Great stories
 

what films do you thinkhave great stories. I dont mean like the film is good so the story must be good. Films are good through good acting, directions etc. But what films have great stories. I would have to say Never ending story and lord of the rings

IMO, all the Star Wars movies.

i tried to sit and watch Star wars IV but it was just bleugh, it couldnt hold my attention. But being objective yeah i suppose it does have a great story, even if i cant seem to follow it

Donnie Darko definetely. The Gladiator too.

I really can't think of many movies where the movie itsself sucks, but the story is good. Umm...

American Beauty
Donnie Brasco
The Untouchables
Hardball
American History X

i think american beauty wouldve been a good book, was it based on by any chance

Peter pan, great story

The English Patient
Wuthering Heights
Lawrence of Arabia
Joan of Arc is an amazing character, great stories about her
LA Confidential

Green Mile was a good book (Stephen King) and so was The Shawshank Redemption (also Stephen King). Plus the films weren't bad as well.

secret window
ninth gate
benny & joon
ed wood

I feel a lot of Slasher type Horror movies have great 'stories' However I feel they generally don't end well, say The Texas Chainsaw Massacre for example.

I also think all Heist movies ( Ocean's 11,12 , Mission Impossible, Entrapment...etc) have excellent stories. Only again, I feel that the actual heist itself never really lives up to a stellar ploy... except maybe Ocean's 11

Get Shorty had a really good story.

The best script ever written IMO is Chinatown, and it's a top notch story.

Casablanca

Blade Runner

Lord of the Rings

Star Wars

Lawrence of Arabia

A Clockwork Orange

The Godfather


Those are some off the top of my head, and I can't say any of them are the best. I think that would be a difficult task. Designating just one film as having the greatest story. Subjective stuff. I would think Casablanca would have a shot at best though.

Witness
Eternal Sunshine - crazy but good
Crimson Tide

Just watched The Sting, that's definitely a great story.

im seeing a pattern of great stories coming from books/screenplays.

City of angels, i thought that was a good story and bonus cause the film was good too

The Big Lebowski!

The Shawshank Redemption
Once Upon A Time In America
Barry Lyndon
Boogie Nights
City Of God
Six Degrees Of Separation

This is so freakin' easy. Life Is Beautiful. The Dad, R.B., came in high steppin' and took over the place with mad skills. This is the story thread though, and in that case the story poops on every other story ever written, in most cases. Regardless of how much ass the movie kicks you can sum it up to a friend without having to make crap up and it kicks ass and you can even go in depth and kick more of your friends ass. Life is beautiful and this movie reminds you. Tear. Dang.

ALSO! Apocalypse Now, duh. How can you go anywhere without showing some random sucker your Apoalypse Now tattoo? What? You don't have an Apoc. Now tat? Get one. They're great at parties and to stay on point they're great story starters. You get to talk about the surfing while being bombed, hacking M. Brando with a big'ol knife, the kick ass filmmaking which of course went hand in hand with the top notch lighting and cinematography. Love this movie. Dang.

Would have to agree with PimpDaShizzle and say Life is Beautiful... Simple an amazing story that would have worked as a book, movie, radio story, etc.

I thought the story in Braveheart was excellent, though you could make an argument that it's a timelss subject matter and thus a good story.

Pretty much every book Stephen King has ever written that's been adapted to the big screen had, IMHO, a great story... most of which didn't translate well to the big screen. An excellent example would be Dreamcatcher.