I saw Casablanca for the first time over the weekend. Not bad. It is a fairly engaging movie.
I don't know about any other old classics I would like to see, but here is a list of somewhat modern classics (within the last 30 years) I would like to see, but haven't.
The Karate Kid
Silence of the Lambs
Wayne's World
Rocky (all the way through)
I would also like to see "Delta Force" with Chuck Norris, but I have a feeling that is not deemed a classic.
Speaking of classics, whatever happened to AMC, "American Movie Classics." There idea of what constitutes a classic has been somewhat compromised these past few years. Since when is "The Good Son" and "The Flinstones in Viva Rock Vegas" considered classics?
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8 comments:
Casablanca..."Not bad"??!!
What's wrong with you, son?!
Modern classics I recommend if you haven't seen them:
The Mission
A River Runs Through It (book or movie)
Dead Poets Society
Not so modern classics I recommend:
Arsenic and Old Lace
Harvey (yes, definitely, Harvey!)
A Day at the Races or Animal Crackers (Marx Bros)
Not that you were asking...
Ooh! Also the "Maltese Falcon" (an even better Bogey movie than "Casablanca," if you ask me).
You won't believe me when I say this. I've yet to watch that movie.
Okay, Dan beat me to the "Not BAD?' comment. Casablanca is one of my favorite films. I think it is better than The Maltese Falcon, but not quite as good as Bogie's great Key Largo.
Classic films which are not to be missed:
True Grit and The Quiet Man--John Wayne's two best films.
Casablanca is "not bad." Sigh. Philistines.
Hitchcock's Rear Window, The Birds, North by Northwest, and Psycho.
Sidney Poitier in The Defiant Ones.
Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird--excellent adaptation of the movie.
Modern Movie classics: I agree with Dan's list, but would add:
Young Frankenstein,
Deathtrap (Christopher Reed and Michael Caine)
Born on the Fourth of July
Romero
Cry Freedom (story of the life and death of Steve Biko during South African apartheid)
Unforgiven (Violent, but also debunks the myth of redemptive violence--almost an anti-Western)
I'm going to say this because I don't get to say it often....
Not bad? Whu....? I agree %100 percent with Dan and Michael on that. Amazing movie.
Classics to watch:
-- The Searchers. John Wayne at his darkest.
-- Charlie Chaplin in The Gold Rush
-- Seven Samurai, by Akira Kurosawa (this is the movie the Magnificent Seven was based on)
-- The Magnificent Seven
-- The Natural
-- The African Queen
True Grit...love it. NOT an anti-violence movie but this peacemaker loves it anyway, as escapism.
Old eye-patch wearing fat sheriff John Wayne confronts deadly Ned Pepper and his gang and tells Ned,
"I aim to take you back to town. You can go riding on your horse, or laid across it."
Ned, looks around and sees he's got John Wayne outnumbered and outgunned and says:
"I call that mighty bold talk for a one-eyed fat man."
John Wayne makes a face then says, in that John Wayne style:
"Fill your hands, you sunnuvabitch"
And races towards him on his horse, reins in mouth and rifles in both hands firing away.
Horrible theology. Fun escapism.
Dan, my favorite line from True Grit is when John Wayne interrupts Glen Campbell (playing a Texas Ranger)'s bragging about how "many's the time I've drunk water from a horse's footprint and been glad to get it." Wayne replies, "If I ever meet a Texan who HASN'T drank from a horse's footprint, I'll shake his hand!"
Lee, I'll definitely second the Natural. I've enjoyed that better the more I've seen it. My first time (in college), I thought I was going to see a realistic baseball movie and was completely unprepared for the fantastic, surreal portions. So, I left the theatre going, "Huh?" Expectations can really play a role in how one sees a movie.
"True Grit...love it. NOT an anti-violence movie but this peacemaker loves it anyway, as escapism."
I feel the same way about "Man on Fire" with Denzel Washington. It's a pretty violent movie in which Denzel's character does some pretty bad things to find a kidnapped girl. A morally hazy movie, but still, I'm rooting for the guy.
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