MC Yearly Consensus - 1979

[Kurosawa Fan]

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 thread is locked, 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)

[Watashi]

1. Apocalypse Now
2. All that Jazz
3. The Warriors
4. Alien
5. Manhattan

[Kurosawa Fan]

I'm going to try to watch Vengeance is Mine and Mad Max before I vote.

[soitgoes...]

1. Nosferatu the Vampyre (Werner Herzog)
2. Alien (Ridley Scott)
3. Manhattan (Woody Allen)
4. Life of Brian (Terry Jones)
5. Vengeance Is Mine (Shohei Imamura)
------------------------------------------
6. Kramer vs. Kramer (Robert Benton)
7. Christ Stopped at Eboli (Francesco Rosi)
8. The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
9. Seven Women of Different Ages (Krzysztof Kieslowski)
10. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola)

[Spinal]

1. Life of Brian
2. All That Jazz
3. Apocalypse Now
4. The Marriage of Maria Braun
5. Woyzeck

[ledfloyd]

1. Manhattan (with a bullet!)
2. Apocalypse Now
3. Life of Brian

[Mysterious Dude]

1. Vengeance Is Mine
2. The Black Stallion
3. Alien
4. Life of Brian
5. Manhattan

[Sycophant]

1. Being There
2. Manhattan
3. Castle of Cagliostro
4. Life of Brian
5. Real Life

6. The Jerk
7. Alien
8. Stalker
9. The Warriors
10. The Muppet Movie

I'm going to try to get Vengeance Is Mine by week's end, but won't.

[Eleven]

1. Life of Brian
2. Camera Buff
3. The Brood
4. Alien
5. Stalker

HMs: The Kids are Alright, All That Jazz, Manhattan, The In-Laws, Quadrophenia.

[Russ]

1. Alien
2. The Wanderers
3. Apocalypse Now
4. Being There
5. Wise Blood

[bac0n]

Ranking what I've seen...

1. Alien
2. Apocalypse Now
3. The Deer Hunter
4. Dawn of the Dead
5. The Life of Brian

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

6. Being There
7. The Black Hole
8. The Muppet Movie
9. Star Trek: The Motion Picture
10. Rocky 2
11. The Jerk
12. Escape From Alcatraz
13. Zulu Dawn
14. Moonraker
15. The Warriors
16. Prophesy
17. Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
18. Phantasm

[Robby P]

Whoops, forgot a few good ones:

1. Escape from Alcatraz
2. Phantasm
3. Apocalypse Now
4. Alien
5. The Jerk

[EyesWideOpen]

my birth year and i've only seen three movies that i consider worth a damn, that's pathetic.

1. Manhattan
2. Kramer vs Kramer
3. Alien

[EyesWideOpen]

Dawn of the Dead is 1978.

[Stay Puft]

1. Nosferatu the Vampyre
2. Woyzeck
3. All That Jazz
4. Alien
5. Castle of Cagliostro

[Melville]

1. Apocalypse Now
2. Manhattan
3. Woyzeck
4. Vengeance is Mne
5. Nosferatu

[Melville]

Dawn of the Dead is 1978.
So is The Deer Hunter.

[origami_mustache]

1. Stalker
2. Apocalypse Now
3. The Tin Drum
4. Manhattan
5. Life of Brian

6. Woyzeck
7. Alien
8. Dawn of the Dead
9. The Warriors
10. The Muppet Movie

[Philosophe_rouge]

1. Nosferatu
2. Monty Python’s Life of Brian
3. Apocalypse Now
4. Manhattan
5. Being There

[Kurious Jorge v3.1]

1. Que Viva Mexico! (finished cut put out in 1979, does it count?)
2. Stalker
3. Apocalypse Now
4. Manhattan
5. Tess

[Yxklyx]

1. Quadrophenia (Franc Roddam)
2. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola)
3. Alien (Ridley Scott)
4. Being There (Hal Ashby)
5. Nocturna Artificialia (Stephen Quay & Timothy Quay)

6. The Tempest (Derek Jarman)
7. Manhattan (Woody Allen)
8. Life of Brian (Terry Jones)
9. The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
10. All That Jazz (Bob Fosse)

This is an excellent year with great Fassbinders and some of the best films by Coppola, Scott, Ashby, Allen, Jarman, etc...

[Weeping_Guitar]

1. Apocalypse Now
2. Monty Python's Life of Brian
3. Alien
4. The Muppet Movie
5. Manhattan

[Eleven]

1. Quadrophenia (Franc Roddam)

:cool:

[MadMan]

1. Apocalypse Now
2. Alien
3. Moonraker

[ledfloyd]

i should probably watch being there before voting is closed.

[Boner M]

1. Vengeance is Mine
2. Being There
3. Manhattan
4. Alien
5. All That Jazz

6. Stalker
7. Apocalypse Now
8. The Warriors
9. Scum
10. The Brood

[dreamdead]

1. Manhattan
2. All That Jazz
3. Vengeance is Mine
4. The Tin Drum
5. The Marriage of Maria Braun

Interesting how The Tin Drum is sorely overlooked today. Still need to read the book, though...

[Lazlo]

1. Apocalypse Now
2. Alien
3. Manhattan
4. Monty Python’s “Life of Brian”
5. The China Syndrome

[trotchky]

1. Manhattan
2. Stalker
3. Apocalypse Now

[mindstream]

1. The Marriage of Maria Braun
2. Stalker
3. The Tempest
4. Nosferatu
5. Tess

[Raiders]

1. Stalker
2. Alien
3. All That Jazz
4. Manhattan
5. The Black Stallion

More votes for Ballard's masterpiece, please.

[Grouchy]

1. Life of Brian
2. Alien
3. Apocalypse Now
4. Manhattan
5. The Brood

Great year. Wish I could include Escape from Alcatraz, All That Jazz, The Warriors, Nosferatu and Mad Max.

[baby doll]

1. The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
2. The Third Generation (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
3. Real Life (Albert Brooks)
4. Manhattan (Woody Allen)
5. Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky)

[Derek]

This is an incredible year - probably the best of the '70s behind 1974.

1. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola)
2. Manhattan (Woody Allen)
3. The Life of Brian (Terry Jones)
4. Nosferatu the Vampyre (Werner Herzog)
5. All That Jazz (Bob Fosse)
______________________________ ______

6. Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky)
7. The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
8. Alien (Ridley Scott)
9. Love on the Run (Francois Truffaut)
10. The Jerk (Carl Reiner)

HM's: Woyzeck (Werner Herzog), The Castle of Cagliostro (Hayao Miyazaki), Vengeance is Mine (Shohei Imamura), Real Life (Albert Brooks)

[Llopin]

1. The Marriage of Maria Braun (Fassbinder)
2. Camera Buff (Kieslowski)
3. Vengeance Is Mine (Imamura)
4. Wise Blood (Huston)
5. Operación Ogro (Pontecorvo)

[Gizmo]

1. Apocalypse Now
2. Life of Brian
3. All That Jazz
4. Alien

[Russ]

Question. re: Phil Kaufman's The Wanderers and John Huston's Wise Blood - am I the only one who's seen them (doubtful) or the only one who thinks they're worthy (likely)?

[monolith94]

1. The Tempest
2. All that Jazz
3. The Muppet Movie
4. The Black Stallion
5. Que Viva Mexico!

[Yxklyx]

Question. re: Phil Kaufman's The Wanderers and John Huston's Wise Blood - am I the only one who's seen them (doubtful) or the only one who thinks they're worthy (likely)?

Never even heard of them - let alone seen them.

[Spinal]

So, what's the verdict on "Que Viva"?


All you do is check IMDb. Why does there need to be a verdict?

[monolith94]

All you do is check IMDb. Why does there need to be a verdict?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079020/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0022756/

I suppose 1979 it is, though.

[Spinal]

Top 10 songs of 1979:

1. "My Sharona", The Knack
2. "Bad Girls", Donna Summer
3. "Le Freak", Chic
4. "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy", Rod Stewart
5. "Reunited", Peaches and Herb
6. "I Will Survive", Gloria Gaynor
7. "Hot Stuff", Donna Summer
8. "Y.M.C.A.", Village People
9. "Ring My Bell", Anita Ward
10. "Sad Eyes", Robert John

source: musicoutfitters.com

[MadMan]

That list only illustrates another reason why the 70s were a great decade for pop music as well.

[Raiders]

Well, technically, for Que Viva Mexico! there was no film prior to 1979. That's when the unedited and assembled shots and scenes were put together by someone other than Eisenstein using the director's storyboards and notes. So, it really can't count for any other year no matter when it was shot.

Even if it isn't Eisenstein's final result, it is still my favorite of his films.

[Eleven]

Edited my previous post.

[Thirdmango]

1. Castle of Cagliostro
2. Life of Brian
3. Manhattan
4. The Muppet Movie
5. Star Trek

I wish I'd seen more good movies this year.

[Ezee E]

1. Alien
2. Apocalypse Now
3. The Jerk
4. The Warriors
5. Zombie

[monolith94]

Well, technically, for Que Viva Mexico! there was no film prior to 1979. That's when the unedited and assembled shots and scenes were put together by someone other than Eisenstein using the director's storyboards and notes. So, it really can't count for any other year no matter when it was shot.

Even if it isn't Eisenstein's final result, it is still my favorite of his films.
Your favorite Eisenstein, and it doesn't make your top 5 of the year? Jeepers.

[Ezee E]

Jees. Only one other vote for The Jerk. Lame.

[Velocipedist]

The Jerk is great!

Alas, I haven't posted my picks yet.

[Llopin]

Question. re: Phil Kaufman's The Wanderers and John Huston's Wise Blood - am I the only one who's seen them (doubtful) or the only one who thinks they're worthy (likely)?

Whoops... forgot about Huston's. It's a strange movie, yet it adapted very well O'Connors story.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Whoops... forgot about Huston's. It's a strange movie, yet it adapted very well O'Connors story.



Update:

1. The Marriage of Maria Braun (Fassbinder)
2. Camera Buff (Kieslowski)
3. Vengeance Is Mine (Imamura)
4. Wise Blood (Huston)
5. Operación Ogro (Pontecorvo)

Please erase this part from this post and edit your original post. I don't start adding them up until polling closes and this will undoubtedly screw me up. :)

[Llopin]

Please erase this part from this post and edit your original post. I don't start adding them up until polling closes and this will undoubtedly screw me up. :)

Done.

[Spinal]

Time Man of the Year for 1979:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/more/122020Time20Magazine3.jpg

Ayatollah Khomeini

[Duncan]

1. Apocalypse Now
2. Manhattan
3. Being There
4. Stalker
5. Life of Brian

[Spinal]

The following television programs debuted in 1979:

The Dukes of Hazzard
You Can't Do That on Television (Canada)
Real People
The Facts of Life
Benson
Trapper John, M.D.
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century
This Old House
Nightline
Antiques Roadshow (UK)
Knots Landing
Archie Bunker's Place

The #1 show in the Nielsen ratings for 1979:

Three's Company

[MadMan]

Time Man of the Year for 1979:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v696/joel_harmon/more/122020Time20Magazine3.jpg

Ayatollah KhomeiniAh yes, back when Time magazine made ballsy decisions. Had I been alive during the 70s that move would have encouraged me to keep my Time subscription even though the Ayatollah was a bastard. That said, these days I'm glad I canceled my subscription to Time two and a half years ago.

[koji]

1. Life of Brian (T. Jones)
2. The Marriage of Maria Braun (Fassbinder)
3. Manhattan (W. Allen)
4. All That Jazz (B. Fosse)
5. Being There (H. Ashby)

6. The Jerk-( Carl Reiner)
7. Mad Max (George Miller)
8. Alien (R. Scott)
9. Breaking Away (Peter Yates)
10. Woyzeck (Herzog)

All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

[Kurosawa Fan]

I'll be shutting this down Sunday night. I may not post the results until Monday though.

[Yum-Yum]

1. Apocalypse Now
2. The Warriors
3. Rock 'n' Roll High School
4. The Tin Drum
5. Roller Boogie

[origami_mustache]

http://www.eatfoo.com/files/images/20070104_-_at_the_game/monocle.gif

"Not enough Tin Drum, I say."

[DSNT]

1. Manhattan
2. Apocalypse Now
3. Life of Brian
4. Being There
5. The Jerk

The Jerk, Alien & Mad Max are all about tied for my #5, but The Jerk needs more love here.

[Kurosawa Fan]

My list:

1. Alien
2. All That Jazz
3. Manhattan
4. Apocalypse Now
5. Life of Brian

[Kurosawa Fan]

This thread is officially closed.

I watched Mad Max, and while good, it doesn't crack my top 5. Vengeance is Mine would place 6th on my list. '79 is just too strong a year.

I'll tally the results tonight, but I won't start posting them until some time tomorrow. I'm too tired to get the entire thing done tonight.

[Kurosawa Fan]

Finished counting the votes. Interesting results. We have a pretty solid top ten, as any honorable mentions would have needed more than 2 first place votes to crack the list. Anyway, I'll start posting the results tomorrow sometime.

FEEL THE SUSPENSE!!

[MadMan]

Finished counting the votes. Interesting results. We have a pretty solid top ten, as any honorable mentions would have needed more than 2 first place votes to crack the list. Anyway, I'll start posting the results tomorrow sometime.

FEEL THE SUSPENSE!!I'm not feeling it. *Pokes self. Pokes KF. Runs away*

[Kurosawa Fan]

:P

Sorry guys. I had a huge shipment come in, but I'm here by myself after 5, so I'll get to it before the night is over.

[Kurosawa Fan]

#10
http://img511.imageshack.us/img511/5804/vengeancecj7.jpg
Vengeance is Mine
Shohei Imamura


A thief, murderer, and charming lady-killer, Iwao Enokizu (Ken Ogata) is on the run from the police. Director Shohei Imamura turns this fact-based story, of the seventy-eight-day killing spree of a remorseless man from a devoutly Catholic family, into a cold, perverse, and at times diabolically funny tale of the primitive coexisting with the modern. More than just a true-crime case, Vengeance Is Mine bares mankind’s snarling id.


"It’s paradigmatic Imamura, in that the movie evades codification at every turn: Is it psychosocial critique? Serial-killer thriller? Nippononoir? Black farce? In the first few minutes, we see Iwao Enokizu (Ken Ogata) abruptly and apropos of nothing at all bludgeon a co-worker with a hammer and then jam a knife through his breastbone. Why? Iwao’s odyssey of impulse homicide and flight from the law seems genre simple at first blush, but for Imamura a story is never the clean sum of its outline." - Michael Atkinson

[Kurosawa Fan]

#9
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/2377/nosferatukinskirb0.gif
Nosferatu
Werner Herzog


Jonathan Harker is sent away to Count Dracula's castle to sell him a house in Virna, where he lives. But Count Dracula is a vampire, an undead ghoule living of men's blood. Inspired by a photograph of Lucy Harker, Jonathan's wife, Dracula moves to Virna, bringing with him death and plague... An unusually contemplative version of Dracula, in which the vampire bears the cross of not being able to get old and die.

The scene where Nosferatu arrives in the city required thousands of grey rats. Real grey rats were unavailable and therefore white ones were painted grey and used instead. Klaus Kinski had to spend approximately four hours per day in make-up. Fresh latex ear pieces had to be poured for each day of shooting because they were destroyed at removal. Kinski, notorious for his violent daily temper-tantrums, had a very good relationship to Japanese make-up artist Reiko Kruk and was exceedingly patient and well-behaved during make-up. The movie was shot simultaneously in German and English.

"Under no conditions would anyone want to be the kind of vampire we encounter in this film, including the evil Count himself. Kinski sports a hunched back, a naked scalp, rat ears, pasty flesh, and a hideously tragic glower that winces when he sucks blood, as if it tastes like sour milk. “To live forever in the dark is the worst fate I could imagine,” Dracula rasps sadly, and we believe him." - Danel Griffin

[Kurosawa Fan]

#8
http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/3817/marriageofmariabraunbe7.jpg
The Marriage of Maria Braun
Rainer Werner Fassbinder


Maria (Hanna Schygulla) marries Hermann Braun in the last days of World War II, only to have him disappear in the war. Alone, Maria uses her beauty and ambition to prosper in Germany's “economic miracle” of the 1950’s. Fassbinder’s biggest international box-office success and the first part of his “postwar trilogy,” The Marriage of Maria Braun is a heartbreaking study of a woman picking herself up from the ruins of her own life, as well as a pointed metaphorical attack on a society determined to forget its past.

Director Rainer Werner Fassbinder has a brief cameo playing a peddler who sells Maria a black dress.

"Whatever his pairings and his cheerfully ironic conclusions, though, there was always another subject lurking in the background of his approximately thirty-three (!) features. He gave us what he saw as the rise and second fall of West Germany in the three postwar decades --considered in the context of the overwhelming American influence on his country. With the masterful epic The Marriage of Maria Braun, he made his clearest and most cynical statement of the theme, and at the same time gave us a movie dripping with period detail, with the costumes and decor he was famous for, with the elegant decadence his characters will sell their souls for in a late-1940s economy without chic retail goods." - Roger Ebert

[Sycophant]

These lists are beginning to make me feel like a poser.

[Kurosawa Fan]

#7
http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/4363/beingtitlekj0.jpg
Being There
Hal Ashby

Being There is a story of a man who has been totally isolated in his life living in a man's house and tending to his garden. He has no knowledge of the world beyond what he has learned from television. Upon his benefactor's death the isolated gardener is thrust into the cruel world and by acts of fate he becomes a prominant and important celebrity. His opinions are sought after yet he is oblivious to anything important.

Peter Sellers patterned the voice for Chance the gardener after his idol, Stan Laurel. Originally there was a different last shot planned for the funeral sequence at the end of the film. Director Hal Ashby was chatting with another director one day about filming when he commented how well everything was going. "It's like walking on air," he said, then suddenly was struck with a thought. He changed the last shot to the one that appears now in the movie. The inscription "Life is a state of mind" is on Rand's tomb and also serves as the last line in the movie. These words were also inscribed on Sellers' own tomb, when he died a year after the movie was released. Shirley MacLaine's masturbation scene was shot seventeen times.

"What is Being There about? I've read reviews calling it an indictment of television. But that doesn't fit; Sellers wasn't warped by television, he was retarded to begin with, and has TV to thank for what abilities he has to move in society. Is it an indictment of society, for being so dumb as to accept the Sellers character as a great philosophical sage? Maybe, but that's not so fascinating either. I'm not really inclined to plumb this movie for its message, although I'm sure that'll be a favorite audience sport. I just admire it for having the guts to take this totally weird conceit and push it to its ultimate comic conclusion." - Roger Ebert

[Duncan]

How the hell have I not seen Nosferatu yet? It's the only Herzog/Kinski collaboration I'm missing.

Being There rocks.

[Kurosawa Fan]

#6
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/1212/stalkerhk8.jpg
Stalker
Andrei Tarkovsky

Near a gray and unnamed city is the Zone, an alien place guarded by barbed wire and soldiers. Over his wife's numerous objections, a man rises in the dead of night: he's a stalker, one of a handful who have the mental gifts (and who risk imprisonment) to lead people into the Zone to the Room, a place where one's secret hopes come true. That night, he takes two people into the Zone: a popular writer who is burned out, cynical, and questioning his genius; and a quiet scientist more concerned about his knapsack than the journey. In the deserted Zone, the approach to the Room must be indirect. As they draw near, the rules seem to change and the stalker faces a crisis.

The insignia on the police officers' helmet features two letters: AT, the initials of the director, Andrei Tarkovsky. The Zone of the film was inspired by a nuclear accident that took place near Chelyabinsk in 1957. Several hundred square kilometers were polluted by fallout and abandoned; of course there was no official mention of this forbidden zone at the time. The original negatives were destroyed by a processing error at the laboratory, and the film had to be shot again from scratch with a new director of photography.

"Subscribing to the belief that the eyes are the windows to the soul, Tarkovsky locates Stalker's spiritual center in the weathered countenances of his world-weary protagonists. One of the cinema's greatest portraitists, the director offers up a gallery of masterful close-ups, some dipped in sepia-toned bronzes, others cast in the harsh light of a cloudy morning, several obscured by dank, dark shadows. No two alike and all stunning in their formal composition and expressiveness, Tarkovsky's visages—from the large, sorrowful eyes of Kajdanovsky and the anguished expressions of Solonitsyn to the heart-rending candor of Frejndlikh—form the emotional backbone of his heavily metaphorical tale." - Nick Schager

[Mysterious Dude]

Glad Vengeance made the top ten.

[Watashi]

Man, Being There would have been a Top 5 film for me without that horrid Shirly McClaine seduction scene.

[Kurosawa Fan]

#5
http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/6076/allthatjazzuh2.jpg
All That Jazz
Bob Fosse

Choreographer-turned-director Bob Fosse (Cabaret, Lenny) turns the camera on himself in this nervy, sometimes unnerving 1979 feature, a nakedly autobiographical piece that veers from gritty drama to razzle-dazzle musical, allegory to satire.

Richard Dreyfuss was originally cast in the role of Joe Gideon but left the production during the rehearsal stage. According to Shirley MacLaine in her autobiography "My Lucky Stars," the idea for this film was hatched when Fosse was hospitalized for a heart attack. MacLaine claims she was the one who gave Fosse the idea to do "a musical about his death" though she said Fosse seemed to not remember this later. Fosse did, however, offer her the role of Audrey Paris, she wrote. One of the first lines, "To be on the wire is life; the rest is waiting," is spoken voice-over as we see a man falling from a high wire into a net (and the speaker then admits he didn't make it up). The quote is generally attributed to Karl Wallenda, who had died the year before the film came out, when he fell from a high wire without a net.

"Aware of his declining health, Scheider literally flirts with Death, which here takes the angelic form of Jessica Lange, who hangs around his conscience and indulges his numerous confessions. An entertainer first and foremost—every day, Scheider greets his mirror image with a rousing "It's showtime, folks!"—Fosse spins his runaway narcissism into self-effacing humor and filters the darkest themes through electrifying song-and-dance numbers. The musical sequences are a lesson in choreography, not just for Fosse's renowned wit and invention in handling his dancers, but also in the editing, which fuses music and movement in perfectly timed cuts." - Scott Tobias

[Kurosawa Fan]

#4
http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/824/lifeofbrainis5.jpg
Monty Python's Life of Brian
Terry Jones

Brian is born in a stable on Christmas, right next to You Know Who. The wise men appear and begin to distribute gifts. The star moves further, so they take it all back and move on. This is how Brian's life goes. The Jews are looking for a release from the Romans, Spiritual and political decay, keep looking for signs and a group decides Brian is the Messiah.

Despite persistent rumors, there was never any intention to use the title "Jesus Christ's Lust For Glory". The true story is that during production of Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), the troupe became increasing irritated by the press, who seemed to always ask the same questions, such as "What will your next project be?" One day, Eric Idle flippantly answered, "Jesus Christ's Lust For Glory". Having discovered that this answer quickly shut up reporters, the group adopted it as their stock answer. After production completed, they did some serious thinking about it, and realized that while satirizing Christ himself was out of the question, they could create a parody of first-century life. An early idea for a scene involved Jesus, a skilled carpenter frustrated by being crucified on a poorly built cross. Released theatrically in Italy in the early 1990s, with no mention that it was made in 1979. The success was such that And Now for Something Completely Different (1971) was also released theatrically.

"Graham Chapman is appropriately nonplussed in the Gene Wilder-ish role of Brian while, tricked out in fake beards, the rest of the gang (John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle) pop up as centurions, prophets, terrorists from the People's Front of Judea, and wiseass members of the rabble. The best lines are often overheard in the general tumult. Cries of "Oh Lord, I am afflicted by a bald patch" and "We'll nail some sense into him" follow Brian as he careens through the casbah, pursued by eager acolytes." - J. Hoberman

[Kurosawa Fan]

#3
http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/7044/aliendb6.jpg
Alien
Ridley Scott


When commercial towing vehicle Nostromo, heading back to Earth, intercepts an SOS signal from a nearby planet, the crew are under obligation to investigate. After a bad landing on the planet, some crew members leave the ship to explore the area. At the same time as they discover a hive colony of some unknown creature, the ship's computer deciphers the message to be a warning, not a call for help. When one of the eggs is disturbed, the crew do not know the danger they are in until it is too late.


An early draft of the script had a male Ripley. Conceptual artist H.R. Giger's designs were changed several times because of their blatant sexuality. The front (face) part of the alien costume's head is made from a cast of a real human skull. Ridley Scott is reportedly quoted as saying that originally he wanted a much darker ending. He planned on having the alien bite off Ripley's head in the escape shuttle, sit in her chair, and then start speaking with her voice in a message to Earth. Apparently, 20th Century Fox wasn't too pleased with such a dark ending. The rumor that the cast, except for John Hurt, did not know what would happen during the "chestburster" scene is partly true. The scene had been explained for them, but they did not know specifics. For example, Veronica Cartwright did not expect to be sprayed with blood.

"When I first saw "Alien" I could see no connection between it and Joseph Conrad's great novel "Nostromo," a philosophical adventure yarn about a corrupted Latin American revolution -- the naming of the ship just seemed like a little literary in-joke. (Nostromo is the name of a revolutionary leader in the novel, not of a vessel.) But nearly a quarter-century later, "Alien" has acquired a classic quality of its own, and seems to offer some of the uncategorizable fatalism and pessimism of the book, even if it's an entirely different kind of story. Decoud, Conrad's authorial figure in "Nostromo," regards the universe as "a succession of incomprehensible images," and during his imprisonment turns suicidal, reflecting that "in our activity alone do we find the sustaining illusion of an independent existence as against the whole scheme of things of which we form a helpless part." I think that accounts for the dread we still feel at the end of "Alien," when Weaver, memorably clad in that bikini underwear, locks herself (and her irresistible cat, Jonesy) back into that plastic egg for the long ride home. She has survived, but toward what end? And the world she is returning to is the one that betrayed her in the first place." - Andrew O'Hehir

[Kurosawa Fan]

#2
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Manhattan
Woody Allen


Brilliantly bittersweet and always insightful, this engaging look at the life of a neurotic artist is one of Woody Allen’s best films. Isaac Davis (Allen) is a rather confused — but highly romantic — TV comedy writer currently dating a mature-beyond-her-years 17-year-old girl (Muriel Hemingway). His friend Yale is married to Emily (Anne Byrne) and having an affair with Mary (Diane Keaton). Though at first unsympathetic towards one another, the two eventually find some emotional common ground and develop a friendship that threatens all of their various affairs.

Woody Allen disliked his work in this film so much he offered to direct another film for United Artists for free if they kept "Manhattan" on the shelf for good. Presentations of this film on television (broadcast, cable or home video) required preservation of the widescreen format. This presented a problem in the U.S. since certain F.C.C. technical regulations did not permit a portion of the screen to be left blank as in letterboxing. The problem was solved by making the area above and below the frame gray. The regulations have since been changed and letterboxing with black borders is now permitted.

"Allen's humor has always been based on the contrast between his character ("Woody," spectacled, anemic, a slob, incredibly bright and verbal, tortured by self-doubt) and his goals (writing a great novel, being like Bogart, winning the love of beautiful women). The fact that he thinks he can achieve his dreams (or that he pretends he thinks he can) makes him lovable. It is amazing, for example, how many women believe they are unique because they find Woody sexy." - Roger Ebert

[Ezee E]

This is the best top ten list thus far.

[soitgoes...]

This is the best top ten list thus far.
It's pretty solid. I wish Nosferatu was higher though. As for Manhattan, did anyone else have a problem with Hemingway's performance? To me she was just so wooden. Manhattan had the potential for being Allen's best movie, instead I'd probably place it 3rd behind Annie Hall and Crimes and Misdemeanors.

[Kurosawa Fan]

#1
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Apocalypse Now
Francis Ford Coppola


Based on Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness, this is a controversial addition to the multitude of Vietnam war movies in existence. Set in 1969 Vietnam, we follow U.S. Special Forces Captain Willard on his mission up a river into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade Green Beret who has set himself up as a God among a local tribe.

Steve McQueen was the first to turn down the role of Captain Willard. Harvey Keitel was then cast as Willard. Two weeks into shooting, director Francis Ford Coppola replaced him with Martin Sheen. There are no opening credits or titles. The title of the movie appears as graffiti late in the film, which reads, "Our motto: Apocalypse Now". This was done simply so the film could be copyrighted, since it could not be copyrighted as "Apocalypse Now" unless the title was seen in the film. It took Francis Ford Coppola nearly three years to edit the footage. While working on his final edit, it became apparent to him that Martin Sheen would be needed to tape a number of additional narrative voice-overs. Coppola soon discovered that Sheen was busy and unable to perform these voice-overs. He then called in Sheen's brother, Joe Estevez, whose voice sounds nearly identical to Sheen's, to perform the new narrative tracks. Estevez was also used as a stand-in/double for Sheen when Sheen suffered a heart attack during the shoot in 1976. Estevez was not credited for his work as a stand-in or for his voice-over work.

"Apocalypse Now is the definitive war-as-hell statement, a frenzied, free-based ode to the anguished soldier and the need-to-numb that crests over him in the face and wake of war. With no offense to Terrence Malick's existential The Thin Red Line and its singular concern for the plight of the everyman, no war film has matched Coppola's madly overcooked polemic. With its view of Vietnam as a colonial mud pit being raped by a post-rock generation, it's as aimless as it is prescient. Coppola's subjective use of technology (pathologically integrating operatic image and sound) evokes war as a psychedelic fugue state: timeless, horrifying, and affecting us all." - Ed Gonzalez

[Kurosawa Fan]

Final:

1. Apocalypse Now - 96.5
2. Manhattan - 87.5
3. Alien - 72
4. Monty Python's Life of Brian - 69.5
5. All That Jazz - 38.5
6. Stalker - 30
7. Being There - 29.5
8. The Marriage of Maria Braun - 24.5
9. Nosferatu - 23.5
10. Vengeance is Mine - 22.5
--------------------------------

11. Castle of Cagliostro - 11
12. The Warriors - 10.5
13. Woyzeck - 10
14. The Black Stallion - 9.5
The Tin Drum - 9.5
The Muppet Movie - 9.5

[Grouchy]

Wow, awesome results for an awesome year. I'll never see the appeal of Stalker or understand what the heck is going on in it, but that's a broader discussion subject. #1-5 are incredibly spot-on. Pleased that underdogs like Life of Brian and Nosferatu made it.