Your help wanted: Drafting the definitive list of groundbreaking movies
Apr 19 '08
The Bottom Line Epinions is fortunate to have a wealth of reviewers and readers who know movies. Let's capitalize on some of that richness with a collaborative effort sparked by captainD.
_
Adam Ant is a visionary. More than 20 years ago the British pop star sang about our culture's pervasive tendency to wallow in instant and meaningless hype: "Two weeks and you're an all-time legend, I think they really go much too far."
Mr. Ant hadn't seen anything yet. Since he sang that, a list of words that have been stripped of any meaning through careless overuse would have to include legend as well as superstar, icon and diva.
We have the chance to save two words from falling into meaninglessness: "groundbreaking" and "revolutionary" as they are used in many movie reviews. By pooling our collective experiences and judgments, we can compile a list of the only movies that genuinely deserve to be called either revolutionary or groundbreaking.
What follows is a start to that list. Please leave in the comments section your additions, corrections or arguments. Anything is fair game. Perhaps a movie mentioned here is not the one that deserves credit. Or maybe an advance cited here is not influential enough to count. Be as bold, supportive or contrary as you like. Your passion can spark life in the project.
This enterprise started when captainD suggested in a recent post on the Epinions movie message board that reviews heralding a "revolutionary" or "groundbreaking" movie tend not to persuade. With your help, we can preserve those adjectives for the relatively few movies that have earned them.
THE PRELIMINARY LIST
Thomas Edison's short of two men dancing (1890 or 1891): The one that started it all.
Georges Melies' A Trip to the Moon (aka La Lune a un Metre, 1898, or maybe it's his 1902 version, Le Voyage dans la Lune ): first special effects
Romeo and Juliet (1908): Started the practice of adapting literary classics. (A later version, with its legendary credit of "Additional Dialogue by William Shakespeare," started the tradition of taking liberties with classics, which led to such movies as West Side Story.)
Birth of a Nation (1915): Set the scene for all the epics that followed.
The Tramp (1915): Charles Chaplin established the concept of a franchise based on a single character, as in the James Bond and Indiana Jones movies.
The Jazz Singer (1927): Ushered in talkies.
Grand Hotel (1932): first all-star cast
King Kong (1933): pioneering special effects
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937): first animated feature
The Wizard of Oz and Gone with the Wind (both 1939): trailblazing uses of color photography
Citizen Kane (1941): innovative cinematography
The Maltese Falcon (1941): Opened the door to film noir.
Anchors Aweigh (1945): Gene Kelly's dance with Tom (of Tom & Jerry) blends animation with live action.
Never Fear (1949): Ida Lupino opened a door for Barbara Streisand, Penny Marshall and every other female director.
Sunset Boulevard (1950): Other movies had used flashbacks, but the audacious one here set the stage for Memento and all movies that defy strict chronological order.
No Way Out (1950): The doctor played by Sidney Poitier blazed a trail for other black characters who are not slaves, servants or stereotypical comic relief.
Roshomon (1950): Any movie told from more than one perspective is compared to this one.
The African Queen (1951): showcase for on-location filming
House of Wax (1953): Its successful 3-D imagery started the evolution to IMAX.
Gumbasia (1955): first claymation (stop motion clay animation) movie
The Seventh Seal (1957): Its success opened the U.S. market for foreign films in art house theatres throughout the country.
Psycho (1960): Its influence is in every subsequent serial killer movie.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1969): innovative special effects
Boys in the Band (1970): first mainstream gay movie
M*A*S*H (1970): first movie to inspire a television series
Jaws (1975): This was the first summer blockbuster and its phenomenal success sparked interest in box office numbers among people outside the movie industry.
Star Wars (1977): Other movies had some merchandising associated with them, but this one ushered in the marketing blitzes that are standard today.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979): first movie based on a TV show
Tron (1982), The Last Starfighter (1984) and The Abyss (1989): groundbreaking uses of computer-generated images (CGI)
Toy Story (1995): first feature animated on computer
The Blair Witch Project (1999): early major success for on-line marketing
Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings (2001): pioneering transformation of live performances into computer-generated ones (the Gollum character)
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004): First feature filmed entirely against a blue or green screen on which computer-generated backgrounds are added later.
_____
OKAY, NOW IT IS YOUR TURN. Have at it, please.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
eplovejoy
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Member: Peter William Warn
Location: Buffalo, New York
Reviews written: 351
Trusted by: 304 members
About Me:
Help us compile the definitive list of groundbreaking movies: http://www99.epinions.com/content_5192196228
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.