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This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
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Topic: Perfect Movies
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 10-14-2008 09:23 AM
I could have sworn Days of Heaven was originally shot on 35mm and then blown up to 70mm. Nevertheless, Nestor Almendros' Oscar winning cinematography was a great achievement. Although the movie is great looking, I don't consider it to be "perfect" in terms of its dramatic narrative.
It's difficult to honestly think of movies that seem perfect in their planning and execution. Classics like Lawrence of Arabia and Casablanca deserve to be mentioned.
We all have our own bias toward movies we regard as favorites, even if they're flawed in some way, because they entertained us to the point where we left the theater with that "movie high."
There's parts of Die Hard that are honestly pretty stupid, but that show seemed to hit the right notes amidst a blistering 70mm 6-track Dolby Stereo presentation. I went into the theater certain I was going to hate it (it will be Moonlighting in 70mm). I was really surprised at how much I liked that movie. E.T.: The Extraterrestrial was another that hit me that way. I was 14 when I saw the movie and I just thought, "ugh, this is going to be a movie for little kids," but I wound up really getting blown away by it -and then angrily pissed when Gandhi beat it for the Best Picture Oscar.
There's a decent number of movies made within the last 30 years that seem perfect and not diluted with wasteful scenes.
The Shawshank Redemption is one that comes to mind. That movie plumbs some dark emotional depths and yet reaches an exhilarating high at the end.
I consider L.A. Confidential one of the very best movies of the 1990s, even though it was shot in Super35. That movie works on numerous levels and gets away with taking huge chances, such as what the protagonist does with the villain near the end of the movie. The Usual Suspects is another favorite.
There's lots of others I'm leaving out. If this thread goes on long enough it's certain most of the great ones will get mentioned.
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Galen Murphy-Fahlgren
Master Film Handler
Posts: 405
From: Canton, MI, USA
Registered: Oct 2007
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posted 10-14-2008 04:25 PM
I'll bite. ![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
I agree with a lot of these suggestions, and respectfully disagree with some too. Bear with me, since my list is based mostly on my DVD collection and trying to remember what I've seen at theaters over the course of several years.
Bobby mentions The Shawshank Redemption, which is a movie much beloved to me, and deserves mention as being one movie that kicks the crap out of the book. That Morgan Freeman's character is originally Irish is neat too.
Obviously, pretty much anything Lang touched was gold, at least in the silent era. I haven't seen any of his talkies, and many great directors didn't make that transition well. Godard's Contempt (Le Mepris), which features Fritz Lang in the role of Fritz Lang, is another masterpiece and favorite of mine, and funny too.
Murnau's Nosferatu is perhaps my all time favorite movie, and I'm going to see it in 35mm with live accompaniment from the Alloy Orchestra for the second time 12 days from now. I'm super pumped.
Also deserving of the title "perfect movie" is Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc, which is perhaps the best shot movie of all time. I haven't seen every movie, but this beats most everything I have seen by a good margin. Saw it at the inimitable Redford Theatre a few years ago with a live choir. I don't think even the recovered Metropolis footage will displace this as the greatest lost movie find ever, especially considering the discovered print of The Passion was found in a janitor's closet in an Oslo asylum, of all places.
And to list a few more:
Dr. Strangelove
Okamoto's Kill!
Kobayashi's Samurai Rebellion
The Seven Samurai
The William Castle version of House on Haunted Hill
I'll go out on a limb and say Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums, but I bet a lot of people here are going to want to rip that to shreds. That's fine, I think it speaks more to my generation anyhow. My mother loves it, but she's pretty "hip" and "with it", we even take her to concerts and don't pretend she isn't our mother.
I could probably go on for another 50 movies, but I've paced every hall in my house for an hour racking my brain and rifled through my DVDs 5 times already. Maybe later.
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