Canada also has Wavelength and Australia has Walkabout.
I would go with M for Germany.
I would go with M for Germany.
What's the greatest film your country has produced?
- Thread starter Gaith
- Start date
Anne Of Green Gables comes to mind. Also the Road To Avonlea tv show. It had a lot of famous guest stars: Stockard Channing, Christopher Lloyd, Christopher Reeve, Eugene Levy, Madeline Kahn, Michael York, a young Ryan Gosling to name a few.
That's the greatest film in the world.
Many of the best-known (and best) films made and set in Ireland have been made by non-Irish directors - Alan Parker (The Commitments, Angela's Ashes), Stephen Frears (The Van, The Snapper), John Boorman (The General), John Ford (The Quiet Man), David Lean (Ryan's Daughter), Mike Newell (Into the West).
At any rate, I'm gonna plump for an Irish director in the form of Neil Jordan and go not for his best-known ones such as Michael Collins, Angel or The Crying Game but The Butcher Boy http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118804/?ref_=nv_sr_2
It's based on an equally good book by Patrick McCabe, who also scripted it, and features a brilliant debut performance by Eamonn Owens in the title role. He's done little of consequence since and I remember at the time seeing him being interviewed and wondering how much was acting and how much was just him being himself. Worth a watch.
At any rate, I'm gonna plump for an Irish director in the form of Neil Jordan and go not for his best-known ones such as Michael Collins, Angel or The Crying Game but The Butcher Boy http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118804/?ref_=nv_sr_2
It's based on an equally good book by Patrick McCabe, who also scripted it, and features a brilliant debut performance by Eamonn Owens in the title role. He's done little of consequence since and I remember at the time seeing him being interviewed and wondering how much was acting and how much was just him being himself. Worth a watch.
Here's my reasoning.
1. In my opinion the best movies produced in the USA are war films.
2. Of those, the best are naval war films.
3. Red October's the best naval war film, period.
As for comparing Red October and Clear and Present Danger, I go by which adapted the material better. By that metric, there's no contest. Baldwin's a better Ryan than Ford and the first movie got closer to the original material.
I felt guilty about my choice, but when I went to the AFI's top 100 list, I discovered my choice was on their top 10.
"The Wizard of Oz"
I'm glad to see it, I seriously considered it myself. For people of a certain age (like me), The Wizard of Oz on TV was an annual event as anticipated and expected as a school holiday. It was so familiar that you took it for granted and could forget how very good it was. The performances are outstanding. Young Judy Garland is incredible, I can think of few whose personality connects through the screen so directly and effectively. Wistful, homesick, bewildered, afraid, indignant, defiant, you're there with her all the way. Margaret Hamilton and Frank Morgan are wonderful, too.
In recent viewings I've been impressed by many sequences, but I'll just mention one: When Dorothy sees Auntie Em through the crystal, looking for her. Wow, what an effective scene. Young or old, that feeling of being cut off from the mother, to see her looking for you but being unable to reach her, is so powerful. A brilliant moment, and Garland plays it so well.
Also, anybody interested in pre-CG effects should take a look at the swooping aerial abduction sequence with the flying monkeys. Amazing looking soundstage sequence, with even some camera movement.
Huh, and I thought everybody agreed Goodfellas was the best movie of '90!
Good movie. Personally I'd put They Were Expendable as the best, with The Sand Pebbles, The Caine Mutiny, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, Run Silent, Run Deep, and The Enemy Below above "Red October." And BTW for my money probably the best movie about being in the navy is not a war picture at all: The Last Detail.
Good but typical, not standout.
Mostly an excuse for Steve McQueen to look good in color.
Good, but like JAG, more about lawyers and law than the navy and war.
Good but not best...
Goes back to the "original material" argument. Great, but essentially a new story with Ed Beach's book title tacked on.
Enemy Below's my very close second.
Yep. It's just another excuse for Jack Nicholson to act like Jack Nicholson. But hey, its up to you.
Like i said: I picked Red October because I knew nobody else would.
That's my thought as well for an American movie. It's a great movie that stands on its own merit, but I also think it's great as an "American" movie (a movie that couldn't really exist elsewhere). It starts with "I believe in America," after all. I'm a little amused that my vote for the greatest American movie of all time (although, to be fair, I think it's the greatest movie anywhere) is a movie that features a prolonged scene entirely in another language with no subtitles.
I'm curious to see what other countries have. My proposal (since people are debating this) is a person from that country can choose from themselves if a movie counts.
TV movies, uh, I guess, okay, maybe if you're from a tiny country and that's most of what you've got. For the US? Not so much. Also, there's a big and real difference between a TV movie, like HBO's Warm Springs, and a miniseries, which is what Shogun is.
Clear and Present Danger, IIRC, isn't even as good as The Sum of All Fears, which is itself nowhere near the US' greatest film.
Also, K-19: The Widowmaker is a better film than any of the Ryan flicks.
So did II felt guilty about my choice, but when I went to the AFI's top 100 list, I discovered my choice was on their top 10.
"The Wizard of Oz"
I'm glad to see it, I seriously considered it myself.
Anne of Green Gables is a good example of a tricky one. It's definitely one of Canada's best exports and one it's very proud of, having had success worldwide, attracting people to its location. But it's never had a theatrical release. It's more of a TV movie/miniseries event.
Full disclosure: what's an IIRC?
If I Recall Correctly/If I Remember Correctly
Harrison Ford grumbling around a dying Russian sub versus Alec Baldwin trying to corral a defecting one?
Nahh, gotta stick with my pick...
The Sweet Hereafter (1997), directed by Atom Egoyan. It was all downhill from there for him, but what a highpoint.
I felt guilty about my choice, but when I went to the AFI's top 100 list, I discovered my choice was on their top 10.
"The Wizard of Oz"
I'm glad to see it, I seriously considered it myself. For people of a certain age (like me), The Wizard of Oz on TV was an annual event as anticipated and expected as a school holiday. It was so familiar that you took it for granted and could forget how very good it was. The performances are outstanding. Young Judy Garland is incredible, I can think of few whose personality connects through the screen so directly and effectively. Wistful, homesick, bewildered, afraid, indignant, defiant, you're there with her all the way. Margaret Hamilton and Frank Morgan are wonderful, too.
In recent viewings I've been impressed by many sequences, but I'll just mention one: When Dorothy sees Auntie Em through the crystal, looking for her. Wow, what an effective scene. Young or old, that feeling of being cut off from the mother, to see her looking for you but being unable to reach her, is so powerful. A brilliant moment, and Garland plays it so well.
Also, anybody interested in pre-CG effects should take a look at the swooping aerial abduction sequence with the flying monkeys. Amazing looking soundstage sequence, with even some camera movement.
Its not just "pre CGI"... remember this movie was released in 1939... 12 years after they added "talking" to the movies and when the biggest "effect" in pre WWII movie making was the use of TECHNICOLOR.
ETA:
Good heavens... I can't believe the amount of trivia associated with this film.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032138/trivia?ref_=tt_trv_trv
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Huh? No lawyer showed up till two-thirds of the way through the movie. Before that it was all about the navy and war.
But what does that have to do with whether it's a good movie or not? The Shining miniseries is closer to the book, but does anyone think it was better than the Kubrick movie? Also, it was "Ned" Beach.
I like it quite a bit, it has a propagandist undercurrent but manages it pretty well; I agree, very well-directed. Lloyd Nolan is always interesting to me, too, not sure why. But I find They Were Expendable a lot more interesting on every level. It came out at a point where victory was all but certain, but goes back to the lowest ebb of 1942 in the Philippines and ends on a down note. Along with immediate post-war movies like The Best Years of Our Lives and The Story of GI Joe, there's a pervading sense of weariness and "was it really worth it?"
The best mini-series ever: Lonesome Dove. At least that's beyond question, isn't it?
I got the WoOz "75th Anniversary Companion" book for Christmas and have enjoyed it very much. Oz experts (which I am not) may be familiar with much of the info, but having it all together with a lot of great behind-the-scenes photos is pretty nice.
Because, for all its technical and artistic achievement, and undeniable notability in the history of American film, it's a children's story about a fairly uninteresting little kid who can't wait to escape the magical realm she finds herself in to return to a probable lifetime of Kansas drudgery?
