ONLY THREE?!?

[Jonathan Marko]

All right so a friend of mine goes around asking everybody he knows to put together a list of movies that they think are important to the film industry and in the history of film. From all of those lists, he compiled the following list, which he sent back to everyone with the following instruction: pick your only three and give a justification for each. Quite a tough call. Here's the list followed by my explanations:

Life Is Beautiful
Swingers
Shawshank Redemption
Seven
High Fidelity
Pulp Fiction
Cradle Will Rock
American Beauty
Jaws
Jurassic Park
E.T.
Forrest Gump
A Clockwork Orange
Silence of the Lambs
Batman
Braveheart
The Star Wars Trilogy
Waiting for Guffman
The Shining
Hitchcock's Psycho
Primal Fear
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The Exorcist
South Park:* Bigger, Longer and Uncut
The Godfather
Clerks
The Green Mile
Goonies
Reservoir Dogs
Animal House
The Usual Suspects
Schindler's List
American History X
Steel Magnolias
Amistad
Saving Private Ryan
Dogma
Good Will Hunting
Fight Club
Princess Bride
The Muppet Movie
Dances With Wolves
Labyrinth
The Sound of Music
Shakespeare in Love
Hamlet (Kenneth Branagh)
Citizen Kane
2001: A Space Odyssey
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Dark Crystal
The Rope
Casablanca
Gone With the Wind
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
To Kill a Mockingbird
Fantasia
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
The Jazz Singer
The Wizard of Oz
Almost Famous
In the Company of Men
Steamboat Willie
The Tramp (Charlie Chaplin)
Amadeus
Being John Malkovich
The Matrix
Toy Story 2
Annie Hall
Dr. Strangelove:* or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Henry V (Branagh)
The Graduate
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Bride of Frankenstein
The Cell
T2:* Judgement Day
Alien
Aliens
The Sixth Sense
La Bamba
Full Metal Jacket
Duck Soup
A Streetcar Named Desire
On the Waterfront
The Godfather 2
Apocalypse Now
Rocky
Rambo:* First Blood
Platoon
Evil Dead 2
American Grafitti
Animal House
Who am I This Time?

Whoa. I know it's hard to pick only three, but that's the challenge. My picks:

A Clockwork Orange - In my opinion the creepiest and most realistic vision of the world of the near future...and the people that inhabit it. Little Alex is a man who appreciates the great Ludwig Van while appreciating rape and murder. Makes you check your values at the door.

Psycho - Hitchcock's original that brought new meaning to the word 'suspense.' Great film technique. Excellent story that pulls you in further each moment until the disturbing and thought-provoking ending.

Fight Club - My favorite director, David Fincher. My favorite actor, Edward Norton. Curious philosophical ideas. Fight Club is the kind of movie that you can see people building a belief system on. In this case, that becomes the most frightening thing.

The hardest thing about picking only three is watching the ones you didn't pick get left behind. Don't worry, I'm sure that most of you like nearly all the movies on this list. That being said, good luck!

Jonathan Marko

[God]

Star Wars Trilogy - Simply changed the way that we look at movies. Some of the greatest special effects ever put onto film. They even hold up to todays standards. Just movies that will never ever go away.

Dr Strangelove... - Showed the true horror of the power that humans possess. We have to ability to wipe out existence on this planet with the simple push of a button and Kubrick did a wonderful job portraying the frustration and worry everybody goes through at the mear thought of the threat of nuclear war. Kubrick's best in my opinion.

Good Will Hunting - I'm probably solo on this one, but this is one of the absolute best character study movies I've ever seen. Will, who has been abused all his life puts up this impenetrable field of violence around himself, that when finally penetrated by Robin Williams' character, comes crashing down and we see the vulnerability of Will and how most men truly feel and act.

--HONORABLE MENTIONS--

Fight Club - Awesome movie showing the true depiction of the male fear of losing power.

Jurassic Park - Stepped it up a level from Star Wars in the special effects field.

The Godfather - What can I say? Its just plain old the best movie ever made. Not my favorite, but I can recognize greatness.

Schindlers List - Excellent dpicition of the true gruesomeness and horrors of the Holocaust.

To Kill a Mockingbird - Best showing of old time racism in the South on film.

Thems are my picks!

[DaN]

A Clockwork Orange- Atop of being my fav movie of all time, it is the greatest movie ever created. It is not only an important thingy to history and cinema, but it is a horrifying warning of the future. Masterpiece is an understatement

Amadeus- One of the most beautiful films ever made. Just the masterful direction/acting/music/music/mood is what makes this film so astounding.

Citizen Kane- This broke the traditional moviemaking genre. Not only is it an unbelievable movie, but the fight to make it is the definition of hollywood, or at least what it should be.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

2001: A Space Odyssey
The Godfather
Star Wars Trilogy
Schindler's List

oh screw it. ALL THOSE MOVIES ARE TERRIFIC. That friend made a damn damn DAMN good list

[Jonathan Marko]

Okay, my friend finally got all the results together. Here are all the movies from that huge list that got votes from one person or another.

Life is Beautiful
Shawshank Redemption
Pulp Fiction
Cradle Will Rock
American Beauty
Forrest Gump
A Clockwork Orange
Silence of the Lambs
Braveheart
The Star Wars Trilogy
Waiting for Guffman
Psycho
The Godfather
The Green Mile
Goonies
Schindler's List
American History X
Steel Magnolias
Saving Private Ryan
Good Will Hunting
Fight Club
The Princess Bride
Labyrinth
Shakespeare in Love
Citizen Kane
Gone With the Wind
Almost Famous
To Kill a Mockingbird
In the Company of Men
The Matrix
Dr Strangelove
La Bamba
Full Metal Jacket
Duck Soup
The Sixth Sense
2001: A Space Odyssey
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Any questions? Desputes? Let me know so I can yell at my friend. Just give me a reason! :-)

Jonathan Marko

[Raena]

Important to the film industry is different from films that people just enjoy. Like I think The Shawshank Redemption is one of the greatest films ever made but it didn't make an impact on the film industry as much as it made an impact on audiences. Films that did:

Citizen Kane (As bored as I was with it, I do understand why it made AFI's 100 list)
The Godfather
Stars Wars Trilogy
Pulp Fiction
Kubrick/Hitchcock/Spielberg films

Honorable Mentions:

I know I'm going to get flamed for this, but TITANIC deserves its Oscars in my opinion. It was a monstrosity of a production, but it was well done. He!!, you could hardly tell the special effects were special effects. I truly think it deserves to be on the top of the totem pole when it comes to box-office, and it p!sses so many people off that it's up there (especially Star Wars fans). I don't even own the flick (and don't plan to), but it is a movie that I'll admit to being done very well.

I also think that in time, David Fincher's name is going to become more household. Right now only a core group of people realize his potential for greatness. . .Why hasn't the man gotten an Oscar nod yet? Unless he did and I missed the show that year (He still couldn't sell me on ALIEN 3, however).


Pulp Fiction, Annie Hall, Clerks and flicks like that. . you have to commend the writers. What great dialogue. Does anyone else ever wonder how much work Roger Avary did on Pulp Fiction's screenplay? What if he was really the genius behind all of that? Or maybe not. . What has he done following?

[This message has been edited by Raena (edited 02-20-2001).]

[ak]

It is too difficult to choose from that list, but Star Wars, especially the empire strikes back is definately in there!

[the night watchman]

"Animal House" - The most compelling and gritty portrayal of class warfare ever filmed.

"Evil Dead 2" - A gripping account of man-against-nature/man-against-himself, comparable to Hemingway's "Old Man and the Sea."

"The Muppet Movie" - You might have thought you knew it wasn't easy being green, but after this wrenching portrayal of an interracial community's struggle against the oppressive thumb of an tyrannical and intolerant society, you realize the only thing keeping all of us from being green is the color of our skin.

[falconfilms]

Ouch. This one is tough. Here's my answer for this moment in time. I'm sure it will be different in a half hour or so.

The Godfather: The perfect melding of art and commerce an artistically awesome work that actually captured the attention of the moviegoing public. Never before and never since has Hollywood gotten that difficult balance (between popularity and artistic integrity) exactly right.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: Surpassed the quality of the amazing novel. Dangerous, funny as hell, heartbreaking...not to mention Nicholson's best work by far.

Raiders of the Lost Ark: Pure Hollywood escapism with a solid underlying moral. For what it sets out to accomplish, this is an absolutely perfect film.

Honorable mention: Jaws, The Exorcist.

[DaMovieMan]

Very hard thing to pick three movies from a list that is filled with so much beauty that i can barely look at it twice.

Here are my three:

Pulp Fiction - a movie which showed the world the genius that it Tarantino, Sam Jackson and reborn John Travolta. This is best modern crime film and my favorite film. Q.T. introduced a new style here.

2001: A Space Odyssey - Kubrick at his best. The greatest sci-fi film which revovels around a thousand other things and not only 'Science' and 'Fiction'.

One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest - showed the world the geniuses that are Milos Forman and Jack Nicholson. Amazing story and a very distrubing film in fact. It will always be remembered.

HONORARY MENTIONS:
Dr. Strangelove
A Clockwork Orange
Citizen Kane
Fight Club
Apocalypse Now
Amadeus

I HAVE TO FUCKING WATCH THE GODFATHER TRILOGY AGAIN!! My list will change i think once i see it.

-DaMan


[This message has been edited by DaMovieMan (edited 04-10-2001).]

[VonEerie999]

There is a recurring theme to my three choices,and that is the anti-hero as the engine that drives the movie.The three that best personify this for me are as follows:

1)"A Clockwork Orange"
Kubrick's brilliant ode to the nefarious underbelly of disenfranchised youth.Alex was both despicable and endearing; a maniacal sociopath who also hankered for refinement.
This was a savage take on the horrendous effects of ennui on the working class.I saw this movie as a precursor for the entire Punk movement of the mid-seventies.The brutal splendor of this film is astounding,and the linear flow of insanity is unparalleled.

2)Taxi Driver
Monumental in that it further showcased the budding talents of Scorcese and Deniro.
"Mean Streets" opened the door,this kicked it the fuck in.
Now,unlike Alex in "Clockwork",Travis was not at war with society,he was at war with himself,with society as the scenery.Here the anti-hero is shown as being a little more accessible than "Clockwork",not as blatantly detatched.This movie was incredible in the cohesion of ideas and events that lead to Travis's "breakdown".We see him descending into this inescapable chasm,and we know there will only be one way out.
The way Martin Scorcese choreographed the shootout scene(first with Keitel,then in the hotel)is pure,unadulterated genius.The music,the overhead shots,the stop motion...such a poetically sinister ballet of carnage.
The failed courtship with Cybil Shephard,the Palantine campaign,the obsession with Iris(the brilliant Jodie Foster)...all lent a perverse diversion to the madness.We see our "anti-hero" redeemed at the end...or,do we?

3)"The Godfather"
The most sprawling epic of our time.It is a bastardized slice of life that had the foresight to show gangsters as "honorable",noble men.It laid the groundwork for every subsequent film in the genre.For taking this chance,it ranks in my three.
We are presented with a most despised entity(the Mafia),but,we are coerced into seeing a true American Drama/Tragedy played out.And our anti-hero arrives in every character,because gangsters are "bad"...from Don Vito to Sonny,Michael,Luca,Salozzo,Tataglia,Barzini,etc., The graet sleight of hand that this movie pulled was in presenting us with people,not cariactures.
And,is there a more powerful scene in cinema than the "Baptism"? As Michael stands on the altar,we see his adversaries get picked off,one by one.A mind blowing scene that perfectly juxtaposes the two worlds that the Corleones exist in.Stunning.
This is the Gold Standard for American Cinema.

VonEerie999
T.B.