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timschochet's thread- Mods, please move this thread to the Politics Subforum, thank you (3 Viewers)

19. Inherit The Wind (1960)

Directed by: Stanley Kramer

Starring: Spencer Tracy, Frederick March, Gene Kelly

Despite being filmed in black and white and containing certain dialogue that is somewhat dated, this film, which is largely based on the famous "Monkey Trial" of the 1920s, is every bit as relevant today as when it was made, since there continues to be a large number of people in this country who reject the science of evolution as incompatible with the Book of Genesis. Based on the Broadway play by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, the movie does take some liberties with the actual trial, but this is important to the drama at hand. The key message of the film comes when March's character, based on William Jennings Bryan, admits that since the first day in the Bible occurred before the sun was created, it might have been longer than a 24 hour day- which means that evolution and religion are not incompatible at all. In fact, the theme of this movie is not a rejection of religion, but an acceptance of evolution within religion- this is not a film that promotes atheism. (The main atheist, Gene's Kelly's character, based on the journalist H.L. Mencken, is reviled at the end of the film.)

Tracy and March are terrific as always and they seem to be energized by playing off against each other. Gene Kelly is also great in an unusual, dramatic role for him. This is one of Hollywood's most classic dramas.

Up next: Read Marcus Aurelius. Of each particular thing ask: what is it in itself? What is its nature? What does he do, this man you seek?

 
18. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Directed by: Jonathan Demme

Starring: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Ted Levine

This is another one of those movies I don't have to describe too much because everybody's seen it, probably more than a few times. For me, it's the scariest movie ever made. (There are 2 films on my list ranked higher than this one which are generally categorized as "scary movies", but though I enjoy them slightly more, they are not quite as scary for me as this one.) It's Jame Gumb, though, and not Hannibal Lector which makes it so scary. Lector is the more fascinating character, but not quite on the same nightmare inducing level.

There is a lot of great, deep psychology in this film as well, centering on Starling's insecurities. And of course the action is intense, particularly Lector's escape scene. I also have to give mention to Anthony Heald- with all the great acting in this film, this character actor holds his own and gives an incredible performance as a sleazy doctor who deserves what he is going to get when the movie ends...perhaps.

Up next: Now I have some instructions for you. I want you to go straight back to the gallery - Start your motor - When you get to the gallery tell Jennifer that she will be looking after things temporarily, she's to give me a ring if there's anything she can't deal with herself. Then go into the office, and make out a check, for "cash," for the sum of $5,000. Then carefully, but carefully Hilary, remove absolutely everything that might subsequently remind me that you had ever been there, including that yellow thing with the blue bulbs which you have such an affection for. Then take the check, for $5,000, which I feel you deserve, and get - permanently - lost. It's not that I don't want to know you, Hilary - although I don't - it's just that I'm afraid we're not really the sort of people that you can afford to be associated with....Don't speak, Hilary, just... go.

 
timschochet said:
People seem to really have a problem with this. Oh well.

By all measurements except one, The Godfather Part II is a vastly superior movie to The People vs. Larry Flynt. That one measurement, however, is entertainment value to timschochet, and it is the ONLY measure that counts in my ranking.
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On one hand I agree with the lynch mob that GF2 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> P vs LF (and that isn't near enough > signs).

On the other hand I love that you're not being a lemming and that you're speaking your mind on which you found more entertaining.

Keep on trucking!  :thumbup:

 
timschochet said:
18. The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

Directed by: Jonathan Demme

Starring: Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Ted Levine
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Nice! Love this movie although I can't say it's was the scariest in my book. Definitely VERY unsettling but something about The Shining is more creepy (an unhinged spouse typing the same thing over an over in a remote location with no where to run).

 
17. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)

Directed by: Stanley Kramer

Starring: Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier

This is the last of the Kramer-Tracy trilogy on my list (though Stanley Kramer was the producer of an upcoming film I have yet to rank.) It is considered to be particularly poignant by film historians as it was the final Tracy/Hepburn film, Tracy was dying as it was filmed, and the tears that are in Katherine Hepburn's eyes in the final scene have to do with these facts (though that is a very tearful scene; I always cry watching it myself, but because of the script, not Spencer Tracy's fate sad as it was.) 

The film is essentially a comedy though it deals with what was an important issue of the time (interracial marriage), less so now. Some of both it's humor and it's message is incredibly dated- Isabel Sanford in particular is cringeworthy with some of her dialogue. I was actually introduced to this movie in a college film class by a professor who made the point that it's both sexist and racist. Racist in that Sidney Poitier is presented as the "perfect" black man; perfect in that he is a handsome, clean cut brilliant doctor. Yet he is willing to defer to the wishes of his fiancé's parents, telling them that if they disapprove of the marriage, it's off. This last is also what makes the film sexist, especially when contrasted with another interracial film from a decade earlier: Sayonara, starring Marlon Brando. Brando is a white man who is in love with a Japanese girl; at the end of the film he says screw it to everyone and marries her. The message from Hollywood, according to my professor, is that in a mixed marriage if the man is white, he can decide what to do. But if the woman is white, the man must defer to her parents to decide. 

I agree with my old professor's analysis, and even so I love this movie. (So, frankly, did he.) It may be dated, racist, sexist, but it's heart is absolutely in the right place and it's a wonderful romantic comedy. Tracy and Hepburn are simply magic together (as they usually were.) Poitier is fine but he strangely reminds me of William Shatner in this film, in looks, movement, speech patterns. I'm being serious here- watch this movie back to back with any episode of Star Trek: the original series. It's eery. 

Up next:  And that's the hardest part. Today everything is different; there's no action... have to wait around like everyone else. Can't even get decent food - right after I got here, I ordered some spaghetti with marinara sauce, and I got egg noodles and ketchup. I'm an average nobody... get to live the rest of my life like a schnook.

 
16. Goodfellas (1990)

Directed by: Martin Scorcese

Starring: Ray Liotta, Lorraine Bracco, Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci

Masterful movie about the mafia, from the view of the bottom up (vs. the top down view of the Godfather films.) If the Godfather films essentially continued the Hollywood romanticizing of gangsters (which had been going on at the time of the first film for over 40 years, ever since the original Scarface) Goodfellas takes a more realistic approach.

For pure filmmaking, this movie has a good argument as quite simply the best film on my list. Among my favorite aspects:

1. The use of rock music of the era. This is especially ironic because you know the characters portrayed never listened to the artists being featured- no doubt their tastes were from a previous era. But in particular Eric Clapton's guitar work on "Sunshine of Your Love" while Robert DeNiro is contemplating murdering anyone who might inform on him, and Jim Gordon's haunting piano at the end of Layla as we see all the dead bodies, are unmatched by any other film I've ever seen. The best use of a soundtrack ever.

2. The single shot camera work. Though there are several scenes that come to mind, the ones that stand out are early on when we are introduced to the large cast of characters that are in the mob, and when Liotta takes Bracco to dinner theater for the first time.

3. Joe Pesci. It's rather difficult to outshine Robert DeNiro, especially in a movie like this one, but Pesci manages to do it in what is easily his best role ever. He is the absolute star every time he is on screen and the rest of the cast are bit players alongside him. 

4. The beginning of the closing act of the film in which a drugged out Liotta is made paranoid by helicopters following him while picking up ingredients for a pasta dish. This ten minute sequence is hard to beat for best filmmaking anywhere. 

Up next: You see the whole culture. Nazis, deodorant salesmen, wrestlers, beauty contests, a talk show. Can you imagine the level of a mind that watches wrestling? But the worst are the fundamentalist preachers. Third grade con men telling the poor suckers that watch them that they speak with Jesus, and to please send in money. Money, money, money! If Jesus came back and saw what's going on in his name, he'd never stop throwing up.

 
timschochet said:
perfect in that he is a handsome, clean cut brilliant doctor. Yet he is willing to defer to the wishes of his fiancé's parents, telling them that if they disapprove of the marriage, it's off. This last is also what makes the film sexist,
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This is ridiculous.

This would be true of many in the same situation. If the in-laws disapprove it's pretty difficult to get off square one, barring elopement and estrangement.

 
15. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

Directed by: Woody Allen

Starring: Michael Caine, Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest, Barbara Hershey, Woody Allen

With a terrific ensemble cast, Woody Allen's best movie (save one) examines human relationships and specifically sibling rivalries, love, marriage, and infidelity. The humor and the dialogue are sharp throughout, and the cinematography (by Carlo Di Palma) is breathtaking, as it is for all of Allen's films from this era. (One of my very favorite scenes is when Sam Waterston takes Wiest and Carrie Fisher on a tour of interesting buildings in Manhattan- the few times that I have been to the city I have always tried to look at some of those, like the Dakota and Guggenheim.)

As I wrote, everybody is great, even in the smaller roles- I especially love Max Von Sydow as the cantankerous old artist- I say old but this guy never seems to age! I just saw him in Game of Thrones last year and he looked like the same guy. Anyhow, I know that Woody is not everybody's cup of tea, and even I can't stand a lot of his films. At his best, though, he stands among my very favorite directors.

Up next: If this man should fall, who will lift the flag and carry on?

 
timschochet said:
15. Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

Directed by: Woody Allen

Starring: Michael Caine, Mia Farrow, Dianne Wiest, Barbara Hershey, Woody Allen

With a terrific ensemble cast, Woody Allen's best movie (save one) examines human relationships and specifically sibling rivalries, love, marriage, and infidelity. The humor and the dialogue are sharp throughout, and the cinematography (by Carlo Di Palma) is breathtaking, as it is for all of Allen's films from this era. (One of my very favorite scenes is when Sam Waterston takes Wiest and Carrie Fisher on a tour of interesting buildings in Manhattan- the few times that I have been to the city I have always tried to look at some of those, like the Dakota and Guggenheim.)

As I wrote, everybody is great, even in the smaller roles- I especially love Max Von Sydow as the cantankerous old artist- I say old but this guy never seems to age! I just saw him in Game of Thrones last year and he looked like the same guy. Anyhow, I know that Woody is not everybody's cup of tea, and even I can't stand a lot of his films. At his best, though, he stands among my very favorite directors.

Up next: If this man should fall, who will lift the flag and carry on?
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This is basically Uncle Vanya meets Crime & Punishment without the redemption.

 
timschochet said:
Up next: If this man should fall, who will lift the flag and carry on?
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Our stars are aligning again, thank God, because........

I know it's me - since the dude is lionized by filmmakers, actors, and other artsy-type folks - but I never got Woody Allen.  The humor in his films doesn't work for me (so0me of his ancient stand-up I find hilarious), nor does all of the pathos. His stuff just bores me to tears. But, as I said, he keeps getting HOF actors so it's obviously me who's missing the point(s).

 
Uruk-Hai said:
Our stars are aligning again, thank God, because........

I know it's me - since the dude is lionized by filmmakers, actors, and other artsy-type folks - but I never got Woody Allen.  The humor in his films doesn't work for me (so0me of his ancient stand-up I find hilarious), nor does all of the pathos. His stuff just bores me to tears. But, as I said, he keeps getting HOF actors so it's obviously me who's missing the point(s).
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Fortunately, the necessity of Woody Allen no longer lies in getting him. As a fan, I absolutely would have preferred he stayed Money/Bananas/Sleeper/Love&Death silly. But now, when i see the intellectualization of mass culture in the 70s for the exception, almost aberration it was, i am so thankful he liberated the romcom, citylife, the culturevulture for so many people west of the Hudson, even at the cost of his sense of humor. Wouldnt have anyone to talk to if he didnt.

 
wikkidpissah said:
Fortunately, the necessity of Woody Allen no longer lies in getting him. As a fan, I absolutely would have preferred he stayed Money/Bananas/Sleeper/Love&Death silly. But now, when i see the intellectualization of mass culture in the 70s for the exception, almost aberration it was, i am so thankful he liberated the romcom, citylife, the culturevulture for so many people west of the Hudson, even at the cost of his sense of humor. Wouldnt have anyone to talk to if he didnt.
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As usual, my friend, you're talking way over my head  :)

 
14. Glory (1989)

Directed by: Edward Zwick

Starring: Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman

My favorite Civil War movie of all time about the famed African-American 54th Regiment. Everybody involved is superb, and the battle scenes are absolutely riveting. This is the film that made Denzel Washington a memorable Hollywood actor. It also demonstrated that Broderick was capable of more than the teenage typecasting he received during the 80s.

I have long thought that Hollywood should give the 442nd regiment (made up of Japanese-Americans from Hawaii during World War II, VERY similar story) equal treatment- it would be a poignant story especially now.

Next Up: Ah, you're learning, Willie! You're learning that you don't work with a captain because you like the way he parts his hair. You work with him because he's got the job or you're no good! Well, the case is over. You're all safe. It was like shooting fish in a barrel.

 
Glory is a really well made movie based on an impossible to screw up subject, its production values are awesome, it has terrific detail, the story is real, it's packed with great actors... just one problem - it's boring.

 
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SaintsInDome2006 said:
Glory is a really well made movie based on an impossible to screw up subject, its production values are awesome, it has terrific detail, the story is real, it's packed with great actors... just one problem - it's boring.
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It is not.

Did you watch Gettysburg? Gods and Generals? Those movies are boring. Glory is riveting, IMO.

 
timschochet said:
14. Glory (1989)

Directed by: Edward Zwick

Starring: Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman

My favorite Civil War movie of all time about the famed negro African-American 54th Regiment. Everybody involved is superb, and the battle scenes are absolutely riveting. This is the film that made Denzel Washington a memorable Hollywood actor. It also demonstrated that Broderick was capable of more than the teenage typecasting he received during the 80s.
Click to expand...
Fixed.

 
timschochet said:
I could have referred to them as "freedmen", "colored", or even "contraband" (though that term wouldn't be accurate, but it was used incorrectly at the time.) Why is this significant to you?
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Because they weren't called "African-Americans" during the civil war.

 
timschochet said:
I could have referred to them as "freedmen", "colored", or even "contraband" (though that term wouldn't be accurate, but it was used incorrectly at the time.) Why is this significant to you?
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Don't engage that fool, tim. You're not going to get a sensible conversation out of it, if that's what you're looking for. I made the mistake of responding to the inanity elsewhere and instantly regretted it. 

 
Uruk-Hai said:
Don't engage that fool, tim. You're not going to get a sensible conversation out of it, if that's what you're looking for. I made the mistake of responding to the inanity elsewhere and instantly regretted it. 
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OK. Never encountered him before (though I'm getting a vibe.)

 
timschochet said:
That doesn't matter. We don't live in the Civil War era.
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Tell me where in the script they call them "African-Americans" and I will concede it to you.

But I recall "negroes", "black", "colored", "n***ers", but no "African-American"

GB them not being politically correct.

 
Uruk-Hai said:
Don't engage that fool, tim. You're not going to get a sensible conversation out of it, if that's what you're looking for. I made the mistake of responding to the inanity elsewhere and instantly regretted it. 
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Aww.  I guess it hurt you being incorrect.

 
pandora said:
Tell me where in the script they call them "African-Americans" and I will concede it to you.

But I recall "negroes", "black", "colored", "n***ers", but no "African-American"

GB them not being politically correct.
Click to expand...
This is a nice thread for people with weird interests in ranking presidents, constitutional amendments, books, movies and pigeons - please go check out Capn Quinoa's thread on strange social theories. Thanks.

 
timschochet said:
14. Glory (1989)

Directed by: Edward Zwick

Starring: Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman

My favorite Civil War movie of all time about the famed African-American 54th Regiment. Everybody involved is superb, and the battle scenes are absolutely riveting. This is the film that made Denzel Washington a memorable Hollywood actor. It also demonstrated that Broderick was capable of more than the teenage typecasting he received during the 80s.

I have long thought that Hollywood should give the 442nd regiment (made up of Japanese-Americans from Hawaii during World War II, VERY similar story) equal treatment- it would be a poignant story especially now.

Next Up: Ah, you're learning, Willie! You're learning that you don't work with a captain because you like the way he parts his hair. You work with him because he's got the job or you're no good! Well, the case is over. You're all safe. It was like shooting fish in a barrel.
Click to expand...
It's a great movie, pretty much every actor turned in a quality performance. Broderick was terrible in it.

 
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