Your Best Old Movies, At Least 30 Years Old.

[Devilwin]

Here's my list of my favorite old flics..

The Quiet Man (John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara)

Gunga Din (Cary Grant, Douglas Fairbanks Jr)

To Kill A Mockingbird ( Gregory Peck, Mary Badham)

True Grit (John Wayne, Kim Darby)

Arsenic And Old Lace (Cary Grant, Raymond Massey)

Jaws (Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss)

The Final Countdown (Martin Sheen, Kirk Douglass)

Gone With The Wind (Clark Gable, Vivian Leigh)

The African Queen (Humphrey Bogart, Katherine Hepburn)

The Birds (Tippi Hedren, Rod Taylor)

[fuse]

While I contemplate, >30 years old means before 1986.

Movies from the 80s don't feel old to me.

[bjornolf]

While I contemplate, >30 years old means before 1986.

Movies from the 80s don't feel old to me.

Seriously.

Top Gun
Ghostbusters
Star Wars: ANH
Star Wars: ESB
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Terminator

I was born in 1975, so 1980-1986 are some of my fondest movie memories.

[fuse]

Blue Velvet
Platoon
Aliens
Stand By Me
Ferris Bueller
Hoosiers
Crocodile Dundee

and that is just googling 1986.

[YmoBeThere]

Patton

[-jk]

While I contemplate, >30 years old means before 1986.

Movies from the 80s don't feel old to me.

Yeah, this.

Got to go back to the 60's or earlier to be "old"...

-jk

[OldPhiKap]

Yeah, this.

Got to go back to the 60's or earlier to be "old"...

-jk

If it's a talkie, it's not old.

Buster Keaton, now -- that's strong sasparilla.

[Olympic Fan]

Yeah, I'm an "oldie" so this is in my wheelhouse (and I collect movies).

I'm old enough to remember when collecting was a rich man's game -- collectors would pay big money for little snippets of film. Only the VERY rich or the very well connected could afford entire films (usually on 8 or 16 mm film) and a great collection might be 25-30 films.

I got my first VCR in the summer of 1978 and by Christmas, I had over 100 films on tape. I've since made the switch to DVD and I now have over 1,000 movies on DVD.

I'm not sure what qualifies as an "Old Movie" -- I certainly agree that a film from the '80s seems too new to me ... even the 1970s. Maybe films from the 1960s would qualify ... but you have to get back to the 1950s before it seems like an "old movie" to me.

I like many of the films listed here -- but my all-time favorites are the films of John Ford and Akira Kurosawa (not surprising -- they are so much alike). I have almost every Ford and Kurosawa film that's available. Unfortunately, a lot of Ford's early silent westerns have been lost to time. The No. 1 film on my want list is Straight Shooting with Harry Carey, directed by Ford. A copy was rediscovered a few years ago, but I've never found a DVD copy on the market (although the entire film IS on Youtube). I did get lucky with a very unique and rare version of Ford's Men Without Women (get your mind out of the gutter -- it's a submarine movie ... although I admit the title does sound like a gay porn film). The film is half silent and half sound -- all the dialogue is on title cards, but the film does have sound effects and some background conversations.

That said, I'd say my favorite Ford films are Stagecoach (of course), Young Mr. Lincoln, They Were Expendable, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande (the cavalry trilogy), My Darling Clementine, the Quiet Man, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence and his masterpiece, The Searchers.

As for Kurosawa, I admire Rashamon, but I love Red Beard (probably my favorite film of all time), The Seven Samurai (so much better than the remake -- the Magnificent Seven), the Bad Sleep Well, Throne of Blood, High and Low, Kagemusha and his masterpiece, Ikiru.

Also, Jean Renoir had a couple of great ones -- Grand Illusion and, my second favorite film, The Rules of the Game. The British made a great string of post-war comedies (the Ealing series)

Love almost anything by Howard Hawks, Preston Sturges or Alfred Hitchcock.

I like a lot of modern stuff too -- especially the Coen Brothers and Woody Allen -- but I do think the period just before the war (1938-41) is the Golden Age of filmmaking.

[BD80]

... I like a lot of modern stuff too -- especially the Coen Brothers and Woody Allen -- but I do think the period just before the war (1938-41) is the Golden Age of filmmaking.

I think Woody would be grateful to hear such a description, considering he has been directing major films for OVER 50 years, approximately half of the existence of cinematography.

[ncexnyc]

Since I grew up in the late 50's, early 60's old to me are the 100's of B&W flicks that were the staple of TV broadcasting prior to the rise of syndicated TV shows. Living in NYC, I had access to a large number of channels and we were fortunate to have a number of foreign movies that were shown on the various stations.

Of course being a kid back then my horror favorites were King Kong, and just about any of the Universal Horror movies.

I'm not big into comedy, but I do have a soft spot in my heart for the Carry On movies from England.

Since my father was a WWII combat vet, that meant we watched a lot of war movies together and some of my favorites are A Walk in the Sun, Objective Burma, and Sands of Iwo Jima.

Gangster movies are also movies I'm fond of so let's give a shout out to Little Caesar, White Heat, and High Sierra.

Casablanca and Treasure of the Sierra Madre are also fun watches, but then the list can go on when you've watched as many flicks as I did growing up.

[FadedTackyShirt]

-The Graduate
-Paper Chase
-Breaking Away

[camion]

Here's a widely scattered selection.

Harvey - Ahh, Jimmy Stewart and a six foot pooka.
Jeremiah Johnson - Still the antidote for the chick flick.
A Christmas Story - Just barely 30, but it's set further in the past.
The Day the Earth Stood Still - Michael Renne, the Spock before Spock.
The Producers - The movie only Mel Brooks could make.

[OldPhiKap]

Double Indemnity
North By Northwest
The Blues Brothers
Airplane!
This Is Spinal Tap
Star Wars: A. New Hope
Blazing Saddles
The Quiet Man
The Last Waltz
Dr. Strangelove
Full Metal Jacket, if that was '86

[Devilwin]

Notice The Quiet Man got a lot of play. I am a big fan of John Wayne, and I love the fight scene between he and Red Will Danaher (Victor McLaglen). You wait half the movie to see Sean take enough to go to battle.

[FadedTackyShirt]

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

[rsvman]

Breaker Morant. "Shoot straight, you b@stards! Don't make a mess of it!"

One of my favorite movies of all time. If you haven't seen it, you should.

[Devilwin]

Breaker Morant. "Shoot straight, you b@stards! Don't make a mess of it!"

One of my favorite movies of all time. If you haven't seen it, you should.

Excellent movie! True story too.

[bjornolf]

My parents raised me on a lot of Spencer Tracey movies. I think my favorite was Father of the Bride.

[BD80]

No love for the Wizard of Oz or Gone With the Wind?

Comedy is my preference, so I'd have to add "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World"

A Fish Called Wanda is only a year away from making the list.

[rthomas]

My favorite old movie: Little Big Man, with Dustin Hoffman and Faye Dunaway.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oaQGw2W8IU

[Stray Gator]

As an avowed "crustie" and fervent fan of the Turner Classic Movies channel, my list of favorite movies more than 30 years old could be very lengthy. But in the interest of saving bandwidth, I'll offer the follow list of my favorite movies in certain categories (limited to 5 each) and then a catch-all group of 11 all-time popcorn specials.

Movie “series”
The Thin Man films starring William Powell and Myrna Loy (with Asta)
The Sherlock Holmes movies starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
The Godfather movies starring Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert Duval, and Robert De Niro

Hitchcock movies
Notorious starring Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, and Claude Rains
Vertigo starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak
To Catch A Thief starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly
North By Northwest starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint

Westerns
Shane starring Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, and Van Heflin
The Searchers starring John Wayne and Ward Bond
High Noon starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance starring John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart

Epics
Lawrence of Arabia starring Peter O’Toole
Ben-Hur starring Charlton Heston
The Bridge on the River Kwai starring Alec Guinness and William Holden
Doctor Zhivago starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie

Wartime Adventure/Romance
Casablanca starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains
From Here To Eternity starring Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Montgomery Clift, Donna Reed
In Harm’s Way starring John Wayne and Patricia Neal
To Have and Have Not starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall

War History
Patton starring George C. Scott
The Great Escape starring Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, and James Garner
Sahara starring Humphrey Bogart
The Battle of Britain starring Laurence Olivier, Christopher Plummer, Susannah York

Miscellaneous Fun Flicks
The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland
Singing In The Rain starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and Donald O’Connor
From Russia With Love starring Sean Connery and Robert Shaw
The Big Sleep starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall
Jaws starring Roy Scheider and Robert Shaw
The Quiet Man starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara
Close Encounters of the Third Kind starring Richard Dreyfuss
Chinatown starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston
Hoosiers starring Gene Hackman
Journey to the Center of the Earth starring James Mason, Pat Boone, and Arlene Dahl
Back to the Future starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd

[JBDuke]

Stray - you and I seem to share similar tastes, as I agree with almost everything on your list.

I've rated 1405 movies on IMDB (link (http://www.imdb.com/user/ur0665530/ratings?sort=title%3Aasc&view=compact&start=1)) I haven't kept up to date on everything I've watched, but this is a pretty big chunk

Of those 1405, I've rated 93 features as 10/10. Of those 93, 55 were made before 1987, and are thus 30+ years old. My list:


+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Cyrano de Bergerac | 1950 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| National Velvet | 1944 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| A Christmas Carol | 1951 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| The Searchers | 1956 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| The Apartment | 1960 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| A Room with a View | 1985 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Rebecca | 1940 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| A Man for All Seasons | 1966 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| High Noon | 1952 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Goodbye, Mr. Chips | 1939 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| The King and I | 1956 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| The Killing Fields | 1984 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Chariots of Fire | 1981 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Laura | 1944 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| The Philadelphia Story | 1940 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| The Lion in Winter | 1968 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| The Adventures of Robin Hood | 1938 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Arsenic and Old Lace | 1944 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| The Godfather | 1972 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| 12 Angry Men | 1957 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Raiders of the Lost Ark | 1981 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Blade Runner | 1982 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Singin' in the Rain | 1952 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| A Clockwork Orange | 1971 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| The Godfather: Part II | 1974 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| All About Eve | 1950 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Jaws | 1975 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| 2001: A Space Odyssey | 1968 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Casablanca | 1942 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Mary Poppins | 1964 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb | 1964 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| The Wizard of Oz | 1939 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| The Sound of Music | 1965 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Doctor Zhivago | 1965 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Ben-Hur | 1959 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Gone with the Wind | 1939 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| It's a Wonderful Life | 1946 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| To Kill a Mockingbird | 1962 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Rocky | 1976 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Lawrence of Arabia | 1962 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| The Ten Commandments | 1956 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Vertigo | 1958 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Rear Window | 1954 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Chinatown | 1974 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Gandhi | 1982 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Some Like It Hot | 1959 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| The Sting | 1973 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Romeo and Juliet | 1968 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| North by Northwest | 1959 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| All the President's Men | 1976 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| On the Waterfront | 1954 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| MASH | 1970 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Out of Africa | 1985 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| Patton | 1970 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+
| The Day the Earth Stood Still | 1951 |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+------+

[Olympic Fan]

I think Woody would be grateful to hear such a description, considering he has been directing major films for OVER 50 years, approximately half of the existence of cinematography.

The interesting thing about Allen films is that he's been relatively overlooked by the Academy as an actor (one nomination for Annie Hall) and as a director (one win for Annie Hall and six other nominations). But I think he's the single most honored screenwriter in Academy history with three wins (for Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters and Midnight in Paris) and 14 other writing nominations.

[Mtn.Devil.91.92.01.10.15]

Casablanca. Gets me every time.

[ricks68]

Yeah, I'm an "oldie" so this is in my wheelhouse (and I collect movies).

I'm old enough to remember when collecting was a rich man's game -- collectors would pay big money for little snippets of film. Only the VERY rich or the very well connected could afford entire films (usually on 8 or 16 mm film) and a great collection might be 25-30 films.

I got my first VCR in the summer of 1978 and by Christmas, I had over 100 films on tape. I've since made the switch to DVD and I now have over 1,000 movies on DVD.

I'm not sure what qualifies as an "Old Movie" -- I certainly agree that a film from the '80s seems too new to me ... even the 1970s. Maybe films from the 1960s would qualify ... but you have to get back to the 1950s before it seems like an "old movie" to me.

I like many of the films listed here -- but my all-time favorites are the films of John Ford and Akira Kurosawa (not surprising -- they are so much alike). I have almost every Ford and Kurosawa film that's available. Unfortunately, a lot of Ford's early silent westerns have been lost to time. The No. 1 film on my want list is Straight Shooting with Harry Carey, directed by Ford. A copy was rediscovered a few years ago, but I've never found a DVD copy on the market (although the entire film IS on Youtube). I did get lucky with a very unique and rare version of Ford's Men Without Women (get your mind out of the gutter -- it's a submarine movie ... although I admit the title does sound like a gay porn film). The film is half silent and half sound -- all the dialogue is on title cards, but the film does have sound effects and some background conversations.

That said, I'd say my favorite Ford films are Stagecoach (of course), Young Mr. Lincoln, They Were Expendable, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande (the cavalry trilogy), My Darling Clementine, the Quiet Man, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence and his masterpiece, The Searchers.

As for Kurosawa, I admire Rashamon, but I love Red Beard (probably my favorite film of all time), The Seven Samurai (so much better than the remake -- the Magnificent Seven), the Bad Sleep Well, Throne of Blood, High and Low, Kagemusha and his masterpiece, Ikiru.

Also, Jean Renoir had a couple of great ones -- Grand Illusion and, my second favorite film, The Rules of the Game. The British made a great string of post-war comedies (the Ealing series)

Love almost anything by Howard Hawks, Preston Sturges or Alfred Hitchcock.

I like a lot of modern stuff too -- especially the Coen Brothers and Woody Allen -- but I do think the period just before the war (1938-41) is the Golden Age of filmmaking.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, .......

ricks

[ricks68]

As an avowed "crustie" and fervent fan of the Turner Classic Movies channel, my list of favorite movies more than 30 years old could be very lengthy. But in the interest of saving bandwidth, I'll offer the follow list of my favorite movies in certain categories (limited to 5 each) and then a catch-all group of 11 all-time popcorn specials.

Movie “series”
The Thin Man films starring William Powell and Myrna Loy (with Asta)
The Sherlock Holmes movies starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce
The Godfather movies starring Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert Duval, and Robert De Niro

Hitchcock movies
Notorious starring Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, and Claude Rains
Vertigo starring Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak
To Catch A Thief starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly
North By Northwest starring Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint

Westerns
Shane starring Alan Ladd, Jean Arthur, and Van Heflin
The Searchers starring John Wayne and Ward Bond
High Noon starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance starring John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart

Epics
Lawrence of Arabia starring Peter O’Toole
Ben-Hur starring Charlton Heston
The Bridge on the River Kwai starring Alec Guinness and William Holden
Doctor Zhivago starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie

Wartime Adventure/Romance
Casablanca starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, and Claude Rains
From Here To Eternity starring Burt Lancaster, Deborah Kerr, Montgomery Clift, Donna Reed
In Harm’s Way starring John Wayne and Patricia Neal
To Have and Have Not starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall

War History
Patton starring George C. Scott
The Great Escape starring Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, and James Garner
Sahara starring Humphrey Bogart
The Battle of Britain starring Laurence Olivier, Christopher Plummer, Susannah York

Miscellaneous Fun Flicks
The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland
Singing In The Rain starring Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and Donald O’Connor
From Russia With Love starring Sean Connery and Robert Shaw
The Big Sleep starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall
Jaws starring Roy Scheider and Robert Shaw
The Quiet Man starring John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara
Close Encounters of the Third Kind starring Richard Dreyfuss
Chinatown starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, and John Huston
Hoosiers starring Gene Hackman
Journey to the Center of the Earth starring James Mason, Pat Boone, and Arlene Dahl
Back to the Future starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd

Outstanding list. All terrific stuff.

ricks

[ricks68]

Here's a widely scattered selection.

Harvey - Ahh, Jimmy Stewart and a six foot pooka.
Jeremiah Johnson - Still the antidote for the chick flick.
A Christmas Story - Just barely 30, but it's set further in the past.
The Day the Earth Stood Still - Michael Renne, the Spock before Spock.
The Producers - The movie only Mel Brooks could make.

"Gord, klatu verada nicktoh." One of my all time favorite lines----especially from a trivia perspective. (Along with the correct famous line from Casablanca.)

I know I may have just started something, so now someone can start a new favorite movie quotes thread. Maybe the theme could be what might be considered the top movie quotes of all time list instead of just favorites. I think that might make for a more interesting discussion. There's Bogart, what's-his-name opposite Bogart at the end of Casablanca, same for the end of GWTW, Edward G Robinson, Stewart, Wayne, Eastwood, the Jaws guy, Hans Solo and Raiders quotes, Allen, Mae West, Brando, and all the other names that my Crustie mind just can't remember to pin down. (Just proves that without the incredible little, if not totally, unknown writers out there, you ain't got nothin'.)

(Just finished reading the (OUR) famous Emma Lazarus poem and it got me thinking about how powerful the written word is. No more comments on that.)

ricks

[Tom B.]

The interesting thing about Allen films is that he's been relatively overlooked by the Academy as an actor (one nomination for Annie Hall) and as a director (one win for Annie Hall and six other nominations). But I think he's the single most honored screenwriter in Academy history with three wins (for Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters and Midnight in Paris) and 14 other writing nominations.

And Woody Allen's longtime film editor, Alisa Lepselter, is a Duke grad (Class of 1985). She's edited all of his movies since Sweet and Lowdown in 1999.

[Stray Gator]

Ironically -- or serendipitously -- TCM is playing The Adventures of Robin Hood now, to be followed by After the Thin Man. Did I mention that retirement is delightful?

[Indoor66]

Ironically -- or serendipitously -- TCM is playing The Adventures of Robin Hood now, to be followed by After the Thin Man. Did I mention that retirement is delightful?

Is that the Men in Tights version?

By the waly, welcome to the retirement fold. Just think: no more CLE! 😀😎

[Edouble]

Cool Hand Luke

The finest movie ever made.

[Devilwin]

Evidently I should have said top 20, because others here have reminded me of some more favorites.
The Man who shot Liberty Valance
The Searchers
North By Northwest
Wizard of Oz
Big Jake
Little Big Man
Jeremiah Johnson

And for comedic effect..
Animal Crackers- Marx Brothers
Duck Soup - Marx Brothers
Horse Feathers - Marx Brothers

Take The Money And Run- Woody Allen
Bananas- Woody Allen
Sleeper - Woody Allen

Silent Movie - Mel Brooks
Blazing Saddles - Mel Brooks

[fidel]

"Gord, klatu verada nicktoh." One of my all time favorite lines----especially from a trivia perspective.
ricks

"We're gonna need some more FBI guys". And, is this an xmas movie or not.

"I don't think that word means what you think it means"

"You do have portals of ecstasy, don't you?"

"He hates cans! Look! More cans!"

[rasputin]

A few that haven't been mentioned (please forgive me if I have overlooked someone mentioning one of these):

Grand Hotel
Mutiny on the Bounty (Laughton/Gable/Tone)
Modern Times
Angels With Dirty Faces
Rebecca
The Philadelphia Story
Now, Voyager
The Ox-bow Incident
Shadow of a Doubt
Out of the Past
Crossfire
Desk Set
Separate Tables
The Magnificent Seven
Inherit the Wind
The Train
In the Heat of the Night

[fidel]

Stray - you and I seem to share similar tastes, as I agree with almost everything on your list.

I've rated 1405 movies on IMDB (link (http://www.imdb.com/user/ur0665530/ratings?sort=title%3Aasc&view=compact&start=1)) I haven't kept up to date on everything I've watched, but this is a pretty big chunk

Of those 1405, I've rated 93 features as 10/10. Of those 93, 55 were made before 1987, and are thus 30+ years old.

i can't argue with a single film here. Great list (as was stray's).

[BigWayne]

Well I am not what anyone would call a movie aficionado, but I am surprised none of you mentioned The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

My fondest memory of it was the time I watched it on my VHS player with a blind neighbor of mine. Made me appreciate how much non verbal communication there is in the movie.

[JBDuke]

Well I am not what anyone would call a movie aficionado, but I am surprised none of you mentioned The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

My fondest memory of it was the time I watched it on my VHS player with a blind neighbor of mine. Made me appreciate how much non verbal communication there is in the movie.

I've got two Westerns in my 55 films - "The Searchers" and "High Noon" - both of which I think are superior films to "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly". I find GBU to be overly long and I think it drags in parts. The script doesn't require much acting from Eastwood or Van Cleef, as their characters are almost stereotypes. Wallach has the best part and makes the most of it. The cinematography is very good, and the score is exceptional. I think it's one of the better, if not the best of Leone's "Spaghetti Westerns", but I don't think it rises to the level of the two Westerns I mentioned earlier. Think about the character arc of Cooper's Marshal Kane or of Wayne's Ethan Edwards: those protagonists had a much more significant evolution in their films than Eastwood's Blondie, and they really allowed Wayne and Cooper to show some acting chops.

"The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly" is a very good film, but in my opinion, it falls short of being the best of the genre and of getting a 10/10 rating.

[camion]

"We're gonna need some more FBI guys". And, is this an xmas movie or not.

"I don't think that word means what you think it means"

"You do have portals of ecstasy, don't you?"

"He hates cans! Look! More cans!"


Was the movie with this quote in anyone's list?
"All those moments lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."

[JBDuke]

Was the movie with this quote in anyone's list?
"All those moments lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."

Absolutely. A 10/10 for me.

[Deslok]

JBDuke, absolutely great list. The only things I'd quibble on are a few films I would only give an 8 or 9 to, rather than a 10. But there aren't any "Really, you thought Caddyshack 2 was a great movie?!?" items on that list.

Another that I think has been overlooked in the recent past(though just barely over 30 years old) is Amadeus. What to me is also pretty remarkable about the film, is that I can't think of another great movie told from the point of view of the villain of the story(and the acknowledge villain from the start).

[JBDuke]

JBDuke, absolutely great list. The only things I'd quibble on are a few films I would only give an 8 or 9 to, rather than a 10. But there aren't any "Really, you thought Caddyshack 2 was a great movie?!?" items on that list.

Another that I think has been overlooked in the recent past(though just barely over 30 years old) is Amadeus. What to me is also pretty remarkable about the film, is that I can't think of another great movie told from the point of view of the villain of the story(and the acknowledge villain from the start).

Amadeus is a 9/10 for me, but I think the director's cut version might earn it that extra point. I saw that a couple of years ago, and it fixed some of the things that bothered me in the original.

You're right about the rarity of movies told from the villain's point of view. I guess, depending on how you want to characterize "villain", a lot of gangster/crime movies are told from that perspective. Is Michael Corleone a good guy or a bad guy? Henry Hill from "Goodfellas"? Lots of films noir like "Double Indemnity" have bad people as the main characters. Others: "Memento" (sorta), "A Clockwork Orange", "Sweeney Todd", "The Shining" (if you argue it's more about Jack than Danny), "Taxi Driver" (I guess that depends on how you perceive Travis).

[Faustus]

JBDuke, absolutely great list. The only things I'd quibble on are a few films I would only give an 8 or 9 to, rather than a 10. But there aren't any "Really, you thought Caddyshack 2 was a great movie?!?" items on that list.

Another that I think has been overlooked in the recent past(though just barely over 30 years old) is Amadeus. What to me is also pretty remarkable about the film, is that I can't think of another great movie told from the point of view of the villain of the story(and the acknowledge villain from the start).

Not sure if you'd really call this a movie (other than filmed versions of it) but Shakespeare's Richard III sorta fits the bill of the villain's point of view:p

Is 'Animal House' 30 years old yet?

Big Audrey Hepburn fan here and 'Roman Holiday' goes on my list.

And whenever Ted Turner shows it (which is surprisingly often) I always stick around to watch the dining car scene in 'North By Northwest'. Why can't I be as suave as Roger O Thornhill?

[Stray Gator]

Amadeus is a 9/10 for me, but I think the director's cut version might earn it that extra point. I saw that a couple of years ago, and it fixed some of the things that bothered me in the original.

You're right about the rarity of movies told from the villain's point of view. I guess, depending on how you want to characterize "villain", a lot of gangster/crime movies are told from that perspective. Is Michael Corleone a good guy or a bad guy? Henry Hill from "Goodfellas"? Lots of films noir like "Double Indemnity" have bad people as the main characters. Others: "Memento" (sorta), "A Clockwork Orange", "Sweeney Todd", "The Shining" (if you argue it's more about Jack than Danny), "Taxi Driver" (I guess that depends on how you perceive Travis).

Another classic film noir that is told from the villain's point of view, but which I don't recall having been listed by anyone here, is The Postman Always Rings Twice.

[rasputin]

One that I forgot to mention in my earlier post is Orson Welles' masterpiece, Touch of Evil. I understand that when the movie came out (in the late '50's), the studio had butchered it in the editing process, over the strong objection of director Welles. He wrote a lengthy memo protesting the editing, and making very particular comments about how the movie should be restored to the way he had edited it. That restoration was eventually done and is now available, and the result is an astonishing movie in almost every respect.

[JBDuke]

... Is 'Animal House' 30 years old yet? ...

Prepare to feel like a geezer - "Animal House" is 39 years old this year. It was released in 1978.

[Olympic Fan]

In 1998, the American Film Institute ranked the 100 greatest American films ... what's interesting about the list is that includes just seven films made after 1987 (30 years ago now) -- and none of them cracked the top 64 films.

http://www.filmsite.org/afi100filmsA.html

I like the list, although I have a few quibbles -- Dances With Wolves? Really?

But I thought I'd offer it as a place to measure your likes/dislikes with the consensus ...

For a slightly different take, see the revised 2007 AFI top 100 (no Wolves, thank God):

http://www.filmsite.org/afi100films_2007.html

I'm really interested to see Ford's masterpiece The Searchers jump from 96 to No. 12 in nine years

[Faustus]

Prepare to feel like a geezer - "Animal House" is 39 years old this year. It was released in 1978.

Yes. Geezerhood accepted. Thanks. Already past the point in life when I say "I can remember when ------ only cost ------ cents." :(

[Faustus]

P.S. As long as I'm well into senility, as a small side event, how about Worst "great" movies? Such as: how in the world did Oliver! win Best Picture back in the mid-60s? Even the music was bad.

(This is a great time of year on Turner Movie Classics, though, showing Academy Award films. But I bet even Turner refuses to air Oliver! And AMC, usually a garbage network of late, is cleverly running Groundhog Day over and over and over today...))

[rasputin]

P.S. As long as I'm well into senility, as a small side event, how about Worst "great" movies? Such as: how in the world did Oliver! win Best Picture back in the mid-60s? Even the music was bad.

(This is a great time of year on Turner Movie Classics, though, showing Academy Award films. But I bet even Turner refuses to air Oliver! And AMC, usually a garbage network of late, is cleverly running Groundhog Day over and over and over today...))

Doctor Zhivago. Ecccchhh.

[cato]

I think Woody would be grateful to hear such a description, considering he has been directing major films for OVER 50 years, approximately half of the existence of cinematography.

50 years? I thought that was the age difference between Allen and his daughter-wife.

[mgtr]

I am somewhat surprised that no one has mentioned The Bank Dick. I am a sucker for WC Fields, but his movies were primarily just a vehicle for Fields to "do his thing," with little regard for script or direction. While the preceding was his most popular movie, true aficionados generally prefer Its a Gift, because it contains classic Fields bits.

[JBDuke]

P.S. As long as I'm well into senility, as a small side event, how about Worst "great" movies? Such as: how in the world did Oliver! win Best Picture back in the mid-60s? Even the music was bad.

(This is a great time of year on Turner Movie Classics, though, showing Academy Award films. But I bet even Turner refuses to air Oliver! And AMC, usually a garbage network of late, is cleverly running Groundhog Day over and over and over today...))


Doctor Zhivago. Ecccchhh.

So, a little perspective here. First, "Doctor Zhivago" did not win the Best Picture Oscar in 1965 - that award went to "The Sound of Music". "Zhivago" was nominated, and in my opinion, it's easy to see why. It is a stupendously beautiful film. David Lean and his cinematographer, Freddie Young made three gorgeous movies in a row - "Lawrence of Arabia", "Doctor Zhivago" and "Ryan's Daughter". Young won the Cinematography Oscar for all three of them. "Zhivago"'s score is also beautiful. Maurice Jarre won three Oscars for his scores, all collaborations with David Lean - "Lawrence", "Zhivago", and "A Passage to India". For my movie dollar, a movie that looks great and sounds great is off to a strong start. On top of that, it's a compelling story with complex characters in a time of great upheaval in Russia. Now, I'm admittedly a sucker for epics, and I don't shy away from romances, either, so if those don't appeal to you much, "Zhivago" might not suit your tastes, but I love it.

As for "Oliver!", I agree that it wasn't the best film of 1968. I think that was a particularly strong year, and I have three 10/10 films that I would place well ahead of "Oliver!": "The Lion in Winter", "2001: A Space Odyssey", and "Romeo and Juliet". That being said, I don't think "Oliver!" is a bad film. I disagree with you about the music, as I enjoy several of the songs. I think there are several strong acting performances, and that the sets and costumes were amazing. I know musicals aren't everyone's thing, and "Oliver!" doesn't have the amazing songs of, say, "The Sound of Music". But I think it's far from bad. I rated it 8/10.

[JBDuke]

One other note about "Oliver!", which may explain why it was selected by the Academy in 1968...

The late 60's was a turbulent time in many aspects of American culture, including in the major motion picture studios. The old guard that had grown up in the business during the Golden Age were generally running the studios and in some cases still tried to keep doing things the way they had been doing them for decades. But the success of less traditional films and the wave of cultural revolution at the time forced many changes in the business. 1968 was the year that the industry finally scrapped the old production code and started using the G/PG/R/X rating system, for example.

If you look at the Best Picture winners of the 1960's, you see the last great musicals of the studio system in great prominence: 1961's "West Side Story"; 1964's "My Fair Lady"; 1965's "The Sound of Music"; and finally, 1968's "Oliver!". Others nominated but not winning during the decade: "The Music Man" (1962), "Mary Poppins" (1964), "Zorba the Greek" (1964), "Doctor Doolittle" (1967), and "Funny Girl" (1968). Studios continued to turn out some really good musicals for the next few years - as example, "Hello, Dolly" (1969), "Fiddler on the Roof" (1971), and "Cabaret" (1972), were all nominated for Best Picture. But after that, musicals became pretty rare, and a musical wouldn't win the Best Picture Oscar until "Chicago" in 2002 - a 34 year gap after "Oliver!".

I suspect that some of the votes for "Oliver!" came from the Academy's "old guard" trying to hold onto one of the last examples of the types of films they used to make. That all got thrown out the window with "Midnight Cowboy", the 1969 winner and the only Best Picture winner to receive an X rating. That and the other changes in Hollywood led to a flowering of great films in the early to mid 1970's.

[Faustus]

...and looking like a good chance for a Musical winning Best Picture coming up, too. 'La La Land' I thought was very enjoyable. Maybe not Best Picture, though, but perhaps another example of a nostalgic feel-good escapist story striking a receptive chord during highly divisive and turbulent times. Much like a Ginger Rogers-Fred Astaire Depression/WWII Era musical, except, well, not Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, or terribly memorable melodies. Nice spirit, though.

Far from 30 years old, fairly recent in fact, but on the musical subject, I truly liked 'Topsy-Turvy', a wonderful film about W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan and all the goings-on in the creation of 'The Mikado'. It actually did win a couple of Oscars, I think, if obviously not Best Picture. But in fact it's an extremely well-made film, I thought: witty, engrossing, excellent cast, and if you like Gilbert & Sullivan, wonderful music.

I seem to have diverted matters from the Favs from over 30 years ago topic - sorry...

[davekay1971]

I tend to steer for the more recent portion of the "everything before 1987" frame

Movies that pop into my head as being my favorite from before '87, not really in a particular order

Action/Adventure/War
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Jaws
The Longest Day (although the book was better)
Das Boot
Mad Max: The Road Warrior

Sci-Fi
Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars:ANH
Alien and Aliens
Blade Runner
Terminator

Horror
The Shining
Exorcist
The Thing (just for the ending alone)

Drama
The Mission
Godfather and Godfather Part II

Comedy
Caddyshack
Ghostbusters
Eddie Murphy's top 3: Trading Places, 48 Hours, and Beverly Hills Cop
Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Kids/Family
Cinderella
The Jungle Book
101 Dalmations
Fantasia
Peter Pan

I Know It's Crap But It's My Crap
Big Trouble in Little China (Jack Burton is one of the most quotable characters ever)
Conan the Barbarian
Drunken Master
Enter the Dragon

[YmoBeThere]

The Longest Day (although the book was better)


Maybe a different thread, but I'm struggling to come up with a book turned into a movie that I wouldn't say the book is better.

[rasputin]

Maybe a different thread, but I'm struggling to come up with a book turned into a movie that I wouldn't say the book is better.

All the President's Men is one, IMO.

[fidel]

Maybe a different thread, but I'm struggling to come up with a book turned into a movie that I wouldn't say the book is better.

Out of Africa is close to a tie, and thats saying something.

[brevity]

Maybe a different thread, but I'm struggling to come up with a book turned into a movie that I wouldn't say the book is better.

Maybe a better thread.

Forrest Gump: average movie, below average book. Come at me, boomers.

[Olympic Fan]

Maybe a different thread, but I'm struggling to come up with a book turned into a movie that I wouldn't say the book is better.

Oh, come on ... this is incredibly simplistic -- and wrong.

Without bringing up the entire genre of "novelizations" (novels written after the fact based on the movie), I can think of dozens and dozens of films that were better than the books they were based on -- sometimes better than the very good books they were based on.

One example would the The Shawshank Redemption, based on a very fine novella by Stephen King. But the film has far deeper and more realistic characters.

I guess you could quibble that's a novella not "a book".

But allow we to offer another.

If you've ever read Peter George's 1958 cold-war potboiler Red Alert, you'd know it has nothing like the depth and the humor of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece Dr. Strangelove.

Then there is John Ford's masterpiece The Searchers, based on a novel of the same name by Alan Le May. To bring things around full circle, there was a 2013 book also called The Searchers by William Frankel that explores the historical basis for Ford's film (a real 1836 kidnapping) -- it's a better book that Le May's novel, but not nearly as good as Ford's film.

Or Die Hard, a great action movie, based on a 1979 potboiler by Roderick Thorp -- Nothing Lasts Forever.

And while I love Philip Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, I much prefer the film Blade Runner. I could say the same about Clockwork Orange, a great book by Burgess, but a better film.

I would argue that Gone With the Wind, Jaws and The Godfather are three iconic movies that are better than the very popular novels upon which they were based.

I will concede that it's hard to think of a "great" book that turned out better as a movie -- there are very good adaptations of some masterpieces (Wuthering Heights, David Copperfield, Moby Dick, The Red Badge of Courage, Catch-22), but none are as good as the book. Hollywood has never come close to capturing the great American novel (Huck Finn) on screen.

But there are tons of mediocre to poor novels that have become fine films. And there are a lot of good "pop" novels that were even better on screen.

[rasputin]

Oh, come on ... this is incredibly simplistic -- and wrong.

Without bringing up the entire genre of "novelizations" (novels written after the fact based on the movie), I can think of dozens and dozens of films that were better than the books they were based on -- sometimes better than the very good books they were based on.

One example would the The Shawshank Redemption, based on a very fine novella by Stephen King. But the film has far deeper and more realistic characters.

I guess you could quibble that's a novella not "a book".

But allow we to offer another.

If you've ever read Peter George's 1958 cold-war potboiler Red Alert, you'd know it has nothing like the depth and the humor of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece Dr. Strangelove.

Then there is John Ford's masterpiece The Searchers, based on a novel of the same name by Alan Le May. To bring things around full circle, there was a 2013 book also called The Searchers by William Frankel that explores the historical basis for Ford's film (a real 1836 kidnapping) -- it's a better book that Le May's novel, but not nearly as good as Ford's film.

Or Die Hard, a great action movie, based on a 1979 potboiler by Roderick Thorp.

And while I love Philip Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, I much prefer the film Blade Runner. I could say the same about Clockwork Orange, a great book by Burgess, but a better film.

I would argue that Gone With the Wind, Jaws and The Godfather are three iconic movies that are better than the very popular novels upon which they were based.

I will concede that it's hard to think of a "great" book that turned out better as a movie -- there are very good adaptations of some masterpieces (Wuthering Heights, David Copperfield, Moby Dick, The Red Badge of Courage, Catch-22), but none are as good as the book. Hollywood has never come close to capturing the great American novel (Huck Finn) on screen.

But there are tons of mediocre to poor novels that have become fine films. And there are a lot of good "pop" novels that were even better on screen.

Here's another: Psycho.

[Reddevil]

To me, no movie list is complete without the Outlaw Josey Wales.

[Indoor66]

To me, no movie list is complete without the Outlaw Josey Wales.

Or Eastwood's "Unforgiven".

[Tommac]

Or Eastwood's "Unforgiven".

Unforgiven came out in 1992 so it's not 30 years old yet. But I agree, it's one of the best westerns ever made.

[Tom B.]

Oh, come on ... this is incredibly simplistic -- and wrong.

Without bringing up the entire genre of "novelizations" (novels written after the fact based on the movie), I can think of dozens and dozens of films that were better than the books they were based on -- sometimes better than the very good books they were based on.

One example would the The Shawshank Redemption, based on a very fine novella by Stephen King. But the film has far deeper and more realistic characters.

I guess you could quibble that's a novella not "a book".

But allow we to offer another.

If you've ever read Peter George's 1958 cold-war potboiler Red Alert, you'd know it has nothing like the depth and the humor of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece Dr. Strangelove.

Then there is John Ford's masterpiece The Searchers, based on a novel of the same name by Alan Le May. To bring things around full circle, there was a 2013 book also called The Searchers by William Frankel that explores the historical basis for Ford's film (a real 1836 kidnapping) -- it's a better book that Le May's novel, but not nearly as good as Ford's film.

Or Die Hard, a great action movie, based on a 1979 potboiler by Roderick Thorp -- Nothing Lasts Forever.

And while I love Philip Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, I much prefer the film Blade Runner. I could say the same about Clockwork Orange, a great book by Burgess, but a better film.

I would argue that Gone With the Wind, Jaws and The Godfather are three iconic movies that are better than the very popular novels upon which they were based.

I will concede that it's hard to think of a "great" book that turned out better as a movie -- there are very good adaptations of some masterpieces (Wuthering Heights, David Copperfield, Moby Dick, The Red Badge of Courage, Catch-22), but none are as good as the book. Hollywood has never come close to capturing the great American novel (Huck Finn) on screen.

But there are tons of mediocre to poor novels that have become fine films. And there are a lot of good "pop" novels that were even better on screen.


Yeah -- I think it's easy to forget that lots of movies are based on books, novellas, or short stories, and some of the literary works on which movies are based are overlooked, forgettable, or good but just obscure.

A recent book-based film that I enjoyed was The Martian. Haven't read the book, though, so I can't do a comparison.

Other good movies based on literary works that come to mind, where the film is arguably as good or better than the literary work:

A River Runs Through It -- based on a novella by Norman MacLean.
Sophie's Choice -- by Duke's own William Styron.
Legends of the Fall -- based on a novella by Jim Harrison. OK, maybe not a great movie -- but I could watch it over and over again just for the scenery and music alone.
Stand By Me -- based on the novella "The Body" by Stephen King
Silence of the Lambs -- good book, great movie.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
All the King's Men
2001: A Space Odyssey -- Interestingly, the film wasn't really "based on" the novel. Rather, both the film and novel were developed concurrently based on a prose treatment and screenplay on which Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick collaborated, which in turn were based on several short stories by Arthur C. Clarke, most notably a 1948 short story called "The Sentinel."
The Bridge on the River Kwai

And then there are plenty of movies based on non-fiction literary works as well.

The Wolf of Wall Street
Moneyball
A Bridge Too Far
Goodfellas

That's just to name a few -- there are lots more.

And then there are the movies based on plays, like:

A Man for All Seasons
Driving Miss Daisy
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (again)
A Few Good Men -- Not a Best Picture winner or "classic" movie in league with some of these others, but still a pretty good film.

Trivia: Name the six films with the following distinctions:


Two Best Picture winners based on Pulitzer-prize winning novels
Two Best Picture winners based on Pulitzer-prize winning plays
Two Best Picture winners based on Pulitzer-prize winning journalism

[rasputin]

Yeah -- I think it's easy to forget that lots of movies are based on books, novellas, or short stories, and some of the literary works on which movies are based are overlooked, forgettable, or good but just obscure.

A recent book-based film that I enjoyed was The Martian. Haven't read the book, though, so I can't do a comparison.

Other good movies based on literary works that come to mind, where the film is arguably as good or better than the literary work:

A River Runs Through It -- based on a novella by Norman MacLean.
Sophie's Choice -- by Duke's own William Styron.
Legends of the Fall -- based on a novella by Jim Harrison. OK, maybe not a great movie -- but I could watch it over and over again just for the scenery and music alone.
Stand By Me -- based on the novella "The Body" by Stephen King
Silence of the Lambs -- good book, great movie.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
All the King's Men
2001: A Space Odyssey -- Interestingly, the film wasn't really "based on" the novel. Rather, both the film and novel were developed concurrently based on a prose treatment and screenplay on which Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick collaborated, which in turn were based on several short stories by Arthur C. Clarke, most notably a 1948 short story called "The Sentinel."

And then there are the movies based on plays, like:

A Man for All Seasons
Driving Miss Daisy
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (again)

Trivia: Name the six films with the following distinctions:


Two Best Picture winners based on Pulitzer-prize winning novels
Two Best Picture winners based on Pulitzer-prize winning plays
Two Best Picture winners based on Pulitzer-prize winning journalism


Pulitzer-prize novel/best picture: All the King's Men, and Gone With The Wind

[Tom B.]

Pulitzer-prize novel/best picture: All the King's Men, and Gone With The Wind

Correct.

The others are a bit harder.

[rasputin]

Correct.

The others are a bit harder.

I have a good handle on what won Best Picture, and don't have a clue about Pulitzer-winning plays, but I'll guess that Driving Miss Daisy is one of them. If I'm right, can I have a hint on the other?

[ricks68]

Oh, come on ... this is incredibly simplistic -- and wrong.

Without bringing up the entire genre of "novelizations" (novels written after the fact based on the movie), I can think of dozens and dozens of films that were better than the books they were based on -- sometimes better than the very good books they were based on.

One example would the The Shawshank Redemption, based on a very fine novella by Stephen King. But the film has far deeper and more realistic characters.

I guess you could quibble that's a novella not "a book".

But allow we to offer another.

If you've ever read Peter George's 1958 cold-war potboiler Red Alert, you'd know it has nothing like the depth and the humor of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece Dr. Strangelove.

Then there is John Ford's masterpiece The Searchers, based on a novel of the same name by Alan Le May. To bring things around full circle, there was a 2013 book also called The Searchers by William Frankel that explores the historical basis for Ford's film (a real 1836 kidnapping) -- it's a better book that Le May's novel, but not nearly as good as Ford's film.

Or Die Hard, a great action movie, based on a 1979 potboiler by Roderick Thorp -- Nothing Lasts Forever.

And while I love Philip Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, I much prefer the film Blade Runner. I could say the same about Clockwork Orange, a great book by Burgess, but a better film.

I would argue that Gone With the Wind, Jaws and The Godfather are three iconic movies that are better than the very popular novels upon which they were based.

I will concede that it's hard to think of a "great" book that turned out better as a movie -- there are very good adaptations of some masterpieces (Wuthering Heights, David Copperfield, Moby Dick, The Red Badge of Courage, Catch-22), but none are as good as the book. Hollywood has never come close to capturing the great American novel (Huck Finn) on screen.

But there are tons of mediocre to poor novels that have become fine films. And there are a lot of good "pop" novels that were even better on screen.

I liked the movie version of Catch-22 a lot, but there was absolutely no way I would have been able to understand what was going on without having read the book----at least twice, which I had at that point. (I remember the first time I read Catch-22, that I had to go back and re-read the first 100 pages or so, so that I was able to fully appreciate what was going on in the beginning of it----if you want to call it the beginning. Great read.)

ricks

[Olympic Fan]

I liked the movie version of Catch-22 a lot, but there was absolutely no way I would have been able to understand what was going on without having read the book----at least twice, which I had at that point. (I remember the first time I read Catch-22, that I had to go back and re-read the first 100 pages or so, so that I was able to fully appreciate what was going on in the beginning of it----if you want to call it the beginning. Great read.)

ricks

I agree that the novel Catch 22 is much better than the film, but I think Mike Nichols; screen adaptation is an amazing film.

Tom B, if you are going to bring up A Bridge Too Far, you ought to mention The Longest Day, an even better movie that was based on a Cornelius Ryan book.

And how about another non-novel book inspiration: Woody Allen's Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex ..." (Not a great movie, but better than the book!)

And I just remembered a great example -- Ben Hur! Have you ever tried to read Lew Wallace's novel?

[FadedTackyShirt]

To Kill a Mockingbird film was nearly as good as the book.

Never thought any of Michael Lewis' books would be adapted, but the Blind Side movie was better than the book and the Moneyball film was almost as good as the book.

Film versions of Bonfire of the Vanities and Prince of Tides were utterly wretched relative to the books.

[Indoor66]

Bad Day at Black Rock.

[bjornolf]

IMHO:

Princess Bride, movie as good as book
My wife really enjoyed the movie "Count of Monte Cristo", but hated the book.

On the other hand, Skipping Christmas is FAR SUPERIOR to Christmas with the Kranks.

My family thinks most of the Harry Potter movies were as good as the books.

[davekay1971]

Unforgiven came out in 1992 so it's not 30 years old yet. But I agree, it's one of the best westerns ever made.

Several movies were tantalizingly close to the time limit.

Unforgiven - 1992
Die Hard - 1988
Glory - 1989


I thought about including Enter the Dragon, for its importance in mainstreaming martial arts movies in America, but it's not even Bruce Lee's best movie (The Big Boss and Chinese Connection are both better, IMhO). And later, better martial arts movies (Jackie Chan's Drunken Master 2, Jet Li's Fist of Legend and OATIC movies) were after the cutoff.

And Bloodsport, just ugh.

[OldPhiKap]

I forgiven is one of my favorite movies ever. Agreed, the only thing keeping it from the list is maturity.

But it is s good now s it was then, IMO. Certainly not dated; indeed that's part of its allure.

We've all got it coming, kid.

[fidel]

I liked the movie version of Catch-22 a lot, but there was absolutely no way I would have been able to understand what was going on without having read the book----at least twice, which I had at that point. (I remember the first time I read Catch-22, that I had to go back and re-read the first 100 pages or so, so that I was able to fully appreciate what was going on in the beginning of it----if you want to call it the beginning. Great read.)

ricks

So you wanted to read the book, but in order to understand the book, you needed to have read the book?

[fidel]

I forgiven is one of my favorite movies ever. Agreed, the only thing keeping it from the list is maturity.

But it is s good now s it was then, IMO. Certainly not dated; indeed that's part of its allure.

We've all got it coming, kid.

I think its Unforgiven, minus the last 4 minutes. AKA 'I love you Stranger'.

[wavedukefan70s]

Jaws,the final count down,caddy shack,star wars,raiders of the lost ark,fast times at ridgemont high,ferris buellers day off,goonies,stand by me,top gun.thats my all time 30 yr old favorites.the final countdown ,raiders of the lost ark and blue thunder being my top 3 because i remember my father taking me to go see them.

[ricks68]

So you wanted to read the book, but in order to understand the book, you needed to have read the book?

You almost got it. The book actually doesn't start in the beginning of the timeline. Things are mentioned that refer to events that haven't occurred yet, so you are unable to understand what characters are talking about until much later in the book. In order to not miss out on the importance of understanding some of the stuff in the beginning of the book, etc., I thought it best to re-read the beginning. I've talked to a number of people who have read the book over the years and they also have read the book more than once because of the same reasoning.

But no, in order to understand the movie, you need to have read the book because Mike Nichols did the same for the movie. (I haven't re-read my original post, as I'm typing this on my cell and this old Crustie might lose this if I do, but did I put in understanding the "book" instead of the "movie" when referring to the movie, also? I know I meant to say that you need to re-read the beginning of the book....

ricks

[ricks68]

I agree that the novel Catch 22 is much better than the film, but I think Mike Nichols; screen adaptation is an amazing film.

Tom B, if you are going to bring up A Bridge Too Far, you ought to mention The Longest Day, an even better movie that was based on a Cornelius Ryan book.

And how about another non-novel book inspiration: Woody Allen's Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex ..." (Not a great movie, but better than the book!)

And I just remembered a great example -- Ben Hur! Have you ever tried to read Lew Wallace's novel?

I do agree with you on the adaptation of Catch-22 for the screen. I think that it did not get the notice that it deserved at the time, however, due to the fact that Nichols used the same format in the movie that Heller did in the book. If I remember correctly, the movie started out with Nately ' s whore
running after Yossarian with the knife and Snowden being carried out of the plane, among other things (Milo comes to mind for a few seconds in there, maybe). No one would know what those things were all about if they had not already read the book.
Since I had already read the book+, the scene had a more "vivid" effect on me, so to speak. I thought that Nichols' had the same effect on me throughout the movie for the same reason, so I really got a kick out of the movie. Great direction on his part IMHO.

ricks

[fidel]

You almost got it. The book actually doesn't start in the beginning of the timeline. Things are mentioned that refer to events that haven't occurred yet, so you are unable to understand what characters are talking about until much later in the book. In order to not miss out on the importance of understanding some of the stuff in the beginning of the book, etc., I thought it best to re-read the beginning. I've talked to a number of people who have read the book over the years and they also have read the book more than once because of the same reasoning.

But no, in order to understand the movie, you need to have read the book because Mike Nichols did the same for the movie. (I haven't re-read my original post, as I'm typing this on my cell and this old Crustie might lose this if I do, but did I put in understanding the "book" instead of the "movie" when referring to the movie, also? I know I meant to say that you need to re-read the beginning of the book...

ricks

Actually, I was trying to point out the catch-22 when reading the book Catch-22. Once again my wit is most appreciated by myself.

[YmoBeThere]

Actually, I was trying to point out the catch-22 when reading the book Catch-22. Once again my wit is most appreciated by myself.

Sometimes those things work out, other times not so much. I elected to go with the simple approach this time and got reprimanded for it :), but got the result I was looking for.

When I tried to introduce the silliness of unanimity in the MOTM thread, that didn't work so well either. Perhaps I was too subtle in my approach...


The Kid only got 99.32% of the vote.

Which a more than passing fan of baseball might know is a reference to Ken Griffey Jr. and the highest percentage of the vote earned by a player elected to the MLB Hall of Fame.

Which got this:


Thanks in part to you, who voted for Vrank. :confused:

So, try lots of tactics, jokes, puns seem to work, etc. Eventually on one or two of them, you'll get the response you want.

[ricks68]

Actually, I was trying to point out the catch-22 when reading the book Catch-22. Once again my wit is most appreciated by myself.

Darn, you got me big time.👏 I guess it was so perfect a comment for the subject matter that it broke the sound (and my comprehension) barrier as it flew right over my head. Super kudos to you and off to the woodshed for me. (Where is the embarrassment emoji on a cell phone?)

ricks

[Tom B.]

I have a good handle on what won Best Picture, and don't have a clue about Pulitzer-winning plays, but I'll guess that Driving Miss Daisy is one of them. If I'm right, can I have a hint on the other?

Driving Miss Daisy is correct.

For the other one, you have to go back a ways. Frankly, you'll need to put on your thinking Cap and Stew over this one a while.

As for the two films based on Pulitzer-winning journalism -- one is a fictional story with fictional characters, but it drew heavily on real events reported in a series of investigative articles published in New York in the late 1940s. The other is more recent, and while it takes some dramatic license (as all films do) in some places, is a more fact-based retelling of real events -- with the main actors playing the roles of non-fictional people -- that were at the center of another milestone of investigative journalism.

[JBDuke]

Driving Miss Daisy is correct.

For the other one, you have to go back a ways. Frankly, you'll need to put on your thinking Cap and Stew over this one a while.

As for the two films based on Pulitzer-winning journalism -- one is a fictional story with fictional characters, but it drew heavily on real events reported in a series of investigative articles published in New York in the late 1940s. The other is more recent, and while it takes some dramatic license (as all films do) in some places, is a more fact-based retelling of real events -- with the main actors playing the roles of non-fictional people -- that were at the center of another milestone of investigative journalism.

I think the other Pulitzer winning play is "You Can't Take It With You", which won the Oscar in 1938. Pretty sure the recent journalism one is "Spotlight". I'd guess the older one is "All the King's Men".

[tbyers11]

Driving Miss Daisy is correct.

For the other one, you have to go back a ways. Frankly, you'll need to put on your thinking Cap and Stew over this one a while.

As for the two films based on Pulitzer-winning journalism -- one is a fictional story with fictional characters, but it drew heavily on real events reported in a series of investigative articles published in New York in the late 1940s. The other is more recent, and while it takes some dramatic license (as all films do) in some places, is a more fact-based retelling of real events -- with the main actors playing the roles of non-fictional people -- that were at the center of another milestone of investigative journalism.

The recent Pulitzer journalism movie is Spotlight. Your hint and looking at the list of winners makes think the other one is On the Waterfront?

[Tom B.]

The recent Pulitzer journalism movie is Spotlight. Your hint and looking at the list of winners makes think the other one is On the Waterfront?

Correct -- the two Best Picture winners based on Pulitzer-winning journalism are On the Waterfront and Spotlight.

And JBDuke is correct that the second Best Picture winner based on a Pulitzer-winning play is You Can't Take It With You.

All the King's Men and Gone With The Wind are the two Best Picture winners based on Pulitzer-winning novels.

[chriso]

Here's my list. Jaws, Raiders, ET, Star Wars, Empire, Alien, Aliens, Blade Runner, Godfather, Godfather 2, Vertigo, Wizard of Oz, Dawn of the Dead, Odd Couple, and King Kong. :cool:

[chris13]

Dr. Strangelove
Raising Arizona
This is Spinal Tap
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Network
Ikuru
The Bad News Bears
Platoon
An Unmarried Woman
The Searchers
Caddyshack
Breaking Away
Casablanca
It's a Wonderful Life
ET the Extra Terrestrial
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Heaven Can Wait
The Caine Mutiny
Godfather I and II

[chris13]

[QUOTE=Tom B.;947918]Yeah -- I think it's easy to forget that lots of movies are based on books, novellas, or short stories, and some of the literary works on which movies are based are overlooked, forgettable, or good but just obscure.

A recent book-based film that I enjoyed was The Martian

Other good movies based on literary works that come to mind, where the film is arguably as good or better than the literary work:

A River Runs Through It -- based on a novella by Norman MacLean.


I don't think the movie version of a A River Runs Through It while good is the equal of the book, which is about as beautifully written as any book in English.

Arrival (great) is based on a wonderful novella. The Martian book has a great plot and OK writing.

[PackMan97]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIqabIE4n5w