Once Upon a Time in the West and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest are top-ten favorites of mine, and they occupied those same spots on my ballot. The former is simply the coolest western ever made. Leone's iconic close-ups with Morricone's iconic score, a blue-eyed Fonda playing against type, Charles Bronson making me want to learn how to play harmonica . . . An epic, operatic tale of revenge set in the dust of a mythologized Old West. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly always places higher on these lists, but to me Once Upon a Time in the West is Leone's ultimate masterpiece.
Very few, if any, films affect me emotionally as much as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. From immense joy (the "Juicy Fruit" scene, for instance) to rage to heartbreaking sorrow. I think it's Nicholson's best performance, and I'd also rank Nurse Ratched among the most effective movie villains due to her complexity and how successfully she gets under my skin. She's the ultimate embodiment of every authority figure whom I've ever felt had it out for me and the movie perfectly projects that helpless feeling of doing anything about it -- at least not without making the situation even worse.
I don't think I've commented since Rocky appeared way back at #59. Too many movies have appeared since then for me to give a proper rundown, so I'll just say that Sunset Blvd., No Country for Old Men, Unforgiven and Rear Window are the ones I adore the most. All of those would make my top 100, if not top 50. I'm surprised by some of the films already appearing on the countdown. I expected stuff like Back to the Future and Godfather Part II to easily make the top 20. I think we've got quite a few surprises in store, hopefully of the good kind and not of the "OMG, look at all the superheroes dominating the top of the list" kind.
All total I've had four movies from my ballot to appear (OUaTitW, Cuckoo's Nest, Toy Story, The Apartment). Andrei Rublev and Come and See remain the only two I haven't seen. I'm starting to worry that I'm the only one who voted for all those comedy masterpieces featuring Spade and Schneider.
Very few, if any, films affect me emotionally as much as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. From immense joy (the "Juicy Fruit" scene, for instance) to rage to heartbreaking sorrow. I think it's Nicholson's best performance, and I'd also rank Nurse Ratched among the most effective movie villains due to her complexity and how successfully she gets under my skin. She's the ultimate embodiment of every authority figure whom I've ever felt had it out for me and the movie perfectly projects that helpless feeling of doing anything about it -- at least not without making the situation even worse.
I don't think I've commented since Rocky appeared way back at #59. Too many movies have appeared since then for me to give a proper rundown, so I'll just say that Sunset Blvd., No Country for Old Men, Unforgiven and Rear Window are the ones I adore the most. All of those would make my top 100, if not top 50. I'm surprised by some of the films already appearing on the countdown. I expected stuff like Back to the Future and Godfather Part II to easily make the top 20. I think we've got quite a few surprises in store, hopefully of the good kind and not of the "OMG, look at all the superheroes dominating the top of the list" kind.
All total I've had four movies from my ballot to appear (OUaTitW, Cuckoo's Nest, Toy Story, The Apartment). Andrei Rublev and Come and See remain the only two I haven't seen. I'm starting to worry that I'm the only one who voted for all those comedy masterpieces featuring Spade and Schneider.
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