sight and sound top 10 greatest movies ever

[Guest godthedog]

sight & sound's top ten poll

 

every 10 years, 'sight & sound' magazine polls a massive amount of critics & directors to compile a list of the ten greatest films ever made. not everyone treats it reverently, but i believe it's considered the most definitive list. this year's picks were:

 

(critics' choices)

 

citizen kane

vertigo

the rules of the game

the godfather I and II

tokyo story

2001: a space odyssey

battleship potemkin

sunrise

8 1/2

singin' in the rain

 

(directors' choices)

citizen kane'

the godfather I and II

8 1/2

lawrence of arabia

dr strangelove

the bicycle thief

raging bull

vertigo

rashomon

the rules of the game

the seven samurai

(3-way tie for 9th, hence 11 selections on the list)

 

the whole site is pretty cool, it allows you to see who voted for what, what movies by which director were voted for, & what everyone's top ten list is.

 

i have no idea why both godfather movies were grouped together, there were more votes for each movie individually than for both as a whole.

 

anyway, there it is, feel free to comment. i'll add my own comments later.

[Guest Grenouille]

Out of all the movies listed I've only seen two. I thought Citizen Kane was pretty good. My problem was that I found out what rosebud was before seeing it. Just look in the movie spoiler thread. I also saw Dr. Strangelove which I thought sucked and had one or two laugh out loud moments, but other than that was damned boring for a comedy.

[Guest El Satanico]

Well Dr. Strangelove is a very black comedy and isn't meant to be a laugh out loud at everything movie. This isn't a Farrely Brothers movie with easy jokes and cheap sight gags that are easy to laugh at. The majority of the humorous parts in Strangelove is subtle humor that doesn't present itself to the veiwer and say "laugh at me".

 

So while Strangelove only has a few "laugh out loud" moments it's still a very humorous movie. However you have to be able to catch subtle humor to see the true comedy of the movie.

[Guest Strike Force!]

Well Dr. Strangelove is a very black comedy and isn't meant to be a laugh out loud at everything movie. This isn't a Farrely Brothers movie with easy jokes and cheap sight gags that are easy to laugh at. The majority of the humorous parts in Strangelove is subtle humor that doesn't present itself to the veiwer and say "laugh at me".

 

So while Strangelove only has a few "laugh out loud" moments it's still a very humorous movie. However you have to be able to catch subtle humor to see the true comedy of the movie.

That reminds me....

 

If forgot to add Stanley Kubrick on my list of overrated directors on that overrated directors' thread.

[Guest El Satanico]

Well then i must demand that you remove the quote of me from your post. I will not have my name associated with such filth.

[Guest DARRYLXWF]

What about Mr Smith goes to Washington? Or Ordinary People?

[Guest DARRYLXWF]

hmmm

[Guest godthedog]

What about Mr Smith goes to Washington? Or Ordinary People?

'ordinary people' is (rightly) despised by directors and critics alike for robbing 'raging bull' at the oscars.

[Guest welshjerichomark]

nice to see that quentin tarantino voted for the "the great escape" its good that some1 appriciates the undisputed best film of all time

[Guest godthedog]

nice to see that quentin tarantino voted for the "the great escape" its good that some1 appriciates the undisputed best film of all time

um...if other people didn't vote for 'the great escape', doesn't that make it disputed?

[Guest C.H.U.D.]

um...if other people didn't vote for 'the great escape', doesn't that make it disputed?

um...I think he was just being very flamboyant about his personal opinion of the film.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

Strangelove and Raging Bull are 2 of my all-time favorites. No Taxi Driver? Wow.

[Guest El Satanico]

No Taxi Driver actually is a surprise, but it's still a good list.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

Vertigo is horribly overrated.

 

It's not a bad movie by any stretch...

 

but top ten EVER?

 

Right...

[Guest El Satanico]

Well being slightly overrated is better then when it was being grossly underrated for years.

[Guest J*ingus]

Why am I not surprised that the critics would put not one, but two silent movies on their list... yet somehow still leave out Buster Keaton and D.W. Griffith. I tells ya, there ain't no justice.

 

Personally, I think that Rashomon, Rules of the Game, and Vertigo have no business on a "Top 10 Best Ever" list, but the others are all either fine quality films, or I haven't seen them.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

People bad mouthing Strangelove?

 

How can I say this without flaming...

 

these people must be too stupid to see how hilarious that movie is.

 

"He'll see everything. He'll see the big board!"

 

Funniest. Line. Ever.

[Guest El Satanico]

amen brother bps amen

 

Testify!

 

well i'm referring to the part about people not liking it because i can't remember my favorite line.

[Guest godthedog]

'vertigo' is one of my all-time favorites. the first half is actually rather boring, but i can forgive it, because it's one of the few movies that has the balls to build EVERYTHING up to one scene (i won't spoil it, those who have seen it know what i'm talking about). the payoff in that one scene is extraordinary: scotty's slow transformation into obsession is complete, judy's expression of love at such an expense is cathartic, and the green light is just creepy. i consider the conclusion to be an afterthought.

 

on the whole, the directors seem to have better taste than the critics. the critics always seem to deliberately NOT vote for movies that are going for an emotional effect, & go for the more cerebral stuff that can be analyzed to death (hence, 'raging bull' is out, '2001' is in). 'singing in the rain' is i guess the critics trying to prove they AREN'T all cerebral, or it's just a testament to how great that movie is.

 

i always thought the horrible melodramatic acting ruined a great idea for 'rashomon'. but an unworthy kurosawa film is a better pick than, say, an unworthy godard film. yay! still no godard on the list!

 

the film theory & criticism heirarchy is probably due for a major revolution, cause the most recent movie on the list is 28 years old. most of the higher-ups seem to have a 'wait and see' policy of how great a movie ends up being, which is practical, but film had a MAJOR creative explosion in the 90s, & this isn't reflected on the list at all. come to think of it, neither is the new wave.

 

i saw 'tokyo story' today to see what all the fuss was about. maybe it had something to do with the video having no sound, but oh my god was that a slow movie. pretty good movie, but it was so...slow...and...so...static.

 

and i never understood how 'taxi driver' could be a better movie than 'raging bull'.

[Guest Incandenza]

Taxi Driver contains a much more immediate, visceral impact than Raging Bull, the latter of which took a couple of viewings before I truly appreciated its greatness. I still get chills just thinking of that closing scene.

 

But, within the Scorsese cannon, I will always rate GoodFellas over all.

[Guest LooseCannon]

'vertigo' is one of my all-time favorites. the first half is actually rather boring, but i can forgive it, because it's one of the few movies that has the balls to build EVERYTHING up to one scene (i won't spoil it, those who have seen it know what i'm talking about). the payoff in that one scene is extraordinary: scotty's slow transformation into obsession is complete, judy's expression of love at such an expense is cathartic, and the green light is just creepy. i consider the conclusion to be an afterthought.

 

on the whole, the directors seem to have better taste than the critics. the critics always seem to deliberately NOT vote for movies that are going for an emotional effect, & go for the more cerebral stuff that can be analyzed to death (hence, 'raging bull' is out, '2001' is in). 'singing in the rain' is i guess the critics trying to prove they AREN'T all cerebral, or it's just a testament to how great that movie is.

 

i always thought the horrible melodramatic acting ruined a great idea for 'rashomon'. but an unworthy kurosawa film is a better pick than, say, an unworthy godard film. yay! still no godard on the list!

 

the film theory & criticism heirarchy is probably due for a major revolution, cause the most recent movie on the list is 28 years old. most of the higher-ups seem to have a 'wait and see' policy of how great a movie ends up being, which is practical, but film had a MAJOR creative explosion in the 90s, & this isn't reflected on the list at all. come to think of it, neither is the new wave.

 

i saw 'tokyo story' today to see what all the fuss was about. maybe it had something to do with the video having no sound, but oh my god was that a slow movie. pretty good movie, but it was so...slow...and...so...static.

 

and i never understood how 'taxi driver' could be a better movie than 'raging bull'.

I agree with just about everything said in this post, though I haven't seen any Godard so I can't agree with anything you said about that. By the way, the ending to "Vertigo" is an afterthought. It was thrown on in the American version to satisfy the Hayes code requirement that "crime doesn't pay."

[Guest J*ingus]

EDIT: nevermind.

[Guest godthedog]

i was referring to the critics' list.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

God... when September hits I'm going to be the worst film student ever, out of both lists I've only seen two movies (2001: A Space Odyssey and Raging Bull). And yet I'm the first in line to rent Trancers 6 and have Mimic 2 and Crocodile 2 on my "must see" list

 

I didn't think 2001 was that great though. I liked A Clockwork Orange better, both as a film and an adaptation (even though they used "the American ending" instead of the "true ending").

[Guest evenflowDDT]

Yech... I just went through their list of EVERY film that received a vote, and out of the whole thing, I'd only seen 27 films.

 

But you know what, I don't care about what I haven't seen, only what I have. And THAT'S the kind of attitude that I'm going to have when everyone in my film classes make fun of me... good thing I'm taking theatre arts this quarter instead!

[Guest godthedog]

you've never seen 'vertigo'? either of the first 2 'godfathers'? 'the seven samurai'? 'dr strangelove'? good god, man.

[Guest evenflowDDT]

you've never seen 'vertigo'? either of the first 2 'godfathers'? 'the seven samurai'? 'dr strangelove'? good god, man.

Yea, yea, terrible I know... I meant to see the Godfather's when they were uncut on TNN, but I never did. And I've seen The Birds but not Vertigo... I KNOW I made the wrong choice there. I want to see Seven Samurai, but nowhere around here has it available for rent. And I mean to see Dr. Strangelove, but I never did... yea, I've got a lot of catching up to do.

[Guest godthedog]

I meant to see the Godfather's when they were uncut on TNN, but I never did.

i remember when the first one was shown on tnn. my girlfriend & i were making out, & she started giving me head around the time michael went to sicily i think. she stopped right before the end. good times.

[Guest WrestlingDeacon]

That looks to be a pretty standard list of what the best movies are usually purported to be. You've got your classics, your foreign films, your "underrated gems." All good movies to be sure though.

 

My favorites there would have to be Citizen Kane and Vertigo, although I wouldn't even put that in Hitchcock's top five best movies, probably around six.