Greatest Movie of All Time?

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What's the greatest film ever made? Some of the obvious choices are Citizen Kane and Gone with the Wind...I personally think It's A Wonderful Life probably fits the bill.

There are plenty of movies I *LOVE*, but only "It's A Wonderful Life" satisfies me as the greatest ever.



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I think that the greatest movie of all time is "It's A Wonderful Life" also. Although it isn't my favorite movie (my favorite is Blues Brothers) I think that it is a classic that will be around forever. (Not to mention you'll be able to watch it every Christmas Eve for the next hundred years.)



LOL - yeah...it's on ALL the time...just like Rudolph and "The Christmas Story."

In fact, TNT played The Christmas Story for 24 hours straight last Christmas...pretty dang annoying.



"It's A Wonderful Life" is excellent. Very powerful movie on several levels.

My list of some of the greatest movies would have to include (as it's impossible to narrow it down to one):
12 Monkeys
Godfather
Apocalypse Now
The Last Temptation of Christ (one of Scorsese's best)
Groundhog Day (similar, in a way, to "Wonderful Life")
Trainspotting
Contact
Braveheart
Sixth Sense

If you've never seen these, rent them!



I'll agree with you on two of them: Braveheart and Groundhog Day.

Groundhog Day was incredibly odd...but it keep drawing me in. I couldn't turn away! Braveheart was, basically, fairly tear-jerking. I took the time to once read (most of) a book about William Wallace and the revolution...his bravery is un-matched. Most of what you see in the movie really happened...it's terrifying to think that people would do such things, and amazing that someone would do what he did. I have the utmost respect for him.

Mel Gibson did a decent job in the part too...he's a little bit of a pretty boy, though...and supposedly Wallace was more handsome in the older sense...IE: gruff and strong.



Arsenic and Old Lace
North By Northwest

Those are my votes.



TWTCommish, what book about William Wallace did you read? It is a fascinating story. The movie's music and photography were also superb.

RP- Yeah, "North by Northwest" definitely in the tops.



Filmmaker,

"In Freedom's Cause - A Story of Wallace and Bruce"
By G.A. Henty

It was written over 100 years ago. Henty wrote many books like this. He would decide to write a book, and fully immerse himself in that world/time period for months...learning everything he could. Then, he would write a story...very accurate - only he'd insert a teenage boy in the middle of the story to follow the story with. Amazing books - we own about a dozen of them; they're great:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...797760-9624761

I remember searching for "Henty" on Amazon...I scrolled down through the listings of his books...9 out of 10 or so of them had an average rating of 5 stars...the other had 4...which had several reviews rating it perfectly, and one who rated it very low, weighing it down.



I'm a new guy in town. So first off....I'd like to say Hi to everybody in here. I was browsing this site and after one minute...I was hooked and had to be a member. I love that fact that it isn't cluttered with 1000's of members...just 60 of you or so. This way I won't get confused!

About this thread...

Braveheart is my favorite film. The best of all time is a tough one. Here are my 2:

Citizen Kane (For an older one)
American Beauty (For a newer one)
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Hooked huh? Veryyyyy good. Everything is going according to plan...hehe.

Interesting username...and an interesting choice. Citizen Kane is widely regarded as the best of all time...I've only seen parts of American Beauty, but I actually did not like what I did see. It goes out of its way to try to portray your average American family as dysfunctional and messed up.

The director, by the way (99% sure of this) is British and has been known to hold an Anti-American bias...hence the message of the film.



Female assassin extraordinaire.
check it out, all my life I always thought Citizen Kane would be like The Manchurian Candidate, cause I was only going off the name. I was like, NO politics, NO brainwashing, I don't want to hear about any of it. I guess the Citizen made me think it was political and touching on the communist topic.

Then, just a year ago for my first film class in my new film studies minor, we have to watch it and I'm squirming in my seat ... and next thing I know I am so into it I don't know how much time has passed and I want to know about Rosebud and yada yada ...

But it's just too hard to choose the greatest movie of all time. All movies have flaws, no movie is perfect. To each person, a film feels different, so it may SEEM perfect, but to someone else ... Citizen Kane comes pretty close for me.

American Beauty ... weeell, Chris, maybe you should watch the whole film and give it some time/a chance. The thing is, I think the director was looking into the neuroses and dysfunctionality that are the stereotype of american perception today (internal AND external) and trying to look deeper. Saying hey, look yeah this is a country of estranged children and trash tv but there IS something worthwhile there. There IS beauty -- that's the main, very obvious point of the movie. There is an everyman, an underdog, who sleeps away under all this internal melodrama, and he might have remained clueless but for waking up and seeing that beauty and being content with his life however stupid and small and trashy it may have seemed in some instances.

I think the director explored this with utmost intelligence and tenderness; i do not think he sought to make us americans out as crap, and I don't think he went out of his way to portray the avg american family as screwed up ...

in other news! a list of films I regard highly ...

____

The Color Purple
The Shawshank Redemption
Schindler's List
Vertigo
All About Eve
The Usual Suspects
Terminator 2
La Femme Nikita (French Version)
Au Revoir Les Enfants

heheh, pretty jumbled list but if you haven't seen these you are mad! go rent them!!
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whatcha lookin' at? i got feathers for hair or what?!



Terminator 2 and The Shawshank Redemption are the only ones I've seen...both very good. Perhaps I'll have to see all of American Beauty...

More flicks that are "must-see":

The 13th Warrior
Braveheart
Dial M for Murder
The Green Mile
The Rock
Raising Arizona
The Hudsucker Proxy
Cabin Boy

Those are all amazing...some of them totally hillarious.



In Soviet America, you sue MPAA!
I'm going have to go with:
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Starship Troopers (this movie was so MIS-understood)
Blade
Final Destination
House on Haunted Hill
The Exorcist (even though I laughed half the time)
American Beauty
Braveheart
Gladiator
The Thomas Crown Affair
Fist of Legend
Four Rooms
Stir of Echoes
and one of if not the best movie this year Frequency.




[Edited by OG- on 10-02-2000]
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House on Haunted Hill scared the crap out of me! Although the story went NOWHERE...when it had so much potential!

Final Destination was well done...but had its share of problems of course. The Thomas Crown Affair was amazingly cool...the big "heist" scene (dont want to spoil anything for anyone) had my jaw laying on the floor.



Female assassin extraordinaire.
I've seen Four Rooms and don't remember being particularly moved by it ... sorry! I remember it was odd and I didn't regret renting it though

There are several versions of The House on Haunted Hill .. there are the two recent ones ... both of which steal from the two "originals", a 1950s version called the Haunting of Hill House which I was SO into, however cheesy the special effects, which had the story about several people meeting up in a house for one night. The rule for this one involved $100K each if they survived the night, and they all knew the house was haunted. The person in charge was not experimenting but just being sadistic.

The other one, with yet another similar play on the words, came out in the late 1960s (from what I could tell) and was on tv last week, on AMC or something. This one had the story about a man who returns to his ancestral home, and his ancestor was a sick man who had two wives and issues with children and he gets possessed by his demonic ancestor ... same type of thing as in the modern one. This one involved green zombies though. (smilie intended) Very melodramatic and less cool than the 1950s one.

I'm amazed you included Final Destination ... it had some surprises but just felt like the typical teen flick. Weird how all these movies are coming out for teens ... they are exactly like the 1980s movies but more high gloss and glamor.

I've seen virtually all the films you guys listed except for Starship Troopers, the Green Mile, and Raising Arizona. I've seen the last one in parts on tv, and kept meaning to see Green Mile. Don't know if I'll ever get around to renting Starship Troopers ...

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grrggle. me want soda.



Final Destination definetly had that "vibe" to it...and, to me, that was basically it's only flaw. I think it had a lot more substance than most movies of the sort...let's face it, most teen flicks don't have such an interesting storyline!

Starship Troopers is "cool"...I don't think of it as a particularly well-made movie...but it is definetly interesting. There are undertones throughout that hint at the humans NOT really being the good guys. The feel of the whole thing is intentionally like a comic book, or an old 50s movie. It's worth seeing.

As for The Green Mile and Raising Arizona...the first one has a bad guy you'll hate more than anything you've hated in your life, and despite being well over 2 hours, you can't take your eyes off the screen. The second is hillarious and perfectly cast.



In Soviet America, you sue MPAA!
I didn' mean that I thought those were the best movies ever made, they are just my favorite. About Starship Troopers, I don't think many people got that this movie was supposed to make fun of all of society. It based it's characters on what ideal life has become today, such crappy 90210 people. It also modeled all of its scenes after events in WWII. Making fun of the choices that political leaders of the time made, etc. The book was a lot different though. As for Four Rooms, I just thought that was a REALLY funny moive.



jamesglewisf's Avatar
Didn't see it.
I have to say Manchurian Candidate.

I also like to watch:
Arsenic and Old Lace
Harvey
You Can't Take It With You
The Patriot
The Shining
Silence of the Lambs
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