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I really need to see My Best Friend, most of the stuff I've heard about Herzog/Kinski is hilarious.
That's My Best Fiend.
Before adding to this ... film cornucopia, quick check to ensure itomnivore hasn't drowned in the flood?
Pity. Well rather than dwell on the dead (because people often get uncomfortable when I do that), let's add some Korean cinema to the mix!
I've loved Asian cinema for a long time, and like many people had limited my exposure to Japanese and Chinese takes on the medium. That changed several years ago, quite by accident, when I discovered the wonderfully broken South Korean style of picture.
In order:
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
Oldboy
Lady Vengeance
In no particular order:
A Tale of Two Sisters
Oasis
Silmido
Shiri
Sidebar: This is one of the best threads we've ever had.
Perhaps you could list some of the other good threads we've had, in case I've missed some of them?
Last edited by Squiggly_P (2012-05-31 02:27:14)
You've been around as long as I have, so I think we're on the same page. 
I dunno, this thread just feels like it's a summation of everything that we're about. Like it should be the first thing that new users see or something.
^^^ Agreed.
To add a few:
2001 and Lawrence of Arabia, specifically if you ever get the opportunity to see them in 70mm cinerama (they play them like that every year here in Seattle, lucky us), as it will blow your mind in a way 3d never will.
Also, check out Where Eagle's Dare for the absolute best damned men-on-a-mission movie ever made. It's seriously one of the coolest WW2 flicks you'll ever see, they spend an hour infiltrating the Nazi base in the alps and setting up parts of their escape, and then the last hour is the escape, where you see all the pieces of the plan meticulously falling into place.
Haven't seen Where Eagles Dare in a very long time, I vaguely remember liking it. Should probably revisit it.
My personal fave movie based on an Alistair MacLean novel is The Guns of Navarone. And in that same sort of genre, The Dirty Dozen and The Great Escape both belong on the "movie literacy" list, too. (I didn't check to see if they've already been mentioned. If so, then I'm just agreein')
I'm not dead! I'm just busy making a spreadsheet of all these recommendations and actually watching some of these! Thank you guys so much, this is brilliant. I've seen a few of these recommendations, but for the most part, it's all new and exciting. I just haven't had anything particularly interesting to say other than "Casablanca was great" and "The French Connection is so incredibly creepy". And I don't have any recommendations to give because I'm seeking them in the first place!
Okay, well, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead is absolutely amazing, but I don't know how essential it is to understanding film.
Making a spreadsheet of film recommendations?
You belong here.
Well, if we're talking World War 2, then let me recommend Burt Lancaster in The Train and Frank Sinatra in Von Ryan's Express. And, god help me, the Eastwood-led ensemble of Kelly's Heroes.
And Midway. Midway was a kind of magical experience for me, but I haven't seen it in decades, so it might not live up to my memory of it.
And The Best Years of Our Lives. I honestly didn't finish it, but it's almost universally hailed.
Last edited by Zarban (2012-05-31 16:10:58)
Stalag 17.
"For the Allied prisoners of Stalag 17, every escape attempt ends the same way: disaster. Cynical Sgt. Sefton (William Holden, in his Oscar-winning role) thinks they're all fools for trying -- but soon his hectoring starts raising suspicions that there's a German spy among them. Could that spy be him? Director Billy Wilder effortlessly mixes broad comedy and high-tension drama in this World War II classic."
Hogan's Heros is isn't, but it inhabits the same universe.
Last edited by drewjmore (2012-05-31 16:31:12)
In the World War II vein:
From Here to Eternity
The Caine Mutiny
Thin Red Line
Tora Tora Tora
And Midway. Midway was a kind of magical experience for me, but I haven't seen it in decades, so it might not live up to my memory of it.
Oh, Midway. It, like A Bridge Too Far, I love because of the historical event it's about, but... At least, with Midway I can now see all the problems with the film. A Bridge Too Far needs the DIF crew to take a look at it, as I honestly don't know what's wrong but something clearly is.
Regarding A Bridge Too Far, I agree, it's insanely impressive on a technical level but doesn't quite work narratively. That's the feeling I get with a lot of the older "historical" WW2 films. As a military buff it's interesting, but there's just a real lack of story thru-line that distances you.
Tora Tora Tora is another interesting case, because it's literally more like a big budget National Geographic special than an actual movie, there's basically no "characters" or "character storylines" of any kind, it's just rattling off historical events/quotes. Then for Pearl Harbor they tried to add that stuff in to help dramatize it and swing WAAAAY too far in the opposite direction.
Can I throw Belleville Rendezvous into the mix? I god damn love that movie...
William Friedkin's criminally underseen Sorceror, seriously track down a copy of that, it will pummel your soul. I still have no idea how the fuck he shot some of the stuff in that movie without killing everyone involved.
I saw Sorcerer a while back. I need/want to revisit it but I'm waiting for the remastered version that Friedkin is working on (the only DVD release of Sorcerer is pan and scan.)
Unfortunately, there is a stupid lawsuit that Friedkin has to deal with first...
Last edited by Xtroid (2012-06-01 01:16:44)
I'm not dead! I'm just busy making a spreadsheet of all these recommendations and actually watching some of these!... Okay, well, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead is absolutely amazing, but I don't know how essential it is to understanding film.
Okay. Okay. *deep breath* I've got some bad news.
Films that are essential viewing for understanding film are not... necessarily... particularly... entertaining.
You got yer home-grown Americana in Birth of a Nation and Citizen Kane. Then you got yer weirdo-foreign films in Un Chien Andalou, Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Triumph of the Will. Then you got yer artsy-foreign films in Seventh Seal, yer Breathless, and yer Dolce Vita. Then you got yer standalone British epic Lawrence of Arabia followed by yer American young Turks with Easy Rider and Midnight Cowboy and Taxi Driver. And then on to the social commentary of Network and Badlands.
While all of these are Great Films and very important to understanding the language of world cinema—and some of them are films that I love, none of them are what you would call "knee-slappers" or even "a good time" or, in many cases, even "rewatchable".
So... there's having a solid foundation in the vernacular of film and then there's delving into the dark corners of the subconscious of cinema. I mean, audiences love and reference Steven Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark. But Spielberg and his pals himself love and reference Lawrence of Arabia and Triumph of the Will.
We've been suggesting phrasebook movies, but if you want the linguistics course....
Last edited by Zarban (2012-06-01 05:20:17)
^^ Network is a great time and totally rewatchable, though you are correct about most of those
Dog Day Afternoon and Casino both jumped into my mind.
Also:
The Evil Dead
Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels
Trainspotting
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Last edited by Dave (2012-06-01 07:08:43)
Again, I agree with Zarban. This isn't a "movies we like," thread, its ESSENTIAL. It should cover genre, time, performances, tone, and technique. It should be a variety. I adore Heat and Casino, but I don't know that I'd call either essential. I love Brick, but I put up Maltese Falcon and Detour instead. Choose accordingly.
Rocky Horror is essential, without it you miss out on 70% of the "fun with the kinky kids" phase of your 20's.
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