I love Picnic, but agree that Holden was miscast. Kim Novak’s acting ain’t that great either. But the movie looks great. The production designer (or whoever) really captured small midwest towns, and summer.
That’s why I watch Gone With the Wind every time it’s on – for the look. Rhett’s the only character that rings true. Scarlett’s a spoiled selfish bitch, Melanie’s too good to be true, and Ashley wouldn’t inspire passion in any woman. But it’s a beautiful movie.
I agree about the plot of In the Heat of the Night as well. There was a thread about it a few months back. Made no sense, how Tibbs deduced the culprit. But Rod Steiger knocked it out of the freakin’ park!
I saw Easy Rider first run, and IMHO it wouldn’t be remembered if it weren’t for the ending.
Too many classic movies have unrealistic dialogue. People just didn’t talk like that. I’m thinking of stuff like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof – platitudes and pronouncements and pontificating. Works okay in Biblical epics, where stiffness isn’t so noticeable.
I’m 20 now and saw The Graduate for the first time recently, and I actually really liked it. There were some great lines and I loved Dustin Hoffman’s deadpan delivery of them.
I also loved Casablanca. I could somewhat appreciate Citizen Kane, but I didn’t enjoy it much, perhaps due to the fact that I knew the ending before I saw it.
Night of the Hunter was kind of a mixed bag, but there was one shot that was very effective. It’s where he’s chasing the kids up the stairs out of the cellar. It’s a very creepy shot.
And the underwater shot, and the shot of Mitchum where he’s just a shadow, on his horse on a hilltop.
I think fairy tale when watching it. Didn’t like the narration toward the end. If I remember right, it was some life-affirming bullcrap about how children/good people will “abide”. Well sure they will, if they can find the nice old shotgun toting grandma in the cottage in the woods, who rescues all the strays. Oh yeah, we all have one of those.
The underwater shot wasn’t as effective for me as it could have been, because the water was way too clear. It was too unrealistic. But I agree about the part where he’s on the horse. Slowly singing that song, “leaning…leaning…”. I really liked Robert Mitchum’s singing
The social commentary near the end wasn’t completely bad. It’s like a more syrupy Charles Dickens. I could appreciate it but it was a bit much.
I wonder how many people who dislike Citizen Kane have only watched it, or tried to watch it, on TV. I saw bits and pieces of it on TV all my life, and never got into it. I even tried to rent it a couple of times and had to turn it off because I was so bored. Then it was revived in the theaters for the 50th Anniversary, and the theater I went to showed a new print. I went because I thought I should. Seeing a new print, on the big screen the way Welles and God intended, made me FINALLY understand why so many people list this as the greatest film of all time. I heartily agreed. I was mesmerized from beginning to end (and yes, I already knew the ending).
It’s not my favorite movie of all time (that would be Brazil) but I would agree that it’s the best and I do love it.
I’d urge anyone who has doubts to withhold judgement and if at all possible, when possible, see it on a big screen. That’s probably impossible, but if you get the chance, do. Don’t not go because you think that if it wasn’t all that hot on the small screen, it can’t be any better on the big screen. The difference is huge.
clutches chest…staggers away muttering “That’s one of the best movies ever…”
Despite what some in this thread are saying, it’s possible to not like Casablanca without being a brainless heathen. It’s got a good ending, I’ll admit, but I never bought the relationship between Rick and Ilsa. I was glad she got on that damn plane at the end. It’s been years since I’ve seen it, but IIRC there’s a flashback scene to Rick and Ilsa driving around Paris, laughing inanely, which failed completely (for me) to make me believe or care about what these people had together.
Moving on… The Third Man didn’t thrill me, and I don’t see why Sunset Boulevard stands so far above any other pulpy Hollywood noir. I got bored after 20 minutes of The Searchers, and as for those ‘hilarious’ Ealing comedies, Passport to Pimlico and The Man in the White Suit- laughter-free zones, both.
Double Indemnity is tough for me, although I like film noir. It’s difficult because of the presence of Fred MacMurray. If I had never seen a Disney film or My Three Sons, it wouldn’t bother me.
Nearly any movie with Grace Kelly annoys the crap out of me. How she was ever rated a great actress is beyond me. That whole helpless, whining, judgemental female schtick just pisses me off. Mogambo, High Noon, Rear Window: she pissed all over all of them.
Vertigo is the Hitchcock movie I’ve never gotten. I don’t know if it’s the absurdity of the plot, or the fact that my college roommate looked just like Kim Novak, or (I think this is it) the creeepy unreality of Jimmy Stewart playing a sick twisted manipulative bastard. The ending … I was just … wow. Speechless. And not in a good way.
Has anyone ever seen Knife in the Water, the movie that apparently made Roman Polanski’s career? BORING! Taut psychological drama around a game of pick-up-sticks. One character mutters, while gazing at the pile of sticks, “I once knew a man who was a master of the game…” Oh God. I’m convinced that you have to be drinking vodka, and a lot of it, to enjoy this movie.
I believe this is a year past the cutoff, but 2001: A Space Odyssey bored me to tears. I found it plodding, and the bullshit hippie quasi-mystical undertones don’t even hold up a few years after release.
Agree. ''It’s got a touch of the Two-Thousand And Ones" is shorthand with me for boring, pretentious movie.
Length need not be a problem if the story can sweep you along. I didn’t feel any of the LOTR movies were too long. But if, as I did during Braveheart when the Bruce was wandering across the battlefield, you find yourself looking at your watch and thinking, “How much longer’s this bloody thing going to go on?”
Do you mean the train scene? There’s a plane at the end of the movie (when the baddie is talking about throwing Eva Marie St. off it) but IIRC they don’t actually get on it.
Treasure of the Sierra Madre…silly??
Vertigo is one of those movies I feel bad for not liking. So many people regard it so highly, that I think I must be missing something. But…it just doesn’t do much for me. Yes, I get it: he’s remaking Judy in Madeleine’s image (I think those are the names). But…so what? Yeah, it’s an interesting concept, but it’s not enough to hang a whole movie on.
Knife in the Water I loved though. Gotta love Polanski – just found his autobiography in a used bookstore a few days ago.
Try to see it on a big screen. When I tried watching it on TV I quickly got bored and fast-forwarded to the Star Child scene at the end. Years later, I got the chance to see it on a big screen in a large, semi-circular auditorium in Vienna with cement floors and stiff wooden benches with tall upright backings (perfect setting, no?). And I loved it. It’s one of the few times I’ve ever left a movie theater and looked at the world with a new sense of awe.
I watched it for the first time in a decade or so (on the TV) with my teenaged daughter (who hated it, maybe because of the size of the screen, and maybe not) and found it rather dull, mainly because the Jupiter special effects that were so dazzling are now nothing much. My daughter put it best: “I can do that with Photoshop,” and so she can. In 1968, no one could do those effects, no how, no way.
Also, neither of us was on acid, which may have taken something away from the overall effect.
Okay, John Wayne played a grumpy racist, which was a radical change of role for him; some of the scenery is great; the final scene with the doorway is cool. But the slapstick humor and the lame-o sidekick really didn’t belong. I know a lot of people claim it’s one of the greats, but I just don’t see it.
Doesn’t … remember … the … plane … scene … have you seen the movie? It’s one of the iconic scenes of all time. Almost every poster for the film included it.