The MoFo Top 100 Neo-noir Countdown

I like both of these action films from the seventies. Not my favourites but 3/5 each which is good in my ranking system. Another appropriate pairing from this countdown. We've had a few that just seem to work being revealed together.

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Watched Dirty Harry of course. Isn't that a movie that just about every movie buff has seen? Driver is another film that I should have watched given all the times I've run across it, but never have. Neither was on my ballot.

10 of 22

Walter Hill's The Driver, was my #17. This means Drive (2011) ends up higher which is also an excellent choice. I just feel the seventies version is more authentic and even cooler. Plus I'm a big fan of Isabelle Adjani.
Blue Ruin has been on my watchlist for a while, still haven't seen it, yet. Wasn't sure Dirty Harry was eligible otherwise I might have voted for it and I have to agree Tightrope is probably the most Noirish Clint Eastwood flick.

SEEN 20/22
BALLOT 4/25

25. Mirage (1965)
22. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
17. The Driver (1978)
08. The Hot Spot (1990)

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I love the idea of deconstructing genres and archetypes, but to me it always felt like Walter Hill had no ideas past that for The Driver. Which makes for a very flat exercise, to my taste. Especially after how much charm, wit, and fun there was in his Hard Times. The Driver does have an all-time great '70s movie poster, I will give it that!

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

I had The Driver at #15, the first on my ballot to show.

Love Dirty Harry obviously, but I would not consider it for this countdown.

I watched The Driver for the countdown and it ended up on my list at #17. I'm not sure it has much to say but it looks good.

Hey cricket, I wonder if you submitted a full ballot of 25?

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"Population don't imitate art, population imitate bad television." W.A.
"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." M.T.

Always

I like Dirty Harry quite a bit, but it didn't make my ballot.

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Nope and nope.

AWARDS?


The Driver didn't win any awards, while Dirty Harry only received the following nominations and awards:

• Edgar Allan Poe Award nomination for Best Motion Picture (1972)
• Two (2) Saturn Award nominations for Best DVD Collection (2011)
• National Film Preservation Board induction in the National Film Registry (2012)
• Online Film & Television Association induction into OFTA Film Hall of Fame (2019)

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Sadly, Nope wasn't eligible for this countdown.

WACKA-WACKA!!!

80. Dirty Harry - I've seen all of the Dirty Harry movies (I have a really good boxed set) and concur with anyone who says the first one was the best of all of them. I'm much more cognizant these days of the fact that this was pretty close to being a true story, based on the Zodiac Killer who terrified the citizens of San Francisco just a couple of years prior to this movie being made. The killer in Dirty Harry sends notes after killing at random, and threatens a school bus full of children - just like the real-life Zodiac killer did. Clint Eastwood really took the role of Inspector Harry Callahan by the scruff of the neck - nobody could have done the job he did, with his growling, gravelly voice, anti-establishment attitude and roughness when it came to "punks". For conservatives the very image of law and order - no-nonsense and shoot first. He carries a weapon perfectly suited to killing - and it's size pretty much makes it a phallic symbol of potent old fashioned manhood. His 'Do I feel lucky?' speech has become part of film folklore. I like too many other films more than Dirty Harry to have voted for it, but it is a classic, and a great movie.

79. The Driver - I've yet to see this film, but it's been in my watchlist for a while.

Seen : 12/22
Never heard of : 3/22
Heard of but not seen : 7/22

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I've seen Dirty Harry, and I liked it, but I didn't consider it for this list. It's interesting that it got so many points while being in only 3 lists. The people who chose it, obviously ranked it highly.

Seen: 9/22
My List:

3. Brick

no votes. the driver rules and could've made my ballot (or at least a longer version) just for being such a perfectly stripped-down thriller concept as reflected in its nameless characters and ruthlessly perfunctory actions. dirty harry is a film that i have to respect even if it is on some level fundamentally disagreeable (a sentiment that i feel the film is at least aware of in terms of certain pieces of characterisation it grants to callahan - him admitting he doesn't know why he stays on the force to his recently-wounded partner's wife is a key example of this) so it proves a fascinatingly contradictory text, which makes sense for an artist like eastwood.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

That is the problem with many older movies, especially ones about renegade cops. They try to justify their extreme measures by pitting them against the absolute worst villains, but in real life for every 1 cop that skirts the rules for good reasons, there's about 100 that do it to quickly secure more convictions, by denying suspects their legal rights.

I know this isn't a political forum, but there are a LOT of older movies that are now extremely problematic, and it's often difficult to watch or judge them without taking it into consideration.


This will come up again when we reach my number one pick, which admittedly has a very problematic scene.

If you were a police officer, you still wouldn't have the ability to accurately gauge this.

But for arguments sake, let's say it's true-

Then why would the movie be problematic? I think a gritty crime film is better when it's realistic. If your response would be, well, Callahan shouldn't be looked at as some kind of hero, besides the obvious response of it's just an R rated film and adults know the difference between right and wrong bla bla bla, I would say that flawed people and even horrible people can sometimes do the right thing and even act heroically. Just about anything can be problematic to somebody so I don't even think it's worth mentioning. I'm always surprised when something like this comes up here.

Working today so my reveals might or might not take a while. We'll see.