MC Yearly Consensus - 1954

[Spinal]

Submit your five favorite films from this year and in a week I will give you a top ten. IMDb dates will be used.

The point system is as follows

1st Place-5 points
2nd Place-4 points
3rd Place-3.5 points
4th Place-3 points
5th Place-2.5 points

There will be no restrictions on short films. A minimum of three films must be listed. You may edit your post freely up until the time that the voting is closed, which will be in about a week. I will give at least 24 hours warning before tallying votes.

You may begin now.

IMDB Power Search (http://www.imdb.com/list)

[Spinal]

1. The Seven Samurai
2. Animal Farm
3. La Strada
4. Wuthering Heights

[Pop Trash]

1. On the Waterfront
2. Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome
3. Rear Window
4. Animal Farm
5. Johnny Guitar

[origami_mustache]

1. The Seven Samurai
2. On the Waterfront
3. Sansho the Bailiff
4. La Strada
5. Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome

[Russ]

1. Seven Samurai
2. Rear Window
3. Salt of the Earth
4. On the Waterfront
5. Gojira

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

1. Sansho the Baliff
2. Godzilla
3.
4. Johnny Guitar
5.

willl fill in later. doing research.

[Raiders]

1. Johnny Guitar (N. Ray)
2. Sansho the Bailiff (Mizoguchi)
3. Rear Window (Hitchcock)
4. Touchez pas au Grisbi (Becker)
5. Seven Samurai (Kurosawa)

---------------------------------

6. Creature from the Black Lagoon (Arnold)
7. Human Desire (Lang)
8. Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (Inagaki)
9. Godzilla (Honda)

[Weeping_Guitar]

1. Rear Window
2. Seven Samurai
3. On the Waterfront
4. Dial M For Murder
5. La Strada

[Yxklyx]

1. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa)
2. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
3. On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan)
4. La Strada (Federico Fellini)
5. The Caine Mutiny (Edward Dmytryk)

6. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Richard Fleischer)
7. A Star is Born (George Cukor)
8. Desistfilm (Stan Brakhage)
9. French Cancan (Jean Renoir)
10. Samurai I: Miyamoto Musashi (Hiroshi Inagaki)

[origami_mustache]

8. Desistfilm (Stan Brakhage)


ooooh that is a good one too

[MadMan]

I'm sure if I saw more from this year I'd like it quite a bit.

1. Seven Samurai
2. Rear Window
3. The Creature From The Black Lagoon
4. On The Waterfront

[soitgoes...]

1. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa)
2. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
3. On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan)
4. Sound of the Mountain (Mikio Naruse)
5. The Crucified Lovers (Kenji Mizoguchi)
---------------------------------------------
6. Animal Farm (Joy Batchelor, John Halas)
7. Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi)
8. La Strada (Federico Fellini)
9. Godzilla (Ishirô Honda)
10. French Cancan (Jean Renoir)

[Philosophe_rouge]

1. Rear Window
2. Johnny Guitar
3. Magnificent Obssesion
4. Dial M for Murder
5. La Strada

[Boner M]

1. Sansho the Bailiff
2. Rear Window
3. Seven Samurai
4. Voyage in Italy
5. Johnny Guitar

HM: Them!, La Strada, Touchez pas au grisbi

Need to see: Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, The Crucified Lovers, A Magnificent Obsession, Sound of the Mountain, Senso

[ledfloyd]

1. Rear Window
2. Sabrina
3. Animal Farm
4. Seven Samurai
5. La Strada
5. Gojir

i really need to see On the Waterfront and Dial M for Murder. and i would kill a gorilla to see Johnny Guitar on DVD or in a theater.

[Stay Puft]

1. Gojira
2. Seven Samurai
3. Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto
4. Animal Farm

Haven't seen much, really. What else is new.

[Mysterious Dude]

1. Salt of the Earth
2. Seven Samurai
3. Rear Window
4. Johnny Guitar
5. Sansho the Bailiff

With apologies to On the Waterfront.

[monolith94]

1. Seven Samurai
2. Rear Window
3. On The Waterfront
4. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
5. Dial M For Murder

[Lazlo]

1. Rear Window
2. On the Waterfront
3. Seven Samurai
4. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
5. Animal Farm

[Yxklyx]

Where's all the The Caine Mutiny love?

[Ezee E]

1. Rear Window
2. The Naked Jungle
3. On the Waterfront
4. Touchez pas au Grisbi
5. La Strada

I need to revisit Seven Samurai.

[Raiders]

People are picking the wrong McCarthyist allegory.

[Ezee E]

People are picking the wrong McCarthyist allegory.
No Johnny Guitar on Netflix if that's what you are referring to.

[Yxklyx]

No Johnny Guitar on Netflix if that's what you are referring to.

There's no DVD period right?

[MadMan]

People are picking the wrong McCarthyist allegory.If you find me a copy of Johnny Guitar in a video store that's actually near me (I don't use Netflix) let me know :P

[Derek]

1. Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi)
2. Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock)
3. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa)
4. Johnny Guitar (Nicholas Ray)
5. On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan)
*************************
6. A Star is Born (George Cukor)
7. Late Chrysanthemums (Mikio Naruse)
8. Sabrina (Billy Wilder)
9. Dial M for Murder (Alfred Hitchcock)
10. Voyage to Italy (Roberto Rossellini)

HMs: Sound of the Mountain (Mikio Naruse)
The Far Country (Anthony Mann)
Salt of the Earth (Herbert J. Biberman)
Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (Hiroshi Inagaki)
Crucified Lovers (Kenji Mizoguchi)

[Kurosawa Fan]

1. Seven Samurai
2. On the Waterfront
3. Gojira
4. Rear Window
5. Creature from the Black Lagoon

Not being a douche with the spelling of #3. I mean to imply that I love the Japanese version, minus the American presence.

[Duncan]

1. Seven Samurai
2. Rear Window
3. Sansho the Bailiff
4. On the Waterfront
5. Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome

[Teh Sausage]

1. Rear Window
2. Seven Samurai
3. On the Waterfront
4. Johnny Guitar
5. Dial M For Murder

HM: La Strada

[dreamdead]

1. The Seven Samurai
2. Sansho the Bailiff
3. Rear Window

HM: the ol' childhood fave 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Elsewhere, I laughed through too much of the silly plot for Seven Brides for Seven Brothers to value it in this poll.

[Grouchy]

1. Seven Samurai
2. Rear Window
3. Vera Cruz
4. La Strada
5. The Caine Mutiny

6. On the Waterfront
7. River of No Return
8. Creature from the Black Lagoon
9. Dial M for Murder
10. Voyage to Italy

Sabrina and The Barefoot Contessa are both underwhelming for me. Question - how many people here have seen Vera Cruz? One of the most amazing, hard-boiled, action-packed classic westerns.

[Philosophe_rouge]

I've seen Vera Cruz, I thought it was fairly uninvolving, over-long and apparently forgettable... since this is the first time I've given it any thought since I saw it a few years ago

[Grouchy]

I've seen Vera Cruz, I thought it was fairly uninvolving, over-long and apparently forgettable... since this is the first time I've given it any thought since I saw it a few years ago
Lame.

[koji]

1. Seven Samurai (Kurosawa)
2. Touchez pas au grisbi (Becker)
3. Samurai Trilogy 1: Musashi Miyamoto (Hiroshi Inagaki)
4. On the Waterfront (Kazan)
5. Dial M for Murder (Hitchcock)
**************************
6. Sancho the Baliff (Mizoguchi)
7. Crime Wave (De Toth)
8. Animal Farm (Batchelor & Halas)
9. Hobson’s Choice (Lean)
10. La Strada (Fellini)

[Robby P]

1. La Strada
2. Johnny Guitar
3. On the Waterfront
4. The Far Country
5. Seven Samurai

[soitgoes...]

Last call!

[soitgoes...]

This is closed. I'll try and get to the tallying later tonight.

[soitgoes...]

#10

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/grisbi1-1.jpg

Touchez pas au grisbi

Director: Jacques Becker

Country: France/Italy

An aging, world-weary gangster is double-crossed and forced out of retirement when his best friend is kidnapped and their stash of eight stolen gold bars demanded as ransom.

The French actor Daniel Gélin originally refused the role of Max, seeing himself as too young for the part. Gabin then agreed to do the film, and his role helped to relaunch his career, which had been suffering since the end of the Second World War.

"One of the great things about Grisbi is that the carefully delineated procedural conventions of the post-war heist film established by such influential American entries as Criss-Cross (Robert Siodmak, 1949) and The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston, 1950) aren't of interest to Becker. Indeed, Becker's film doesn't even bother to show the heist itself, merely a newspaper report of it. What's of more interest is the complicated and violent aftermath. Presumably the heist of 96 million francs in gold bullion from Orly Airport was easy; the hard part is waiting out the period it takes for the loot to 'cool off' so that it can be fenced." - David Boxwell

[soitgoes...]

#9

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/DialM11-1.jpg

Dial M for Murder

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Country: USA

Ex-tennis pro Tony Wendice decides to murder his wife for her money and because she had an affair the year before. He blackmails an old college associate to strangle her, but when things go wrong he sees a way to turn events to his advantage.

Filmed in 3D, which explains the prevalence of low-angle shots with lamps and other objects between us and the cast members. There was only a brief original release in 3D, followed by a conventional, "flat" release; the 3D version was reissued in 1980. Alfred Hitchcock arranged to have Grace Kelly dressed in bright colors at the start of the film and made them progressively darker as time goes on.

"The thing is that Mr. Hitchcock brings his crop of goose-pimples to flower when he's building up to that murder and then switching the tables in the clutch. This is when the audience is made to break out in chilly bumps and the tension is drawn so tightly that one can almost feel it in the throat. It's an ugly, gory encounter, one of the toughest Mr. H has ever staged. The rest of the picture is exciting, but entirely because of plot." - Bosley Crowther

[soitgoes...]

#8

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/godzilla-1.jpg

Gojira

Director: Ishirô Honda

Country: Japan

A 164-foot monster reptile with radioactive breath is revived, thanks to nuclear testing. It goes on a mad rampage, destroying Tokyo - how will they kill it?

The name Gojira is a combination of the Japanese words for gorilla (gorira) and whale (kujira). The monster was so named because his original design was that of a gorilla-whale monster, which is recounted by people who worked on the film. After producer Tanaka saw the American monster film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), he got the idea to turn Godzilla into a dinosaur monster. Despite the physical change the name of the monster was kept. There has always been a legend that Godzilla was named after a hulking man nicknamed Gorilla-Whale who worked at Tôhô, but this is untrue. Not only is there no evidence of this man even existing, but the various stories about him kept changing through the years (he worked as a stagehand, he worked as a PR man, etc.). According to Kimi Honda, wife of Ishirô Honda, the Gorilla-Whale man was just an inside joke between her husband and various others on the Tôhô lot--specifically producer Tanaka.

"A scene in Godzilla that you'd never see in an American monster film focuses on a mother and child quietly awaiting their approaching doom, and the mother says to the child, "We'll be with daddy soon" -- daddy, of course, having been consumed a few years earlier in the war. That makes death real and disturbing, not just an abstraction. There are also scenes in hospitals jammed with the dying and wounded that are powerfully disturbing and could come from any civic catastrophe, from earthquake to firebombing to monster invasion." - Stephen Hunter

[soitgoes...]

#7

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/afficheanimal_farm-1.jpg

Animal Farm

Directors: Joy Batchelor, John Halas

Country: UK

Britain's first animated feature, which, despite the title and Disney-esque animal animation, is in fact a no-holds-barred adaptation of George Orwell's classic satire on Stalinism, with the animals taking over their farm by means of a revolutionary coup, but then discovering that although all animals are supposed to be equal, some are more equal than others...

The CIA obtained the film rights to "Animal Farm" from Orwell's widow, Sonia, after his death and covertly funded the production as anti-Communist propaganda. Some sources assert that the ending of the story was altered by the CIA (in the book, the pigs and humans join forces) to press home their message, but it is equally possible that the more upbeat ending of the movie was an artistic decision, to give the film more audience appeal.

"Unfortunately the subtlety and significance of Orwell's vision is barely transmitted by Animal Farm; broad themes are in place but intricacies are absent, the moments of shattering emotional realisation. In large part this is down to the scant voice-over and dialogue, serving us but a taste of Orwell's rich prose. Sure, it's a brave decision not to provide the animals with speeches, anthropomorphising them, but the images alone are hardly enough." - Damian Cannon

[soitgoes...]

Two things: If someone can find a decent snippet of a review for Animal Farm, please feel free. There isn't much out there that I could find. Also a yahoo image search for "Animal Farm film" is something no man should ever make the mistake of doing. The things posted on the internets... :eek:

[soitgoes...]

#6

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/strada-2-1.jpg

La Strada

Director: Federico Fellini

Country: Italy

Gelsomina is sold by her very poor mother to Zampano, an itinerant strongman. She follows him on the road ("la strada") and helps him during his shows. Zampano ill treats her. She meets "The Fool", a funambulist. She feels like going with him, but he puts confusion in her mind by pointing out that perhaps Zampano is in fact in love with her ...

Anthony Quinn said in an interview a few years before his death that he originally accepted a deal that would have paid him a percentage of the profits this film generated instead of an upfront salary. When his agent found out about it, the agent changed the deal and insisted an upfront salary and no percentage. Quinn said that decision cost him several million dollars. Won the first ever Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

"Signor Fellini has used his small cast, and, equally important, his camera, with the unmistakable touch of an artist. His vignettes fill his movie with beauty, sadness, humor and understanding." - A.H. Weiler

[soitgoes...]

#5

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/johnnyguitar-1.jpg

Johnny Guitar

Director: Nicholas Ray

Country: USA

Vienna has built a saloon oustide of town, and she hopes to build her own town once the railroad is put through, but the townsfolk want her gone. When four men hold up a stagecoach and kill a man the town officials, led by Emma Small, come to the saloon to grab four of Vienna's friends, the Dancin' Kid and his men. Vienna stands strong against them, and is aided by the presence of an old acquaintance of hers, Johnny Guitar, who is not what he seems.

At one point in the movie Johnny says, "I'm a stranger here myself." This was Nicholas Ray's own personal motto, a recurring theme in his movies, and reportedly the working title for just about every movie he directed. Dennis Hopper (although uncredited) made his on-screen debut in Johnny Guitar.

"Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar (1954) is surely one of the most blatant psychosexual melodramas ever to disguise itself in that most commodious of genres, the Western. Consider: No money was lavished on the production. The action centers on a two-story saloon "outside town," but we never even see "town," except for a bank facade and interior set. So sparse are the settings that although the central character (Joan Crawford) plays the tavern owner and goes through a spectacular costume charge, we never see her boudoir -- she only appears on a balcony above the main floor, having presumably emerged from the sacred inner temple." - Roger Ebert

[soitgoes...]

#4

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/Sansho3preview-1.jpg

Sansho the Bailiff

Director: Kenji Mizoguchi

Country: Japan

In medieval Japan a compassionate governor is sent into exile. His wife and children try to join him, but are separated, and the children grow up amid suffering and oppression.

Sansho was the last of Mizoguchi's films to win an award at the Venice Film Festival.

"When it comes to sheer, humanist power, no films that I've seen can touch Mizoguchi's Sansho the Bailiff. "A triumph of the human spirit" is a phrase bandied about so recklessly and misapplied to so many treacly, facile films, but I can't think of another film that embodies the phrase better than this one. It's actually quite a feat that the film manages to be so powerful, since the production was in fact extremely compromised; the inappropriately jaunty title, referring to a character who has a relatively small role in the film, was originally what Mizoguchi had intended on being the focus point, but studios insisted that the story should be about the separation of a family and hardships of the brother and sister under that character's rule. No matter, since the resulting folk-tale accessibility of the film achieves a mythic, visceral sweep that is singularly captivating." - Boner M

[soitgoes...]

#3

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/brando_steiger_waterfront-1.jpg

On the Waterfront

Director: Elia Kazan

Country: USA

Terry Malloy dreams about being a prize fighter, while tending his pigeons and running errands at the docks for Johnny Friendly, the corrupt boss of the dockers union. Terry witnesses a murder by two of Johnny's thugs, and later meets the dead man's sister and feels responsible for his death. She introduces him to Father Barry, who tries to force him to provide information for the courts that will smash the dock racketeers.

On the Waterfront is widely known to be an act of expiation on the part of Elia Kazan for naming names to HUAC during the McCarthy witch-hunts of the 50s. What is less widely reported is that Kazan intended it as a direct attack at his former close friend Arthur Miller who had been openly critical of Kazan's actions. Specifically, it was a direct response to Miller's "The Crucible".

"The director, Elia Kazan, and the writer, Budd Schulberg, start out to expose racketeering in the waterfront unions, and wind up trying to make the melodrama transcend itself. They fail, but the production took eight Academy Awards anyway, and most of them were deserved. It is one of the most powerful American movies of the 50s, and few movies caused so much talk, excitement, and dissension--largely because of Marlon Brando's performance as the inarticulate, instinctively alienated bum, Terry Malloy." - Pauline Kael

[soitgoes...]

#2

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/Annex-KellyGraceRearWindow_01-1.jpg

Rear Window

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Country: USA

Photojournalist "Jeff" Jeffries is confined to a wheelchair with a broken leg, and the entire story takes place in the courtyard adjoining the rear of his apartment, all events being seen through his eyes. Jeff believes that a murder has been committed by his neighbor Thorwald and sends his girlfriend Lisa and his nurse Stella to investigate.

The film was unavailable for decades because its rights (together with four other pictures of the same period) were bought back by Alfred Hitchcock and left as part of his legacy to his daughter. They've been known for long as the infamous "Five Lost Hitchcocks" among film buffs, and were re-released in theatres around 1984 after a 30-year absence. The others are The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Rope (1948), The Trouble with Harry (1955), and Vertigo (1958). However, prior to the theatrical re-releases in the 1980's, Rear Window was televised once, in 1971, on ABC, although the network technically did not have the legal right to do so.

"Now this is a movie. Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window develops such a clean, uncluttered line from beginning to end that we're drawn through it (and into it) effortlessly. The experience is not so much like watching a movie, as like ... well, like spying on your neighbors. Hitchcock traps us right from the first." - Roger Ebert

[soitgoes...]

#1

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee171/soitgoes22/big_SevenSamurai-1.jpg

The Seven Samurai

Director: Akira Kurosawa

Country: Japan

A veteran samurai, who has fallen on hard times, answers a village's request for protection from bandits. He gathers 6 other samurai to help him, and they teach the townspeople how to defend themselves, and they supply the samurai with three small meals a day. The film culminates in a giant battle when 40 bandits attack the village.

Akira Kurosawa's original idea for the film was to make it about a day in the life of a samurai, beginning with him rising from bed and ending with him making some mistake that required him to kill himself to save face. Despite a good deal of research, he did not feel he had enough solid factual information to make the movie, but came across an anecdote about a village hiring samurai to protect them and decided to use that idea. Kurosawa wrote a complete dossier for each character with a speaking role. In it were details about what they wore, their favorite foods, their past history, their speaking habits and every other detail he could think of about them. No other Japanese director had ever done this before.

"Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai is an extraordinary combination of technical precision, aesthetic inspiration and knowing humanism. It is such a simple premise – a tiny village, threatened by a group of bandits, hires a group of samurai to help them defend themselves – and yet, Kurosawa uses it as a jumping off point for a virtuoso exploration of honor, heroism, class, love, politics, friendship, economics, sacrifice, military tactics and goodness knows what else which, by the way, is also a pretty decent action film. And yet, despite biting off so much, Seven Samurai never for a minute feels overwhelming or confusing because it unfolds in a manner that is geared towards optimum clarity." - Spinal

[soitgoes...]

1. The Seven Samurai - 94.5
2. Rear Window - 83
3. On the Waterfront - 56
4. Sansho the Bailiff - 32.5
5. Johnny Guitar - 30
6. La Strada - 24
7. Animal Farm - 16
8. Gojira - 15
9. Dial M for Murder - 13.5
10. Touchez pas au Grisbi - 10

Close, but not deserving...
Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome - 9
Salt of the Earth - 8.5

[MadMan]

Dial M For Murder is not a bad film. Its not a good film either. Its a mediocre film that largely bored the hell out of me. The other problem I have with is that even though yes the man needed the money, why the hell would you kill Grace Kelly? I wouldn't be able to have one of the most beautiful woman to ever grace the silver screen killed, or even dream of it. Some things are better than dough yah know :P

And hey another list where I've seen much of the Top 5. Cool.