All Time Top 10

I'm not good at creating "top" lists but I thought it was only fair to give you an idea of where I'm coming from in terms of movie taste, so here follows The Man Who Stares At Screens ten favourite movies presented in no particular order: (This list is not definitive, authoritative or anything else ending in "ive")


Come and See - 1986 - dir. Elim Klimov

Set in war-torn Belarus in 1943, Come And See tells the story of the Nazi advance through the country as seen through the eyes of a twelve year old member of the resistance.  
At once the most surreal, brutal and moving portrayal of the second world war I have ever seen, director Klimov used live ammunition in many scenes for added realism and the performance from the young lead actor Aleksei Kravchenko is outstanding.  An impeccable anti-war meditation from the other side of the iron curtain, this film rendered me speechless.  


Network - 1976 - dir. Sidney Lumet

Peter Finch, who died shortly after making this film was the first person ever to be awarded a post-humous oscar for his role as Howard Beale, a network news anchor who is fired when his ratings begin to fall.  He reacts by announcing he is going to commit suicide live on air in two weeks time and as his mental state swiftly deteriorates those around him use and abuse his condition in a desperate bid to win the TV ratings war.  
Network is an absolute tour-de-force of cinema.  Brilliantly written by screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky, masterfully directed and featuring career best performances from pretty much all of the cast, particularly Finch and William Holden, this epic satire on media morality is perhaps more relevant today than it was when it was released. 




The Seventh Seal - 1957 - dir. Ingmar Bergman

Max Von Sydow plays Antonius Block a disillusioned Knight who returns from a Crusade to find his home country ridden with the black plague where he is confronted by Death himself who tells him his time is up.  Block challenges Death to a game of chess in order to save his life and as he travels through his homeland Death reappears frequently to continue their ultimate game.
The Seventh Seal is one gem amongst many from master Swedish director Ingmar Bergman and it is the film that sealed his reputation as a world class director.  Powerhouse performances and Bergman's musings on mortality and the nature of God have transformed this film from mere cellulite to a timeless allegory for all men.

The Big Lebowski - 1998 - dir. Joel Coen

Jeffery "The Dude" Lebowski, portrayed perfectly by Jeff Bridges in a role he seems born to play, is a middle-aged L.A slacker who likes nothing better than bowling with his buddies and enjoying a reefer to sound of whale song. When he is house broken and his favourite rug is soiled his attempts to gain compensation lead him on an hilarious adventure involving millionaire businessmen, German nihilists, a feminist artist, porn stars and a fifteen year old schoolboy named Larry.
There are some films that change your life and the Coen brother's anarchic and profane Big Lebowski changed mine.  Previously I had thought that bumming around bowling and smoking reefer was merely a cool thing to do, after seeing this movie I came to realize it was not only cool but a vocation and very nearly a religion! Not only that, lurking beneath the crazy, cuss filled exterior lay some genuinely profound ideas on the roles of men and women in modern society. What more can I say: The Dude Abides.


Wings of Desire - 1987 - dir. Wim Wenders

Set in post cold war Berlin, Bruno Ganz plays an angel, Damiel, who spends his time observing and recording the lives of the city's inhabitants.  After centuries of observing humanity without ever experiencing it Damiel is tiring of his immortal existence, when he comes across beautiful circus performer Marion and falls in love he decides to abandon life as an angel and become mortal.   
Wings of Desire is as much the story of a city and a nation as it is of Damiel or anybody else. Alternating between colour and black and white, Wender's slow, meditative cinematic style has never worked better than it does here, using this touching poetic fantasy to portray larger ideas about the mentality of a nation that had spent years on the front line of the cold war. 

The Wild Bunch - 1969 - dir.Sam Pekinpah

 Another great performance from William Holden as Pike Bishop the leader of an aging group of outlaws planning one last big heist at the end of the wild west era.
Set on the Tex/Mex border, this brutal tale of friendship and betrayal amongst men who's time had passed met with both praise and controversy on it's release, but it's unflinching portrayal of violence and innovative editing style would go on to change the face of modern cinema forever.  This is perhaps not the finest western I've ever seen (that accolade would probably go to Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West), but it's not far off and is certainly my favourite.  Without doubt this is Pekinpah's masterpiece.

 The Third Man - 1949 - dir. Carol Reed

Set in post-war Austria The Third Man tells the tale of Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) who travels to Vienna to meet his old friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles).  On his arrival in the city he learns that his friend was killed in an accident and his investigation the events leads him on a bizarre and mysterious trail of discovery through Vienna's dark and seedy underworld.
Carol Reed's classic noir suspenser is often cited as the greatest British film of the twentieth century and it's easy to see why.  The cinematography is fantastic, it's odd camera angles and harsh high contrast lighting perfectly captures the dark seedy nature of the film.  The writing from master author Graham Greene mixes the strange with both the dark and the light-hearted and provides the perfect base for strong performances from all the principal cast and Reed's expert direction gives it the polish that makes it what it is, an almost perfect film.

 Barry Lyndon - 1975 - dir. Stanley Kubrick

Set in the eighteenth century Barry Lyndon is the rags to riches to rags tale of Redmond Barry, played by Ryan O'Neal, an Irish adventurer and inveterate chancer who's life takes him from his home in Ireland across Europe, from poverty to soldiery to a lordship and back again.
To be honest any one of several of Kubrick's films could be in this list but I chose Barry Lyndon for it's sheer dedication to the cinematic craft.  O'Neal's performance in the lead is far from overwhelming, but Kubrick's cool, ironic screenwriting and deft directing more than make up for this and the true star of the film is the cinematography, visually this film is beyond stunning.  Every scene looks like a painting from an 18th century master and Kubrick and his cinematographers went to great pains to ensure this was the case, utilising film and lenses developed by NASA for the moon landings so they could shoot using only candlelight and when they did have to recourse to electric lighting it was used only to mimic the natural light in the scene, leading to the most visually fulfilling period piece ever committed to cellulite.

 Apocalypse Now - 1979 - dir. Francis Ford Coppola

Coppola's Vietnam epic follows US special forces Captain Benjamin Willard (Martin Sheen) as he travels by boat through Vietnam and into Cambodia on a secret mission to assassinate another American soldier Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) who has gone rogue and very possibly insane and set up his own private army/cult.
Through nine months of chaotic, trouble laden shooting, Francis Ford Coppola produced possibly the greatest anti-war war epic of all time. It's lush visuals, period soundtrack and detailed characterization of even the most minor characters take us far beyond the madness of war and deep into the dark underbelly of man's soul itself.  An outstanding work of cinema.

 Stroszek - 1977 - dir. Werner Herzog

Written by Herzog in just four days specifically for it's star Bruno S, Stroszek tells the story of an alcoholic street entertainer, who along with a prostitute and an elderly neighbor, decide to leave their life in Germany behind in the hope of building a better future in America.
Despite the quote on the poster, Stroszek is perhaps one of the saddest, most moving movies you will ever see and is based largely on the real life of it's protagonist. Werner Herzog is a prolific filmmaker who has made many documentaries throughout his career and his no nonsense documentary style gives this tale a genuine sense of realism that makes for compelling viewing.  It is subtitled "A Ballad", and that it is, a heartbreaking cinematic poem of a man lost, struggling to understand a changing world that holds no place for him.  

So there it is, The Man Who Stares At Screens Top 10.  

There are many other films that could easily have made this list, but these are the ones that are closest to my heart and continue to stand up to stiff competition and repeated viewings.  Feel free to comment or make suggestions of films that are on your top list that you think I should consider.  

 If you've not seen any of the movies I have listed here I strongly recommend you invest in them straight away and find out what you've been missing. They are all available to purchase right here at The Man Who Stares At Screens in my store.

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