I thought of that for 1954, too. There’s also another possible candidate for that year :- “Heavenly Creatures”.
Since the dating of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is in doubt, I suggest Cold Mountain as a replacement. Most of the action is in 1864, following the Battle of the Crater at Petersburg. So:
1864 Cold Mountain
I feel that Summer of '42 is a better choice for 1942. Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo is from 1944 and so is virtually contemporary.
140 The Eagle
I notice we have The Lion in Winter for 1183. Peter O’Toole is in that playing Henry II of England, but he played the very same character in Becket, which was supposed to be set some years earlier than Lion in Winter. Does anyone know if Becket can be tied down to a particular year?
I agree that would be a better choice.
The movie covers Thomas Becket’s time as Archbishop of Canterbury, from 1162 to 1170. Since the murder of Becket in 1170 is climax of the movie I would consider that as the best date for it.
1170 Becket
If we accept the criterion of the climax of a movie whose events take place over several years as the effective date, we have a few additional candidates:
1485 Richard III
1536 Anne of the Thousand Days
1601 The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
Too much to ask to reconsider A Bronx Tale for 1968? Not saying it should replace Unbearable Lightness of Being because, you know, it has Daniel Day Lewis and based on a book – penned by a Czech author no less – so it must be important. But both are essentially even on Rotten Tomatoes (96% for ABT vs. 95% for ULoB) and A Bronx Tale has a legitimate lead on IMDB (7.7 to 7.3). (If only IMDB had legitimate ratings.) Bronx Tale was originally the 1968 entry but overruled by ULoB. I say they should cohabit-ate the spot.
And really, how much different could Prague look from 1968 to 1988? Or from 1968 to present day, for that matter?
Ironically, I wish a case could be made for another DDL movie, In the Name of the Father, which begins its story in 1974. But the whole court process and prison time seems to extend over too many years to make for a specific year (taking this from memory).
Plus Bonnie and Clyde for 1934
OP states: “The majority – either in terms of minutes or theme – of each movie must must occur in the specific year…”
“Just use your own best judgment.” – Joel’s mom.
Updated list
BC One Zillion BC, October 9th - Caveman
BC 1,000,000 One Million BC
BC 1200 Troy
BC 480 300
BC 326 Sikandar (1941)
BC 72 Spartacus
BC 44 Julius Caesar
33 Life of Brian / The Passion of the Christ
40 Caligula
140 The Eagle
180 Gladiator
208 Red Cliff
460 The Last Legion
528 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
859 House of Flying Daggers
922 The Thirteenth Warrior
1170 Becket
1183 The Lion in Winter
1187 Kingdom of Heaven
1199 Robin Hood (2010)
1242 Alexander Nevsky
1298 Braveheart
1327 The Name of the Rose
1415 Henry V
1424 Andrei Rublev
1431 The Passion of Joan of Arc
1482 The Hunchback of Notre Dame
1485 Richard III
1492 1492: Conquest of Paradise
1533 The Royal Hunt of the Sun
1535 A Man for All Seasons
1536 Anne of the Thousand Days
1547 Crossed Swords
1553 Lady Jane
1558 Elizabeth
1560 Aguirre: The Wrath of God
1597 Shakespeare in Love
1601 The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
1607 The New World
1625 The Three Musketeers
1630 Hara-kiri
1634 Black Robe / The Devils
1665 Girl with a Pearl Earring
1667 The Scarlet Letter
1692 The Crucible
1712 Rob Roy
1756 The Mission
1757 The Last of the Mohicans
1776 1776
1779 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
1787 Robinson Crusoe
1788 The Madness of King George
1789 Mutiny on the Bounty
1791 That Night in Varennes
1794 Danton
1798 The Wild Child
1799 The Marquise of O / Sleepy Hollow
1805 Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
1808 The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade
1815 Waterloo
1816 Gothic
1827 Children of Paradise
1828 The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
1832 Les Miserables
1836 The Alamo
1841 Amistad
1854 The Charge of the Light Brigade
1857 Mangal Pandey: The Rising
1858 Django Unchained
1860 The Pony Express
1862 The General
1863 Gettysburg / Glory
1864 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly / Cold Mountain
1865 Lincoln
1872 Around the World in 80 Days
1874 Blazing Saddles
1876 She Wore a Yellow Ribbon / The Molly Maguires
1877 The Last Samurai
1878 Cheyenne Autumn
1879 Zulu
1880 Stagecoach / True Grit (2012)
1881 Tombstone
1882 The Man Who Would Be King
1884 3:10 to Yuma
1885 Topsy Turvy / Back to the Future III / The Oxbow Incident
1886 Geronimo: An American Legend
1888 From Hell
1889 Mayerling
1890 - Hello, Dolly!
1891 Sherlock Holmes (2009)
1893 Far and Away / Lagaan
1895 The Four Feathers
1896 - The Far Country
1897 The Gold Rush
1898 A Message to Garcia
1899 The Prestige / Newsies
1900 Picnic at Hanging Rock
1901 The Shootist
1902 Breaker Morant
1903 Tom Horn
1904 Meet Me in St. Louis
1905 Battleship Potemkin
1906 Ragtime
1907 Viva Maria!
1909 Fanny and Alexander
1910 Mary Poppins
1911 1911
1912 Titanic
1913 The Wild Bunch
1914 The African Queen
1915 Gallipoli
1916 Paths of Glory
1917 Lawrence of Arabia
1918 War Horse
1919 Eight Men Out
1920 Matewan
1921 Sunrise at Campobello
1922 The Great Gatsby
1924 Chariots of Fire
1925 Inherit the Wind
1926 The Sand Pebbles
1927 Singin’ in the Rain
1928 The Artist
1929 Some Like It Hot
1931 Cabaret
1932 King Kong (2005)
1933 Sounder
1934 Pennies from Heaven / Bonnie and Clyde
1935 The King’s Speech
1936 Raiders of the Lost Ark / The Sting
1937 Chinatown
1938 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
1939 To Be or Not to Be (the original)
1940 The Spirit of the Beehive
1941 Tora! Tora! Tora!
1942 Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo / Summer of '42
1943 Come and See
1944 Saving Private Ryan / A Bridge Too Far / Pan’s Labyrinth / The Longest Day
1945 Schindler’s List
1946 The Godfather
1947 42
1948 Devil in a Blue Dress
1949 - The Man Who Wasn’t There
1950 Men in War / Snow Falling on Cedars
1951 The Last Picture Show
1952 Hoosiers
1953 L.A. Confidential
1954 My Favorite Year / Heavenly Creatures
1955 Back to the Future
1957 The Battle of Algiers
1958 The Godfather Part II
1959 Diner / Stand By Me
1960 Grease
1961 61*
1962 American Graffiti / Animal House
1963 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
1964 Mississippi Burning
1965 Moonrise Kingdom
1966 JFK
1967 Platoon
1968 The Unbearable Lightness of Being / A Bronx Tale
1969 Taking Woodstock
1970 Apollo 13 / Apocalypse Now
1971 Remember the Titans
1972 All the President’s Men
1973 Ratcatcher
1974 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
1975 The Deer Hunter
1976 Dazed and Confused
1977 Summer of Sam
1978 Lords of Dogtown
1979 Argo / Super 8
1980 No Country for Old Men
1981 Wet Hot American Summer
1982 Waltz with Bashir
1983 Heartbreak Ridge
1984 1984
1986 The Squid and the Whale
1987 Fargo
1988 Donnie Darko
1989 Buffalo Soldiers
1990 Rent
1991 The Big Lebowski
1992 Primary Colors
1993 Black Hawk Down
1994 Hotel Rwanda
1995 Invictus
1996 12 Monkeys
1997 Amélie
1998 Escape from New York
1999 Strange Days
2000 Escape from Los Angeles
2001 2001: A Space Odyssey / World Trade Center / Flight 93
2002 Moneyball
2004 The Hurt Locker
2005 Transformers: the Movie (1986)
2010 2010: The Year We Make Contact
2011 Zero Dark Thirty
2012 I Am Legend
2013 The Postman
2019 Blade Runner
2022 Soylent Green
2026 Metropolis
2027 Children of Men
2032 Demolition Man
2035 I, Robot
2044 Looper
2057 Sunshine
2074 Looper
2084 Total Recall (the original)
2093 Prometheus
2122 Alien
2150 Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.
2160 Avatar
2173 Sleeper
2179 Aliens
2199 The Matrix
2214 The Fifth Element
2274 Logan’s Run
2293 Zardoz
2491 Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
2500 Waterworld
2505 Idiocracy
2517 Serenity
2805 Wall-E
3978 Planet of the Apes (1968)
5021 Planet of the Apes (2001)
12090 Vampire Hunter D
40000 Barbarella
802,701 The Time Machine (2002)
1908 Fanny and Alexander
Depends on what exactly you mean by the “majority of the theme,” and “majority of minutes.” Based on what you said in the OP, I’ve been interpreting “majority of the theme” to mean the most important/most emphatic elements of the plot.
Take for example Les Miserables. The story begins in 1815, and the plot develops over several decades. But the resolution of all the plot elements, and the climax, takes place in 1832.
And does “majority of minutes” mean “more minutes than any other year,” or “more than half of the movie”? I suspect that 1832 takes up more minutes of the film than any other, but not more than half.
Likewise, War Horse takes place over the time period 1914-1918. The most dramatic elements and the resolution of the plot take place in 1918. However, I’m not sure if the most minutes take place in 1914 or 1918.
In my best judgement, I would pick 1832 for Les Miserables and 1918 for War Horse. But you’re the OP.
I can’t help but imagine an alien civilization trying to piece together Earth’s history with this list.
“Things got reeeally weird around what they called the year 2000, sir. Aparently humanity was on the brink of extinction, but then somehow the planet became overpopulated… and then there’s those years the humans were overrun by apes. Don’t ask. It’s hard to tell apart what happened in the real world and what was part of the virtual reality from the time they were controlled by a Matrix.”
“And then Jane Fonda started taking her clothes off and I didn’t care anymore.”
Those rules (guidelines, really) were put into place to maintain the integrity of the list, which to me at least, has been very much maintained. If a movie starts to have some sort of “Gumpian” timeline where many different eras (as perceived by the moviegoer), then probably best to leave it out. But if a movie – and Les Miserables is an excellent example – has a glut of its story in a certain year, 1832 as you noted, that makes sense to put it there. If a movie merely ends or has its climax in a certain year, but the overwhelming majority of the movie happened in other years, then should probably be reconsidered. All that said, there’s perhaps a bit of a judgement call to be considered when we are considering, say, the 1830’s versus, say, 1978, I guess because of how the perception time compresses the farther you go back.
Writing “the majority” in the OP was probably a poor choice of words. But then, I wasn’t quite expecting such a thorough list or such thoughtfulness being put into it. I think we’ve all learned an important lesson: don’t underestimate a Doper!
So, being inspired by the timeline, I actually watched Back to the Future II last night.
Based on the DVD chapters:
7/20th of the film happens in 2015;
5/20th of the film happens in 1985 (the opening scene and the alternate reality after Biff gets his hands on the Gray’s Sports Almanac);
7/20th of the film happens in 1955. (The other 1/20th the end credits.)
The plot points are fairly evenly divided by the three eras.
BttF II was actually originally entered in the 1985 slot on this timeline but I yanked it because: a.) as I recall, it didn’t feel it like it had enough 1985 screen time; and b.) the movie came out only four years after that. But opon further review, the 1985 alternative reality segment makes for a legitimate 1985 slot and there are only slightly fewer minutes in 1985 than the others.
BUT, 2015 has more screen time and a bigger divergence from present day (circa 1989, when the film was made). Soooo… Back to the Future II, to be added to the 2015 slot!
So, the latest – and last??? – epic movie period piece timeline:
BC One Zillion BC, October 9th - Caveman
BC 1,000,000 One Million BC
BC 1200 Troy
BC 480 300
BC 326 Sikandar (1941)
BC 72 Spartacus
BC 44 Julius Caesar
33 Life of Brian / The Passion of the Christ
40 Caligula
140 The Eagle
180 Gladiator
208 Red Cliff
460 The Last Legion
528 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
859 House of Flying Daggers
922 The Thirteenth Warrior
1170 Becket
1183 The Lion in Winter
1187 Kingdom of Heaven
1199 Robin Hood (2010)
1242 Alexander Nevsky
1298 Braveheart
1327 The Name of the Rose
1415 Henry V
1424 Andrei Rublev
1431 The Passion of Joan of Arc
1482 The Hunchback of Notre Dame
1485 Richard III
1492 1492: Conquest of Paradise
1533 The Royal Hunt of the Sun
1535 A Man for All Seasons
1536 Anne of the Thousand Days
1547 Crossed Swords
1553 Lady Jane
1558 Elizabeth
1560 Aguirre: The Wrath of God
1597 Shakespeare in Love
1601 The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
1607 The New World
1625 The Three Musketeers
1630 Hara-kiri
1634 Black Robe / The Devils
1665 Girl with a Pearl Earring
1667 The Scarlet Letter
1692 The Crucible
1712 Rob Roy
1756 The Mission
1757 The Last of the Mohicans
1776 1776
1779 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
1787 Robinson Crusoe
1788 The Madness of King George
1789 Mutiny on the Bounty
1791 That Night in Varennes
1794 Danton
1798 The Wild Child
1799 The Marquise of O / Sleepy Hollow
1805 Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
1808 The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade
1815 Waterloo
1816 Gothic
1827 Children of Paradise
1828 The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
1832 Les Miserables
1836 The Alamo
1841 Amistad
1854 The Charge of the Light Brigade
1857 Mangal Pandey: The Rising
1858 Django Unchained
1860 The Pony Express
1862 The General
1863 Gettysburg / Glory
1864 The Good, the Bad and the Ugly / Cold Mountain
1865 Lincoln
1872 Around the World in 80 Days
1874 Blazing Saddles
1876 She Wore a Yellow Ribbon / The Molly Maguires
1877 The Last Samurai
1878 Cheyenne Autumn
1879 Zulu
1880 Stagecoach / True Grit (2012)
1881 Tombstone
1882 The Man Who Would Be King
1884 3:10 to Yuma
1885 Topsy Turvy / Back to the Future III / The Oxbow Incident
1886 Geronimo: An American Legend
1888 From Hell
1889 Mayerling
1890 - Hello, Dolly!
1891 Sherlock Holmes (2009)
1893 Far and Away / Lagaan
1895 The Four Feathers
1896 - The Far Country
1897 The Gold Rush
1898 A Message to Garcia
1899 The Prestige / Newsies
1900 Picnic at Hanging Rock
1901 The Shootist
1902 Breaker Morant
1903 Tom Horn
1904 Meet Me in St. Louis
1905 Battleship Potemkin
1906 Ragtime
1907 Viva Maria!
1909 Fanny and Alexander
1910 Mary Poppins
1911 1911
1912 Titanic
1913 The Wild Bunch
1914 The African Queen
1915 Gallipoli
1916 Paths of Glory
1917 Lawrence of Arabia
1918 War Horse
1919 Eight Men Out
1920 Matewan
1921 Sunrise at Campobello
1922 The Great Gatsby
1924 Chariots of Fire
1925 Inherit the Wind
1926 The Sand Pebbles
1927 Singin’ in the Rain
1928 The Artist
1929 Some Like It Hot
1931 Cabaret
1932 King Kong (2005)
1933 Sounder
1934 Pennies from Heaven / Bonnie and Clyde
1935 The King’s Speech
1936 Raiders of the Lost Ark / The Sting
1937 Chinatown
1938 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
1939 To Be or Not to Be (the original)
1940 The Spirit of the Beehive
1941 Tora! Tora! Tora!
1942 Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo / Summer of '42
1943 Come and See
1944 Saving Private Ryan / A Bridge Too Far / Pan’s Labyrinth / The Longest Day
1945 Schindler’s List
1946 The Godfather
1947 42
1948 Devil in a Blue Dress
1949 - The Man Who Wasn’t There
1950 Men in War / Snow Falling on Cedars
1951 The Last Picture Show
1952 Hoosiers
1953 L.A. Confidential
1954 My Favorite Year / Heavenly Creatures
1955 Back to the Future
1957 The Battle of Algiers / Far From Heaven
1958 The Godfather Part II
1959 Diner / Stand By Me
1960 Grease
1961 61*
1962 American Graffiti / Animal House
1963 One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
1964 Mississippi Burning
1965 Moonrise Kingdom
1966 JFK
1967 Platoon
1968 The Unbearable Lightness of Being / A Bronx Tale
1969 Taking Woodstock
1970 Apollo 13 / Apocalypse Now
1971 Remember the Titans
1972 All the President’s Men
1973 Ratcatcher
1974 Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
1975 The Deer Hunter
1976 Dazed and Confused
1977 Summer of Sam
1978 Lords of Dogtown
1979 Argo / Super 8
1980 No Country for Old Men
1981 Wet Hot American Summer
1982 Waltz with Bashir
1983 Heartbreak Ridge
1984 1984
1986 The Squid and the Whale
1987 Fargo
1988 Donnie Darko
1989 Buffalo Soldiers
1990 Rent
1991 The Big Lebowski
1992 Primary Colors
1993 Black Hawk Down
1994 Hotel Rwanda
1995 Invictus
1996 12 Monkeys
1997 Amélie
1998 Escape from New York
1999 Strange Days
2000 Escape from Los Angeles
2001 2001: A Space Odyssey / World Trade Center / Flight 93
2002 Moneyball
2004 The Hurt Locker
2005 Transformers: the Movie (1986)
2010 2010: The Year We Make Contact
2011 Zero Dark Thirty
2012 I Am Legend
2013 The Postman
2015 Back to the Future II
2019 Blade Runner
2022 Soylent Green
2026 Metropolis
2027 Children of Men
2032 Demolition Man
2035 I, Robot
2044 Looper
2057 Sunshine
2074 Looper
2084 Total Recall (the original)
2093 Prometheus
2122 Alien
2150 Daleks - Invasion Earth: 2150 A.D.
2160 Avatar
2173 Sleeper
2179 Aliens
2199 The Matrix
2214 The Fifth Element
2274 Logan’s Run
2293 Zardoz
2491 Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
2500 Waterworld
2505 Idiocracy
2517 Serenity
2805 Wall-E
3978 Planet of the Apes (1968)
5021 Planet of the Apes (2001)
12090 Vampire Hunter D
40000 Barbarella
802,701 The Time Machine (2002)
Also added Far from Heaven to 1957. Not as revered as Battle of Algiers, but an excellent movie nonetheless and a terrific recreation/cinematographic style of a 1957 movie.
When I tried to go onto SDMB this morning, but was not able to get in, I was sure this thread crashed the site due to the long entries. Umm, hope not!
1943: Captain America: The First Avenger
1923: The Hours
The movie tells three parallel stories and one of them is set in 1923.