BOT's Top 100 Movies of All Time - Hindsight is 2020 Edition

[Ethan Hunt]

oooooo yess Toy story 3 drop! well Toy Story 2 finally finish ahead of it ?

[chasmmi]

21 hours ago, Daxtreme said:

Also, Police Story will be back with a vengeance in chasmmi's top 100 foreign movies mark my words 

[misafeco]

1 hour ago, Ethan Hunt said:

oooooo yess Toy story 3 drop! well Toy Story 2 finally finish ahead of it ?

I had both 1 and 2 above it.

[cannastop]

I remember in the summer of 2010 we got pictures taken with Lotso Bear at Disney World before we knew he was a villain.

[Rorschach]

1 hour ago, Ethan Hunt said:

oooooo yess Toy story 3 drop! well Toy Story 2 finally finish ahead of it ?

It better have.

[lorddemaxus]

Lol, I just realized I forgot to add Toy Story 2 to my list. I used my letterboxd account to make my list but I hadn't rated the movie so I missed it.

Edited July 16, 2020 by lorddemaxus

[SLAM!]

I was intentionally selective with animated films for my list. I will always love animation, but I decided to fight a different battle this time around.

[The Panda]

Love this sci-fi movie!

 

 

 

"It looks like all of America just lost their Facebook."

 

About the Movie

 

Synopsis

 

"Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) in command of his last flight before retiring. But on a seemingly routine spacewalk, disaster strikes. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalsky completely alone - tethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the blackness."

 

Its Legacy

 

"It’s really beside the point to mention any scientific inaccuracies in Gravity since the movie is so gripping, so jaw-dropping, so visually, gobsmackingly good that it seems churlish to pay attention to much else. What’s more, Gravity, which does get much more right than it gets wrong, is not Apollo 13 or The Right Stuff—movies that had to hew close to history because they were based on real events. (Disclosure: I wrote the book on which Apollo 13 was based and served as a consultant on the movie.) Gravity is a space disaster and survival movie that never happened in real life—though in smaller and surely less cinematic ways it could.    All the same, science is science and facts are facts and when a movie purports to traffic in both, it’s only fair to point out the blunders—none of which were howlers in this case, but at least some of which could (and should) have been avoided. Spoilers, by the way, lurk here like satellite debris, so proceed with caution if you haven’t yet seen the movie.

 

The triggering incident in Gravity—equivalent to the exploding oxygen tank in Apollo 13—occurs when Russia launches a missile to destroy one of its own satellites, accidentally creating a chain reaction that demolishes most of the communications satellites orbiting the planet. An American space shuttle is in orbit on a Hubble Telescope repair mission at the time, and not only does the satellite disaster plunge the crew into radio blackout, it also puts them directly in the path of a high-speed swarm of space junk that whips around the planet every 90 minutes. The shuttle gets clobbered, most of the astronauts die, something less than hilarity ensues. So, where to begin?  First of all, the Hubble orbits at an inclination of 28.5º, which maximizes the time it spends passing over the American mainland on its various trips around the planet. The shuttle, in most cases, stays at that angle too. Russian satellites, however, orbit at higher inclinations, for the same reason—to keep them as close as possible to the Motherland. Junk from a Russian pigeon-shoot might cross the shuttle’s orbit on some of its passes, but it would not happen right away—and certainly not every hour and a half. After the shuttle is destroyed, the surviving astronauts seek refuge on the International Space Station, which is conveniently located nearby. But the ISS orbits at 51.6º—a concession to the Russians when we built the station, since their Soyuz spacecraft regularly ferry crews up and down. Shuttles fly at that high inclination when they’re visiting the ISS, but they wouldn’t be anywhere remotely in the neighborhood if they were servicing Hubble.

 

There are other implausibilities too. Bullock winds up piloting two other countries’ spacecraft: a Russian Soyuz and a Chinese Shenzhou, which she picks up when she makes her way to China’s space station—which exists, sort of, but only as a single pod, not as the sprawling complex it appears in the movie, and in either case it orbits at 42.78º, nowhere near the Hubble and the shuttle. She handles both ships with surprising deftness considering she was only lightly trained on the Soyuz and not at all on the Shenzhou. And throughout the movie, she and Clooney spend a fair bit of time getting whacked around in space, grabbing onto this or that rail or tether on the shuttle or ISS only at the last second to avoid pinwheeling off  into the void. In truth, pressurized space gloves are murderously hard to manipulate, providing only limited grip at best and leaving astronauts’ hands cold and very painful after a day of work. Making the kinds of one-handed Cirque du Soleil catches Clooney and Bullock accomplish would be impossible.  So, that’s a lot that Gravity gets wrong. But you know what? So what? The shuttle, space station and spacesuits are painstakingly recreated; the physics of moving about in space—thrusts requiring counterthrusts, spins requiring counterspins, the hideous reality that if you do go spiraling off into the void your rotation never, never stops—are all simulated beautifully, scarily and accurately. Gravity will wind you up and wring you out as only the best thrillers do. Absolute technical accuracy matters—except when it doesn’t. Gravity gets a well-earned waiver."

- Jeffrey Kluger, TIME

 

From the Filmmaker

 

"The requirement of realism, paradoxically, compelled Cuarón and his team to pre-visualize the entire film, shot for shot, long in advance of bringing Sandra Bullock and co-star George Clooney onset. This was an animation technique. Each shot was blocked, timed, and the actors "key-framed," creating an "animatic" of the entire script.  Animators had to unlearn years of expectations. Everybody "knows" that objects fly on curved trajectories to the ground based on their weight.  But in orbit, weight translates to inertia, there is no ground, and there is only the tiniest hint of gravitational force to change the path. [Making Gravity: How Alfonso Cuarón Created 'Weightlessness' (Video)]  "It took a lot of education for the animators to fully grasp that the usual laws of cause and effect don’t apply," Cuarón said in a press statement. "In outer space, there is no up; there is no down."  It took more than two years of this "previs" process before the director's first "Action!" call.  When cameras finally did roll, Bullock and Clooney found themselves under some tight space and time constraints. There wasn't much room for improv. Each shot's pacing was closely defined by the "previs," which tended to tie the actors tightly to time. This effectively took many possibilities for spontaneous moments off the table.

 

Early in the "previs" process, Director of Photography Emmanuel Lubezki ("Children of Men") recognized a looming problem: In space, light comes from the sun and bounces off everything else, most prominently the dayside of Earth. But the script called for rapidly changing lighting as primal forces whip characters around. How could the film crew, essentially, move the sun around instantly?  Lubezki's answer was to invent something new under the sun: A "Light Box," made of 196 panels, each containing 4096 LEDs. Actors and set pieces could be placed inside. Panels could move to accommodate cameras and props. Visual effects technicians piloting software could instantaneous change any individual LED.  The whole rig was more than 20 feet (6 meters) tall and over 10 feet (3 m) wide.  Imagine yourself as Sandra Bullock or George Clooney, hanging on an intricate 12-wire rig, inside a small house made of flat-screen TV's. Not only can the Light Box make instant and interactive changes of light falling your face, your costume, your props; it also can show you the scene to which you are supposed to be reacting.

 

With the lighting problem solved, the free realm of virtual microgravity made it possible – but very challenging technically — for Cuarón to play one of his favorite cards: Long, complex, tracking shots.  Cuarón’s prior films "Children of Men" and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," as examples, contain elaborate continuous sequences, traveling over large distances without a cut. These transform audiences from observers to participants in the scenes, living in the tempos of these movies.  But in "Gravity's" universe, the distances can be much larger; the timeframes much longer, and the camera angles can pivot fully through three dimensions.  This let DP Lubezki expand Cuarón’s love of long uninterrupted takes into what they began calling “elastic shots;” extended floating sequences where the camera, actor and scene could rotate and roll around one another in apparently complete dimensional freedom. This instantly communicates the feeling of true space operations.  When your guts aren't being knocked about in resonance with the emotional slalom run of Sandra Bullock's character, you're getting woozy (in an exhilarating way) with the view through Cuarón's loopy moving camera. He'll take you around, over/under, through, and in and out of micro-spaces within the ultimate macro: space itself.  One moment you're inside the spacesuit helmet Bullock's character, her breath whispering in your ears. The next, you're a kilometer out from the International Space Station hearing her only as distant radio chatter, then you're up close with co-star George Clooney's character — and there hasn’t been a cinematic cut."

- Making 'Gravity', SPACE

 

 

Why It's the Greatest

 

Critic Opinion

 

"No film since 2001: A Space Odyssey has so fully communicated the absoluteness of space — its impossible vastness, its obliterating void. Yet Gravity is existential in a real sense; there will be communing with distant alien brains. A marvel of filmmaking reach, it is a testament to what can be achieved with modern technologies set the challenge of putting the audience at the absolute centre of the most extreme jeopardy imaginable — to be adrift in space. The nearest thing, and Bullock helps the analogy, is the high-concept purity and vice-like grip of Speed. The story is consumed by the immediacy of its dilemma. How will they survive?  So if it is made with Kubrickian grandeur and paradigm-shifting ambition — and Cuarón and his cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki, extended their post-production to press and press again at the envelope of their vision — it still plays with the breakneck dynamics of the best disaster movies. Like a ticking bomb that keeps resetting itself, the orbiting debris will keep swarming back in their direction. Actually, it’s as if Kubrick and James Cameron formed an unlikely creative alliance (God knows who made the tea): the meticulousness of a chess grandmaster applied to the blood-rush of matinée excitement.

 

The ingredients of the fight for survival should be left for you to discover. Suffice to say, Cuarón and his son have written it in such a way that it is spellbinding yet believable. Science serves the movie, and the movie obeys science. There are cunning shifts in environment, herculean trials by fire, water and technology, all driven by that Speed-like escalation where one solution only heralds the next nightmare scenario. And still Cuarón imagines beauty amid crisis, art, no less: visions of rebirth, a sublime use of reflective surfaces, destruction as phantasmagorical ballet and lens flare to make J. J. gently weep.  And Gravity, as title, refers as much to the performances as the concept; Cuarón draws as deeply from his actors as his effects team. Bullock’s Stone especially is sent inward, towards a tragic backstory, to ignite her will to live. Room is found for painful intimacy, delving for what keeps us going faced with all-but-insurmountable odds. We clock icons of belief — Buddahs and Christs — suggesting the universe might offer other forms of salvation. So, finally, this is a story about our sheer, dogged insistence on staying alive. However complex and awe-inspiring the film’s execution, Cuarón’s mission is to celebrate the phenomenon of life."

- Ian Nathan, Empire

 

User Opinion

 

"I want another viewing (on a MUCH bigger screen) before I reach my final verdict, but holy crap, this was everything I wanted it to be. Shortest 90 minutes of my life. Favorite moments (in no order): shot of crew member's face cratered by debris right next to picture of his family, Clooney ascending into space after detatchment all Christ-like, Bullock's freaky lullaby that weaves itself into the score, the somber existential dream sequence, and the voyage home. That voyage home. I haven't lost myself in a movie this much since Before Midnight." - @Gopher

 

The Panda's Haiku

 

Facebook is offline

 

Sad Sandra Bullock floats on

 

Longing for the Zuck

 

 

Factoids

 

Placement on Prior Lists

 

2012 - N/A, 2013 - N/A, 2014 - 42, 2016 - 53, 2018 - 92

 

Director Count

 

Alfonso Cuaron - 2, Richard Linklater - 2, Mel Brooks - 1, David Fincher - 1, Michel Gondry - 1, Rian Johnson - 1, David Lean - 1, Akira Kurosawa - 1, Hayao Miyazaki - 1, Adrian Molina - 1, John McTiernan Bob Persichetti - 1, Peter Ramsey - 1, Rodney Rotham - 1, The Russo Brothers - 1,  Martin Scorsese - 1, Lee Unkrich - 2, Kar-Wai Wong - 1

 

Franchise Count

 

Before Trilogy - 1, Marvel Cinematic Universe - 1, Pixar - 2, Predator - 1, Scorsese -1, Spider-Man - 1, Star Wars - 1, Studio Ghibli - 1, Toy Story - 1

 

Decade Count

 

1950s - 1, 1970s - 1, 1980s - 3, 2000s - 4, 2010s - 8

 

 

 

Edited July 16, 2020 by The Panda

[Ethan Hunt]

Nice. Will take the increase from gravity after it dropped huge last time

[Rorschach]

Gravity is great. I remember seeing that opening day in 3D with a packed crowd. Was definitely an unforgettable experience.

[The Panda]

 

 

"HEY, FUCK OFF, JOHNNY UTAH! TURN MY PAGES, BITCH!"

 

About the Movie

 

Synopsis

 

"A young and talented drummer attending a prestigious music academy finds himself under the wing of the most respected professor at the school; one who does not hold back on abuse towards his students. The two form an odd relationship as the student wants to achieve greatness, and the professor pushes him. "

 

Its Legacy

 

1. There’s blood, but it’s not that bad.
“You know how the drummer is so frustrated and scared, and his desire to succeed is so strong? He’s practicing, really trying to get faster and faster, and he’s drawing blood. That’s unrealistic. People don’t draw blood like that, playing music. It just doesn’t happen, and if you do, you’re holding the sticks wrong. You’re screwed up technically if you’re drawing blood. I’ve never seen anyone draw blood. I used to draw blood on the vibes a lot, because the mallets are being held between your fingers. Sometimes I would play loud and break a callus. Popping calluses, breaking blisters.”

 

2. That’s not really how you practice drums.
Some of the things the drummer was practicing were not really things you’d want to practice. When Andrew was drawing blood, for example, he was playing the single strokes so fast and for so long. They were trying to show how deep Fletcher had hurt him and how much the kid wanted it, but practicing like that in and of itself is psychotic and insane.

 

5. Lessons do go awry if students are unprepared — it’s just not as terrifying.
My expectation, particularly of the Juilliard students, is to follow the rules here: Lateness and absences count in a big way. My expectations are: Show up on time, with the work I’ve assigned to you prepared, and/or more. If a kid comes into a lesson and they haven’t prepared their lesson properly, we don’t need to sit here and watch them practice. So we might say, Okay, you practice and I’m going out for a cup of coffee. I’ll be back in 20 or 40 minutes and see where you’re at.

6. Yes, the standards are extremely demanding.
I expect my students to be like I was when I was their age. I used to practice about six or seven hours a day, go to all the classes and orchestra rehearsals. It was 14 hours a day in this school thing every day for five years. And for that, you get a little career. I used to enter the building at 8 a.m. and leave at 11:30 p.m. That’s all I did for five years, when I went to school here. You want to get good at something, you do it hard for ten years. Practice perfectly for ten years, and you’ll have what you want — that’s how you get to the next level.

 

7. For some, it’s true, music can be a solitary career.
That part [in which Andrew breaks off with his girlfriend to chase his dreams] is a valid point. The commitment that it takes to play music is like any other art form. The commitment of trying to be a master of jazz’s poetic language is an addiction, just like a drug, and there can be very little room for a social life. Some kids here can’t find a balance. That’s a reality; there are lots of people like that. You become a hermit from practicing so much. But you know what? The guys who stay in here for ten hours a day? Those are the ones who come out on top a lot of the time.

8. The movie’s end is real and raw.

I actually cried at the end, when the kid was kicking ass in the last tune. And the most important thing about that scene is maybe what the band director was trying to get out of all the students from the very beginning — my take on it, at least — which is he’s trying to teach them to be leaders like he is. And at the very end, Miles Teller says, “I’ll cue you.” He’s the leader now."

- Mark Sherman, Juliard Professor

 

From the Filmmaker

 

""I did not see 'Were you rushing or were you dragging?' or 'Not my tempo' becoming this thing outside of the movie. I can’t even really take credit for it either, because they are exactly what my conductor said to me all the time when I was a drummer in high school. Those words are innocuous on their own, but when you hear them the way I hear them, those words become the words you most don’t want to hear. Your greatest fear.  My goal as a drummer was to avoid those words, so that scene was me definitely writing what I knew. I certainly hoped that in the context of the movie, those lines would take on the life that they had when I was drumming, but I could not have guessed just what a kind of a life they’d take on outside of the movie. Maybe it’s a nice, cathartic way of dealing with those 'boogie man' words..."

 

"It’s a bit of a challenge when you’ve written yourself into a corner in a script where you need your lead to produce a single tear at a certain moment. (Laughs) But again, when you have two actors as phenomenal as Miles and J.K., it ended up being a lot less hard than it would normally be.  We definitely did a few takes. Just because of the ridiculousness of our schedule, we couldn’t often take our time with takes, we had to be running and gunning all the time, but we took some more time with this one."

 

"The chair swing was a combination of a very wide shot with a stunt double in Miles’ place and then a closer shot of Miles with the chair chucked closer to frame. If anything, the harder part there was the edit, figuring out how to cut it for maximum impact. Also from a sound perspective, in the mix we felt it needed to be louder and louder. The actual sound of a folding chair hitting a wall wasn’t really doing the trick, so we needed some extra oomph to it. Editorially, I think there is a lot of hidden trickery going on there, so it seemed a lot scarier than it really was.""

- Damien Chazelle Interview with Vulture

 

 

Why It's the Greatest

 

Critic Opinion

 

"It isn’t all amusement, of course: Fletcher’s methods prove too extreme to remain uninterrogated, and soon the film conspires to pose rather more serious questions and face up to more serious themes. Chazelle’s ruminations on the price of greatness don’t amount to much: “There are no two words in the English language more harmful,” Fletcher observes, “than ‘good job’” – a bit of fortune-cookie insight that the film welcomes us to take or leave. (There’s also an apocryphal anecdote about Charlie Parker and a near-decapitation meant to arouse more reflection than it musters.)  More frustrating still is Chazelle’s tendency to defer to screenwriting convention for the sake of a more ‘well-rounded’ (read: more clichéd) film: a perfunctory girlfriend destined to be discarded on Andrew’s road to jazz mastery is an especially tiresome concession to a Hollywood template, but even scenes with Andrew’s father feel like so much fat.  Where, one wonders, are the rigour and discipline so righteously advocated by the characters? Had Fletcher been leaning over Chazelle’s shoulder in the writing room, snapping at every mistake, such lapses of judgement might have been corrected.  Nevertheless, Whiplash ends on a high note: Andrew’s dazzling solo performance before a sold-out JVC festival crowd, with Fletcher egging him on. It’s here that the film settles into precisely the right groove, with its two leads and the practice that binds them – and no moral lessons or supporting characters to get in the way."

- Calum Marsh, Sight & Sound

 

User Opinion

 
"I can't remember the last time my blood moved this quickly when I saw a movie. This was batshit insane, like THE KARATE KID meets BLACK SWAN on steroids. Watching Andrew pushed towards his goal was both triumphant and painful. While it was clear that he had the talent to be truly amazing, especially with Fletcher's unconventional methods of help, he had basically sacrificed his own humanity to pursue his dream. Fletcher wasn't truly mean, he just had an extreme view on drive and determination that Andrew readily ate up, and while it seemed that he finally delivered in the end, Andrew's finale was not without subtle tragedy. It raises questions on determination in life without settling for easy answers and letting each side have its own humanity. It ultimately leaves its message up to you." - @Spaghetti

 

The Panda's Haiku

 

Not quite my tempo

 

Oh, I maybe rushing things

 

Or am I dragging?

 

 

Factoids

 

Placement on Prior Lists

 

2012 - N/A, 2013 - N/A, 2014 - N/A, 2016 - 80, 2018 - 59

 

Director Count

 

Alfonso Cuaron - 2, Richard Linklater - 2, Mel Brooks - 1, Damien Chazelle - 1, David Fincher - 1, Michel Gondry - 1, Rian Johnson - 1, David Lean - 1, Akira Kurosawa - 1, Hayao Miyazaki - 1, Adrian Molina - 1, John McTiernan Bob Persichetti - 1, Peter Ramsey - 1, Rodney Rotham - 1, The Russo Brothers - 1,  Martin Scorsese - 1, Lee Unkrich - 2, Kar-Wai Wong - 1

 

Franchise Count

 

Before Trilogy - 1, Marvel Cinematic Universe - 1, Pixar - 2, Predator - 1, Scorsese -1, Spider-Man - 1, Star Wars - 1, Studio Ghibli - 1, Toy Story - 1

 

Decade Count

 

1950s - 1, 1970s - 1, 1980s - 3, 2000s - 4, 2010s - 9

 

 

 

Edited July 16, 2020 by The Panda

[Ethan Hunt]

I do theorize that Garvitys drops on thses lists correlate with the rise of Fury Road being considered the premiere action spectacle of the decade above gravity 

[The Panda]

 

 

"Deserve's ain't got nothing to do with it."

 

 

About the Movie

 

Synopsis

 

"After escaping death by the skin of her teeth, the horribly disfigured prostitute, Delilah Fitzgerald, and her appalled and equally furious co-workers summon up the courage to seek retribution in 1880s Wyoming's dangerous town of Big Whiskey. With a hefty bounty on the perpetrators' heads, triggered by the tough Sheriff "Little Bill" Daggett's insufficient sense of justice, the infamous former outlaw and now destitute Kansas hog farmer, William Munny, embarks on a murderous last mission to find the men behind the hideous crime. Along with his old partner-in-crime, Ned Logan, and the brash but inexperienced young gunman, the "Schofield Kid", Munny enters a perilous world he has renounced many years ago, knowing that he walks right into a deadly trap; however, he still needs to find a way to raise his motherless children. Now, blood demands blood. Who is the hero, and who is the villain?"

 

Its Legacy

 

"When Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven won best picture at the 65th Academy Awards in 1993, it was only the third western to do so. Even more striking was the fact that it was the second in two years, following Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves in 1991. It pointed to an unexpected resurgence for the genre that had been receding in importance since the 1970s.  This renaissance began with a TV series that was firmly rooted in the westerns of the past. The mini-series of Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove was an adaptation of a novel that began life as The Streets of Laredo, a screenplay the author developed in 1972 with Peter Bogdanovich that was conceived as a last hurrah for three giants of the genre – John Wayne, James Stewart and Henry Fonda. The eventual series, which starred Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones, was a hit, attracting enormous ratings and garnering seven Emmy Awards.  But this wasn’t a revival. Together, the series and the two Oscar-winning films played like an elegy in three parts, with Unforgiven as the final word. Like John Ford’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) and Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate (1980) before it, Unforgiven was an epitaph for the genre. With Clint himself playing reformed outlaw William Munny – a hog farmer, widower and father, who returns to his old ways for one last job, to collect the sizeable bounty on a scoundrel who disfigured a prostitute – it remains Eastwood’s definitive statement on the western as an American art form.  Up to 1992, the genre had defined much of Eastwood’s career. His first success as an actor came with the television series Rawhide, and his performances in Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy (1964-66) turned him into a western icon. Later he’d reflect on this image in much of his directorial work, for example with his comically self-deprecating take on the actor as outlaw in Bronco Billy (1980) or the subversion of his gunfighter persona in the two era-defining westerns that led to Unforgiven – The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and Pale Rider (1985).

 

The influence of Unforgiven is most apparent in the director’s continuing obsession with American mythmaking and the nature of heroism. The former idea is represented in Unforgiven by the character of the biographer, W.W. Beauchamp (Saul Rubinek), who hangs on to a succession of self-aggrandising gunfighters, writing tall tales about them and printing the legend. He is a pathetic, craven individual who serves as a vessel for the genre’s endless capacity for self-mythologising.  Eastwood built on this idea of American mythmaking throughout the 2000s, applying it to the world of politics in J. Edgar (2011) and boxing in Million Dollar Baby (2004), but it culminated in Jersey Boys (2014), in which the director turned members of The Four Seasons into unreliable narrators, telling their own exaggerated stories directly to the camera. In one memorable scene, in which a young Eastwood appears in an old episode of Rawhide on a television set, the director conflates his own legacy as a western icon with that of the film’s rock’n’roll stars, bringing his deconstruction of American mythmaking full circle."

- Craig Williams, British Film Institute

 

From the Filmmaker

 

 

 

Why It's the Greatest

 

Critic Opinion

 

"Shot in only 39 days, finishing four days ahead of schedule and therefore reaffirming Eastwood’s reputation of a one-to-three-takes filmmaker, Unforgiven still had a rough production period. The western town of Big Whiskey was built in the remote ranch country of Alberta, Canada, a place where the weather didn’t exactly make life comfortable. “It’s so cold, the water from the rain machines is freezing, making for a treacherous purchase on the muddy ground. The horses are slipping and sliding all over the ice, and the people aren’t doing too well either. It’s so cold, Eastwood’s teeth are chattering,” testified Peter Biskind. The Big Whiskey set was created by production designer Henry Bumstead, who enriched the landscape with a couple of surrounding farms. The town is bare, muddy, simple, scarcely populated, and serves as a perfect stage for Eastwood’s exploration of the conflict between civilization and the violent ways of the dying West. Big Whiskey was built from scratch in the two-month period before the shooting started, and this time was used to teach the actors how to ride horses. Eastwood certainly didn’t like to waste time.

 

Written by David Webb Peoples, shot by Eastwood’s frequent collaborator Jack N. Green, with Lennie Niehaus’ score enriched with Claudia’s Theme composed by the filmmaker himself, and Joel Cox’s Oscar-winning editing, Unforgiven is a modern masterpiece. One especially interesting aspect of the film is the way Eastwood approaches the theme of violence. A man who made his name in the filmmaking business shooting bad guys in epic stories of justice and revenge now turns to a story that completely debunks the myth of effortless, tidy violence. “It’s a hell of a thing killin’ a man,” states William Munny in one of the more quoted lines from the film. “You take away all he’s got and all he’s ever gonna have.” In the brutal climax that shows us what exact kind of an efficient murderer his character once was, Eastwood gives Gene Hackman’s dying character brilliant last words. “I don’t deserve this… to die like this. I was building a house.” Eastwood’s Munny simply replies with the iconic “Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.” Violence is never simple, never limited only to immediate consequences and never reserved only for the worst people who walk the planet. It’s complicated, messy and gut-wrenching. As pleasing as the final shootout might be, the message Eastwood conveys about violence rings loud and clear."

- Sven Mikulec, Cinephilia and Beyond

 

User Opinion

 

"So while I appreciated the commentary on violence itself, the more compelling thing for me was the exploration of how the legends of the Old West were gradually shaped out of tales of completely unheroic drunkards shooting people. It's a theme present in almost every scene but I never felt like it was forced on me, even though English Bob's whole function is to add to that theme and then get out. It pays off in the end, when you realize that Munny, despite what is repeatedly said of him, isn't evil incarnate who "killed women and children and just about everything that walks or crawls", just like that prostitute wasn't mutilated to an absurd extent like everyone believes her to be. He was much more likely just a drunk asshole who was pretty good with a gun and had luck on his side, but time and talk transformed him into a feared legend. The commentary on heroes and villains - Munny certainly isn't the former and Little Bill is not exactly the latter, and the story slyly forces you to confront that while unfolding in an entirely straightforward way - is also well done.

 

Hackman gives the standout performance, especially in the scene where he dares Beauchamp to shoot him. (That whole sequence might be my favorite in the film, and it functions like a brilliant short film). The cinematography and production design are both stunning, and the dialogue feels natural and striking whenever it isn't used to bluntly express the Themes. ("I'll see you in hell, William Munny". - "Yeah". Chills right there.)" - @Jake Gittes

 

The Panda's Haiku

 

Find your old gun, boy

 

Shoot, like you're a Westworld bot

 

Violence, in the blood

 

 

Factoids

 

Placement on Prior Lists

 

2012 - 83, 2013 - Unranked, 2014 - Unranked, 2016 - Unranked, 2018 - 86

 

Director Count

 

Alfonso Cuaron - 2, Richard Linklater - 2, Mel Brooks - 1, Damien Chazelle - 1, Clint Eastwood - 1, David Fincher - 1, Michel Gondry - 1, Rian Johnson - 1, David Lean - 1, Akira Kurosawa - 1, Hayao Miyazaki - 1, Adrian Molina - 1, John McTiernan Bob Persichetti - 1, Peter Ramsey - 1, Rodney Rotham - 1, The Russo Brothers - 1,  Martin Scorsese - 1, Lee Unkrich - 2, Kar-Wai Wong - 1

 

Franchise Count

 

Before Trilogy - 1, Marvel Cinematic Universe - 1, Pixar - 2, Predator - 1, Scorsese -1, Spider-Man - 1, Star Wars - 1, Studio Ghibli - 1, Toy Story - 1

 

Decade Count

 

1950s - 1, 1970s - 1, 1980s - 3, 1990s - 1, 2000s - 4, 2010s - 9

 

 

 

Edited July 16, 2020 by The Panda

[The Panda]

Here is the next batch of honorable mentions, one more large batch of 25 after this and then they'll come in smaller doses with mini write ups attached

 

176.    The Third Man
177.    Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
178.    Ben-Hur (1950)
179.    Shrek 2
180.    Young Frankenstein
181.    The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
182.    Black Panther
183.    Arsenic and the Old Lace
184.    The Elephant Man
185.    The Raid (2011)
186.    The LEGO Movie
187.    Hot Fuzz
188.    American Beauty
189.    Modern Times
190.    RoboCop (1980)
191.    Gone With the Wind
192.    Zootopia
193.    Captain America: Civil War
194.    Up (2009)
195.    City Lights
196.    Zodiac
197.    Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
198.    All the President’s Men
199.    Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
200.    No Country for Old Men
 

[Plain Old Tele]

1 minute ago, The Panda said:

Here is the next batch of honorable mentions, one more large batch of 25 after this and then they'll come in smaller doses with mini write ups attached

 

176.    The Third Man
177.    Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
178.    Ben-Hur (1950)
179.    Shrek 2
180.    Young Frankenstein
181.    The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
182.    Black Panther
183.    Arsenic and the Old Lace
184.    The Elephant Man
185.    The Raid (2011)
186.    The LEGO Movie
187.    Hot Fuzz
188.    American Beauty
189.    Modern Times
190.    RoboCop (1980)
191.    Gone With the Wind
192.    Zootopia
193.    Captain America: Civil War
194.    Up (2009)
195.    City Lights
196.    Zodiac
197.    Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
198.    All the President’s Men
199.    Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
200.    No Country for Old Men
 

God fucking dammit!

[MrGamer]

4 minutes ago, The Panda said:

 

189.    Modern Times
195.    City Lights
 

[Fancyarcher]

3 minutes ago, Plain Old Tele said:

God fucking dammit!

Damn Tele, I didn't know you liked Shrek 2 that much. 

[Ethan Hunt]

Lady Bird hasn't shown up yet 

[The Panda]

 

 

"Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker"

 

About the Movie

 

Synopsis

 

"NYPD cop John McClane goes on a Christmas vacation to visit his wife Holly in Los Angeles where she works for the Nakatomi Corporation. While they are at the Nakatomi headquarters for a Christmas party, a group of robbers led by Hans Gruber take control of the building and hold everyone hostage, with the exception of John, while they plan to perform a lucrative heist. Unable to escape and with no immediate police response, John is forced to take matters into his own hands."

 

Its Legacy

 

"1. It's set at Christmas Eve
Die Hard takes place on Christmas Eve as NYPD officer John McClane heads to the Christmas party of the Nakatomi Corporation where he hopes to reconnect with his estranged wife Holly (the perfect name for a Christmas movie).  Christmas trees, lights and Santas feature heavily and like all good Christmas films it's got a happy ending when John and Holly are reunited in time for Christmas.

 

2. It has Christmas music
The main song in the film's soundtrack is Beethoven's 9th Symphony Ode To Joy.  It also includes the Christmas classics Let It Snow, Winter Wonderland and Christmas In Hollis.

 

3. All the Christmas references. 

As well as being set at Christmas the film's characters constantly remind the audience that it's the festive season.  Terrorist Hans Gruber tells his tech guy "It's Christmas Theo, it's the time of miracles" and who can forget John McClane's message to Hans when he sends up Tony's body up in the lift wearing a jumper that says "Now I have a machine gun, ho, ho, ho."

 

4. The screenwriter said it is
Screenwriter Stephen E. de Souza weighed in on the debate on Twitter to confirm that Die Hard is a Christmas film.  He wrote: how could it not be a Christmas movie? Plus a woman about to give birth features prominently.”

 

5. It's all about family
At the beginning of the film John and Holly are separated.  But after fighting back against terrorists and living to tell the tale the pair are reunited at the end of the film - a Christmas miracle.

 

6. Hans Gruber is the perfect Christmas villain
Hans Gruber, played by Alan Rickman, is the German mastermind in charge of the terrorists who are attacking the Nakatomi building.  Much like The Grinch or Scrooge his efforts to ruin Christmas fail miserably and he meets a sorry end when John pushes him to his death."

- Kathy Giddins, Six Reasons Why Die Hard is a Christmas Film

 

From the Filmmaker

 

"Steven E. de Souza, who penned the film’s script more than 30 years ago, is adamant about that. But days ago at his Comedy Central Roast, the film’s star, Bruce Willis, told a wide-eyed audience “Die Hard is not a Christmas movie.”  In response to this controversial claim, de Souza has a plethora of evidence that proves the action star is, well, just plain wrong.  “It was a comedy roast. I think he said that to be funny and be trolling,” de Souza said.  “Does he sincerely believe that? I don’t know. But then again, who are we going to believe; the actor, the screenwriters, or 20th Century Fox?”  De Souza is referring to the faux children’s book A Die Hard Christmas, which 20th Century Fox released in 2017. It parodies the poem The Night Before Christmas.  “They show blood and guts and brains on the walls but it has Christmas-y illustrations and is called A Die Hard Christmas, so that’s from Rupert Murdoch. Are you going to argue with Rupert Murdoch?”  For additional proof, De Souza suggests looking at the film’s source; a book called Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp. The novel takes place on December 24 — Christmas Eve — and is told through John McClane’s perspective.

 

“He’s thinking of all the Christmases he wasn’t with his family because of being a cop and before that, being in the army,” de Souza said.  For those still unconvinced, de Souza spent an afternoon crafting the ultimate evidence: A chart that proves Die Hard is more of a Christmas movie than one of the most beloved holiday films ever, White Christmas."

- Steven E. de Souza: Die Hard IS a Christmas Movie

 

 

Why It's the Greatest

 

Critic Opinion

 

"Only the hardest of hearts could fail to enjoy the great 80s action classic, rereleased for its 30th anniversary: with uproarious explosions, deafening shootouts and smart-alec tag lines following the bad guys getting shot. It’s the film that wrested the catchphrase “Yippee-ki-ay” away from Roy Rogers, with a certain vulgar addition. Every pub quizzer knows it’s a Christmas movie, but not many know of its unexpected cinematic use of the Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Ninth – the terrorists whistle it as they get closer to the target.  Bruce Willis plays New York police detective John McClane, in Los Angeles for an uneasy reunion with his semi-estranged wife, having failed to support her career move out there. While at her office building, owned by a Japanese corporation, the whole place is taken over by fanatically armed German extremists, an unfortunate juxtaposition of Axis powers. The intruders are led by Hans Gruber, a renegade German terrorist with links to Northern Ireland’s “New Provo Front”. It’s a glorious scene-stealer for Alan Rickman, though it’s a credit to Willis’s cheeky charisma that his scene is not in fact stolen.

 

Singlehandedly, covered in sweat and muscles, wearing nothing on his top half but a manly vest and finally not even that, McClane hides in the elevator shaft and takes down Gruber and his whole hideous crew, one by one. The only help he has from the outside is a tough, capable LAPD cop, Al Powell (Reginald VelJohnson). The stuffed shirts of the FBI are certainly no help and the TV news media are needless to say the terrorists’ contemptible useful idiots. Finally, his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) introduces herself to Al using her married name, and the natural order of things is restored.  It’s an incredible 80s time capsule, with Hans fondling a Filofax as he silkily addresses the hostages and a coke-snorting office worker describing the situation in terms of a hostile takeover: with talk of “Greenmail”, “Poison pill” and “white knight”. An innocent pleasure."

- Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

 

User Opinion

 

"Terrible movie. What a total ripoff of SPEED." - @Plain Old Tele

 

The Panda's Haiku

 

Go, Yippee-ki-ya

 

It's Christmas motherfucker

 

Blow up some shit

 

 

Factoids

 

Placement on Prior Lists

 

2012 - 61, 2013 - 35, 2014 - 35, 2016 - 59, 2018 - 67

 

Director Count

 

Alfonso Cuaron - 2, Richard Linklater - 2, John McTiernan - 2, Lee Unkrich - 2, Mel Brooks - 1, Damien Chazelle - 1, Clint Eastwood - 1, David Fincher - 1, Michel Gondry - 1, Rian Johnson - 1, David Lean - 1, Akira Kurosawa - 1, Hayao Miyazaki - 1, Adrian Molina - 1, Bob Persichetti - 1, Peter Ramsey - 1, Rodney Rotham - 1, The Russo Brothers - 1,  Martin Scorsese - 1, Kar-Wai Wong - 1

 

Franchise Count

 

Before Trilogy - 1, Die Hard - 1, Marvel Cinematic Universe - 1, Pixar - 2, Predator - 1, Scorsese -1, Spider-Man - 1, Star Wars - 1, Studio Ghibli - 1, Toy Story - 1

 

Decade Count

 

1950s - 1, 1970s - 1, 1980s - 4, 1990s - 1, 2000s - 4, 2010s - 9

 

Edited July 16, 2020 by The Panda

[DAR]

4 minutes ago, The Panda said:

 

 

"Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker"

 

About the Movie

 

Synopsis

 

"NYPD cop John McClane goes on a Christmas vacation to visit his wife Holly in Los Angeles where she works for the Nakatomi Corporation. While they are at the Nakatomi headquarters for a Christmas party, a group of robbers led by Hans Gruber take control of the building and hold everyone hostage, with the exception of John, while they plan to perform a lucrative heist. Unable to escape and with no immediate police response, John is forced to take matters into his own hands."

 

Its Legacy

 

"1. It's set at Christmas Eve
Die Hard takes place on Christmas Eve as NYPD officer John McClane heads to the Christmas party of the Nakatomi Corporation where he hopes to reconnect with his estranged wife Holly (the perfect name for a Christmas movie).  Christmas trees, lights and Santas feature heavily and like all good Christmas films it's got a happy ending when John and Holly are reunited in time for Christmas.

 

2. It has Christmas music
The main song in the film's soundtrack is Beethoven's 9th Symphony Ode To Joy.  It also includes the Christmas classics Let It Snow, Winter Wonderland and Christmas In Hollis.

 

3. All the Christmas references. 

As well as being set at Christmas the film's characters constantly remind the audience that it's the festive season.  Terrorist Hans Gruber tells his tech guy "It's Christmas Theo, it's the time of miracles" and who can forget John McClane's message to Hans when he sends up Tony's body up in the lift wearing a jumper that says "Now I have a machine gun, ho, ho, ho."

 

4. The screenwriter said it is
Screenwriter Stephen E. de Souza weighed in on the debate on Twitter to confirm that Die Hard is a Christmas film.  He wrote: how could it not be a Christmas movie? Plus a woman about to give birth features prominently.”

 

5. It's all about family
At the beginning of the film John and Holly are separated.  But after fighting back against terrorists and living to tell the tale the pair are reunited at the end of the film - a Christmas miracle.

 

6. Hans Gruber is the perfect Christmas villain
Hans Gruber, played by Alan Rickman, is the German mastermind in charge of the terrorists who are attacking the Nakatomi building.  Much like The Grinch or Scrooge his efforts to ruin Christmas fail miserably and he meets a sorry end when John pushes him to his death."

- Kathy Giddins, Six Reasons Why Die Hard is a Christmas Film

 

From the Filmmaker

 

"Steven E. de Souza, who penned the film’s script more than 30 years ago, is adamant about that. But days ago at his Comedy Central Roast, the film’s star, Bruce Willis, told a wide-eyed audience “Die Hard is not a Christmas movie.”  In response to this controversial claim, de Souza has a plethora of evidence that proves the action star is, well, just plain wrong.  “It was a comedy roast. I think he said that to be funny and be trolling,” de Souza said.  “Does he sincerely believe that? I don’t know. But then again, who are we going to believe; the actor, the screenwriters, or 20th Century Fox?”  De Souza is referring to the faux children’s book A Die Hard Christmas, which 20th Century Fox released in 2017. It parodies the poem The Night Before Christmas.  “They show blood and guts and brains on the walls but it has Christmas-y illustrations and is called A Die Hard Christmas, so that’s from Rupert Murdoch. Are you going to argue with Rupert Murdoch?”  For additional proof, De Souza suggests looking at the film’s source; a book called Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp. The novel takes place on December 24 — Christmas Eve — and is told through John McClane’s perspective.

 

“He’s thinking of all the Christmases he wasn’t with his family because of being a cop and before that, being in the army,” de Souza said.  For those still unconvinced, de Souza spent an afternoon crafting the ultimate evidence: A chart that proves Die Hard is more of a Christmas movie than one of the most beloved holiday films ever, White Christmas."

- Steven E. de Souza: Die Hard IS a Christmas Movie

 

 

Why It's the Greatest

 

Critic Opinion

 

"Only the hardest of hearts could fail to enjoy the great 80s action classic, rereleased for its 30th anniversary: with uproarious explosions, deafening shootouts and smart-alec tag lines following the bad guys getting shot. It’s the film that wrested the catchphrase “Yippee-ki-ay” away from Roy Rogers, with a certain vulgar addition. Every pub quizzer knows it’s a Christmas movie, but not many know of its unexpected cinematic use of the Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Ninth – the terrorists whistle it as they get closer to the target.  Bruce Willis plays New York police detective John McClane, in Los Angeles for an uneasy reunion with his semi-estranged wife, having failed to support her career move out there. While at her office building, owned by a Japanese corporation, the whole place is taken over by fanatically armed German extremists, an unfortunate juxtaposition of Axis powers. The intruders are led by Hans Gruber, a renegade German terrorist with links to Northern Ireland’s “New Provo Front”. It’s a glorious scene-stealer for Alan Rickman, though it’s a credit to Willis’s cheeky charisma that his scene is not in fact stolen.

 

Singlehandedly, covered in sweat and muscles, wearing nothing on his top half but a manly vest and finally not even that, McClane hides in the elevator shaft and takes down Gruber and his whole hideous crew, one by one. The only help he has from the outside is a tough, capable LAPD cop, Al Powell (Reginald VelJohnson). The stuffed shirts of the FBI are certainly no help and the TV news media are needless to say the terrorists’ contemptible useful idiots. Finally, his wife Holly (Bonnie Bedelia) introduces herself to Al using her married name, and the natural order of things is restored.  It’s an incredible 80s time capsule, with Hans fondling a Filofax as he silkily addresses the hostages and a coke-snorting office worker describing the situation in terms of a hostile takeover: with talk of “Greenmail”, “Poison pill” and “white knight”. An innocent pleasure."

- Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

 

User Opinion

 

"Terrible movie. What a total ripoff of SPEED." - @Plain Old Tele

 

The Panda's Haiku

 

Go, Yippee-ki-ya

 

It's Christmas motherfucker

 

Blow up some shit

 

 

Factoids

 

Placement on Prior Lists

 

2012 - 61, 2013 - 35, 2014 - 35, 2016 - 59, 2018 - 67

 

Director Count

 

Alfonso Cuaron - 2, Richard Linklater - 2, John McTiernan - 2, Mel Brooks - 1, Damien Chazelle - 1, Clint Eastwood - 1, David Fincher - 1, Michel Gondry - 1, Rian Johnson - 1, David Lean - 1, Akira Kurosawa - 1, Hayao Miyazaki - 1, Adrian Molina - 1, Bob Persichetti - 1, Peter Ramsey - 1, Rodney Rotham - 1, The Russo Brothers - 1,  Martin Scorsese - 1, Lee Unkrich - 2, Kar-Wai Wong - 1

 

Franchise Count

 

Before Trilogy - 1, Die Hard - 1, Marvel Cinematic Universe - 1, Pixar - 2, Predator - 1, Scorsese -1, Spider-Man - 1, Star Wars - 1, Studio Ghibli - 1, Toy Story - 1

 

Decade Count

 

1950s - 1, 1970s - 1, 1980s - 4, 1990s - 1, 2000s - 4, 2010s - 9

 

Way too low folks.  Way too low