Althouse: "For years, I've been working on a list of 'my favorite movie from each year of the last 100 years.'"

March 31, 2020

"For years, I've been working on a list of 'my favorite movie from each year of the last 100 years.'"

"It'll still take me a while to finish, but since we're all binging movies during the coronavirus situation, I'm going to give you a sneak preview… So here's a sampling of one movie for each decade from my upcoming list. The final list will have a lot more to it than this — not just 10+ times as many movies, but also extra content about each one....."

My son John writes on his blog. Go to the link to see the 10 recommendations and where to go to stream them.

63 comments:

Assistant Village Idiot said...: I also have a son who makes lists of movies. Filmmaker. It makes me crazy. You seem more involved with movies yourself, so perhaps it doesn't bother you.; 3/31/20, 7:50 PM
Mark said...: Well, those ARE ten movies from ten decades.

At least they are someone's favorites.; 3/31/20, 8:05 PM
Readering said...: Seen all those. Some multiple times. The only one I'd say wtf to is 2018. But hard to get perspective on 2 years ago.; 3/31/20, 8:21 PM
Rory said...: It's an almost perfect representation of my reaction to popular culture: smiling recognition of the early entries, followed by furrowing of the brow, shrugging at things I didn't see, and finally total bewilderment at newer works I have never heard of.; 3/31/20, 8:22 PM
Mark said...: 1930s -

Stagecoach
M
The Petrified Forest
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Mutiny on the Bounty
Top Hat; 3/31/20, 8:24 PM
Sebastian said...: "since we're all binging movies during the coronavirus situation"

We? Some of us are not staycationing.

Maybe we should make up a list of favorite Althouse blogposts for every year, or if the retirees around here get bored, for every month, since she started?; 3/31/20, 8:33 PM
rcocean said...: That's a good list. I've already seen them all. Here's my Ten:

20's - Speedy
30's - It's a Gift
40's - Life and Death of Col. Blimp
50's - The Vikings
60s - Good the Bad and the Ugly
70s - Monty Python & Holy Grail
80s - Repo Man
90s - LA Confidential
00s - Passion of the Christ
10s - Dunkirk; 3/31/20, 8:35 PM
Readering said...: Are you going for best of a decade or best of a year in the decade?; 3/31/20, 8:36 PM
Roger This said...: Mark is just a fountain of joy. He seems nice.; 3/31/20, 8:49 PM
Mark said...: 1940s -

Casablanca
Citizen Kane
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Double Indemnity
The Big Sleep
To Have and Have Not
Key Largo
Rope
High Sierra
Random Harvest
Lifeboat
The Bells of St. Mary's
Fort Apache
They Were Expendable
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon; 3/31/20, 8:51 PM
Mark said...: The lists of the other decades get longer.

And then they get shorter.; 3/31/20, 8:55 PM
William said...: I recently rewatched Atlantic City. It's pretty good, but not as good as it was in its first moment of time.....In the movie, the old Atlantic City of conventions and salt water taffy was being torn down, and the new Atlantic City of casinos was being built up. Now that Atlantic City is slowly perishing. The movie is a mediation on the passage of time and the transience of life and large buildings. The passage of one moment is poetic but too many transient moments is disquieting. We bubbles on the river like to think we had a special moment.; 3/31/20, 9:00 PM
Temujin said...: Curious, eclectic list. I'll wait to see the entire list before commenting.; 3/31/20, 9:02 PM
Temujin said...: But...Bob, Ted, Carol, and Alice? Really?; 3/31/20, 9:03 PM
mccullough said...: It Happened One Night and Bringing Up Baby are good screwball comedies from the 1930s that have held up well.

The Maltese Falcon and Double Indemnity from the 40s are still very good film noir.

I associate 1950s films with Alfred Hitchcock. Vertigo and North by Northwest are good.

1960s is the Paul Newman decade. The Hustler and HUD and Cool Hand Luke and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

The 1970s is Gene Hackman decade. The French Connection and Scarecrow and The Conversation and Night Moves.

The 1980s is the decade of action films. Raiders of the Lost Ark, Blade Runner, The Terminator, and Die Hard.

The 1990s is a hodgepodge. Silence of the Lambs, Reservoir Dogs, The Usual Suspects, LA Confidential and Fight Club.

The 2000s is when the woke PC nonsense started taking hold. That said, Training Day, The Royal Tennenbaums, Lost in Translation, Casino Royale, The Dark Knight, and Gran Torino are good.

The last decade has been pretty shitty. Hollywood has gone with Comic Book movies and full on Woke trash for the most part. Inception, American Sniper, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood we’re pretty good.; 3/31/20, 9:18 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: For horror flicks, The Ring (American version, 2002) holds up pretty well. The scene where the horse on the ferry goes mad should be a classic. Great editing: https://youtu.be/u4T5X47MKm4; 3/31/20, 9:26 PM
narciso said...: Well sunset boulevard falls in the 50s category.; 3/31/20, 9:36 PM
Sebastian said...: For the sake of morale, how about we just reopen sports safely?

After all, as far as I know, only one athlete in the whole world has thus far experienced any complications from the Wuhan virus.

Keeping crowds away for now, fine. But talk about an overreaction.; 3/31/20, 9:43 PM
narciso said...: Streetcar as well, right.; 3/31/20, 9:43 PM
wildswan said...: I just watched Hud. I had completely forgotten that it was about the situation created by an infection in the cattle on a ranch. All the cattle have to be killed or they'll infect others. Different responses. Paul Newman, and it's quite a movie.

The President has just said the next two weeks are going to be bad and I feel a kind of pain. It's as if we were about to fight the Battle of the Somme and I already knew how huge the losses would be. I wish I could do something but if I tried, I would undoubtedly get sick immediately and burden everyone even more. So here I sit. Still it always turns out there's something to do. So I'll wait till I see what it is.; 3/31/20, 9:43 PM
wildswan said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3/31/20, 9:44 PM
Ken B said...: 30s and 40s too many to list. Some I don’t see above, all comedies

Miracle of Morgan's Creek
The Lady Eve
The More The Merrier
My Man Godfrey
Ball of Fire

1932 was a good year
Trouble in Paradise (1932)
Love Me Tonight (1932) the only musical on this list
If I had a Million (1932). But good luck tracking this one down; 3/31/20, 9:45 PM
Mark said...: The last decade has been pretty shitty. Hollywood has gone

The last decade is when you discover life outside of Hollywood. Now with the interweb and streaming services, you can a lot of good film from Europe and Japan.; 3/31/20, 9:49 PM
Mid-Life Lawyer said...: He and I are very similar in our tastes in movies. I follow John on Facebook.; 3/31/20, 9:52 PM
Mark said...: The President has just said the next two weeks are going to be bad and I feel a kind of pain.

We will indeed experience a bit of the Passion ourselves this Holy Week.; 3/31/20, 9:58 PM
Ken B said...: Lots of good movies here. I have seen every one mentioned above except Speedy (1920)

I can’t say silents are my thing but
City Lights
The General

I admire silents more than I like them.; 3/31/20, 10:03 PM
Ken B said...: Temujin
Looks like “transgressive sexuality” plays a role in his list.; 3/31/20, 10:05 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: I watched the 1975 version of _Farewell My lovely_ last night. It's not bad, but could have been much better. The setting in 1940s LA was right. Chandler doesn't translate well to the moral universe of later decades. Robert Mitchum makes a great Marlow, in theory, but in 1975 Mitchum was nearly sixty years old, a decade or two too old to play the Marlow of the Chandler novels.
The film is claustrophobic. No grand shots, lots of interiors with a few actors in a closed space. I think that was because they could not portray the real Los Angeles of the 1940s with the budget that they had.
I am trying to imagine the best adaptation of a Chandler novel that could be made today. Who would make a good Marlow? Joaquin Phoenix, maybe? Jake Gyllenhal?; 3/31/20, 10:10 PM
narciso said...: Thats an interesting question, twenty some years ago russell crowe was closer to the marlow role in confidential, ellroy didnt like that, a decade or so aaron eckhart in black dahlia.; 3/31/20, 10:19 PM
Ken B said...: Lewis
Mitchum is the perfect Marlowe but the movie was so so.
Nowadays if they make a Chandler movie it will star Amiyah Scott.; 3/31/20, 10:19 PM
narciso said...: Josh brolin sort of had a marlow type in gangster squad, its not really an act with him but its too dark for noir.; 3/31/20, 10:24 PM
narciso said...: Eckhart is more in the mcqueen vein with bullit or harper (which was more a mcdonald rather tham chandler),; 3/31/20, 10:28 PM
stephen cooper said...: Ghost World was an interesting choice.

Lots of beautiful young women in the last 15 years have employed the exact same techniques that Scarlett Johannsen employed to portray her character in that movie (listen to the voice, watch the movements).
Sort of like the way there were so many flappers in the 20s, and then in the 50s, they were all girl next door types.
........ Believe it or not, I remember (well the flappers were all middle aged, well, late middle aged when I first remember having met them , but the ones from the 50s were am awful lot younger than that).

The last 10 minutes of Ghost World tell you all you need to know about where antifa and other similarly internet-inspired groups came from and where they are going to.; 3/31/20, 10:31 PM
stephen cooper said...: There are no young male celebrities who can carry off Marlowe, any male who is tough enough to pull it off is too tough to want to be a celebrity.; 3/31/20, 10:33 PM
Narr said...: I put on my profile (open for inspection at any time) that I don't much care about movies any more.

After reading JAC's selections and the comments here, I now have to think I never did.

Also, thanks to profile-snooping, I have discovered that rcocean and I must be near neighbors.

Narr
Good night, neighbor, and all; 3/31/20, 10:58 PM
Lucien said...: The David Lean movies: Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Zhivago, deserve mention; plus Lion in Winter, In the Heat of the Night, and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Singing in the Rain, for its genre. Breaker Morant, as a personal favorite.; 3/31/20, 11:05 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: Blogger stephen cooper said...

There are no young male celebrities who can carry off Marlowe, any male who is tough enough to pull it off is too tough to want to be a celebrity.
That's why they call it . . . acting!
But please, not Ryan Gosling as Marlow . . .
Mitchum works because of his voice as much as his looks. He sounds as though he is beat up, and tired, but is still willing to go another round.; 3/31/20, 11:15 PM
Lexington Green said...: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Battle for Algiers
The Wild Bunch

All time top 3.

But so many great movies ...

Get out beyond the top three and it is suddenly dozens.

Film is the art form of the century.

The last century, that is, the one I'm from.; 3/31/20, 11:16 PM
stephen cooper said...: Lewis - great description of Mitchum.; 3/31/20, 11:18 PM
narciso said...: I expressly avoided gosling, who was cast along with emma stone at the time; 3/31/20, 11:19 PM
Mark said...: Philip Marlow?

MAYBE -
Chris Evans
Bradley Cooper
Jude Law
Hugh Jackman

Maybe.

Problem is that most younger actors today are too prissy and cannot pull off the tough guy.; 3/31/20, 11:19 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: Gosling played Deckard in the forgettable remake of _Blade Runner_. Harrison Ford played Deckard in the 1982 original. Could the 80s Harrison Ford have been a good Marlow?
Maybe. Maybe not. Ford's not an especially good actor. He changes the pitch of his voice to convey his emotional state. He has deep voice commanding or bluffing & higher pitched voice retreating or pleading. That is his range.; 3/31/20, 11:24 PM
narciso said...: Hugh jackman the only one of that group, maybe cooper because of americam sniper.; 3/31/20, 11:25 PM
Mark said...: It would require an attitude adjustment for most performing today.

But then again, it's called "acting."; 3/31/20, 11:31 PM
narciso said...: I mean who would have thought the geeky reporter in alias would move in that direction; 3/31/20, 11:33 PM
Mark said...: It's also why 21st century noir is practically non-existent.; 3/31/20, 11:36 PM
Lurker21 said...: Sure. No more authentic tough guys, like Elliott Gould. What to do? What to do?; 3/31/20, 11:38 PM
Mark said...: But you never know when someone might surprise you.

Kevin Costner (!) was actually quite good in Open Range.; 3/31/20, 11:39 PM
Mark said...: Aaron Paul?; 3/31/20, 11:43 PM
Mark said...: What I just learned:

James Doohan, who played Scotty in the Star Trek series, served with the Canadian Armed Forces during World War II. He was nicknamed the "Craziest Pilot in the Canadian Air Force" for his wild aerial antics, although he flew only as an artillery spotter and was actually never a member of the Air Force. Doohan once performed a dangerous stunt in a Taylorcraft Auster Mark IV, which involved meandering through a line of telephone poles only because someone dared him.

He served with the 14th Field Artillery Regiment of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and participated in the D-Day landing at Normandy. He killed two Nazi snipers while leading his platoon up the mined beaches, but later came under "friendly fire" and got shot six times. He lost the middle finger of his right hand as a result. Doohan took care to hide the amputation on the Star Trek TV series.; 3/31/20, 11:47 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: _Doctor Zhivago_ is a heartbreaker of a film. All poor Yuri wants to do is to love someone. And the world tells Yuri, again and again, that he cannot love a person and have them. His love will always be taken from him, because he loves her.
It's very Russian. The American theme is redemption through sacrifice. The Russian theme seems to be grief and the inevitability of loss.; 3/31/20, 11:53 PM
narciso said...: Tolstoy wasnt a barrel of smiles eitherm; 3/31/20, 11:54 PM
Mark said...: A foreign film that cannot be missed --

Cinema Paradiso (theatrical version)

I've heard some great things about Andrei Rublev (1966), but I've not seen it.; 4/1/20, 12:07 AM
stlcdr said...: Who hasn’t already got a top 10 movies list, at least, in their head? Perhaps this is the time to rewatch them and see why it makes your top 10.; 4/1/20, 5:47 AM
stevew said...: Groundhog Day is a favorite of mine. I watch it every year on Feb 2. The lessons in the film are quite apt today as we Social Distance ourselves and Shelter in Place. Take this time to better yourself, to improve who you are, be resilient and optimistic.; 4/1/20, 8:38 AM
rcocean said...: In the 21st Century you need to see Foreign Films. The Hollywood product has been of low quality -with some exceptions. Usually they produce 5-8 good film/per year, the rest are trash.; 4/1/20, 9:28 AM
Narr said...: My first dachshund, Heinie, bore a strong resemblance to Robert Mitchum.

Narr
It was uncanny; 4/1/20, 10:24 AM
Bilwick said...: Democrats' all-time favorite, no doubt: GABRIEL OVER THE WHITE HOUSE. The firing squad with the Statue of Liberty in the background is an especially nice touch.; 4/1/20, 11:44 AM
Bilwick said...: "The last 10 minutes of Ghost World tell you all you need to know about where antifa and other similarly internet-inspired groups came from and where they are going to," writes Stephen Cooper.

Care to elucidate? As I recall, the two girls (SPOILER ALERT!) go their separate and different ways I saw the movie a couple of years ago and fell in love with the Thora Birch and sort of identified with her character.; 4/1/20, 11:51 AM
Douglas B. Levene said...: Or you could watch the Kurosawa/Toshiro Mifune film festival now running on TCM.; 4/1/20, 12:50 PM
KellyM said...: For the '20s it's tough to beat "Wings", with Clara Bow. It was the Best Picture winner of the first Academy Awards given in 1927. It's a silent, and clocking in at almost three hours, it's a long one. But the WWI aerial dogfights still stand up.

Two of the best pre-code movies: "Baby Face", and "Gold Diggers of 1933".

The last has enough screwball comedy to somewhat relieve the pall cast by the film's events, not to mention the glitz of the Busby Berkeley dance sets. It ends with the big rendition of "The Forgotten Man", with Joan Blondell leaning up against a light post, all teary-eyed and emotional. Tough to beat.; 4/1/20, 3:51 PM
Jaq said...: John’s a little young for an “old man project.”

Clara Bow is so freaking adorable, even today, especially if the movie has been fixed to run at a normal pace.; 4/1/20, 5:01 PM
stephen cooper said...: Bilwick - great acting by Buscemi. In the movie, his days as a pretend edgy cool dude are over because his mom wants him back on meds to keep him from making a fool of himself. His mom is not a good character, for the record.

Neither of the girls would have ever been appropriate for him.

Similar fates await the antifa people and other internet-inspired groups who are living off government checks, or worse; 4/1/20, 11:41 PM