Classic Movies

[maltaille]

It's hard to list just a manageable few. The Lounge has good taste, so many of these are seconds:

Casablanca: if Bogey's performance is a little dated, it's still the best movie ever made. The writing is spectacular, the dialogue especially. This film has more lines in the last scene alone that have entered common parlance than any dozen other films have in total.

Double Indemnity: This is the original noir thriller. Great performances, great plotting, and some of the best direction ever committed to celluloid.

The Hustler: Paul Newman at his finest (yeah, this is better than Cool Hand Luke). All poker players should watch this, it's all about how metagame skills are at least as important as your talent at the game itself.

The Wild Bunch: Possibly this should be at the top of the list, it might be the most purely entertaining of the lot. It's sort of a western, taking place just before the first World War, when there really wasn't any place for outlaws any more. Men out of their time taking one last shot at it before the world moves on. Easily gives modern films a run for their money in the violence stakes, has one of the best opening scenes ever, and has the distinction of being the only mainstream film to receive a more restrictive rating on its re-release 20 years later.

Chinatown: This movie is one of the reasons Jack Nicholson is considered a genius. It's also the best thriller since Double Indemnity. Great script, great performances, good direction.

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly: The best of the Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood westerns (maybe Unforgiven is a challenger for Eastwood, but this might well be the best western of his career full stop). Everyone is used to their best advantage, it all looks spectacular, and the music is amongst the best ever recorded for film.

The Sting: This is a fun film. Newman and Redford are just as good together as in Butch and Sundance, and if the script isn't quite up to the same standard, who can match William Goldman at his best anyway?

The Big Sleep: Who did what, where? Who killed the chauffeur isn't really the point - it's how stylish everyone is moving from scene to scene.

The Getaway: Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw. One of the great action films, one of the best car chases (Steve McQueen did a lot of his own driving), and McQueen and MacGraw sizzle for a reason.

The Mechanic: Charles Bronson is a professional assassin. Jan Michael Vincent is his apprentice. Bronson actually acts! Direction is fantastic, and the ending is perfect.

Breakfast at Tiffany's: This isn't action-packed, or full of belly laughs, but it is funny, and it is poignant. It's also the best part of Audrey Hepburn's long and illustrious career (ok, Roman Holiday and Charade are worth an honorable mention). It's worth a watch, even if it isn't as overtly entertaining as the rest of this list.

I've focused on things that work as fast-paced entertainment as well as something more, so I've left out things like The Barefoot Contessa, or Aguirre. Also left out foreign films, like A Bout de Souffle, and Rififi, even if the best are easily up there with their Hollywood counterparts.

[John Cole]

Blarg,

I like your suggestion about simply diving in and seeing everything by one filmmaker. In fact, I've pretty much done that with Hitchcock, missing only a couple of the minor silents and his two films made during WWII. I've also read tons of stuff about Hitchcock; not only are the general books great, but there's many scholarly books and papers that are fascinating. I even got to see The Lodger in a theater one time; it was quite the treat.

There are also many websites devoted to Hitch, and many of those are worth checking out, too.

I know many people don't like the idea of taking a scholarly approach to films, but for some it's quite enjoyable. And you do get to meet, on occasion, people as wacky as you are about the same thing.

Of course, it may simply be a good idea to start with a filmmaker who hasn't made quite as many films as Hitch and is still working today.

[John Cole]

Dude,

Keep in mind that Hitchcock is a bit of a prankster, so you can't always take him at his word--even in the Truffaut/Hitchcock book. Spoto's bio isn't bad, but Spoto is a real prig, and I didn't care for his style. A great book on Hitchcock is William Rothman's Hitchcock: The Murderous Gaze. It takes a scholarly approach in that it provides a close analysis of five films (although it refers to many more) and traces many of Hitchcock's signature shots and compositions in those films. Another classic is Robin Wood's Hitchcock's Films, an excellent and thorough introduction. Of the two, Wood's book is probably the best place to start.

[John Cole]

One of the great classics:

The Adventures of Robin Hood with its wonderful Technicolor and fabulous score--and, of course, Errol Flynn (Sterile Errol, the virgin peril!).

A modern classic: Tootsie, a comedy the absolute equal of the great screwball comedies of the '30s.


The movie that made me love movies: Lawrence of Arabia: I watched it a couple weeks ago and was spellbound once again.

And one little gem:

Bad Day at Black Rock, features one of Spencer Tracy's great performances.

[Blarg]

JC, I did that with Hitchcock and really enjoyed it. I was pretty much a lock for Hitchcock trivia contests for a long time. I want to see everything Herzog has done, too, that is available to an American audience, anyway, and I bought a book on him called I think Herzog on Herzog. I'm well on my way, there.

I'm not sure who my next project will be, but it might be Truffaut. And I could tie into that by reading his idol, Balzac, who wrote about a billion novels, to see if that gives me any greater insight into Truffaut. But I also may take some time and grind through Richard Dawkins first, as I bought a few of his books and they're just sitting on the shelf. His writing seems like the kind that if I can get into it at all, I will want to read a lot of. I've thought the same of Stephen J. Gould. And I have wanted to do that with V.S. Naipaul for a long time. We'll see. Right now I work so much I'm often too mentally tired for other than light reading.

[John Cole]

Blarg,

Have you had the chance to see Even Dwarfs Started Small? I did pretty much the same with Herzog, too, although I haven't seen many of his documentaries. My favorite is still probably Kasper Hauser.

[Blarg]

I love Kaspar Hauser! I love his encounter with the professor of logic. I saw Even Dwarfs Started Small partway through then gave up till I'm in a better mood. It didn't grab me at all, though the stories around it are great. I still have to see Cobra Verde and a few others. Little Dieter Needs to Fly is bought but packed up while I've been moving around lately, so is inaccessible. I might rent it. I have yet to see the current run flick with Christian Bale.

[batair]

On The Waterfront
The Magnificent Seven
The Great Escape
Once Upon A Time In The West
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
A Fistful of Dollars
For A Few Dollars More
Hang 'em High
High Plains Drifter
Yojimbo
Kelly's Heroes
Dr Stranglove
The Manchurian Candidate
The Graduate

[bronx bomber]

Galaxy Quest-Best movie ever

[Moneyline]

You may want to check out some spaghetti westerns as they are fairly accessible for a contemporary audience. As others have mentioned the latter Sergio Leone westerns are very good. I'd recommend <font color="blue">THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY; DUCK YOU SUCKER; and ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST </font> in that order (although many like ONCE.. the best). Equally good as Leone's films, but much less well known, are the films of Sergio Corbucci. <font color="blue"> COMPANEROS </font> is IMO his best work. <font color="blue">THE GREAT SILENCE and DJANGO</font> are other strong Corbucci westerns, but they are both slowly paced and in the case of SILENCE probably a tad too moody, so you may want to hold off on those. There are lots of other good spaghettis out there like the cool but weird <font color="blue"> KEOMA </font> that you'll want to dive into if you like the ones already listed.

Happy watching!