Cinemaafficionado's 300 Most Memorable Movies

36. Dances With Wolves

The ways of the Native American Indian tribes have often been misrepresented in movies. Not in this movie. Kevin Costner directs himself and others in this superbly shot movie about a Union soldier who befriends the Sioux Indian tribe. The characters: Stands With A Fist, Kicking Bird, Wind In His Hair, Smiles A Lot are marvelous and teach us a thing or two about American Indian culture.
Actually Stands With A Fist is a white woman brought up by the Sioux. She falls in love with Liutenant Dunbar (Costner), whom the Sioux name Dances With Wolwes, and she gets him to shed the white man's ways, although, to his credit, he personaly never exibited the staple cruelty towards Indians.
The cinematography is spectacular and makes us fall in love with nature, shown in all it's spleandor.
This movie is a tribiute to the beauty of the human spirit and shows us that true friendship can exist irregardless of culture or race.
In 1991, this movie was nominated for 12 Oscars, out of which it won 7,
including Best Picture, Best Director ( Kevin Costner ), Best Cinematography ( Dean Semler ) and Best Adapted Screenplay ( Michael Blake ).

37. On The Waterfront

Ok, so I was trying not to be overly biased so I avoided mentioning this movie up to now, but Stela forgive me, I just couldn't hold my breath any more. The Man's finest performance and the one that launched him as a super star. " I could have been a contender " still resonates with all those who perhaps missed a shot at greatness.
Director Elia Kazan does a wonderfully inspirational job directing everyman Terry Malloy ( Brando ), who with his can do attitude goes on to timelessly inspire others. A great supporting cast: Eva Marie Saint, Rod Steiger, Karl Malden, Lee J. Cobb all relevantly contribiute to this great movie.
In 1955, On The Waterfront was nominated for 12 Oscars, out of which it garnered 8, including Best Picture, Best Director ( Elia Kazan ), Best Actor ( Marlon Brando ), Best Supporting Actress ( Eva Marie Saint ), Best Cinematography( Black And White - Boris Kaufman ) and Best Writing, Story And Screenplay ( Budd Schulberg ).

This movie sounds a lot like Crash, have you seen that?

Sure, I've seen Crash. This is nothing like it. Remember, the dogs are key to the plots in Amores Perros and the pace of the movie is frantic, somewhat like Irreversible, but less garbled.

Is it on netflix at all? I might as well go look because it sounds like a good movie.

Very different films, and far superior to the overrated Crash.

Is it dubbed or subbed?

38. Incendies

A great example of why Americans should watch more foreign movies.
A very intricate and unbelievable story about the Middle East and the ties that bind a brother and a sister in search of their biological father.
Visualy, a stunning movie that keeps one riveted, as the story unfolds.
This movie was directed by Denis Villeneuve and in 2011 was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars.

Subtitled I hope! no other way to see films for a film fan.

I'm sure you can get either version though, as Nausicaa indicated, I don't know why you'd choose one of those options if both are available.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

39. The Reader

In post WWII Germany, a Jewish boy falls in love with a German woman twice his age. Their physical relationship intensifies as he start reading various books to her and then she saddenly vanishes, leaving him heart-broken. Some ten years later, as a law student, the now grown up boy, attends a war crimes tribunal, only to discover that his vanished lover is a former concentration camp guard now being tried for war crimes.
Her co-defendents all plead not guilty but she pleads guilty so they turn on her and accuse her of being their leader and writing an order that led to the deaths of thousands in a fire during prisoner transport.
The thing is that she could not have written that order, as she can neither read nor write. No one comes to her defense and she gets the harshest sentence, twenty years to life.
Even her fomer lover, the law student, says nothing but out of a sense of guilt, starts sending her reading tapes, once a week, for twenty years.
He becomes her reason for living but on the date of her release, when for the first time he visits her, he demonstrates a cruel indifference that results in her taking her own life.
I don't know why, but this movie impacted me for reasons I can't quite comprehend.
In spite of Kate Winslets superb performance, there were inconsistencies in the story line that bothered me and stuck with me.
For me, there would be only two choices, if I was the law student. Either testify on her behalf and make the court aware that she can't read and hence can not be the main perpetrator of the crime or just forget about her completely.
But what does he do? He sends her a thousand tapes for twenty years and then treats her like **** as she is about to be released, thus causing her to kill herself.
I didn't read the book, so I don't know if in a twisted way the law student became the German people who did nothing as the Jews got slaughtered.
There is also irony in the fact that the law student sends her reading tapes and she learns to read and write, the very things thet erroneously lead to her conviction.
This movie undoubtedly raised a few questions and was food for thought,
having been nominated for 5 Oscars in 2009 ( Best Picture, Best Directing, Best Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress ) and winning Best Supporting Actress - Kate Winslet.

40. Million Dollar Baby

A De Neroesqe performance by Hillary Swank triaged by Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman propels this movie over the top.
Brilliantly directed by Eastwood, it is a brutal shadow play left to movie goers to fill in the gaps.
Maggie Fizgerald ( Swank ) is a female Rocky and her grit and determination rival his. Once again Hillary Swank demonstrates her chameleon ability to fully transform herself into another being.
In 2005, this movie was nominated for 7 Oscars and garnered 4: Best Picture, Best Director - Clint Eastwood, Best Actress - Hillary Swank and Best Supporting Actor - Morgan Freeman.

This was a damn good film. The ending is bittersweet, but the rest of the film was fantastic all around. Eastwood was good in his role, but Swank and Freeman definitely stole the show.

Great to see MDB get some positive rep. Watch out for Honeykid response though

The main problem I have with many of Clint Eastwood's films (even some of his best like Million-Dollar Baby and Unforgiven) is that they're oftentimes needlessly depressing. I realize he wants to evoke emotion with his morality-based stories, but you don't need a gray filter, overtly depressing subject matter, and Eastwood always playing the mean grouch with a heart of gold. His films are excellent, don't get me wrong, but he needs to lower the depression factor a bit.

Depression is life's sad presence. Why ignore it?

I'm not saying get rid of it, but there is such a thing as too much of it, know what I mean?

Swank had the best female performance I've ever seen in that movie

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Sure. I know what you mean but I don't think Clint is necessarily about depression. For him, it's just another of life's working elements that he can incorporate into a movie. When it comes down to it, what are females all about? Security. And males? Power. Everything else is just window dressing.

A Perfect World was the best Clint Eastwood film. Unforgiven was also stunning. I couldnt care about the rest of his films.