Wednesday, November 4, 2015

800 Words: The Great Movie About ...

The older I get, the less I care about style. Style - along with its bastard stepchildren: technique, formal structure, and design - is a byword for luxury. There is always a place for style, but that place is on the shelf for when times are good. When times are bad, when you’re in a time of need, style will have nothing to console you.


I watched Boyhood last night. It is, very simply, one of the most bowled over experiences I’ve ever had from a movie. The animating idea behind it seems like a gimmick, the ultimate triumph of style over substance, and yet, because it wears its profundity so lightly - because it insists on seeing events of universal significance in the most specific and mundane circumstances, it reaches out toward something approaching eternity. Boyhood is THE great movie about… well… boyhood, or, more specifically, childhood. Not even Fanny and Alexander can compete with this.


This got me to thinking again, what are the ‘Great Movies about…’ various themes of life. Der Fersko and I occasionally play this game, we only managed to arrive at a few. But here is a first attempt at a stab at what movies best capture these themes and have something very, very deep to say about them that you would never find anywhere else. Putting this list together reminds me how many movies I have yet left to see. Runinng over the long list of movies mentioned in the Sight and Sound poll, I realize that I, pretty damn literate in movies, couldn’t have even seen 5% of them. So please don’t take these sweeping judgements as declarations of fact.


The Rules of the Game - The Great Movie about Life

Ikiru - The Great Movie about Death

Tokyo Story - The Great Movie about Family

The Apu Trilogy - The Great Movie about Growing Up

The Dekalog - The Great Movie about Morality

Groundhog Day - The Great Movie about Time

Bambi - The Great Movie about Nature

ET - The Great Movie about Hope

The Godfather - The Great Movie about Evil

The Searchers - The Great Movie about Hatred

Apocalypse Now - The Great Movie about War

Cries and Whispers - The Great Movie about Suffering

The Bicycle Thieves - The Great Movie about Poverty

Boyhood - The Great Movie about Childhood

Y Tu Mama Tambien - The Great Movie about Youth

Wild Strawberries - The Great Movie about Old Age

Do The Right Thing - The Great Movie about Community

All About My Mother - The Great Movie about Grief

His Girl Friday - The Great Movie about Talking

Treasure of the Sierra Madre - The Great Movie about Greed

Three Colors Trilogy - The Great Movie about Freedom

The Apostle - The Great Movie about Faith

Unforgiven - The Great Movie about Violence

It’s A Wonderful Life - The Great Movie about Sacrifice

The Elephant Man - The Great Movie about Intolerance

M - The Great Movie about Corruption

My Dinner with Andre - The Great Movie about Conversation

Raging Bull - The Great Movie about Masculinity

F for Fake - The Great Movie about Deception

Babe The Pig - The Great Movie about Animals

The Social Network - The Great Movie about Technology

Brokeback Mountain - The Great Movie about Homosexuality

The Manchurian Candidate - The Great Movie about Paranoia

Bad Education - The Great Movie about Child Abuse

Sansho the Bailiff - The Great Movie about Slavery

Before Sunrise/Sunset - The Great Movie about Romance

The Producers - The Great Movie about Taboo

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest - The Great Movie about Insanity

Citizen Kane - The Great Movie about Greatness

Amadeus - The Great Movie about Genius

A Man for All Seasons - The Great Movie about Law

Bonnie and Clyde - The Great Movie about Glamour

Dr. Strangelove - The Great Movie about Apocalypse

Children of Paradise - The Great Movie about Art

Nashville - The Great Movie about Music

Annie Hall - The Great Movie about Dating

The Last Picture Show - The Great Movie about Small Town Life

Aguirre, Wrath of God - The Great Movie about Imperialism

The Passion of Joan of Arc - The Great Movie about Christianity

Pan’s Labyrinth - The Great Movie about Fairy Tales

Duck Soup - The Great Movie about Nationalism

Army of Shadows - The Great Movie about Resistance

Nashville - The Great Movie about America

Blue Velvet - The Great Movie about Americana

Borat - The Great Movie about Discomfort

Dazed and Confused - The Great Movie about High School

Network - The Great Movie about Television

The Kozintsev Hamlet - The Great Movie of Shakespeare

This is Spinal Tap - The Great Movie about Rock Music


Others: Movies that I know are The Great Movie about "Something," but I can’t quite put my finger on what it is. 

Suggestions are of course welcome.

Gran Torino
City of God
Fanny and Alexander
Hero
Chinatown
Rear Window
Monty Python Life of Brian
Mullholland Dr.
A Night at the Opera
North by Northwest
Psycho
Vertigo
The Wrong Man
Office Space
Partie de Campagne
Schindler’s List
A Separation
The Truman Show

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