100 Greatest Films of all time – 7: Casablanca

Casablanca (1942)  Directed by: Michael Curtiz   Produced by:  Jack L Warner and Hal B Wallis   Screenplay by: Julius J Epstein, Phillip J Epstein, and Howard Koch. Based on the play “Everybody Comes to Rick’s” by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison   Starring:  Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, Peter Lorre, Conrad Veidt, and Arthur “Dooley” Wilson Oscar Count: 3 (Best Director, Best Picture, and Best Adapted Screenplay. Also nominated for Best Actor (Bogart), Best Supporting Actor (Rains), Best Editing, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Score).

In many ways, it’s fascinating that Casablanca has had the success that it has with everyone. Most modern viewers, when looking at a film like this (or any old film) thinks that it is standard fare, when, in fact, all other films have copied its influence.

The 100 Greatest films of all time – 8: Brazil

by Daniel Suddes

Brazil (1985) Directed by: Terry Gilliam  Written by: Gilliam, Tom Stoppard, and Charles McKeown Produced by Arnon Milchan and Patrick Cassavetti  Starring:  Johnathan Pryce, Kim Greist, Robert De Niro, Michael Palin, Ian Holm, Katherine Helmond, and Jim Broadbent Oscar Count: 0 (Nominated for Best Art Direction and Best Original Screenplay)

 Terry Gilliam’s Brazil is a film that has had its reputation expand enormously since its release twenty seven years ago. When it was first released, this story of a lowly bureaucrat trapped in a vast, soulless world, who dreams of something more for himself was certainly acclaimed, but was not widely seen in the U.S. In part, this was due to a feud between the director and studio, which was almost as famous as the film itself. But it remained in the public consciousness, and is now recognized as the masterpiece that Gilliam set out for it to be.

100 Greatest Films of all time – 9: Vertigo

Vertigo (1958)  Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock  Screenplay by: Alec Coopel and Samuel A Taylor Based on the Novel D’Entre Les Morts by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac  Produced by:  Herbert Coleman   Starring: James Stewart, Kim Novak, and Barbara Bel Geddes  Oscar Count: 0 (Nominated for Best Sound and Best Art Direction)

After the initial critical and box office failure of Vertigo, famed master of suspense, was never allowed to make another “film.”

Don’t get me wrong. Hitchcock made plenty of crowd pleasing films, that were successful critically and commercial. But except for Psycho, Hitchcock was never free to experiment again (and he only got away with that slasher shocker because it was cheap to make). The rest of his films were fairly standard, designed with the studio’s bottom line in mind. They also conform to the rigid standards of a thriller – good vs evil, intense action sequences, and the use of the Cold War or the media obsession with violent crime in the background. There was never an exploration of humanity or with analyzing what makes us tick.

The 100 Greatest Films of all time – 10: Chinatown

by Daniel Suddes 

Chinatown (1974) –  Directed by: Roman Polanksi   Written by: Polanski (uncredited) and Robert Towne  Produced by: Robert Evans and C.O. Erickson   Starring:  Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Houston, and Diane Ladd Oscar Count: 1 (Best Original Screenplay for Robert Towne.  Also nominated for Best Actor (Nicholson), Best Actress (Dunaway), Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound, and Best Picture.)

No one really understands Chinatown.

Most modern critics view the film as the last of the classic film noirs (released two decades outside the time period) and view it as the final word on noir. Everything that has come after Chinatown is only trying to be ironic and make a knowing film noir. Certainly, everything from Se7en to Who Framed Roger Rabbit have borrowed elements from this film, and have been blatant about what they were trying to do. Chinatown is not.

100 Greatest Films of all time – 11: Crimes and Misdemeanours

by Laurent Kelly

Crimes and Misdemeanours (1989)  Directed and written by: Woody Allen  Starring: Martin Landau, Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Alan Alda, Anjelica Huston, Claire Bloom  OSCAR COUNT (0) – Nominated for Director, Original Screenplay and Supporting Actor (Landau) 

Crimes and Misdemeanours portrays two loosely linked stories which each show how life affirming notions of virtue and morality serve no real function in a world ruled by the rich and powerful. What makes the film outstanding is that its narrative leads one to anticipate that a sense of justice will prevail only to then to subvert this tone with a cruel ending that mirrors the harsh nature of everyday society. That Allen’s script also manages to incorporate deft comedy within these tragic tales without nullifying the impact of the drama speaks volumes about how masterfully it is crafted.

THE 100 GREATEST FILMS OF ALL TIME – 12: JAWS

by Laurent Kelly

Jaws (1975)  –  Director: Steven Spielberg  Adapted Screenplay: Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb  Starring: Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss  OSCAR COUNT (3) – Best film editing, Best original score, Best sound. 

Jaws represents Spielberg at his finest, blending warm characters with exhilerating set pieces that make an art form of all the technical aspects of filmmaking. Evidence that Spielberg was born to make such high concept blockbusters can be seen in his mostly futile attempts at serious minded filmmaking which nearly all feel artificial in their attempts at conveying emotion and overly sentimental when trying to establish the grim subject matter.

THE 100 GREATEST FILMS OF ALL TIME – 13: APOCALYPSE NOW

by Dan Suddes 

Apocalypse Now (1979) Produced and Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola Written by: Coppola, John Milius and Michael Herr Based on the novel Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad  Starring: Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Lawrence Fishburne, Dennis Hopper, and Marlon Brando. Oscar Count: 2 (Best Sound, Best Cinematography. Also Nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Duvall),Best Art Direction, Best Editing, Best Picture, and Best Adapted Screenplay)

Apocalypse Now, for all intents and purposes, should have been an outright disaster a la Heaven’s Gate. Indeed, that famous bomb’s shoot tried to emulate Now as much as possible. But Cimino’s flop turned into one of the most incomprehensible films ever made; a film that so recklessly tried to be the definitive statement of a shameful time in America that ended up feeling like a drugged teenager’s graffiti mural painted on the side of the National Museum of The American Indian.

The 100 greatest films of all time – 14: Pulp Fiction

by Daniel Suddes

Pulp Fiction (1994)  Directed by: Quentin Tarantino  Produced by: Lawrence Bender  Written by:  Tarantino, Story By Roger Avary and Tarantino  Starring:  John Travolta, Samuel L Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames, Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, and Christopher Walken  Oscar Count: 1 (Best Original Screenplay. Also Nominated for Best Actor (Travolta), Best Actress (Thurman), Best Supporting Actor (Jackson), Best Director, Best Film Editing, and Best Picture).

Amongst everyone born in the 1980s (including myself), Pulp Fiction is the sort of landmark film that will never be repeated in their life time. It was the equivalent of dropping a fox in a chicken coop – an event that so violently and significantly changed the environment as a whole that not addressing its impact would be downright ignorant.

But why is that? As time goes on, Pulp Fiction does not seem as original as it did in 1994. But then, it was not original to begin with. The film was mainly the sort of combination of the French New Wave, Blaxploitation, and Hong Kong Action films as a geek who worked in a local video store (as Tarantino did) would make after staying awake for 100 hours watching Breathless and The Killer on a loop. In other words, Tarantino did not necessarily break new ground. But then, the techniques that Tarantino re-introduced to audiences were techniques that had been forgotten. I hope I do not need to remind readers which films were at the top of the box office before Pulp Fiction was released. The fact that this indie film managed to have such a wide impact is an important part in its mythology.  Finally, masters Godard and Leone became an important part of everyone’s film going life.

THE 100 GREATEST FILMS OF ALL TIME – 15: BLADE RUNNER

by Dan Suddes

Blade Runner (1982)  Directed By:  Ridley Scott  Written By:  Hampton Francher and David Peoples Based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep By Phillip K Dick  Produced by:  Michael Deeley Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Darryl Hannah, and Edward James Olmos Oscar Count: 0 (Nominated for Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects)

At its release, Blade Runner was regulated to being a visually stunning but emotionally sparse downer that audience who were flocking to E.T. did not tolerate. A quarter of a century later, and the film is considered among the best science fiction films of all time.

Why? Maybe it’s because people finally realized that they could not attack a film’s lack of humanity when the central theme of the work is what humanity is. The replicants (artificial humans) act with more compassion and feeling than the human characters do. They love each other and are capable of affection towards humans. Deckard, in the meantime, barely reacts when he is asked to destroy the replicants and his attempts of love are as seemingly artificial as a robots should be. Watch the scene when he is directing Rachel what to say to express love. It is not for her benefit, but for his own.

THE 100 GREATEST FILMS OF ALL TIME – 16: STAR WARS

by Daniel Suddes

Star Wars (1977) Written and Directed by: George Lucas  Produced by:  Lucas and Gary Kurtz  Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness, Peter Cushing, and featuring the voice James Earl Jones. Oscar Count: 6 (Best Art Direction, Best Costuming, Best Visual Effects, Best Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound. Also nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Guinness), Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay)

It’s time to state the obvious.  The Star Wars saga is, in many ways, a mess of storytelling and filmmaking technique. The writing is terrible, the acting is weak, and the entire universe is some sort of far-fetched mess. Lucas has spent his entire career editing and changing his masterpiece, and then trying to pretend those edits did not happen.  And this is not even getting into prequels (the first two of which are completely dead creatively).  Also, Star Wars effectively ended the auteur period in Hollywood. Star Wars is an unusual film to critique and is a failure by many standards.