IMDB top 250

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1. Tim Who? said

   on January 14, 2004

   Wow! What a list. The shocker for me is I have seen 80 to 90%. You (have) had a vast collection of DVD’s and you go out to movies all the time. I have maybe 30 dvd’s and rarely go out to the movies. But then again I do have a few years on you! I guess I used that time well. By the way…You missed some really good movies.

2. DeAnna said

   on January 14, 2004

   You need to run out and see Rear Window and Some Like it Hot. I have an aversion to old films, since a lot proir to Hitchcock is poorly paced and so many things that are conventions now, were not then so a modern viewer can know where a film is going, long before the film intends for you to put things together.

   That said, Rear Window and Some Like it Hot work amazingly well as modern films. And are among my all time favorites.

   We have been watching a lot of Kurosawa around here and The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo and Sanjuro are amazing. And at times very funny. I loved the Samurai in both Yojimbo and Sanjuro as he is such a badass. And you’ll probably recognize the plots of all three movies because they were re-made as the Magnificent Seven and A Fistfull of Dollars was based on Yojimbo.

3. Arcterex said

   on January 14, 2004

   What? No Men with Brooms????

4. kirsten said

   on January 14, 2004

   oh my god, you’ve got to rent the apartment (number 82) and donnie darko (number 91).

   the apartment is hilarious, especially considering it’s an old black&white donnie darko is just creepy and fun and interesting (ps the donnie darko website is one of the best i’ve ever seen)

   and i can’t believe you’ve never seen casablanca.

   of course, if I went through this list and highlighted everything i’d seen, I’d probably only end up with a quarter of it.

5. Michael Hanscom said

   on January 14, 2004

   Oh, NetFlix will be getting quite the workout — I was actually surprised to realize that I hadn’t seen some of these, for all that I’d heard about them. I’ll actually be adding one to my “seen” list this weekend, as I’ve got Hitchcock’s “The Birds” sitting here waiting for me to get around to it.

   DeAnna — that may be one of the first times I’ve seen someone give a reason for not liking older movies that I can understand…to a point. Most of the time it boils down to they “don’t like black and white” or some such thing, which generally just prompts a roll of the eyes and a sigh of resignation from me. While I didn’t see a lot of older films growing up, I’ve been working on correcting that over the past few years, and have discovered some real gems that I’d hate to have never seen — “Harvey” is a fun, sweet film, for instance, and one of my all time favorites is “His Girl Friday” with Carey Grant and Rosalind Russell (absolutely hilarious, quick-witted, and very fast dialogue…listen quickly, or you’re likely to miss some really good lines!).

   One of the things I’ve found I enjoy about older films is the slower pacing, to be honest. So many of today’s films are aimed so much at the thirty-second attention span “MTV generation” that for me, a film that actually takes the time to carefully put all of its pieces into place and let the audience actually become immersed in its world feels like a breath of fresh air.

   I think (though I’m no film scholar) part of the difference in pacing is simply that with a lot of older films, there were more people making films that had also been involved in stage productions, and so many of the stylistic choices involved in theatrical productions carried over into the films of the time. Where today people are used to a cut every ten to thirty seconds, allowing films to be shot with innumerable short takes and assembled after the fact, the stronger ties to the stage world in older films led to longer takes and less hectic direction — not to mention actors who could hold more than two lines of dialogue in their head at a time, or action sequences where the people involved actually had to appear as competent fighters/drivers/whatever, rather than having any apparent skill created solely through creative editing. It’s rare that a modern film will impress me with its staging, direction or pacing anymore, and I love seeing how well all of those could be done in older films.

   As far as being familiar with film conventions — well, sure, I can see that. But at the same time, how often do we see films that really keep us guessing or in the dark about where things are going, no matter what era they were produced in? 98% of the time the guy’s gonna get the girl, the bad guy will be defeated (but not until after a standoff with his main henchman, and one last “surprise! I’m not dead yet!” moment from the baddy), the hero will have a moment of doubt before his steely resolve kicks back in, the cute kids will band together to humiliate the evil businessman and save their school/church/orphanage, the shy guy will work up the courage to confess his love only to confess it to the wrong person…and so on, and so on, etc., etc., yadda yadda.

   It’s not what’s going to happen that makes most movies fun. We all know what’s going to happen. It’s how it’s going to happen, what pitfalls come along the way, how they’re dealt with, how well the setup and payoff is crafted, and all of the rest of that that makes the journey infinitely more rewarding than the final destination — and for me, a move from the 1930s or 40s can do that equally as well (and sometimes better) than a movie from the 90s or 2000s.

   And…yeah. That was a rant. Talk about bl-hogging!

   Arcterex — nope, no Men With Brooms, but keep in mind, this was a list from us.imdb.com. Maybe a list from ca.imdb.com would correct this grievous oversight — if only ca.imdb.com existed, at least.

   Though now I think I’m going to have to add MWB to my NetFlix list.

   Kirsten — I’ve been wanting to see Donnie Darko for a while now, and actually have it somewhere in my NetFlix queue, patiently waiting for me to work my way through to it. Maybe it’s time for me to bump it up in the list, though, as long as I’m adding the rest of the movies that have been mentioned here to the queue. It’s definitely a “must see soon” though!

6. Rob Morton said

   on January 14, 2004

   Just skimming the list, I was going to recommend Donnie Darko as you have watched mostly movies that I have seen and figured you would like this one. Strange to see everyone else notice a movie so far down on the list that is by no means a big movie.

Continuing the Discussion

1. geek*muffin linked to this post on January 14, 2004

   donnie darko

   If you have never seen the movie Donnie Darko, go see it now, especially if you are like me and like wierd little indie films that screw with your head. but more importantly, go play with the Donnie Darko website….