Baumer's 50 most important films of all time (JFK 3, Earthlings 2.....FREE YOUR MIND! THE MATRIX NUMBER 1)

[baumer]

Well this isn't the 50 most influential list. It's the 50 most important. Nightmare on Elm Street was a huge Catalyst into making new line Cinema is what they are not so much today but 10 years ago at least. That also makes it an incredibly influential film or at least an incredibly important film. There are definitely other films that were more influential but I feel like a Nightmare on Elm Streets importance is tangible.

[baumer]

Number 18

Easy Rider (1969)

Peter Fonda, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper

Directed by Dennis Hopper

 

 

Box office:  41.7 Million

Quick:  Started a new attitude towards film making

Imdb summary:  Two young "hippie" bikers, Wyatt and Billy sell some dope in Southern California, stash their money away in their gas-tank and set off for a trip across America, on their own personal odyssey looking for a way to lead their lives. On the journey they encounter bigotry and hatred from small-town communities who despise and fear their non-conformism. However Wyatt and Billy also discover people attempting 'alternative lifestyles' who are resisting this narrow-mindedness, there is always a question mark over the future survival of these drop-out groups. The gentle hippie community who thank God for 'a place to stand' are living their own unreal dream. The rancher they encounter and his Mexican wife are hard-pushed to make ends meet. Even LSD turns sour when the trip is a bad one. Death comes to seem the only freedom. When they arrive at a diner in a small town, they are insulted by the local rednecks as weirdo degenerates. They are arrested on some minor pretext by the local sheriff and thrown in jail where they meet George Hanson, a liberal alcoholic lawyer. He gets them out and decides to join them on their trip to New Orleans in time for Mardi Gras.

Why it's important:  Dennis Hopper's counterculture road movie defined the 60's. Motorbikes, hard drugs and free love defined this cultural landmark, ushering not just a new age of cinema but a significant change in American societal attitudes. Easy Rider sparked the definitive New Hollywood period of movie making and it was the landmark movie for many of the generation, capturing the hearts and minds of a nation. The movie sums up America in the 1960's as well as any, detailing the social tensions of the time, the hippie movement which left millions disaffected and hard drug use. The film is known for its actors and director experimenting with the substances during the production and Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson are well known for their hedonistic lifestyles.

Easy Rider was a huge hit at the box office as it resonated with the youth at the time who went in their droves to see the movie. As a result of the financial and critical success of the movie, studios were more willing to give more control to the director on a small budget as they had faith the directors could produce commercially successful movies with little resources. The New Hollywood phrase of the 70's saw a rise in maverick directors such as Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, Francis Ford Coppola, William Friedkin and Terrence Malick who went on to make some of the greatest American movies of all time. Easy Rider also gave a start to would be film icon, Jack Nicholson who stole the show in his small role in the movie and Dennis Hopper's career was resurrected as a result. Easy Rider signalled a change in Hollywood and in the way movies were made and its themes of disillusion are still incredibly relevant today.

Why it's important to me:  I have no real connection to this film except that I know it had a huge influence on the gritty film making of the 70's that I love so much.  I love films like Last House on the Left, Rocky, Scarface and many others and all of them are in some way influenced by Easy Rider.

[baumer]

Number 17

The Dark Knight (2008)

Christian Bale, Heath Ledger

Directed by Chris Nolan

 

 

Box office:  534.8 million and 1 billion WW

Quick:  A comic book movie that changed the Oscars

Imdb Summary:  The follow-up to Batman Begins, The Dark Knight reunites director Christopher Nolan and star Christian Bale, who reprises the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne in his continuing war on crime. With the help of Lt. Jim Gordon and District Attorney Harvey Dent, Batman sets out to destroy organized crime in Gotham for good. The triumvirate proves effective. But soon the three find themselves prey to a rising criminal mastermind known as The Joker, who thrusts Gotham into anarchy and forces Batman closer to crossing the fine line between hero and vigilante.

Why it's important:  It's not that comic book movies weren't taken seriously before 2008 and it's not like they were after, but when The Dark Knight was shut out of the Oscar nominations and more inferior Weinsteins crap was there in it's place, it caused an uproar and it was the year after that the nominations went from 5 to the possibility of 10.  This is pretty historic.  It's also a film imo that will be the bench mark for all comic book films to follow.  This is about as perfect a film as you will find.  

Why it's important to me:  Maybe one of these days, down the road, I'll do a countdown on my opinion of the 50 greatest film performances of all time.  Heath's would be top 5, maybe even the best I've ever seen.  That alone makes it a monumentally important film.  Roger Ebert kind of echoes my thoughts: 
 

Batman” isn’t a comic book anymore. Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” is a haunted film that leaps beyond its origins and becomes an engrossing tragedy. It creates characters we come to care about. That’s because of the performances, because of the direction, because of the writing, and because of the superlative technical quality of the entire production. This film, and to a lesser degree “Iron Man,” redefine the possibilities of the “comic-book movie.”   “The Dark Knight” is not a simplistic tale of good and evil. Batman is good, yes, The Joker is evil, yes. But Batman poses a more complex puzzle than usual: The citizens of Gotham City are in an uproar, calling him a vigilante and blaming him for the deaths of policemen and others. And the Joker is more than a villain. He’s a Mephistopheles whose actions are fiendishly designed to pose moral dilemmas for his enemies.

[Eric Lasagna]

Never heard of Easy Rider, but it sounds like something I should put on my watchlist.

[Lordmandeep]

I would say TDK biggest influence was making studios go for that dark angel in many films.

[baumer]

Number 16

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Judy Garland, Frank Morgan

Directed by Victor Fleming

"There's no place like home"

 

 

Box office:  22.3 million

Quick:  One of the first movies with colour and arguably the most famous movie ever made.

Imdb Summary:  When a nasty neighbor tries to have her dog put to sleep, Dorothy takes her dog Toto, to run away. A cyclone appears and carries her to the magical land of Oz. Wishing to return, she begins to travel to the Emerald City where a great wizard lives. On her way she meets a Scarecrow who needs a brain, a Tin Man who wants a heart, and a Cowardly Lion who desperately needs courage. They all hope the Wizard of Oz will help them, before the Wicked Witch of the West catches up with them.

Why it's important:  “The Wizard of Oz” powerfully fills a void that exists inside many children. For kids of a certain age, home is everything, the center of the world. But over the rainbow, dimly guessed at, is the wide earth, fascinating and terrifying. There is a deep fundamental fear that events might conspire to transport the child from the safety of home and strand him far away in a strange land. And what would he hope to find there? Why, new friends, to advise and protect him. And Toto, of course, because children have such a strong symbiotic relationship with their pets that they assume they would get lost together.

This deep universal appeal explains why so many different people from many backgrounds have a compartment of their memory reserved for “The Wizard of Oz.” Salman Rushdie, growing up in Bombay, remembers that seeing the film at 10 “made a writer of me.” Terry McMillan, as an African-American child in northern Michigan, “completely identified when no one had time to listen to Dorothy.” Rushdie wrote that the film's “driving force is the inadequacy of adults, even of good adults, and how the weakness of grownups forces children to take control of their own destinies.” McMillan learned about courage, about “being afraid but doing whatever it was you set out to do anyway.”

They're touching on the key lesson of childhood, which is that someday the child will not be a child, that home will no longer exist, that adults will be no help because now the child is an adult and must face the challenges of life alone. But that you can ask friends to help you. And that even the Wizard of Oz is only human, and has problems of his own.

“The Wizard of Oz” has a wonderful surface of comedy and music, special effects and excitement, but we still watch it six decades later because its underlying story penetrates straight to the deepest insecurities of childhood, stirs them and then reassures them. As adults, we love it because it reminds us of a journey we have taken. That is why any adult in control of a child is sooner or later going to suggest a viewing of “The Wizard of Oz.”

Why it's important to me:  It's the first film I loved as a child.  We knew when it was coming on and as a family we watched it together, every time.  It's timeless in every way and I have made sure my nieces and nephews have watched it as well.  It's one film that never gets old, never looks dated (unless you're James, then even Armageddon looks dated) and never falls into any kind of stereotypes for the era it was made.  It's just as relevant today as it was in 1939.  It's a classic in every sense of the word.

[Avatree]

dark knight..

 

[Lordmandeep]

Just now, Treecraft said:

dark knight..

 

 

 

Anyone who thinks The Dark Knight is not a very influential modern film is welll

 

 

To be blunt ? Living under a rock? 

[baumer]

Be back tonight to get to the top ten.

 

Here's some more hints for films to come:

 

On the streets of Philadelphia

They're coming to get Barbara

A wheelchair, a Scooby Doo van and some meddling kids

Ben Tramer is cute

[Chaz]

I was hoping you'd misquoted the thread title and Funny Girl had somehow made the top 20, but The Dark Knight is fine too.

[baumer]

4 minutes ago, Treecraft said:

dark knight..

 

 

This list isn't about your favourite films or even mine, but what films I think have done something to be either extremely important in my eyes (like Free Willy and the film coming up at number 7) or a film that has done something to change Hollywood or something to define it.  TDK is paramount to the change the oscars went through for 2009.

[75Live]

3 minutes ago, Baumer said:

Be back tonight to get to the top ten.

 

Here's some more hints for films to come:

 

On the streets of Philadelphia

They're coming to get Barbara

A wheelchair, a Scooby Doo van and some meddling kids

Ben Tramer is cute

 

and I love all those films  

[baumer]

Just now, 75live said:

 

and I love all those films  

 

Well, keep them to yourself.

 

I think the rest of these films will at least be films that people have seen....with the exception of number 3 and maybe number 7.  

[75Live]

2 minutes ago, Baumer said:

 

Well, keep them to yourself.

 

I think the rest of these films will at least be films that people have seen....with the exception of number 3 and maybe number 7.  

 

their loss if they haven't seen the films  

 

but yeah overall, I agree with I think the entire list so far and I'm probably one of the few that have seen them all too  

[baumer]

Thanks 75...it's obviously a very subjective list....but that's what makes it fun....gotta go for a bit.

 

 

[Eric Lasagna]

Story time for The Dark Knight: I was around 10 years old when I saw it with my older brother and my mom. I wasn't the biggest superhero movie fan, since I grew up more as a comedy movie and cartoon movie fan, but I liked Spider-Man, and I liked Fantastic Four, so I expected a superhero movie along those lines. Something fun, bouncy, and somewhat kid-friendly, but still with some serious moments.

 

Spoiler alert: That didn't happen. Keep in mind that as a kid, I was a gigantic scaredy-cat, even at age 10, so seeing that movie pretty much blindsided what I thought about comic book movies, and the intense action scenes and Heath Ledger's Joker were in my nightmares for weeks.

 

I still have yet to see the entire movie in one sitting, nor any of the other Nolan Batman films, but I will admit that it probably helped me gain more interest in the Batman lore, as a couple years after the movie came out, I became obsessed with the Arkham games, and I later fell in love with Tim Burton's films. I also started to care more about comic book movies after 2008 rolled around, so maybe Dark Knight actually helped me acquire better taste.

[Chaz]

1 minute ago, CoolEric258 said:

Story time for The Dark Knight: I was around 10 years old when I saw it with my older brother and my mom. I wasn't the biggest superhero movie fan, since I grew up more as a comedy movie and cartoon movie fan, but I liked Spider-Man, and I liked Fantastic Four, so I expected a superhero movie along those lines. Something fun, bouncy, and somewhat kid-friendly, but still with some serious moments.

 

Spoiler alert: That didn't happen. Keep in mind that as a kid, I was a gigantic scaredy-cat, even at age 10, so seeing that movie pretty much blindsided what I thought about comic book movies, and the intense action scenes and Heath Ledger's Joker were in my nightmares for weeks.

 

I still have yet to see the entire movie in one sitting, nor any of the other Nolan Batman films, but I will admit that it probably helped me gain more interest in the Batman lore, as a couple years after the movie came out, I became obsessed with the Arkham games, and I later fell in love with Tim Burton's films. I also started to care more about comic book movies after 2008 rolled around, so maybe Dark Knight actually helped me acquire better taste.

You're a baby. This is adorable.

[Eric Lasagna]

1 minute ago, Chaz said:

You're a baby. This is adorable.

[Kalo]

17 hours ago, Baumer said:

Why it's important to me:  It's given me years of stimulating conversation with the Pixar loonies.  You know the ones, "Pixar cures cancer." "Pixar donates all proceeds to poor children in Africa."  "Pixar is God."  I've never understood the appeal of Pixar.  Where the old Disney animated films like Lady and The Tramp and Cinderella had heart and a great story and laughs Pixar just feels cold and calculating and has seriously used some kind of MK Ultra shit to brainwash most of you.  So it's not important to me but I understand the importance of it to others.  Too bad you all can't snap out of your funk. 

 

Toy Story doesn't have heart?! Toy Story was one of the most influential movies of my childhood, it helped shaped my crazy imagination, I mean who doesn't imagine their toys coming to life? and I'm sorry but it had way more heart than Cinderella and Lady and the Tramp. and it's also hilarious. and this is coming from someone who considers Pixar overrated.  

[RascarCapat]

Allright Baumer. I see your Metropolis and Wizzatd of Oz. I know you will put Star Wars in there too.

 

Everything is going smoothly but if you havn't it is still time to watch some of Méliès work. At a time where all they shot was documentary and live action theater plays !