“Getting there is half the fun!” That was the very famous slogan of
Cunard cruise line of England/America; a subsidiary of Carnival.
Of course journeys are not always fun and games. After all, Cunard is a
descendant of White Star Line, famous for one ship in particular whereon getting there was most certainly the only fun, and temporarily so, because it never did get there. Thanks to a certain pesky
iceberg...
55. The Lord of the Rings: The
Fellowship of the Ring (2001, New
Zealand/USA)
Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Ian
McKellen, Sean Astin, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Liv Tyler, Cate Blanchett,
Sean Bean, Orlando Bloom, John Rhys-Davies, Christoper Lee
I can’t possible speak objectively about this film and its two sequels
(which are technically not sequels just as LOTR is literally not a trilogy).
This is one single story separated into six books, traditionally published in
pairs. I’ve adored this work of Tolkien above all else, since the dawn of
adolescence and the movies, well worth the twenty-year wait, literally blew my mind.
The dedication, investment and sacrifice by all of its major
stakeholders, from investors to the writers, director, cast, crew and myriad of
technicians and designers, were possibly unparalleled, as were their unbending
loyalty to Tolkien himself.
The film was a technical masterpiece, a serious achievement in
adaptation and there were no complaints about the acting that I know of!
And it ran over the Acadamy Awards field like a herd of Oliphants.
Writers: J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit), Fran Walsh (Heavenly Creatures), Philippa Boyens (The Lovely Bones)
Director: Peter Jackson (King Kong)
Budget: $93,000,000
IMDB rating: 8.8
56. Monty Python and the Holy
Grail (1975, UK)
Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric
Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Michael Palin
And… this is the film which the Lord
of the Rings filmmakers had to be very careful to not resemble! Dwarves and hobbits and such, on the big screen, are
never more than two baby steps away from unintentional comedy.
The comedy here though, is very intentional, very ridiculous and
falling-down funny. This is the Monty Python gang at their very best. I’ve
watched this film more times than I can count. I’ve also listened to the audio,
verbally acted out the script with friends, adapted it in its entirety in prose
form (when I was in grade school; it was confiscated by a pal’s bitch of a
mother!)
But of course I recognize that not everyone finds the Python humour the
funniest damn thing ever. Some people are just fundamentally broken!
Writers: Graham Chapman (The Meaning of Life), John Cleese (A Fish
Called Wanda), Eric Idle (Splitting Heirs), Terry Gilliam (Fear and Loathing in
Las Vegas), Terry Jones (Labyrinth), Michael Palin (The Missionary)
Directors: Terry Gilliam (Brazil), Terry Jones (Life of Brian)
Budget: £229,575
IMDB rating: 8.3
57. Time Bandits (1981, UK)
Craig Warnock, David Rappaport,
Kenny Baker, Malcolm Dixon, Mike Edmonds, Jack Purvis, Tiny Ross, Sean Connery,
Shelly Duvall, John Cleese
Terry Gilliam (Jabberwocky, Brazil,
Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Brothers Grimm, The Imaginarium of Doctor
Parnassus, The Zero Theorum) must surely be the master of imaginative
fantasy adventure films of every possible setting: classical, contemporary and
future. I call this one, crafted with fellow Monty Python alumnus Michael
Palin, his best, certainly for kids (of all ages).
It’s a non-stop romp through the ages, brimming with weird characters,
close encounters, misadventure, bickering, humour and general chaos. The six
dwarven bandits are almost certainly avatars of the Monty Python gang
themselves.
Enormous fun.
Writers: Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam
Director: Terry Gilliam
Budget: $5,000,000
IMDB rating: 7.0
58. 2001 A Space Odyssey (1968, USA/UK)
Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood,
William Sylvester
The most startling and captivating opening to a film I’ve ever
witnessed. The subtlety of sparse dialogue. The operatic dance of spacecraft. The
constant peculiarity of unfamiliar images. Such prescient oddities as computer
tablets and skyping - in 1968 no less. The haunting ambiguity, most severe in
the sinister black monolith.
This has got to be the opus of Kubrick’s legacy of theatrical visual
masterpieces. It’s so full of mind-bending clues and wide applicability that
people can read a wide range of messages in it. Myself, always fascinated by
the gap between instinct and consciousness and the ubiquity of its illusions, I
see the monolith as the advent of self-awareness or in essence, the illusion of
consciousness. It has been suggested that the object’s aspect ratio matches
that of a movie screen which I presume possibly consistent with that theory,
but which also supports the most obvious explanation; that the monolith is a
sort of von Neumann probe; an extra-terrestrial monitoring device, since both
the film and the Arthur C. Clarke novel share obvious roots in Clarke’s 1948
short story The Sentinel.
But I’d be very interested to hear other ideas!
The film took many awards and nominations and appears on a plethora of
Best Films/Top Films lists of major periodicals. Even the Vatican named it in
their Best 45 Movies Ever Made and Top Ten Art Movies.
Writers: Arthur C. Clarke (2010), Stanley Kubrick
Director: Stanley Kubrick (Full Metal Jacket)
Budget: $10,500,000
IMDB rating: 8.3
Short List:
2010 (1984, USA) Roy Scheider,
John Lithgow, Helen Mirren
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3 comments:
Quite a few of my fave films here, too! Also a BIG fan of Lord of the Rings!
LOTR is one of my favorites. I thought they did a great job bringing it to the big screen. Which is why I was so disappointed in the Hobbit series. Total flop IMO. Too bad - the book was wonderful.
LOTR is one series that I need to read and watch. Great recommendations.
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