Top?
What do they mean.
I guess it’s just their opinion on the best movies of that decade.
Deer Hunter was the most pretentious for sure. Godfather most overrated.
Jaws - was it even a good movie? Not really.
You didn’t like Jaws?!
Of course it's their opinion, and they invite you to give yours. :)
“Deer Hunter was the most pretentious for sure”
Agreed. Too many movies get a free pass because they portray something ethnic from 200 miles around NYC. Godfather, Deer hunter, Taxi Driver, etc etc.
Their self love propaganda makes anything an instant hit if its set inside that magic 200 mile circle.
You just need a few greasy actors to say sarcastic tough guy things.
That movie scared the hell out of us. I remember going to the beach shortly afterwards and very few people were going out into the water! That was the effect that this movie had.
Fast forward 25 years later and I rented it on DVD for my kids to watch. They laughed at it and thought the special effects were cheesy. They were right. That shark was lame!
Spielberg's "Duel" was better.
And what would your choices be?
Jaws is one of- if not the best ‘horror’ film ever made.
Masterful.
It needed no obscene monsters, gory bloody scenes, no graphic sex or ‘F’ bombs every sentence the characters uttered.
The opening scene, a beautiful woman is seen treading water on a lovely moonlit, still bay. A buoy bell dings gently not far away. She laughs and calls to her boyfriend to join her, but he has passed out on the beach.
The camera does a sharks point of view beneath the girls legs, treading water. The camera gets closer, the music gets louder,
Suddenly she feels a tug at her body from beneath the water.
A expression of shock spreads over her face before she is pulled under.
She surfaces and her gurgling water logged screams are blood curdling. But there is no one to hear.
Again she is pulled under, but this time she does not resurface.
The water calms in the moonlight. The buoy continues its
gentle chimes- as though nothing had ever happened.
You have seen nothing. No monster. Nothing.
No need. The mind can conjure up images much worse than any movie maker could.
The primal fear of what is unknown in the water, is one of the factors that makes that scene so effective.
Spielburg uses fear instead of gore to scare the viewer
Few films are perfect. This one almost is. Jaws is the rarefied movie that can weather intensive scrutiny of each of its sum parts, and still emerge from this analysis as a clearly superior work in every aspect of its production. The acting is top-notch, and each of its characters are perfectly cast and essayed.
The score is superlative, and as key to the horror within as the shark. The story itself is deceptively simple, yet powerful enough to remain both timely and timeless. The camera work and use of environment to create tension are unparalleled in the film medium, and every frame carries an implied menace, even when the shark is nowhere in sight. Every detail of the film-making process is performed here with such groundbreaking precision that the film almost becomes a textbook.