The MoFo Top 100 of the 60s: Countdown

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The People's Republic of Clogher
Lawrence of Arabia was my #9.

The best Larry since Grayson and the best desert since Angel Delight.
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Master of My Domain
Some of the desert ultra wide shots in Lawrence of Arabia are mindblowing. By far the best Hollywood-epic.


'Nuff said.



I had Lawrence of Arabia at #18 on my list! Definitely a great and well-made film.

I wrote about it a long time ago in the 'Rate The Last Movie You Saw thread', here's what I thought:

Lawrence of Arabia (1962).

I must admit that lengthy running time has kept me away from this classic for way too long. I finally saw it and I must say it was great. A little bit let-down by the last 30-40 minutes or so, I expected something else and it didn't quite live up to the set-up. That said, it was a great experience, i was not bored at all, and it was especially extremely beautiful to look at in that glorious 70mm!




My #2 and #1 in the last two. Just adore both and I'm honestly a little surprised they're not top 5.

1. Lawrence of Arabia
2. The Apartment
3. Top 5
4.
5. Planet of the Apes
6. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
7. Charade
8. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
9. Peeping Tom
10. Through a Glass Darkly
11. Top 2
12.
13.
14. Oliver!
15. Top 2
16. Breakfast at Tiffany's
17. The Innocents
18. To Kill a Mockingbird
19. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
20. Top 5
21. The Jungle Book
22. Midnight Cowboy
23. Easy Rider
24. Persona
25. Breathless



This is what I voted for that will not make it-

#5 One-Eyed Jacks

My favorite Brando performance in one of my new favorite Westerns. The only movie Brando directed.



#17 War and Peace

It's so long, but very much worth it. Probably the most impressive movie I've seen.



#19 Cul-De-Sac

Early Polanski thriller is darkly hilarious.



#20 The Big City

Very well crafted Indian classic that gave me a nice look at that culture.



#21 Samurai Rebellion

I think with an 8.4 rating on IMDb, this is a movie comparable to the likes of Woman in the Dunes and Harakiri. The big difference is that it didn't find an audience here. From the director and star of Harakiri, and also the great Toshiro Mifune.




I expected Lawrence of Arabia to be top five too, but when you see the films above it, I don't think it's too surprising for this forum.

I actually think not as many people have seen it. It's average list ranking is 8th (which is the highest since The Umbrellas of Cherbourg), so if it appeared on say five more lists then that's 90 extra points. I think it's length puts people off, not completely, but in the way that other great films get prioritised first.

It was on my list, in the middle sections I think. And it is definitely one of my favourite epic films, probably my favourite English language one off the top of my head. I've only seen it once, and I thought it was last year, but Peter O'Toole died in December 2013, so it must have been then. I remember watching it, and then in the next week he passed away, which was quite upsetting.

A truly epic film, some of the desert shots in astonishing and make you appreciate how difficult it would have been to shoot scenes without making mistakes. I can't wait to watch it again, and would love to have the chance to see it on the big screen, I think that would be unbelievable.
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War and Peace was joint 102nd, sorry Cricket and Mark, and everyone else who voted for it.

One-Eyed Jacks I thought was very good but didn't make my list, I don't think enough people have seen it on here.





WOAH. Not even top five?!? For shame, MoFos. For shame. I knew it had enough detractors here not to nab the very top spot...but seven is kinda ridiculous. Whatevs. Lawrence of Arabia was my second place choice, and it forever stands as one of the towering achievements of cinema. If you've never seen it in the theater, especially a pretty 70mm print, well....then you haven't really lived.

MY LIST...
2. Lawrence of Arabia (#7)
5. Army of Shadows (#58)
6. The Wild Bunch (#15)
9. Z (#44)
11. High & Low (#23)
13. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (#21)
15. Rosemary’s Baby (#9)
17. Bonnie & Clyde (#45)
19. The Battle of Algiers (#69)
21. A Hard Day's Night (#53)
22. Cool Hand Luke (#12)
23. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (#29)
24. Midnight Cowboy (#10)


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Sorry if I'm rude but I'm right
102nd? I had War and Peace as #18.
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Lawrence of Arabia was #6 on my list.

My List:

3. A Hard Day’s Night (#53)
4. Persona (#11)
5. Playtime (#31)
6. Lawrence of Arabia (#7)
7. High and Low (#23)
8. The Apartment (#8)
9. Bonnie and Clyde (#45)
10. The Wild Bunch (#15)
13. Midnight Cowboy (#10)
14. Cool Hand Luke (#12)
15. Rosemary’s Baby (#9)
16. The Hustler (#26)
18. Peeping Tom (#33)
19. Woman in the Dunes (#19)
20. Night of the Living Dead (#20)
21. Andrei Rublev (#55)
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Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
The Apartment was my #15 and Lawrence of Arabia was my #5.

Somebody said that people don't talk about Lawrence of Arabia much, I wonder if that's just because there's not much to debate about it. It's just a great film. I remember watching it for the first time and noting that it didn't have any of the things that I thought I liked in a movie, but it was still just a great, great movie to watch, and that helped me to be more open minded about watching films from different genres and eras. (Also, David Lean isn't one of people's pet directors like Kubrick, even though he's great, and it's a shame but not a surprise that Dr. Zhivago didn't make the cut).

That makes 15 from my list.

1. A Taste of Honey (1961)
2.
3. Army of Shadows (1969)
4. The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964)
5. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
6. West Side Story (1961)
7. They Shoot Horses Don’t They? (1969)
8.
9.
10. Le Trou (1960)
11.
12. Le Samourai (1967)
13.
14. Blowup (1966)
15. The Apartment (1960)
16. Peeping Tom (1960)
17.
18.
19. The Innocents (1961)
20. To Kill A Mockingbird (1962)
21.
22. Cool Hand Luke (1967)
23.
24.
25. Night of the Living Dead (1968)


Only one more film from my list to come. Fingers crossed it makes #1, but I think 2001 will edge it out.



Lawrence of Arabia was my #2, I thought for sure it was a cinch for the #1 spot. If I knew it needed more voting help I would have made it my #1
I would have too honestly.

Lawrence of Arabia is a British film.
It's in the AFI 100, so I guess there's enough American involvement to qualify it as an American film.



Thursday Next's Avatar
I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
It's in the AFI 100, so I guess there's enough American involvement to qualify it as an American film.
It's in the BFI list too, so I guess it's six of one and half a dozen of the other



Lawrence was my #2. Fantastic film and part of my top ten, I don't have time to write much so I've just copied the blurb from my top 50. Same for The Apartment which was my #4.

In The Apartment Jack Lemmons character; Bud allows his bosses to use his appartment for the various affairs they are having at the expense of his reputation to his neighbours. While this movie is categorized as a comedy and it certainly has its funny moments. To me it's a very sweet drama with comedic elements to lighten the mood, as there are some things you wouldn't expect to be here in a comedy from the 60s. Another fantastic movie from one of my favourite directors Billy Wilder, as usual he compares an amazing script with stunning performances in a well shot movie. Once i delve further into my 60s watching, i think i'm going to look out for Jack Lemmon; because between this, Some Like it Hot and The Odd Couple he has to be one of the finest comedic actors of all time. Shirley Maclaine was also excellent as the love interest, as was Fred MacMurray as her lover and Lemmons boss. This was a perfect pick for the Hall of Fame imo

I was always intimidated of this film for a few reasons, firstly it's length it's certainly not the longest film i've watched but coupled with my other reasons it terrified me. Another was that the subject matter seemed incredibly boring to me, i was somewhat familiar with T.E.Lawrence before this because of my interest in WW1, and for me this was the least interesting part of the war. Add in it's enormous reputation and i felt it would fall into the same category as 2001, a film i have immense respect for yet it's never worked for me at the same level of others. Then i watched it . To my surprise and delight the running time flew in, and i bought it on Bluray shortly after, subjecting myself to 2 more phenomenal viewings that month, and once since. To me Peter O'Toole produced the finest performance ever captured on filmm, i'm not really good at explaining why a performance worked so well for me, but let's just say it started off on a bad note for me from the first time he spoke i felt it would be somewhat one dimensional but as the film progressed it morphed into something much more. The Cinematography is out of this world, for some the Desert Landscape may be a bit samey but to me it was stunning, especially on a large TV in HD (or the cinema of course), actually i obviously prefer the 8 above this but this is the one i'd like to see in the Cinema the most.

2.Lawrence of Arabia
3.8 1/2
4.The Apartment
5.Le Samurai
6.Army of Shadows
7.Harakiri
9.The Wild Bunch
10.To Kill A Mockingbird
11.For A Few Dollars More
15.Rosemary's Baby
16.Midnight Cowboy
18.Playtime
19.Yojimbo
21.Whatever Happened To Baby Jane?
22.Judgement At Nuremberg
24.Easy Rider
25.From Russia With Love



I had Lawrence of Arabia at #23. I've only seen it once or twice and both were a very long time ago. Along with Halloween and Jaws, this is the film I most wish to see on the big screen.
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prefer Lawrence of Arabia to the remaining films on this countdown, save one, although i do struggle to fit our 60's #7 into a list with other films. Which may be more an indictment of the other films rather than of Lawrence of Arabia, in a way. A film i put #20 on my most recent Top 50 Cocktail Party about a year ago... between films such as Black Christmas (1974) and Halloween (1978). And it felt sort of out of place, even then.

story of the real man, TE Lawrence, a British archaeologist, military officer, and diplomat in the Middle East during World War 1... handled well by the layered performance of Peter O'Toole. I figure this is where Steven Spielberg got inspiration to condense this desert-atmosphere into his more adventure-accessible Indiana Jones flicks. Lawrence of Arabia actually feels like history, both bc of its length and scope. And i *love* history. There's never been a better cast - Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn, Omar Sharif, & Claude Rains join O'Toole set against the vast desert vistas.
while many drool over the lit match-dissolving-into-sunset transition, i go for Sherif Ali arriving at the well



shooting Lawrence's guide, leading to~
Sherif Ali, so long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people, a silly people, greedy, barbarous, and cruel, as you are
Lawrence goes on to unite the Arabs against the Turks. This dwarfs other films thematically, to the point where i think about how much the compelling nature of *real* human history annihilates most films. The sands of time in the Arabian desert, Auda's night fires of conquest, I wouldn't mind seeing a 'history' tab of this forum. I didn't have it in my Top 25 here, but in a way it also could have been #1. just didn't fit my 60's i wanted to channel here




Here's my list so far:

2. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966, Mike Nichols)
3. The Innocents (1961, Jack Clayton)
5. Elmer Gantry (1960, Richard Brooks)
8. Midnight Cowboy (1969, John Schlesinger)
9. The Manchurian Candidate (1962, John Frankenheimer)
14. Rosemary’s Baby (1968, Roman Polanski)
15. Z (1969, Costa-Gavras)
16. A Hard Day’s Night (1964, Richard Lester)
17. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969, George Roy Hill)
19. Planet of the Apes (1968, Franklin J. Schaffner)
20. Mary Poppins (1964, Robert Stevenson)
21. My Fair Lady (1964, George Cukor)
22. West Side Story (1961, Robert Wise & Jerome Robbins)
23. Easy Rider (1969, Dennis Hopper)

Since it's been revealed that War and Peace was at 102, I can say that I had it at #6. I think it's better than all the movies that have thus far been revealed as part of the top 10, as well as almost all yet to come (I only had one film that will make the top 10 above it). Damn fine filmmaking.

I still have 4 or so yet to come (I'm too lazy to figure out the exact number).
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