Ian’s List of Shame
How To Make Your Own List
I’ve always wanted to create my List of Shame and then systematically check movies off of it. As an over-opinionated geek, I understand how much it hurts my credibility to admit that I’ve never seen Apocalypse Now (“You’ve NEVER seen Apocalypse NOW?!?”) as well as a few others. After suffering through several duds I’ve finally decided to assemble my list of shame and deal with it once and for all.
Reviewed -
Apocalypse Now
Apocalypse Now – Verdict: Watch
I tried comparing Apocalypse Now to the other war films I’ve seen but the difficulty is (and the mistaken assumption that I believe lead to reinserting the French sequence) I don’t really believe Apocalypse Now is a war film. If it is then unlike other war films the fact that it is is incidental. What matters is it’s one of the most well assembled, completely engrossing stories about the darker facets of man’s inner natures and could have occurred at any point in history. Definitely one of my favorite films.
Battle of Algiers
The Battle of Algiers – Verdict: Skip
There’s a telling moment in the first third of the movie where Colonel Mathieu is describing is explaining to the press that France has a simple choice to make: Leave Algeria or accept the consequences. The consequence is a war where there are no good guys. Everybody acts despicably in this Italian film about the last years of the French occupation of Algeria. The French torture suspected terrorists and the terrorists shoot, bomb, and drive over French colonial men, women, and children. The movie is sparse on story and character, feeling more like scenes from a play stitched together with documentary b-roll and a stirring soundtrack by Ennino Morricone. The message is relevant, certainly for modern US colonial culture, but I can’t whole-heartedly recommend it for an enjoyable evening with the movies.
Ben Hur - Verdict: Watch
Ultimately it doesn’t matter. With the exception of Heston’s, the acting is dated, the writing is silly, and the music is entirely too heavy handed. But Judah’s journey is gorgeously filmed and captivating. And when Heston got behind the reigns of his chariot I forgot for a time I was watching a three and a half hour 1950′s biblical epic. The chariot race is one of the most exciting and visceral sequences I’ve ever seen in any movie. It isn’t in 3-D, is devoid of any computer effects and alone was worth the entire film.
The Killing – Verdict: Watch
Still, once all the muscle has been hired and everyone’s plans laid out for us, the movie takes off. Kubrick uses a non-linear editing style to show how every robber’s part in the story unfolds, frequently retelling bits and pieces of one section from another characters perspective. The intensity builds well. The difference between a caper film like Ocean’s 11 and a heist film like this is that in Ocean’s 11 we know everything is going to work out, just not how. In a heist film we’re pretty sure that something is going to go wrong, just not how. Johnny’s plan is a perfect one but the people executing it are not and when the consequences of their imperfection boil over, the results were, for me, completely unexpected.
The Maltese Falcon – Verdict: Skip
Despite it’s ‘out-dated’ sensibilities there is much here to enjoy. The film is visually arresting with it’s low-angles and sparse lighting. The dialogue is entertaining. I can see how important it was in establishing many of the conventions of the film noir genre. The problem is at this point those conventions have been purified, refined, and used to create movies more compelling. And while I can appreciate the Maltese Falcon because those movies may not have existed without it, I’d still rather spend an evening with them instead.
Mary & Max – Verdict: Watch
One of the differences between a good movie and great one is I will return to a great movie’s characters in my mind days after I’ve watched the film. It’s been a week now since I saw Mary and Max and I can honestly say that I’ve thought about it at some point each of the last seven days. Here is an animated movie that doesn’t pander to any particular audience or age group. It doesn’t dumb itself down. Instead it tells a story about two people that is whimsical, funny, lonely, sad, and intensely human.
Shaun of the Dead
The second half ends up feeling like a little bit of a grind and a let down. It’s too bad because there’s a great idea in the first that becomes a victim of the plot in the second: What happens to a man who’s life doesn’t mean much when conventional life on earth loses all meaning. Still Shaun of the Dead is a very watchable movie and easy to recommend. You just might want to turn your head when one of them gets pulled through the window.
Yankee Doodle Dandy
Yankee Doodle Dandy – Verdict: Skip
Of course, this is all unfair. Maybe the measure of what’s a great musical isn’t how captivating the story was or how much you identified with the struggle of the protagonist. Maybe the measure of a great musical is in how much you enjoyed the songs. If so, it’s probably important to mention something my fiancee mentioned to me the day after watching Yankee Doodle Dandy. She said the night before, she came to bed quietly not wanting to wake me. As she climbed into bed I rolled over in my sleep, threw my arm over her, and started singing in my sleep: “Oh I’mmmm a yankeeeee doodle daaaaandyyyy…”
Coming Up
12 Angry Men
2001: A Space Odyssey*
A Clockwork Orange
A Fistful of Dollars
A Hard Day’s Night
A Night At The Opera
Afghan Star
The African Queen
All About Eve
All Quiet on the Western Front
All The President’s Men
American Graffiti
Andrei Rublev
The Apartment
Aruitemo Aruitemo (Still Walking)
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Big Sleep
Black Cat, White Cat
Bonnie and Clyde
Bride of Frankenstein
The Bridge On The River Kwai
Bringing Up Baby
Bus 174
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Cabaret
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Casablanca
Castle in the Sky
Chinatown
Cinderella Man
Cinema Paradiso
Citizen Kane
City Lights
City of God
The Cove
Das Boot
Dawn of the Dead (78)
The Deer Hunter
Deliver Us From Evil
Diabolique (55)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Do The Right Thing
Double Indemnity
Downfall
Dr. Strangelove
Duck Soup
Easy Rider
The Elephant Man
Fanny and Alexander
Fitzcarraldo
For a Few Dollars More
Frankenstein
The French Connection
Gandhi
The General
The Gold Rush
Gone With The Wind
The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly
The Grapes of Wrath
The Great Dictator
The Great Escape
High Noon
Howl’s Moving Castle
Hud
The Hustler
In The Heat of the Night
Into the Wild
Intolerance
Ip Man
It Happened One Night
Judgment at Nuremberg
The Kid
King Kong
Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
The Last Picture Show
Laura*
Lawrence of Arabia
Le Gout Des Autres (The Tase of Others) (It Takes All Kinds)
Life is Beautiful
M
Man on Wire
The Man Who Shot LIberty Valance
M*A*S*H
Metropolis
Midnight Cowboy
Modern Times
Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
My Neighbor Totoro
Nashville
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Network
The Night of the Hunter
Nosferatu
Notorious
On The Waterfront
Once
Once Upon a Time in the West
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
Out of the Past
The Passion of Joan of Arc
Paths of Glory
Persona
The Philadelphia Story
Platoon
Princess Mononoke
Raging Bull
Ran
Rashomon
Requiem for a Dream
Rio Bravo
Rosemary’s Baby
The Sea Inside
The Searchers
Seven Samurai
The Seventh Seal
Shadow of a Doubt
Shane
Singin’ In The Rain
Some Like It Hot
Sophie’s Choice
Spartacus
Spirited Away
The Sting
Strangers on a Train
Sullivan’s Travels
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
Sunset Blvd.
The Sweet Hereafter
Swing Time
Taxi to the Dark Side
There Will Be Blood
The Thing (82)
The Third Man
To Have and Have Not
Touch of Evil
The Treasure of Sierra Madre
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (62)
White Heat
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The Wild Bunch
The Wrestler
Yojimbo
Recent Comments