The 1962 original or the 2004 remake? (I’m guessing the original.)
The former. I haven’t seen the new one but it seems to be considered inferior to the original.
L.A. Confidential
Singin’ in the Rain
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Dead Again
Sullivan’s Travels
I like the cut of your jib, sailor!
Fargo
Traffic
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Dr Strangelove
Ghost Busters
…had trouble with the fifth.
In alphabetical order:
All About Eve
Inherit the Wind
Some Like It Hot
What’s Opera, Doc?
The Wizard of Oz
Seriously. I can name FAVORITE movies, but BEST movies are tough. There are movies I probably should watch before I make such important decisions. . .I don’t feel qualified!
Anyway, in no particular order.
Local Hero
Blade Runner
Jaws (mostly for Robert Shaw)
The Dark Knight (nearly ENTIRELY for Heath Ledger)
Fight Club
The Last Emperor
The Perfect Life
K-2
The Long Hot Summer/Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Planes, Trains & Automobiles
Godfather
Godfather II
Big Lebowski
The Third Man
Annie Hall
ETA: I can’t believe I forgot Raging Bull
I didn’t think that sounded right…The Perfect Life should be The Good Life.
sophie’s choice.
shawshank redemption.
the godfather.
the english patient.
pulp fiction.
I thought I could do this until I started reading other lists and was reminded of so many great movies, each so different than all the others.
I give up – my head is in danger of assploding.
This is difficult, because I love so many movies for so many different reasons.
In some particular order:
**In Bruges
Princess Mononoke
2001: A Space Odyssey
Lord of the Rings (all of them)
The Men Who Stare at Goats
**
I’m not so sure about that last one - I saw it quite recently, and fell in love with it. I’ve watched it three times in two weeks, I’m reading the book, and I’ve been looking up all I can on the psychic soldier initiative, but I don’t know if the film will still have any impact on my memory a year from now. So here’s two alternates:
**The Iron Giant
Inception
**
Like Boyo Jim said, it’s hard to narrow it down.
Rashomon first. Then in no particular order:
Das Boot (over Platoon/Full Metal Jacket/the first 45 minutes of Saving Private Ryan for the ‘realistic’ war movie genre. It’s the fastest 4.5 hours you’ll ever watch.)
Goodfellas (over The Godfather(s). I love them all, but I like Goodfellas de-mythologization of the Mafia genre. I’d be happy with Unforgiven as well, taking apart another genre of course.)
Dr. Strangelove… (sub in Blazing Saddles or Raising Arizona if you want. Or His Girl Friday, Caddyshack, Animal House. Heck, I probably think of Fletch quotes before I think of most of them from Strangelove.)
Gah, so many choices.
Screw it, go with Star Wars, even though I agree that The Empire Strikes Back is a better movie. Or Raiders, for that matter. Star Wars was the first movie I ever saw that made me think, “Wow! That’s what movies are. That’s why people keep going back.” It helped that I was 6 at the time.
Where do you put: The Searchers, Metropolis, In The Loop, Jaws, The Usual Suspects, the whole Lord of The Rings trilogy, City Lights, Alien, Gone With The Wind, Modern Times, Duck Soup, Downfall, Brazil, Grave of the Fireflies, Rushmore, The Princess Bride, Spinal Tap, …Holy Grail, Airplane, Dr. Zhivago, Bridge on the River Kwai, etc…?
And I know I’m leaving off a ton too.
now* that *would be a great flick.
It would be a very short but colorful film – perhaps it could run paired with Bambi Meets Godzilla.
Bambi Meets Godzilla was tame compared with its sequel. you know the one, godzilla, king kong vs bambi i think animal rights put a stop to it although no animal was harmed.
I’m happy to see Local Hero pop up twice here. It’s not in my personal top 5, but I think it certainly deserves to be more widely known.
My top 5:
2001: A Space Oddysey
Airplane
Goodfellas
The Hudsucker Proxy (or Miller’s Crossing)
Excalibur
-
The Double Life of Veronique
-
Natural Born Killers
-
12 Monkeys
-
Irma Vep
-
Josie and the Pussycats
Curiously all of them are within about 10 years of each other. Though in my defense, Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev and Bondarchuk’s War and Peace just missed being on the list.
Without thinking about it carefully, the first I’d list are:
Casablanca
A Thousand Clowns
King of Hearts
And then I have to think about it, and the answers change all the time. Plus I can’t cut it off at two. Right now, the top candidates for those two spots are:
Apollo 13
Memento
Alien (or maybe Aliens – one of the few sequels as good as the original. Quit there, though.)
Blade Runner
Pulp Fiction
And yeah, Back to the Future was a riot, and Terminator was way better than I expected it to be, even though I saw it first on a small screen.
There are a bunch of movies listed above that I’ve never seen, and I think I should.