Top Ten Films

[jethro]

I'm curious as to what sort of movie tastes we have here in Particracy, so I'd like to see what everyone's top 10 films of all time are. I'll list mine in ascending order, starting with Number 10 and working up to my all-time favorite.

Honorable Mentions (Some were cut by a razor-thin margin): Покровские ворота ("The Pokrovsky Gate"), The Mouse That Roared, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Spartacus, Zulu, 1984 (1984 version), Doctor Zhivago, Blazing Saddles, Airplane!, Seven Days in May

#10: Брат ("Brother") / 1997
Director: Aleksei Balabanov
Starring: Sergei Bodrov Jr.
Comments: Very interesting, very action-packed without being abominably stupid as occurs in all too many American action films. Bodrov's acting is excellent, this is probably without a doubt his best performance before his untimely death. I don't know why they stuck Vyacheslav Butusov in here, because he quite frankly can't act for shit and it seems they were just trying to leech off his celebrity.

#9: The Fall of the Roman Empire / 1964
Director: Anthony Mann
Starring: Stephen Boyd, Sophia Loren, Alec Guinness, Christopher Plummer
Comments: A brilliant movie by most any standards. Extremely intelligently scripted, deeply philosophical without being interminably dull. It, along with the even better Lawrence of Arabia and Война и Mир, truly define epic film in a way we don't really see any more. The battle scenes are large, brilliantly enacted and truly gripping, no small feat considering the period in which it was made. Alec Guinness and Christopher Plummer are at the top of their form in this film. It's main drawback is that it's leading man, Stephen Boyd, is less convincing than a Stephen Boyd-shaped cardboard cutout would be, and Sophia Loren isn't much better. The acting deficiency in most of the leading cast is what knocks this back to 9th place.

#8: Война и Mир ("War and Peace") / 1968
Director: Sergei Bondarchuk
Starring: Vyacheslav Tikhonov, Ludmila Savelyeva
Comments: The epic film of epic films. I doubt any movie will ever be more "epic" than this film. The Western version doesn't hold a pale candle to this one. The acting is strong and the script is wonderfully done. It transform's Tolstoi's incredibly dull and monstrously turgid book into a story that is interesting and genuinely captivating. The Battle of Borodino is simply a work of genius, possibly the greatest battle scene in any movie I've ever seen. In terms of the movie itself, I can make no complaints and have nothing but praise. It's #8 because it is truly ungodly long, it's 8 hours long, and the story is so stretched out it really will seem tired by the time you finish it. Even watching it in installments doesn't really alleviate this central crippling problem.

#7: Белое Cолнце пустыни ("White Sun of the Desert") / 1969
Director: Vladimir Motyl
Starring: Anatoly Kuznetsov, Spartak Mishulin, Pavel Luspekaev
Comments: A truly excellent action film with genuinely witty comedy worked in. Everything about this movie clicks perfectly. It is well-paced, clever, and truly exhilarating in terms of action. I've got no complaints about this film, it's really action film in the top of its form.

#6 The Day of the Jackal / 1973
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Starring: Edward Fox
Comments: A nearly flawless movie, I honestly can think of few ways this could have been done better. It is exciting, exhilarating, smart, it's one hell of a movie. If you haven't seen it, you should.

#5: I'm All Right Jack / 1959
Director: John Boulting
Starring: Ian Carmichael, Peter Sellers
Comments: A genuinely funny and somewhat innovative movie. Most satires can be broadly grouped as either social satires or political satires, this is an economic satire, and it does a brilliant job of it. There are almost no problems with this movie, and I think most rational people would really see the insightful nature of it, even today.

#4: Ирония судьбы, или С лёгким паром! ("The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Light Steam!") / 1975
Director: Eldar Ryazanov
Starring: Emil Braginsky, Eldar Ryazanov
Comments: A Russian classic, this movie is clever and funny on so many levels it's hard to count. From insightful skewering of broader political and social atmosphere of the Brezhnev era to brilliant day-to-day situational comedy, this movie has colossal range. The story is gripping and interesting, it never gets old. There is a reason it is still faithfully viewed every New Year's Eve in Russia (it's something like Russia's It's A Wonderful Life, only funnier and an all-round better film)

#3: Life of Brian / 1979
Director: Terry Jones
Starring: Monty Python
Comments: Without a shred of doubt the best religious comedy ever, one of the best comedies either, in my mind only really topped by one. So weird but so funny, it's hard to complain about this movie. If you have not seen this, you are an incomplete human being. This movie will have you laughing until you choke up a lung.

#2: Lawrence of Arabia / 1962
Director: David Lean
Starring: Peter O'Toole, Omar Sharif, Alec Guinness
Comments: All told, the best epic film of all time, one of the best movies of all time. It lacks the sheer brilliance and epic grandeur of Война и Mир, but it makes up for it by neatly compressing its vast story without compromising the story. Everything about this movie is superbly done. The acting is simply flawless, the scale is grand and the script a work of genius. The battle scenes could perhaps have been done better, and they should not have simply skipped over so many, but in context of the movie you'll hardly notice or care. This movie is a work of art, film making at its best.

#1: Dr. Strangelove / 1964
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Starring: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Slim Pickens
Comments: As it's placement suggests, my single favorite film of all time. I have never in all my life grown tired of watching it. It is simply brilliant, sheer genius. It is riotously funny simply because it is so eerily accurate. That I still have dim memories of that period of absolute insanity only deepens my appreciation of it. This, more than anything else, is a movie that must be seen.

[Molotov]

Zulu - ZULU
Brazil - Marvellous
Brief Encounter - "I've got something in my eye!", "Don't worry, I'm a doctor."
Lawrence of Arabia - He's the man.
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad - Sinbad. Bad makeup, belly dancing.
Shallow Grave - Ewan McGregor and Christopher Eccleston, no more need be said.
Trainspotting - Drugs are bad.
Henry V -
"The hum of either army stilly sounds,
That the fixed sentinels almost receive
The secret whispers of each other’s watch;
Fire answers fire, and through their paly flames
Each battle sees the other’s umbered face;
Steed threatens steed, in high and boastful neighs
Piercing the night’s dull ear, and from the tents
The armourers, accomplishing the knights,
With busy hammers closing rivets up,
Give dreadful note of preparation."

The Day of the Jackal - Oh what a shame he failed.
Monty Python's The Holy Grail - I've always wanted a shrubbery.

Musical: Tommy
Honourable Mention: The Madness of King George

How the fuck could you include 1984 (the film) even in the honourable mentions? It was a travesty.

[jethro]

How the fuck could you include 1984 (the film) even in the honourable mentions? It was a travesty.

I'll grant you, it was in many ways a great disappointment, and in absolutely no way lives up to the novel it's based upon. But, when you take away the expectations placed upon it, it is not that bad a film, and without a doubt is the best of the numerous attempts yet made to transfer 1984 onto film (no easy task). It was near the bottom in my mind of possible Honorable Mentions, and I waffled for a bit on whether or not it deserved to be included.

I would say the 1984 film was a great disappointment, not a travesty. Brave New World was a disgraceful travesty.

[Amazeroth]

I really can't make up an order in which I would like them best, but nevertheless:

If... (probably the best of them, nothing less than the most brilliant insight in adolescence I've ever seen)
Heat (nothing like seeing this wonderful adaption of the old hunter and prey theme)
Tommy (of course)
Blue Velvet (great insights in the nature of evil)
Pulp Fiction (not a single boring scene, done with great humour and very good depicture of characters)
Frozen Land (astounding in its hopelessnes)
The Wall (even a little better than Tommy, less interesting story, but more metaphorical)
Lost Highway (great psychological insight)
Love actually (sounds gay, but nevertheless very good)
Dr. Strangelove (here as a representative both of the many good Kubrick films and all the highly entertaining comedias)

I can't really include a Monty Python film, they are all good, but having seen the entire series, none of them can be compared to the shows themselves.

[JosephJ]

This thread makes me realise that I can't even remember the names of most films I've watched. There's Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Monty Python's Life of Brian, Dr. Strangelove, Hotel Rwanda, Wall Street, Zulu, and that's all I can actually remember. I really do need to watch some more.

[Dynastia]

As (probably) the only other person on the forum to have actually seen Brother, I gotta say it was a bland shitty film. Better than 90% of Hollywood's shit, sure, but still nowhere near good enough to be put anywere close to a top ten list. Even 'Vojna' by the same director was better.

The correct top ten list is as follows.

1 ;
Mad Max

2 ;
Mad Max 2 ; The Road Warrior

3 ;
Mad Max 3 ; Beyond Thunderdome

4 through 10 ;
Irrelevent

[Opakidabar]

As (probably) the only other person on the forum to have actually seen Brother, I gotta say it was a bland shitty film. Better than 90% of Hollywood's shit, sure, but still nowhere near good enough to be put anywere close to a top ten list. Even 'Vojna' by the same director was better.

You have to be Russian (or former Soviet) to understand Brother or Brother 2 (I like the second part better due to music).

[GreekIdiot]

Despite my anti-Americanism I am more of a Hollywood person although some independent films from around are good, too. Slumdog Millionaire, of the more recent I've seen.

V for Vendetta, Lord of the Rings, Bruce Almighty, Green Mile, Terminal, Hannibal etc.

You get the point.

[Opakidabar]

Man on The Moon
Monthy Python (Meaning of Life, Brian, and their TV shows)
Lock Stock and two smoking barrels
Cilvaka Barns - Latvian, well Latgalian actually
Shurik's adventures - Russian comedy that I can watch every time
The 5th Element - well, what to do
Tinto Brass movies - children please do not even dare to look that up in wiki