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best movie of all time?

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East Buc & UMR
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best movie of all time?

Post by East Buc & UMR »

For those who didn't know or watch AFI had there 10th anniversary of 100 years 100 films.

Here is a link of both lists.

Link

Can someone explain or comment how
A. The best movie of all time only won an oscars for Best orginal screenplay?
B. How movies that have been out several decades can move 20+ spots?
C. What do you think is the best movie of all time?

LibertyMarie
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Post by LibertyMarie »

A. The Oscars are a celebrity popularity contest and so not necessarily all that well thought out?
B. Yeah this one I got nothin'.
C. I haven't seen enough to judge...the highest-ranking flick on their list I've seen is Wizard of Oz.


But movies I AM qualified to judge (haha):
I'm not sure how I feel about the two Disney movies on the new list (as far as I can tell, I didn't read it too carefully) being Snow White and Toy Story. First English, technicolor full-length animated feature (yeah, according to Wikipedia *scoffs,* it was not THE first full-length animated feature) and first full-length computer animated feature, okay. As you may have noticed by now, I am rather a Disney connoisseur, and I just hate, hate, HATE Snow White...haha. It's just not very good!! I definitely think many of its peers surpass it in plot, voice talent, making you care about the characters, music...I mean, to jump back to talking about the Oscars (which I still don't think are a valid means of rating movies), Beauty and the Beast won Best Picture. It seems like Snow White is the only Disney movie that can be respected by movie snobs on the sole basis of being The Original.



...i do like the music from snow white when it's SOMEONE ELSE singing...but that's beside the point. haha.

East Buc & UMR
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best movie of all time?

Post by East Buc & UMR »

Well most of those movies on the list are there because they were the first in something.

How have you not seen Singin' in the Rain?

Of the top ten the ones I haven't seen
Singin' in the Rain
Gone With the Wind
Lawrence of Arabia
Vertigo

LibertyMarie
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best movie of all time?

Post by LibertyMarie »

East Buc & UMR wrote: Well most of those movies on the list are there because they were the first in something.
lame.



and, yeah, "the highest-ranking flick on their list I've seen is Wizard of Oz" would imply that I've not seen Singin' in the Rain.

East Buc & UMR
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best movie of all time?

Post by East Buc & UMR »

I didn't ask if you saw singin in the rain.... I asked how could YOU not have? being you like those type of movies and all.

LibertyMarie
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best movie of all time?

Post by LibertyMarie »

Okay, sorry for not reading your post so carefully. (not too sorry.) Yeah...I would say I've seen MOST blockbuster movie musicals since 2001...before that, very, very few, actually.
So Moulin Rouge, Chicago, umm, Phantom of the Opera, The Producers, Rent, Dreamgirls...haha.
And I'll see Hairspray next month...very excited about that one.

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Post by East Buc & UMR »

So musical movies started in 2001?

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Post by ecks »

Contention number one: musicals are always better in competant theater productions than they are in the movies. My high school did a production of Chicago a couple years back, it was at least on par with the movie version.

Contention number two: movies can gain spots because of "changing cultural perspectives." How people view movies changes over time. It would seem that AFI is shooting more for a post-structural organization of the "best movies" rather than some Platonic Ideal of them.

LibertyMarie
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Post by LibertyMarie »

East Buc & UMR wrote: So musical movies started in 2001?
Not to keep us off-topic, but what I said was I've seen most of them since 2001, and few of them before 2001. Meaning people have always been making them (not so much now as then), and I've really only seen them from a certain recent point.

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Post by LibertyMarie »

ecks wrote: Contention number two: movies can gain spots because of "changing cultural perspectives." How people view movies changes over time. It would seem that AFI is shooting more for a post-structural organization of the "best movies" rather than some Platonic Ideal of them.
Deep.
What is the Form of movie?

East Buc & UMR
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Post by East Buc & UMR »

So in 10 years changing cultural perspectives have changed so much that select movies gained that many spots?

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Post by ecks »

East Buc & UMR wrote: So in 10 years changing cultural perspectives have changed so much that select movies gained that many spots?
Probably not. But other criteria they ask people to evaluate is historical importance, or how much any particular movie has impacted the cinematic field, which can change pretty dramatically in 10 years' time.

In all honesty, though, the large numbers of rising/falling associated with a lot of movies probably isn't indicative of much else other than:

1. The fact that what makes a 'great' movie is so biased that as members of the AFI change, so do the kinds of movies selected/valued.
2. A lot of these movies are very, very, very close in terms of quality. Just like any other list of all-time greats, there probably isn't a whole lot of difference between number 4 and number 16; they're both great examples of their field. It's just like how the US News and World Report rankings of colleges (which itself is a total fraud) shuffles the top 10 or so colleges every year; sometimes, Harvard is the best. Sometimes, Yale is. All it really means is that both schools are execellent and there's not a whole lot that sets one far and above the other.

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Charlie Dees
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best movie of all time?

Post by Charlie Dees »

I just don't think Deep Throat is the best movie ever. It's that simple.


Everybody knows it's Mean Girls.

East Buc & UMR
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Post by East Buc & UMR »

Well a list of the say the 50 best basketball players didn't have that much change... All new players when either

Playing when the list first came out and have since retired
Playing when the list first came out and are still playing
Or they weren't playing when the list first came out but our now.

I would except a list event in all sports. So why movies, books or other media?

Also anyone else want to chime in on the best movie of all time (i.e. what is your choice for best movie of all time)

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Charlie Dees
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Post by Charlie Dees »

As for Citizen Kane not getting awards, I'm pretty sure they've proven that hearst rigged the balloting that year.

Funsizeazn
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best movie of all time?

Post by Funsizeazn »

ok, i have to give charles kudos. mean girls owns.

love these: Moulin Rouge, Chicago, Phantom of the Opera.
and i love disney, but Snow White was lame. i agree.

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Post by East Buc & UMR »

love these: Moulin Rouge, Chicago, Phantom of the Opera.
and i love disney, but Snow White was lame. i agree.
It is marie all over again

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Charlie Dees
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Post by Charlie Dees »

Isn't that, like, every girly girl?

Moulin Rouge is pretty good, though.

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redliberte
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best movie of all time?

Post by redliberte »

heh, the time i tried to watch moulin rouge it was late, i was tired, and about half an hour into it, i felt like i had been drinking the absinthe.

i've never been a snow white fan... my favorite disney movie is the lion king, heh.

best movie of all time... i don't really feel qualified to answer that. i've seen so few of the movies that are actually considered to be "great films"... i think i've seen only 3 or 4 of the afi top 10. my favorite movie of all time is it's a wonderful life, but i'm just sappy like that.

flycaitiee69
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Post by flycaitiee69 »

The best movie of all time is clearly She's the Man.

And I consider myself pretty girlie, but I never really got into Disney, save for The Lion King. I haven't even seen most of the Disney films.

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Post by ecks »

I couldn't pick the best movie of all time, although if it were determined by volume of watching by me, it would be a tossup between Love Actually and Keeping the Faith (which gets better with every psychopathic, weird role that Edward Norton takes, enhancing the weirdness of his role as the loveable Catholic priest).

The best movie line in the history of cinema that will ever be is pretty clear to me, though. In Finding Forrester (which itself is a pretty damn good movie), when Sean Connery says, "You're the man now, dog." Nothing ever in the history of the world will top that line (not that the line itself is that great, out of context. The fact that Sean Connery spoke it is what makes it so amazing).

P.S. - I loved that line before ytmnd.com came out, although I loved the fact that they made an entire website based off that line.

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Post by STPickrell »

I will admit the only movies I have bestirred myself to see over the past few years in theater are:

* Lord of the Rings movies
* Harry Potter movies
* Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties. Our Finnish exchange student wanted to see that this past summer. So we saw it.

My pop culture knowledge after 2001 is woefully inadequate, since I allowed my Entertainment Weekly subscription to lapse. I know Chris Brown but that is solely because he is representing Tappahannock, VIRGINIA

I am named after the main character in The Quiet Man. So I have an affinity for that movie. Ireland remained poor until the 1980s, actually. My Irish friends tell me of their growing up in the 1980s it was as if the entire country were West Virginia with 20% unemployment and that sort of thing. I remember growing up that was limited to areas such as Dickenson County (lots of unemployed coal miners).

The Paper is another movie I enjoyed. I was editor-in-chief of my college newspaper and so had an affinity for that movie from the beginning.

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Post by East Buc & UMR »

You know that website wasn't made to praise that line... It was made to make fun of how dumb it was...right?

flycaitiee69
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Post by flycaitiee69 »

East Buc & UMR wrote: You know that website wasn't made to praise that line... It was made to make fun of how dumb it was...right?
You've become extra-mean lately.

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Post by East Buc & UMR »

Thanks










:)

ecks
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Post by ecks »

East Buc & UMR wrote: You know that website wasn't made to praise that line... It was made to make fun of how dumb it was...right?
It was made to point out the ridiculousness of the quote. Which is exactly why I like it. What's your point? In this case, "praise" IS makingy fun of it. I wouldn't expect anyone to praise that line in any normal sense of the word.

LibertyMarie
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Post by LibertyMarie »

I didn't much care for the movie version of Chicago.

And, yes, when I join the AFI, my top three are as follows:
1) She's the Man
2) The Lion King
3) Ten Things I Hate About You
because, really, what good is any movie that is NOT a reinterpretation of Shakespeare.

Funsizeazn
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Post by Funsizeazn »

i'm not that girly...

i like superhero movies. especially xmen and batman movies.
gotta give it to marie tho, shakespeare interpretations are pretty cool. any teenage drama that happens nowadays... shakespeare already pretty much wrote about it.

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Charlie Dees
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best movie of all time?

Post by Charlie Dees »

he didn't write about quizbowling d-bag drama that I make

Funsizeazn
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Post by Funsizeazn »

well, there was that whole thing about King Lear being desperate for attention which led to him getting shunned out of his own kingdom...
and i think there was also something about a guy named Cesare who thought he was all that but then ended up getting stabbed b/c Rome got sick of him...
(yes, i realize neither of those guys were teenagers... but u asked for it)

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Charlie Dees
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Post by Charlie Dees »

Funsizeazn wrote: well, there was that whole thing about King Lear being desperate for attention which led to him getting shunned out of his own kingdom...
and i think there was also something about a guy named Cesare who thought he was all that but then ended up getting stabbed b/c Rome got sick of him...
(yes, i realize neither of those guys were teenagers... but u asked for it)
As for Julius Caesar, you seem to have a very tenuous grip on that plot element, as the Romans were handing him a crown and it was just a small cabal that got him killed. The people who killed him ended up losing to Julius's friends and all, so I don't get the vibe that Shakespeare was meaning what you say. With King Lear, he got shunned by his evil daughters, not the good daughter (nor was it "his kingdom" rebelling or anything). And how the f*** do you expect me to go away, since there's no quizbowl shunning. It's not like you can refuse to play me (well, I guess you could, but how utterly ridiculous that would be I can't even fathom).

Funsizeazn
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Post by Funsizeazn »

wow ur almost too gay to function

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Charlie Dees
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Post by Charlie Dees »

You can go shave your back now.

Funsizeazn
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Post by Funsizeazn »

why are u such a skeeze?

LibertyMarie
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Post by LibertyMarie »

I never realized that the book Mean Girls is based on is NONFICTION...like, I came across it in the parenting section of barnes and noble. I'd thought it was a teeny novel or something. (Mean Girls had been quoted earlier, just to throw in some context.)

In other news, I saw a preview for the Bratz movie today. Man, are trailers sneaky these days! The Transformers ones are sneaky, Bratz was VERY sneaky (I didn't peg it until the name "Yasmin" came up)...haha.

I also saw the newest Harry Potter trailer...OMG I HAD NOT BEEN VERY EXCITED ABOUT THIS MOVIE UNTIL NOW. Like, I'm much more psyched about the book...but, ah, what a preview!!

Funsizeazn
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Post by Funsizeazn »

Queen bees and wannabees, right? i think that was the name of the book

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Post by ecks »

I really want to see Transformers.

LibertyMarie
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Post by LibertyMarie »

ecks wrote: I really want to see Transformers.
which will be...the best movie of all time, to bring this back on-topic.

East Buc & UMR
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Post by East Buc & UMR »

I love transformer as much as most people ( I own three verison of the Animated movie) and I want to see the live action movie. I however think it will be terrible.

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Post by ecks »

I'll agree that the chances of terribleness run quite high. I just hope fervently that it beats the odds. Michael Bay has been hit-and-miss with his films... I think "The Island" was probably his best one so far, but that's because I have a soft spot for sci-fi and paranoia (in movies).

Interestingly enough, the movie already has an 8.5 on IMDB, which is quite high. I wonder how that happened... pre-screenings?

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Post by LibertyMarie »

ecks wrote:I think "The Island" was probably his best one so far, but that's because I have a soft spot for sci-fi and paranoia (in movies).
See, I just have a soft spot for Ewan McGregor.
...

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Post by scphilli »

LibertyMarie wrote:
ecks wrote:I think "The Island" was probably his best one so far, but that's because I have a soft spot for sci-fi and paranoia (in movies).
See, I just have a soft spot for Ewan McGregor.
...
I really really want to say something right here. But I'd probably get edited/banned.

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scphilli
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Post by scphilli »

East Buc & UMR wrote: For those who didn't know or watch AFI had there 10th anniversary of 100 years 100 films.

Here is a link of both lists.

Link

Can someone explain or comment how
A. The best movie of all time only won an oscars for Best orginal screenplay?
B. How movies that have been out several decades can move 20+ spots?
C. What do you think is the best movie of all time?
A. This has been brought up, but Hearst didn't so much rig the Oscars that year as he used his columnists to badmouth the movie and it was not commercially successful at the time. It also doesn't help that RKO never had the clout to pull off a Best Picture winner. The film did receive Best Picture honors from the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle.

B. I think in addition to the changing perspectives argument, there was criticism last time they did the list that those filling in ballots were too reliant on lists of Oscar nominees, and were fairly ignorant of the silent era. I'm pleased this time around that films like "Sunrise" and "The General" made the list, whereas films that have no real significance like "The Jazz Singer" (which wasn't a fully talking film, wasn't the first film with sound, and doesn't even use a sound process that would be the technical standard even by the end of the 20's) were not or dropped significantly ("Ben-Hur"). Though clearly, "Birth of a Nation"'s subject matter finally caught up with it.

C. I'd probably go with "Casablanca" on this one.

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Post by LibertyMarie »

scphilli wrote:
LibertyMarie wrote:
See, I just have a soft spot for Ewan McGregor.
...
I really really want to say something right here. But I'd probably get edited/banned.
That's kind of what I was going for (not you personally getting banned, but that interpretation)...

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Charlie Dees
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Post by Charlie Dees »

scphilli wrote:
LibertyMarie wrote:
ecks wrote:I think "The Island" was probably his best one so far, but that's because I have a soft spot for sci-fi and paranoia (in movies).
See, I just have a soft spot for Ewan McGregor.
...
I really really want to say something right here. But I'd probably get edited/banned.
Didn't you say as much in that post?

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