The MoFo Top 100 of the 1970s: Countdown
→ in Movie Reviews
Days of Heaven was, unsurprisingly, my number 1, and I hope that Stalker reaches the top 10, but hah!
X
Favorite Movies
I've said it before, I hate woody allen. Days of Heaven was 7 on my list. Beautiful film. I just love the cinematography in it.
X
Favorite Movies
X
User Lists
None of the films you talk about are obscure SC, maybe to you but not to the forum as a whole which is why they turn up so high.
X
User Lists
I enjoy a bunch of them. I basically grew up on them. It is the only definition for the word movie my dad is aware of I think. I have never finished one and thought, boy was that smart. They feel like the blockbusters of that generation to me.
Let's also not forget how revolutionizing and influential the style of those films are. Noone made films quite like that (The editing still feels fresh 50 years later).
Leone's Spaghetti Westerns feel real. They're set in real landscapes. The characters feel genuine and very much non-artificial. The stories are grand and epic in scale and the emotions, the feelings that we explore along the way, are pure.
I don't feel that kind of pure cinematic passion when I'm watching modern superhero films at all. They're much more calculated. It feels like they're merely made to earn cash. They're all part of a big, corporate machine. They don't offer anything real, anything personal.
I have a better feeling with Guardians of the Galaxy for some kind of reason, even though I haven't seen it yet. I think it's because it's made by a guy who is genuinely in love with comic books and the movies that are spawn from it. Tim Burton also kind of gave me that feeling with his first two Batman films.
But most importantly:
Leone's Spaghetti Western actually know what "cool" really means. I can't imagine that they'll ever be considered uncool. They're timeless classics.
"Cool" is not some guy who's filthy rich and who makes himself some weird suit to fight crime or an origin story about a boy that somehow has or gets superpowers that make him practically invincible.
THIS is what "cool" filmmaking is all about:
There's a reason why this scene has become immortal. It's unique, it's creative, it's full of bold passion. It's not a scene from a regular blockbuster. It's one of the most memorable scenes of all time and you can feel it in every frame!
__________________
Cobpyth's Movie Log ~ 2019
Cobpyth's Movie Log ~ 2019
Last edited by Cobpyth; 08-20-14 at 10:20 PM.
X
Favorite Movies
X
User Lists
It isn't just about how obscure they are. It's also about how obscure and CRAPPY I think they are. Like that Funny Games (the original) I gave a try. The fact that it made the '90s list over so many other great '90s movies is downright obscene. This forum ought to be barricaded from the world for putting that on the list.
X
Favorite Movies
How many movies have you seen from this list so far SC, and which ones would you say are crappy?
My biggest frustration with this list is that Coffy didn't make it, but it almost did. If that had made the list, this list would be really great. It's not bad, though. It has Rocky II. It has some from my list and more to come.
I'm more pissed off about the fact that Pumping Iron wasn't a 1 pointer movie, and that's all Yoda's fault, I think. I told him not to vote for it because there was no point to -- probably nobody else voted for it, it would have been a recognized 1 pointer movie from me, but now it's nothing because he probably arrogantly voted for it.
X
User Lists
I'm just going to talk about Leone's films here, because you particularly focused on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, but his spaghetti western movies are what I would call "atmospheric heaven". They're epic, timeless adventures with legendary music themes and you can just feel that they're made by a master of the craft. You can inhale the passion for cinema.
Let's also not forget how revolutionizing and influential the style of those films are. Noone made films quite like that.
Leone's Spaghetti Westerns feel real. They're set in real landscapes. The characters feel genuine and very much non-artificial. The stories are grand and epic in scale and the emotions, the feelings that we explore along the way, are pure.
Leone's Spaghetti Western actually know what "cool" really means. I can't imagine that they'll ever be considered uncool. They're timeless classics.
"Cool" is not some guy who's filthy rich and who makes himself some weird suit to fight crime or an origin story about a boy that somehow has or gets superpowers that make him practically invincible.
There's a reason why this scene has become immortal. It's unique, it's creative, it's full of bold passion. It's not a scene from a regular blockbuster. It's one of the most memorable scenes of all time and you can feel it in every frame!
Let's also not forget how revolutionizing and influential the style of those films are. Noone made films quite like that.
Leone's Spaghetti Westerns feel real. They're set in real landscapes. The characters feel genuine and very much non-artificial. The stories are grand and epic in scale and the emotions, the feelings that we explore along the way, are pure.
Leone's Spaghetti Western actually know what "cool" really means. I can't imagine that they'll ever be considered uncool. They're timeless classics.
"Cool" is not some guy who's filthy rich and who makes himself some weird suit to fight crime or an origin story about a boy that somehow has or gets superpowers that make him practically invincible.
There's a reason why this scene has become immortal. It's unique, it's creative, it's full of bold passion. It's not a scene from a regular blockbuster. It's one of the most memorable scenes of all time and you can feel it in every frame!
If I listed all the comic book movies and all the spaghetti westerns I have seen and then ranked them it would probably be a pretty mixed list. Top heavy on both sides with a lot of mediocre stuff mixed in.
Also...the ending of The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly is tremendous, probably one of my favorite ever.
__________________
Letterboxd
Letterboxd
X
Favorite Movies
My biggest frustration with this list is that Coffy didn't make it, but it almost did. If that had made the list, this list would be really great. It's not bad, though. It has Rocky II. It has some from my list and more to come.
X
Favorite Movies
Been away for three days, but I was happy to come back and see BLAZING SADDLES show up on this countdown. I was its #2 placement.
I saw BLAZING SADDLES in the drive-in back in 1974, with my parents in the front seat of our station wagon. They'd settled my brother and me (we were 11 and 13 at the time) in the back, with the seats folded down, of course, with our sleeping bags in case we couldn't stay awake (I think they were hoping/assuming we'd conk out early), and with the big family cooler bumped right up against their seats so any of the four of us could reach a can of soda inside. We had snacks, of course too.
My only two memories of the first time I saw this movie are:
-- Me NEEDING to know who that guy was playing the gunslinger, the Waco Kid. Those blue eyes! That hair! Oh my gosh, he was perfection and I had a huge crush on him the second he showed up (upside down).
-- My mom in the front passenger seat, her feet up on the dashboard, knees bent, laughing SO HARD she was gasping for breath, tears streaming from her eyes. It was kinda surreal, really -- all that strange combination of ambiance when I was 13. It's even weirder to think now that my mom was only 35 at the time -- five years older than our Yoda.
BLAZING SADDLES is still one of her all-time favorite movies, and certainly her favorite comedy.
And what you have to "get" about BLAZING SADDLES is just how well it parodied some of the classic westerns it is sending up. Watch one of the ones by which it was influenced and THEN go back and rewatch BLAZING SADDLES. The parallels make it all the more special... at least to me, who had no clue at age 13 just what was funny about most of the jokes in that movie. (And to our parents' chagrin, we stayed awake for the whole thing.)
I saw BLAZING SADDLES in the drive-in back in 1974, with my parents in the front seat of our station wagon. They'd settled my brother and me (we were 11 and 13 at the time) in the back, with the seats folded down, of course, with our sleeping bags in case we couldn't stay awake (I think they were hoping/assuming we'd conk out early), and with the big family cooler bumped right up against their seats so any of the four of us could reach a can of soda inside. We had snacks, of course too.
My only two memories of the first time I saw this movie are:
-- Me NEEDING to know who that guy was playing the gunslinger, the Waco Kid. Those blue eyes! That hair! Oh my gosh, he was perfection and I had a huge crush on him the second he showed up (upside down).
-- My mom in the front passenger seat, her feet up on the dashboard, knees bent, laughing SO HARD she was gasping for breath, tears streaming from her eyes. It was kinda surreal, really -- all that strange combination of ambiance when I was 13. It's even weirder to think now that my mom was only 35 at the time -- five years older than our Yoda.
BLAZING SADDLES is still one of her all-time favorite movies, and certainly her favorite comedy.
And what you have to "get" about BLAZING SADDLES is just how well it parodied some of the classic westerns it is sending up. Watch one of the ones by which it was influenced and THEN go back and rewatch BLAZING SADDLES. The parallels make it all the more special... at least to me, who had no clue at age 13 just what was funny about most of the jokes in that movie. (And to our parents' chagrin, we stayed awake for the whole thing.)
X
Favorite Movies
X
User Lists
Glad you're a fan of Days of Heaven Bluedeed! Almost forgot that it was in your top 10.
__________________
Mubi
Mubi
X
Favorite Movies
Let's try to get Holden to post the next two movies at midnight. We need to create a bar atmosphere in case Holden doesn't go to the bars tonight (although, you all know he's gonna be there).
Here:
The Pretend You're Bar Hopping MoFo Bar
will be the unofficial second name of this thread from now on.
Everybody gather around here at midnight with your beers and make Holden feel like you're in the bar with him. Try to get him to post the next two '70s movies while you pretend to be bar hopping with him. Go on now. Get your pretend beer. Or a real one if you're an alcoholic like Rodent and Sci-Fi Slob and who knows - maybe Holden, too. Maybe he's our American Rodent with him going to these bars all the time.
Here:
The Pretend You're Bar Hopping MoFo Bar
will be the unofficial second name of this thread from now on.
Everybody gather around here at midnight with your beers and make Holden feel like you're in the bar with him. Try to get him to post the next two '70s movies while you pretend to be bar hopping with him. Go on now. Get your pretend beer. Or a real one if you're an alcoholic like Rodent and Sci-Fi Slob and who knows - maybe Holden, too. Maybe he's our American Rodent with him going to these bars all the time.
X
User Lists
I don't know Cob. As usual you know what you love and state your position articulately. However the typical spaghetti western protagonist has a mystical feel to him. They feel very invincible to me. The "cool" you are talking about is exactly why. I never feel like they are going to lose a gunfight or not get their man. The origin story is certainly something we don't usually get but that just adds to the mysticism, they seem other worldly.
It's that mystical aspect that actually makes the western heroes so much more awesome than almost all movie superheroes, though. In modern blockbusters every comic book character needs to be fully established. It's the opposite of fun and it takes away from the interestingness of the character (especially if the same origin story is being done over and over again).
The tone set in these movies is probably your strongest point but is that because it feels unique against today's films? Did they feel so fresh and epic forty years ago?
The quips may not come as hot and heavy in these films either, but they were there. I am not even saying I completely disagree with your point on a case by case basis. I am just not sure they are as different as you think either.
Maybe it could happen if they'd get more out of the potential of the genre. I'm sure it's possible to write another kind of story than the typical "saving the city/world from a random villain" kind of stuff with some cliché character issues or heavy, moral statements about violence or heroism woven into it. Superhero movies should be more distinguishable from eachother. Otherwise not a single one of them will ever be truly remembered as a fantastic, timeless epic (like certain Spaghetti Westerns) in the future.
Again, I guess Guardians of the Galaxy might be a step in the right direction (from what I've heard about it so far), but I can't confirm that yet...
If I listed all the comic book movies and all the spaghetti westerns I have seen and then ranked them it would probably be a pretty mixed list. Top heavy on both sides with a lot of mediocre stuff mixed in.
Also...the ending of The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly is tremendous, probably one of my favorite ever.
X
Favorite Movies
X