Top 120 Movies Continued, (49-41)

This set stands out as great movies any director would kill to make, but unfortunately, they made movies that transcend these movies. In other words, these movies are movies lesser actors/directors/producers wish they could even sniff, yet these movies do not match the best of work of these directors.


49. Saving Private Ryan. One of the best war movies you'll ever see; and the saddest. Spielberg begins the movie with an intense 30+ minute recreation of the intense moments of WWII when marines stormed the beaches at Utah and Omaha. Faced with entrenched machine gun turrets, the vast majority of soldiers were marched to their death before reaching land. The strategy, as was evident also in the first World War, was to simply outlast the opponents man power and ammunition. In a mechanized style of warfare, this may be the only real strategy aside from the use of very powerful weapons. Spielberg uses this intro as his only real nod to the standard Platoon/Full Metal Jacket war genres; balls out, intense, and violent. Spielberg, however, transcends these genres with his cinematography, the hallmark that will define his career. But, what he is really setting us up is that war, no matter how justified, is really just a waste of time, money, resources, and lives. And, the wanton expenditure of the most precious resources a society has seems to be senselessly tossed about.

The real story, of course, takes place after the beachhead is established. Tom Hanks, a school teacher at home, yet a captain in battle, is instructed to go find one Pvt. Ryan. All of Ryan's brothers have been killed in the war, and the army decides that it would be a disservice to not send one of the brothers home to his mother. Hanks chooses his best men, and they set out across the Rhine land in search of a needle in a haystack. The movie revolves around the humanness of Hanks, who is thrust into a position of authority because of his education back home, yet is ambivalent about leading these troops...taking their lives into his hands. He is a good commander; quick on his feet; but, he is a very sad person. The rest of the movie is classic Spielberg. In some ways, I would compare his work to a Chinese landscape artist: broad, powerful brushstrokes; the placement of objects like mountains and waterfalls disproportionately large in relation to people. He takes serious subjects, recognizes the most powerful forces that people find their biographies embedded within, and weaves a story of how these people become aware of the forces, try to circumvent the forces, and how the success they find is always balanced very carefully with the loss, the horror, and the sometimes meaninglessness of it all.

48.Star Wars IV-VI. How do you rank something as epic as this trilogy? I couldn't decide. It is certainly not the best set of movies in the world, but has there ever been a set of movies that defined a whole generation? Moreover, it launched Harrison Ford's career that led to some unbelievable performances. I suggest watching them all in order again, in one sitting (with some breaks for pizza).


47. The Will Be Blood. This movie lands here for Daniel Day-Lewis and a performance of a lifetime. Or not. I feel he was better in another movie, which will be revealed below. But, wow...can you not feel the power of his character. Can you not feel the greed oozing out of his pores. The darkness of this movie does the book justice, as well as the themes Upton Sinclair stood for. The oil industry in contemporary America is one of the most dangerous, most powerful, most careless, and most reprehensible. Power and energy go hand in hand, and Daniel Plainview (Day-Lewis) embodies the lust for power, wealth and prestige that drove the growth, expansion, and entrenchment of the oil industry. This is Day-Lewis' Cast Away. To be sure, there are other actors who all do a marvelous job, but this movie is a one-man show. A tour de force, if you will. Plainview consumes each scene as if he is this poor prospector who struck black gold by sheer luck, and whose cunning and clever mind fit perfectly with his lack of scruples.

46. No Country for Old Men. Dark. Empty. Vacuous. Eroded. Simple. These adjectives fit this movie's landscape, its main antagonist, and its message. The movie, an adaptation by phenomenally underrated author Cormac McCarthy, is not the masterpiece of the Coen's catalg, but it certainly deserves high praise. As in all of their movies, the matter-of-factness of violence and the very real problems of suffering as well as meaning are painted vividly on a uniquely American canvas. Undergirding each character's actions is the question, why? Why are we motivated to act good or bad? There are rarely any clear protagonists in the Coen brothers films, but rather a cast of flawed individuals whose flaws cannot be weighed against each other. Javier Bardem's character who would seem to be the most sinister of all of the characters because his violent acts seem random and have no real reasoning behind them gradually becomes portrayed as having principles that guide his actions; a point the Coen brothers suggest is all any person can have. That is, meaning is constructed by people; actions are judged by the meanings we construct; and while the audience may want to believe there are universal rights and wrongs, each character understands their position in the universe and acts based on a set of principles of their own making, which are inherently flawed. At the end, which was considerably long and unnecessary to some extent, Tommy Lee Jones who plays a sheriff who seems to be more of an unwilling witness to the bizarre twists and turns of the human heart than a player in the game summarizes what we have learned: nothing. Are the Coen's suggesting we do not learn from past experiences and actions, that senseless violence is simply an extreme reflection of senseless everyday behavior, or that we are really alone in our own subjective worlds with only illusions of objectivity? 


45. Monty Python's Life of Brian. Underrated? Absolutely. The problem with this movie, in relation to their masterpiece the Holy Grail!, is that it requires some serious historical and biblical knowledge to make it as funny as it really is. Not to blow my horn, but this is a time period I do study and the jokes are even funnier because of this (kind of like the difference between having worked in an office or never working in an office and then watching Office Space. Clearly it is funny for both sets of people; but, the context becomes even more funny for those who have worked in offices).

The movie takes place around the beginning of the Common Era (or the point where the Christian calendar flips and goes from BC to AD) in ancient Israel under Roman rule. False prophets are everywhere; the iron hand of Roman rule is a running theme (the People's Front of Judea or the Judean People's Front!?!); and, the absurdly disgusting conditions of urban life are put on display for comedic purposes. Brian, a half-Jew, half-Roman, experiences a series of events that lead to some people thinking he is the messiah, despite his desire to not be. It is a spoof on the story of Christ not meant to offend, but meant to present a different story of religious beginnings. I think it is very funny, but it might not make much sense to most people given the "dated" humor.

44. The Deer Hunter. Watch this movie if only because Meryl Streep is unreal. Christopher Walken and Robert De Niro round out an all-star cast that netted this movie the 1977 Best Film Oscar. Classic 70's film: long, elaborate, and highly detailed settings draw the viewer into an intensely sad and dramatic plot, that is intensified by the acting. Unfortunately, Hollywood refuses to produce movies like this nowadays (The Pianist represents one exception), but man, the 70's were filled with them. If you have patience and an attention span, and admire the art of filmmaking, then watch this movie.

43. Spaceballs. Mel Brooks!!! Does it pass the name test? President Skroob/Yogurt (Mel Brooks); Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis); Lone Starr (Bill Pullman); Barf (John Candy); Princess Vespa; Colonel Sandurz; Prince Valium; Major Asshole; Snotty; Pizza the Hut. The only thing stopping this movie from being Brooks' best is the fact that he made Blazing Saddles and Young Frankestein...both of which were enhanced by the genius of Gene Wilder (the most underrated comedian...perhaps because he retired so early and is never in the public light?). I love this movie. It is rewartachable...filled with great one-liners...and some memorable performances by the cast.

42. Talledega Nights. I hated this movie in the cinema. I watched it again...and couldn't stop watching it. It is so damn good. It would be higher if Will Farrell hadn't made Anchorman which might be the best comedy since National Lampoon's Vacation or Fletch. Name test: Ricky Bobby; Carl Naughton Jr.; Lucious Washington; Terry Cheveaux; Walker and Texas Ranger (the names Ricky gives his kids); Jean Girard; Larry Denitt Jr. What, not funny...Farrell thought real hard about these names to give a sense of realism, and it worked. Comedies don't always need hilarious names, but they need names that took some thought; names with surnames.


The real winner here is the pairing of Farrell with John C. O'Reilly, which would be reprised awesomely in Step Brothers. O'Reilly, like Farrell, just looks funny. His mustache; his height; his goofy body shape; and then the delivery of his lines. These two were meant to be a tag team. Then, there is the performance by Sacha Baron Cohen, who plays the Frenchmen who seeks the best competition. The scene in the bar when we first meet Girard is classic. It leads to the unraveling of Ricky Bobby's life, which culminates in Carl Naughton moving into his house one day to be with Bobby's wife and not seeing anything wrong with it.


41. Swingers. The single greatest breakup movie (for a guy) ever. Nothing like watching someone more pathetic than yourself (Jon Favreau) as well as seeing how important good friends are to your recovery. Jon Favreau wrote and directed this movie, managing to capture two very antithetical elements: the seemingly timeless nature of the L.A. night scene and Hollywood world, with the very dated mid-90s "swing" resurgance that is long since passed (the Derby, which is the nightclub Mikey meets Heather Graham in and swing dances with just closed down a few months ago). The swanky and classy LA-ness mixed with the sleazy, pretention. Favreau really captures it nicely...LA really is a strange mixture of new smashing into, integrating with, recombining, and struggling to understand the old.

Vince Vaughn's was the real winner as his career was launched as the kind of sleazy, but ultimately warmhearted likable guy. His comedy depends on his vocal delivery and his sense of irony. He places the best friend of Mikey who's own lifestyle is filled with hookups, a carefree attitude towards most things, and a generally positive disposition. Of these three, he only imposes the latter one on Mikey, who wants real relationships, is serious about his craft, and is generally pessimistic. Ron Livingston (of Office Space acclaim) has a sneaky good performance as Mikey's good, but naive, friend from NYC. This movie is great in so many ways. It will make you laugh; make you want to hit Vegas; and give you a really good sense of what LA is like for good and for bad...