Rank: 85
Release Year: 1993
Genre: Holocaust Drama
Plot
Summary: Initially a war profiteer, Oskar Schindler gradually becomes
concerned for his Jewish workforce in Poland after witnessing the horrors they
face at the hands of the Nazis. He changes his focus from profit to saving as
many as he can.
What
Makes It Special: Holocaust dramas are almost all incredibly powerful
and personal (particularly for their filmmakers). With Schindler’s List, Steven
Spielberg (a darling of Hollywood) was able to convey the pain of a generation
to filmgoers worldwide by using his polished style to create a prestige
blockbuster. Shot in black and white, Spielberg utilizes color in one very
specific scene to iconic and haunting affect. The film stays with its audience,
resonating deeply.
Rank: 84
Release Year: 1939
Genre: Epic/Romance Drama/War
Drama
Plot
Summary: Scarlett O’Hara is a strong-minded southern belle who always
gets what she wants. However, with the outbreak of the Civil War, she must make
sacrifices to survive – including engaging in an affair with Rhett Butler, a
blockade runner who normally would be an outcast in polite society (but he can
is useful to O’Hara during the war as he greatly profits personally from it).
But she is spiteful and cruel, leading their relationship down a tumultuous
path.
What
Makes It Special: Gone with the Wind is one of the great epics of
American cinema and the highest grossing film of all-time (if you adjust for inflation).
It is beloved by many as a grand romantic tale, filled with great characters,
beautiful aesthetics, and iconic moments. All that said, however, the film also
has blemished reputation (especially as today’s society becomes more cognizant
and unforgiving of subtle racism and other discriminatory aspects of culture).
It paints the South as a majestic place ruined by the North’s vicious war – as
it is taken from the South’s perspective – propagating the myth (to some
extent) that slavery was really not all that bad for those enslaved (especially
for those unfamiliar with America’s history – which includes most Americans).
It is undoubtedly a great film, a classic, but must be taken in its historical
context.
Rank: 83
Release Year: 1971
Genre: Crime
Drama/Psychological
Plot
Summary: In future Britain, criminal and delinquent Alex DeLarge is put
in jail. While there, he is chosen for an experimental aversion therapy
developed by the government (to cure criminals of their devious tendencies and
thereby solve society’s crime problem). Alex is a good pupil, but not
everything goes as planned.
What
Makes It Special: A Clockwork Orange examines British society under the
guise of being a satire set “the near future”, and it is harsh in its assessment.
Stanley Kubrick warps the look of everything (to almost a dystopian degree). The
idea of the government brainwashing criminals to always choose the good, in an
effort to address their prison overpopulation problem, speaks to the great
concern that government (or any other kind of authority figure) wants to
control every aspect of the populace’s life, taking away the individual’s
humanity. What makes this film so compelling is that Kubrick presents our
protagonist as someone wholly unlikable but charismatic. His actions and
perversity are disgusting, and yet seeing his humanity taken away (or at least
attempted to be taken away) creates a sense of compassion in the viewer – for a
man who certainly does not deserve it. And then, now that Kubrick has taken the
audience from a place of hate to compassion, he reveals that Alex has not
changed at all; he is still just as rotten as ever. His rehabilitation is one
big joke – the government and audience have been lured into feeling a sense of compassion
only to be laughed at, because really the world is just a wicked place that we
just like to pretend is good and ordered – making this film the ultimate
satire.
Rank: 82
Release Year: 1969
Genre: Character Drama
Plot
Summary: Billy is a young working-class English boy who has a hard life
(both at home and at school). However, he finds something to be passionate
about for the first time when he spends his free time caring for and training
his pet falcon.
What
Makes It Special: Kes is at its heart a very beautiful and touching
story, while at the same time a bleak look at the typical life of those living
in a Yorkshire mining town in the 1960s. Billy is essentially a boy with no
hope (and no escape) who finds something wondrous and meaningful in his life,
if only for a moment. Kes also feels extremely authentic, as if Ken Loach were
merely filming the real lives of the characters in the film. Loach appeals to
many emotions, as the narrative elicits feelings of joy, anger, horror, and
sadness, yet it never feels like Loach is pulling the strings for dramatic
effect – again speaking to the film’s realistic feel. It is one of cinema’s
finest and most intimate character dramas.
Rank: 81
Release Year: 1998
Genre: War
Drama/Philosophical
Plot
Summary: U.S. soldiers face a very entrenched Japanese army during the
battle at Guadalcanal during WWII.
What
Makes It Special: Most WWII films focus on the bravery and the
accomplishments of the men involved, or the major turning points of the
battle(s), but Terrence Malick did something completely different with The Thin
Red Line (and during the same year that saw the release of Saving Private Ryan,
a much more popular WWII film, though not as critically heralded today by
comparison). The viewer does not really ever get a sense of how the battle is
going or what the main objectives are or what the status of the battle is at
any point. Rather, Malick focuses completely on the psychological make-up of
the soldiers: how they are affected by the conflict; their dreams of home;
their dreams of escape; their fear; and yes their heroism as well. Malick
creates a mixture of the stunning beauty of nature and the devastating violence
that man brings to it with his visuals, playing into the poetic resonance of
the extensive voiceover narration throughout from the perspective of multiple
characters. There may never be a more visually impressive or thoughtful film
made about the horrors of war.
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