Posted on 02/04/2012 12:16:26 AM PST by iowamark
Endless lists have been made, and it's a great way to start an argument at a party. What's better, 'Chinatown' or 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'? 'The Wizard of Oz' or 'Singin' in the Rain'? Everyone's picks are different, but for their new book 'The Greatest Movies Ever,' film critics Gail Kinn and Jim Piazza selected their choices for the best 101 movies of all time. First published in 2008, this edition of the book is revised with new picks like 'Slumdog Millionaire.' Here's a sampler -- the 50 films that got the top spots on Kinn and Piazza's list.
50.'Bonnie and Clyde'
49.'2001: A Space Odyssey'
48.'Rules of the Game'
47.'Top Hat'
46.'8 1/2'
45.'The Deer Hunter'
44.'City Lights'
43.'Diner'
42.'The Lives of Others'
41.'Schindler's List'
40.'The Conformist'
39.'Blade Runner'
38.'Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'
37.'The African Queen'
36.'The Best Years of Our Lives'
35.'Raging Bull'
34.'It's A Wonderful Life'
33.'The Graduate'
32.'It Happened One Night'
31.'Strangers on a Train'
30.'Saving Private Ryan'
29.'A Streetcar Named Desire'
28.'Funny Face'
27.'Jules and Jim'
26.'Goodfellas'
25.'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'
24.'Vertigo'
23.'Pan's Labyrinth'
22.'Double Indemnity'
21.'La Dolce Vita'
20.'The Searchers'
19.'To Kill a Mockingbird'
18.'Gone with the Wind'
17.'On the Waterfront'
16.'Apocalypse Now'
15.'Taxi Driver'
14.'Psycho'
13.'All About Eve'
12.'Some Like It Hot'
11.'Nashville'
10.'Singin' In The Rain'
9.'Chinatown'
8.'Annie Hall'
7.'The Wizard of Oz'
6.'North by Northwest'
5.'Lawrence of Arabia'
4.'Sunset Boulevard'
3.'Casablanca'
2.'Citizen Kane'
1.'The Godfather' and 'The Godfather Part II'
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Where's Rashomon?
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad Mad World? The ensemble cast alone makes it worthy.
I'd swap Vertigo & Psycho for To Catch A Thief and Rear Window.
Like others have pointed out No Eastwood films?
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly would be worthy.
They didn't put The Big Country on the list either.
Mine too!
"Come back, Shane!"...
Did they really say that in T. Nights? I have a running joke with a friend of mine about Highlander being the best movie ever (he hates it). Pretty cool if there’s a movie character out there who agrees with me, LOL.
I saw all these crap movies.
Any list of top movies that doesn’t include The Shawshank Redemption is suspect, to say the least.
One day someone told a polish joke at the nurse station and she was there and went ballistic.....she said how wrong it was and such jokes about ethnics (Jews) are what led to the concentration camps...first you make jokes about them, then they become less than human....
\She was a witness to how subtle treating others as less than human starts down a road that leads to Hitlers camps..By the time she was done, no one told anymore polish jokes. (my hubby was polish and always got a kick out of them. A wallet full of single dollar bills only was his polish bankroll) I still think of that when I end up with about 15 singles in my wallet. He passed on in 1990
mine didn’t either...Red River.....John Wayne-Montgomery Clift was also in it I think....Also The Cowboys with John Wayne both were about cattle drives...
Eh...it’s an okay list. I think a number of the picks are “popular” choices designed to sell the book, rather than selections based on the films’ merits. I also think these folks need to see more “foreign” films instead of just picking ones most everyone knows.
Some specific thoughts on the list:
Annie Hall - I agree with others on this thread. 8th of all time is WAY too high. I thought it was quite funny, but nowhere near top 10 or even top 50 material.
Close Encounters - I didn’t personally like this film much at all. Jaws would be a better choice here, though I wouldn’t put even that at #25.
The Graduate - Am the only one who doesn’t “get” this movie? I thought it was okay, but I have yet to see what is so special about it. Maybe it’s a generational thing?
Some that aren’t on the list, but I think probably should be:
-Alien
-Brute Force: Outstanding prison/film-noir with Burt Lancaster, Hume Cronyn, Yvonne DeCarlo, and Charles Bickford.
-M (1931 version with Peter Lorre)
-Stalag 17: Much better Billy Wilder film than Some Like it Hot, IMHO. The Apartment would work for me here, too.
-The Last Emperor
-The Third Man - Was Welles ever better than in 3rd man?
-The Wild Bunch
-Voskhozhdeniye (The Ascent). Soviet film from the mid-1970s about a couple of Soviet partisans operating in occupied Belarus. Admittedly kind of an obscure film, but easily one of the very best war movies I have ever seen. It’s up there with Das Boot and Patton for me. (Speaking of which, Patton didn’t make at least #50?)
Yes, I think "It's a Wonderful Life" is a far better movie. Even "Singin' in the Rain" is a better movie.
This has it all, war, love, murder, mystery. The cinematography is fantastic.
The Red Shoes.
Look it up - don’t remember everything I read some time ago, but the movie was highly praised on so many levels.
I’ve not seen Jules and Jim, but I definitely agree that The 400 Blows is a fantastic film.
Johnny Guitar
D-Day - great ensemble cast
Blazing Saddles - political correctness with a knife through its heart
Shawshank Redemption
The Harder They Fall
Reefer Madness
No Smokey and the Bandit?? Burt Reynolds was the highest paid actor in the world during the 70’s and he is not represented at all. PHOOEY!
I would have at least four Coen Brothers movies on the list including Fargo, The Big Lebowski, and Miller’s Crossing as well as OBWAT.
Kelly’s Heros...for the minefield scene if nothing else.
Man, they nailed that one....
35. Raging Bull: An excellent example of the age old axiom: Anything not worth doing at all is not worth doing well.
31. Strangers on a Train: A lousy movie. It might have been pretty good had they not decided to change the ending that made the novel a good book. That piece of junk is down there with that horrible 1940s, Greer Garson shouldabeenaborted Pride and Prejudice--in which the delightfully dispisable Lady Catherine is just a sweet old lady who only wants to assure her darling nephew's happiness. (I'm surprised that these people didn't put that one on their list.) (Maybe they overlooked it.)
3. A Streetcar Named Desire: Down there with Strangers on a Train and the Greer Garson fiasco. Alex Baldwin showed the world how the part of Stanley Kiwalski should be played. Baldwin was excellent. Marlon Brando looked like a twit. His cartoonish depiction was almost as bad as...oh what's his name?... Robert Dinero! almost as bad as Dinero's cartoonish portrayal of the evil villain in the absurd remake of the rather good 1950s version of Cape Fear. Robert Mitchum was very good in the role. Dinero was a joke.
3. Casablanca: What a silly, over-romanticized bit of mindless entertainment.
Wait! Don't tell me. Let me guess...
The people who made that list are Democrats?
Of the intellectual calibre of most Democrats?
In the Hollywood mold--groupthink--PC--that sort of thing...?
P.S. Don't forget to note the tagline.
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