best/ worst movies that span over a long time

Started by pete, February 15, 2004, 10:44:55 PM

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#15
February 16, 2004, 02:25:22 PM
I guess the Star Wars Saga, if you squint your way through the prequels. Does Doctor Zhivago count? Not exactly decades, but it does seem like quite some time goes by. Indiana Jones' story would count, if you consider the Young Indy series. Once Upon a time in America may be my favorite example, though.

rustinglass

#16
February 16, 2004, 02:29:11 PM
it's a wonderful life
kundun
"In Serbia a lot of people hate me because they want to westernise, not understanding that the western world is bipolar, with very good things and very bad things. Since they don't have experience of the west, they even believe that western shit is pie."
-Emir Kusturica

Chest Rockwell

#17
February 16, 2004, 03:10:05 PM
Forrest Gump, American Splendor

pete

#18
February 16, 2004, 05:38:26 PM
Quote from: CinephileI don't think Adaptation counts, but it doesn't make a difference for Ono because he covered his grounds with 2001...

yeah didn't 2001 have the longest flash-forward in film history?
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

Henry Hill

#19
February 16, 2004, 05:47:17 PM
Little Big Man with Dustin Hoffman and Faye Dunaway is pretty good. I think at the end he is about 130 or so.

cowboykurtis

#20
February 17, 2004, 12:55:09 AM
the deer hunter -- hands down
...your excuses are your own...

molly

#21
February 19, 2004, 09:37:26 PM
how about High Fidelity?

Alethia

#22
February 19, 2004, 10:46:13 PM
the color purple

Ernie

#23
February 19, 2004, 11:44:09 PM
Enough of the best have already been mentioned so I'm going to have to mention one of the absolute worst: The English Patient! I hate that movie so fucking much. I think it's the second worst movie I've ever seen next to Pay It Forward. God, that kind of shit should be banned from cinema, I swear.

modage

#24
February 19, 2004, 11:47:19 PM
Quote from: ebeamanEnough of the best have already been mentioned so I'm going to have to mention one of the absolute worst: The English Patient! I hate that movie so fucking much. I think it's the second worst movie I've ever seen next to Pay It Forward.
whats wrong with it?  the storytelling is atleast competent, and the acting is good.  you may hate it, but i'm sure its not the worst movie you've ever seen.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

Ernie

#25
February 19, 2004, 11:52:57 PM
Quote from: themodernage02
Quote from: ebeamanEnough of the best have already been mentioned so I'm going to have to mention one of the absolute worst: The English Patient! I hate that movie so fucking much. I think it's the second worst movie I've ever seen next to Pay It Forward.
whats wrong with it?  the storytelling is atleast competent, and the acting is good.  i'm sure its not the worst movie you've ever seen.

It's just so tedious and worst of all - self important. Any kind of smugness is the kind of vibe that just gnaws at my fucking brain and makes me want to shoot myself in the head, seriously. That's why I have to call it one of the worst ever. See, I'll never mind a film that doesn't take itself seriously, no matter how bad it is. When a movie thinks it's really good though and it's not, that's when it qualifies as one of the worst movies I have ever seen. There is such a potential for it to bother me if it's like that. Like I'll always hate something like The Usual Suspects 500 times more than something like Freddy Got Fingered. Cause see, even though it is almost inarguable that Suspects is better constructed than Freddy in the filmic language and all that shit, Freddy lacks the smugness of Suspects and therefore, in my eyes, it is redeemed. Same thing with English Patient.

Also, on a side note, I just hate movies that are constructed like plays. I guess it happened naturally since Minghella used to be a playwright so it subconciously affects his work as a filmmaker but it still bothers the hell out of me. I look at film as a seperate medium than plays. I fucking hate plays except for musicals which are like a whole different thing. The only trait cinema and theatre share is the visual aspect which is almost canceled out cause plays are so based in literature. And there is an absolute inability to capture anything remotely believable or truthful in theatre as well so there's that on top of it all. The only exception to this rule of mine that I can think of is You Can Count On Me which just won me over with great acting and non of that snappy, unrealistic, Whit Stilmman-like fucking dialogue that makes me suicidal.

modage

#26
February 19, 2004, 11:55:46 PM
i dont think movies can be 'smug'.  can they?  and if they could, i dont think usual suspects or english patient would be examples.  what about the storytelling comes off to you as smug?  and how is that movie more self important or tedious than other ones?
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

Ernie

#27
February 20, 2004, 12:04:11 AM
Quote from: themodernage02i dont think movies can be 'smug'.  can they?  and if they could, i dont think usual suspects or english patient would be examples.  what about the storytelling comes off to you as smug?  and how is that movie more self important or tedious than other ones?

Oh hell yea movies can be smug man. Probably the most prominent thing I could think of that can make a movie smug would be manipulation of the audience....any sense of manipulation in a film is always smug to me. Cause it's like the filmmaker is looking down on the audience and just playing fucking chess. Like in EP, your being introduced to this character with this horrible skin disease and your being made to care for him through nothing else but this disease. It's just bullshit, I see right through it. The actor doesn't even have to act and he's got the Oscar. The filmmaker doesn't even have to work! All that it's all accompanied by is this "beautiful" scenery that Minghella is smart enough to know will bag him that Oscar. He is a very smart filmmaker, I will say that. He knows what he wants and he knows how to get it. I hate him but he does know how to get that Oscar. That kind of style is just so overbearing to me. There is no subtlety there. It's all over-the-top sappy shit combined with empty ("deep") messages. It doesn't affect me, I don't have any use for that kind of stuff. Not every film is like that to me, that's what makes these two films more smug than many. The way they were made.

Talking about Suspects - it's probably an even worse offender of this whole thing than EP cause all of the manipulation in it is leading to this big, blow-you-away (!!!) ending. You can just see the filmmaker smiling wryly at the end when that fucking mug shatters. Well, I definitely can anyway, I'll speak for myself.

I don't know, I could be just wrong on different levels but I doubt I'm the only one that feels this way on the board. But I won't seek agreement to find strength in numbers. I'm not going to back down from anything this time.

SoNowThen

#28
February 20, 2004, 08:57:24 AM
American Beauty was a smug movie pretending to be deep and revealing.
Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary:  the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

Duck Sauce

#29
February 20, 2004, 12:26:01 PM
Quote from: SoNowThenAmerican Beauty was a smug movie pretending to be deep and revealing.

finally
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