Films of 2011 Part 6: 50-41

Two posts in one day? Wow, I must be some kind of super-prolific blog guy. Or maybe I have a wife working from home and little better to do. Anyway, we’re into the top 50, which is very, very exciting, in the context of this countdown I’m doing. In a wider context, it’s not very exciting at all. But anyway. Here comes number 50.

#50. Top Gun (1986, Tony Scott)

Of all the films I still haven’t seen – and there are many of those, each day more seem to come up on my radar – I don’t think I’ve gotten quite as much of an “Oh my GAWD you’ve never seen that?” response as when I mentioned Top Gun. Well, that is at an end. Cheesy 80s-ness aside, there is something necessarily classic about this film. The famous lines, the singing-in-bars scenes, even the montages with “Take my Breath Away” in the background all just combine to become more than the sum of the parts. It’s popcorn filmmaking in its purest form, and impossible not to enjoy, at least a little.

#49. Before Sunrise (1995, Richard Linklater)

I mentioned this film was coming, didn’t I? Well here it is. A brave film when it first came out, this is basically a couple of hours of two young people walking around Vienna, talking about stuff. I can’t wait until I’m old enough to feel ways about stuff. It is, though, terribly romantic, and it’s low-key low-budget filmmaking at its best. It wouldn’t work without the chemistry of Hawke and Delpy, but also the way the film works itself out keeps you wondering about the eventual fate of the two – will they stay? Will they go? Will they meet again? It’s hard to separate it from the context of its sequel now, but I think on its own this is one of the most romantic films I’ve ever seen, yet there’s nothing schlocky about it at all.

#48. Birth of a Nation (1915, D.W.Griffith)

I’d be preparing myself for more flaming for putting this film so high, but I suspect less is known about it. Suffice to say, this out-dated and quite horribly racist silent-era film tells the story of two families during the American civil war – one from the north and one from the south – as well as the following years, when evil, lazy black people threatened to take over the country until those brave, courageous saviours of America (you know, the Ku Klux Klan?) rushed in to take it back for the people. Okay, vile sentiments aside, this is above all a fascinating historical document, and a very absorbing story. It is quite possibly bad taste for me to enjoy this film, being as I am unaffected by racism, but its crude dating aside, I have to admit, it did very much intrigue me.

#47. From Here to Eternity (1953, Fred Zinnemann)

Another of my ‘I should watch Best Picture winners’ series, From Here to Eternity speaks to a couple of my guilty pleasures; hopelessly romantic films, and boxing. Essentially a parallel story of two soldiers in the second world war and the women they love, this works as well as it does due to the standout performers in the lead roles – from the beautiful Deborah Kerr and Donna Reed to the equally beautiful Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift – and the enjoyable on-screen relationships formed. This is another of those films whose classic status is hard to deny. Every moment seems iconic.

#46. Henry V (1989, Kenneth Branagh)

I’ve done enough studying of Shakespeare in uni and high school to be mostly anaesthetised to the tedium that one can experience from filmed adaptations. More importantly though, I can spot a well-made one a mile off, and Ken Branagh’s tight, suspenseful and dramatically-charged film of a play I don’t actually know that well is a big winner in those stakes. The director himself is very magnetic as the young king Henry, while a quite ridiculously talented cast of British acting royalty past and present (including Christian Bale in a ten-second sequence that apparently warrants a mention on the DVD case) chews the scenery. Aside from the interminable epilogue, this is above all an exciting film; something that can’t really be claimed by a lot of Shakespeare productions.

#45. The Caine Mutiny (1954, Edward Dmytryk)

This was sort of a random choice for watching, and also a bit of a surprise at its height in this list, but I can’t deny this was a thoroughly enjoyable movie. This is thanks in no small part to the delightful performance of Humphrey Bogart as the inept and slightly deluded commander Queeg who finds himself with a mutiny on his hands when his command credentials are justifiably questioned. It’s very much a film of three parts – the lead-up to the change in command, the ‘life under Queeg's command’ which takes up the most part, and the aftermath of the mutiny – and it’s cleverly told, with an enjoyable ambivalence to the ending. It does come across as a bit preachy, but the overall feeling is warmly received.

#44. L’Avventura (1960, Michelangelo Antonioni)

From adventure on the high seas to adventure of the slow-paced, hypnotic quality where virtually nothing happens for two hours. This was the first, and still is, the only Antonioni film I’ve watched, and in spite of its being part of that stripped-back cinema verité clique that I don’t much enjoy, it had me absorbed throughout. A group of free-thinking-and-loving youths takes a pleasure cruise somewhere off the Italian coast, and the brooding young Anna goes inexplicably missing. The trouble and anxiety that ensues is exquisitely told by the planed-down performances and cinematography, and again the ambivalence of the ending – far more subtle in this case – keeps it with you. Not everybody’s cup of tea but at its best I found this film entrancing.

#43. Batman Begins (2005, Christopher Nolan)

More vitriol, perhaps? I’m not sure. This was another big surprise of the year. I watched it purely because I felt I had to catch up with The Dark Knight which I also hadn’t seen (Oh, you haven’t seen TDK on the list yet? Well it may be coming up later), and I’m glad I did. Not just because this neatly sets up the characters and the interplay between them, but because it happens to be a thrilling and masterful action film in its own right. Yet another mention of Christian Bale? *sigh* okay, but only because you’ve been good. He is extremely good as the caped crusader in this film, and the support cast is wonderful (making allowances for Katie Holmes, obviously). But the star of this film is obviously the inimitable Chris Nolan, who casts a dark, magical pall over Gotham and takes this franchise right into the dark depths of Gothic psychology that Tim Burton – for me at least – failed to do.

#42. A History of Violence (2005, David Cronenberg)

Wow, two 2005 films in a row. The first of what would become three-and-counting collaborations between director Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen, this creepy and violent thriller is brilliant and memorable in its confrontational nature. Presented with a seemingly idyllic little town in rural America, the citizens' peaceful existence is blown up when Mortensen’s character foils an armed robbery with his badass shooting-the-fuck-out-of-people skills. Where did this humble, straight-laced member of a quaint little community acquire such badass mofo-ery? Ah, therein lies this film’s intrigue. Without spoiling too much, I should say that Ed Harris is excellent in creepy mode and William Hurt is as good as I’ve ever seen him here. The final scene of this film is one that stuck in my mind for a very long time afterwards and remains there still.

#41. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991, Fax Bahr/George Hickenlooper/Eleanor Coppola)

People who have talked classic films with me should know how much I adore Apocalypse Now for its raw, cataclysmic power. This documentary-look behind the scenes of one of the most notoriously chaotic and troubled film shoots is a must-watch for any fan of Coppola’s classic. Blending actual footage from the Apocalypse Now location shoot in the Philippines with retrospective interviews with cast and crew, the line between fiction and reality becomes blurred as we encounter all of the horror, the horror, experienced by all those concerned with this hugely ambitious project. No particular point-of-view is expounded, but there doesn’t need to be, as the story itself is so scintillating. Is there a similar documentary about Apocalypse Now’s equally-adored cousin Aguirre, Wrath of God? I wait in slavering anticipation.

And speaking of waiting in slavering anticipation, with that I leave you until tomorrow, when we shall do this all again. Not with the same films, I should point out. Different ones. Trust me, it’ll be fun.