Greatest movie tournament!!

I don't think even the people who voted for American Beauty think it's the 'greatest movie', if that makes you feel any better. I've voted for it a few times because it's come up against films I don't like, even though there have been plenty of films I prefer knocked out in earlier rounds. These tournaments are very much luck of the draw and hardly representative of the tastes of the forum as a whole. For that, look at the MoFo Top 100 where members actually had a chance to nominate the films - although even that didn't have a lot of people taking part.

Frankly, I don't understand how some of these classics have stood up high and mighty for years and years. Casablanca, Star Wars, 2001 and even The Godfather movies, Apocalypse Now and A Clockwork Orange bore me to some degree. I like Taxi Driver a lot, but I recently re-discovered this on Blu-ray, so maybe that's why. Blu-ray has certainly helped me enjoy older classics more because they just look so damn good. They're all good films, but I dont really understand why they're so damn important. When people geek out over Star Wars, I shake my head and just think they're re-experiencing good feelings they got from seeing the film as a kid in the 70's when maybe there wasn't much else to thrill them.

I'm going to watch Alien on Blu-ray later and I've never really been able to get into that film, but hopefully the high definition will help me enjoy it more.

American Beauty, in my opinion, is a very enjoyable movie. I know not everyone likes it -- I know people outside of here that don't -- but perhaps because it's 2011 or something, people are turning more towards newer films. Alan Ball is very popular. Perhaps he speaks for this generation. I don't know if it'll still be very popular twenty-fourty years from now, but it's pretty good that it's still popular today. I sort of had a period around 2000 where I watched American Beauty a lot, and then I grew tired of it and didn't watch it again all the way through until last year - on Blu-ray, of course - and I loved it more than ever.

I feel that movies should speak to you in some way, should resonate, should intertwine with you -- if films like American Beauty are doing that to people more than Star Wars or 2001, what's wrong with that? Times change. I look at the movies in my movie collection and realize that every movie has some kind of emotional connection with me - it reminds me of a certain time period or a way of thinking. It's like some kind of external, abstract memory bank. Maybe these older classics just aren't clicking with people. It is possible that someday they will, but, for now it is what it is. Maybe not many people have seen everything - I certainly haven't. I don't even always feel drawn to some things. Perhaps I should, but what if I'm not in the mood and it ruins the experience? Seriously, every movie I'm able to sit through is a miracle -- even the bad ones. I am so impatient and so picky about things. It doesn't make me better, that's just who I am. Watching a movie and staying through the whole thing when I don't like it is torture. Movies that are slow, talky or just simple and boring -- or maybe even old and not really in style -- drive me crazy. That's just how I see the world.

Hey Sexy! First off, I love you, but I think you know that. Uh Oh, Bad Start, right? Now I'm going to drop Thor's Hammer. Not really. I just am slightly bemused why you've come into this thread, again, to tell people that it's OK to like American Beauty and that somehow, just because of this thread, that "people" don't care about "older" (read: not "newer") movies much because it's 2011. You know how many people have even voted in this thread? Almost none.

Now, I agree with you that movies should interact with you. They should get into your heart, your soul, your guts and your psyche. Everybody is an individual and it takes different things to "interract" with different people. I just don't want anybody, and especially somebody I care about, implying that he's worried about me because when I "geek out over" Star Wars that I'm having some kinda wet dream flashback. Part of the allure to me about movies is that they're fun, and Star Wars will always be one of the most fun. Nothing in this thread has altered the fact that people of all ages and cultures still dig Star Wars and they always will. Several of the other films mentioned which bore you to some degree (isn't that actually EVERY film?) HAVE stood the test of time much longer, with broad spectra of movie watchers. Anyhow, that's about it.

I certainly hope that you enjoy Alien on Blu-Ray this time because it's way better than Videodrome, even if it doesn't have Debbie Harry. Keep up the good fight and experiment with your movie watching. Just try not to write off some of these old-fart classics because some of them will kick in. It's true that some of them won't. I know this because I think plenty are overrated, but for every one I feel is overrated, there's another one which is underappreciated and unknown. That's part of what makes movies so cool.

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Vertigo

Love you too, Mark F. Yes, I noticed not many people voted in this thread, but I also noticed that more people than I expected to voted in this thread.

While I don't hate Star Wars, for some reason, it's never really grabbed me. I used to feel like a "Star Wars" kind of person, but, if Star Wars didn't exist in the world, I would be perfectly fine with that. I know some people who are quite obsessed with it and I recently saw them go nuts on "Star Wars Day". I dunno, I don't care for those silly Star Wars critters. I like Vader -- that's about it. Han Solo is hot. I never saw Star Wars until I was in my early teens. That could explain it. I tried, ridiculously, to get into it, especially when Phantom Menace came out. I remember going to see that wearing a stupid, extremely loud, purple-ish Star Wars t-shirt that was a little too big. About fell asleep in the movie theatre.

I admit I am my own worst enemy. It could be that I have ADD or something. It's hard for me to focus sometimes on movies. My mind wanders. Someone could say something or something could happen and I'll miss it and get all screwed up. I often suspect it's the movie, though. I can focus if the movie is really, really good. But scenes that are just, like, people walking or going somewhere with music playing and nothing happening -- anything sort of requiring less attention -- those are killers to me. I'm always trying to pay so much attention to stuff. A computer will have a bunch of writing on it and I'll try to read the whole thing. It's hard for me to relax. I've gotta learn to relax with movies. I analyze things a lot - this is normal for me with anything. I hyperfocus and then I burn out in moments where the movie forces you to zone out.

I haven't written a review yet, but I honestly came away feeling like Alien was perhaps the best movie I have ever seen. I haven't actually seen it since - again - my early teens. That was on a VHS tape. And it bored me. I bought the trilogy because I had rented Aliens and loved it. I guess Alien was just too different from that for me. But viewing Alien now at 27 -- a little boring in the beginning, maybe, but once the ball got rolling, it was rolling -- Alien has finally surpassed Aliens as the best movie in the Alien franchise, to me.

Yup. Good fight? You make movie watching sound like cancer.

You know the funny part about all of this is, for me personally- American Beauty was the film that made me enjoy the classics more. The story is just amazing, the acting is fantastic, the directing and cinematography is beautiful. I understand that this isn't a film that would've been released in the 1920s or 1940s or somewhere around there. But once I saw this film, I finally felt like I was watching actual piece of art and not blow up in your face, look at how good my special effects are, cinema. I was watching a story unfold, I was invested in this family. From then on, I watched films for the characters, to be invested in it all, not to see how many things blow up in a matter of five seconds.

So while I probably would agree that some of the better films got bumped off too early- and American Beauty isn't the greatest film of all time, I personally love it and rank it so highly. If I went back and voted for what I believed were groundbreaking films and the most historic of all time- it might not have made it so far (although I wish it was and it is a personal historic film for me). The film was just an eye opener for me.

I'm not so sure that the cinematography for American Beauty is really all that beautiful to me. It's kind of plain and simple. It gives me a bored feeling, without actually being bored. It has that suburban hell feel to it visually, I think. There's a certain dullness to it all -- perhaps that's why it's not well liked by some people, for just one reason. I would say the best images are those in Lester's fantasies of Mena Suvari (odd thing for me to say, I know) with the rose petals, the bathtub, the dark and sexy cheerleader private dance. It also has the best pieces of music then.

Negative things to say about American Beauty... I can understand how sappy it might be. It is overly sentimental about silly things. It's quite fixated on death, but I like the intensity of it. Personally, this movie came out when I was in high school and it actually came out the year I started coming out of the closet as a gay person. I think I responded to its treatment of unusual characters. A friend told me I reminded him of Wes Bentley's character (Wes Bentley, by the way, was my fantasy lover then. How I wanted someone like that to stalk me and videotape me. At the same time, I was a young lad going through my early older man fantasies -- Kevin Spacey was hot to me then.) God, I sound so nuts, but that's the truth, that's how it was.

American Beauty might just annoy people with the crowd it attracts. I have seen people get pretty attached to this film and it almost looks silly. I also think Alan Ball got old and tired early -- Six Feet Under did nothing for me. I think he's also responsible for True Blood, though, which I do like, but look at that -- it's another thing people are oddly obsessed with. Have you seen True Blood fans? They worship it. They get all the books and talk all about it. I tried to read one of the books - didn't get far. But I still think it's all good stuff and I do think American Beauty is spectacular. It is kind of a peaceful, loving, 1960's hippie style experiment in the late 1990's. Note the usage of marijuana and going all crazy over plastic bags. Note the acceptance of people who are different. To me, American Beauty is the concluding chapter of the 20th century family. It showed us where we're at. Dad's horny, Dad got killed by the closeted homosexual military obsessed neighbor, Mom needs an affair, Daughter needs breast implants and a weirdo boy to take her away from her narcissistic parents, We are all the most beautiful things on the planet. Isn't that profound?

Also, I love that there's a gay couple in the film and that the gay couple has the same first name - Jim and Jim. When I saw American Beauty, I just knew I was gonna one day share the same fate -- guess what? I did. My ex partner of 5 years had the same first name as me. Did I make that happen? Yes and no. Yes because I had the thought that it was gonna happen, No because ultimately it had to work out between me and him. Of course, it didn't, but for awhile, I was trapped in my own version of American Beauty.

Are these the semi-final results?

The Godfather - 8 votes
Psycho - 3
　
American Beauty - 6 votes
Vertigo - 6

Old thread, but can I vote?

The Godfather and Vertigo.

American Beauty is very good, but has some awfully cliche' and overdone moments and characters in it, and the neighbor kid was absolute horrible both as a character and the way its acted. Chris Cooper as the father is a overdone stereotype that for 1999 wasn't even that profound. "Quantum Leap" played that episode years before.

Anyway...

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Apocalypse Now is brilliant. And of the holy three about Vietnam (Platoon and FMJ being the others) it's by far the best.

The use of "The End by the doors as the opening scene shows beautiful lush jungle being turned into an orange hell and the sounds of the choppers being disolved into the fan as Martin Sheen gazes boredly up at the ceiling. One of the most beautiful and amazing openers of a film - ever.

The objective is set up clearly. Kurtz is a rival that only Marlon Brando could fill the shoes of and it's good that we don't see him until the end as it makes Kurtz more enigmatic... It's a psychological tone poem. The sound, photography... it's film as a work of beauty. Like staring at a marvelous painting - the closest Coppolla has gotten to Terence Malick.

Never watch anything by what's his face that directed Solaris, Andrie Rublev, Stalker, and a few others that I've seen. Tarkovsky I think if memory serves. That's the ultimate experience in "getting through" a film. I have tons of patience and I'm not mature enough, old enough, or smart enough to "get" his movies. They've not resonated with me the way they have for many others. Also something about his style I dislike. I think it's the way he films geography if that makes sense. I mean geography in the sense that I know where this scenes fits into relative to the others.

As far as talky films go, do me a favor and watch anything by Howard Hawks for some great snappy dialogue... especially His Girl Friday.

Ancient post, but I'm gonna vote anyway.

The Godfather

Haven't seen American Beauty, so I can't vote for the other one. Too bad, cause Vertigo is my favorite movie and I already hate American Beauty for beating 2001.

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American Beauty is an amazing film, the character studies are awesome... psycho is a classic, essential for thriller and horror movies and i'm a big hitchcok fan, i love 2001 for the story and the pictures are mindblowing, all the films that have been listed apart from the lucas/spielberg stuff, which i don't really like that much, have been fantastic... but coming to a point... american beauty has more depth in its characters than any of the other movies have, so i do not understand at all why american beauty wouldn't be up there with the classics... it's a psychoanalysis of a man in a midlife crisis, a shy teenage girl, a "slutty" girl that is actually just insecure, a typical high school freak, a workaholic stuck up woman and a bitter homosexual ex-marine... it's fantastic... "M - Eine Stadt sucht einen moerder" is missing here, and rather than "vertigo" i would have chosen "rope" ... but yeah... shame that they didn't even finish the contest... of the 4 in the list i dont care who wins but all of them are worthy!

Psycho.

American Beauty.