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Top Ten Films |
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The Good, The Bad and The Ugly |
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2001, A Space Odyssey |
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Airplane |
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The Right Stuff |
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Burnt by the Sun |
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Star Wars |
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Alien |
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This is Spinal Tap |
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Dark Star |
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Koyanisquatsi |
In no particular order, ten of my favourite films.
Dominated by Science Fiction and Comedy as you may have noticed
Before seeing this I would have categorically stated that I hated all westerns, but this changed my mind. Dirty, mean, a great weird soundtrack, and genuinely ugly actors for minor roles. One thing I loathe about lower end USA television stuff is the way the every part is obviously played by someone with aspirations to be a romantic lead. Even tramps have perfect teeth and fashionable hair...
The best film ever made - the legendary only SF film ever generally recognised as good. Long sequences with no speech, stunning design, appropriate soundtrack, and extreme accuracy. It is hard to remember that this film predates the lunar landings - not least because they got something astonishingly like a space shuttle in it. Vehicles that float and spin gracefully are so much better than rockets that go whoosh...
Possibly the highest joke density of any film ever made, a parody of all the disaster movies rolled into one, with added digs at everything from 'Saturday night fever' to WW2 films.
Film of the excellent Tom Wolfe book, (though with a significantly different emphasis). Pretty much 100% accurate apparently, according to the astronauts. The story of the very start of the US manned space program and the Mercury astronauts.
Tarkovsky's tale from the time of Stalin's rule. In Russian with subtitles - some VERY powerful performances, and based on a true story. And as this is NOT Hollywood, its pretty tightly based on real events, with predictable happy endings definitely off the menu.
The first one released, not the recent rubbish. Fast, fun, and great design. Packed with space effects - forget about any ideas of realism or clever plotting, just sit back and enjoy the ride. Those who saw it when it first came out will not easily forget the stunning level of effects work, as in the opening sequence the biggest spaceship ever seen came rumbling into view overhead, shaking the cinema.
H. R. Geiger's designs are what really impress here. The famous alien itself is hardly on the screen at all, which adds hugely to the suspense. OK, so plot wise, its a pretty standard monster movie set in space. But realised to perfection. Follow ups got steadily weaker, though the first sequel, Aliens, was not too bad.
The only serious contender to Airplane for the funniest film ever made. A deadpan fake documentary about a fading British heavy metal band touring the states, all done deadpan. For once the extras on the big DVD edition are a real delight, packed with excellent material not included in the original. Anyone with a sense of humour who is into rock music is guaranteed to enjoy this one...
So, science fiction requires big budgets, and lots of special effects?
Hardly - this one was done on a shoestring. Very much an antidote to the heroics of Star
Trek, and the gleaming technological utopia of 2001, the crew of Dark Star would rather
blow up planets that search for new life. The captain is dead, (though still very much
present), and they ran out of toilet paper years ago.
Also features the best low budget alien ever, (a squeaky beach ball with duck feet), and a
philosophical bomb.
One of the weirdest films ever made, completely without dialogue. A continual stream of images, some speeded up, some slowed down, come at you out of the screen. Initially largely natural, the scenes become more and more artificial, until you are getting a nightmare stream of accelerated modern living, cutting between sausage factories and people flooding out of trains, time lapse traffic, and exploding rockets. The soundtrack is essential, (as you might expect on a film with no dialogue), and is by Philip Glass, with his trademark hypnotic repetitive sequences. There's nothing else like it, unless you count the weaker follow up, Powanisquatsii.
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