My top 50 movies
Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 8:47 pmBlog post here with updates: http://harshmode.com/50movies/
One of the reasons why I stick around this community and mirc for a game I no longer play is for great discussions with a lot of cool people in this community. There was a long discussion of must watch movies couple weeks ago in irc between phr/blackout/lineage/me/couple others. I am bringing the discussion to the next level to the forums so it's less chaotic here. Also, I am not simply doing this for you guys. It’s for me when I finish my website/blog, but I will put it up here for you to check out.
It took me a few hours to compile from my complete saved imdb list (from 600 movies I have seen so far). Feel free to disagree or comment as you please. I would appreciate it if you guys recommend other must-watch movies. I will check them out. Enjoy.
Note: I’m limiting this list to my favorite 50 English movies (I would add about 4-5 Indian movies & couple other foreign language movies from the multiple languages I know) and only from movies I have seen thus far. That means this list is a work-in-progress.
Movies are the literal expressions of human thought and their importance to our culture is often underplayed. When I'm watching a movie, I pay attention to 4 primary categories in this order:
1) Story - This is often an underrated aspect of movies. Without a well written story and/or well told story, what's the point?
2) Acting - Facial expressions, body movement, presence, personality, emotion, instincts, everything that an actor does you will notice. The masters of acting to me are those that mastered method acting where they prepare for weeks and essentially become the person they’re acting (there are different types of method acting) – Legendary Marlon Brando, Robert de Niro, Al Pacino, Daniel Day Lewis, etc
3) Directing – The captain of the ship. This is usually either overrated or overlooked. Overlooked because the average person does not pay attention to the shots or small details that directors spend days working on. I.e. in any scene, good directors literally spend days figuring out exactly how to place each individual item down to the individual book/pen/anything else. Average fan doesn't pay attention to that. Overrated sometimes because directing is only one aspect of a movie – you don’t need groundbreaking directing for a movie to be very good. If the other categories are great, you might be able to overcome average director. Ofc, great director will make things easier and can overcome weaknesses in other categories (Citizen Kane is one example).
4) Inspiration - What can you take away from the movie? Whether it's something personal or something that expresses/defines some aspect of your philosophy that you live by, etc. At the end of the day, you will remember this most about the movie.
Based on these 4 categories, this is my list of favorite movies I have seen thus far:
-- 9.5 (In my eyes, no movie EVER is or ever will be 10..
ordered from my favorite to least favorite)
- You might ask why is this up here? Truth is this movie was marvelous and has awesome sentimental value. It’s a story of growing up & facing whatever obstacles you face and coming out a better person. What makes it magical is it brings out of the kid in everybody regardless of age, gender, and any other factor. Be a kid for life.
-- 9 (not in order)
– 8.5 (not in order)
-- Many say this was the greatest movie ever but the story is somewhat good & low inspiration value unless if you’re planning on studying the film/directing. Directing is EXTREMELY top-notch and acting very good.
-- NOT a 10, sorry ph34r
-- Not well-known movie. Average directing and average acting. GREAT story & pretty good takeaway value
Work in progress for life. To be continued..
I leave you with this because I am fucking awesome: http://youtu.be/AFa1-kciCb4?t=5s
One of the reasons why I stick around this community and mirc for a game I no longer play is for great discussions with a lot of cool people in this community. There was a long discussion of must watch movies couple weeks ago in irc between phr/blackout/lineage/me/couple others. I am bringing the discussion to the next level to the forums so it's less chaotic here. Also, I am not simply doing this for you guys. It’s for me when I finish my website/blog, but I will put it up here for you to check out.
It took me a few hours to compile from my complete saved imdb list (from 600 movies I have seen so far). Feel free to disagree or comment as you please. I would appreciate it if you guys recommend other must-watch movies. I will check them out. Enjoy.
Note: I’m limiting this list to my favorite 50 English movies (I would add about 4-5 Indian movies & couple other foreign language movies from the multiple languages I know) and only from movies I have seen thus far. That means this list is a work-in-progress.
Movies are the literal expressions of human thought and their importance to our culture is often underplayed. When I'm watching a movie, I pay attention to 4 primary categories in this order:
1) Story - This is often an underrated aspect of movies. Without a well written story and/or well told story, what's the point?
2) Acting - Facial expressions, body movement, presence, personality, emotion, instincts, everything that an actor does you will notice. The masters of acting to me are those that mastered method acting where they prepare for weeks and essentially become the person they’re acting (there are different types of method acting) – Legendary Marlon Brando, Robert de Niro, Al Pacino, Daniel Day Lewis, etc
3) Directing – The captain of the ship. This is usually either overrated or overlooked. Overlooked because the average person does not pay attention to the shots or small details that directors spend days working on. I.e. in any scene, good directors literally spend days figuring out exactly how to place each individual item down to the individual book/pen/anything else. Average fan doesn't pay attention to that. Overrated sometimes because directing is only one aspect of a movie – you don’t need groundbreaking directing for a movie to be very good. If the other categories are great, you might be able to overcome average director. Ofc, great director will make things easier and can overcome weaknesses in other categories (Citizen Kane is one example).
4) Inspiration - What can you take away from the movie? Whether it's something personal or something that expresses/defines some aspect of your philosophy that you live by, etc. At the end of the day, you will remember this most about the movie.
Based on these 4 categories, this is my list of favorite movies I have seen thus far:
-- 9.5 (In my eyes, no movie EVER is or ever will be 10.. ordered from my favorite to least favorite)
- You might ask why is this up here? Truth is this movie was marvelous and has awesome sentimental value. It’s a story of growing up & facing whatever obstacles you face and coming out a better person. What makes it magical is it brings out of the kid in everybody regardless of age, gender, and any other factor. Be a kid for life.
-- 9 (not in order) – 8.5 (not in order)-- Many say this was the greatest movie ever but the story is somewhat good & low inspiration value unless if you’re planning on studying the film/directing. Directing is EXTREMELY top-notch and acting very good.
-- NOT a 10, sorry ph34r
-- Not well-known movie. Average directing and average acting. GREAT story & pretty good takeaway value
Work in progress for life. To be continued..
I leave you with this because I am fucking awesome: http://youtu.be/AFa1-kciCb4?t=5s
are those really some of your fav movies??