SPOOFE, as much of a Star Wars fan as I am, I have noticed that people watching it for the first time nowadays miss a lot of the magic. I’m starting to believe that our love for it consists mostly of nostalgia. That said, I’m going to claim it’s a marvellous movie until they put me to bed with a shovel.
Zsofia, totally agree on Blade Runner (provided we skip that plastered-on faux happy ending with the crappy voiceover); that one’s going to dance forever.
Lobsang, Clockwork Orange is a brilliant example. No matter how much the world changes, this piece of cinema will still be hypnotic.
Tentacle Monster, while Airplane! isn’t as tied to its time as most parody movies, it will be less dated than, say Hot Shots, but I think it will be less funny with time. On the other hand, I did rewatch it a couple of months ago and it has held up amazingly.
kunilou, I haven’t seen To Kill a Mockingbird in ten years, but your post reminded me of why I love that film. I agree with you, it probably is timeless. I’d better get myself over to the rental shop.
RealityChuck, agreement on the Chaplin films (not too familiar with Keaton). The Great Dictator will never get old.
I watched it last night, and I thought I’d add The Caine Mutiny to our list. That movie is wonderful, and timeless. Certainly one of Humphrey Bogart’s greatest performances, Fred MacMurray is perfect, and Jose Ferrar owns every scene he’s in. The story is riveting, the acting suburb, and even though it takes place in the 40s, it never feels dated.
My 14-year-old daughter came into the room while I was watching Nosferatu to fetch something.
I sensed her standing behind me. Then she moved over to the couch and stood there. Then she sat down. A few minutes later, “You know, this is really well done.”
It’s a period piece, so it’s a little harder for it to become dated (in terms of costumes and styles) but Chinatown looks like it coud have been filmed yesterday.
The Godfather and The Godfather, Part II hold up very well (even if they do romanticize the Mafia) and Apocalypse Now is and will remain one of the most wrenching, nihistic films ever made. 2001: A Space Oddessy looks great, even for having been filmed in the pre-CGI age, and has a timeless message. (Those looking for a plot will, as Mark Twain writes, be shot.) The same cannot be said for most of Kubirck’s work, though The Killers and Paths of Glory come close.
I’ll second The Great Escape, Lobsang, and raise you The Wages of Fear, which still inspires great tension every time I see it. Rear Window is timeless (despite many of the sly jokes referring to the morality of the time), and I suspect Raiders of the Lost Ark will be popular for a long time yet. (Gah, I hope they don’t go ahead with plans to make a fourth one.)
There are too many more to mention, including numerous selections from the filmographies of the visionary Lang, the daredevil Keaton, and the rogue epic storyteller Kurosawa, but I’d like to make special mention of The Wild Bunch, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance as each having an immutable place in the pantheon of Westers. It’s not my favorite genre (being so stereotyped–am I the only one who largely can’t stand John Wayne?) but these films shattered the notion of pure good and evil in Westerns, and all are so beatifully filmed that they could be confused for being only a few years old.
**The Day The Earth Stood Still ** is really “Sci-Fi Noir” that is still just as relevant today as the 50’s. Like so many brilliant innovative movies and TV shows, it sometimes appears cliched because it has been imitated so much.
Double Indemnity will always be worth watching because the story itself is timeless: murder for love and/or money.
What, pray tell, is the “timeless message” of 2001? As more than one reviewer has pointed out, not only does it not make sense, but it is impossible to construct a scenario under which it COULD make sense.
**
And you people who said Pitch Black – are you serious!!! I hated that movie, so my personal opinion inclines me against it, but even so, I don’t see anything that makesd it a “classic”
It’s a big-budget action-adventure-comedy with lots of great stunts, huge explosions and the occasional cross-dressing - a movie that’s truly 50 years ahead of its time. The most dated thing about it is the Technicolor photography.
Can we submit modern(ish) films that we think will stand the test of time?
If so I’d like to submit Donnie Darko. I just finished watching it again. It creeps me out, in a good way. It makes me feel sad… in a good way. It makes me a bit confused… in a good way.