You'll notice that there are two from the sixties, four from the seventies, two from the eighties, and only one from the nineties, for a total of nine. So, these are the top nine out of the approximately 4000 movies I've seen in my life.
I've wondered why only one of these movies (American Beauty) was made after 1982. I actually think it's just coincidence, as opposed to my having a more jaundiced view or higher standards as I get older.
Were I to go through the list of all the movies I've seen since 1970 (the year I first began keeping a list), I could probably find a couple of more that, upon reflection, I would think belonged on this list. Why (I ask myself) isn't Alan Rudolph's "Afterglow" on it? Perhaps it should be. I'm planning to go back through my lists soon, think about it, and decide if I have overlooked something. I'm also planning to create a "top 50 " list. Although my lists go back only to 1970, I won't forget the great movies made before that ("Citizen Kane" was made in 1941!).
My # 1 movie of all time is Terrence Malick's "Badlands". # 2 used to be "Days Of Heaven", also by Malick (since he's made only four movies, that gives you some idea of my esteem for him), but since 1999 has been replaced by "American Beauty", the first film of theatrical director Sam Mendes (although, unlike Malick's films, "American Beauty" was not written by him). And, "Days Of Heaven" has dropped a bit. "Welcome To L.A." now solidly holds down the # 3 position.
As for the order of the rest, I find it difficult to rank them. As of now, I think it would go like this:
4. One From The Heart
5. Midnight Cowboy,
6. The Panic In Needle Park
7. Days Of Heaven
8. In Cold Blood
9. The Return Of The Secaucus Seven
The last film, "The Return Of The Secaucus Seven" was made for under $100,000 by John Sayles. It might not be as impressive as the others to many people. But, it's on my list, because it manages to do something that no other movie has ever done for me: capture essence of the sixties the way I "felt" it. And, since everyone experienced the sixties in their own way, that's very significant to me.
Finally, if I were to rank these movies next week, the order (with the exception of the top three) might very well be different. And, in a few years, even the order of the top three might change - although "Badlands" has been # 1 since 1973, except for a very brief period in 1999 when "American Beauty" slipped into that position.
Here are my more detailed thoughts on these brilliant movies.
Badlands [1973]
Director: Terrence Malick
I wouldn't have thought that such material could be turned into a film of (in my mind) unsurpassed visual and aural beauty. But, this (my #1 film of all time") is a perfect film.
Martin Sheen as the disturbed (and just plain strange) Kit, and Sissy Spacek as the hapless Holly both turn in the best performances of their career here. And, it was early in both their careers.
Malick has a genius for choosing music that enhances what's on the screen. And what's on the screen is cinematic art, done in a certain style (which I don't have the vocabulary to describe), no matter who the director of photography is, which tells me that Malick's vision must be behind it.
American Beauty [1999]
Director: Sam Mendes
I was so "blown away" by "American Beauty" on first viewing that I elevated it to my "#1 film of all time slot", pushing "Badlands" (which had occupied that position for 26 years) into the number two slot. So obviously, it touched me.
It's about a dysfunctional family in the suburbs. It begins with a slow aerial shot of a suburban neighborhood, and then we hear Kevin Spacey's voice:
"My name is Lester Burnam. This is my neighborhood. This is my street. This is my life. I'm 42 years old, and in less than a year, I'll be dead [now a shot above his bed, where he is just waking up]. Of course, I don't know that yet. And, in a way, I'm dead already [he's now in the shower, and we see him from behind]. Look at me, jerking off in the shower. This will be the high point of my day. It's all downhill from here".
And it is downhill from there, as we see throughout the movie. Lester is alienated from his sullen teenage daughter Janie, and his real estate agent wife Caroline is having an affair. He hates his job.
But, when he becomes infatuated with Janie's seductive high-school classmate, his life begins to change.
As the film ends, he's dead, just like he said he'd be. Exactly how he winds up this way is the subject of my #2 film of all time. In addition to being that, "American Beauty" also features my #1 scene of all time, another monologue by Spacey after he's been killed. The words themselves can't begin to do this scene justice, but I want to put them here anyway. It's the tone of Spacey's voice, and the way he says them, and the haunting music and visuals that accompany them that make them memorable.
I'd always heard your entire life flashes before your eyes the second before you die.
First of all, that one second isn't a second at all; it stretches on forever, like an ocean of time.
For me, it was lying on my back, at boy scout camp, watching falling stars; and yellow leaves, from the maple trees that lined our street; or my grandmother's hands, and the way her skin seemed like paper; and the first time I saw my cousin Tony's brand new firebird. And Janie..... and Janie. And Caroline.
I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me; but it's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in the world.
Sometimes, I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much - my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst.
And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it. And then it flows through me like rain.
And, I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life.
You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But, don't worry. You will someday.
Welcome To L.A. [1976]
Director: Alan Rudolph
Welcome To L.A. is about alienation in Los Angeles. About a group of interconnected people who have trouble forming meaningful relationships. About people who exemplify the title of one of the songs in the soundtrack: City Of The One Night Stands.
The soundtrack was written and sung by a guy named Richard Baskin, and the songs resonate with me so much that I still can't understand why Baskin never became a household word. Maybe because of the melancholy nature of his voice and content of the songs. I've listened to the album (which I'm sure would be almost impossible to get today) hundreds of times since I first saw the movie.
So, the music is no doubt one of the reasons that "Welcome To L.A. wound up on this list. But, there are many other reasons. Each member of the cast creates a memorable character.
Keith Carradine (who also sings some of Baskin's songs) brings his special sort of "cool" to his role of Carroll Barber, hip young songwriter who seems alienated from everyone, including his father.
Richard Baskin (the real songwriter) plays the famous singer planning to make an album of Carroll's songs. He has no dialogue other than to sing the songs. Nonetheless, his charisma (and talent) have been indelibly burned into my memory.
Sally Kellerman is great as a totally desperate (for a loving relationship) real estate agent.
Geraldine Chaplin (one of my favorite relatively unknown actresses) is fantastic as a somewhat crazy unfulfilled housewife who spends a lot of time riding around L.A. in cabs.
And Harvey Keitel (in a role totally against type" and unlike any other I've ever seen him in) is a "corporate hotshot" who's driving his wife (Chaplin) crazy through his indifference to her.
I've been looking at some reviews of this , my # 3 "all time great" film, and notice that it got almost universally negative reviews. And, a lot of the reviewers don't like the music either. I guess they just don't get it...
One From The Heart [1982]
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
"One from The Heart" got generally terrible reviews when it was first released (and when it was re-released a few years ago) . But, I thought it was a work of genius then, and I still think that today.
Here's a few blurbs from critics, followed by my brief comments:
A bold experiment in style and technique that doesn't work.
Kevin Thomas, L.A. Times
It was indeed bold and, I think, so far ahead of it's time that it couldn't be appreciated back in 1982, and probably not even today.
An ambitious misfire by a brilliant filmmaker.
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star
Since this critic acknowledges that Coppola is indeed a "brilliant filmmaker", he should perhaps ask himself if this great artist's vision may in this case exceed his own.
One From The Heart is aptly named. No one will mistake it for "One From The Brain"
Chris Hewitt,St. Paul Pioneer Press
A kind of witless "low blow". But actually, the greatness of the film has nothing to do with "the brain". Rather, it communicates a powerful emotional message.
I was however, able to find a few critics who seemed to be touched by the film in the same way I was:
A playful, delightfully unfathomable piece of magic.
Desson Thomson, Washington Post
The key words here are "playful", delightfully", unfathomable", and "magic". I would also add "fairy tale", "charming", "beautiful", "mesmerizing", "inspiring".
An integral piece of the oeuvre of one of America's great directors.
Ruthe Stein San Francisco Chronicle
I actually think it's his greatest work.
The story is simple. two "average" people (played by Terri Garr and Frederick Forrest ) live in an "fairy-tale -like" Las Vegas (the set is highly stylized, and we could just as well imagine the action taking place in some alternate universe). After five years together, they're both bored, and this soon leads them into "exciting" relationships with charismatic others. And, after experiencing all this "excitement", and the disillusionment that inevitably follows.... they get back together. And presumably live happily ever after. The end.
Sounds mundane right? Sounds like it could have been made in the 1940's right? Well, Coppola uses all the tools available to a filmmaker (including a tremendous musical score by Tom Waits) to make this mundane (and universal) love story into something transcendent.
I like the way this critic put it:
But as Coppola's camera glides through the crowds to trace the criss-crossing trajectories of the frustrated romantics, walls separating lovers all but disappear with the dimming of a light, and a desert junkyard glows like the ghost of Vegas glitz. We're in the realm of magic.
Sean Axmaker, Seattle Post Intelligencer
Yes. That's it. In the "realm of magic" is exactly where we are.
Midnight Cowboy [1969]
Director: John Schlesinger
"Midnight Cowboy" was originally released with the dreaded "X" rating, which usually meant commercial doom. The rating was absurd by today's standards, and by any rational standards, even back then. I think it got it for it's very oblique portrayal of a homosexual act. It later won the "Best Picture" Academy award.
This is another of what I call a "two man show", in that (like "In Cold Blood") it intensely focuses on the relationship between two men (neither of them gay by the way).
Joe Buck (Jon Voigt) is a handsome hayseed from a small town in Texas who decides to go to new York and become a "stud" , thinking that there are plenty of rich, lonely women willing to pay for his "services". He's naive of course, and runs into a very rough time in a very rough city. He meets "Ratso" (Dustin Hoffman), a broken down pathetic little man, a small time "hustler" and homeless person.
Ratso tries to help Joe, and they develop a relationship - two pathetic losers trying to keep each other alive in a city that couldn't care less. Both Ratso and Joe are likable however, and actually decent guys. We feel that both of them could have (like Perry Smith) been "something" if their circumstances had been a bit different. Ratso fantasies all the time about what his life might have been.
"Midnight Cowboy", in addition to being on my "all time great" list, also has my #1 opening scene of all time, which shows Joe preparing to come to New York, and then riding the long way to the city on a grimy greyhound bus, all to the background music of Harry Nilsson's great song "Everybody's Talkin'".
Given Joe's background (some horrible things happened to him when he was a kid, which we find out about through disturbing flashbacks), and the terrible conditions in which the two men are living together, "Midnight Cowboy" is, to some extent, a bit of a "downer" of a film. And yet... there is much humor, flawlessly integrated throughout. And, even though in the end, Ratso dies, it seems that his relationship with Joe has transformed the younger man, to the extent that we come away from it all feeling that there is real hope for Joe, something we never expected.
The Panic In Needle Park [1971]
Director: Jerry Schatzberg
"The Panic In Needle Park" was Al Pacino's "breakthrough" film, and of course, it's presence on this list means that I think it was also his best.
More than anything else, it captures the gritty world of drug addiction in New York. You're there, and it's a very unsettling "trip". Bobby (Pacino) is a heroin addict and a dealer. He was first "busted" when he was 9, he says, and he looks like he's been on the street ever since.
He meets Helen, a shy girl from Indiana who's just had an abortion. He visits her in the hospital. She's taken by his energy, his streetwise cockiness, his boyish charm. In a memorable scene a bit later, while sitting in the park, she commits herself to him. It's all very subtle and "between the lines". And beautiful. Here's the dialogue (although much is lost by not being able to hear the tone of their words and the see the expressions on their faces):
Bobby: What was it like, where you come from? I mean, when you was a kid, growin' up?
Helen: it was alright. I was born and went to school.
Bobby: That's good.
Helen: I had a mother and a father and a little brother... and a lawn.
Bobby: Terrific.
Helen: I was always going to art classes. And my mom was always going to the doctor. It was alright.
Bobby: Why'd you leave then? Don't just go around leavin' people for no reason.
Helen: (long, thoughtful pause). ...I wouldn't.
Bobby: Well, you shouldn't. It ain't right.
Helen: (another long pause). ... I won't.
Bobby: ... Good.
So, this film is a primarily love story, taking place around the seedy, depressing area of "needle park", at 72nd and Broadway, where loving someone like Bobby has more than the usual complications. Especially when the "panic" sets in because of a shortage in the drug supply.
Days Of Heaven [1978]
Director: Terrence Malick
I think I'll just offer some blurbs from other reviews (on the "Rotten Tomatoes" website) to try to communicate how I feel about this film.
So beautiful that it touches heaven itself.
Majorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle
*******
It is among the most startlingly beautiful color film shot in history. But it is not beauty for beauty's sake, as I described before. The seemingly random shots have a divine order to them.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluoid
*******
It accomplishes what all great art does – moving us beyond verbal explanations and transporting us into a world of its own. Images and music from the film are permanently etched in my mind.
Derek Smith, Apollo Guide
*******
It is the closest to poetry in motion that I have ever seen.
Andrew Ross, Salon.com
********
This is a movie made by a man who knew how something felt, and found a way to evoke it in us.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times
*******
Almost incontestably the most gorgeously photographed film ever made.
Michael Atkinson, The Village Voice
*******
Days of Heaven (1978) is an exquisite, lyrical film of exceptional visual beauty and only the second film of writer-director Terrence Malick, following his critically-acclaimed success with an equally-haunting and visually-striking Badlands. This moody, elegiac film has universally been acclaimed as a cinematographic masterpiece, from the talents of Cuban-born European Nestor Almendros (and 'additional photography' by Haskell Wexler), with naturally-lit, sweeping, 70mm images of crystal clarity and scope, and artfully composed scenes reminiscent of Andrew Wyeth paintings. The film's tagline proclaimed: "Your eyes... Your ears... Your senses... will be overwhelmed."
Tim Dirks, The Greatest Films
In Cold Blood [1967]
Director: Richard Brooks
"In Cold Blood" is based on the famous Truman Capote novel of the same name, and since there have been two movies recently about how Capote went about writing it ("Capote" and "Infamous"), I've been thinking about it, and re-watching parts of it.
Robert Blake (as Perry Smith) and Scott Wilson (as Dick Hickock) are simply brilliant in their roles as the two neer-do-wells who set out to rob a wealthy farmer of the $10,000 they mistakenly think he has in a safe in his home, and then senselessly wind up killing him and his whole family when they find that there is no money there after all.
This is one of very few films that primarily focus on an intense relationship between two men. In this case, one of them (Perry) is actually a sensitive, artistically inclined man who, had his life been more "normal", might have become a painter. As it was, he was destined to be a "tortured soul", who winds up at the end of a rope, in the film's very last, jolting, intensely sad and demoralizing scene. The other (Dick) is Perry's opposite - a clueless "average Joe", who Perry actually disdains, but doesn't have the wherewithal to escape from his pernicious influence.
The Return Of The Secaucus 7 [1980]
Director: John Sayles
"Secaucus 7" was Sayles' first movie, and he shot it in 25 days on a budget of less than $100,000. So, it has a rough-edged look to it... but that doesn't matter.
It's about a "reunion" of seven friends ten years after they were active together in the anti Vietnam war movement. They jokingly refer to themselves as the Secaucus 7 because they once wound up in a New jersey jail after having hit a deer while on the way to a protest march.
Two of them (Mike and Katie, who are hosting the reunion) are now husband and wife and teach high school. Irene is a senator's speechwriter, and her boyfriend Chip (not originally one of the "seven") is a bit "straighter" than the rest, and tries to fit in. Frances is a medical student, and (to her own amazement) sleeps with with Ron, a local mechanic and acquaintance of the "seven" (played by a young David Strathairn). Jeff and Maura are a couple now, and in deep trouble (this creates a bit of tension among the group). J.T. is an amiable "struggling musician", who winds up sleeping with Maura, which doesn't help her situation with Jeff.
Nothing much happens. They talk about old times. The guys play some basketball. They go for a swim. They take in a local play starring another acquaintance. They eat.
But, these people, and the way they interact, somehow evoke the spirit of the sixties for me. No other movie has come close to doing that. That's why it's on this list.
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