Post by doc on May 26, 2020 13:56:40 GMT
I've been working toward completing the viewing of all 92 Academy Award Best Pictures - I guess that's one positive to occur due to the pandemic. A couple of the 5 remaining films might surprise you...
1936 - The Great Ziegfeld
1940 - Rebecca
1948 - Hamlet
1959 - Ben-Hur
2003 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
I've seen bits and pieces of Ben-Hur but it's 4 hours long and I've never sat through the entire movie. I watched the first 2 installments of The Lord of the Rings trilogy but it's really not my genre - it's also very long. The others just date back to the earlier days of movies. Rebecca is Hitchcock and Hamlet just seems like it might be hard to follow given the way they wrote back in Shakespeare's days. Ziegfeld is also 3 hours long. But I plan to finish these films off in the next couple weeks. I actually collect the best pictures as well so I have copies of them all - I need about 10 films to complete having them all on DVD.
Recent movies....
1929 - The Broadway Melody, two sisters chase their dreams to Broadway and wind up in a very uncomfortable (for the younger sister) love triangle. Average movie but it was the first musical and talking film to win best picture. Pretty decent performance by Bessie Love who played the older sister, Hank.
1930 - All Quiet on the Western Front, story of German soldiers in WWI. Pretty impressive battle scenes, great direction but the acting was at times weak. Still a solid movie about the tragic consequences of war.
1933 - Calvalcade, a British family lives through historic events of the early 1900's - the death of Queen Victoria, sinking of the Titanic and WWI. Not great but the story kept me interested.
1935 - Mutiny on the Bounty, this has been remade several times since but considering the movie was made in 1935 it was a pretty impressive piece of film making. Clark Gable and Charles Laughton head the outstanding cast. Acting progressed a great deal in the 5 years between All Quiet on the Western Front and Mutiny on the Bounty.
1956 - Around the World in 80 Days - a star studded provides the support for David Niven as he attempts to win a bet by traveling around the world in - you guessed it, 80 days. Couldn't wait for this one to end - definitely one of the bottom 5 worst (in my opininon) best pictures of all time.
1960 - The Apartment, I had seen this one a long time ago but rewatched as it was on TCM. Pretty good adult comedy with Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Fred McMurray. To climb his way up the corporate ladder, Jack Lemmon allows his superiors to use his apartment for their 'extracurricular activities'.
Once I'm done I plan to rank them top to bottom. I can say at this point The Greatest Show on Earth, Around the World in 80 Days and Out of Africa have pretty much secured spots in the bottom 5. Definite top 10 films will be Casablanca, The Godfather, All About Eve and On The Waterfront. Next up is Rebecca.
1936 - The Great Ziegfeld
1940 - Rebecca
1948 - Hamlet
1959 - Ben-Hur
2003 - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
I've seen bits and pieces of Ben-Hur but it's 4 hours long and I've never sat through the entire movie. I watched the first 2 installments of The Lord of the Rings trilogy but it's really not my genre - it's also very long. The others just date back to the earlier days of movies. Rebecca is Hitchcock and Hamlet just seems like it might be hard to follow given the way they wrote back in Shakespeare's days. Ziegfeld is also 3 hours long. But I plan to finish these films off in the next couple weeks. I actually collect the best pictures as well so I have copies of them all - I need about 10 films to complete having them all on DVD.
Recent movies....
1929 - The Broadway Melody, two sisters chase their dreams to Broadway and wind up in a very uncomfortable (for the younger sister) love triangle. Average movie but it was the first musical and talking film to win best picture. Pretty decent performance by Bessie Love who played the older sister, Hank.
1930 - All Quiet on the Western Front, story of German soldiers in WWI. Pretty impressive battle scenes, great direction but the acting was at times weak. Still a solid movie about the tragic consequences of war.
1933 - Calvalcade, a British family lives through historic events of the early 1900's - the death of Queen Victoria, sinking of the Titanic and WWI. Not great but the story kept me interested.
1935 - Mutiny on the Bounty, this has been remade several times since but considering the movie was made in 1935 it was a pretty impressive piece of film making. Clark Gable and Charles Laughton head the outstanding cast. Acting progressed a great deal in the 5 years between All Quiet on the Western Front and Mutiny on the Bounty.
1956 - Around the World in 80 Days - a star studded provides the support for David Niven as he attempts to win a bet by traveling around the world in - you guessed it, 80 days. Couldn't wait for this one to end - definitely one of the bottom 5 worst (in my opininon) best pictures of all time.
1960 - The Apartment, I had seen this one a long time ago but rewatched as it was on TCM. Pretty good adult comedy with Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine and Fred McMurray. To climb his way up the corporate ladder, Jack Lemmon allows his superiors to use his apartment for their 'extracurricular activities'.
Once I'm done I plan to rank them top to bottom. I can say at this point The Greatest Show on Earth, Around the World in 80 Days and Out of Africa have pretty much secured spots in the bottom 5. Definite top 10 films will be Casablanca, The Godfather, All About Eve and On The Waterfront. Next up is Rebecca.