Drama-Lama Ding-Dong
Apr 13 '00 (Updated May 25 '00)
I don't know why I'm undertaking a project of this magnitude. I can tell you now I'm going to wake up every night for the next few months, blurt out the name of some drama that didn't make my list, clench my fists, look toward my ceiling and cry "Noooooooooooooooo!"
Just a note: this is NOT a list of my favorite movies. Many times, the dramas that have the most profound impact on me are movies that I'll never watch again. I don't like being made to feel like cr*p because Michael Corleone had to have his older brother Fredo tagged. I don't like feeling weepy when Kevin Costner gets to play catch with his dad one last time. And I sure as hell don't enjoy watching a bloodied Marlon Brando walk defiantly into a warehouse so he can stock ships for another day.
Well, you get the point. Here goes nothing:
10. "M" — I know, I know: It's too obscure to be in a top ten list. But Peter Lorre is unforgettable as an almost sympathetic child killer who is forced to defend himself against an underworld of vengeful captors. "M" is the original psycho-killer drama and, I venture, the best. Fritz Lang's German masterpiece exhibits such grittiness and raw emotion that, when it's over, you feel like you've just gotten out of surgery.
9. The Graduate — Seldom does a movie provide such a successful mix of humor and drama; Humor and drama that stand in such stark contrast they magnify each other. This movie happens to be my personal favorite. The characters are comically believable and turn a seemingly mundane plot (by today's standards) into a tour de force. (Did I just say "tour de force"? I apologize.)
8. The Shawshank Redemption — It made me cry. It made me mad. It made me so happy I cried some more. When a movie sets me up like this one does I usually don't bite. But I bit. And when I saw it again I bit again. And again. Tim Robbins plays an innocent man sent to prison for murdering his wife. An intelligent, docile man, he becomes stronger and craftier than anyone can imagine. A story of liberation and friendship that will eventually stand among the all-time classics.
7. Manhattan — Comedy my eye! The jokes aren't very funny and neither is the plot. How this movie was ever categorized as a comedy is beyond me (I imagine some zitty kid at Blockbuster doing inventory and saying to himself: "Hmmm, Manhattan. Woody Allen. Must be a comedy. Didn't he marry his sister?") Allen plays himself wonderfully. Marial Hemingway is surprisingly good as Allen's 17-year-old love interest. And that ending: A broken Isaac runs across town just in time to see Cindy off for London. His look in the closing shot says it all: Sometimes you just can't win.
6. Five Easy Pieces — Nicholson shines as the bad-boy son of a stroke-ravaged piano virtuoso. Forsaking his job, his girlfriend, his sister — anyone that can help him. Nicholson molds a character so fierce in his anti-social behavior that you can't help but root for him, even when you can't stand him anymore.
5. Goodfellas — My favorite gangster flick. While the Godfather was steeped in tradition, loyalty and family, Goodfellas was of a different ilk: It was about being a gangster for the sake of being a gangster. Dirty, desperate and bold, Goodfellas yanks you along like few movies can. An effective story told with great camera work and a handful of wonderful actors. I feel this movie, more than any other, has shaped the face of modern drama.
4. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest — I'll never be able to get a proper handle on this one. Jack Nicholson plays Randall P. MacMurphy, a convict who plays crazy to get out of prison and into a mental hospital. The plan backfires, to say the least. When MacMurphy begins to bond with his "cell-mates" in the ward, his fate is sealed. Cuckoo's Nest is both a disturbing indictment of the mental health system and a tragic case study of a man trying to keep his own sanity in the face of utter lunacy.
3. Vertigo — Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece about the thin line between appearance and reality. Usually movies like this spawn a cavalcade of contemporary imitators. But not in this case. Maybe Vertigo succeeds so well in turning concept into action that it's above imitation. James Stewart is brilliant as Scotty, an ex-cop struggling with acrophobia who becomes the patsy in an intricate murder scheme. As with most great dramas, the closing sequence is explosive. But that triumphant yet ill-fated climb up the bell tower steps may be the most explosive ever.
2. The Hustler — Paul Newman goes from brash young pool shark to down-and-out pool-room bum after losing a two-day straight-pool match with the legendary Minnesota Fats (Jackie Gleason). Newman's performance as Fast Eddie Felson is his best. How does he get another shot at Minnesota Fats? How does he learn to love? And how does he deal with loss? It's all there. Eddie Felson acquires character and returns to triumph not only in a pool game, but in life. And my favorite movie line ever: "Yeah, and I got character now, don't I Bert? Picked it up back in a hotel room in Louisville." Pure celluloid magic.
1. The Deer Hunter — No other movie has ever made me feel worse. Robert DeNiro losing at love; he and his best friends surviving (physically) a vicious game of Russian Roulette and captivity in a bamboo river cage in 'Nam; then DeNiro going back overseas just to watch Christopher Walken blow his brains out. The penultimate blue-collar American drama, right up to when they sing "God Bless America."
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
pantagrapher
|
|
Reviews written: 20
Trusted by: 63 members
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.