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Napalm, Telescopes, and Time Machines: The 10 Best Movies EverFeb 03 '05 (Updated Apr 11 '07) Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line A top ten list of the greatest movies I have ever seen. When taking into consideration of the best movies ever made, the situation can never be correctly numbered and when numbered, it will easily arouse disagreement and possibly anger. It is impossible to number millions of films in the best order so I have decided to put my top ten BEST movies ever made (that I have seen) into alphabetical order. Keep in mind, these films are not necessarily the best of the best, but are the films that I think have contributed and used the most wisely of the art of film. But of course, I have many more films that I should watch so here are just my two cents. In 1979, Francis Ford Coppola’s journey through darkness in Apocalypse Now was not only present on screen, but off screen, the making of the film was a series of dark paths. Besides two years in the editing room, Coppola had the most difficult time with his actors. The stories of the on-set behavior in production are legendary and endless to this day. Marlon Brando’s actions during his participation of Apocalypse Now are still being mentioned at various trivia sections regarding the film. Nonetheless, Apocalypse Now is a well-respected American film portraying the insanity and brutality of the Vietnam War and one soldier’s journey of witnessing the descent of a world dominated by ruins because of war. The mind-blowing cinematography, especially in the helicopter scene of “The Ride of the Valkyeries” is shocking and presents the film’s signature moment. Martin Sheen’s portrayal as Willard is one of the most underrated performance of all-time, as the wandering captain searches for his eventual destiny. The greatest misconception about Milos Forman’s 1984 film, Amadeus, is that many assume that it is a film about classical composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This is untrue since Amadeus is much more about lesser-known composer, Antonio Salieri than Mozart, although it does give the audience an insight into what Mozart might have been other than the fact that he was a musical genius. Amadeus is not even completely fact so it is difficult to categorize it as a biography, but it is an interpretation or, a little more dramatic, a possible conspiracy. F. Murray Abraham showcases a dazzling performance as the Salieri, the man who has envied Mozart for all his life. Enter Mozart, played by Tom Hulce, a man-child musical genius who does not ask for a talent as much as Salieri does but delights himself with his own love of music. The film shows a possible relationship between Mozart and Salieri as Salieri drives forward into the realm of jealousy and unnecessary despair for himself. The conducting scenes were amazing in this film and everything from the costume and set design were just perfect. Although none of the actors used any accents in this film, it took away nothing from the film’s story. The best movies don’t necessarily have to be serious dramas, and this applies to Robert Zemeckis’s 1985 time travel phenomenon, Back to the Future. I have not seen a funnier, more imaginative, or wittier movie than Back to the Future, not even the sequels can even compete with the original. Michael J. Fox has all the charisma to play Marty McFly, an aspiring rock star that has a spanking skateboard skills and a girlfriend who supports him. He is a friend of Doc Brown, played by Christopher Lloyd, an eccentric mad scientist who has invented a time machine. Marty accidentally jumps into the time machine, made out of a Delorean, and finds himself in 1955. Then he accidentally disturbs his parents from meeting, which leaves him in a dilemma to play Cupid, or else he won’t be born, and he also must work with a pre-time-machine-inventor Doc Brown to fix the time machine so Marty can go back to 1985. Back to the Future has aged well from the batch of movies from the eighties teen genre and can serve feel-good entertainment for generations to come. Steven Spielberg has already made his mark in the filmmaking world after his enormous success in 1975 with Jaws, but to make that mark even more permanent, the release of E.T. The Extra Terrestrial in 1982 achieved international success and is still as wonderful today as it was then, as some may argue that Jaws has not aged well. To this day, E.T. still serves as the ultimate family classic about an alien lost on Earth who desperately wants to return home, and the boy, Elliot, played by Henry Thomas, who is willing to help this alien and eventually develop a friendship with him. This film is filled with childhood innocence and magic – a spirit of hope of survival and a search for love for one another. John Williams’s incredible score reminds moviegoers of a particular scene in the film – the scene when the bicycle flies across the moon in silhouette style. E.T. is filled with humor, wit, and an imaginative story that has indeed, aged very well. Revered Swedish director Ingmar Bergman’s swan song was 1982’s Fanny and Alexander, a film about childhood, maturity, magic, and tragedy. How Bergman balances all four so perfectly, I don’t know. Fanny and Alexander was my first Bergman film and I was instantly impressed by the luscious look to the film. The first scene opens the audience to a door of fantasy as we see young Alexander play with his puppet set and sees statues move around. All the things that follows that Christmas party in the beginning of the movies sets the stage of the revealing of the world’s most unpleasant and frightening moments of life that occur in Alexander’s short life. Some of the film’s sequences look like they portray a storybook illustration while some seem like reality on a parallel universe. Bergman crafts a sensual and tender film of innocence and confusion and at the end, the pages just seem to fall out in the right place. There is no surprise that Coppola ruled the seventies with his critically-acclaimed films as he was blinded into the spotlight by The Godfather in 1972, a box-office hit, but it was 1974’s The Godfather: Part II that won him an Oscar for Best Director. As many have previously said, The Godfather: Part II is arguably, better than the original, an opinion that I agree with. What Part II had that the original could not contend with is Al Pacino’s second go around as the most affective character in cinema, Michael Corleone. His portrayal of Michael is so cold and calculating in Part II that it shows everything that most young actors in Hollywood today lacks. In Part II, it continues the story of the Corleone family with Michael taking control of it in Nevada. He is dealing with Hyman Roth, played brilliantly by famous method actor teacher, Lee Strasberg. Roth is a dangerous man as he attempts a hit on Michael in fear of the power that the Corleones have. Michael searches for the one who betrayed the family and it leads to the best scene in the entire Godfather trilogy – the boathouse scene with Michael and brother Fredo, played by John Cazale in a career defining performance. A paralleling story told in flashbacks is of young Vito Corleone, played impressively by a young Robert De Niro. If the box office numbers were adjusted for inflation, Gone with the Wind, a film released in 1939, would be the number one film that made the most money instead of 1997’s Titanic. 1939 is a year when filmed transformed and is widely considered the best year for the movies, with director Victor Fleming dominating the movie world with both Gone with the Wing and The Wizard of Oz, both that eventually became classics. Gone with the Wind was already an extremely popular book and as Clark Gable who played the male lead of Rhett Butler said those who still has not read the book were considered “illiterate.” The book went on winning the Pulitzier Prize and inspired many sequels for the years to come. Finding the right Scarlett O’Hara was crucial of course because there has to be the actress that is feisty, vivacious, and determined. The role went to a little-known actress named Vivien Leigh who took the role of a lifetime and arguably, the greatest performance by an actress on film. The film is less a romance and more of an epic, refreshing even over sixty years later, and still stands timeless portrait of a doomed romance between two very difficult people in the background of the Civil War. The persona that Woody Allen presents in all his films makes it seem that the only lover he is compatible with is New York City. It makes sense that his masterpiece is 1979’s Manhattan, a film that reflects romantic relationships of the seventies with beautiful black-and-white photography and the music of George Gershwin humming in the background. Allen is often known as America’s greatest filmmakers, but is certainly underrated as an actor as many excuse him as playing the same character over and over again. His characters have similarities, but the situations they are involved in are different. His character in Manhattan is Isaac Davis, a forty-two year old man, twice divorced is having a supposed fling with a seventeen-year old high schooler played by Mariel Hemingway. His lesbian ex-wife, in a scene-stealing performance by Meryl Streep, is writing a tell-all book about their marriage. His best friend Yale, played by Michael Murphy, has the perfect marriage but is seeing an intelligent mistress Mary, played by Diane Keaton. Isaac becomes attracted to Mary and pursues a relationship with her. The Isaac and Mary relationship echoes the rhythms of Alvy and Annie in 1977’s Annie Hall, but also completely different and much more insightful and mature. Perhaps Isaac’s only true love is Manhattan, where he just tries too hard to find his soul mate. In Sidney Lumet’s 1976 thought-provoking satire, Network, have probably one of the smartest scripts and the most greatest cast ensembles ever. When a satire does not have a character that seem sane enough to communicate to the other side of reality, it fails to send out its message, but to me, Network does not fail the genre but presents the character of Max Schumacher, William Holden’s most graceful performance of his career, as the connection between satire and reality. Of course, the film is memorable because of Peter Finch’s immortal “I’m mad as hell and I don’t want to take it anymore!” rant, but Finch barely hammers up the calm performance Holden presented. There is Faye Dunaway as the cold-hearted producer that Max Schumacher lusts for and the last scene between them sums up their relationship so well, a scene that Holden just stole and simply ran away with. Network captures America’s obsession with television so well that we accept it as our preacher and life support. But it does not poke fun at the obsession as much as it imagines possible consequences. A voyeur’s dream came true through the telescope of Jefferies’s in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 mystery thriller, Rear Window. The beauty of Rear Window consists of its simplicity and the way the film engages the audience, making them stand in the shoes of its protagonist photographer, Jefferies, played by the classic everyman, James Stewart. Jefferies, bound to the wheelchair sits in front of his apartment window, forced to find entertainment while watching his neighbors go on with their daily life. He becomes suspicious of Lars Thorwald, thrillingly portrayed by Raymond Burr, of murdering his wife after an argument resulted in the disappearance of the woman. He involves his girlfriend, Lisa, played by Grace Kelly, his detective friend, played by Wendell Corey, and his nurse, Stella, in a comedic performance by Thelma Ritter. Although we delve into the investigation by Jefferies and company, we also see other images through Jefferies’s lenses that are just as interesting and detailed as Lars Thorwald. All this leads to the most thrilling entry into the ending of movies as the camera flashes into the face of a suspect.  |
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