What Is Your Favorite Film of All Time and Why?

[Suki]

I would love to hear why a certain film appeals to you in particular. I have to admit I am eclectic as well. My husband loves artsy fartsy films and films that are theatrical and contain lots of obscure symbolism. I love low budget Kung Fu movies with no subtitles and everyone speaking Chinese or Cantonese, etc. with lots of action. Or expansive epics that take you back in time and has grand vistas and sweeping views. Or films in which there are unexpected twists and turns...and full blown character development.

Here are my top ten picks of all time great movies and the reasons why:

10. Kama Sutra--Gorgeous visually interesting film with great acting and an interesting premise...what is more enviable social position and wealth or true love? Lol.

9. Marty--the the old Burgess Meredith one. Where a plain-faced butcher and lonely man meets homely girl and finds love and we see the greatness in all people.

8. Little Big Man--this film traces the life of an old old man reflecting on his adventures and experiences and what he has learned.

7. To Kill A Mockingbird--this film deals with the ugliness of prejudice and racism in such a beautiful, sensitive way.

6. The Matrix--love the action and the premise that human beings are manipulated by machines and caught up in some dream computer world and are not living reality but belief becomes reality....yep, this film has a lot of social commentary with great action. Lol.

5. Nosotros Los Pobres--Pedro Infante. Lol. Yep, I like the melodrama and the tragedy and that poor folks are full of spirit and love and hope no matter how bad it gets.

4. Alien--I love space sci-fi flicks with some 'strange aliens' and lots of suspense....lol.

3. Dances With Wolves--Epics...this time a western Epic with the Native Americans portrayed with some sensitivity...not as much as I would like but acceptable.Lol.

2. The Godfather--hey, its a mobster flick. And a great one. Mario Puzo did an excellent job writing the book and the film was very captivating. Lol.

1. Lawrence of Arabia---I loved that movie...so interesting it was to me. I also loved Dr. Zivago too. And I loved Horseman on the Roof...and Dune (though I know many people did not...lol). I liked Gandhi and The Last Emperor and Billy Elliot and so many others thank goodness there is variety out there. I wish someone would make another beautiful, absorbing and extremely intelligent Science Fiction movie....those I really like. Lol.

HOw about your favorites? LOL.

[Ecuajey]

1) The Shawshank Redemption- Shows the power of the human spirit for freedom and how institutionalization doesn't necessarily mean rehabilitation

2) The Lion King - Great theme and characters for an animated film. It portrays greed, guilt, jealousy, love, friendhsip, and redemption all in a cartoon.

3) The Last Emperor - Great film that showed the life of the Last Emperor of China and how he was reduced to a garderner.

4) The Red Violin - The interesting adventures of a violin through 400 years and the hands it's been and the struggle to keep it.

5) Raise the Redlanters - (Chinese Film) How one's unhappiness could infect others in a viscious cycle.

6) Requiem for a Dream - The consiquences of drug abuse portrayed to affect anyone who has a heart.

7) The Color Purple - The sad lives of African-Americans in the South.

8) Before Night Falls - The life of a homosexual Cuban writer and how he suffered before and during Fidel Castro's regime.

9) I am Sam- Heart warming film that really makes you think what does it take to be a good, loving parent.

10) Les Miserables - Portrays redemption and pride too well.

11) Quills - A deliciously sinister movie, lol.

12) Scream - It has a beginning that you'll never forget. It would have been better if they just stopped at part 1.

13) Bedazzled - Hilarious and well written. Elizabeth Hurley as the Devil was just fantastic!

14) Austin Powers: Goldmember - Just a too funny movie!

15) Indiana Jones #3 A great action film.

16) Snatch (British Film) - I love films that shows a lot of irony.

17) A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries

18) Ghandi - The life of a true human being/hero, greatly portrayed by Ben Kingsly.

19) Congo - A terrific action movie with beautiful scenary and special effects.

20) The Matrix - A great plot.

[RAN]

I tend to have a dark side that is most easily visible in my taste in the arts and entertainment.

20. Charley (1968) - Based on the Daniel Keyes' novel Flowers for Algernon, the movie tells the story of Charley, a 30-year-old mentally retarded bakery worker. A neurosurgeon and a psychiatrist ask him to participate in an experiment that would help him achieve a normal level of intelligence as has been demonstrated in mentally incapacitated laboratory rats. The treatment works so well that Charley attains genius levels of intelligence only to see these new found powers of reason all vanish within a matter of months since unbeknownst to the researchers, the effectiveness of the treatment is only temporary. This is a heartbreaking movie.

19. Full Metal Jacket (1987) - The Vietnam War - Stanley Kubrick-style. Harsh lighting and cinematography with an odd "antisceptic" feel to many scenes. Brutal in intent and execution, it is a masterwork that brought the phrase "Me so horny." into the 80's rap music lexicon.

18. Real Genius (1985) - I have always had a soft spot for high school/college nerd flicks. This is one of the better offerings within that genre.

17. Monster's Ball (2002) - American angst set in the semirural south.

16. American Beauty (1999) - American angst set in neurotic suburbia.

15. This is Spinal Tap (1984) - A Rob Reiner masterpiece pseudodocumentary film that covers segments of a US tour undertaken by a fictitious, washed up, British heavy metal rock group. Seeing the current state of bands like AC/DC, the word parody may not be appropriate anymore when describing this film.

14. Good Fellas (1990) - Martin Scorcese's best work...it is an autobiographical account of mafioso Henry Hill and his life of crime in the 60's, 70's, and early 80's. Comparisons with the Godfather films are not out of line with this classic. Joe Pesci particularly shines as a psychotic hitman and Robert DeNiro plays his role with uncanny ease and realism as he nearly always does.

13. Blade Runner (1981) - Ridley Scott's adaptation of the Philip K. Dick sci-fi novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep single-handedly takes the vision of cyberpunk that became fashionable in novel during the late 70's and masterfully creates those worlds on film. The future would never be the same. The clean sterile future environs of 2001-A Space Odyssey and Logan's Run were replaced by the gritty, dirty, and yet futuristic visions of tomorrow's world.

12. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974) - A comic twist on the Arthurian legend, the following dialogue says it all:


(situation: Arthur and his retinue are confronted by a killer bunny rabbit)
LAUNCELOT: We have the Holy Hand Grenade.
ARTHUR: Yes, of course! The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch! 'Tis one of the sacred relics Brother Maynard carries with him! Brother Maynard! Bring up the Holy Hand Grenade!
How does it, uh... how does it work?
BROTHER: I know not, my liege.
BROTHER: Consult the Book of Armaments!
MAYNARD: Armaments, Chapter Two, Verses Nine to Twenty-One.
BROTHER: "And Saint Atila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, 'Oh, Lord, bless this thy hand grenade that with it thou mayest blow thy enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.' And the Lord did grin, and people did feast upon the lambs, and sloths, and carp, and anchovies, and orangutans, and breakfast cereals, and fruit bats, and large --"
MAYNARD: Skip a bit, Brother.
BROTHER: "And the Lord spake, saying, 'First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then, shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shalt be three. Four shalt thou not count, nor either count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thou foe, who being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.'"



11. Jacob's Ladder (1990) - This movie truly disturbed me. It still has the same effect years later. It is a psychological horror story without peer. A tortured man is caught in a middle-ground between hallucination and reality. Jacob Singer (Tim Robbins) is a Vietnam veteran who is haunted by a horrible experience in battle that deeply troubles him, though he can't clearly recall the details. THe Sixth Sense ending borrowed liberally from the ending in this film.

10. Mad Max (1979) / Road Warrior (1981) - These two films should rightly be paired together as they offer the first glimpse of a post apocalyptic world ravaged by war and the decay of societal controls. Max (Mel Gibson) pursues a murderous gang of bikers in a supercharged, fuel injected
V-8 interceptor and exacts revenge for the death of his wife and baby. The second film expands on the first as Max now offers his services as a driver to a group of wasteland settlers merely hanging on to their humanity as barbarism descends on their fortress. A host of really bad post-apocalyptic films would take the Mad Max/Road Warrior formula and turn in utterly disgraceful efforts such as Waterworld.

9. National Lampoon's Vacation (1979) - Cheesy, shallow, but utterly hilarious. Chevy Chase's performance as a family man just barely holding onto his sanity during a foresaken cross-country road trip is one for the ages.

8. A Clockwork Orange (1971) - Based on a novel by sci-fi author, Anthony Burgess, it details a dystopian future in which the UK is overrun by cultured yet utterly vicious hooligans that imbibe milk laced with narcotics and speak a harsh argot of English incorporating Russian words and phrases. The story of Alex, a leader of one such gang, who murders a victim is told as he elects to undergo a "Pavlovian" treatment meant to expunge any vestiges of hostility from his personality in lieu of a life sentence. Left in this state and released to the world, he is unable to defend himself as each and every living victim seek vengeance for his past deeds.

7. The Matrix (1999) - So much has been said about this film that I cannot add anything else worth mentioning. It is not only revolutionary science fiction, it is evolutionary science fiction. The cyberpunk world introduced by the Bladerunner has reached its zenith in this film.

6. Contact (1998) - This film tackles very large issues such as communication with an extraterretrial civilization, funding and politics in science, and religion's role when it comes to interpreting the unknown. Based on Carl Sagan's only sci-fi novel, the film relates to us the story of Dr. Ellen Arroway - astronomer and researcher for a SETI-like program and how the world changes when what appears to be a genuine message from the stars is finally received. I was most impressed by the technical details in the film that could have been ignored if it were not for the input of real scientists on the film project.

5. Malcolm X (1992) - This Spike Lee film should have won an Academy award in 1992 for best film. The autobiagraphical story of slain Nation of Islam spokesman-turned-civil rights leader Malcolm X is epic in vision, scope and execution.

4. 2001 - A Space Odyssey (1968) - This film was so far ahead of its time that watching it in the actual year 2001 did not reveal any cues that would deem it "dated". This epic pushed the limits of narrative and special effects toward a meditation on technology and humanity. Based on Arthur C. Clarke's story "The Sentinel", Kubrick's and Clarke's screenplay is structured in four movements. At the Dawn of Man, a group of hominids encounters a mysterious black monolith alien to their surroundings. To the strains of Strauss' "Thus Spoke Zarathustra," a hominid discovers the first weapon, using a bone to kill prey. As the hominid tosses the bone in the air, Kubrick cuts to a 21st- century space craft hovering over the earth, skipping ahead millions of years in technological development only to imply that man hasn't advanced very far at all psychologically. U.S. scientist Dr. Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester) travels to the moon to check out the discovery of a strange object on the moon's surface: a black monolith. As Floyd touches the mass, however, a piercing sound emitted by the object stops his fellow investigators in their path. Cutting ahead 18 months, impassive astronauts David Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) head towards Jupiter on the space ship Discovery, their only company three hibernating astronauts and the vocal, man-made HAL 9000 computer running the entire ship. When the all-too-human HAL malfunctions, however, he tries to murder the astronauts to cover his error, forcing Bowman to defend himself the only way he can. Free of HAL, and finally informed of the voyage's purpose by a recording from Floyd, Bowman journeys to "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite," through the psychedelic slit-scan Star-Gate to an 18th century room, and the completion of the monolith's evolutionary mission.

3. Glory (1989) - Edward Zwick's historical drama was one of the most emotionally affecting films that I have ever seen. The story of the 54th Massachussetts Infantry of all-Black soldiers is detailed in a manner that not only makes the audience care for all of the characters but imparts a supreme sadness when they fall in battle. Historically accurate yet entertaining in every degree - it is one of the war films that I have ever witnessed.

2. Carlito's Way (1993) - Carlito's Way is a tale of a former hood trying to escape his former life. Al Pacino is Carlito Brigante, a high-level Puerto Rican drug dealer sprung from a three-decade jail sentence after only five years, thanks to a technicality and his sleazy, cocaine-addled lawyer, Dave Kleinfeld (Sean Penn). Carlito renounces his previous ways and takes a job as the manager of a club that Kleinfeld has invested in, planning to save enough money so that he can eventually move to the Caribbean. But no sooner is Carlito back on the streets of New York than his old life claws at him in the form of both old partners (Luis Guzman) and vicious up-and-comers (John Leguizamo). Nevertheless, Carlito stays clean and even restarts his relationship with a dancer named Gail (Penelope Ann Miller), until he is finally led astray by Kleinfeld, who manipulates Carlito into participating in the murder of a Mafia don from whom Kleinfeld has stolen a million dollars. At that point, the race is on to see whether Carlito and Gail can escape his world for good. The film is based on two novels about Carlito written by New York State judge Edwin Torres. Being boricua, I cannot help but to put this film among the top five. It's almost as if the Tony Montana of the film Scarface survived to grow into an older, wiser, and more clever character who could still kick ass when things needed to be done. "Heavy Duty Mano!"

1. Ran (1985) - Aknowledged as Japanese film legend, Akira Kurasawa's best work, it is a reinterpretation of William Shakespeare's King Lear. The Lear counterpart is an elderly 16th-century warlord (Tatsuya Nakadai), who announces that he's about to divide his kingdom equally among his three sons. In his dotage, he falls prey to the false flattery of his treacherous sons (Akira Terao and Jinpachi Nezu), while banishing his youngest son (Daisuke Ryu), the only member of the family who loves him enough to tell him the unvarnished truth. Thanks to his foolish pride, his domain collapses under its own weight as the sons battle each other over total control. The story was enthrolling in every way and is only rivalled by the acting performances put in by every single character. It also contains a battle scene that will leave you stunned by the shear beauty of utter savagery. Not for the faint of heart, this film rewards on so many levels that I place it a the number 1 spot.

[Edited by RAN on 14th August 2002 at 23:46]

[Suki]

And the reasons why you liked them were most interesting and true!!

Ecuajey, loved your list as well....well done....I am so glad I started this thread....Thank you.


And for a lovely elder gentleman who saw the Matrix a few months back on video due to my suggestions....I love your movies too...lol.

He knows who he is.

Suki

[tiggboriqua09]

godfather trilogy
is awesome
and puertorican films
ill say
la gran fiesta
linda sara
la guagua aerea
me gustan no solo por ser cine nativo sino tambien por que representan alguna parte de la historia de el pais
la guagua aerea es bastante comica
ojala hicieran mucho mas cine en pr

[dindio]

I like Scary Movie 1 and 2 American Pie 1 and 2, Superstar,
The Craft, Never been kissed, Austin Power 2 and 3, Not Another Teen Movie, The new guy

[FLOR-NEGRA]

I am more into the Romance, Comedy,
and Horror Movies:

1.) Like Water For Chocolates:
Imagine to make food and have everyone feel what you can feel from a drop of a tear, wanting the love of your life and not being able to have him/her.

2.) Legends Of The Fall:
That movie really got to me.Three brothers and loving the one you can not have: To Die For! The drama that a woman can go thru.

3.) E.T. and Willow:
Those are a few of my favorites:
Fantasie is a great thing in life.

4.) East Side Story:
Remembering how often I watch this one just makes me want to cry, the streets of NY, The Whites against the Latins, the musical and all the love from two people. I will always watch this movie over and over again.
Beautiful movie.

5.) Bruce Lee Movies:
I loved this man from the time he play in The Green Hornet, a
serie in the late 60's early 70's...where he first started. Who here remembers The Green Hornet?

6.) Holloween:
All of them.....Michael Myers has no heart at all.....but he doesn't give me nightmares!...Love them all.

7.) The Golden Child:
Eddie Murphy...He is a very good comedian....he sure makes my belly ache from laughing.

8.) A Beautiful Mind:
At first I was a little confused with this one, but as I kept getting into the movie I came to realize how the mind has so much control of our thoughts and how hard it is to get the mind back to the reality of life.

But my favorite ones are from Stephen King....I've watched all his movies...What an imagination that man has, Mysteries, suspense, and the creativity in his mind...I got to give it to him. I love to be in the dark for his movies...shhhhhhhhhhh

These are just a few of my favorites.
But I can go on and on.