All time greatest movies

UK's Empire movie magazine polled 20,000 fans and came up with a list of the greatest movies of all time.
- EXTERNAL LINK -
The list is definately suspect, with titles like:
6. Pulp Fiction
85. Monty Python's Life of Brian
47. Pirates of the Caribbean
92. This is Spinal Tap
95. Edward Scissorhands
Maybe someone could point me to a betterl ist?

Sadly my knowledge of Indian cinema is mostly limited to Satyajit Ray and a handful of Bollywood films. As for Ray, "Pather Panchali," "The Music Room," and "The Big City" are all among my favorite films of all-time.

In all my time here, and with all the talk on film diversity, I don't see YOU guys recommending any Indian movies :o

chris,

i think we need to write our paper "essentialism: a defense" first. :)

eddie

Ebert's Greatest Movies list is a fine start.

If you want a truly international canon proposed by one of the world's most devoted and eloquent cinephiles, then the 1,000 Essential Films in Jonathan Rosenbaum's "Essential Cinema: On the Necessity of Canons" is, well, essential.

Of course my own Top 100 list is best of all. If I ever convince the powers that be here to enable us critics to post their Top 100 lists with our profiles, you'll see that I'm right. :)

it's also not sufficient to look at lists compiled by people who speak the same language that you do. serious film enthusiasts should seek out top-10 and top-100 lists from countries that don't speak english to get a sense of what other good movies are out there. if only english-language movies were "good", then cinema would be in a sorry shape and deserving of the death that so many people have said is inevitable.

I've always enjoyed reading Roger Ebert's compilation of "Great Movies." Time Magazine has a nice variety in their Top 100; yet, unlike Ebert, the writers don't make any commentary available in terms of the reasoning behind their individual choices. Both lists are available for viewing on each of the respective sites.

-Kurtis

Key word being "fans" that were polled.

As Eddie says, favorite film lists are apt to reflect the age and the range of film experience of the viewer more than anything else. Cinema has been with us for well over a hundred years; it's a little sad when people honestly believe that only the best films were made in the last twenty years. But it's the nature of all young people to think that the world began when they were born.

John (old fogey)

I would never put Life of Brian or Pirates on my list.
My top 5 would look something like this:
1. The Godfather Part II (as a representative of the whole trilogy)
2. A Clockwork Orange
3. Apocalypse Now
4. Forrest Gump
5. The Lion King
(Forrest Gump and The Lion King played an integral role in my childhood and love of movies, so they are somewhat of a bias).

that's a list for "all time", but these film fans obviously picked a lot of movies from the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, movies that they remember from their childhoods. there are 100 movies from the 1940s alone that are better than "pulp fiction", any monty python movie, "pirates of the caribbean", and any tim burton movie.

btw, sasha, where've you been? welcome back! :)

I'm sorry to say that I have to agree with every one of those selections. Maybe not in that order, but those films certainly are terrific. You also have to look at the time they came out, the expectations (or lack there of) and critical acclaim. AFI works the same way.

Considering the cultural annotations the list is not at all surprising. I can see British appeal in every one of those titles. Flat humor, farce comedy, exeggerated decorations. It's all about right.

Say, would there be any way to calculate DVDtown's 100 best from the review rating?

Chris I have the same problem that you mentioned. Long, drawn out, duds. Every movie is about 3 hours long (exceptions are there). I have hope someday Criterion/ New Yorker releases all movies by Satyajit Ray.

Hock - Fire and Earth are 2 intense movies. Fire created lot of controversy in India - riots blah blah. I am looking forward to watch "Water".

--Ranjan

chris,

your comment about musical highlight reels reminded me of a compilation movie i heard of back in college. "east side story" (- EXTERNAL LINK - is comprised of clips from musicals made on the eastern side of the iron curtain. it's probably an amusing watch to say the least. :)

eddie

I think someone is pulling our leg. This can't be a real list. I loved Shawshank, but number one?

Whoa my cheeky reply sparked a lot of discussion :D

There was a time when I went Bollywood crazy and watched a whole bunch of em but soon they felt same-y. But there are some pretty good ones; it's too bad I don't remember their titles anymore.

Oh, Ranjan...why do you think most Indian movies follow the romance/feel-good formula ? Is it purely an economical/business reason or is it more to do with the cultural/social condition there?

YCH,

Thanks to Eddie for picking your line in the post. Well to answer your question, it is both the reasons you mentioned. First, it is proven over the course of more than 30 years in the Indian film industry that the highest grossing movies have three things in common - romantic story line, good dance number and a really bad ass villian. It is risky to market a movie with these attributes missing. Second, majority of population of Indian lives in rural areas below the poverty line. This means that people in these regions enjoy movies that are fun, lightweight and easy to digest. So if you market a movie that is serious with no romance, it is bound to flop.

That is why Bollywood has continued with the traditional of creating long movies with dance numbers and a romantic story. With new breed of directors coming, the industry's view is changing.

--Ranjan

I've reviewed both of Deepa Mehta's excellent movies "Earth" and "Fire". Anyone who hasn't had the chance to watch them should go rent them.

Also, I'm really looking forward to her new film "Water", which would close the final chapter to this trilogy.

I have to admit that I would much rather watch a highlight reel of great Bollywood dance numbers than watch most Bollywood films. They have a frustrating tendency to really, really drag out the exposition and feel bloated as a result. But I sure do love some of those numbers; nothing done in American musicals over the past decade or two really compares.

I know that "crossover" or "immigrant" movies like "Bend It Like Beckham" and "Bride and Prejudice" get made by Western companies, but some of this stuff is downright insulting (like Jimi Mistry in "The Guru").

Criterion sucks. They think that only Japanese, French, Italian, and Ingmar Bergman movies constitute the totality of non-english-language cinema.

Eddie -

You are right. Here are couple of Indian movies officially released in the US.
Sony - Apu Triloy, Lagaan
MGM - Salaam Bombay
New Yorker - Earth, Fire
Universal - Monsoon Wedding
Independent distributors - Kamasutra.
Criterion - NONE

I only can only get Indian movies through the Indian stores. Apart from this, there is no other way to get Indian movies. However, Eros Enternainment is the biggest distributor of Bollywood movies in the US and UK. The DVDs are good and new movies do get good special editions. I also feel that Bollywood film distributors are not willing to colloborate with Hollywood studios and vice-versa. There are so many good movies that don't get noticed here. The worst part Indian stores is - that they will copy the DVD movie on VHS and then it can be rented for $1 on average. With no control, the store pockets the entire rental revenue. I hate this as this violates the copyright act. That is why I rent out DVDs. Atleast I know that I am not supporting the illegal VHS copy. I wish someone can address this. I hate to see artists not get money for this.

Like I said quality is the main concern. I only watch about 15-20 Indian movies in a year. Well last year my wife made me watch 7 movies in 2 weeks.:)

Ranjan,

You know, aside from Sony releasing an Indian movie every few years, I don't see any media companies taking a chance on Indian cinema. This is awful because it forces fans of Bollywood to look for crappy DVDs and VCDs from video stores run by Indians. How do you manage to watch Indian movies?

Eddie

YCH,

There are couple of reasons for Indian movies not being reviewed on many websites including DVDtown -
1. Bad marketing from distributors.
2. Not many American studios are willing to market Indian movies in the US
3. Not many backers of Indian movies in Hollywood.

The problem does not stop here. As India creates largest number of movies in the world, 5% of these movies fall in the top bracket. Very few top Indian movies get noticed in the US. The rest 95 % are really bad.

I hate to say as I am from India. Having said this, Indian movie scene is changing a lot with the advent of new talented directors. I am sure things will change for the Indian cinema in the long run. Recommended ones - Black, Salaam Bombay, Monsoon Wedding, Pather Panchali Trilogy, Lagaan etc.

--Ranjan

YCH,

DVD Town is sadly lacking in expertise on Indian cinema, but we have our strengths, too. Chris is the go-to guy for German cinema, and I've been trying to hold up my end by familiarizing myself with as many Chinese/Chinese-American movies as possible. Several of us are big fans of different sectors of Japanese cinema, too.

Besides, just because we don't know much about something doesn't mean that we don't know that we need to expand our horizons. ;)

Eddie

Thanks for the reply, Ranjan.

Here is a list of some Indian films that I have personally seen and enjoyed: Hey Ram, Dil chahta hai, Satya, Swades, Andaz apna apna, Vaastav, Company, Dil Chahta Hai and Chandini Bar. Some of these have nice R2 PAL releases but quality always seems to be an inherent issue with Indian DVD releases. I've had some success with hindimoviesonline.com with free US shipping, but these experiences can vary. I apply the same method to Indian releases as I do to the Shaw Brothers from dddhouse.com. I like to blindly pick a few unheralded titles and see what I come up with. Sometimes I come up bust, other times I get nice surprises like the above. You can check out the above films on imdb and see if they appeal to you.

chris's favorite indian movie is "kama sutra".