The 10th Mofo Movie Hall of Fame

It was more the tone and style than it just being a road movie, the comedy-drama, the way the characters fit together, the focus on characters rather than visuals. It reminded me a little bit of The Descendants we had in the last hall of fame. But it was just a point of reference.

I do agree with seanc that some of it came across as contrived, but I had supposed that was for deliberate comic effect.

speciesism [spee-shee-ziz-uh m, -see-ziz-]

noun 1. discrimination in favor of one species, usually the human species, over another species.


Towards the end of the film, Princess Leia bestows special medals to Hans Solo and Luke Skywalker for their bravery. But what about poor Chewebacca? He's brave, but doesn't get a medal. He's the co-pilot of the Millennium Falcon and he participated in the heroic adventures...yet poor Chewy gets no medal at all....And see his face? He has his feelings hurt too

Is this speciest? Thoughts?

Leia didn't get a medal either. Maybe Wookies hate gold, it may turn their neck green.

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Maybe only the person who pilots the ship gets the medal? The droids didn't get medals either.

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If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.

Droids are property.

This is getting out of hand.

In a really weird way. I love it.

It's just for fun (and hoping to get a little conversation going in here) , I really enjoyed The Empire Strikes Back. I have Return of the Jedi to watch this weekend.

But indeed, Star Wars is specist. It's also rather racist, nazistic as hell and topped with a bit of incest.

Great family fun!

If you want to think that way, then Chewbacca is only an employee, so he doesn't get a medal.

But droids are property, their bought and sold. Chewy got ripped!

East of Eden SPOILERS

I was waiting to send in my list for the fifties countdown until after I had watched this. And I'm very glad I did. This was truly a phenomenal movie. Steinbecks novel was brought to life by Kazan in the same way that his Grapes of Wrath was brought to life by John Ford. James Dean gives a hell of a performance. It is too bad he was only able to be in three feature films during his lifetime. The emotions from him seem very real. I liked seeing his relationship with Abra grow. I loved the tension of many of the scenes with his brother. And that ending scene was just a flat out tearjerker. Seeing Dean with his Dad in that condition by his side and asking for his love was very emotional to me. The film also looked great. The scenes at the fair were candidly shot and made you feel as if you were right there with them. I also have to second Sean's opinion on that shot of Dean on the swing near the end of the film. That was truly sensational. Perhaps the most important part of the film was its storytelling, which Kazan did a magnificent job of. In addition to Dean the rest of the actors were excellent as well. This is easily a new favorite of mine and just makes me an even bigger fan of Kazan. Excellent nomination by Citizen Rules!

Raul I'm glad to hear you really liked East of Eden. If only one person makes a connection to a film that I love, then the Hof was a success for me.

I nominate East of Eden because I wanted you guys to see the kind of films that I cherish. Elia Kazan is my favorite director. Like Raul said, he knows how to tell a story and make it so humanistic. And I think James Dean was an excellent actor...and he never gets talked about here at MoFo. IMO East of Eden is Dean's best film and his best performance too. He is equally amazing in Rebel Without a Cause and Giant....And that's it, that's all the films we got from him, three movies.

I'm going to watch East of Eden tonight.

On the topic of Chewbacca and the medal: It was explained in other media, I think a novel, that Wookies don't place any value in "tangible awards" such as medals. But, at the request of Han Solo, Chewbacca was awarded a medal in private after the feast. That all was canon, but obviously you'd have to be deep into Star Wars to know any of this. Or google it like I did.

Thanks JJ, Interesting! I wouldn't have not known that. I feel better for Chewy....and I still say Droids are not people (though they might have a person inside them)

Droids are not people, but C3P0 and R2-D2 display more humanity than any of the other characters in the whole Star Wars universe.

I'm not real familiar with the Star Wars films. I've only seen the first 4 that were made. Maybe Sean, GBG or Vamp can chime in on that

That's the ending to Star Wars, not The Empire Strikes Back.

Ha, can't believe that never even occurred to me after he posted the question. I'm so detail oriented.

The Lucky Ones

This was my nomination and as I said previously nominating it was against the normal type of things I would nominate. It isn't technically a great piece of filmmaking and it certainly has flaws but it is a movie that I made a huge connection to with its characters. None of the characters resemble who I am but I often could sympathize with their situations. Colee is the type of character that seems not to know where her next move in life may be. I can often feel this way. The thing I like about her character is her adventurous spirit and her bend but don't break attitude. I thought that Rachel McAdams performance was one of the best I've seen from an actress in the past 15 years. I was touched when she arrived at Randy's families house and found out that her plans didn't work out the way she saw them. She is a very genuine person who has just got lost on the ropes of life. I absolutely loved this character because I see in life how people can cast a shadow on good people such as Colee. I've been in situations such as Colee's myself where you feel as if you are alone. But it's in those minutes that you find yourself and make the most of your life. I love how she decides to see her Mom and patch things up at the end of the film. And I love how she uses the guitar to better her life (or so I am led to believe, even though at the end she says she didn't sell it, I still think it happens down the road).

Tim Robbins character goes through a lot, including an immediate divorce request upon his arrival home. He becomes a broken man but realizes that there is still important things in his life such as his son Scott. So he goes on a crazy adventure to Vegas to attempt to win money for his son to go to Stanford. He realizes the consequences attached to such a decision and changes his mind to find an alternative way of helping his son out.

And then there is Michael Pena's character, a character who on the front side is confident and stubborn, but realizes his life may not be going the way he had intended it to either.

I like the comparison to The Best Years of Our Lives as far as the characters go. The story is obviously different but there are parallels to the characters. Which is unintentional since Berger has never seen that movie.

I understand that there are a lot of quirky scenes that I lot of people find as problems in this film, but it is a film full of adventure and finding yourself in the moments where hope can be close to lost. It is heartwarming and funny all at the same time. I feel like I've been in situations like this so that's why I connect so much to this movie.

See told ya, I wasn't familiar with Star Wars. So I better change the title....well do!