Posted on 09/12/2009 9:47:56 PM PDT by Saije
Frank Darabont, the director of The Shawshank Redemption, has words for the millions of people who believe his 1994 prison drama is the greatest film of all time. “I think that’s a little crackers, to be honest, especially when you think of the other films on the list.” He means films such as The Godfather, Citizen Kane, Lolita, Vertigo and foreign-language contenders like Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist, Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt, Luis Buñuel’s Belle de jour or Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant.
But, hey, pointy-headed film critics can have their highfalutin’ crushes. There’s no getting round the fact that The Shawshank Redemption, which stars Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, is consistently being voted the best film ever in all sorts of readers’ polls. It currently sits atop the 250 best movies of all time on the world’s most popular cinema website, imdb.com, as it has done for most of the past decade...Empire’s readers have also voted Shawshank their favourite film of all time.
What gives? How has a film set mainly in a bleak prison, in which women are barely glimpsed, by an unknown first-time director, adapted from a little-known Stephen King novella, become such an enduring crowd-pleaser? Shawshank tells the story of the friendship of two prison inmates, Andy, played by Robbins, and Red, played by Freeman. It’s a film that can make strong men — including the rugby star Jonny Wilkinson, who loves it — blub like babies and insist that they will change their lives pronto. Devotees quote its life-affirming mantras: “You can get busy living or get busy dying”; “Fear can keep you a prisoner. Hope can set you free”.
(Excerpt) Read more at entertainment.timesonline.co.uk ...
Yep, all very good movies.
the reason I include The Goonies is because it really captures the sense of imagination, adventure, and wonder that kids have. It’s also a heck of an entertaining movie, and I do not believe it could be made today (or remade) with any success. It is from an era that is forever gone.
Westworld is among the best as well...
Nope.
“All About Eve”
Tied Titanic for most nominations ever, but I think there was some back room dealing going on, and Bette Davis didn’t get the Oscar.
She lost to one of the all time most stupid azz movies - some gal who played a bit part in “Harvey”
Are you all on drugs? “STAR WARS” The best movie of all time.
I’d agree on Goodfellas. And I’d add Patton, Full Metal Jacket and Gladiator.
Shawshank’s a decent prison film, with a good ending.
Midnight Express was a little more horrific but also ended well.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
I think Robbins and his mate/Sarandon hate America. I don't forgive him. I don't forgive the left that's trying to destroy America and freedom. I think they're both traitors.
You gotta understand: Europeans admire movies for different reasons than we do (witness the Cannes Festival, Michael Moore, and their admiration for Jerry Lewis films). It's about either artsy-fartsiness, or anti-Americanism, or je ne sais quoi. Vertigo is in the first category. It is psychological surrealism. I watch it and enjoy Kim Novak being mysterious and Jimmy Stewart being dumb like a fox. But it isn't my favorite Hitchcock (that would be N X NW), nor my favorite Novak (that would be Pal Joey).
No.
Second Hand Lion.
Well, I have an autistic nephew who likes to watch certain movies over and over again, Goonies being one of them, and if I hadn’t been forced to see it thousands of times while I was babysitting him I might like it better today.
Gotta put Selleck's "An Innocent Man" in those 5, no? Then maybe "Cool Hand Luke", and the chain-gang movie where Jimmy Stewart invents the M1 carbine. I even like stupid Sean Penn's "Bad Boys" (or whatever it's called).
Rear Window is my favorite Hitchcock movie.
The Godfather
I think Heat is great, but it has a bad ending. Like a number of Mann movies, it goes on about 20-30 minutes too long. Should have ended with Pacino in the hotel room and DeNiro and his crew having gotten away. It would have been great. Having DeNiro go back to the hotel for Waingrow and the whole scene at the airport was totally unrealistic and din’t fit at all with the characters.
Or Mel Brooks’ The History of The World or even Blazing Saddles! Why no love for Smokey and the Bandit? I personally know and/or are related to a lot of cops who thought Jackie Gleason’s performance in that film was worthy of an Oscar! :)
And don’t forget Waterworld.
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