The Salvare Film and Acting Rankings!
1. Once Upon a Time in the West
2. Schindler's List
3. The Fountain
4. Lawrence of Arabia
5. Star Wars (sentimentally Episode III, but favorite is VI)
The Matrix
It's a Wonderful Life
Jean de Florette / Manon of the Spring
Life is Beautiful
Adaptation
Batman Begins
Cinema Paradiso
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
The Mission
Indiana Jones (all three, and hopefully #4)
Casablanca
Atonement
The Royal Tenenbaums
Hitchcock's obligatory top three (in no order): Rope, Rear Window, and Psycho (and honorable mention to North by Northwest)
GOSH, I don't know how to rank these last five. Hmm. Process of elimination, I suppose?
The Matrix is an awesome action movie and incredibly well-made with really interesting philosophical perspectives and culturally iconic action scenes that are probably the most stylistic and exciting in cinematic history. But Top 10 of all time? Hmm...maybe. I'll keep it in mind.
Same with It's a Wonderful Life. Jimmy Stewart's most memorable performance (although I might say his best is in Rope, which is in itself a great film). Beautiful story filled with happy tears at the end. Let's make it number 7.
6. Jean de Florette / Manon of the Spring
Okay, I'm pretty sure Jean de Florette is in there, so let's make that number 6. Extremely watchable for a four-hour story seemingly about land rights and water supplies. Haunting ending that twists everything you saw for the previous three-and-a-half hours on its head and gives you an even deeper understanding of the tragedy of the whole story. I can't begin to talk about the wonders of this film.
Life is Beautiful is of course gorgeous and sob-worthy both for the beauty and the tragedy of the story. Nothing else to sum it up. I just wish it meant something more to me. Top 20 or so, not top 10.
Adaptation has the cleverest, most ironic and original script I've ever seen played out in a movie. And Nicolas Cage convinces me of his greatness by playing two twins that are completely different from each other but interact with a strange, familial tenderness....but although the writing and acting are incredible, it's not overall top ten material, at least when compared to the rest of the stuff on here. Definitely an honorable mention though.
Batman Begins...it might warrant a place on the list just for the sheer quantity of times I've watched it. Plus, I don't have any other Christian Bale or Christopher Nolan films on the list, and they're two of today's greatest filmmakers...hey, did anybody else notice that both of those guy's first names start with...?
What makes Cinema Paradiso so great is its ending, without it it would be just a nice film with a bittersweet storyline and beautiful music...but the ending is what makes it a classic. A movie needs to be completely and totally classic (not just the ending) for it to rank in my top ten. But definitely an honorable mention.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: like Adaptation, extremely awesomely written and impeccably acted. Gary Oldman's performance as Rosencrantz ranks among my most remembered and adored. But really, it just doesn't work as one cohesive cinematic experience; it was written as a play, and I think it's fine as a play, although it would have to be acted by Gary Oldman and Tim Roth, because I wouldn't like it nearly as much with anybody else in the role.
The Mission...hmm. Beautiful tragic film about the power of God and the sad inevitability of human nature. But the climax could have been filmed a bit more coherently and the music in the ending battle scene doesn't always reflect what is going on...I'm not sure why this is, but it almost takes me out of the emotion of what's actually happening. So not on my Top Ten, but of course amongst my all-time greats.
Indy is classic and iconic, and he might even be number 11. But I can't say he's personal enough to me to be put on my Top Ten list(this might change with the midnight showing of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, much like the midnight showing of Revenge of the Sith (WOW, haven't typed those words in a LONG time) gave me a passion for Star Wars that I have since been unable to shake ("I can't shake 'im!")). I say he's not personal enough, even though he is one of my favorite (fictional) people ever and his films are so exciting and clever and funny and awesome, because I haven't experienced any of his films on my own, where I discover him for myself and value the Indy Chronicles in a personal way. But like I said, maybe this will change on May 22nd.
Casablanca's going to make it, methinks. It works on every level that a film should: directing, writing (oh, the writing!), acting (iconic performances here), cinematography (gorgeously subtle and artistic), music (the ever-present "As Time Goes By," as well as the extremely famous (and rightfully so) "Le Marseilles" vs. German anthem that always --- ALWAYS --- brings tears to my eyes), and a wonderful story of romance and self-sacrifice and good triumphing over evil to match the individual elements put together. Yes, it definitely makes my Top Ten.
Atonement. It has an extremely emotional and affecting soundtrack and every shot in the film looks like a painting....but it is, overall, the storyline of a writer making up for a tragic and multiple-life-changing mistake through her God-given writing ability that puts it on the Top Ten for me. Unbelievable film with a heart-breaking and soul-rending ending. Ignore the rhyme there.
I originally included The Royal Tenenbaums on the list because I wanted Wes Anderson, who I consider to be extraordinarily talented with his quirky visual and directing style and perfect combination of offbeat, character-driven humor and touching, family drama in his scripts, to be on the list, and Tenenbaums is, I believe, his masterpiece (so far), but sadly, he just doesn’t qualify to be in the top ten of all time (IMO).
Hitchcock is sort of untouchable; his films are something else. They work both as thrilling entertainment (with both suspense and humor) and as technical paragons. They can't really be ranked with other movies, simply because they're not in the same category.
Looks like, between action movies Matrix and Batman, Batman made the cut, perhaps simply because the cast overwhelms me everytime I think about it: Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Rutger Hauer, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson...it's just incredible how Christopher Nolan could have assembled the greatest cast in the history of cinema after only two previous major directorial efforts, only one of which was actually critically lauded. Wow...they trusted him, and well done, everyone. And the script had the killer line: “It’s not who I am underneath: it’s what I do that defines me.”
So here is the top 10:
1. Once Upon a Time in the West
2. Schindler's List
3. The Fountain
4. Lawrence of Arabia
5. Star Wars
6. Jean de Florette / Manon of the Spring
7. Casablanca
8. It's a Wonderful Life
9. Batman Begins
10. Atonement
Wow guys, that was way harder than it should have been. When I say critical things about the films that didn't make it, it seems like I'm disparaging them more than they deserve, and I am. They all in reality deserve to be watched, and, at some point, cried over. Please go watch them.
This Top Ten list is about films that I feel are both among the greats, if not the actual best ones, that also have emotional resonance, and aren't just exercises in technical expertise (No Country for Old Men, I'm looking at you), although that isn't shunned purposefully.
Top Five (relatively-current generation) Actors:
1. Liam Neeson
2. Gary Oldman
3. Christian Bale
4. Hugh Jackman
5. Ewan McGregor
All not American but English-speaking! Weird.
Also Kenneth Branagh, Peter O’Toole, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, Michael Caine, Ralph Fiennes, Bruce Willis, Harrison Ford, and Jeremy Irons. Only three of these fourteen people have won an Academy Award, and half of them have not even been nominated.
Top Five Leading performances:
Peter O'Toole as Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia
Hugh Jackman as Tom Creo in The Fountain
Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List
Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones
Gary Oldman in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Honorable Mentions: Jimmy Stewart as It's a Wonderful Life, Nic Cage in Adaptation, Kenneth Branagh in both Henry V and Hamlet
Top Five Supporting Performances:
Liam Neeson in Batman Begins
Gary Oldman in The Professional
Daniel Auteuil in Jean de Florette / Manon of the Spring
Claude Rains in Casablanca (or most things he's been in)
Alec Guinness in Star Wars Episode IV
Honorable Mentions: Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus and Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith in The Matrix, Edward Norton in Primal Fear
Top performances that may seem odd at first but take a closer look: Bud Cort in Harold and Maude, Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, Anthony Perkins in Psycho (there isn't really a main character in that movie if you think about it, but he's not really "supporting" as he's the character that drives the story)
Hmm. I didn’t include any females in this list, or even any movies where the primary role was female (except, perhaps, Atonement). Sexist? Maybe. Or just male, and can’t really tell when an actress is “extraordinarily good” when compared to just merely “good,” which reflects a certain bias on my part, but that’s innate and not purposeful. (Although I do deeply enjoy watching Audrey Hepburn in just about anything and Katharine Hepburn in most things, especially Bringing Up Baby and The Philadelphia Story.)
The whole deal with ranking greatness in films...it's just really impossible to do, because there is a massive amount of it all around. So you pretty much just gotta go with what has affected you personally. What means something to you as a film goer (although I do think you should definitely take into account the actual quality of the film in question, and from a variety of different angles — make sure it all holds up). So there are tons of films that are really really good and really really well thought out, and just really really well produced all around, and you can't really rank them...and yeah, I sort of tried to do it here. But I think the differences in quality and production values are so small, and so slight, that I can't really recommend one film over another except on the basis of knowing what kind of films a given person prefers and understanding that person's sense of humor and willingness to be engaged emotionally, and all that other stuff that comes with different kinds of films.
So basically that last paragraph makes moot all the work I put into this (a couple hours of thinking and researching at least), but whatever. I enjoy doing this kind of thing every once in a while, except when I have a headache at 2 AM and I really want to go to bed and the incompleteness of this post has been bothering me. So I shall now post and then go promptly to bed.
Good night.
Dang it, good morning I mean. Dang.
-SALVARE
2. Schindler's List
3. The Fountain
4. Lawrence of Arabia
5. Star Wars (sentimentally Episode III, but favorite is VI)
The Matrix
It's a Wonderful Life
Jean de Florette / Manon of the Spring
Life is Beautiful
Adaptation
Batman Begins
Cinema Paradiso
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
The Mission
Indiana Jones (all three, and hopefully #4)
Casablanca
Atonement
The Royal Tenenbaums
Hitchcock's obligatory top three (in no order): Rope, Rear Window, and Psycho (and honorable mention to North by Northwest)
GOSH, I don't know how to rank these last five. Hmm. Process of elimination, I suppose?
The Matrix is an awesome action movie and incredibly well-made with really interesting philosophical perspectives and culturally iconic action scenes that are probably the most stylistic and exciting in cinematic history. But Top 10 of all time? Hmm...maybe. I'll keep it in mind.
Same with It's a Wonderful Life. Jimmy Stewart's most memorable performance (although I might say his best is in Rope, which is in itself a great film). Beautiful story filled with happy tears at the end. Let's make it number 7.
6. Jean de Florette / Manon of the Spring
Okay, I'm pretty sure Jean de Florette is in there, so let's make that number 6. Extremely watchable for a four-hour story seemingly about land rights and water supplies. Haunting ending that twists everything you saw for the previous three-and-a-half hours on its head and gives you an even deeper understanding of the tragedy of the whole story. I can't begin to talk about the wonders of this film.
Life is Beautiful is of course gorgeous and sob-worthy both for the beauty and the tragedy of the story. Nothing else to sum it up. I just wish it meant something more to me. Top 20 or so, not top 10.
Adaptation has the cleverest, most ironic and original script I've ever seen played out in a movie. And Nicolas Cage convinces me of his greatness by playing two twins that are completely different from each other but interact with a strange, familial tenderness....but although the writing and acting are incredible, it's not overall top ten material, at least when compared to the rest of the stuff on here. Definitely an honorable mention though.
Batman Begins...it might warrant a place on the list just for the sheer quantity of times I've watched it. Plus, I don't have any other Christian Bale or Christopher Nolan films on the list, and they're two of today's greatest filmmakers...hey, did anybody else notice that both of those guy's first names start with...?
What makes Cinema Paradiso so great is its ending, without it it would be just a nice film with a bittersweet storyline and beautiful music...but the ending is what makes it a classic. A movie needs to be completely and totally classic (not just the ending) for it to rank in my top ten. But definitely an honorable mention.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: like Adaptation, extremely awesomely written and impeccably acted. Gary Oldman's performance as Rosencrantz ranks among my most remembered and adored. But really, it just doesn't work as one cohesive cinematic experience; it was written as a play, and I think it's fine as a play, although it would have to be acted by Gary Oldman and Tim Roth, because I wouldn't like it nearly as much with anybody else in the role.
The Mission...hmm. Beautiful tragic film about the power of God and the sad inevitability of human nature. But the climax could have been filmed a bit more coherently and the music in the ending battle scene doesn't always reflect what is going on...I'm not sure why this is, but it almost takes me out of the emotion of what's actually happening. So not on my Top Ten, but of course amongst my all-time greats.
Indy is classic and iconic, and he might even be number 11. But I can't say he's personal enough to me to be put on my Top Ten list(this might change with the midnight showing of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, much like the midnight showing of Revenge of the Sith (WOW, haven't typed those words in a LONG time) gave me a passion for Star Wars that I have since been unable to shake ("I can't shake 'im!")). I say he's not personal enough, even though he is one of my favorite (fictional) people ever and his films are so exciting and clever and funny and awesome, because I haven't experienced any of his films on my own, where I discover him for myself and value the Indy Chronicles in a personal way. But like I said, maybe this will change on May 22nd.
Casablanca's going to make it, methinks. It works on every level that a film should: directing, writing (oh, the writing!), acting (iconic performances here), cinematography (gorgeously subtle and artistic), music (the ever-present "As Time Goes By," as well as the extremely famous (and rightfully so) "Le Marseilles" vs. German anthem that always --- ALWAYS --- brings tears to my eyes), and a wonderful story of romance and self-sacrifice and good triumphing over evil to match the individual elements put together. Yes, it definitely makes my Top Ten.
Atonement. It has an extremely emotional and affecting soundtrack and every shot in the film looks like a painting....but it is, overall, the storyline of a writer making up for a tragic and multiple-life-changing mistake through her God-given writing ability that puts it on the Top Ten for me. Unbelievable film with a heart-breaking and soul-rending ending. Ignore the rhyme there.
I originally included The Royal Tenenbaums on the list because I wanted Wes Anderson, who I consider to be extraordinarily talented with his quirky visual and directing style and perfect combination of offbeat, character-driven humor and touching, family drama in his scripts, to be on the list, and Tenenbaums is, I believe, his masterpiece (so far), but sadly, he just doesn’t qualify to be in the top ten of all time (IMO).
Hitchcock is sort of untouchable; his films are something else. They work both as thrilling entertainment (with both suspense and humor) and as technical paragons. They can't really be ranked with other movies, simply because they're not in the same category.
Looks like, between action movies Matrix and Batman, Batman made the cut, perhaps simply because the cast overwhelms me everytime I think about it: Christian Bale, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Rutger Hauer, Ken Watanabe, Cillian Murphy, Tom Wilkinson...it's just incredible how Christopher Nolan could have assembled the greatest cast in the history of cinema after only two previous major directorial efforts, only one of which was actually critically lauded. Wow...they trusted him, and well done, everyone. And the script had the killer line: “It’s not who I am underneath: it’s what I do that defines me.”
So here is the top 10:
1. Once Upon a Time in the West
2. Schindler's List
3. The Fountain
4. Lawrence of Arabia
5. Star Wars
6. Jean de Florette / Manon of the Spring
7. Casablanca
8. It's a Wonderful Life
9. Batman Begins
10. Atonement
Wow guys, that was way harder than it should have been. When I say critical things about the films that didn't make it, it seems like I'm disparaging them more than they deserve, and I am. They all in reality deserve to be watched, and, at some point, cried over. Please go watch them.
This Top Ten list is about films that I feel are both among the greats, if not the actual best ones, that also have emotional resonance, and aren't just exercises in technical expertise (No Country for Old Men, I'm looking at you), although that isn't shunned purposefully.
Top Five (relatively-current generation) Actors:
1. Liam Neeson
2. Gary Oldman
3. Christian Bale
4. Hugh Jackman
5. Ewan McGregor
All not American but English-speaking! Weird.
Also Kenneth Branagh, Peter O’Toole, Morgan Freeman, Ed Harris, Michael Caine, Ralph Fiennes, Bruce Willis, Harrison Ford, and Jeremy Irons. Only three of these fourteen people have won an Academy Award, and half of them have not even been nominated.
Top Five Leading performances:
Peter O'Toole as Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia
Hugh Jackman as Tom Creo in The Fountain
Liam Neeson as Oskar Schindler in Schindler's List
Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones
Gary Oldman in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Honorable Mentions: Jimmy Stewart as It's a Wonderful Life, Nic Cage in Adaptation, Kenneth Branagh in both Henry V and Hamlet
Top Five Supporting Performances:
Liam Neeson in Batman Begins
Gary Oldman in The Professional
Daniel Auteuil in Jean de Florette / Manon of the Spring
Claude Rains in Casablanca (or most things he's been in)
Alec Guinness in Star Wars Episode IV
Honorable Mentions: Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus and Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith in The Matrix, Edward Norton in Primal Fear
Top performances that may seem odd at first but take a closer look: Bud Cort in Harold and Maude, Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, Anthony Perkins in Psycho (there isn't really a main character in that movie if you think about it, but he's not really "supporting" as he's the character that drives the story)
Hmm. I didn’t include any females in this list, or even any movies where the primary role was female (except, perhaps, Atonement). Sexist? Maybe. Or just male, and can’t really tell when an actress is “extraordinarily good” when compared to just merely “good,” which reflects a certain bias on my part, but that’s innate and not purposeful. (Although I do deeply enjoy watching Audrey Hepburn in just about anything and Katharine Hepburn in most things, especially Bringing Up Baby and The Philadelphia Story.)
The whole deal with ranking greatness in films...it's just really impossible to do, because there is a massive amount of it all around. So you pretty much just gotta go with what has affected you personally. What means something to you as a film goer (although I do think you should definitely take into account the actual quality of the film in question, and from a variety of different angles — make sure it all holds up). So there are tons of films that are really really good and really really well thought out, and just really really well produced all around, and you can't really rank them...and yeah, I sort of tried to do it here. But I think the differences in quality and production values are so small, and so slight, that I can't really recommend one film over another except on the basis of knowing what kind of films a given person prefers and understanding that person's sense of humor and willingness to be engaged emotionally, and all that other stuff that comes with different kinds of films.
So basically that last paragraph makes moot all the work I put into this (a couple hours of thinking and researching at least), but whatever. I enjoy doing this kind of thing every once in a while, except when I have a headache at 2 AM and I really want to go to bed and the incompleteness of this post has been bothering me. So I shall now post and then go promptly to bed.
Good night.
Dang it, good morning I mean. Dang.
-SALVARE
posted by Neal at
11:03 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home