I was listening to one of the always enjoyable “Stuff you should know” podcasts from How Stuff Works, concerning important movies. There’s an essay on it on their website if anyone’s interested (they have lots of good little essays on diverse and generally interesting subjects, mind you the site itself is a right mess). Anyway, it got me thinking, there’s a thread I’d like to read. So, film buffs, name an “important” movie and why you think it’s important.
Important movies
by 52 Comments
Rocky IV.
Because it ended the Cold War.
One of the best ever critques of movies was about the Rocky series.
Someone described each of them as “What white people were afraid of that year”
Sheeeeeit – white people should be afraid of Mr T EVERY year.
Consequences of Love by Paolo Sorrentino, 2005. Kind of a stylish gangster movie, with a debt to Scorsese.
It’s a brilliant story beautifully shot, with a fantastic soundtrack and the best actor, Toni Servillo, currently working in Europe.
It’s about life, passion, sensuality … and consequences.
Depends on your definition of “important”. Might be me, but I can’t find the essay you recommend on that link….
I didn’t describe it very well….here
http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/10-films-changed-filmmaking.htm
Battleship Potemkin is on that list and was the first movie I thought of when I saw this post.
It’s propaganda through and through but it’s also a blueprint for how to tell a story on film. It’s as though someone invented an aeroplane and used it to drive it around the streets and was happy with that until Eisenstein got behind the wheel and said, “I’ll show you what this baby can do” and took off into the sky. It’s a stunning film.
Pontecorvo’s “The Battle of Algiers”. It took the documentary style of film making to a new level and its depiction of urban insurgency against a colonial power influenced the terrorist groups that emerged in Europe and the Middle East toward the end of the 1960s.
Brilliant one Rocker, I remember seeing it years ago. Must find it.
Spot on. I saw ‘The Battle of Algiers’ at a festival a few years ago; it was staggeringly good.
I have since bought it on Blu Ray but have yet to watch it, in case a second (small-screen) viewing fails to generate the captivation of the first.
The Grapes of Wrath, innit.
America tells the truth to itself, courtesy of some bleak-ass German expressionist chiaroscuro.
Easy Rider.
It opened the door to all manner of maverick film makers come the 70’s and ushered in Hollywood’s last Golden Age.
Not one film in particular, but the realist italian school of film-making from the 1940s onwards with Rossellini and De Sica initially with Paesa and Bicycle Thieves If nothing else they led to Ingrid Bergman leaving Sweden and setting up temporary home in Naples. They were followed by Rosi’s political films like Salvatore Giuliano and Hands over the City.
Yes the Italian neo-realist films, which is where Fellini came from.
Star Wars
The debut of the ‘held back’ summer blockbuster/merchandising era
Jaws
Invented the summer blockbuster two years before Star Wars.
Made Spielberg a star.
The first movie with a simultaneous national launch.
One of the greatest scores of all time.
One of the most iconic movie posters of all time.
Inspired Alien (which was pitched to studios as “Jaws in space” and which is an almost equally important film).
Is the film with the single greatest influence on the way Hollywood does business today, for better or worse.
It’s also a masterpiece.
Yes, some nice points about Jaws.
It’s also much better than Peter Benchley’s original book!
Yes. Forgotten about Jaws completely.
S’pose your can toss in Close Encounters too?
Forgot two very obvious ones.
I’m alright Jack which pre-dated the satire boom, took the piss out of politicians/unions and it clearly struck a chord because I seem to remember it was banned, either during the 1983 or 87 election campaigns.
Two Way Stretch which may well have influenced the writing of Porridge.
Hah, not sure about “Two Way Stretch” being “important” but it’s one of my all-time favourites. As for it influencing “Porridge”, well there’s no maybe about it. There’s a line of dialogue lifted intact. You know, the cat bring named Strangeways and Sourkraut/McKay stating that he’d seen some it’s strange ways?
And E.T. and Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List. Important films all. I remember going to see Jurassic Park at the cinema and feeling grateful that
I was around to see what dinosaurs really looked like. The effect it had on CGI and filmmaking was enormous.
I’d consider Pulp Fiction one of the most important films in history. American cinema in the 80s was too influenced by the Rocky formula: with the help of his best chum, the protagonist overcomes increasingly difficult circumstances to defeat his adversary and win the girl’s heart (plus learn an important life lesson). So many films followed this formula to some extent, so that anyone wanting realistic and intelligent films had to look to European or Oriental cinema. Then came Pulp Fiction and blew the formula notion to smithereens with its success, oaving the way for directors like David Fincher, Christopher Nolan, Paul Thomas Anderson etc.
Toy Story Trilogy
not only a significant leap in animation but a movie trilogy that got better as it went along
Just to note: in the first Rocky movie he doesn’t defeat his adversary. Same deal in the last one.
The Rocky movies are briliant and much underrated.
Ah, but he defeats his demons, which are his real adversary.
Jurassic Park is an excellent shout.
It’s a really stunning piece of work: the leads are all superb, the pacing is flawless and the first T-Rex scene is arguably the greatest entrance of and villain in movie history – the vanishing goat, the tremors in the cups of water, the flashlights in the car, the flares and that fantastic shot when it steps through the broken fence, stands in the rain, throws its head back and roars. Masterful film making.
I saw Jurassic Park 3 times, I think. The part where Laura Dern finds a crucial master switch and says with great relief “we’re back in business!” is a great thing to see in a packed cinema. The audience reaction to that is worth the entrance money alone.
In fairness, I would watch a movie where Rocky fights demons.
For me the total draw-drop moment was the first sight on the long-necked veggie one.
These replies are going all over the place!
Does anyone remember Europa Europa from the late 80s, early 90s? It’s the true story of a Polish Jewish boy during WWII, who is captured first by the Russians, and then the Nazi’s, and is forced to conceal his true identity in order to survive. It’s a devastating film, full of fear and tension as well as redeeming moments of love and tenderness, beautifully shot and acted. If I was picking my favourite WWII movie than that would probably be it.
I’d also nominate one of Depardieu’s early and controversial movies Les Valseuses. Away from the sex scenes, France has surely never looked so good.
Yes to Europa Europa. I remember seeing it on either a late night Channel 4 season, or one of the Alex Cox Videodrome programmes on BBC2. Great movie.
Friday 13th and Halloween brought us the era of the slasher movie.
This is Spinal Tap brought us the era of the Mockumentary.
The usual suspects (not the film) would be A trip to the moon, (first SF movie), Birth of a Nation (justified the unjustifiable), Battleship Potemkin (recreated the unjustifiable) and Triumph of the Will (glamorised the unjustifiable). Oh and Jaws and Star Wars.
But for me it is Duck Soup. It tells you everything you need to know about politics, and it is still funny. What is more important than that?
That’s a spot on list of the real big hitters.
Maybe throw in L’Arrivee d’un train en gare de La Ciotat, Un Chien Andalou, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Citizen Kane (which I’m amazed no one has mentioned yet), and you’re pretty much there.
I agree wholeheartedly re: Duck Soup. Total masterpiece.
And now you’ve made me play Pixies. Thanks. That’s the end to working till I get it out my system!
Peter Jackson said JP was a major advance in filmmaking – he was talking about the special FX. Personally I rather liked Laura Derm in shorts.
Virtually anything made by Georges Méliès between 1896 and 1904 where he invented numerous narrative and technical developments years before cinema became a global industry (‘The Haunted Castle’, ‘The Astronomer’s Dream’, ‘A Trip To The Moon’, ‘The Impossible Voyage’.
‘The Jazz Singer’ which, as the first full-length talking picture, was a game-changer for cinema. ‘Helzapoppin’ introduced audiences to a new way to do comedy on screen. ‘Rope’ allowed Hitchcock to introduce audiences to long takes. ‘Citizen Kane’ for so many innovative filming techniques that they are still studying and exploring them today. ‘2001 – A Space Odyssey’ just for being an awesome cinematic experience.
It was also a major advance in removing your glasses in amazement.
I suppose Oshima’s “Ai No Korida” (“In the realm of the Senses” – 1976) was a fairly groundbreaking film in terms of sexual explicitness in mainstream cinema.
A great article on watching one of the most important movies ever made with a bunch of 11 year olds.
http://www.rogerebert.com/mzs/watching-aliens-for-the-first-time-again-with-a-bunch-of-kids
The Godfather (and Part 2)
Without The Godfather you wouldn’t have Goodfellas
Without Goodfellas you wouldn’t have The Sopranos
3 of my favourite dramas.
It portrayed the power of “family” in the non-traditional sense. Woe betide you if you betray the family.
Yes – came back in to see if The Godfather had been mentioned. Taken as one piece I&II are possibly the greatest book to movie transition I’ve seen. Allowing the characters and film to develop over time. The pacing was spot on. Certainly influenced the LotR trilogy in that respect.
Brando and Caan are a little bit too hammy for me though. DeNiro, Pacino and Shire though (and FFC direction) just imperious.
I agree with you davidks – I love the the films/ programme you mentioned. I would love to see a british TV series that has the same dramatic scope & power of The Sopranos.
Likewise, where is the british Goodfellas?
Bloody hell, have you not seen any Danny Dyer films?
Sort it ahhhhht!
It’s a retirement community!
Would highly recommend Disney`s animated Alice in Wonderland if your slightly drunk or slightly stoned, its very trippy ! . Not that any of us have ever been slightly stoned, very stoned, now thats another matter !
Woody Allen’s Take The Money And Run pretty much invents the mockumentary, but I’m going to nominate Annie Hall for it’s sheer comic invention, it’s naturalism, the rich characters, it is brimming with jokes and ideas. IMO Without it, there would have been no Simpsons, no Seinfeld, no Curb Your Enthusiasm.
I mean, look at this brilliant deconstruction moment.
The Afterword equivalent of this was when Brian Cox’s missus stuck her oar in. Great fun.
Annie Hall is a great shout.
I’d also add When Harry Met Sally, which is an all time classic script and also the precise mid point between Annie Hall and that film’s other legacy: the modern rom com.
Shoah.
Quite simply the most important documentary film ever made.
I’m not sure it counts as a film, but I thought Threads was quite important. As it was a TV production, most people saw it and were stunned by the horror of what would follow a nuclear attack. People go about their normal lives while in the background a radio or a TV in a shop window reports with increasing alarm an escalating conflict in the Middle East. Then everything changes. Threads offers no hope at all that things get back to normal eventually. It’s horrifying.