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 ...
7. The Wizard of Oz. It has its good moments. But Judy Garland was miscast. They should have waited on Shirly Temple.
Speaking of Judy Garland-- She was really pretty back in the 30s--in those old Andy Hardy movies--before she became exhausted and started the downhill slide.
Another one who was very beautiful when quite young was Lana Turner--before she morphed into a tough-lookin' broad.
Yes, I think "It's a Wonderful Life" is a far better movie. Even "Singin' in the Rain" is a better movie.
Please! I don’t think the Godfather movies idolized the mafia at all but told a very compelling story about human nature, both the good and bad and ugly with some actual historical references. GF I and II, especially seen together are great movies.
You can’t really compare them with "It's a Wonderful Life" or "Singin' in the Rain" which fall into completely different genres.
I like "It's a Wonderful Life" purely for sentimental reasons but it’s a rather schlocky piece and not really a great movie, and one that while having a nice “moral message” also in some ways celebrates wealth redistribution and anti-capitalism.
"Singin' in the Rain" is a good movie musical but to be honest, not my all time favorite.
(in no particular order):
Comedies (agreeing with an earlier poster) --
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (for the cast)
Young Frankenstein
Blazing Saddles
My Fair Lady
Animal House
All of them were classics and have quotes which have spread beyond moviedom.
Action / Adventure / Sci-Fi
Star Wars (though a shot from it seems to be to the left of Citizen Kane on the cover photo of the book)
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Matrix
Toy Story
Disney's original Snow White
Disney's Fantasia
Arsenic and Old Lace
Phantom of the Opera -- (Lon Chaney, Jr.)
Jaws
Aliens
All of them invented new genres for their era, or revived old worn-out ones
...and I'll probably think of a couple more as soon as I've clicked *send*.
Cheers!
That's your opinion. Mine is they are not that great.
“Annie Hall”? “Nashville”? Really?
No list is complete without Red River.
“Opinions are like... Well you know.”
The way I put it:
Opinions are like elbows,
everyone has one or two.
[pause]
Even a-holes.
You have to reel them in with a false sense of security.
So, you took the word of a woman in spite of the thousands of people that said the movie was accurate and true? Did she give reasons?
So where’s Ben Hur?
Whatta crappy list.
The best war movie was Saving Private Ryan?
My favorite war movie was In Harm’s Way.
Oh my, I didn't know this was coming. I can't even begin to imagine what a ridiculous, barf-inducing film that's going to be.
Spike Lee is an utterly talentless, conceited, racist little hack. The best thing he ever did was those Nike commercials with Michael Jordan, which was pretty much on par with his talent, ability, and intelligence. He's one of the innumerable people in show business who think that because they made a lot of money, they are some sort of genius.
The world is full of absolute morons who are filthy rich. I predict his Obama movie will be a failure that goes to DVD within two months of release. But then, that happens to most movies these days, because they almost all completely suck.
Or was it The Battle of Midway? I forget.
Anything by Akira Kurosawa (maybe they never heard of him) (or maybe they couldn't spell his name, so they just skipped him)--not even the magnificent Shichinin No Samurai (Seven Samurai) or Rashomon!
Los Olvidados! Absolutely unforgettable! (They probably went to see Singin' in the Rain that night instead.)
East of Eden! Much better than John Steinbeck's rambling, Dickensonianly verbose book. (Dickens got paid by the word, after all.) (Too bad Steinbeck couldn't get the people who edited the movie to edit the book.)
Educating Rita!
Body Heat!
The Sixth Sense!
The Yearling!
Casino Royale!
American Beauty!
The Heiress (Olivia de Havilland version--although Julie Harris' TV version was also excellent)!
Barbarians at the Gate!
The Color Purple!
Zelig!
The Purple Rose of Cairo!
Broadway Danny Rose!
No “Lawrence of Arabia, Ben Hur, 10 Commandments, Jaws, Usual suspects ?
I’m surprised I don’t see “The Fountain” / S
I work with a few polacks, we tell polish jokes all the time, I still care about them though, and we all get along great. It’s malicious joking I wouldn’t agree with.
When my dad was a young man in San Francisco (his late teens I believe) he used to go to one of the beaches there with a group of his friends. One of those friends was Lana Turner (obviously way before she was famous).
We have pictures of him "marrying" her in a mock beach wedding....all in swimsuits. She was quite pretty and very nice.
They had great fun growing up "double clutching" their Model T's up and down the hills of San Francisco and hitting the beach on the weekends.
Always made me feel like I missed out on a great era!
Martin Landau is a prominent doctor, Anjelica Huston is his mistress, who threatens to expose their affair. Jerry Orbach is Landau's "low life" brother who arranges Huston's murder.
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