This came about because whenever I see that top 250 top ranked movies on IMDB, it just tweaks me a little. I disagree with it pretty much up and down. It’s nothing more than a popularity contest. Then you see those lists that magazines or websites put out stating the top movies of all time, and it just bugs me. I understand that just about everyone loves The Godfather (I’ve never seen it), but I never hear how anyone says how influential it was, how important to cinema history. All I hear is that it was good in it’s own right and that’s it. Now if someone wants to explain to my its importance then please do. It will literally be the first time I’ve heard the argument.
So now I would like to list what I view as the 10 most important movies. This is not about how good they were, or how popular. But rather what each movie ended up doing for cinema as we know it today. They are in no particular order (other than alphabetical) and are my own opinion. Some I have seen, others I have not. If you disagree, good for you. If you want to make your own list, I suggest getting your own blog, create your list, then link it in a comment here. I’ll go and read it and probably leave it at that. If you actually want to yell at me for this well then I just don’t understand why you care so much about what I think.
So here goes.
12 Angry Men
It’s fitting that I can start with this movie. In my mind, it is still the standard that a truly great movie is based on one thing: acting. It’s not about the effects, the scene, or even the plot. Hell, a plot can suck but great acting can give it a huge boost. This is the movie everyone talks about when it comes to great acting. It may not have a direct influence, but the fact that it is still referenced by movie goers, critics, actors, directors, and the like, is proof that it’s place in movie history is one of true importance.
Bullitt
Everyone talks about the car chase. As well they should. Bullitt redefined the car chase scene. Any chase scene since Bullitt is nothing more than trying to meet that bar, but no one can actually raise it. Bullitt was actual driving. So anyone else doing actual driving can only match it, but never get past it. You may like another chase scene more, but what needs to be realized is without Bullitt, that scene probably never exists in the first place.
But what I noticed more about Bullitt is the story of a detective in a realistic manner. He doesn’t go around shooting up the city. He does a little investigation. To the point where it’s almost boring. He goes to his informant on the street and get information. He follows leads, checks paper trails, looks for evidence at the crime scene. Any of this sound familiar? Like Law and Order? This is where that style of a cop movie began. He uses his gun only once and has a hard time looking himself in the mirror at the end of the movie. It was a devotion to realism and they nailed it, inspiring all sorts of cop and detective shows and movies to this day.
The Jazz Singer
For the simple reason that it was the first movie to ever have synchronized dialogue which then brought about the end of the silent film era as well as it’s major contribution to singing in films. You could say this was (in a way) the first musical on film.
Nosferatu
The first real horror film. They created a monster and scared you with it over and over again. It wasn’t about popping up and going “boo.” Instead, Count Orlok sneaks around the corner and walks slowly the whole way (Michael Myers anyone?) And since it was a silent film, the tension came from the music, the lighting, the looks on the actors faces. Something that is now the heart of a good horror film.
Psycho
As Nosferatu really started the horror genre, Psycho perfected it. Now I’m sure many people will argue that I am only picking this film out of Hitchcock’s work because of it’s commercial success, but there are other reasons.
While Psycho was one of his later films, and others exemplified Hitchcock’s mastery of suspense just as well, it was Psycho that really mattered the most. Today, everyone knows that Norman Bates is the killer and that Marion Crane dies in the shower. It’s part of our culture at this point. Even if you haven’t seen the movie, you know about it. But suspend all that for a moment and realize what it meant back then. Janet Leigh was a star of her time. And here she gets killed off half way through the film. Imagine they kill Julia Roberts half way through a film. People would freak. Then Hitchcock instituted a rule where movie theaters could not allow people in after the film had started. He wanted people to see the movie from start to finish. People started showing up around city blocks so they wouldn’t get locked out. That had never happened before. But now when a movie comes out, people line up no matter what. It changed the whole culture of movie going.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
The first full length animated movie. This is ground zero for every and all animated movie made in our entire lives. This includes all the brilliance that is Pixar. Animated movies would not have evolved to that point had it not been for Disney standing up to everyone (because they were given a lot of shit for it at the time) and going on and making this film. They were laughed at and considered fools, but look where things are now. It was a total roll of the dice that couldn’t have worked better.
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Even now I’m still on the fence about this, but I’m satisfied with my decision. Star Wars had taken the sci-fi genre and propelled it. I know other films were doing the same, but Star Wars was able to be both a family film as well as the loner nerd’s film. Yeah you had Star Trek, but I think that Star Wars took that idea and pushed it as far as they could. The music of John Williams and the effects that ILM came up with have certainly since changed movies. ILM especially.
To Kill A Mockingbird
This one I did debate whether or not to put it in. It was running against some other films, but in the end it won with me because of how much I personally like it. But that does not mean it doesn’t belong. It tackled major issues during a time where the country was tackling them too. And while I know this is all something the novel really brought out, it is one of the few movies where people heavily debate which is better: the movie or the book. I can’t decide. I’ve both read the book and seen the movie and I simply cannot make up my mind.
But the movie itself is wonderful. Atticus Finch was AFI’s number 1 hero in movie history. And you know what I like most about that? He didn’t even win. He lost his case in defending Tom could only take a moral victory away from it. But what I like most about it is this movie tells people that we need to stand up for what we believe in. Even if we are going to lose, we need to fight anyway. Atticus knew he was going to lose. He defended Tom anyway. He wanted to win. He knew Tom was innocent. But he knew how it was going to end.
You don’t see that very often in film. See see the hero winning out in the end. The bad guy gets killed. Or even if the innocent man loses his trial, he escapes anyway and finds a better life. None of that happened here. It was real life. We don’t always win. Good people lose. But it’s the ones who are willing to stand up and fight that gives the world hope.
Le Voyage dans la Lune / A Trip to the Moon
It was wacky, it was weird, the effects were terrible (obviously it was 1902), but it was perhaps the most important movie of all. It was about a bunch of astronomers who wanted to go to the moon. So they built rocket propelled devices to take themselves there. Now read that again and realize what that meant. Because it was 1902. There had never been a rocket ship built before, not a man in space, and certainly not a man on the moon. And here they were thinking it up, creating a sensible idea as to how, and filmed it. At the time it was considered pure science fiction where it was all impossible. Today we would look at it and just pick apart the things that are inaccurate to modern day space travel.
It’s important because they took a subject that made no sense and went with it anyway. Who knows who they could have inspired. Some little kid who grew up to be part of a space program in any country. That’s the power of movies. That’s what this one offered. But there is more. It was it’s manner of story telling. How each scene was a broken down piece of the overall story. You might say to yourself “isn’t that all movies?” Not before this one. That’s the whole point. Movies before were just sort of shots of anything. This is where plot was first introduced.
The Wizard of Oz
While I know that this movie was not the first to use color (that goes to Cupid Angling, 1918), it was here where audiences as well as studios realized that seeing film in color was a necessity. Today, we watch Wizard and take it for granted. But try to remember back to that first time you saw it as a kid. The whole thing is in black and white. It’s very dark and dull, the tornado just happened so there was dust everywhere. Then the house gets thrown to Oz. Dorothy is walking around her house, it’s dead silent, and she opens that door. Your eyes go wide, you gasp a little because you seeing some of the most vivid colors you have ever seen.
Want me to prove it? What color was Dorothy’s dress? Or the Wicked Witch’s face? You didn’t even have to go look it up did you? You know her dress was blue and the face was green. And when did you last watch that movie? Probably a while like me. But those facts stand out to you. You remember the bubble that Glinda comes flying down in, the brightness of the Ruby Slippers, the fire from the face of the “All Powerful Oz!” and all of it. And when the movie goes back to black and white at the end, you almost don’t care about it anymore. You watch just because the adventure had pulled you in, but for me that’s when I stop watching. Once it’s back to that boring look, I’m no longer interested.
The Wizard of Oz took seeing movies in color and blasted them into a period where it was no longer an option. It was how they needed to be done.
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And that is my list. I took my time with it and researched movies I had never seen before. If you disagree, which I expect you to do, that’s fine. make your own list and have with it. Because I did. I love movies. They are great experiences.
Enjoy!
