to my belly button. So instead of all the weight loss exercises, I shall now be trying to sort that out. The GP cheerfully told me that it’s not something that will ever go away, so I guess it’s yet another medical condition I’ll have to learn to live with. It’s ruddy uncomfortable, I’ll tell you that much. And with me already having chronic upper back pain, I’m likely to soon have lower back pain to go with it. I hate my tummy. Not content with sending things north to choke me in my sleep it’s now trying to burst out the front.
@paul-wad
Best of luck, you’ve got a lot on your plate.
Yes, had a tough few days last week. Whilst I was busy trying to convince the wife that we can get through this, she has continued on with the ex and is arranging to meet up with him, so I guess that’s that then. Now she’s realised that this would be the optimum time to sell the house, which is undoubtedly true, except I wouldn’t be able to get a mortgage due to health reasons, so whereas it would be advantageous to her, it would be a terrible move for me and the kids, but she’s trying her best to push me into selling. And then we went to the private school we were hoping to send our daughter to from September, only to find that the transport from our town is fully booked up and there’s no way she’d be able to get there and back every day on public transport, whilst my wife isn’t really able to take the four hours out of her day to take her there and pick her up (I can’t drive), so we need to come up with a solution and fast, cos she is refusing point blank to go to either of the two local schools. And then my stomach tries to burst!
It’s okay though, cos it’s not like Barnsley are likely to get relegated (we have to beat Forest today and then win at Brentford to even stand a chance), so I have the footy to take my mind off it. Should be an easy 6 points for you lot next season at least!
@freddy-steady Bloody hell, I didn’t expect that. 93rd minute winner against Forest on Sunday and 91st tonight and Brentford. We actually deserved both wins and we’re unlucky to lose 1-0 at Leeds last week. Us and Luton are the only teams in the Championship that lived within our means and we both stayed up. The EFL should grow a pair and relegate Derby and Wednesday for the blatant cheating, but they won’t. Anyway, we’ll have to put our customary two defeats to Ipswich back a year! I had a great night tonight celebrating with the kids, whilst the missus was (surprise, surprise) in the pub. It was great to have something nice to share after a tough couple of weeks. The (soon to be ex) mother in law is down tomorrow for a few days though. Hopefully this will be the last time I have to set eyes on her. Every cloud…
Well done. And what about Swansea? 6 goal turnaround to pip Forest by 1 goal for the playoffs. Wonder what the odds on that were?
With injury time goals for Swansea and against Forest. With 6 games to go, none of the bottom 5 teams ended up going down. Barnsley spent 313 days in the relegation zone, which has to be some sort of record, finally climbing out in injury time of the last game of the season. I reckon we’ll do well next season, cos the youngest team in the league have now had a year playing together. A couple of decent signings and we just might get to the last week of the season without having to work out what we need to do to stay up. And we get to play Rotherham next season too. We’ve spent the past 4 seasons missing each other, as we both yo-yo between the Championship and League One!
@paul-wad
Bloody brilliant! What an escape. Pleased Luton stayed up too
So without too much thought, and doubtless missing many that I should have at least considered, her we go:
1 – A Matter of Life and Death – 1946
2 – Kind Hearts and Coronets – 1949
3 – This Is Spinal Tap – 1984
4 – Don’t Look Know – 1973
5 – The Big Lebowski – 1998
6 – Clerks – 1998
7 – Local Hero – 1983
8 – In Bruges – 2008
9 – The Wicker Man – 1973
10 – Whatever Happened to Baby Jane – 1962
There’s a bias towards ‘safe place’ films which I can retreat into completely whenever I need to block out the world (even Don’t Look Now works like that for me because Venice) which might explain the leaning towards the comic. The last time we ran a film poll we the winner was Local Hero, which caused @locust no end of distress. It would terrible if the same thing happened again, that’s all I’m saying.
I can see I’m going to get a load of recommendations here.
@Gatz I don’t remember that poll (and I won’t look it up before voting this time, as I’m curious to see how my own Top 10 will have changed – or not), but yes; I don’t understand the love everyone seems to have for that film. It’s Forsyth’s worst by a mile!
I’ll have to think for a while before voting, films are more difficult to rank – and remember!
“I’ll be back”.
@Locust You’ve clearly never seen Being Human – a dreadful mess.
@Bamber You’re correct – the last one of his I saw was Housekeeping. I didn’t know about Being Human and the wiki synopsis sounds awful…so OK; “one of his worst”… 🙂
Actually, it’s mostly just very dull. And annoying. And not funny.
IMO, I hasten to add, before you all start yelling!
We wouldn’t shout dear Locust. We would just adopt a Scottish burr and say, ‘Are there two ‘g’s in ‘Bugger off?’’
I love Housekeeping. Such a beautiful film. To use the most Afterword word of all – underrated! It brings a tear to my eye every time I watch the two sisters drifting apart. Of the other lesser-known Bill Forsyth movies, Breaking In was a good, if low-key attempt at an American film. Worth seeking out.
1 – The Godfather – 1972
2 – The Good the Bad and the Ugly – 1966
3 – When Harry met Sally – 1989
4 – Blazing Saddles – 1974
5 – Animal House – 1978
6 – A room with a view – 1985
7 – It’s a wonderful life – 1946
8 – The Warriors – 1979
9 – All the President’s Men – 1976
10 – This is Spinal Tap – 1984
At number 11, The Terminator.
1 – The Princess Bride – 1987
2 – The Godfather – 1972
3 – The Dark Knight – 2008
4 – Blade Runner – 1982
5 – Shaun Of The Dead – 2004
6 – The Godfather Part II – 1974
7 – Annie Hall – 1977
8 – Casablanca – 1942
9 – Lawrence Of Arabia – 1962
10 – Some Like It Hot – 1959
I’ve already got a list of my top 250 films [and he wonders why his wife is leaving him
– Ed.] and what’s interesting is that the amount of films per decade rises each decade From the 30s until the 70s and then falls each decade afterwards. When I saw this I thought how on Earth are there more films in there from the 60s than the 40s, but then I remembered the holy trinity – Hammer, James Bond and (the good years of the) Carry Ons!
1 – This is Spinal Tap – 1984
2 – KOYAANISQATSI – 1982
3 – Vice Versa – 1948
4 – Life of Brian – 1980
5 – Metropolis – 1927
6 – Psycho – 1960
7 – Glengarry Glen Ross – 1992
8 – Duck Soup – 1933
9 – Hunt for the Wilderpeople – 2016
10 – Nil by Mouth – 1997
I had a good think about this. These are wonderful films which all have a back story, a specific resonance. The no 1 selection is always going to be my top answer for ever and ever.
Good call Glengarry, amazing script and the most amazing cast.
Agree. Jack Lemmon in particular.
Possibly his greatest performance and there were many other great ones
Go the Kiwis at No 9!
The Kiwis will appear in my poll, too!
And appeared in mine! Sheer joy.
Going for faves that I can watch over and over (and, in fact, have)….all very lowbrow!
1 – American Graffiti – 1973
2 – Independence Day – 1996
3 – Apollo 13 – 1995
4 – Woodstock – 1970
5 – Sink The Bismark – 1960
6 – Saving Private Ryan – 1998
7 – 2001 – 1968
8 – Terminator 2 – 1991
9 – A Hard Days Night – 1964
10 – Back To The Future – 1985
1 – The Third Man – 1949
2 – Kind Hearts And Coronets – 1950
3 – School For Scoundrels – 1960
4 – The Big Lebowski – 1998
5 – The Thing – 1982
6 – What’s Up Doc – 1972
7 – Young Frankenstein- 1974
8 – The French Connection – 1972
9 – North By North West – 1959
10 – The Odd Couple – 1968
Always loved The Odd Couple ever since I first saw it as a kid. Jack Lemmon and Walter Mattau are just wonderful together.
1 – The Godfather
2 – Goodfellas
3 – The Commitments
4 – Green book
5 – No way out
6 – Top gun (I love a bit of aircraft carrier porn)
7 – The Sting
8 – Local hero
9 – Great escape
10 – The magnificent seven (Steve McQueen version)
Oh I’m going to enjoy this. Just extend the deadline by six months or so to give me time to work out my top ten……
1 2001: A Space Odyssey
2 Some Like It Hot
3 The Sweet Smell Of Success
4 Head
5 Blade Runner
6 The Third Man
7 The Searchers
8 Unforgiven
9 The Maltese Falcon
10 The One I Stupidly Forgot When Compiling This List Without Really Thinking About It Enough
1. Get Carter (1971)
2. Pulp Fiction (1994)
3. Zulu (1964)
4. Deadpool (2016)
5. The Godfather (1972)
6. Harvey (1950)
7. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
8. Blackhawk Down (2001)
9. The Untouchables (1987)
10. The Blues Brothers (1980)
Near misses included Casino, Goodfellas, The Band Played On, The Sting, Stardust, Spinal Tap, 12 Angry Men, Airplane, The Glen Miller Story
1-A Matter of Life and Death-1946
2-The Big Lebowski-1998
3-Withnail and I-1987
4-School for Scoundrels-1960
5-Some Like It Hot-1959
6-Brighton Rock-1948
7-Catch-22-1970
8-Guys and Dolls-1955
9-Mulholland Drive-2001
10-Hunt for the Wilderpeople-2016
Near misses include Battle of the River Plate and Expresso Bongo.
10 The French Connection
OK, this is an impossible exercise, so I’m going to choose ten of my most loved and most rewatchable films. Films that I loved when I saw them and still think about, but don’t necessarily want to see again, didn’t make the list.
1 – Tampopo – 1985
2 – Dazed and Confused – 1993
3 – Picnic at Hanging Rock – 1975
4 – M. Hulot’s Holiday – 1953
5 – Repulsion – 1965
6 – Le Petit Baigneur – 1968
7 – Modern Times – 1936
8 – Pinocchio – 1940
9 – The Mummy – 1932
10 – Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore – 1974
Other films I love includes:
Happiness, Aguirre – Wrath of God, The Night of the Hunter, Death in Venice, Körkarlen (The Phantom Carriage), Some Like It Hot, Psycho, A Special Day, Broadway Danny Rose, Harvey, Foul Play, Wonder Man, Bringing Up Baby, A Night at the Opera, Waiting for Guffman, A Mighty Wind, Life of Brian, Subway, The Haunting (-63), The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Band Wagon, Blade Runner, Manhattan, Alien, Candyman, Desperately Seeking Susan, Hobson’s Choice, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, Miracle in Milan, African Queen, Guys and Dolls, Spirited Away, Fellini Roma, Freaks, Galaxy Quest, The King of Masks, Maurice, The Music Man, Cinema Paradiso, Cluny Brown, The Secret Garden (-49), The Shop Around the Corner, His Girl Friday, That Sinking Feeling, Dogfight, Together, Goodbye Again, The Apartment, The Empire Strikes Back…all worth a place on a list of some kind, alongside many others.
Hooray for Monsieur Hulot!
I’m encouraged that no one (I think) has yet included the ludicrously over-rated Shawshank Redemption, a perfectly fine and entertaining film but the fawning adulation it often receives is beyond my understanding.
1 – Kagemusha – 1980
2 – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – 1975
3 – Fitzcarraldo – 1982
4 – Night On Earth – 1991
5 – The Conversation – 1974
6 – Some Like It Hot – 1959
7 – Apocalypse Now – 1979
8 – The Godfather – 1972
9 – Paths Of Glory – 1957
10 – The Maltese Falcon – 1941
Near misses: Unforgiven, The Apartment, Goodfellas, Cinema Paradiso, Seven, A Woman Under The Influence, Once Upon A Time In The West, Play It Again Sam, Love and Death, Pan’s Labyrinth, Raging Bull, Capernaum, 2001: A Space Odessy, North By Northwest, Rashomon, The Big Lebowski, Fargo, The Odd Couple, Mystery Train, and many others…
Here goes……
1 – 12 Angry Men – 1957
2 – Life of Brian – 1979
3 – The Usual Suspects – 1995
4 – Se7en – 1995
5 – Inception – 2010
6 – Miller’s Crossing – 1990
7 – A Room With A View – 1985
8 – Goodfellas – 1990
9 – Raiders Of The Lost Ark – 1981
10 – The Wedding Singer – 1998
Some tough choices there and many that could have made the cut on another day (although I did want to include the Wedding Singer as my ‘dumb’ choice – a movie I go back to often when wanting some light relief). Some of the bubbling under included…..The Prestige, Reservoir Dogs, Casablanca, It’s A Wonderful Life, Blade Runner, Spinal Tap……..
La Strada – 1954
Amarcord – 1973
The Godfather Part 2 – 1974
Hannah And Her Sisters – 1986
Manhattan – 1979
Bicycle Thieves – 1948
A Hard Day’s Night – 1964
The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie – 1972
Traffic – 1971
Vertigo – 1958
So hard to choose! I would have put La Dolce Vita there cos it’s a great film but I find it hard to watch these days. Had to have a Hitchcock, had to have a couple of Woody Allens, and would have added Tati’s Playtime if I could turn it up to eleven.
Curiously, but unsurprisingly, there’s nothing there from this century, or even the nineties. I thought Parasite was wonderful but somehow it seems too new, maybe I’ll include in the 2030 poll if we’re all still here. Could have sneaked in a Coen Brothers one I suppose but which one?
Are these in order?
Sorry @dai – yes they are!
Coen bros – I think it has to be Big Lebowski, which is simultaneously funny and cool but also gripping and dark , looks great, and is very well acted. Of course, you could argue a similar case for the top notch Raising Arizona, Fargo, Blood Simple and Barton Fink.
Or per my list, the massively underrated Miller’s Crossing.
Nice to see Bicycle Thieves there. I don’t think I’ve seen that since watching it at school. It is worth hunting down the 1990’s (I think) pastiche of it, Icicle Thieves. I think its a brilliant film anyway but even better if you know the otiginal.
1. Seven Samurai -1954
2. Casablanca – 1943
3. A Matter Of Life and Death – 1946
4. The Wages Of Fear – 1953
5. Tree Of Life – 2011
6. Godfather II – 1974
7. Aliens – 1986
8. Midnight Run – 1988
9. In Bruges – 2008
10. Come And See – 1985
So many omissions- Key Largo, Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, French Connection, Badlands, Throne Of Blood, Ran, Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles, That Obscure Object Of Desire, Stalker, Goodfellas, Shawn Of The Dead, Bicycle Theives, Wild Strawberries, The Jesus Of Montreal, Static, Passport To Pimlico, Fitzcarraldo & on & on.
& Cinema Paradiso!
Good call on Seven Samurai. I am a huge fan of Kurosawa’s films and it is perhaps his most renowned. For those who have never seen it, I strongly recommend it – it’s a stirring piece of work and even better than the admittedly good Western re-make.
Cheers!
I adore Seven Samurai partly because it’s a slow burn, meaning I can settle in for a good long immersive experience.
As far as I know, the critics don’t even consider it his best – that accolade usually goes to Rashomon. Pretty damn good either way!
1 – The Ladykillers – 1955
2 – Spirited Away – 2001
3 – The Blues Brothers – 1980
4 – Terminator 2: Judgement Day – 1991
5 – The Incredibles – 2004
6 – The Wrong Trousers – 1993
7 – Raiders of the Lost Ark – 1981
8 – A Muppet Christmas Carol – 1992
9 – The Wind Rises – 2013
10 – Chico and Rita – 2010
1. – Distant Voices, Still Lives – 1988
2. – The Long Day Closes – 1992
3. – Comrades – 1986
4. – Pulp Fiction – 1994
5. – Apocalypse Now – 1979
6. – The Good, The Bad & The Ugly – 1966
7. – This Is Spinal Tap – 1984
8. – Jean De Florette/Manon Des Sources – 1986
9. – 12 Angry Men – 1957
10. – Bright Star – 2009
Bubbing under: Boyhood (2014), The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007), The Wind That Shakes The Barley (2006), Peterloo (2018)
Foul! Jean De Florette/Manon Des Sources is two films. Both superb of course.
If this is the case then choose one please
Nazi.
This is just like Sophie’s Choice, with me out-performing Meryl Streep in terms of both intensity and anguish.
I choose Jean de Florette.
And, sorry, can I change my number 10 to Big Wednesday (1978) please? Ta.
But but Manon has Emanuelle Beart umm, you know, dancing. 😓
Actually they are both great but I’d probably go for J de F Too as Depardieu is just superb.
Makes me think, must watch Green Card again.
1 – It’s a wonderful life
2 – One flew over the cuckoos nest
3 – Badlands
4 – Apocalypse Now
5 – Field of Dreams
6 – Annie Hal
7 – Up
8 – Alien
9 – Groundhog Day
10 – 12 Angry Men
Annie Hal is a mashup between 2001 and Annie Hall?
Wasn’t Annie Hat the ill advised third episode of the franchise?
Annie Hal is the sequel to Shallow Hal. Jack Black is still having trouble fancying fat women so he has a sex change instead.
“Open the fridge door Hal.”
“I’m sorry Alvy, I can’t do that.”
1 – Apocalypse Now
2 – The Piano
3 – The Basketball Diaries
4 – Night of the Living Dead
5 – Trainspotting
6 – Thunderbolt and Lightfoot
7 – Local Hero
8 – One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
9 – Betty Blue
10 – 28 Days Later
Not much thought there, just the first few I can think of, if challenged to think of a film to want to watch again, despite knowing backwards.
The Basketball Diaries is an interesting choice. Have you read the book? Do you like Carroll’s music?
No, neither; it was a favourite of my then teenage daughter and evokes those days. I nearly swapped for Who Killed Gilbert Grape, so you can guess whose picture was on her wall, the man I call Leonard Caper to this day. Another almost was Kalifornia with David Anchovy. Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis at their scuttiest.
I’d recommend checking out Catholic Boy. Great album.
DiCaprio was well good back then, wasn’t he? Gilbert Grape, Basketball Diaries, Total Eclipse, Romeo + Juliet – all really good performances.
I really liked Kalifornia too, though it could be argued that Too Young To Die was Brad and Juliette at their scuttiest. Depends on your definition of scutty, I suppose.
1. Kes – 1969
2. Once Upon a time in America -1984
3. If…. – 1968
4. Annie Hall – 1977
5. Cinema Paradiso – 1984
6. A Hard Days Night – 1964
7. The Graduate – 1967
8. One flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – 1975
9. Pulp Fiction – 1994
10. Raiders of the Lost Ark – 1981
Keys, made in Barnsley in 1969, just like me!
Who could forget that beautiful scene where Billy Casper is on the moor, training his keys to return to him? “Here, Keys!”
I know I have clumsy fingers, considering I haven’t been able to feel them for 16 years, but the Y isn’t even anywhere near the E or the S, so I was wondering how on Earth I’d managed to do that one, but then I realised it was predictive text. Must have forgotten to change the keyboard from English to Yorkshire.
Done off the top of my head in 5 minutes and posted without looking at anybody elses so I am not influenced. I may revise later.
In no order, 5 points each – films that stand up to repeated viewings.
Casablanca – 1945?
Seven Samurai – 195?
Seventh Seal – 195?
The Apartment – 1959?
Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner 196?
Last Picture Show – 1972?
Badlands – 1973?
Monty Python and Holy Grail – 1975?
Love and Death – 1975
Eraserhead – 1977
Contenders/Just outside – Annie Hall, Carlito’s Way, Airplane, Animal House, Blue Valentine oh God and then there’s Scorcese/De Niro and Jack Nicholson.
Just had a quick look at others’ entries and would probably have added Billy Liar and The Graduate to my choices, and then there’s If and Kes. What’s the deadline again? I am finding this easier and more enjoyable than the music one.
Music is on nearly all the time for me – ie background to everything but watching a film is a stand alone special occasion so I think more about the ones that stay with one and merit repeated viewings.
I have a shortlist of 20, so far.
Back later ..
OK.
1 Once Upon A Time In The West
2 Brazil
3 Get Carter (original)
4 Fargo
5 Night Of The Hunter (original)
6 Cross Of Iron
7 The Third Man
8 The Usual Suspects
9 Chinatown
10 Pan’s Labyrinth
Excellent
1 – Aliens – 1986
2 – Still Walking – 2008
3 – Blade Runner – 1982
4 – Jaws – 1975
5 – The Grand Budapest Hotel – 2014
6 – Infernal Affairs – 2002
7 – Before Sunset – 2004
8 – The Big Lebowski – 1998
9 – This Is Spinal Tap – 1984
10 – Police Story – 1985
Also in the mix: City Of God, Yojimbo, Duck Soup, The Thing, Alien, Wolf Children, La Dolce Vita, Cinema Paradiso, The Navigator, Apocalypse Now, CE3K, Hunt For The Wilderpeople, Arrival, Wood Job!, Fish Story, The Exorcist….
1 Mulholland Drive 2001
2 2001 : A Space Odyssey 1968
3 Taxi Driver 1976
4 The Conversation 1974
5 Bad Timing 1980
6 Groundhog Day 1993
7 The Shining 1980
8 Barton Fink 1991
9 Kill List 2011
10 Sleuth 1972
I’m not a regular cinema goer and don’t watch many films on the TV, so my choices are very superficial.
1. Blade Runner 1982
2. The Godfather Part II 1974
3. Life Is Beautiful 1997
4. The Conversation 1974
5. Groundhog Day 1993
6. Stop Making Sense 1984
7. 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968
8. The Dark Knight 2008
9, The Shining 1980
10. Amadeus 1984
Oops! Forgot A Hard Day’s Night. Oh well.
I wouldn’t call any of those “very superficial”. All good quality stuff there (especially The Conversation, which is in my list) and nothing at all to be coy about.
😄
You can change Tigger if you like? I think The Conversation is a near masterpiece, watched it recently though and felt it dragged in the middle somewhat, the party after the conference.
An excellent list, with one exception. I went to a screening of “Life is Beautiful” at whatever London Film Festival it first showed at. Having endured Mr Benigni in “Johnny Stecchino”, I had intended to avoid him for the foreseeable future. But I had an Italian friend who wanted to see LIB for a second time – and Benigni himself was supposed to be there for a Q&A. It was only good manners that prevented me from cheering loudly when the Nazi guard finally put our hero – and me – out of our misery, by shooting him dead – something I had been hoping someone would do much sooner than the final reel. However Benigni got the final laugh (on the world) by a) winning an Oscar and (on me) b) failing to show for the Q&A.
Crumbs, that was hard work. There’s bound to be something I loved at the time which has completely slipped my mind but here goes.
1 – Manchester by the Sea – 2016
2 – No Country for Old Men – 2007
3 – The Hunt for the Wilderpeople – 2016
4 – The Disappearance of Alice Creed – 2009
5 – Harry Brown – 2009
6 – Three Billboards outside Epping, Missouri – 2017
7 – Little Miss Sunshine – 2006
8 – The Lives of Others – 2006
9 – Changeling – 2008
10 – Where Eagles Dare – 1968
Honourable mentions for The Assassination of Richard Nixon, Four Lions, This is Spinal Tap, Blue Valentine, Parasite, and Half Nelson.
Has Ebbing moved to Essex then?
Oops. I can’t even blame predictive text.
Remakes of films/TV shows in different countries is not unheard of though so it could happen.
Manchester by the Sea was on my long list – maybe the best new film I’ve seen of the last ten years, though there’s also Moonlight, and Ladybird, and 12 Years a Slave and Pain and Glory and Girlhood and I’ve just realised I had completely forgotten the brilliant Boyhood. Bugger.
1 – A Matter Of Life and Death – 1946
2 – The Life and Death Of Colonel Blimp – 1943
3 – A Canterbury Tale – 1944
4 – I Know Where I’m Going – 1945
5 – Black Narcissus – 1947
6 – Diva – 1981
7 – Tampopo – 1985
8 – Hot Fuzz – 2007
9 – 2001 A Space Odyssey – 1968
10 – The Blue Brothers – 1980
Erm … there’s not enough Powell and Pressburger in this list, GCU. You wanna put a bit more in. Don’t you like “The Red Shoes”?
1 and 2 were always going to be those, and I couldn’t leave the other three out. I do like The Red Shoes, but six P&P would be excessive! Personally think its bettered by the other five.
I’m pretty sure I must have seen your number 10 at some stage, but Pornhub can get a bit samey after a while.
Oops!
1 – A Matter Of Life and Death – 1946
2 – The Life and Death Of Colonel Blimp – 1943
3 – A Canterbury Tale – 1944
4 – I Know Where I’m Going – 1945
5 – Black Narcissus – 1947
6 – Diva – 1981
7 – Tampopo – 1985
8 – Hot Fuzz – 2007
9 – 2001 A Space Odyssey – 1968
10 – The Blues Brothers – 1980
Whittled down from dozens more, and the list would be different tomorrow….
1 – Brief Encounter – 1945
2 – Schindler’s List – 1993
3 – Mulholland Drive – 2001
4 – Casablanca – 1942
5 – Cinema Paradiso – 1988
6 – Le Grand Meaulnes – 1967
7 – The White Ribbon – 2009
8 – Picnic At Hanging Rock – 1975
9 – Brighton Rock – 1947
10 – L’Appartement – 1996
Bubbling under – Bad Day At Black Rock, The Third Man, Au Revoir Les Enfants, The Searchers, The Lives Of Others, Downfall, The Fallen Idol, The Double Life Of Veronique, Hidden, and countless others.
1 – Quadrophenia – 1979
2 – Blues Brothers – 1980
3 – This Is Spinal Tap – 1984
4 – The Long Good Friday – 1980
5 – Life Of Brain – 1979
6 – Love, Honour & Obey – 2000
7 – Still Crazy – 1998
8 – Italian Job – 1969
9 – Lock Stock And Two Smoking Barrels – 1998
10 – The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash – 1978
After doing this a couple of weeks ago on me blog thing, I realised I’d missed Withnail & I (by mistake …) That would be number 11
Meandering reasons for the choices here:
http://rigiddigithasissues.blogspot.com/2020/06/films-facebook-challenge-i-havent-been.html
I stand to be corrected, but I thought the Rutles film was a made-for-TV affair and has never had a cinema release, at least not in the UK. Do TV films count?
Hmmm … yes it was.
I may need a new Number 10 (depending on the judges decision?).
If The Rutles is discounted, my number 11 – Withnail And I – takes it’s place
Withnail it is.
eyethangyou
Here goes
1) One flew over the Cuckoos Nest – 1975
2) The Night Porter – 1974
3) The Motorcycle Diaries – 2004
4) Three billboards outside Ebbing Missouri 2017
5) Thelma and Louise – 1991
6) West Side Story – 1961
7) North by North West – 1959
8) The Excorcist – 1974
9) Sleeping with the enemy – 1991
10) Play Misty for me – 1975
Looking at the initial submissions, is this another poll that should be split into 20th and 21st century?
1 – Blade Runner – 1982
2 – The Godfather – 1972
3 – Groundhog Day – 1993
4 – The Dark Knight – 2008
5 – Back To The Future – 1985
6 – North By Northwest – 1959
7 – The Grapes Of Wrath – 1940
8 – The Third Man – 1949
9 – Goodfellas – 1990
10 – One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest – 1975
This was far more difficult than picking my favourite albums for the recent poll and like many, I suspect, I feel a bit ‘guilty’ about those I left out (Clerks, From Russia With Love, 2001, Godfather II, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot and so on). Hey ho!
Easy.
1 -The Godfather Part 2-1974
2 -The Godfather-1972
3 -Billy Liar-1963
4 -It’s a Wonderful Life-1946
5 -The Wild Bunch-1969
6 -The Haunting-1963
7 -Aguirre- the Wrath of God-1972
8 -Fargo-1996
9 -The Seven Samurai-1954
10 -A Hard Day’s Night-1964
Blimey! everyone’s suggestions could easily be in my top 10. They’re all very good.
However, after 10 seconds of thought (otherwise i would waste days thinking about it) …
1 The Third Man 1949
2 Some Like It Hot 1959
3 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 2004
4 The Long Goodbye 1973
5 La grande bellezza 2013
6 Groundhog Day 1993
7 Le salaire de la peur 1953
8 Toy Story 1995
9 2001: A Space Odyssey 1968
10 Raising Arizona 1987
but on another day could have been any of these
Arrival The Wizard of Oz, Casablanca, Sweet Smell of Success, Psycho, To Kill a Mockingbird, Dr. Strangelove, The Godfather, Annie Hall, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Up, Schindler’s List, Apollo 13, Heat, Gattaca, L.A. Confidential, The Opposite of Sex, Saving Private Ryan, Cloud Atlas, Ghost World, The Sixth Sense, Monsters, Inc., You Can Count on Me, Children of Men, Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain, The Matrix Reloaded, Finding Nemo, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Bringing Up Baby, Cidade de Deus, Only Angels Have Wings, The Fog of War:, Être et avoir, His Girl Friday, Citizen Kane, Lost in Translation, Mou gaan dou, The Station Agent, To Be or Not to Be, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, Mar adentro, Before Sunset, Look Both Ways, It’s a Wonderful Life, Kind Hearts and Coronets, On the Town, The Day the Earth Stood Still, High Noon, Singin’ in the Rain, El laberinto del fauno, Les diaboliques, The Night of the Hunter, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 12 Angry Men, Get Out, Paths of Glory, Touch of Evil, Village of the Damned, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Per qualche dollaro in più, Alfie, Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo, The Graduate, In the Heat of the Night, Get Carter, The Last Picture Show, Cabaret, American Graffiti, Don’t Look Now, The Wicker Man, Chinatown, The Godfather: Part II, Mahler, Apocalypse Now, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, Stardust Memories, Interstellar, Body Heat, Blade Runner, Tootsie, Zelig, Ghostbusters, Once Upon a Time in America, This Is Spinal Tap, The Times of Harvey Milk, Brazil, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Aliens, Blue Velvet, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Fly, Hannah and Her Sisters, Manhunter, Salvador, Something Wild, Angel Heart, Radio Days, Withnail & I, Die Hard, Nuovo Cinema Paradiso, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Field of Dreams, Goodfellas,
Altman’s The Long Goodbye. I love it.
It had been forgotten, but now will almost certainly be in my 10.
I watched it again a couple of months ago, and it still stands up well. The first time was at a University film society in the seventies when there seemed to be new waves of films coming out of America and Europe. An era that doesn’t seem to me to have been equalled, although it might just be because it was all new to me, and not the kind of thing you saw in the average provincial cinema.
The Long Goodbye seemed a cynical update of the Chandler mythology when I first saw it, with Elliott Gould’s shambling characterisation and the killing at the end. It made the Bogart era seem very remote. But The Big Sleep had only been made in 1946, 27 years before, and had the same screenwriter in Leigh Brackett. Something had changed in that short time, in the same way that it had in music.
1 – 2001: A Space Odyssey – 1968
2 – Wings Of Desire – 1987
3 – The White Ribbon -2009
4 – Festen -1998
5 – Ran – 1985
6 – Papillon -1973
7 – La Grande Bellezza – 2013
8 – From Russia With Love – 1963
9 – Pather Panchali – 1955
10 – Metropolis – 1927
Papillon was very nearly in my top 10 – changed at last minute
Ditto with Ran in mine. Decided not to go overboard on my favourite director though.
1 – Billy Liar – 1963
2 – It’s A Wonderful Life – 1946
3 – Vertigo – 1958
4 – Christiane F, Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo- 1981
5 – The Graduate – 1967
6 – Groundhog Day – 1993
7 – Diva – 1981
8 – Some Like It Hot – 1959
9 – Withnail & I – 1987
10 – This Is Spinal Tap – 1984
1 – Goodfellas – 1990
2 – Pan’s Labyrinth – 2006
3 – Stand By Me – 1986
4 – Trading Places – 1983
5 – The Godfather – 1972
6 – The Evil Dead 2 – 1987
7 – Jaws – 1975
8 – Blue Velvet – 1986
9 – It’s A Wonderful Life – 1946
10 – REC – 2007
Hi @mod-team Can this poll be pinned as the others were?
👍
Thanks Gatz and Mods
1. Pat Garrett & Billy The Kid
2. The Godfather
3. Night Moves
4. Heat
5. The Secret in Her Eyes
6. The Deer Hunter
7. The Parallax View
8. Jacob’s Ladder
9. Top Secret
10. Sleuth
Also in the running: Groundhog Day; Fistful of Dynamite; Network; Goodfellas; Spinal Tap; Chinatown; Seven; Calvary; The Exorcist; Exorcist 3; Blazing Saddles; Blade Runner; Three Days of the Condor; Maltese Falcon; Pulp Fiction; Get Carter; The Lives of Others; The Last of the Mohicans; Predator; The Abyss; The Ipcress File; Manhunter; No Country for Old Men; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; The Hospital; Dr Strangelove
1. Fight Club
2. Apocalypse Now
3. Zatoichi (2003)
4. The Blues Brothers
5. Dawn of the Dead (1978 version)
6. Battle Royale
7. Zabriskie Point
8. Oldboy (2003)
9. Taxi (1998 – *not* the American re-make!)
10. The Man with Two Brains
Top 50 would have been better – its cruel to have to leave out Taken, Anchorman, Alien, Leon, Fargo, Usual Suspects, In Bruges, Delicatessen, Belleville Rendezvouz, etc. and a crime to have no Roberto Rodriguez, Tarantino, or Peckinpah films and no Jackie Chan. On another day I could have just listed all the Resident Evil and Rambo films, but I would probably have had to give back my O/A Level in film studies 🙂
Both Leon and Belleville Rendezvous were in my long list.
How the hell did I leave out Fargo?
I have just given myself a stiff talking to.
Just did this for work, so happy to “repurpose”…
1 – Raiders of the Lost Ark – 1981
2 – Local Hero – 1983
3 – Unforgiven – 1992
4 – The Princess Bride – 1987
5 – Blade Runner – 1982
6 – Das Boot – 1981
7 – Where Eagles Dare – 1968
8 – His Girl Friday – 1940
9 – The Godfather Part II – 1974
10 – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – 2004
1 – The Modfather Part 1
2 – The Modfather Part 2
3 – The Modfather Part 3
4 – Children of a Lesser Mod
5 – And Mod Created Woman
6 – Dear Mod
7 – Mod Speed You! Black Emperor
8 – Agnes Of Mod
9 – In Mod We Trust
10 – Modspell
The Mod Couple
Aguirre, The Wrath Of Mod
Mod Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
It’s a Mod, Mod, Mod, Mod World
Five points each please.
Europa Europa – 1990
Dr Strangelove – 1962
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? – 1966
Jean de Florette – 1986
Withnail and I – 1987
Jaws – 1975
The Elephant Man – 1980
Warlords of Atlantis – 1978
Les Valseuses – 1974
Way Out West – 1937
Cinema, eh? Bloody Hell!
I love a good film, me. And looking at the lists above, I can see I’m not alone.
Still, it’s rather strange that 5 out of my top 10 are films that – as far as I can see – no one’s voted for before me. Oh well – there were a lot of masterpieces to choose from….
1. The Return (2003)
2. Lone Star (1996)
3. Withnail and I (1987)
4. You, the Living (2007)
5. Before Sunset (2004)
6. The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1962)
7. Raging Bull (1980)
8. Another Time, Another Place (1983)
9. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
10. Once Were Warriors (1994)
and, bubbling under, but still in a strict list order!
11. A Separation (2011)
12. Apocalypse Now (1979)
13. Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989)
14. Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988)
15. Kes (1969)
16. Taxi Driver (1976)
17. One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
18. Stranger than Paradise (1984)
19. Songs from the Second Floor (2000)
20. Manon des Sources (1986)
21. The Apartment (1960)
22. The Godfather, Part II (1974)
23. Before Sunrise (1995)
24. The Selfish Giant (2013)
25. Annie Hall (1977)
26. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
27. The Lives of Others (2006)
28. Cinema Paradiso (1988)
29. A Mighty Wind (2003)
30. The Godfather (1972)
31. Still Life (2013)
32. This is Spinal Tap (1984)
33. Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)
34. Die Andere Heimat – Home from Home (2013)
35. Do the Right Thing (1989)
36. My Life as a Dog (1985)
37. Fish Tank (2009)
38. Of Gods and Men (2010)
39. A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
40. The Tin Drum (1979)
41. Leviathan (2014)
42. The White Ribbon (2009)
43. When Father was away on Business (1985)
44. Goodfellas (1990)
45. Gallipoli (1981)
46. Night on Earth (1991)
47. The King of Comedy (1982)
48. Two Days, One Night (2014)
49. Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)
50. Elena (2011)
In total: 33 films in English, 16 films in other languages, One film a bit of a mixture (“Night on Earth”).
Looking at this list, I think I can say that:
– I like kitchen sink realism
– I like the films of Martin Scorsese
– I like the films of Andrey Zvyagintsev
– I don’t like films that are basically in the sci-fi or fantasy genres
Your mention of the excellent The Lives of Others, reminded me of The Black Book which we got on DVD through the post from Lovefilm. Very, very good.
Yay! Someone else who has seen Night On Earth and loves it! I thought I was alone.
Well this is stupidly hard isn’t it? Perhaps we need this one by decade. Or better still by genre…
1 – North By Northwest – 1959
2 – Avanti! – 1972
3 – Sunset Boulevard – 1950
4 – A Matter of Life and Death – 1946
5 – The Ladykillers – 1955
6 – Touch of Evil – 1958
7 – Bad Day at Black Rock – 1955
8 – Ride the High Country – 1962
9 – The Third Man – 1949
10 – Shaun of the Dead – 2004
One ‘new’ film to show my tastes aren’t entirely ossified. Lives of Others was the hardest one to leave out. And the Incredibles. And no Coen Brothers. Or Casablanca. Or Troll Hunter!!! Or/And… etc.
It’ll have to do.
By genre couldn’t agree more.
Avanti! ? Wow
Fair enough! Definitely a case of ‘personal favourite’ v ‘objectively best’. Billy Wilder could easily have filled my top ten, but there’s simply no film I’ve seen more times or makes me happier. Or has had a better hit rate when showing others.
I like it, think Wilder was well past his best then though, overlong and comedy Italians. I do hold him in the highest regard though.
1 – Tunes of Glory – 1960
2 – Paris, Texas – 1984
3 – Hobson’s Choice – 1954
4 – Local Hero – 1983
5 – The Cruel Sea – 1953
6 – Stardust Memories – 1980
7 – Psycho – 1960
8 – The French Connection – 1971
9 – Where Eagles Dare – 1968
10 – A Night at the Opera – 1935
Oh, and…bubbling under…
11 – Scott of the Antarctic – 1948
Will be different tomorrow, but here we go:
1 – A Matter of Life And Death 1946
2 -The Big Lebowski 1998
3 – Cool Hand Luke 1967
4 – Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid 1969
5 – Back to The Future 1985
6 – The Third Man 1949
7 – Life Of Brian 1979
8 – North By Northwest 1959
9 – In the Heat of The Night 1967
10 – 3 Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri 2017
1. Pulp Fiction – 1994
2. Local Hero – 1983
3. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure – 1989
4. Toy Story -1995
5. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – 1975
6. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – 1969
7. Gregory’s Girl – 1981
8. Miracle on 34th Street – 1947 (not the later one)
9. Picnic at Hanging Rock – 1975
10. Passport to Pimlico -1949
Good to see the first Bill and Ted film getting some well deserved points. As with so many of the list I nodded all the way down this one. I’d be happy to watch any of them. I think the the whole thread so far there have only been three films, of those I have seen, which I really don’t rate at all.
The trailer for Bill and Ted Face the music has made me laugh more than most “comedies”.
I couldn’t laugh because I was too tense – please don’t be crap please don’t be crap please don’t be crap. And thankfully it looks like it won’t be (I never liked Death in Bogus Journey, but it looks like that might be a cameo.)
Looks good to me!
An absolutely impossible task:
1 – The Big Heat – 1953
2 – The Big Lebowski – 1998
3 – Blade Runner – 1982
4 – Heat – 1995
5 – Reservoir Dogs – 1992
6 – Vertigo – 1958
7 – Blue Velvet – 1986
8 – The Exorcist – 1973
9 – The Terminator – 1984
10 – The Manchurian Candidate – 1962
Could do another 10 of these, and only the Top 3 would definitely remain.
Quick, before I change my mind…
Very much a list of favourites rather than all time greatest films…
1 Gregory’s Girl (1981)
2 Blade Runner (1982)
3 Trust (1990)
4 Aliens (1986)
5 So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)
6 The Commitments (1991)
7 The Lady from Shanghai (1947)
8 The Producers (1967)
9 The Magnificent Seven (1960)
10 Some Like it Hot (1959)
Tomorrow it might be a substantially different list.
Don’t take the order of these too seriously. And in half an hour I’ll remember something I should have included.
1 Vertigo – 1958
2 Black Narcissus – 1947
3 Pans labyrinth – 2006
4 Young Frankenstein – 1974
5 Good Fellas – 1990
6 Mona Lisa – 1986
7 Cinema Paradiso – 1988
8 Blade Runner – 1982
9 The Searchers – 1956
10 Oh Brother Where Art Thou – 2000
Once Upon A Time in The West
Gregory’s Girl
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Searchers
Casablanca
Godfather 2
Bladerunner
Some Like It Hot
Local Hero
The Wild Bunch
5 points each please
1 – Casablanca – 1952
2 – The Searchers – 1956
3 – Doctor Zhivago – 1965
4 – Some Like It Hot – 1959
5 – Way Out West – 1937
6 – Raiders of the Lost Ark – 1981
7 – The Maltese Falcon – 1941
8 – The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp – 1943
9 – The Thief of Bagdad – 1940
10 – The Hound of the Baskervilles – 1959
Oops forgot The Searchers
That’ll be the day…
It was a toss up between Way Out West and Some Like It Hot for my final place and I feel kind of bad for plumping for the latter. Laurel & Hardy are two of my heroes and have been since I was very young (when they used to show them on the TV loads).
1 – The Fortune Cookie
2 – Saturday Night Sunday Morning
3 – The Apartment
4 – Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner
5 – Les Diaboliques
6 – White Heat
7 – If….
8 – Performance
9 – Angels With Dirty Faces
10 – Captain’s Courageous
1 – Bladerunner – 1982
2 – 2001: A Space Odyssey – 1968
3 – Once Upon A Time In The West – 1968
4 – Apocalypse Now – 1979
5 – Videodrome – 1983
6 – Duck Soup – 1933
7 – Stalker – 1979
8 – Spirited Away – 2001
9 – Fanny and Alexander – 1982
10 – The Red Balloon – 1956
And Tarkovsky has his first points! They’ll be dancing in the streets of Novosibirsk!
Damn the points are now split between Stalker and Andrei Rublev. Tarks will never trouble the top 10 now!
In other news I rewatched Duck Soup tonight. 65 minutes and not an ounce of fat on it. One intro scene which sets up the whole thing, then its comedy gold all the way. The lemonade stand scene; the 3 grouchos; the final fruit flinging. Observation: the physical comedy has dated way less than the wisecracks.
1 – Apocalypse Now – 1979
2 – Airplane! – 1980
3 – Pulp Fiction – 1994
4 – The Blues Brothers – 1980
5 – Terminator 2: Judgement Day – 1991
6 – 3 Days Of The Condor – 1975
7 – Gladiator – 2000
8 – Bladerunner – 1982
9 – Donnie Darko – 2001
10 – All The President’s Men – 1976
This is impossible – more impossible than the recent impossible music polls. So here are my already invalid selections. Ive just gone with films that I have probably watched the most. ‘Alien’ should be in there but in keeping with my own law on polls no ‘duplicates’ (well you know what I mean)
1 – Aliens – 1986
2 – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – 1969
3 – The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance – 1962
4 – Kes – 1969
5 – 4 Weddings and a Funeral – 1994
6 – Jaws – 1975
7 – Terminator 2 – 1991
8 – The Deerhunter – 1978
9 – Don’t Look Now – 1973
10 – The Unforgiven – 1992
3 westerns – I didn’t expect that.
Did I mention that this was impossible?
Your list may be invalidated by having Andie McDowell on it.
Ref?
Why so? Green Card? Groundhog Day?
Play on!
Have an up @Sitheref2409 I am with you on that – actress? Dont think so.
Interesting that Star Wars has no points and only one also-ran mention so far. I’m not a great fan myself, though I would watch the original trilogy happily enough, but I would have though the Massive were the right age to have bought into lifelong fandom.
I noticed that.
I love the original trilogy, but George Lucas has made it difficult to be a fan of Star Wars, between the dull prequels and sequels and tampering with the original three in ways that makes them worse (and making it near impossible to get the original versions on DVD now).
Also: they’re good, but not top ten kind of good…
I am exactly the right age to be a Star Wars fan, though maybe a year or two younger would have been perfect – but the first time I saw the original three films was on a DVD box set by which time I was obviously far too old to get obsessed by a kids film. One of the consequences of being at boarding school was not always catching things in the cinema.
The first two films weren’t far outside my top 10. Return of the Jedi is okay (ruddy Ewoks!), The Force Awakens and Rogue One are quite good, but I’m not bothered about the others. The first two are miles ahead of the others.
Rogue One is the best of the last 8(?) they have made by some distance. TFA was enjoyable.
I am exactly the right age (5 in 1977) and I love Star Wars. It has had more impact on my life than any of the films I mentioned. But somehow it lives in its own Star Wars space in my head, which is somewhere different from the place where I put films. I can happily compare SW films to other SW films and come up with a ranking, but I can’t put them in the mix with others. My brain just isn’t working that way, probably because Star Wars in my life isn’t just films, it’s the toys I played with non stop as a kid, it’s the (almost invariably terrible) books I read in childhood, the models I tried to make, it’s the poster on my stairs, it’s the console games I’ve played over three different generations, it’s the breath of God, the dew on a fresh apple, it’s the soft rain of dust that falls into a shaft of morning sun when you pull from an old bookshelf a forgotten volume of erotic diaries; the faint scent of urine on a pair of boxer shorts, it’s a half-remembered childhood birthday party, a creak on the stair, a spluttering match held to a frosted pane, the warm wet, trusting touch of a leaking nappy, the hulk of a charred Panzer, the underside of a granite boulder, the first downy growth on the upper lip of a Mediterranean girl, cobwebs long since overrun by an old Wellington boot.
ANH > TLJ > R1 > ESB > ROTJ > TFA > TROS > ROTS> TPM> S > AOTC if you’re asking
I have a lot of love for Solo – and would put it above all the prequels. But then again my favourite bit of Stars Wars is the Jabba/rescue in ROTJ, so what do I know.
and I would put Rogue One in second place, and TLJ much lower (it never really got me back after the first battle which drove me nuts).
Hoping that we do get a Lando series with Donald Glover.
the first downy growth on the upper lip of a Mediterranean girl
Just woke up in a sweat to realise I’ve forgotten Bullitt which should be in my top 5.
Am I right in thinking that all time favourite The Shawshank Redemption has not made a big showing here?
I’m pretty sure the only mention of Shawshank so far is my comment to the effect that I was pleased to see it hadn’t appeared yet. To get all sniffy about it, it’s an ok film but one for the civilians. It’s huge popularity confuses me.
Likewise. I didn’t see it until it’s position as a great favourite had already been confirmed and was amazed at what a string of predictable, obvious cliches it was. It’s not a terrible film, in the way that most movies involving a mutant shark are, but it’s an overlong, mediocre and fairly patronising one.
I have a terrible feeling that in X years time Shawshank will, like It’s A Wonderful Life, be revered.
Isn’t it already? I heard it was the top rated film on IMDB. Each to their own but I don’t get it, or rather I do but think there is very little there to get.
The Shawshank Redemption wasn’t particularly good, but David Squires’ 2018 cartoon parody of it, “The Northbank Redemption”, with Arsène Wenger as the Morgan Freeman character, was quite superb…
https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2018/may/15/david-squires-on-the-north-bank-redemption-arsene-wenger-arsenal
Squires is worth the Guardian subscription price on his own. His more recent Arsenal strip was a particular tour de force, featuring Ian Wright-meets-Mr-Pigden image.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2019/oct/29/david-squires-on-wheres-mesut-ozil-arsenal#comment-134919632
And as for his Jack Charlton tribute last week; that allergic reaction in my eye still hasn’t cleared up.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2020/jul/14/david-squires-on-the-life-and-times-of-jack-charlton
I think the words are brilliant, struggle with some of the caricatures sometimes.
1 – Boyhood (2014)
2 – Groundhog Day
3 – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
4 – Spirited Away (2001)
5 – Isle of Dogs
6 – Toy Story (1995)
7 – His Girl Friday (1940)
8 – Solaris (1972)
9 – The Piano
10 – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Zardoz (1974)
Phantom Of The Paradise (1974)
Excalibur (1982)
Tommy (1975)
Catch-22 (1970)
The Shootist (1976)
Trust (1990)
The Conversation (1974)
All Night Long (1962)
Savage Messiah (1972)
5 pts each or in order @Sniffity ?
5 points each, please.
The Shootist. A very fine swansong for John Wayne.
1 – Bonnie and Clyde – 1967
2 – Lamerica – 1994
3 – Heat – 1995
4 – Andrei Rublev – 1966
5 – Live Flesh / Carne Tremula – 1997
6 – Calvary – 2014
7 – Senna – 2010
8 – Three Colours: Red – 1994
9 – The Producers – 1967
10 – Crimes and Misdemeanours – 1989
Andrei Rublev. That’s a great film for a lads’ night in. As long as all the lads are Tarkovsky fans, that is. Buy in large quantities of salty snacks. Fill the fridge with 100 cans of strong lager, and then just settle back for a really thrilling 3-hour picaresque romp through 15th century Russia where icon painting is discussed and nothing much happens. Eight times. IT’S A CRACKER!
But seriously, though. That scene where they cast the huge bell….
Yes, the endless trudging through the Steppes can be a tough sell to the lads, but the ones who haven’t left / lapsed into unconsciousness / confiscated the remote from me perk up for the raid on Vladimir and the bell sequence.
No Marx Brothers!
I am disappoint.
1 – The Third Man – 1949
2 – Rashomon – 1950
3 – Taxi Driver – 1976
4 – Annie Hall – 1977
5 – Volver – 2006
6 – The Right Stuff – 1983
7 – Fanny and Alexander – 1982
8 – Shoplifters – 2018
9 – Jaws – 1976
10 – The Long Goodbye – 1973
Essentially I chose ten films that I rate highly and listed them in order of preference from one to ten. That was how I went about it for those who like to get a bit analytical about those things.
I tried to feature the directors I find I favour most. Like favourite authors for books. Tried not to have too many of the usual suspects but inevitably they crop up. I’m missing the Cohen brothers and David Lynch but couldn’t choose one above the rest. Also some foreign selections to show I am a man of the world. Disappointed not to have anything French though.
I obviously lean towards the thriller/caper genre
1 The Italian Job -1969
2 Melody – 1971
3 Robbery – 1967
4 Falling Down – 1993
5 The Bourne Ultimatum – 2007
6 Skyfall – 2012
7 Gran Torino – 2008
8 Hell Drivers – 1957
9 The Equaliser – 2014
10 V For Vendetta -2005
Bubbling under….Christine, Gravity, Diamonds Are Forever, The Wedding Singer, Harry Brown, The Dead Zone, Source Code
Melody. Magnifique. My 11th choice.
1 Lost In Translation – 2003
2 Chinatown – 1974
3 Heat – 1995
4 Stand By Me – 1986
5 Dead Poets Society – 1989
6 Jaws – 1975
7 The Return Of The Pink Panther – 1975
8 ET – 1982
9 The American – 2010
10 True Romance – 1993
Keep em coming! Some very diverse choices so far. Not sure anyone has picked “best film ever made” Citizen Kane yet?
No Kane? That is odd.
Its like Abbey Road/Pepper/White Album not making the best ever albums list
[Says he, having never seen the film…]
I’m a little surprised by Jaws cropping up regularly here. Yes, it was huge at the time, yes, it had some genuinely scary moments, but..all time top ten?
Likewise, I’m struggling to register the widespread affection for The Conversation. A decent film, but a top ten standout?
There’s a lot of Hollywood on these lists.
Yes, the Sight and Sound “Greatest films of all time” list, which is compiled every 10 years, was indeed won by Citizen Kane in 1962, 1972, 1982, 1992 and 2002. However, in 2012, it was sensationally shunted into second place and replaced in the top spot by Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”.
FIVE Afterworders have so far voted for “Vertigo”.
Only one Afterworder (Pencilsqueezer) has so far voted for the film that took the bronze medal in the critics’ poll, namely “Tokyo Story”, directed by Yasujirō Ozu.
Only two Afterworders have mentioned Time Out’s 3rd best British film. Mind you, they are the best two in many ways.
https://www.timeout.com/london/film/100-best-british-films
The Offence at 79. That was due to go in my top ten until I forgot about it.
I like films that are happy to be unremittingly bleak, and Connery really excels in that role.
Without meaning to slight the contributors to Sight and Sound, or those Afterworders who voted for it, but I can’t be the only one who thinks Vertigo irredeemably flawed by that whole, ‘And here’s what really happened!!’ sequence.
Jaws holds a place in my heart as the first film I ever saw in a cinema. My parents weren’t film-goers but I was taken as an 8th birthday treat.
Disagree completely, that sequence in Vertigo makes the film. From then on the audience are watching Stewart with even greater compulsion. Hitchcock wasn’t trying to create a mystery thriller where all is revealed at the end.
Jaws is 2 films in one, I think the first one is better (before the 3 men get on the boat together).
Spot on. Watching Stewart’s compulsion with even greater compulsion.
Kane has aged far better than Vertigo has.
Possibly. Spoiler Alerts below!!
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Regarding Scottie’s (Stewart’s) behaviour. He is effectively a stalker and possibly sexual abuse has occurred (he undresses her when she is out cold, or pretending to be). He also behaves in a rather misogynist fashion when he meets Judy. This is not great behaviour, but I think we are meant to be appalled, not to sympathise with his obsession.
However Hitchcock was a weird guy sexually and a possible abuser himself, so it is all very murky stuff. I still think it is a great film, but this time it didn’t make my no. 1 position.
With Hitchcock and the ‘male gaze’ (a term coined, I think I’m right in saying, by Laura Mulvey in en essay about Hitch) there’s indeed a ton of murk. James Stewart, usually the loveable good guy, is cast against the grain here, and we the audience wince at many of his deeds and how/what he sees.
Opinion has shifted on Kane. It’s still seen as groundbreaking and important for new techniques, innovations but as a story isn’t it somewhat lacking, and rather simple? Not exactly style over content but not so much there beyond the startlingly new way it was filmed. Touch of Evil probably a better movie.
picked the Lady from Shanghai by Welles. It’s still a stylish piece of film making but it’s much more fun than Kane, and it has Rita Hayworth and the most comical Irish accent this side of Darby O’Gill.
1 – Unforgiven – 1992
2 – The Texas Chain Saw Massacre – 1974
3 – Carlito’s Way – 1993
4 – 2001: A Space Odyssey – 1968
5 – Requiem For A Dream – 2000
6 – This Is Spinal Tap – 1984
7 – 24-Hour Party People – 2004
8 – Apocalypto – 2006
9 – The Man Who Would Be King – 1975
10 – Mad Max Fury Road – 2015
Carlito’s Way cruelly underrated. Entirely on board. And as for The Man Who Would Be King (and, for that matter, #10) both superb, and I wish they’d been on my list. Curses!
1 – Whiplash – 2014
2 – Pulp Fiction – 1994
3 – Back to the Future – 1985
4 – Blade Runner – 1982
5 – Raiders of the Lost Ark – 1981
6 – The Third Man – 1949
7 – 2001: A Space Odyssey – 1968
8 – One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest – 1975
9 – Mulholland Drive – 2001
10 – The Master – 2012
Ooh, difficult isn’t it? You feel as if your top ten is made up of safe, obvious choices from the mainstream and all the quirky films are bubbling under.
Films, Movies, Motion Pictures, Flicks…doncha just love `em.
For what it`s worth here`s my ten.
1 – One Flew Over The Cuckoo`s Nest
2 – The Right Stuff
3 – Mars Attacks
4 – The Straighty Story
5 – The Deerhunter
6 – Dune (David Lynch)
6 – The Godfather
7 – Thelma And Louise
8 – Groundhog Day
9 – The Blues Brothers
10 – The Long Good Friday
2 no. 6s!
oops! Sorry Dai.
1 – One Flew Over The Cuckoo`s Nest
2 – The Right Stuff
3 – Mars Attacks
4 – The Straight Story
5 – The Deerhunter
6 – Dune (David Lynch)
7) – The Godfather II (I forgot to add the `II` also)
8) – Thelma And Louise
9) – Groundhog Day
10) – The Blues Brothers
1 – Young Frankenstein – 1974
2 – The Man Who Knew Too Little – 1997
3 – Monty Python & the Holy Grail – 1975
4 – I’m All Right Jack – 1959
5 – My Favorite Year – 1982
6 – The Blues Brothers – 1980
7 – The Big Lebowski – 1998
8 – The Italian Job – 1969
9 – Blazing Saddles – 1974
10 – School for Scoundrels – 1960
1 – Barry Lyndon – 1975
2 – The French Connection – 1971
3 – Chinatown – 1974
4 – Citizen Kane – 1941
5 – Once Were Warriors – 1994
6 – Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? – 2000
7 – Apocalypse Now – 1979
8 – Manhattan – 1979
9 – Pulp Fiction – 1994
10 – Life Of Brian – 1979
There we go!
Tricky business a Top 10, where to put Absolute Beginners or Peter’s Friends?
1 – If … – 1968
2 – 2001: A Space Odyssey – 1968
3 – Jules et Jim – 1962
4 – The Knack … and How to Get it – 1965
5 – Blow-up – 1966
6 – Catch Us If You Can – 1965
7 – Bullitt – 1968
8 – North by Northwest – 1959
9 – Paths of Glory – 1957
10 – The King of Marvin Gardens – 1972
The spanking scene in If gave it the nod, ain’t that always the way?
Any recent films which might have made it would have almost certainly been sub-titled.
And finally, thanks to Stanley Kubrick who by making Paths of Glory, 2001 and Clockwork Orange, has saved me from having to watch any other war, space or dystopian future film. Thanks, Stan, you’ll never know how much that means.
1 – Apocalypse Now – 1979
2 – Life of Brian – 1979
3 – Psycho – 1960
4 – Taxi Driver – 1976
5 – The Jungle Book – 1967
6 – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – 1975
7 – The Exorcist – 1973
8 – Midnight Cowboy – 1969
9 – Kes – 1969
10 – Paris Texas – 1984
If you were an alien arriving on earth and watched those ten you would (I believe) get a full picture of human life in all its hopes, dreams, disappointments, joys, depths, violence, deep emotions. You would see its limitations and frustrations, and experience its humour and absurdity – through both form and content. You would understand family, friendship, betrayal, abandonment, searching, travelling, yearning, power, corruption, lust and delusion. Everything that makes watching films one of life’s greatest pleasures.
So many in those last few lists I missed
Midnight Cowboy
If
Paris, Texas
Blow Up
2001
But – I’m sticking to my Top Ten.
So there…
Has there been a single Peter Greenaway film mentioned yet? I really enjoyed some of his early films – The Draughtman’s Contract, A Zed and Two Noughts and Drowning by Numbers, but forgot about them when compiling my list. And whither Carry On Cleo, At Your Convenience, Camping …?
The Cook, The Thief…. made my shortlist but not quite the top 10.
I’m just surprised that no one has voted for Snakes on a Plane yet.
Here you go. This would make for a good, if lazy, weekend.
1. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
2. It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
3. When We Were Kings (1996)
4. The Godfather 2 (1974)
5. American Movie (1999)
6. Best In Show (2000)
7. City Of God (2002)
8. Leon (1994)
9. Le Mans ’66 (2019)
10. Seabiscuit (2003)
Think 9 should have its proper title! (Ford v Ferrari)
Could be. It’s a brilliant film of a brilliant story of a brilliant car.
Ford v Ferrari was re-titled as Le Mans ’66 for the UK market, so both are correct.
I suspect the British distributer was worried it would only appeal to Jeremy Clarkson fans under its original title.
Dammit! I forgot ‘Withnail and I’!
1 – Withnail and I – 1987
2 – A Matter of Life and Death – 1946
3 – The Third Man – 1949
4 – Dean Spanley – 2008
5 – Dazed and Confused – 1993
6 – Harvey – 1950
7 – The Philadelphia Story – 1940
8 – Spring and Port Wine – 1970
9 – Blithe Spirit – 1945
10 – Slade in Flame – 1975
Great to see Dean Spanley getting a mention. I love that film but I’ve never been able to convince anyone else. It’s equal parts baffling and moving.
I keep recommending it to people too. It’s such a great film, slightly surreal but lovely.
Slade In Flame !
B*gger – forgot that one (I will argue it sits just outside my Top 10)
The first scripts they received for their film Projects was a sort of Marx Brothers meets The Monkees slapstick affair. I’m so glad they din’t go down that route
1. The King of Comedy
2. Fargo
3. Psycho
4. There Will Be Blood
5. Alien
6. All the President’s Men
7. The Shining
8. The Apartment
9. White Heat
10. It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World
Bubbling under
Don’t Look Now, Inception,Saving Private Ryan, Duel, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Halloween, Die Hard, The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, The Elephant Man, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Superman (1978), It’s A Wonderful Life, An American Werewolf In London, The Blood On Satans Claw, Capricorn One, Carrie, Death Line, The Exorcist, Escape From New York, The French Connection, The Hound Of The Baskervilles (1959), In Bruges, Jaws, The Long Good Friday, The Night of the Hunter, The Birds, Rear Window, North By Northwest, Robocop, Frenzy, Se7en, The Shawshank Redemption, The Silence of the Lambs, Sorcerer, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, Black Narcissus, A Matter of Life and Death, The Terminator, Live and Let Die, The Wicker Man, The Searchers, Ace In The Hole, The Godfather II, Witchfinder General, The Omen, Saturday Night Sunday Morning, The Thing, The Third Man, Taxi Driver, They Live, Planet of the Apes, Whiplash, No Country For Old Men, The Wages of Fear, Three Days of the Condor, Bad Day At Black Rock, Hannibal Brooks, The Haunting, Life of Brian, Marathon Man, Chinatown, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Night Of The Demon, School For Scoundrels, Stand By Me, Heat, Citizen Kane, The Front Page, Earthquake, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Anatomy Of A Murder, Magic, Dead Of Night (1945), Jugganaut, The Towering Inferno, Quatermass And The Pit (1967), The Poseidon Adventure, Aquirre: Wrath of God, Full Metal Jacket, Village Of The Dammed, Some Like It Hot, The Money Pit, This Is Spinal Tap, The Seven Samuri, Goodfellas, Vertigo, Brief Encounter, Kes, Dirty Harry, Bullitt, Airplane!
Nice to see Jacques Tourneur’s Night of the Demon bubbling under. Nearly made my 10.
I’ve got the really lovely nice blu-ray box, which *checks price* is 50 quid now!! Blimey.
Yes, I got that one too and it is really lovely (even if it takes up a lot of space on my already full shelves!). I’m an avid horror fan and collector and you’d be surprised what some of the limited edition DVD and Blu Ray sets can fetch. However, I don’t think there is another genre where films get reissued anywhere near as often, with additional tweaks here and there. Nor is there another genre put under the microscope as much as horror on Blu Ray messageboards. Just the sepia shade of the opening of The Beyond led to countless pages of comments on one site I go on. In fact, that’s one of the films that I’m guilty of buying half a dozen times over the years, but the latest version is brill, so it’s going to be the last!
But it’s worth noting that because horror films get tweaked, repackaged and reissued to this crazy degree, the prices of rare editions can drop just as quickly as they rise, once word gets out that a new and better edition is coming out, or when said new edition is found to be of a (sometimes minute) superior quality to the last. I am trying to choose my moment wisely to part with the special edition of Dawn of the Dead, which also can go for silly money, prior to the all singing all dancing boxed set coming out in September, particularly as not many people know it’s coming out. Of course, whilst flogging the old one in advance means you are getting top dollar for it, you are trusting the new version to be better, when it quite often isn’t. And once people realise it isn’t the version you’ve flogged, and now want back, has become even more expensive!
I’m a bit guilty of rebuying the same film. I’m on my 5th Jaws (I think) VHS, DVD, 25th anniversary DVD, Blu Ray, and now the beautiful shiny 4K.
A Hard Day’s Night for me. VHS, DVDx2 and now 2 Blu-rays.
Spinal Tap – VHs, DVD, 25th Anniversary Set, Blu Ray
Quadrophenia – VHS, DVD, another DVD version, Blu Ray, Album, Soundtrack, Classical version, Live version, Books …
Why?
I would have thought my most bought film would be Dawn of the Dead or Blade Runner,. In my adult life, until now, or whenever it is that we both find houses and sell this one, I was only ever sort of single (sort of, my girlfriend had gone to Australia for 6 months – that was 25 years ago, haven’t seen her since!) for a very short period. I had just moved to London and had all my possessions crammed into a single room on the 13th and top floor of the nurses’ accommodation. The first thing I did was spend £1k on a big widescreen TV from Harrods (cos it was the only place doing interest free credit), cos there was nobody to tell me the money would be better spent on a holiday. The telly was massive, although the screen was modest by today’s standards. It seemed to be as deep as it was wide though, and it filled what little space there was in my room. Anyway, it’s arrived started the chain that continues to this day – rebuying stuff I already own!
I think the first was Lawrence of Arabia. Out went the version I had and it came the remastered widescreen version, and it looked great. “This is as close as you’re ever going to get to a perfect picture” I probably thought. And after replacing loads of tapes with widescreen versions I bought a PC (because my brother-in-law had shown me eBay on his PC!), which played DVDs. So I bought LA Confidential, which came in one of those cardboard cases with the plastic bit that clicks together. I was amazed at the quality of the picture, so I bought a DVD player, and out went the widescreen VHS tapes.
I was only an E grade staff nurse at this time and had just started renting a flat, so the DVD player I bought was the best of the cheap options. In case all the DVDs until eventually I learned about DVD players that upscaled the picture. By this time special edition DVDs were coming out so nearly every DVD that had a special edition got replaced.
Then I bought a house, and one of the first things I bought was a surround sound system. It was brill. We got a new living room carpet and I asked the blokes to run the surround cables underneath it, as we had no plans to move house.
So a year or so later we moved up to Yorkshire, but with a surround sound system that no longer worked, cos the wired were under a carpet 100 miles away. By this time I had an HD TV and the new surround sound system had a Blu Ray player built in, “but it’s okay love, I’ve only just finished swapping all my DVDs for special edition ones, so I have no intention of buying them all again, and anyway, the jump from VHS to DVD was a massive improvement, but ai can’t imagine there’s a great deal of difference between my upscaled DVDs and Blu Rays”…but I’ll just buy The Thing (another candidate for most multiple purchases, in fact it probably wins) to check and if there’s no difference I’ll take the Blu Ray back and stick with what I’ve got. But crikey O’Reilly what a difference…so out went the special edition DVDs and in came Blu Rays.
But these Blu Rays weren’t special enough. Some were just the films transferred onto different discs. So eventually we started getting the special edition Blu Rays with loads of extras, some even came in metal cases. Most Blu Rays that had special editions got swapped. But my TV broke down. As I need a new telly I might as well get one of those 4K ones that everybody is raving about. Apparently the Blu Rays: will be upscaled, so I don’t need to bother with a 4K Blu Ray player. I’ll still swap some discs for the Blu Rays mastered from a 2k or 4K print (apologies if I’m not using the correct terminology). There’s also lots of new special edition Blu Rays coming out that I’ll want to swap my copies for.
But there it’s ending! I am definitely, absolutely not getting a 4K player. I’ll make do with the 4K versions that come on Sky. In fact I got my viewing card for my new Sky Q box today (like an idiot I left my old one in the broken box I returned), so the box has spent all day filling the hard drive by downloading a cart load of UHD films off Sky movies. The Dark Knight, The Godfather, Blade Runner, etc
But by my reckoning, and this doesn’t include upgrading to purchased VHS tapes to replace the worn out copies I’d taped off the telly, since buying my first VHS tapes I have upgraded my collection at least half a dozen times. And some films haven’t skipped an update and have been bought 6 times. One film was purchased and then upgraded at least twice, maybe three times before I even got around to watching it! Cinema Paradiso, if you’re asking. So if you take the cost of the Blu Rays I currently own and then add in the amount I have lost by buying and selling each version, I reckon the average price I have paid for each of my Blu Rays is around £30! And I won’t watch some of them, cos I’ll watch the UHD version I’ve downloaded off Sky!
Edit: Blimey, I went on a bit longer than I thought I had there, so if you made it this far, er, well done!
Nice one @paul-wad!
Interestingly, ip33 is the only Afterworder to nominate the film voted by the Guardian critics as the best movie of the 21st century (Paul Thomas Anderson’s “There Will Be Blood”). I was expecting to see a lot more votes for it here.
a) Never seen it.
b) Not a Guardian reader.
Is b) allowed on here?
Expecting to be drummed-out any time now. I can hear them gathering just across the way.
The cryptically-witty slogans on my AW t-shirts will be obliterated, my lovingly-compiled collection of ticket stubs strewn to the wind, my painstakingly-curated spreadsheets replaced with Mumford & Sons press releases and my taste in all matters of popular culture mocked as “Civilian”.
I’d have to watch it first but it really didn’t appeal.
I havent made a list, but if I had, it would definitely be on it. High up on it.
Certainly worth seeing but best film of the last 20 years feels overstated to me.
This is utterly impossible, so there really is no point in overthinking it. Interesting that it feels so much more random than the album lists, by which I mean that I really could pick several different top tens that I would be equally happy with. But here’s ten which all completely banjaxed me when I first saw them:
1 – Rome Open City 1945
2 – Casablanca – 1942
3 – Some Like It Hot – 1959
4 – Vertigo – 1958
5 – His Girl Friday – 1940
6 – Volver – 2006
7 – Nashville – 1975
8 – Kagemusha – 1980
9 – Apocalypse Now – 1979
10 – The Apartment – 1960
Bubbling under
A hundred French films especially if they star Nathalie Baye or Isabelle Huppert.
Okay, I’ve thought about this and it’s impossible. But what I can do is a quick list I’m disappointed have not/ have hardly featured among all the gold thus far and which need a bump..
1 – Hoop Dreams – 1994
2 – Dr Strangelove, or… – 1964
3 – City Of God – 2002
4 – Gattaca – 1997
5 – Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead – 2007
6 – Midnight Run – 1988
7 – Under The Skin – 2013
8 – L.A. Confidential – 1997
9 – The Man With Two Brains – 1983
10 – Attack The Block – 2011
Oh! Midnight Run. I really should have put that in my list.
You know those times when your view on a film changes from the first time you watch it to the second time? Sometimes you appreciate a film more when you see it again. For me, “Midnight Run” was an example of the reverse (which happens sometimes). When I first saw it at the cinema when it opened, I remember really enjoying it. Decades later it cropped up on the TV, and I sat there thinking “How did I ever like this? It’s just rather silly…”.
You watch a film twice? That’s silly; that would be like listening to a record twice.
I love it every time I watch it. It is a bit silly but it’s very funny and the acting is great. It’s a film that isn’t trying to hard and is just plain entertaining.
I’d argue that 9 out of every 10 films are at the very least “entertaining” to some degree. I don’t think that alone is enough to make a truly great film.
I want to come out of a cinema thinking “Wow, that was bloody impressive” rather than “Yeah, that was fun, let’s get a pizza now.” The former is rare, the latter happens regularly.
Good points, but I think of you were going to take against Midnight Run for anything it would be the fact that it gave De Niro the idea that he had a gift for comic roles – which has resulted in an awful lot of cack over the succeeding decades..
I’d argue that about 1 in 10 films are actually entertaining. There is an awful lot of dross out there. Maybe I have a high entertainment threshold. For example, only 1 Star Wars film has ever entertained me (The Force Awakens since you ask). I do think a properly entertaining film is a rare thing indeed. And Midnight Run is one of them.
You had me until The Force Awakens. That’s seriously your favourite Star Wars film??? That’s some admission!
I wouldn’t use the word favourite – more least boring. And I’ve stopped bothering with them so nothing since. I find them really boring.
If you haven’t tried it, Rogue One is great.
1 – Field of Dreams – 1989
2 – Still Crazy – 1998
3 – Ronin – 1998
4 – The Shawshank Redemption – 1994
5 – Casino Royale – 2006
6 – The Bourne Identity – 2002
7 – Apollo 13 – 1995
8 – Close Encounters of the Third Kind – 1977
9 – Almost Famous – 2000
10 – The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – 2002
Oh god, Field of Dreams. I lost my father a couple of years previously, never really cried about it. Watched Field of Dreams, as the credits rolled at the end, I broke down completely. There were floods ….
That reminds me of the film ‘Dean Spanley’.
I contemplated Ronin long and hard. But can’t quite get over how wooden Sean Bean is in it. Me and my mate had a bid discussion on it – his theory was that Bean was playing him has a fake. My theory was that he was a bit wooden. Anyway, the fact he is a Sheffield United fan meant I won that argument.
He was magnificent a couple of years ago as a Catholic priest in the jimmy McGovern series Broken which I recommend to everyone.
Sean Bean (pronounced Shan Ban) is the Irish for Old Woman. He should be told if he doesn’t know already.
Tricky: Best Films Ever Made or just my favourites? I’ll go with favourites….hmmm, tricky.
1 – Blade Runner
2 – Terminator 2
3 – Some Like It Hot
4 – 2001
5 – Up
6 – Young Frankenstein
7 – The Outlaw Josie Wells
8 – Apocalypse Now
9 – The Big Lebowski
10 – Little Big Man
(Posts quickly before I change my mind about all of them)
Great to see Little Big Man – it could easily have made my top 10.
Epic, funny & tragically heartbreaking all in one.
4 days to go!
I’ve gone for favourites too –
1. The Life of Brian
2. A Matter of Life and Death
3. Airplane
4. Blade Runner
5. Stop making Sense
6. Captain America: The Winter Soldier
7. The Empire Strikes Back
8. Terminator 2
9. The Martian
10. Scott Pilgrim vs the world
The Lord of the Rings trilogy kind of should be up there, but its either 3 entrys or none. It would be easy to add another 10.
Incidentally the film I have watched the most is The Incredibles, which thanks to having kids of the right age I must have seen 30+ times. That I don’t shudder at the thought of watching it again means it must be a brilliant movie.
Pretty tough, this. Especially as I can’t have ‘all you need is cash.’
1. Duck soup
2. Big labowski
3. Amelie
4. Fear of a black hat
5. Empire strikes back
6. Head
7. Pulp fiction
8. Life of Brian
9. This is Spinal Tap
10. Performance
Applause due @pawsforthought for including Fear of a Black Hat. I love that film. Perfect post pub viewing with so many classic moments and still relatively unknown. I work with offenders and still use the term “pharmaceutical distributor”, on an alarmingly regular basis.
I mean it is basically Spinal Tap as done as a Public Enemy/N.W.A. mash up, but what’s not to love?
I’ve never heard of it! One for me to watch out for then.
1 – The Third Man – 1949
2 – The Prestige – 2006
3 – The Wicker Man – 1973
4 – Galaxy Quest – 1999
5 – This is Spinal Tap – 1984
6 – Airplane! – 1980
7 – Raiders of the Lost Ark – 1981
8 – Life of Brian – 1979
9 – An American Werewolf in London – 1981
10 – O Lucky Man! – 1973
Galaxy Quest seems to have a very dedicated following. I remember seeing it in the cinema at the time and I thought it was a decent comedy, but nothing special. I’ll need to give it another go, because it really has garnered immense cult appeal since.
There is a lovely documentary on Sky about Galaxy Quest at the moment. Everybody involved loves it, plus Harold Ramis was due to direct.
It’s the third best Star Trek film.
Have an Up for “O Lucky Man!”. I never realised until just now, reading it up on Wikipedia, that “O Lucky Man!” was a followup to “If” with Malcolm McDowell playing the same character, Mick Travis. Second in a Travis trilogy by Lindsay Anderson that was completed with “Brittania Hospital”, which I’ve never seen.
About time I watched “O Lucky Man!” again.
If memory serves it’s a long film.
Yes, but Arthur Lowe in blackface means you have to cancel Lindsay Anderson completely…or so the modern mindset (as I understand it) would have it.
Britannia Hospital is deeply weird.
And not great as I remember. But O Lucky Man I loved, more than If.
1 – George of the Jungle – 1997
2 – Love and Death – 1975
3 – Muppet Christmas Carol – 1992
4 – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – 1969
5 – Flash Gordon – 1980
6- Shawshank Redemption – 1994
7- A Matter of Life and Death – 1946
8 – The Exorcist – 1973
9 – It’s A Wonderful Life – 1946
10-The Personal History of David Copperfield – 2019
Em…. trying to slip in a joke there???? Watch out for that tree…..
Just under the wire…
1 – Citizen Kane – 1941
2 – It’s a Wonderful Life – 1946
3 – Duck Soup – 1933
4 – 2001: A Space Odyssey – 1968
5 – Some Like It Hot – 1959
6 – The Godfather – 1972
7 – The Right Stuff – 1983
8 – Manhattan – 1979
9 – Blue Velvet – 1986
10 – Superman – 1978
1 – The Godfather – 1972
2 – Pulp Fiction – 1994
3 – Life Of Brian – 1980
4 – Field Of Dreams – 1989
5 – Goodfellas – 1990
6 – Local Hero -1983
7 – Gallipoli – 1981
8 – Passport to Pimlico – 1949
9 – Master and Commander, Far Side of the World – 2003
10 – It Could Happen To You – 1994
I forgot about Local Hero in my list and I wish I hadn’t.
After much cogitation and asking myself how I could leave certain films out, here is my choice:
1) The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
2) The Third Man
3) Matewan
4) Ran
5) Alien
6) The Long Goodbye
7) Cabaret
8) Au Revoir Les Enfants
9) Lawrence Of Arabia
10) Good Night And Good Luck
Good call with Matewan. Great film.
No order ( 5 points each).
Stalker – 1979
2001: A Space Odyssey – 1968
Seven Samurai – 1954
Vertigo – 1958
Citizen Kane – 1941
The Double Life of Veronique – 1991
Chinatown – 1974
L’ Atalante – 1934
The Third Man – 1949
The Battle of Algiers – 1966
They coulda been contenders:- Babette’s Feast, Deep End, If, Solaris, Light Years Away, Five Easy Pieces, Rashomon, Alice In The Cities, The Lives of Others, Ashes and Diamonds, The Ruling Class, Drowning By Numbers, In Fading Light, Little Big Man, O Lucky Man, I’ve Loved You So Long.
1 Bladerunner
2 Withnail & I
3 Toy Story 2
4 Wild at Heart
5 The Outlaw Josey Wales
6 Glengarry Glen Ross
7 Bull Durham
8 Goodfellas
9 Leave no trace
10 Arrival
Well that was difficult. If I look at the list again tomorrow I’ll change at least 5 of these.
I watched Wild at Heart a couple of days ago, probably for the first time this century (it’s on Netflix). It’s every bit of much as a thrilling/hilarious/bad trip as I remembered it, and film that Oliver Stone meant to make with Natural Born Killers, just made a few years earlier.
Edit – Given your Afterword handle shouldn’t you either swap the first two or change your name to Deckard? 😉
I am more of a Marwood than a Deckard, but good as Mr McGann’s film is, I still think Bladerunner is an astonishing piece of work.
Wild at Heart. I remember watching this in London’s glittering West End when it came out in 1990. A truly visceral experience. There is a scene when the weirdoes are torturing and taunting Harry Dean Stanton when I thought I was having a panic attack. And Willem Defoe’s Bobby Peru? Second only to Dennis Hopper’s Frank Booth as the scariest maniac in film.
It’s strange. I am a big David Lynch fan but something leaves me cold with Wild At Heart. I have tried it three or four times, but I just don’t feel it has the energy or momentum of Blue Velvet or Mulholland Drive. Maybe it’s Nicholas Cage that is the problem. I don’t know.
I totally forgot about Glengarry Glen Ross! What a film that is.
1 – Gregory’s girl – 1980
2 – The Lobster – 2015
3 – The Double Life of Veronique – 1991
4 – Das Boot – 1981
5 – The Hudsucker Proxy – 1994
6 – The Master – 2012
7 – Les Valseuses – 1974
8 – Parasite – 2019
9 – If… – 1968
10 – Kind Hearts and Coronets – 1949
Gregory’s Girl rather than Local Hero? Ooooh…. I can’t agree with that! 🙂
Good to see someone else loves The Master though. I don’t see much mention of that, and it’s a superior film to There Will Be Blood.
What a fabulous bunch of responses! Can’t wait to see the final results.
1 – The Godfather II – 1974
2 – Sunset Boulevard – 1950
3 – Come and See – 1985
4 – Atlantic City – 1980
5 – North by Northwest – 1959
6 – Bad Day at Black Rock – 1955
7 – This is Spinal Tap – 1984
8 – Werckmeister Harmonies –2001
9 – The Swimmer – 1968
10 – Whistle Down the Wind – 1961
1 – Pan’s Labyrinth – 2006
2 – Apocalypse Now – 1979
3 – Cape Fear – 1962
4 – The Martian – 2015
5 – My Neighbour Totoro – 1988
6 – The Birds – 1963
7 – No Country For No Men – 2007
8 – Three Days Of The Condor – 1975
9 – She Wore A Yellow Ribbon – 1949
10 – Farewell My Concubine – 1993
Here are the results from the new lockdown jury.
In date order rather than preference.
Traffic Crossing Leeds Bridge – 1888 – Louis Le Prince
Trip to the Moon – 1902 – George Melies.
Steamboat Bill Jr – 1928 – Charles Reisner/ Buster Keaton.
Fantasia – 1940 – Disney
The Third Man – 1949 – Carol Reed
The Titfield Thunderbolt – 1953 – Charles Crichton
The Railway Children – 1970 – Lionel Jeffries
Brewster McCloud – 1970 – Robert Altman.
Cyrano de Bergerac – 1990 – Jean Paul Rappenau
Amelie – 2001 – Jean Pierre Jeunet.
It is a good job Hercules did not have naming 10 Best Movies as part of his legendary labours. He would never have got the others done.
Every time I think of a film to put on my “shortlist” I remember three more that MUST be included.
Only a few hours left too..,.
You could have so many this is impossible. These are the ones I always watch if they come on somewhere.
1 – Don’t Look Now – 1973
2 – Notting Hill – 1999
3 – Withnail and I – 1987
4 – Enemy of the State – 1998
5 – Some like it Hot – 1959
6 – Lord of the Rings: Two Towers – 2002
7 – Cry Freedom – 1987
8 – A Hard Day’s Night – 1964
9 – The Birds – 1963
10 – Gregory’s Girl – 1980
Close contenders: Snowcake, Garden State, Blow Up, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Holy Grail, Boyhood, The Shining, If, The Italian Job
Damn, Gregory shoulda been higher..
1 – A Matter of Life and Death – 1946
2 – The 39 Steps – 1935
3 – Rear Window – 1954
4 – Kind Hearts and Coronets – 1949
5 – Brief Encounter – 1945
6 – The Big Sleep – 1946
7 – Radio Days – 1987
8 – Billy Liar – 1963
9 – Sunset Boulevard – 1950
10 – Lawrence of Arabia – 1962
Well, this is fun. I didn’t look at the thread until making my choices, and I now feel like Dr Johnson in Blackadder realising he has left aardvark out of his dictionary. “Duck Soup? Duck Soup? Arrggh” Anyway, original choices remain.
1 – Back To The Future
2 – The Third Man
3 – The Apartment
4 – Build My Gallows High aka Out Of The Past
5 – The Big Lebowski
6 – Pan’s Labyrinth
7 – A Matter Of Life And Death
8 – Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
9 – King Of Comedy
10 – North By Northwest
23.30 in the evening and I am failing to connect my PC to the internet.
So here are my choices gone my phone.
1. Still life – 2013 u. Pasolini
2 Pride 2014
3 Guardians of the Galaxy
4 Their finest 2016 Scherfig
5 Toni Erdman
6 Happy as Lazzarro
7 Ida Pawlikowski
8 On body and soul 2017 Enyedi
9 Portrait de la jeune fille en feu. sciamma
10 Boyhood Linklater
Hope that made sense.
No. Title / Director
1 Gregory’s Girl Bill Forsyth
2 Roman Holiday William Wyler
3 Mulholland Drive David Lynch
4 Breakfast At Tiffany’s Blake Edwards
5 Spirited Away Hayao Miyazaki
6 All The President’s Men Alan J. Pakula
7 Insider, The Michael Mann
8 L.A. Confidential Curtis Hanson
9 Radio On Chris Petit
10 Andrei Rublev Andrei Tarkovsky
Most of the rest (in alphabetical order), most interchangeable with numbers 7-10:
Annie Hall Woody Allen
Artist, The Michel Hazanavicius
Barry Lyndon Stanley Kubrick
Battle Royale Fukasuku Kinji
Beautiful Girls Ted Demme
Beauty And The Beast Gary Trousdale / Kirk Wise
Betty Blue Jean-Jacques Beineix
Blow Out Brian DePalma
Blue Velvet David Lynch
Breakfast Club, The John Hughes
Brief Encounter David Lean
Canterbury Tale, A Michael Powell / Emeric Pressburger
Carol Todd Haynes
Casablanca Michael Curtiz
Childhood Of A Leader, The Brady Corbet
Chinatown Roman Polanski
Citizen Kane Orson Welles
Cold War Pawel Pawlikowski
Comfort & Joy Bill Forsyth
Django Unchained Quentin Tarantino
E.T. The Extra Terrestrial Steven Spielberg
Eraserhead David Lynch
Eyes Wide Shut Stanley Kubrick
Fargo Joel Coen / Ethan Coen
Godfather Pt2, The Francis Ford Coppola
Goodfellas Martin Scorsese
Hannah And Her Sisters Woody Allen
It Happened One Night Frank Capra
It’s A Wonderful Life Frank Capra
Kick-Ass Matthew Vaughan
Kill Bill Volumes 1&2 Quentin Tarantino
Killing, The Stanley Kubrick
Lady And The Tramp Clyde Geronimi / Wilfred Jackson / Hamilton Luske
Last Picture Show, The Peter Bogdanovich
Let The Right One In Tomas Alfredson
Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger
Local Hero Bill Forsyth
Magnolia Paul Thomas Anderson
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again Ol Parker
Man Who Laughs, The Paul Leni
Manchurian Candidate, The John Frankenheimer
Manhattan Woody Allen
Once Upon A Time In America Sergio Leone
Once Upon A Time In Anatolia Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Paper Moon Peter Bogdanovich
Parasite Bong Joon-Ho
Persona Ingmar Bergman
Phantom Of The Paradise Brian DePalma
Psycho Alfred Hitchcock
Red Shoes, The Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger
Saturday Night Fever John Badham
Seventh Seal, The Ingmar Bergman
Singin’ In The Rain Gene Kelly / Stanley Donen
Skin I Live In, The Pedro Almodóvar
Social Network, The David Fincher
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Tobe Hooper
That Sinking Feeling Bill Forsyth
Twin Peaks – Fire Walk With Me David Lynch
Under The Skin Jonathan Glazer
Valerie & Her Week Of Wonders Jaromil Jeres
Vertigo Alfred Hitchcock
White Ribbon, The Michael Haneke
Wild Strawberries Ingmar Bergman
Yi Yi Edward Yang
1 – Dr Strangelove
2 – Pulp Fiction
3 – North By Northwest
4 – 2001: A Space Odyssey
5 – Blade Runner
6 – Raiders Of The Lost Ark
7 – Some Like It Hot
8 – The Jabberwocky
9 – Once Upon A Time In The West
10 – Bullitt