Going to the Movies: past, present, future.

[Town Heretic]

Since this has been a cold thread for a bit I thought I'd add a wrinkle for the heck of it...my favorite movie for each year beginning with the oldest movie/year I know. Sometimes more if necessary.

1900s 31-50

31: City Lights
32: The Champ
33: King Kong
34: It Happened One Night/Thin Man
35: Mutiny on the Bounty
36: A Tale of Two Cities
37: Lost Horizon
38: Boys Town
39: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Beau Geste, Gone with the Wind, Stage Coach, Wuthering Heights, Of Mice and Men, The Wizard of Oz, Dark Victory
40: Grapes of Wrath, Rebecca, The Great Dictator, Philadelphia Story
41: Malteze Falcon, Sgt. York, Suspicion
42: Random Harvest
43: Casablanca, The Ox-Bow Incident
44: Gaslight
45: Spellbound
46: It's a Wonderful Life
47: The Bishop's Wife, Gentlemen's Agreement, Miracle on 34th Street
48: The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Red River
49: All the King's Men, Battleground
50: Sunset Boulevard

 

[Town Heretic]

A favorite film or two by year, continued...

1900s 51-99

51: An American in Paris
52: High Noon, The Quiet Man
53: Shane, Roman Holiday
54: The Caine Mutiny, Rear Window
55: Mister Roberts
56: The King and I, Friendly Persuasion
57: 12 Angry Men, The Bridge on the River Kwai
58: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
59: Ben Hur, Anatomy of a Murder
60: The Apartment, Elmer Gantry
61: Judgment at Nuremberg
62: Lawrence of Arabia, To Kill a Mockingbird
63: America, America
64: Dr. Strangelove, My Fair Lady
65: Ship of Fools
66: A Man for All Seasons
67: In the Heat of the Night
68: The Lion in Winter, 2001: A Space Odyssey
69: Midnight Cowboy
70: Patton
71: Fiddler on the Roof, The French Connection
72: The Godfather
73: American Graffiti
74: The Godfather Part II, Chinatown
75: Jaws, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
76: Taxi Driver, Rocky
77: Annie Hall, Star Wars
78: The Deer Hunter
79: Apocalypse Now
80: Raging Bull, The Empire Strikes Back
81: Reds, Chariots of Fire, Raiders, The Boat
82: Gahndi, ET, The Verdict
83: Tender Mercies, The Right Stuff
84: The Killing Fields, A Passage to India, A Soldier's Story, Amedeus
85: Witness
86: The Mission, Children of a Lesser God, A Room With a View
87: Moonstruck, Broadcast News
88: The Accidental Tourist, Mississippi Burning
89: Field of Dreams, My Left Foot
90: Dances with Wolves
91: The Prince of Tides, Silence of the Lambs
92: Unforgiven
93: Schindler's List, The Fugative, Searching For Bobby Fischer
94: Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction
95: Sense and Sensibility, Apollo 13, Braveheart
96: Fargo, The English Patient, Shine
97: L.A. Confidential, Good Will Hunting
98: Saving Private Ryan
99: The Sixth Sense, American Beauty

 

[Town Heretic]

A favorite film or two by year, continued...

2000s 00-14

00: Gladiator
01: A Beautiful Mind, The Fellowship of the Ring
02: The Pianist
03: The Return of the King, Lost in Translation
04: Ray
05: Capote
06: The Queen, The Departed
07: Michael Clayton
08: Wall-E, Iron Man, The Dark Knight
09: Inglorius Basterds, Up, Crazy Heart
10: The King's Speech, Inception, True Grit
11: The Descendants, Hugo
12: Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, Life of Pi
13: Nebraska

 

[Poly]

My top 3 off the top of my head.....for now (I'm entitled to change this at a moments notice are...

1. The Book of Eli
2. Gladiator
3. All 3 Borne movies

 

[aikido7]

As some posters know, I like to study and understand historical and religious context when discussing things on theologyonline.com. That's why I think it is really interesting how movies have changed. The silent movies as well as the movies in the 30s, 40s or 50s have styles that are obviously dated. I am talking about the action and the dialogue.

It does not come across as real, even though the movie makers and the stars at the time felt their portrayals and the acting was unassailably true and like real life.

But seen from today's standpoint, they are stilted and artificial. Today's movies (especially the dramatic movies--not sci-fi) come across as a lot more real and believable thanks to the voice tone and acting style today.

Do you think in the future we will see today's films as hopelessly out of date?

 

[Nick M]

The Force Awakens.

:banana:

(not one ewok or jar jar will be on site)

 

[PureX]

As some posters know, I like to study and understand historical and religious context when discussing things on theologyonline.com. That's why I think it is really interesting how movies have changed. The silent movies as well as the movies in the 30s, 40s or 50s have styles that are obviously dated. I am talking about the action and the dialogue.

It does not come across as real, even though the movie makers and the stars at the time felt their portrayals and the acting was unassailably true and like real life.

But seen from today's standpoint, they are stilted and artificial. Today's movies (especially the dramatic movies--not sci-fi) come across as a lot more real and believable thanks to the voice tone and acting style today.

Do you think in the future we will see today's films as hopelessly out of date?

The immediacy and ready availability of video has erased a lot of the stylization involved in the act of 'film making', of the past. In some ways I miss the stylization, and in some ways I don't. Just as in some ways I miss black and white photography, and in other ways I don't.

The thing that has not changed is that great theater is built on good writing coupled with good acting. And good writing flows when it needs to and stutters when that's what's called for. Good acting is stylized when it needs to be, and yet is starkly realistic when that's what's called for. All these aspects of the medium are just possibilities on the artist's pallet.

I watched Chinatown last night. I hadn't seen it in a long time. Big thumbs up!

 

[Town Heretic]

...It does not come across as real, even though the movie makers and the stars at the time felt their portrayals and the acting was unassailably true and like real life.

We'll differ from the outset. I don't think the point of the golden age films was to portray real life and people as they stood bare footed, so to speak. Early movies were theater. Literally in the silent film, from makeup to exaggerated forms. By the golden age that had changed somewhat, but the films were still heavily influenced by theater and the expectations of a public that hadn't run into a less formal form and the characters, ever actual ones, were idealized. Television really began the more dramatic move to realism in film.

But seen from today's standpoint, they are stilted and artificial.

Couldn't disagree more. They're what they were meant to be, theatrical and entertaining and the writing and acting is frequently superior and more entertaining to my mind. Take one year, 1939 and look at the still celebrated films from it: Gone With the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Stagecoach, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Dark Victory, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Wuthering Heights, Gunga Din they cover subjects from the broad idealism of politics to the personal approach to human dignity. That they don't have half naked women or sexual acts, gratuitous profanity or arterial blood spurts isn't a thing that diminishes them or, to my mind, elevates so much of the modern "realism" that is as often used as an excuse to sensationalize and titillate.

Another thing that sets old films apart had to do with the way the country once had a much stronger regional identification. We didn't have the internet and television to blend us, weren't as nomadic as a people. So you had these distinct accents and voices pulled from them. That's mostly gone now. Everyone wants to sound like they just stepped out of a corn field, sadly, the broadcast news approach. So part of what will strike someone watching an old movie as odd (or interesting) is the voices they're going to hear. Cooper, Bogart, Davis, Stewart, Wayne, Gable, Grant, etc. had a uniqueness to their voices you won't find now that often in modern cinema or life. I think it's a loss, not a gain.

Today's movies (especially the dramatic movies--not sci-fi) come across as a lot more real and believable thanks to the voice tone and acting style today.

Or, they frequently come across as less lyrical, as something anyone with a pen and a camera could manage. We have films winning Oscars that will likely only be remembered for that particular.

Do you think in the future we will see today's films as hopelessly out of date?

I think there are good movies being made in any year, but I suspect many will see the last decade or so the way we look at the 50s and early sixties, but with better technology to make the creatures from the black lagoon more menacing.

 

[Town Heretic]

The problem with Emma Stone is that she's an anime character...I mean she could have played a painting in "Big Eyes". lain: That has to limit your roles.

 

[Nick M]

:banana:

The Force Awakens

 

[Nick M]

:banana:

The Force Awakens

 

[Town Heretic]

All I know is there better be plenty of singing Ewoks and the subtitle needs to be "Return of the Jar". lain:

 

[Saved.One.by.Grace]

I just saw the movie, Draft Day, with Kevin Costner and highly recommend it to football fans and others who want a glimpse of what the football draft is all about. I'd give it a solid 4+ out of 5.

 

[Nick M]

Director and comedian Mel Brooks, 88, has suggested that now might be the time to make a sequel to his 1987 Star Wars parody Spaceballs, with as much as the original cast as possible.

On paid subscription podcast Take a Knee, Brooks said that he was hoping to make the sequel after the release of the new Star Wars film in December.

"I'm thinking, if I did a movie that came out right after Star Wars comes out I'd have a big weekend, you know?" he said.

 

[patrick jane]

:banana:

The Force Awakens

still into star wars ? i can't keep up. i saw the first 2 or 3 at the theater back then, and too much time went by for me. one of my cousins is a manager at Werhenberg and gets free passes, but i haven't been to the "movies" in 2 years -



View attachment 19386

 

[Saved.One.by.Grace]

Divergent - If you like The Hunger Games movies, you'll enjoy Divergent. While some may see some simularities at the beginning of both series, they both stand on their own as good movies. I would rate them 4+ stars for both series.

 

[Nick M]

still into star wars ?

I am still into going to their movies. No "EU" as it is known by fanboy.

 

[Town Heretic]

I'll be going to see the new, Lucas less Star Wars in hopes of getting the smell of the last three and a quarter Lucas efforts out of my mind. The first was a lot of fun and the second even better, but from the Ewoks on it's been a steaming pile of Bantha dung.

Here's hoping for a better send off for beloved characters...to bad someone couldn't have gotten Indy away while there was time to make a decent end/passing of the torch.

 

[Nick M]

Turning back the clock on the Star Wars saga.....reading interviews from back in the day we can see with good hindsight.

Producer Gary Kurtz and George Lucas parted ways after Empire Strikes Back. In interviews that are rare, Kurtz pointed out that Lucas wanted to go in a different direction than what was seen in Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back. The biggest movies ever and it was wrong, not what Lucas envisioned. Fine, it is his dog, walk it how he wants. What we got in Return of the Jedi was of course the Ewoks. And a musical. And the musical got worse in the "Special Edition". They didn't agree, and the Star Wars saga went a different direction with a new producer.

And it showed up in the prequel trilogy when he micromanaged nearly everything giving us Annie, (male?) Jar Jar Binks, plot holes and the inability to suspend disbelief with Yoda and his gymnastics.

So yeah, Star Wars wasn't what he wanted it to be. And it was what the rest of the world wanted it to be. I look forward to somebody else behind the wheel.

 

[Lighthouse]

I went to see the new Cinderella the other night. I don't recommend it. Very flat and boring. I spent much of it making jokes.