I've just perused the 2023 UK Empire magazine's
100 best all-time movies, and have to say it's
the most bizarre such list as I've ever seen.

"The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring"
the best movie of all time?

Seriously?      

Where's "Play Misty For Me", "Das Boot", "The Third Man", 
"Metropolis",  "Last Tango in Paris",  "Blow Up",  "Paris,Texas", 
"Blue Velvet",  Battleship Potemkin",  or "Zabriskie Point" 
for example?  Each in its own way a masterpiece—and all
for different reasons.

How old was the judging panel... all teenagers?   They've
obviously chosen the vast majority of their 100 as relatively
recent blockbusters, and even thrown in a few cartoons FFS.

And yes, I know everybody has their own more
than valid personal opinions of what makes a good
movie, but the Empire list is nonsensical.

A few of my top ones

No Country for old men
The Shawshank Redemption
One flew over a Cuckoos Nest
The Godfather
Saving Private Ryan
Forrest Gump
Titanic

Nobody can win with these things but gee there are some god awful movies in this top 20.

You could probably make a list with none of the top 10 in the top 100.

AusGeoff wrote on Aug 13^th, 2023 at 5:18am:

The Third Man doorway in Vienna, near the University at Shottentor - I stood there.
It isn't a great movie but an iconic one.

Any of these lists of 'greatest' are clickbait. We all have our lists of greatest but would be hard pressed to be definitive or exhaustive about them, be they movies, books, music, paintings.



There are works of art that speak to us directly, strikingly (books that bring an axe to the frozen sea within, as Kafka put it). We can say why they are so significant to us. To then say that they should be similarly significant to others is preposterous.

Still, airing what is significant to us is a way to send out signals to others with similar, compatible sensibilities.

it says


33) Casablanca

When you've got such a clear-cut good-vs-evil scenario as World War II, it takes guts to put out a film which lets its (anti-) hero lurk for so long in a grey area of that conflict — while said War was still raging, no less. Of course, Rick (Humphrey Bogart) eventually does the right thing, but watching him make both the Resistance and the Nazis squirm right up to the final scene is truly joyous.

Frank wrote on Aug 13^th, 2023 at 8:36pm:


LOL... when we were travelling around Europe,
I had to emulate Gregory Peck sticking my hand
into the opening of La Bocca della Verità, and of
course did the same thing as Peck with my wife.

Just like a million other tourists before me.

   

Sir Spot of Borg wrote on Aug 14^th, 2023 at 3:58am:



I'd watch it again.

Sir Spot of Borg wrote on Aug 14^th, 2023 at 3:58am:


Some months ago, they were showing Lethal Weapon 2 on the television. I was sitting at my computer for most of the movie, just listening to the story. Having watched that movie about 20 times, I not only knew the lines, but I also could picture the video being played as the sound was being played. All the nuances, etc.

There are a whole bunch of movies that have had such a visual impact on my viewing that I know the scenes in my memory, whenever I hear the sound.