It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
Amadeus (1984)
Blade Runner (1982)
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Chinatown (1974)
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
JFK (1991)
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-03)
A Night at the Opera (1935)
The Night of the Hunter (1955)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Out of the Past (1947)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
The Third Man (1949)
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
WALL-E (2008)
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The Godfather: Part II
The Great Escape
Seven Samurai
From Russia With Love
The Sting
Once Upon a Time in the West
Rear Window
Casablanca
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Blue Velvet
Carrie (76)
Deliverance
Taxi Driver
Jaws
Star Wars/Empire Strikes Back
Goodfellas
Reservoir Dogs/Pulp Fiction
Alien/Aliens
Casino Royale
Memento
The Aviator
Apocalypto
The Wolf of Wall Street
Shutter Island
Interstellar
Goodfellas
The Godfather Part 2
The Shining
Casino
No Country For Old Men
From Russia With Love
Hacksaw Ridge
The Departed
Blood Diamond
The Revenant
Mad Max: Fury Road
The Godfather
Dances With Wolves
Django Unchained
Manchester by the sea
W.
Inception
Also, the usual disclaimers: I could just keep going, the list is not conclusive, tons I'm forgetting, excludes Bond, etc.
SHERLOCK JR. (1924) / Buster Keaton
THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC (1928) / Carl Theodor Dreyer
M (1931) / Fritz Lang
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934) / Frank Capra
THE THIN MAN (1934) / W.S. Van Dyke
MY MAN GODFREY (1936) / Gregory La Cava
GRAND ILLUSION (1937) / Jean Renoir
LAURA (1944) / Otto Preminger
IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) / Frank Capra
HIGH NOON (1952) / Fred Zinnemann
REAR WINDOW (1954) / Alfred Hitchcock
ROMAN HOLIDAY (1953) / William Wyler
NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955) / Charles Laughton
PATHS OF GLORY (1957) / Stanley Kubrik
PSYCHO (1960) / Alfred Hitchcock
YOJIMBO (1961) / Akira Kurosawa
WAR OF THE BUTTONS (1962) / Yves Robert
THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963) / John Sturges
THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS (1966) / Gillo Pontecorvo
KING OF HEARTS (1966) / Philippe de Broca
PLAYTIME (1967) / Jaques Tati
BADLANDS (1973) / Terrence Malick
F FOR FAKE (1975) / Orson Welles
STAR WARS (1977) / George Lucas
LIFE OF BRIAN (1979) / Terry Jones
STALKER (1979) / Andrei Tarkovsky
BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985) / Robert Zemeckis
RAN (1985) / Akira Kurosawa
CHUNKGKING EXPRESS (1994) / Wong Kar-wai
LOOKING FOR RICHARD (1996) / Al Pacino
AI: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (2001) / Steven Spielberg
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (2002) / Steven Spielberg
THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSIE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD (2007) / Andrew Dominik
THERE WILL BE BLOOD (2007) / Paul Thomas Anderson
BLACK SWAN (2010) / Darren Aronovsky
EDIT: Damn! And I've already forgotten BATTLE OF ALGIERS. Added. Now walking away. Lists of this sort really are hopeless. I honestly feel each time I sat down to do one it'd come out looking different in some way.
We've seen advancement in technical achievement, but I tend to think we've also seen a reduction in film-making talent and storytelling. For me this mirrors my opinion of current pop/rock music--I think classic rock is better and hardly listen to much made since about 2000 or think they qualify as really good songs--so much melody has been forgotten in music. Is it a lack of imagination? Problems with the system of how films get made? Is this where our future is headed? Or maybe it's a dry spell. Regardless, just a few other of my favorite films not mentioned above:
Humphrey Bogart--The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, Casablanca
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Star Wars
Contact
Errol Flynn--Robin Hood, The Sea Hawk, Captain Blood
Master and Commander
Murder My Sweet
Sunset Boulevard
The Color of Money
Top Gun
Blade Runner
Bull Durham
Blazing Saddles
Lawrence of Arabia
People got some damn good taste in cinema.
I can't decide which film deserves the final spot to be honest. Hot Fuzz maybe? Or the original Nightmare On Elm Street. Or maybe one of the Police Story films. Or Die Hard. Or The Other Guys. Too many good films to pick from.
EDIT: Just realised this is more of a general list than a top five. My mistake, I'll add to it later.
Blade Runner
Jurassic Park
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Alien
Batman Begins
That's a seriously excellent Top 5.
Though my favorite era of film is, roughly speaking, the 1960s, the Golden Age in Hollywood really was a special time that saw popular filmmaking producing some really special works of art. Pound for pound the directors back then had a sense of craftsmanship above all else; no doubt because in having come up through the studio system, they had cut their teeth on the new medium as it was being discovered and calibrated.
As for the decline of Hollywood, I absolutely agree. I have some thoughts. Forgive me ahead of time for the length and rambling nature. ;) My short response is, Hollywood is full of cowards now. They used to be brave, before the studio system broke up, back when they could force theaters to take whatever they made. That all kinds of great types of films were developed and had their heyday during the Golden Age is no coincidence: gangster films, noir pictures, Westerns, to name a few. These types of films were great because they were art. They had something to say. Each of them arose out of culture-specific circumstances, and had something to say about those circumstances, about the world. Gangster films proclaimed the American dream was a hoax as the Depression raged. Noir showcased urban crime as the cities in this country were being built. In this increasingly connected and civilized country—and in the American mind this meant feminine to some extent—Westerns came along to project a sense of a past that was masculine and independent. These films commented without fear, on a massive scale, and they weren't afraid to do so, because the studios weren't either. The studios allowed their films and their filmmakers to say provocative stuff. The studios were protected after all. The theaters had to take their films. Until the studio system was shut down. Then television (which has always been a sham) arrived and began its long process of devaluing the image and shortening attention spans. Meanwhile, movie attendance dropped (along with mostly every other form of community activity; couldn't risk missing The $64,000 Question). The studios wheeled out their gimmicks — 3D, CinemaScope, etc. The pissing contest with television continued, ramped up, evolved. There had always been blockbusters, and there had always been film series, but Bond was among the first to show it was possible to combine the two. Soon the "Movie Brat" directors, all raised on the Golden Age films, were running Hollywood. They were outsiders — which wasn't a bad thing inherently. The breakthrough of the "Movie Brats" in the 60s/70s and the rise of the indie filmmakers in the 80s and 90s was by and large good and useful. But those directors didn't come up through the studio. Many of them went to film school instead. I'm not saying this made them bad directors, but I am saying they didn't come up through the studio system, as there was no studio system anymore, and so a lot of tacit filmmaking knowledge was lost. Even the filmmakers from the era who went and taught in schools like USC would themselves have been incapable of fully imparting that sort of knowledge. Because it's beyond verbal or textual explanation, as are the finer points of every craft. Just as there's no textbook or lecture that is sufficient to teach glass blowing, there's no replacement for being on set as a gaffer and watching Fritz Lang direct a scene and, even better, having Fritz Lang yell at you because you made a mistake. Even if Lang himself were sitting with you in a classroom telling you how to do it, it's still not as good. Meanwhile, JAWS and STAR WARS and INDIANA JONES happened, films which had their heritage in Golden Age Hollywood. These films made a lot of people a lot of money, and the three-decade long separation of all films into low and high budget began. The business side came to dominate the creative side. Cue the modern day, where we're not only mining Golden Age Hollywood but also now the films from the Movie Brats which were themselves mining Golden Age Hollywood. The bulk of Hollywood's product today is based on cultural icons born of a different era. Like the above-mentioned genres of the 1930s and 1940s, these icons were born out of certain circumstances and as a response to those circumstances. Just not to our modern day ones. Superman, Batman, even Bond are considered timeless, yet they are of a time, very specifically of a time, a different one, and in particular of a different culture which has long since morphed into a form natively alien to those characters. I'm not saying those characters, treated right, no longer have a place. The problem isn't necessarily that we cling onto these mid-century figures to inform us of our own times, but that we so blatantly sacrifice the creation of our own cultural figures and forms in service of the old ones just to make a buck rooted largely in nostalgia. We're another couple generations down the line from the "Movie Brats" now, as well, and the knowledge of Golden Age technique is diluted all the more. Add this to a culture increasingly intolerant of free speech in all its various forms (which would never stand for films that had something to say) and the slow creep into film of advertising (which is what made television such a sham in the first place), and you have a recipe for the Hollywood commercialism we're currently living in.
As I said, Hollywood is now full of cowards.
Man, @Some_Kind_Of_Hero I could never boil a list down to 5! :P But I respect the feat. And a solid five it is too!
Some great films on there but I'm surprised to see you chose one of Spielberg's weaker efforts.
AI when you could have Jaws, Close Encounters, Raiders or Schindler's List..?
STALKER was the film I was actually most on the fence about including! I had a great first couple viewings, but the more recent one was so-so. Since I'd already come for some time to regard it so highly, I found it hard to remove. It's all down to the next viewing looks like. ;)
I'm a huge Spielberg fan. I probably should have gone out of my way to exclude his movies, actually, like I did the Bond films, simply because I am such a fan that I've sort of become blinded myself to objective assessment if that makes any sense. JAWS, ENCOUNTERS, RAIDERS, SCHINDLER -- all great films. AI is, for me, Spielberg's best work. It brings together everything I love about his work (which is odd considering it was Kubrick's baby). Many might peg peak Spielberg around the late 70s/early 80s (as with your list of his favorites), but I think he peaked in the early 00s. His run from AI through MUNICH is his best stretch imo.
I really love SUGARLAND EXPRESS too. That's another of his I don't think gets enough love.
Thank you, guys. These are just my all-time, "immovable"* 5 that have stood the test of time and the comings and goings of life changes and passions.
* I say "immovable" because #5 has changed from time to time, but not in a very long time now.
And @FoxRox, it seems you and I have quite a few common interests, including Gorillaz!
Awesome! I'm sure we'll get along then!
1. Kagemusha (1980)
2. Once Upon A Time In The West (1968)
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
4. The Day of The Jackal (1973)
5. Battles Without Honor and Humanity: Final Episode (1974)
6. The Dark Knight (2008)
7. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
8. Toy Story 2 (1999)
9. The Lord of The Rings: The Return of The King (2003)
10. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
1. Plein soleil (FR, 1960)
2. The Living Daylights (UK, 1987)
3. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (US, 2003)
4. Tenebre (IT, 1982)
5. Der Himmel über Berlin (DE, 1987)
6. La notte (IT, 1961)
7. Nikita (FR, 1990)
8. Manhunter (US, 1986)
9. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (NZ, 2001)
10. Alexander (various, 2004)
11. Peter Pan (US, 1953)
12. Persona (SE, 1966)
13. 2001: A Space Odyssey (UK/US 1968)
14. Das Leben der Anderen (DE 2006)
15. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (UK, 1969)
16. Le grand bleu (FR, 1988)
17. L’avventura (IT, 1960)
18. North by Northwest (US, 1959)
19. Casablanca (US, 1942)
20. From Russia with Love (UK, 1963)
21. Cleopatra (various, 1963)
22. Astérix et la surprise de César (FR, 1985)
23. The Third Man (UK, 1949)
24. Le samouraï (FR, 1967)
25. Licence to Kill (UK, 1989)
26. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (UK, 2009)
27. C’era una volta il west (IT, 1968)
28. Sei donne per l’assassino (IT, 1964)
29. Stalker (SU, 1979)
30. GoldenEye (UK, 1995)
31. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (NZ, 2002)
32. Das Boot (DE, 1981)
33. The Mask of Zorro (US, 1998)
34. Thunderball (UK, 1965)
35. L’eclisse (IT, 1962)
36. The Mummy (US, 1999)
37. Dr. No (UK, 1962)
38. OSS 117: Le Caire, nid d’espions (FR, 2006)
39. Atomic Blonde (various, 2017)
40. Suspiria (IT, 1977)
41. Kagemusha (JP, 1980)
42. Astérix: Le domaine des dieux (FR, 2014)
43. The Man with the Golden Gun (UK, 1974)
44. The Shining (UK/US 1980)
45. Troy (UK/US 2004)
46. The Matador (US 2005)
47. The Neon Demon (various, 2016)
48. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (US, 2007)
49. La pazza gioia (IT, 2016)
50. The Spy Who Loved Me (UK, 1977)
51. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (UK, 2007)
52. Phenomena (IT, 1985)
53. The World Is Not Enough (UK, 1999)
54. The Lion in Winter (UK, 1968)
55. The 39 Steps (UK, 1935)
56. La dama rossa uccide 7 volte (IT, 1972)
57. Dawn of the Dead (US/IT 1978)
58. La ch’tite famille (FR, 2018)
59. Hercules (US, 1997)
60. The Exorcist III (US, 1990)
2. OUT OF THE PAST (1947)
3. GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDS (1953)
4. BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935)
5. HORROR OF DRACULA (1958)
6. CASABLANCA (1942)
7. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946)
8. THE MALTESE FALCON (1951)
9. IN A LONELY PLACE (1950)
10. THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH (1955)
11. FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN (1967)
12. HIS KIND OF WOMAN (1951)
13. DON'T BOTHER TO KNOCK (1952)
14. THE KILLERS (1946)
15. DRACULA (1931)
16. REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955)
17. FRANKENSTEIN (1931)
18. DIRTY HARRY (1971)
19. HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL (1958)
20. SUPERMAN THE MOVIE (1978)
21. WHITE HEAT (1949)
22. ED WOOD (1994)
23. THE VAMPIRE LOVERS (1970)
24. HOLIDAY AFFAIR (1949)
25. SCROOGE (1970)
26. WHITE ZOMBIE (1932)
27. THE BLACK CAT (1934)
28. THE WOLF MAN (1941)
29. ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE KILLER, BORIS KARLOFF (1949)
30. MACAO (1952)
31. RIVER OF NO RETURN (1954)
32. DRACULA A.D. 1972 (1972)
33. THE CONQUEROR WORM (1968)
34. CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON (1954)
35. WHITE CHRISTMAS (1954)
36. THE PUBLIC ENEMY (1931)
37. THUNDER ROAD (1958)
38. WHERE DANGER LIVES (1950)
39. ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN (1948)
40. SCARS OF DRACULA (1970)
41. NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1959)
42. IN THE LINE OF FIRE (1993)
43. A CHRISTMAS CAROL (1938)
44. KISS ME DEADLY (1955)
45. MY GUN IS QUICK (1957)
46. THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957)
47. THE MISFITS (1961)
48. DRACULA (1979)
49. SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE MEN (1951)
50. PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1959)
Edit: But PotC: At World’s End???
Nice to see the awesome Manhunter in your top ten, @GoldenGun
I see you're also a Dario Argento fan. Cool!
(Can almost forgive you for the inclusion of Alexander....
Blue Velvet
Blade Runner
Jaws
Carrie
Deliverance
Reservoir Dogs
Pulp Fiction
The Godfather/The Godfather part 2
Goodfellas
Star Wars/Empire Strikes Back
Taxi Driver
Alien/Aliens
The Wicker Man
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Thing (82)
RoboCop (87)
Eraserhead
The Exorcist
The Fabulous Baker Boys
Apocalypse Now
1. Jaws (1977)
2. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
3. Jurassic Park (1993)
4. The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997)
5. War of the Worlds (2005)
6. Rebecca (1940)
7. Notorious (1946)
8. Rope (1948)
9. Strangers on a Train (1951)
10. Dial M for Murder (1954)
11. Rear Window (1954)
12. Vertigo (1958)
13. North by Northwest (1959)
14. Psycho (1960)
15. The Birds (1963)
16. Star Wars (1977)
17. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
18. Return of the Jedi (1983)
19. Alien (1979)
20. Aliens (1986)
21. Blade Runner (1982)
22. Airplane! (1980)
23. Groundhog Day (1993)
24. The Truman Show (1998)
25. Mulholland Drive (2001)
26. Chinatown (1974)
27. Straw Dogs (1971)
28. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
29. The Shining (1980)
30. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
31. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)
32. Casablanca (1942)
33. Ghostbusters (1984)
34. Gremlins (1984)
35. Fargo (1996)
36. The Incredibles (2004)
37. Pulp Fiction (1994)
38. Taxi Driver (1976)
39. I, Tonya (2017)
40. Good Will Hunting (1997)
41. Mrs. Doubtfire (1993)
42. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (2009)
43. Rat Race (2001)
44. The Wizard of Oz (1939)
45. The Godfather (1972)
+the 24 Bond films ;)
30s- 1
40s- 4
50s- 5
60s- 2
70s- 11
80s- 8
90s- 8
00s- 5
10s- 1
As for the inclusion of the third Pirates film, I’m quite nostalgic when it comes to those films. I remember when the first one came out and how I felt as if finally someone made a movie like I used to play with Lego when I was a kid :D. I was even considering to include the 5th one but I was able to restrain myself.
@LeonardPine Ow yes Manhunter is definitely one of my very favourites. The colours, the score, Mann really put his back in creating the right mood. Love how 80’s it all feels too. I even listen to the score album quite a lot.
Same goes for the Argento movies. I don’t mind the rather illogical storytelling, it’s all about mood and atmosphere and sometimes that’s more important to me anyway.
Quick note on Alexander. I know many people hate that film. In my book, it’s a severely underrated film. You might have noticed I also prefer Cleopatra to much better received colleagues like Ben-Hur or Spartacus. Well in a way I consider Alexander to be a modern day Cleopatra, if that makes sense. I’ve written an extended review on the film which I’d be happy share if anyone’s interested.
Anyway, @Some_Kind_Of_Hero and @LeonardPine, thanks for the feedback. It’s always nice to know we share more than a few common favourites. You both had one complaint, but I’m sure it’s pretty normal one can’t agree about all 60 of these films ;)
Cheers!
Hannie Caulder
The Dark Knight trilogy
Sanjuro
The Last Samurai
Enter The Dragon
Chinatown
Rollerball
Logan's Run
Dr No
Superman: The Movie
Conan The Barbarian
Terminator 1 & 2
Spider-Man trilogy
X-Men
Captain America: Winter Soldier
Iron Man
2001: A Space Odyssey
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek IV
Star Trek VI
Battlestar Galactica theatrical movie
You Only Live Twice
Planet Of The Apes
Beneath The Planet Of The Apes
Battle For The Planet Of The Apes
Back To The Future 1 - 3
Indy 1 - 3
The Living Daylights
Licence To Kill
First Blood
Blade Runner
Serenity
Wonder Woman
Star Wars trilogy
Pirates Of The Carribean
Outland
Highlander
Tomorrow Never Dies
Goldfinger
Goldeneye
Quantum Of Solace
Superman 2
Batman
Predator 1 & 2
Legend Of Hell House
Dracula AD 1972
Charade
On The Waterfront
The Matrix
Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
The International
Aliens
Armageddon
Jurassic Park
North By Northwest
Wizard Of Oz
Robocop 1 & 3
The Warriors
The Driver
The Crow
....the top of my head is on empty...
Dr. No
From Russia with Love
Goldfinger
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
The Spy Who Loved Me
GoldenEye
Casino Royale
Skyfall
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
The Godfather
The Godfather, Part II
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
The Dark Knight Trilogy
Blade Runner (The Final Cut)
Blade Runner 2049
Spider-Man
Spider-Man 2
Alien
Beetlejuice
Batman (1989)
Edward Scissorhands
Ed Wood
Big Fish
The Prestige
Blue Velvet
The Elephant Man
Eraserhead
There Will Be Blood
Pan’s Labyrinth
The Shape of Water
Hook
Jaws
Jurassic Park
Schindler’s List
The Dead Zone
Taxi Driver
After Hours
The Shining
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Paths of Glory
A Clockwork Orange
Barry Lyndon
2001: A Space Odyssey
Eyes Wide Shut
The Killing
The Sixth Sense
Unbreakable
Vertigo
Psycho
No Country For Old Men
The Big Lebowski
Cast Away
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Forrest Gump
Citizen Kane
The Conversation
Apocalypse Now
The Apartment
Marty
Singin’ in the Rain
The Wizard of Oz
Gone with the Wind
The Graduate
Lawrence of Arabia
12 Angry Men
On the Waterfront
The Night of the Hunter
It’s a Wonderful Life
The Sting
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
Chinatown
Labyrinth
Halloween
The Thing
Misery
The Silence of the Lambs
The Remains of the Day
The Truman Show
Mrs. Doubtfire
The Crow
Groundhog Day
American Beauty
The Shawshank Redemption
Gladiator
Whiplash
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
Spirited Away
Beauty and the Beast
Pinocchio
The Emperor’s New Groove
Monsters, Inc.
The Incredibles
The Iron Giant
The Lion King
I’m sure I forgot several but these are the ones I can think of now.
Love your taste!