Most have made their preferences known.
"Black Swan," (about a fading ballerina) runs neck-and-neck with "The King's Speech" (about a monarch with a lisp) for Best Everything. You sense that this contest is close, because an Un-Named Flack for an Un-Named Studio leaked it out to the entertainment media that "King" contains a character with Nazi sympathies. That ought to sway the judges! -- proof, yet again, some of these smarmy, snarky Hollywood weasels have no shame.
(Disclosure notice: I am not a Nazi. And I'm going to hold off seeing both of these films until they get released on DVD.)
Each year at this time, I reflect on a few of the Great Movies I have seen. Then, usually when I can't sleep, I mess around with how I would rank them.
My criteria: movies have to pass a "Five S" Test to make my short list.
- They have to be exceptionally-written, and filmed, Screen plays.
- The Stars have to deliver exceptional performances.
- The musical Score must be sweeping in composition.
- The film has to make me See the world through different eyes.
- And, finally, a movie must be Significant with respect to how we understand our fellow humans.
I bought into a principle espoused years ago by my Sainted Mother. In her simple manner, she said one should expect three things from a movie: "Get a Good Laugh. Get a Good Cry. Get Something Good To Talk About."
So, My Fellow Americans, let's review my Five Top Films -- presented to you in Vivid Color and by the decades in which they were released.
1960s: Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Robert Bolt's adaption of Boris Paskernak's novel and David Lean's direction of Omar Sharif, Alec Guinness, Rod Steiger et. al. left me breathless when I first saw the film. It continues to thrill and inspire me to the present day. Zhivago is, at its essence, a story of unrequieted love set against the emotional pain and real violence suffered by millions during the Russian Revolution. Maurice Jarre's original musical score was just a cherry on this sundae.
Money scene: Julie Cristie plugging Rod Steiger at the New Year's Eve gala in Moscow.
(Factoid: Zhivago was filmed in the Canadian Rockies -- certainly looked like the Urals.)
In 25 words or less, Yuri Zhivago wagered his heart in a game he failed to understand. What happened to him happens to such men who lose.
1970s: Chinatown (1974)
Robert Towne's mangnificent screenplay circulated around Tinseltown for years until Roman Polanski figured out how to turn it into a film. Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway and the great one, John Huston took me through a riddle that became a conundrum that turned into an inigma -- in a stark examination of political and human corruption and greed. Jerry Goldsmith's haunting, sparse score added just enough pathos to tip this film from being simply great to becoming legendary/iconic.
Money scene: Polanski cleaning Nicholson's snot-locker by the reservior fence.
In 25 words or less: Jake Geddes and Noah Cross learn that death of those you love just might be the consequence of corruption and greed.
1980s: Gandhi (1982)
Ben Kingsley's depiction of Mohandas Gandhi blew my mind. Talking about getting into character! But let's give credit where credit is due: Kingsley had John Briley's brilliant script as a guide, plus the incredible vision and directing talent of Richard Attinborough, as his resources.This is a film shot on-location in India with a cast of thousands, employed to add depth and emphasis to the life and times of one enderly man who had the courage, and the integrity, to stand up for the freedom of his people. At its most basic element, Gandhi is a pure love story: the love of a man and a woman; the love of a man for his countrymen; the love of a man for his country's dignity and freedom.
This film I can say, without reservation, is a Feast for the Eyes. Attinborough captures the essence of India, a mystical land filled with mystical people. And Ravi Shankar's riveting and moving score places a wonderful exclamation point onto this production.
Money scene: Kingsley telling a Hindu fanatic how to escape the pain of Hell.
In 15 words or less: Freedom begins when one man with courage and integrity takes his first step down the road.
(Factoid: Larry Collins, co-author of the definitive history with Dominique LaPrierre about Gandhi's role in India's Independence, lived in West Hartford, CT. I had the honor of meeting him once.)
1990: Dances With Wolves (1990)
Kevin Costner was the driving force behind this masterpiece. At the time, Hollywood westerns were deader-than-dead. No Box Office, or so said the Marketers. But Costner transformed Michael Blake's screenplay, about a soldier stationed at the end of the American frontier, into a film that captures the beauty of the Prairie and the nobility of the Sioux Nation framed against the hubrus and racism of an expanding White nation.
At its essence, Dances With Wolves is another kind of a love story: it's about John Dunbar's transformation from ignorance to understanding, about his love for the land, a special group of people, and for the love of a woman.
Costner pulled out all the stops in capturing scenes of the Prairie as one might have seen them back in the 1860s -- up to and including a magical, five-minute buffalo hunt sequence.
John Barry's symphonic score adds profound depth to virtually every scene of this magnificent film -- in fact, it now stands alone on its own merit as a piece known as "The Prairie Suite."
Money scenes: The Buffalo hunt and Costner playing tag with his pal, Two Socks.
In 15 words or less: Man can discover love and respect in places and among people he fears most.
(Factoid: Michael Blake wrote Dances With Wolves as a novel years before Costner hunted him down to offer Blake $1 million for the rights to the book. You see, Mike Blake was down-and-out and washing dishes at a diner at the time...)
2000s: Million Dollar Baby (2004)
Paul Haggis based his wonderful screenplay on the Hope Burns stories by F.X. Toole. Clint Eastwood grabbed it up and took to playing the lead character, Frank Dunn, an old pug of a boxing gym owner, like a duck takes to water.
Magnificent performances are delivered by Hillary Swank, who just wants a fighting chance to live her dream as a pro boxer, and by the incomparable Morgan Freeman, who plays the role of a down-and-out corner man.
This is not a coming-of-age story: it is a tale about man who has not only lost his only daughter's love, he's also one step from losing his soul.
Unlike the other films on my list, Million Dollar Baby is Spartan-stark. If you try hard enough, you can smell the sweat and taste the blood in Frank Dunn's place. (In this aspect, Eastwood could have filmed his classic in black-and-white.) This is a story about moral choices, and the one posed to Frank Dunn is this: what's the price one pays when one kills the one he loves best?
I have never seen a movie with this kind of theme before, and it's doubtful I ever will.
Eastwood composed the score -- its haunting beauty adds tremendous dignity to the story.
Money scene: Swank wades to camera front-and-center and then proceeds to KO her unseen opponent with one punch.
This film is too complex-compound-complex to be reduced to 25 words or less. Let's just say that Dunn gives a young woman a fighting chance to live her dream -- with all the risks her journey may impose.
So there they are: my list of five great films.
If I had to choose from all the films ever made which one I would take with me to the Desert Island -- and if I could take just one -- it would be ....
"Don Juan Di Marco."
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