Directors Gangster Movie Tournament (1 Viewer)

[Brook K]

Well, I think I liked OUAT MUCH more than you did George, but I'd still put White Heat a teensy bit ahead

 

[SteveGon]

The Godfather and Once Upon a Time in America advance to the final.


Final Match

The Godfather vs. Once Upon a Time in America

 

[Jim_K]

The Godfather

 

[Brook K]

The Godfather

 

[Bill McA]

Once Upon a Time in America

 

[george kaplan]

The Godfather

 

[Ric Bagoly]

The Godfather all the way...

 

[Lew Crippen]

The Godfather

 

[SteveGon]

...and The Godfather takes it.

Thanks for playing!

 

[george kaplan]

While I am thrilled by the outcome (I 100% agree with The Godfather as the greatest gangster movie), I'm still in disbelief at how highly people rate Once Upon a Time in America. I've seen at least 20 films on this list I'd put way above it.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Great idea Steve Thanks.


Those who remember Jim’s Criterion Collection tournament and did not like the fact that no English language films made it to the final four, you may (or more probably) may not remember something I said towards the end of that tourney:
There were no foreign films in the final four in this one (although Leone is Italian). The final four films in Ric’s Ultimate Villains tournament were:

1.Count Dracula
2.Darth Vader
3.John Doe
4.Clarence Boddicker

True there have been many portrayals of the Count in foreign films and in non-English languages, but I suspect very strongly that if the only choices were Drácula, Nosferatu and the ilk he would not have made the final four.

Two tournament count: English language films 7.75--foreign language films 1.25 (and I’m being very generous in awarding a full quarter point here).

 

[george kaplan]

Lew,

I for one would have been very happy to see a foreign film (Rififi) in the final four. But I think in this case, it's not so much bias, as a reflection of certain realities. Foreign films make up a much, much larger percentage of the Criterion collection, than they do of the corpus of Gangster films.

 

[Lew Crippen]

There are not so many perhaps, but there are Japanese, Italian, French and German gangster films. The French New Wave in particular made some excellent ones.

In any case, your argument was the one I tried to make in the Criterion Collection tournament as to the number (and more importantly the quality) of foreign films in the collection.

That reasoning was not so acceptable to some tourney participants who ‘lost interest’ after there were only foreign films left.

Plus there are plenty of villains in foreign films (aside from the ubiquitous Dracula), all who were ignored in Ric’s tourney (at least as far as advancing to the final four).

I’m really just pointing out that most of the tourneys wind up with English language films in the finals and it seemed a bit surprising that in the one tourney where they actually advanced, it engendered complaints such as ‘there ought to be at least one’.

Sauce for the goose, say I.

 

[george kaplan]

I honestly don't remember if or when I "lost interest" in the Criterion tournament, but if I did, it wasn't because there were only foreign language films left, it was because there weren't any films I liked left.

For example, if a Criterion Tourney had only these foreign language films left, I'd be all over it:

The Killer
Hard Boiled
The Seventh Seal
M
Diabolique
Sanjuro
Alexander Nevsky
M. Hulot's Holiday

just to name a few.

On the other hand, if it only had these English Language films left, I'd completely lose interest:

Walkabout
Robocop
Flesh for Frankenstein
Rushmore
Chasing Amy
Written on the Wind
Do the Right Thing
Withnail & I

It would have nothing to do with language.

I almost always finish participating in tourneys I start playing in, but I'll admit I do lose interest in occasionally in tourneys when the only films left are ones I hate, or where there is an outcome too tragic to ignore (e.g., President Bush not at least making it to the finals of the villians tournament or the recent indescribably stupid vote for Texas Chainsaw Massacre over Psycho which ends my interest in that tourney).