eugene@ames-lm.UUCP (Eugene Miya) (01/13/84)
Interesting reading people's choices (Just joined the net). I am surprised that so many movies are within recent time as well as mostly American. I don't have a single favorite film, but I would like to suggest some categories which waiting for my typesetter. Drama: Casablanca [Obviously] David Lean Films [Lawrence of Arabia and Bridge on the River Kwai] Fail Safe ( I admit it, I am kind of a techo freak, too) Francis Ford Coppola films: Patton, Godfather, Apocalyse Now The Graduate, Carnal Knowledge, MASH (satire) Westerns: Pretty much any John Ford film from Stagecoach on. Satire: Doctor Strangelove [Kubrick a great director with 2001, Lolita, Clockwork Orange, etc. Hardware Wars, Pork Lips Now Fantasy: Superman I, Star Wars I (Much better than the others in ways that the other directors haven't caught on yet), Alien, Dark Star Hitchcock films like Psycho, and others Spielberg movies from his first "Duel," Sugarland Express, Jaws, Close Encounters, E.T., and even 1941 Fantasia Comedies: Annie Hall (and Play It Again Sam) Woody Allen [I know some don't like him] Airplane (For the sight gags) Musicals: (Normally, not my cup of tea) Hair (I didn't see the play, and was struck by the choreography and the ending) Documentaries: Five Summer Stories (A 2nd generation surfing film, much better than Endless Summer, 50% of the audience who see it don't surf, excellent photography) Foreign Films: Kurosawa films (George Lucas and F. Coppola's favorite director) Suggest: uncut Seven Samuari, The Hidden Fortress (Star War was based on this latter, I just saw it recently, it is in many ways better than Star Wars [witts, no mystery forces]), Rashomon (Shows events appear differently from different points of view). Black Orpheus The Tall Blondie Man with One Black Shoe films (marginally) Recent films: Tootsie, The Right Stuff, Gandhi, Missing, Never Cry Wolf Kramer versus Kramer, The Deer Hunter I wish I could remember others, but its late, especially the foriegn ones. Just open a serious text on film studies (not a book on stars), you will learn a lot. I had a college roommate with one such text. Never took the class. The obsure ones I give my highest recommendation: Five Summer Stories (Surfing, Hang Gliding, Skateboarding, skiing) dated but a documentary with intensity. Lots of footage used in shorts and commercials (like the hang-gliding seqences), unfortunately the producer Jim Freeman was killed in a helicopter crash. The second is The Hidden Fortress (for you star wars freaks). It's all there, R2D2 and C3P0 type characters, a beautiful, rebel princess on the run, a wise general. Many of the same scenes as in Lucas. No laser blasts. No mysterious force. --enm