Top Two Hundred

Perhaps the greatest American film ever made. Far and away the greatest film of 1941 and maybe even rivaling the likes of Casablanca and The Grapes of Wrath. Orson Welles is on fire as Charles Foster Kane. What is too often forgotten is that this was an attack on the American Newspaper industry and loose personal attack on William Randolph Hearst, who owned so much media in the 1900's as to rival Disney, Viacom or even GE. The word play and performances in Kane, would inspire so many future directors. Among it's fans are Steven Spielberg, Roger Ebert , Leonard Maltin, Robert James Buehner, Ted Turner and many, many others.
Citizen Kane is what all films should be. Great characterization, great dialogue, great score, great cinematography, great direction, great scene composition, great editing. It is the most perfect you will ever get to the perfect film.

One the first actual science fiction films and in that sense the forerunner of me deeply disturbing psychologically seeking stories that we see today.

The greatest fantasy film ever created. one of the most real and amazing stories ever told on film. The film has inspired so many, including myself to pursue a film making career.

Keaton is brilliant in his satire of Sherlock Holmes and detectives in general. Sherlock Jr. is a play in a play in play. Buster is up to his usual tricks and gags, highlights include the motorcycle ride, the floating car, the leap through the window to change into the costume of the old lady. He pits himself against villains so nasty and unchivalrous that he becomes the hero even without really trying. His use of backwards logic to poke fun at Holmes and his parlor tricks all show that Keaton was a master at the art or comedy. This film was originally going to be much longer but Keaton decided it would fare better as a shorter piece.
The whole sequence of the dinner party is simply amazing. His revealance of the criminal is hilarious and at the exact same moment brilliant. The playing with film effects is his personal jab at the capacities and limitations of film.

This is one of the most autobiographical dramatic drenched films ever. The story of one woman's obsession with her art form and one woman's lack of interest in her profession . Passing as a fan of Margo Channing, Eve Harrington worms her way into Channing's confidence and eventually her stage performances. The blossoming of Eve as a actress is at first glance beautiful. That is until we realize that just what she is trying to accomplish. She is of a special breed, she does not care who she hurts, pushes or crushes on the way to the top. The killer's instinct in her is so saddening and relieving all at once.
However, her lack of respect for anyone is damning. She realizes too late that she has not a friend in the world. Eve is all alone in her greatness. That is the way she wants it and that is too bad for her.

This film is a classic, period. Big, brilliant and beyond parallel in the annals of film.

Simply one the best films ever put on celluloid . Much has been said but this film can be summed up in one word: Friendship.

Okay, if such I thing is possible, ROTJ is my favorite of the Star Wars saga. It is touching, deep, reflective, effacing of the whole story of "Star Wars", and moving. It brings us right back to reality at the end and it is so nice to see a movie where everyone lives happily ever after.

Ahh, yes, one of the biggest films of the 1980's. What a way to start the eighties. This film has become not only a classic, but has built up such a following that has become something of a ritual watching for many misunderstood, dorky, high ideal, kids, this one included.

This harkens all the way back to not only the original trilogy, but beyond to the old serials, The adventure, romance, lust, ideals, destiny shaping all take a nod from old movie serials. George Lucas does not ever skimp on story.

The saga begins here, and despite what many non loyalists say, this is a absolute faithful rendition to George Lucas' original vision. TPM is not what many see it as, a bad movie, it is much more then that. It is an experience to be had by all Star Wars fans.

Ya know, the more I watched episode two the more and more I like it. I realize that many don't and that is fine, but I do, I really do. It reminds me so much of Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers it is not even funny. The Attack of the Clones, what a great serial title.

The pain of becoming old was never more honestly told.

Faust! Well, what can we not say about this film. We can say that it is real in the sense that we all might sell our souls for an easier life or a more perfect society. Many have played Satan, but none have been as powerful, wicked, sinister, or so unfeeling as Emil Jennings. Surely, had they had Oscar's then he would have won.

In every sense the first real horror film. The wicked tale of very strange being who seeks out human victims. This film scares the heck out of me. A beautifully shot tragic tale of life and death.

One of the best told love stories of all time. The simplicity and care with which the story is crafted is so evident that it becomes like a song that is played in just the right key. Chaplin was great the pathos end of comedy. He was a master at getting people to feel sorry for the little tramp. This is not to suggest that he was trying to gain sympathy for Chaplin the actor, but rather for the character that he embodied. The love between the blind flower girl and Chaplin has been made fun of many times and rightfully so, because that perfection will never be achieved again the same way. Chaplin's real "first" talky, but only in the sense that he scored the entire film with the "soundtrack" and used sound effects very sparingly. The ending of the film is fantastic and brings the love story full circle.

The ultimate parody on Adolph Hitler and the Third Reich. Everything is made into a gag, the Jewish barber, the relationship between Adenoid Hynkel and Benzino Napaloni which makes a mockery of the friendship between Hitler and Mussolini, the arrival at the train station, the speech at the end, its all used to highlight the hatred that Chaplin personally felt for the NAZIs. Many of talked of the speech at the end being very self indulgent and maybe thats true for some who do not find value in the speech. But, for people who have been oppressed and mangled about, like the Jewish people, then one can begin to find value in the words
Chaplin shouts at the end. The whole film builds up to this moment, this captivating speech that turns everyone listening heads and makes them think deeper about what they are doing.

This take on the modernization of man by Charles Chaplin is not only funny, but rings very true even today. The constant menace to the little tramp is not lack of money, or respect, or needfulness, or anything so simple as that. The real menace is society itself. The wrong place at the wrong time at the wrong juncture in his life everytime. The real villain in the film is not one person, but the police as a whole who are shown to not care about what really is going. Is this an attack by Chaplin on the police, well maybe, but it does show the lackadaisical way some people perform their functions in society. The result of all these problems is the little guy going crazy which is totally understandable after seeing everything he goes through day after day. We could all be the little guy trying to fight "tthe machine", in fact, the man against machine is even more prevalent today.

The first "real" Marx Brothers romp. The whole film is a mockery of high society and money powered heiresses. The subject most tackled in Animal Crackers is that of love. The y relationships between the lovers is made a joke of and at the same time the romance between Captain Spaulding and Mrs. Rittenhouse is hilarious. The whole painting swapping thing is not a only a great routine comedy gold mine, but seems to add so much confusion that it almost becomes a mystery towards the approaching second half of the film. Longer then most of their films, Animal Crackers is over an hour and half of pure, unadulterated craziness.

Possibly the greatest send up of war of all time. Not a box office giant in its day, it is now regarded as a classic. There are so many great bits here, but perhaps the best ones are the mirror sequence, the treason trial, Freedonia Going to War song, the cabinet meeting and the break in at the Teasdale mansion. The mirror sequence is talked of so much, but it bares this constant conversing of the classic routine . The Marxes were the original brash, rude, unapologizing, unsympathetic zannis that were often called the kings of comedy. They were not above making fun of power, sex, money, fatness, ugliness, fighting, affairs, actually you name it...they made fun of it. Simply anything for a laugh.

Omar Shariff tour de force as Doctor Zhivago is a role anyone would kill to play. The background of the Russian revolution is so engaging, but the real focus is what Zhivago is doing. With Alec Guinness. Following the tradition of any Lean production, the images are grand, the landscapes are massive and the acting is over the top. Lean triumphs yet again.

Based on the hugely successful stage play of the same name, YTIWY is one the greatest films about life and needless greed of all time. We could learn a lot from Grandpa Vanderhof. Edward Arnold is dripping with greed as Anthony P. Kirby who in the final scene learns that money is nothing compared to happiness. Capra had a way of cutting through all the needless waste and pouring much hope, love and lessons into his films. YCTIWY is a object lesson in the necessity of love and happiness.

What if you were never born? How many times have we asked ourselves that. Now, whether we can know if we matter, is not something we can find out like George Bail