ahwell's Top 100 Movies - 2020

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WE NEED THE NEXT ENTRY !!!
OOP SORRY I will try to have it up today lol, at least I warned you all I would NOT be consistent.





94. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

Raiders being one of my favorite movies (top 100 spoiler!!), I always intended to get around to the other Indiana Jones films. I still haven't gotten around to Temple of Doom, but I sure do love the Last Crusade.

And it's a legitimately fantastic movie. It's over two hours, but flies by. It's full of wit, personality, great characters, and amazing effects and fights. There's nothing out of place here. It's so perfect in it's imperfections.

What's great here is that we get the relationship between Indiana and his father. Ford and Connery have such amazing chemistry, so it's quite believable. Some of the funniest moments in the movie come from between them, and no matter how cheesy and stupid they are I always laugh.

Analyzing a "theme" out of an Indiana Jones movie would be fruitless. This one touches on of course the family bond/father-son relationship. It's memorable and sweet, but what's great about the Last Crusade is how fun it is. There's not a moment wasted, and Spielberg whisks us from one adventure to the next.

The script is still super smart and polished! The script in Raiders blew me away and although this is well regarded I wasn't quite sure what to expect here. It was very good, indeed. Funny, well timed from the actors, and doesn't miss a beat.

The fun also comes from John Williams's score, which is just as great as Raiders. The iconic theme crops up every now and then, and in between we get a beautiful old Hollywood feel. And about that!! It amazed me how Spielberg really evokes a sense of the 1930s Hollywood time period the Last Crusade takes place in. I'm talking about the sharp angles, noir-style zoom-ins and closeups. Maybe I've just seen too much noir lately but it really felt that Spielberg was inspired by that.

The plot with Elsa is pretty uncomfortable today, almost ironic that Connery - famous for his womanizing Bond roles - now plays a character who, um, does stuff with someone young enough to be his grand daughter. And although I'd like to say "it's all in good fun" it really can promote harmful things about consent. Not really cool.

Thankfully, those scenes have a very very small impact on most of the plot, and the film was so entertaining that I forgot those scenes as soon as the next one started.

This review is just starting to feel repetitive as I sing the praises of every aspect of the Last Crusade. I love it, it's so much fun, and I hope to return to it again and again.
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Hey, look! We finally have one in common. I grew up with the Indy movies and I always loved The Last Crusade (though Temple of Doom Is way more fun and is my favorite). Nice pick.



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I like the 3 Indiana Jones I've seen but I can't wait to watch the fourth which is widely regarded as one of the greatest cinematic masterpieces of all time!



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94. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

Raiders of the Lost Ark is my favorite movie of the trilogy, but I love Last Crusade for the interaction between Indy and his father. Sean Connery was perfectly cast as Indy's father.
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I love Last Crusade. I kind of have the same relationship with it as the Alien movies. The first two are so good, as with Indy’s one and three, that at one point I was switching back between the two as my favorite one in the series.

However, in both cases, I think the element of being a sheer classic and feeling really special edges out the sequel. But Crusade is still an amazing follow up, so much fun, and well made. Connery is great as Indy’s dad and the story and set pieces are wonderfully creative.



100. Blazing Saddles
Need to rewatch this one.
99. Elmer Gantry
Great powerful performance and movie. Burt singing "On my way to Canaan's land" was one of my fav scenes i've seen this year.
98. Kind Hearts and Coronets
Watchlisted.
97. Rebecca
Definitely somewhere on my personal top 250!
96. Eyes Wide Shut
Needs rewatch.
95. Eraserhead
Watchlisted.
94. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
In my top 10 as a trilogy, hope more will show up on your list.

Great start ahwell, Rebecca & Indy are my favorites of the ones you've posted so far, keep em coming!



I don't think I've ever seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, but it looks fun. Did you ever seen the movie that the Indiana Jones character was based on? Secret of the Incas (1954)
Nope, I’ll make sure to check that out!!



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First film on the list that I personally love. Comfortably my favourite of the Indy films; the wonderful addition of Sean Connery just adds an extra sense of fun and heart to the series





93. M (1931)

There I stand, on the death row. Am I innocent of a crime I cannot remember? Am I evil? Perhaps I'm made this way for God to make an example of; if I recall correctly, that's what the Salem witch hunters thought too. If you can burn out the Devil in people, problem solved. Of course, most of the time, that person dies, but that's okay; it's for the greater good.

The killer in M is terrifying - his acts are repulsive in evil, and he seems to lure away his young victims with cunning and ease. But when we finally meet him, he's a nervous, deeply mentally unstable, and naive individual. Which is where this all gets into dicey territory since this is the man that murdered three young girls, and who knows what else. It's disturbing, but at what point do we separate an individual from their actions regarding their mental state?

The most frightening thing about M, however, is the crowd at the end. Without spoiling anything, the scene plays out as two evils slowly eating each other up, becoming sadistically gleeful in their lust for blood - both sides that is. Much like in Metropolis, to me the power of the crowd has a huge role in the themes of M.

And the court case style final scene (and then a legitimate portion in a courtroom) send chills down my spine, as the poor childless mother laments that no matter what the ruling is, her child is gone - the paradox is eminent. Evil begets evil begets evil - will executing the murderer help anything? But will allowing him to live in, and possibly escape from, an insane asylum be any better? Are there points when we must put some human lives in front of others? Aghhh **** you Fritz Lang, you always make me question morality at its essence.

It really seems to be Lang's motif through the four films I've seen of him - Kriemhild's Revenge being a vicious war movie about violence and humanity casting away its morals. Metropolis, his most ambitious and possibly his best, a sci-fi dystopia about the corruption of the soul and how joining the heart and the mind will bring it together. The Big Heat, a noir about the cost of human lives in finding the culprit of a crime.

And M, the one Lang himself was most proud of - it remains a work that everyone should see, a technical masterpiece objectively, and for me, something that remains one of the great examinations of justice, the mob, and how, scary as it is to say, our own shadows follow us everywhere.



I was a bigger fan of the sequel to M called N. #BadJoke #IllSeeMyselfOut
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101 Favorite Movies (2019)



I liked M quite a bit. For its time it’s really damn good cinema. Good pick.


Here is something I wrote about it:
The ‘M’ is for a magnificent crime thriller way ahead of its time, succeeding in creating tension and terror through imagery and imagination as well as our own wrongful or rightful intentions when it comes to moral and lawful justice.

The ‘M’ is for masterful directing by Fritz Lang, elegantly moving the camera and our point of view straight into the darkest and most twisted places of the human mentality, proving that not only the story but also the approach and visualization is truly ahead of its time.

The ‘M’ is for many, many things when it comes to this 1931 crime thriller. I could say more but I know that I didn’t even get my hands around most of it. The film didn’t draw me completely
in from the start but it slowly tightened its grip until I was absolutely spellbound by the cinema on display - especially for a film that old. This seems like something straight out of the 40s or 50s at the least...

Definitely glad I finally saw this groundbreaking piece of cinema. ‘M’ for milestone, to be sure...





92. La Haine (1995)

A single gunshot lingers in the air. It's a culmination of the hate, the fear, the misunderstanding, the distrust, the lack of communication, the battles and the wars. It's all a climax. And once the climax has been reached, it starts all over again.

Part 1

In the early 1600s, African slaves on French-owned Caribbean islands were brought over to be with their masters in France. They were registered, but they could not freely marry or "free themselves". They were slaves, only they toiled in lavish palaces instead of sun-drenched fields.

Around the early 1800s, early movements began to free Afro-French slaves. By 1848, the law was passed. However, later in the century, France set its eye on taking control of African regions, and "colonizing" them. It was slavery of a different form.

By the 1900s, Afro French were widely populating France. They made up 40% of the French army during World War I, and afterwards, an overall growth in Black culture and arts. However, by 1961, things had begun to go downhill again. This was mostly due to fear and hatred of Afro-Arabs, specifically Algerians. Although another law was passed, by the 1980s Afro-French were being blamed for economic problems, and were called "immigrants" as a euphemism for "not wanted".


Part 2


The Jewish population have resided in France since the early CE centuries, possibly even before. They lived through the rise and fall of the Roman empire and the reign of Charlemagne.

From 987-1137 they were persecuted and hunted under the Capets. They were ordered from France in 1182, then allowed to return in 1198; then later again in 1306, told to leave, then allowed to return in 1315; then even later again, expelled in 1394. They were cast out again and again and again. They were told they were not wanted. They were told their faith was something to be ashamed of; and they were hunted for it.

It was only in the 1700s that the situation for Jews in France began to get slightly better. They were deemed "legal" (whatever that means) and allowed certain new job opportunities. Even through the reign of terror and the rule of Bonaparte - their situation stayed relatively good.

In 1803, a Frenchman named Alphonse Toussenel was born, who would later go on to pen and promote the brilliant phrase "antisemitism". They Dreyfuss Affair in particular showed how Anti-semitism indeed was still deeply rooted in Jewish society.

In the early to mid 1900s, France experienced a huge influx of Jews. Hmmm, why? Well, by 1940, Germany had taken over France anyways - the persecution, was, once again, very much prevalent. After World War II, systems were set up so Jewish people would never suffer the same tragedy and awful discrimination. Yet, event after event in the 60s, 70s, and 80s proved that it was far from over.


Part 3

It was around the 1500s that a giant influx of North African Muslims poured into France. There, discrimination was as prevalent as the Jews had. Throughout the years, their situation got "better" but there were still underlying prejudices and hatred.

By the 1960s and 70s Muslim immigration was high, and thus so was the Muslim work force. In 1976, the government allowed families of these immigrants to settle in France. Thus, new generations of "French Moroccans" and "French Tunisians" and so forth were created. People with a different heritage, a different childhood, a different experience. There was still racism, deep down.

Part 4

In 1984, SOS-Racisme, formed by Blacks, Jews, and Arabs, sought to change this build-up of hatred and injustice. It held petitions and rallies and sometimes riots that got out of control. It confronted police brutality and everyday racism.

Nothing was cured, and nothing will be cured for a while. But look back at the histories of the peoples I spoke of above. That is not a history "lesson", it is the story of cultures, indentities, injustices. With every new year comes a new tangle in the rope. We are slowly, painstakingly trying to untangle that rope right now. Who knows if it will ever be fully untangled. But it is important to learn, and to understand even when you couldn't possibly "understand". It's important to listen before you shoot, and then, listen closely. We CANNOT let injustices go by. We CANNOT hate with no reason. We must love.