Top 10 Films of All-time
10. Spartacus -
While the director Stanley Kubrick (in
defense of his pride) I'm sure would be willing to argue me tooth and nail on
this one, Spartacus is without a doubt one of the most significant
contributions to cinema of all time. In the age of the Great Epics, with the
likes of Ben-Hur, El Cid and the Ten Commandments; Spartacus stands alone.
While not to belittle any of the before mentioned, Spartacus achieved a depth
and a greatness untouched by the others. It was a darker, more sophisticated
glance at the cruelty of man and the triumph of the human spirit. I'm Spartacus!
9. Young Frankenstein -
Mel Brooks once said, "Tragedy is
when you cut your finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and
die." This movie will kill you! A spoof on the classic Boris Karloff
horror, Mel Brooks gives us his very best with tremendous performances from
Gene Wilder and the late and great Marty Feldman. This is not a film you can
afford to miss. It is simply hilarious and what's more is it's funny every time
you watch it.
8. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly -
The crowning achievement to Sergio Leone's
Man with No Name trilogy, The
Good, the Bad and the Ugly is the greatest Western of all time-- oddly
enough, for a genre that is by it's very nature American; it took an Italian
filmmaker to reach that status. When asked what makes a good filmmaker, I will
quickly tell you a great filmmaker is a filmmaker who never looses control.
Tarantino once compared directing a movie to directing an orchestra, in that in
order to be great, you must have the ability to make someone laugh, cry or piss
their pants at the drop of a hat. Sergio Leone has complete and utter control
from start to finish in this film. It's brilliant and certainly one of the
greatest of all time.
7. Taxi Driver -
What was at first a small, simple film
that wasn't expected to break any soil, push any limits or resonate with such
overwhelmingly large audience, Taxi Driver has grown to become one of the best
and most important films ever made. While Scorsese is one of the rarest of
directors who seems to make an earth shattering contribution every decade
(Raging Bull in the 80's, Goodfellas in the 90's, The Departed in the 00's) his
1976 Taxi Driver to this day, remains the golden child.
The film is about the psychological breaking down of a man-- his fall into
insanity. The film is coated with irony leaving us with a character study of a
man who straddles a tightrope between mass murderer and brave hero. This is a
film I can get lost in again and again.
6. Seven Samurai -
While I have a great love for foreign
cinema, I admit to not being the most saturated source of information when it
comes to movies made overseas. Perhaps that is evident in the American
dominance of my list. Seven
Samurai, however, has managed to transcend my ignorance and find itself on
my list of greatest films of all time. This film is masterpiece! I am still
amazed by how beautifully and craftily this 1954 film was done. It is the
Samurai Epic of all Samurai Epics-- the story of seven men who choose to defend
a poor defenseless village of farmers, at the cost of their own lives, all in
the name of honor, duty and perhaps love. I love this film.
5. It's a Wonderful Life -
Every time a bell rings, an angel gets
it's wings. I was raised in a home where my father insisted that we watch what
he considered to be the classics of all time. This was his favorite film and
from as far back as I can remember, my Father made me watch this movie every
Christmas and I hated every minute of it. One of the things that fascinate me
with film is how work can at one point in our lives move us into new place and
in other points in our lives have no influence whatsoever. I have gone from
loathing this film, to crying at the end of it. This is Frank Capra at his
best. In a nutshell, the film is really about what is important in life and
what is not.
4. Fargo -
This is what happens when a couple of
snooty film rats take years of cinematic brilliance and secrets of the trade,
delve into the darkest of human emotions, weave a giant spider's web and try to
make you laugh along the way. Fargo is greatest dark comedy ever. It flirts
with so many different genres and yet remained detached enough from all of
them, not really letting anyone or anything tie it down. The Coen Brothers will
one day go down in history as the greatest duet of filmmakers to ever live and
this is the proof that is in the pudding.
3. Chinatown -
When a film leaves you tossing and turning
in bed all night, it is usually because it is really good or really, really
bad. This one is the former. While I have previous described this film as the
capstone that ended of era in a genre and the start of a new one, Chinatown has remained a
important work in the world of film because it has taken the old, combined it
with the new and proven to withstand the only true test of a film's worth:
time. It is cleaver. It is witty. It is dark. Oh forget it, its Chinatown.
2. Psycho -
While Hitchcock may have now reached a
godhood that will forever cement him as one of if not THE GREATEST film
directors to ever live, it was not so in the flesh. I doubt he ever felt that
omnipotence while making a film and I'm certain he never received that hallowed
praise he deserved even years after while still in this life. Perhaps that is
why he never faltered. He remained hungry his entire life and struggled it to
the very end, trying to surpass what turned out to be himself. Psycho is the
greatest film he ever made and surely only one of six to mold the spirit of
American cinema. Psycho not only did things that had never been done before,
but left us with styles, techniques and sheer brilliance that has remained in
modern cinema ever since. This is the greatest of the greatest.
1. Pulp Fiction -
How do you top the man who's been
universally nominated as the greatest filmmaker of all time? With the greatest
filmmaker alive today. Quentin Tarantino is the Hitchcock of our day. Unlike
almost any other director, people watch Tarantino films because Tarantino makes
them, not because Brad Pitt, Leo DiCaprio, John Travolta, or Jamie Fox is in
it-- and that is extremely rare. Like Hitch, he consistently puts out solid
gold and yet still fall short of all the critic's awards-- but enough about
him. Pulp Fiction is the greatest film ever made. It is a movie for movie
lovers. The script is perfect, the acting is spot on, but what I find most
intriguing about this film is its ability to remained untouched. If you've seen
the movie before, try and tell me what it's about. Can you? Hard, isn't it?
There is really nothing like it. Nothing has even been made before or since to
even compare it to. If you haven't seen it yet, forget going out tonight, pull
it up on Netflix and strap yourself in-- you're in for one hell of a
ride.
