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 ...
Goodfellas is amazing and I would rank Casino up there as well if it wasn’t for Sharon Stone.
Hard to disagree; but if I had a chance to watch Rear Window once a month, or N x NW, I'd choose the latter. "Miss Lonely Hearts" is kinda hard for me to take at times.
The list is incomplete without the most repeat-viewed movie, The Princess Bride.
Best animated: the Incredibles.
And 3:10 to Yuma. “Even bad men love their mommas.”
Casino? We knew Frank Rosenthal, and I don’t think that movie was anywhere near the best movie, ever.
Gigli IS the best movie ever!!
Well, that’s up there, but you have to consider Ishtar, Town and Country, and Howard the Duck.
You forgot Joe Versus the Volcano.
Haven’t seen Shawshank in a long time but I remember it being a good movie. I have many personal favorites, but for greatest I would have to give it to Lawrence of Arabia.
“The Searchers” starring John Wayne, Jeffery Hunter, and Ward Bond is a far better flick than the touchy-feely “Shawshank.” I walked out on “The Godfather” because Marlin Brando sounded like he had a mouth full and the movie was frankly boring.
Morgan Freeman was superb in Shawshank.....It’s definitely up there.
I would put Braveheart at the top of my list.
I thought the same thing the first time I saw it, but give it a chance, it really picks up after Michael kills the Turk and corrupt police captain. You also got to love Abe Vigoda, even in 1970 he looked like he was 90 years old.
Actually I think I read somewhere he had something in his mouth to make him sound that way. But walked out? Wow. I think the only movie I can remember walking out on was The Thing with Kurt Russell. Too gory.
One of my favorite movies is “The Longest Day.” I could watch that movie over and over.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056197/
“Hey, careful, man, there’s a beverage here!”
I gotta go with The Big Lebowski.
Schindler’s List is number one on my list. It’s very difficult to watch, but it perfectly captures both true humanity and true depravity.
I lose objectivity where Morgan Freeman is concerned. I know he's probably liberal but he doesn't make a big deal of it like Danny Glover. He always turns in credible, believable performances.
I’m with Darabont in his appraisal of his film. “The Shawshank Redemption” is a decent and satisfying film to watch, but it’s not even the best film of 1994 - “Pulp Fiction” and “Forrest Gump” were both better - let alone of all time.
Duck Soup is a much better film than The Shawshank Redemption...
The Thing was an awesome movie.
I originally had Patton and Downfall in the top 10 but then remembered how much the left hates Red Dawn and Green Beret's So, I had to do some reshuffling.
As for Full Metal Jacket, I thought the movie was good except for that slow motion scene where the bored looking VC girl kept killing the men running across the plaza in ultra slow motion. Gladiator was a good movie but I have to say I only watched it once so, it would probably be somewhere between my #11 and #20.
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