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AFI’s Top 100 Films List Forum Challenge (Part 3) (1 Viewer)

Sarah S

Second Unit
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Feb 6, 2001
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333
Just finished The Deer Hunter....I kinda liked it; the plot could have been less subtle, but everyone involved (at least the main trio, and to some extent the supporting cast) turned in really good perfermances. I think I will always wonder why exactly Stanley carried a fully loaded gun around, but it won't cause me to lose any sleep at night. Just one of the myriad plot holes, I guess.
All in all, 3 out of 4. :)
 

Edwin Pereyra

Senior HTF Member
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Oct 26, 1998
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Rob Willey wrote:
That's it, stick a fork in me, I'm done. AFI challenge met.
How did I miss your post? Must have been because it was included in your post for On The Waterfront, which I just finished last night and I didn't want it spoiled for me.
Anyway, CONGRATULATIONS! You are hereby added to the "Elite" list. :)
~Edwin
 

Sarah S

Second Unit
Joined
Feb 6, 2001
Messages
333
Just finished Chinatown....ugh will I ever recapture my lost innocence again? I think not.
I did expect some grittiness; after all, this was filmed in the '70's. I did NOT expect the ending. I guess the few noirs that I've seen (namely the ones on the AFI list) prepped me to believe that the villian won't get away with it. I guess that they aren't always right.
Acting: 4 out of 4
Story: 3 1/2 out of 4
Now on to happier movies like the Graduate or Network.... :)
 

Seth Paxton

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Whoa there Sarah, might want to spoiler tag that Chinatown info since there are others who haven't seen it and I've yet to meet someone who didn't get the same effect from the ending that you did. :)
 

Seth Paxton

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French Connection
I couldn't remember much of this besides the car/subway chase, so it was like brand new for me. I sure miss the gritty 70's feel, especially for crime films. I also didn't remember the less than "uplifting" ending to the film. What amazes me is how much info can be passed along with little blurbs and moments, I wish more screen writers and directors remembered that today.
Hackman is excellent as his obsessiveness, his over-obsessiveness, comes through just right. You root for him, but you know he goes to far and is destructive to himself, Scheider and everyone else around him.
I also love how the realism of all the trailing and footwork is used to help make the later car/subway chase payoff in intensity by setting the tone, the standard for how intense all this legwork is, rather than just going for over-the-top cartoony crap as a way of giving a false intensity. It's another lesson for today's filmmakers in how to use earlier scenes to bring it home later, rather than just wasting screen time. Nothing is wasted in this film.
4/4
A Streetcar Named Desire
This is one I hadn't seen at all, except for clips of Brando. What a tour de force he puts on. He is masterful and dominate. Pure genius in every moment.
I didn't realize how things were going to go for Blanche and was a bit surprised. I was also a bit surprised at the direction Stanley took near the end as I didn't think he had it in him. Especially considering the relationship between Stanley and Stella. I thought their true love, volitile or not, came across beautifully. Kim Hunter was great.
Now I know Leigh catches hell for being old school and dated next to Brando, but I don't think that's a fair assessment considering her character. The fake attitude was all from the character, not the actress. And I think her speech to Malden near the end really showed that as her performance changed dramatically to a more realistic, gritty one on par almost with what Brando had been putting out.
Pretty good film, better than Waterfront to me by quite a bit, although I did like it as well.
3.5/4
So my list is down to 7, 5 unseen, 2 revisit, including that damn Patton that I always seem to start but not finish. I like the film I just never make time for it and I refuse to watch the DVD all the way through for the first time on anything but the big screen.
My list
Unseen
37. THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946)
68. AN AMERICAN IN PARIS (1951)
86. MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY (1935)
92. A PLACE IN THE SUN (1951)
100. YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942)
Revisit
38. DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)
89. PATTON (1970)
 

Robert Crawford

Crawdaddy
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Pretty good film, better than Waterfront to me by quite a bit, although I did like it as well.
Seth,
Another misguided soul! :) Of course, I'm just messing with you and yes, I disagree with the above quote but "different strokes for different folks". Damn, I can't believe that you haven't watch "Patton"! Hell, take a break from the forum and finish the job.
Sarah,
I don't necessarily agree with your point about "Chinatown" and the bad guy winning. I believe Spoiler:Huston's character loss big-time when his daughter was killed maybe not then but later on.
Crawdaddy
 

William Ward

Supporting Actor
Joined
Mar 1, 2000
Messages
701
Put me in the more than 50 left list....
I believe my total of movies on the list that I've seen is:
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17
[ducking tomatoes]
I've actually seen Duck Soup though...so I should get some kind of points for that....
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------------------
William
Go Bucs!!
MyDVDs
 

Edwin Pereyra

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On The Waterfront (1954)
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(out of four); #8 on the AFI List.
I didn’t know that Norma Rae was inspired by this film.
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In addition, its about time that some people take one of those Ropes course I was talking about that was badly needed by those ungrateful townfolks in High Noon.
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This is an excellent film all-around. Marlon Brando delivers a very passionate performance. I liked what the film had to say especially around the time it was released in 1954. It is a gritty and bold film and its themes of corruption and standing up against a system that is wrong are universal and still holds up through today.
Winner of won eight Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director (Elia Kazan), Best Story and Screenplay, Best Actor (Brando), Best Supporting Actress (Eva Marie Saint), Best B/W Cinematography, Best B/W Art Direction-Set Decoration, and Best Film Editing, this is definitely, a very fine film.
~Edwin
 

Edwin Pereyra

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Participant list updated. Welcome to those who just joined us. :)
Okay, folks. We are down to the final six months of the Challenge. Time to get away from those mindless summer movies and start getting serious with this one.
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I guarantee you, it will be much more fulfilling.
As you may or may not know, the derivative of this Challenge is for the Forum to come up with its own Top 100 Films. That part of the Challenge will be introduced in the Fall as more people are able to watch the entire AFI list.
It only gets better from here. :)
~Edwin
 

Sarah S

Second Unit
Joined
Feb 6, 2001
Messages
333
Sorry Seth, Robet. I had hoped that my Chinatown post was ambiguous (sp?) enough not to totally ruin the movie. :) I am unable to respond to your other comments on this film because my version of WebTV doesn't do minor unimportant things like highlighting.
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Oh well, I'll just have to check back here on Monday.... :)
Anyway, the main reason of my post today was to celebrate my category jump. I finished The Graduate recently and by my accounting that takes me to 40 left to go. Yay!
SPOILERS AHEAD! SPOILERS AHEAD!
I didn't think that the Graduate was really a comedy; for me itplayed more like a drama w/comedic elements. I didn't find "Mrs. Robinson" very prevalent either, unless it was supposed to be the chorus of "Hello Darkness My Old Friend" which was (IMHO) played much more often. But then, what do I know about Simon & Garfunkel? Not too much. Do I really care? Not really. It was somehow more appropiate than Mrs. Robinson anyway; especially /spoiler/ during the whole montage sequence when he was going between the pool and hotel. I think actually that it was my faverite part of the whole movie. I also liked the end where Emily tells her mother that it isn't too late for her. /spoiler/
I didn't really like Dustin Hoffman's performance as he tended to speak in a monotone through most of the movie. I would have to say that I liked him more in Midnight Cowboy.
I also went & revisited Close Encounters, though it really isn't on the unshaded portion of list (I shade them as I go; it makes it easier to tell what I have left). Watching it, I was reminded of how ID4 built it's tension in the beginning part of the movie. That made me think of all the movies I've seen recently; and how they influenced the movies that came after. It's really interesting (to me, at least) how many in-jokes Hollywood has along with intentional or unintentioal homages to these great films. For example, while watching the opening scene in Chinatown, I was reminded strongly of Roger Rabbit of all things! Oh well, I guess that's what they mean when they say that Hollywood doesn't have any original ideas left. :)
 

Walter Kittel

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Sarah - Yes, one of the real pleasures of viewing many of the older titles ( aside from the excellence of the films themselves ) is to gain a greater appreciation on how latter films are influenced by the predecessors. I remember back way back when, watching Body Heat theatrically and thinking what a cool film it was without having so much as a clue about Double Indemnity.
- Walter.
 

Mariano

Agent
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Sep 28, 1999
Messages
42
35 movies left, 6 months to go.
That's like 1.5 movies per week.
What do you think ? Can i finish it ?
My biggest problem is how am i going to do with some movies like "The birth of a nation" or "The Jazz singer"... i can't find them anywhere (not even in VHS of course).
When i started the challenge i had more than 75 left, just 35 now, that's a big acomplishment !! isn't it ? :)
Thanks Edwin for making me watch so many great films !!
 

Walter Kittel

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I knocked out two more films, both of which have received mixed comments in this thread I might add...
#73 Wuthering Heights 1939 -
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Reviewing the thread, I find myself in agreement with Seth's take on this film. Olivier was magnificent in this film. His ability to create a sympathetic character, in spite of his obsession, was the key to the film for me. Besides Olivier, I enjoyed the always reliable Donald Crisp and Geraldine Fitzgerald's Isabella. Merle Oberon's character was a bit of a puzzle for me, I enjoyed the performance but I'm not sure I completely *got* the character.
When the credits ran and I saw Gregg Toland's name, I knew that I'd be in for a visual treat and the cinematography in the film certainly lived up to my expectations.
BTW, I also agree with those who mentioned similarities between Citizen Kane and Wuthering Heights.
- Obviously, Toland's cinematography in some shots of Wuthering Heights strikes a chord.
- The obsession of Heathcliff recalls Charles Foster Kane's struggle to control his world.
- Maybe it is just me, but I thought that Cathy ( Merle Oberon ) bore some resemblance to Kane's first wife Emily ( Ruth Warrick ). It's been awhile since I viewed Kane, so don't hold me to that observation. :)
#68 - An American In Paris 1951 -
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I'm not sure why folks think this one is boring, but then everyone is entitled to their opinions. I thought it was an excellent musical that ( ahem ) hit all of the right notes. It had great music by George Gershwin, a charismatic lead in Gene Kelly, wonderful production design ( director Vincente Minelli's forte, IMHO ), beautiful technicolor cinematography that is synonomous with MGM musicals, fine dancing by Kelly and Leslie Caron, and some nice comic relief in the droll persona of Oscar Levant.
I enjoyed all of the numbers in the film, but especially Kelly being accompanied by the Parisian children in I've Got Rhythm, the wonderful Georges Guetary's performance of I'll Build A Stairway to Paradise and the duet of Kelly and Guetary on 'S Wonderful.
Also fun was Oscar Levant's 'one man orchestra' daydream. ( I wonder if McCartney got the idea for his music video where he plays all of the instruments from this film. ?? )
Additionally, the ballet sequence was a wonderful abstraction that tied the love story and Kelly's painting together as each of the vignettes played against a different artistic style. A fine reminder of how art and entertainment can be intertwined.
I know that some folks question why this film is on the AFI 100 list, but I have no problems with its inclusion. Vincente Minelli was a gifted creative talent at MGM that surely deserves representation on the AFI 100 and this is a fine example of his skill and craft.
- Walter.
17 to go
 

Sarah S

Second Unit
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Feb 6, 2001
Messages
333
Mariano, another great thing about watching all these films is noticing actors earlier in thier careers. My husband & I noticed a much younger Morgan Freeman having a small role as an air traffic controller in CE3K!
Just finished Network; another great movie. Exceedingly strong performances; especially by Faye Dunaway. I definitely think her character one of the best acted in that film, seconded by William Holden as Max . After watching that movie however, all I can really say is that I want to go and read a book. :) (even though the book I'm currently reading is about movies :))
4 out of 4 for this one.
 

Mariano

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Sara :
I have to agree with you, having the chance to watch a thin Marlon Brando in "On the waterfront" and "A streetcar named desire" was incredible
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Bjorn Olav Nyberg

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First, a review I have been avoiding for some time, mainly because I knew some of the views here would probably be considered downright heretic :)
Lawrence of Arabia
I simply loved this movie, and I think it looked marvelous. Still, I can't think of what else than it's visuals it has got going for it. Exciting and spectacular visuals is certainly enough for me to enjoy a movie, but somehow I keep expecting a film such as LOA to have something "more". As for the movie though, the first time around I enjoyed the first part of the movie most, as I found that looked more spectacular, the desert scenes, while the plot took more or less a second seat. The second part was more plot driven and examined Lawrence as a character more, but I felt it lost what it had got going for it throughout the first part. On later viewings I appreciated the second part more. But even as a character study of Lawrence, I felt the movie was mainly a visual ride. I can certainly appreciate that it was a magnificent and enormous task. For example the fact that they built Aqaba from scratch in Spain. Even before seeing the documentary and finding this out, I had already got a sense of the magnitude of this production, but it never once occured to me that they would build a whole city from scratch, because they liked the look of it's location in a bay! Amazing to say the least! But still, I can't help but feeling that the visual look of the film was the main drive. And therefore I keep comparing it to so-called CGI fests and the like of today, which get dismissed automatically when the visuals obviously are the main focus of the production. Of course, the quality of the movie is what matters in the end, and LOA is one of the better movies I've seen. Also, LOA has an amazing realism to it that CGI can hardly compare with, not only because CGI may not look real, but because the characters will obviously have something to work off. But still, I can't help but think it shares it main goal with many modern films, which will be automatically dismissed just because of that.
Lately I also watched The manchurian candidate.
I found the movie decently suspenseful, but had a hard time achieving suspension of disbelief, mainly because of the details surrounding the brainwashing, and what one would be able to accomplish with it. I have no idea if something like this would be possible to accomplish in reality, but I hope not :) While I think brainwashing may be possible, and probably occurs, I think of it mainly as a tool to insert differing opinions into people's mind. Also, I guess I was never fully aware that John Frankenheimer had been in the movie business so long. I did note some visual aspects, such as tilting the camera. I have no idea if this was the first movie to do this, but I imagine it must have been one of the first? Also, the kind of perspective depth, such as placing a face in profile in the front of the image, while keeping another person in the back, something I have seen in many Frankenheimer movies since. Also, the "gore substitute", here of shooting a person through a milk cartoon, instead of having blood gushing. Small things probably, but I imagine Frankenheimer must have been one of the first directors to ever do something like that, again if not the first.
Finally, Shane
What can I say, I simply loved this movie. I have been a western fan since I was a kid, and I loved this. I have a feeling Clint Eastwood must have seen it too, Pale rider in particularly borrowed a lot from this one, most particularly the general plot outline, but the main character as well. I knew beforehand that this movie was the one to introduce "louder than life" gunshots as well, but still I managed to be taken by surprised when the first guns went off. I can only imagine the reactions in the cinemas when this first happened :)
As usual, only superficial reviews and opinions from me, but according to my notes, I am now at 29 movies remaining. I already have The Philadelphia story and It happened one night lying unwatched at home, and The apartment is in the mail on it's way from Canada. PS Edwin, I have changed account name, Bjørn N was changed to Bjørn Olav Nyberg, so if you could update that as well when you find the time to update the list, I would be thankful.
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Bill Buklis

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As you may or may not know, the derivative of this Challenge is for the Forum to come up with its own Top 100 Films. That part of the Challenge will be introduced in the Fall as more people are able to watch the entire AFI list.
I'll start off with my vote for #1 in the HTF's AFI Top 100 - Casablanca. Simply the best picture ever made. Even though I still have quite a few on the list left to see, I seriously doubt any of the remaining movies will hold a candle to this film. And that includes Citizen Kane, but, I admit I haven't seen it yet, so who knows?
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out of 4.
 

Hugh Jackes

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Sarah S.
That air traffic controller in Close Encounters sure does look and sound like Morgan Freeman, but he is not listed in the credits. Nor is he listed as such in IMDB.
I swore to my wife that it was Freeman too, only to eat crow when I saw the credits. I guess everyone has a double.
 

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