While Hollywood may be known for pumping out bad flicks, it's the good ones that we remember. Even I, despite my engendered cynicism as a movie critic, have come across a few cinematic masterpieces that have made me forget all about those thousands of dollars I've wasted over the years on the stinkers. Good movies are really special simply because, in Hollywood, they're really rare. So, as a companion piece to the "10 Worst Movies Of The Last Decade,"? here are the "10 Best Movies Of All Time," in the hopes that eager readers waste their money renting some of the films that are to follow instead of some of the films listed above.
10 - "The Station Agent"?A sweet and modest character study that proves that less really is more. This endearing indie follows Fin McBride (a masterful Peter Dinkledge), a man living with dwarfism who has just inherited an abandoned train depot. A natural loner, Fin movies to the depot, only to discover that it is frequented by many of the locals, including a talkative Cuban ice cream truck driver and an emotionally troubled single woman. Together, these deeply scarred characters bond in a movie that treats friendship with the most flattering trait of all; honesty. Fin and his friends are far from perfect, and they know it; it's only when they come together that any of them really feel whole. It's only 88 minutes long, and most of the main characters only have a few lines throughout the entire movie, but you'll be captivated by every minute of this delightful modern-day fable, and you won't want any of it to end.
9 - "Million Dollar Baby"?The finest film of Clint Eastwood's career, this labor-of-love, working-class tearjerker is a real heavyweight. The film follows amateur pugilist Maggie Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank) on her ascension towards a boxing title in a man's world. The cinematography, like everything else in this simple masterpiece, is understated but effective. Clint Eastwood doesn't overwhelm us with poetic images of boxers sparring in a bloody ring, he simply shows us what we need to see, and lets his audience draw conclusions for itself. Maggie's spectacular rise and crushing downfall are hard to watch, but you won't ever find yourself turning away, except maybe to dab at your eyes when, in the film's startlingly subdued climax, Clint Eastwood's grizelled trainer whispers into Maggie's ear the English translation of
mo cuishle, the Gaelic name that he stitched onto the back of her boxing robe. Every second is pure grit, love, stink, and sweat; in short, nothing but pure and beautiful boxing magic.
8 - "Mean Streets"Martin Scorsese's first film also happens to be his finest, maybe because it was still shot before he used up that whole wiseguy shtick. "Mean Streets" follows Scorsese regular Harvey Keitel as he struggles to navigate the twisted underbelly of the mob in New York City. The film also showcases an impressive performance by then newcomer Robert DeNiro. The most realistic portrayal of life on the streets of New York, this low budget flick glitters with the kind of nervous, kinetic energy that defined Scorsese's rat-a-tat verbal delivery. This film is always moving, to where you don't know, but you're willing to follow it anywhere. In addition to introducing Scorsese to the world, this movie also showcased what can be considered the finest performance of Keitel's career.
7 - "Dr. Strangelove"Only Stanley Kubrick would have dared to make a comedy about the atom bomb. Who knew that it would also be so funny. The film -- about an accidental nuclear strike called on Russie by an insane American general -- was the first to put the "black"? in "black comedy,"? and boasts career defining performances from George C. Scott and Slim Pickins. It also introduced Peter Sellers taking on triple character duty as the American President, an insane Nazi-scientist, and as an English colonel. The most quotable of all of the "10 Best Films Of All Time" ("There's no fighting in the war room"?), "Dr. Strangelove"? may just be the finest comedy ever made.
6 - "Some Like It Hot"I say "may just be"? simply because it'll never be as good as this Billy Wilder comedy, starring an expertly coiffed Marilyn Monroe (displaying some excellent comic timing), and a hilariously flustered Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis. This flick is about a pair of jazz daddies during the prohibition era that dress up like women in order to land jobs as musicians (the only people who are hiring are all-female bands). This film is filled with some of the most hilarious scenes, especially when considering how controversial they would have all seemed when the movie was released over forty years ago. Watch especially for the part where Jack Lemmon, frustrated by trying to finesse the art of wagging his hips like a woman when he walks, watches a woman's posterior as she passes and marvels, "It's like they have a motor in it or something."
5 - "The Usual Suspects"The twistiest thriller to ever hit the screen, this one takes a lot of unscrambling, and many repeat viewings. But boy, is it ever worth it. Boasting the best surprise ending of all time (yes, it's even better than the reveal in "The Sixth Sense"?), this rubic's cube of a movie is about a team of cons pulling a number of jobs while being shadowed by a mysterious crime lord they know only as Keizer Soze. Offering a career best performance by Kevin Spacey as a cerebral palsy stricken con man, "The Usual Suspects" is a supremely entertaining actor's and writer's showcase. Let it wash over you in all of its pulpy, throwback noir-ishness, and you'll enjoy this exciting crime caper.
4 - "The Adventures Of Robin Hood"?Made in 1938 for a then astronomical cost of $2 million, this may just be the best action movie ever filmed. Sure, it has Errol Flynn strutting around Sherwood Forest as Robin Hood wearing a pair of sequined tights. But you believe it, you believe it all, simply because Flynn, in all of his rakish charm, makes you want to believe it. The set-pieces are extravagant, and Claude Rains is deliciously evil as Prince John. The real pay-off in this movie however, is when a glaring Basil Rathbone as Sir Guy of Gisborne faces off against Robin in a climactic sword fight that ranges throughout an entire castle before running swiftly to its bloody conclusion. Forget “Lord OF The Rings,� this sword fight may just be the most exhilarating crossing of blades ever caught on screen, mostly because of the human side that Flynn and Rathbone (both terrific actors in terrific parts seemingly tailored just for them) lend to the fierce and furious duel between their characters.
3 - "The Godfather"?You knew it had to pop up at some point, it was just a matter of where. Francis Ford Coppola's original ode to the ultimate dysfunctional family has to be mentioned on this list, simply because everything about this film is perfect. Marlon Brando is perfect as an aging don struggling to keep his family from spinning into bloody oblivion. The script perfectly dilutes a dense 600 page novel full of (let's face it) fluff, into an incredibly profound and moving narrative. And the climax at the end, when the mafia henchmen dispense justice to all their various enemies while Brando's grandson is baptized, is perfect. And, if you haven't figured out what perfect is by this point, just watch Al Pacino as he transforms Michael Corleone from a wide-eyed innocent into a brutal killer. To watch him do it, you'd swear he was playing two entirely different characters. Such is the dual ugliness and beauty of the mafia. Unlike the mafia, however, when it comes to this film, it's all beautiful.
2 - "Saving Private Ryan"Steven Spielberg's bloody and triumphant ode to World War II veterans knows what its job is and does it with respect and dignity, paying appropriate tribute to all those who sacrificed their lives in the defense of an ideal that they recognized as being greater than any one individual. The shattering first half-hour alone, which offers a realistic and tragic look at the beach landing at Normandy on D-Day, will put knots in your stomach, but even after the pyrotechnics quiet down, the knots won't go away, because you're so worried about Tom Hanks and his platoon of dedicated men that you feel as if you have just as much invested in this war that they're fighting as they do. “Saving Private Ryan� is not just the finest war film ever made. It is one of the finest films ever made, period.
1 - "Schindler's List"?Steven Spielberg's haunting, moving, and heartbreaking tribute to the Holocaust comes shot in stark black and white, giving it a documentary like feel that sometimes makes you forget that you're not actually watching history itself unfold before your very eyes. This film -- about a Nazi war profiteer who saves more than 1,100 Jews, not to be a hero, but simply because it is what any decent human being would do -- appropriately shows the close relationship between kindness and cruelty, showing all of us viewers how everyone has it in them to be either a hero or a monster, and that all it takes is one tiny shove either way. This overpowering ballad of hope in the face of incalculable tragedy, and of defiance in the face of imminent death, shows what truly outstanding, and also horrible creatures human beings can be. Although it's a tearjerker the whole way through, the most emotionally moving moment doesn't come until the very end, when Spielberg films the actual, living Schindler Jews and their children placing rocks of respect and love on the grave of Oscar Schindler.