Classic Movies

[TheDudeAbides]

So I rented Casablanca this weekend due to the overwhelming praise for it here, and I wasn't disappointed. I was a little worried heading in that, after all the hype I've heard about it, it wouldn't live up. But it did. Great call.

Bogart is seriously bad-ass. That may be one of the greatest characters I've ever seen in a movie. I'm sure I'm the only one around here who hasn't seen it, so I'm not worried about spoilers. But I was pleasantly surprised by the ending. I was anticipating a happy ending where he gets the girl, but alas it wasn't to be. Which is great, because I expected all these classic movies to be highly formulaic and predictable. Whoever mentioned the quality of the last scene, and the memorable lines from it - was bang on. I watched it twice.

I think I'd actually like to attack the classic Westerns next. I have a good foundation (well, I've seen some of them anyway) and would love to see some more.

So, let's say starting at the beginning - what are the ones I must see? I'd like to watch them chronologically if possible. Where do I start? I know that a lot of you mentioned some in this thread, but where to begin?

[diebitter]

Western tend to fall into 3 groupings in my estimation: pre 1965 or thereabouts (Fistful of Dollars is the turning point) where the Amwrican western is supreme, then mid 60s to early/middle 70s, then post mid 70s.

The best of each era, IMHO, is The Searchers, Good the Bad and the Ugly (though Once Upon a Time in the West is of equal qualitym but a deeper and slightly less accessible work), and Unforgiven (though Josey Walws comes close).

I have a soft spot for Quick and the Dead among recent westerns though, but that's a guilty pleasure.

What other categories do you like? Scifi and horror are particularly rich areas for hidden gems.

[Blarg]

Try to go through John Ford's movies. He's the iconic western director, and his are the flicks usually pointed out as the best in the genre. The reason everybody knows Monument Valley is because of Ford. Tarantino says he knows whether he's going to get along with a new girlfriend by whether she likes Rio Bravo or not.

Two more good ones are Ride the High Country and High Noon, and, as a sort of closer to the style and belief system of the old westerns in much the way the arrival of Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns were, there's Shane. And of course The Wild Bunch and The Magnificent Seven are mandatory. The latter comes with an excellent commentary and supplementary features that add a ton of punch and color.

A fun thing is to pair a couple of these movies with their Japanese inspirations. See them first, then the Westerns that were made out of them. Interestingly, their director was himself inspired by American westerns, so there's a sort of circle of influence and tribute going on. The Magnificent Seven was inspired by The Seven Samurai, and For a Fistful of Dollars was inspired by Yojimbo. A lot of Kurosawa's work, and some older Japanese work in general, gives me the feeling of the western frontier. The world seems wild and harsh, and morality and civilization anywhere from extremely fragile to for all practical purposes non-existent.

There are too many other good ones to mention, but just as a fun treat, I'd like to recommend topping your western viewing off with another Japanese flick, but a modern one, that has been called a "noodle western." It's Tampopo, and is a funny and very likeable flick about a guy who is a sort of ramen soup version of Clint Eastwood's man with no name.

[entertainme]

The Lion in Winter

I just watched this again this weekend with my son, (first time he's seen it.) I love this movie. It's one of the few I could watch over and over again.

Peter O'Toole is King Henry II. He releases his queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, (Katherine Hepburn), from her confinement of 10 years for Christmas court with the goal of choosing his successor from their three sons.

<u>Prince John:</u> I thought I'd come and gloat a little.
<u>Eleanor:</u> Mother's tired. Come stick pins tomorrow morning; I'll be more responsive.
<u>Prince John:</u> It's no fun goading anyone tonight.

I really think I'd put this film on my top 10 list for the dialogue and acting.

(I realize you're looking at westerns now, but if you haven't seen this, put it on the list for another time.)

[BigPoppa]

[ QUOTE ]
The best of each era, IMHO, is The Searchers, Good the Bad and the Ugly (though Once Upon a Time in the West is of equal qualitym but a deeper and slightly less accessible work), and Unforgiven (though Josey Walws comes close).

[/ QUOTE ]

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and The Unforgiven (1992) are from different eras. I consider each to be the best of their timeframe.

[maltaille]

Lots of good westerns mentioned here. In order:

Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948 - Bogey again)
High Noon (1952)
Shane (1953)
The Searchers (1956)
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (1967)
The Wild Bunch (1969)

If you wanted just one, I'd go with The Wild Bunch (though I'm likely to be in the minority here, I realise - most would probably suggest The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly or The Searchers), but you do get an interesting effect if you go in chronological order - the difference in directing, acting styles, and themes becomes quite marked.

[dylan's alias]

The Manchurian Candidate is an absolute must-see. I don't even want to say anything about it. Please, please - see it now. You'll thank me later.

In keeping with the theme of great movies with recent remakes that I will never see - The In-Laws. Peter Falk and Alan Arkin are a great comic/straight man combo. It's just a dumb comedy, but the performances are outstanding. The car chase scene makes me laugh just thinking about it.

Woody Allen generally doesn't do it for me, but Annie Hall and Love and Death are definitely worth seeing.

The Outlaw Josey Wales is by far my favorite western.

The original Planet of the Apes is terrific. The long buildup to the "get your hands off of me you damned dirty ape" line, and the stunned reaction afterwards is worth seeing again and again.

The Wrong Man is my favorite of the lesser known Hitchcock films, along with Rope.

The easiest thing to do is to search Turner Classic Movies and record anything that sounds interesting. I'm looking right now - The Third Man starts in an hour (never seen it - DVR set).

[Blarg]

Nice to see love for The Wrong Man. It was only recently released on DVD, and I like it a lot. It has one of the trademark Hitchcock unbelievable happy endings, but if you're used to Hitch, you know what he really means.

For more obscure Hitch's my favorite remains Shadow of a Doubt, a film I was happy to see he remarked was his favorite.

[John Cole]

Blarg,

I'm showing Shadow of a Doubt in film class; it's the first full-length film the students will see this semester. I watched it again two nights ago. I always thought that Lynch's Blue Velvet would make a good companion piece for Shadow. Lynch, however, seems to show the terror that lurks beneath the surface of the small town, yet Hitchcock seems to show that small town life is itself terrifying.

I love the scene in which Uncle Charlie drags Charlie into the Till Two club (note the name of the club, which again reflects the double theme). The waitress is priceless.

[Blarg]

I like the pairing with Blue Velvet. I'll have to watch SOAD again and note the scene you're mentioning.

SOAD also pairs up well with Night of the Hunter to me. Both show young people in peril from the very people they should be able to count on most, their families. Both were decidedly bleak and psychologically frank for their time -- or for our time, really, too. Robert Mitchum and Joseph Cotton were both clever, murderous seducers with veneers that were, to their intended audience, smooth enough. They put me in mind of magicians, for whom children are the toughest audience, as they simply are uninterested in misdirection and won't look at what they are supposed to, but will instead look at the hand palming the coin and demand it be turned face up before them. At which point the stage collapses, and everybody else who wanted to believe in magic, even if just for a moment, is brought up short.

It's the wanting to believe that makes us so vulnerable to people happy to enable our self-indulgent leap away from the mundane, no matter how improbable. When we let them give us what we want, we might be shaking hands with the devil. And wind up drowned, or strangled, or pushed from a train.

Don't we know that it's coming? Can we really believe in magic? Maybe we do know it's coming, almost certainly, and our real lives are so desperate that it's worth it to escape the way we live now. Perhaps that's the darker message at the core of these movies.