Unsociable Cinema’s 100 Greatest Films of All Time #20 – 11

The grimy, oil soaked future

20. Blade Runner (1982, Ridley Scott, UK/US)

This grim portrait of our future world so stunned audience in 1982 with its downbeat tone and gloomy, yet profoundly stunning visuals that it completely flopped. It is a film which projected a vision that American audiences didn’t want to see, after a very gritty period in the 70s both politically and socially the 80s was the saviour decade. And in cinema Blade Runner wasn’t going to provide that. Stripped of its gaudy, sappy ending and that ham fisted narration, Scott’s masterpiece can appreciated now as a true work of art; filled with beautiful visuals and a terrific central performance from Harrison Ford.

19. Taxi Driver (1976, Martin Scorsese, US)

As described earlier, the 70s was the true grit for Hollywood. The view of the world downbeat churning out films which reflected that period of American history. Scorsese’s urban, underground, nasty movie shows us a rough and tawdry exterior. It is by no means a pleasant viewing experience, our lead character is Travis Bickle (played with startling conviction by Robert De Niro) a nighttime cab driver whose apparent mission is to rid the streets of the filth. To vindicate these feelings he decides to protect a underage prostitute, who displays more maturity than our lead man. With his lead character, Scorsese gets under our skin and puts in a place of extreme discomfort, it’s fascinating to watch as well as being just so god damned lonely.

The sanitary, Dettol vision of the future

18. 2001 A Space Odyssey (1968, Stanley Kubrick, UK/US)

A cold, emotionless, barron experience. Exactly as Kubrick intended. It is intended to provoke our thoughts than tickle our emotion. As all Kubrick films, 2001 plays like an extended metaphor about the male subconscious and desires. So for example in A Clockwork Orange it is about our underlying desire for evil or in Full Metal Jacket our penchant for war. Here it is about our desire for discovery and a thirst for knowledge. Across three extended parts, Kubrick demonstrates entirely upon images. It is almost dialogue free and to convey so much by having characters say so little is the sign of clearly great filmmaker. The experience of watching 2001 is unique, there is nothing quite like it but it requires your patience to fully appreciate the immense talent and artistry put forward.

17. JFK (1991, Oliver Stone, US)

Very much a personal preference but Oliver Stone’s incredibly polemic and confrontational work deserves to be seen and still remains one of the great controversial cinematic experiences. Across a breathtaking three hours, Stone attempts to put forward an argument which at first seems outrageous (that Kennedy was not murdered by Lee Harvey Oswald, and it was a deeper political conspiracy) but by the end his points are well made and is observations fascinating. Based on New Orleans’ attorney Jim Garrison who presented evidence to suggest JFK’s murder was much more higher up than a simple sniper. Despite being an extended argument, this is the first Stone film to truly reek of cinema, despite what many may think of the politics, on a level of filmmaking it achieves more than most films attempt. Ambitious in scale, intelligently drawn arguments, a film of great historical importance.

Respect the cock and tame the *ahem*

16. Magnolia (1999, Paul Thomas Anderson, US)

Again a more personal choice, this is the kind of three hour film I buy into. A multi-stranded, multi-layered, multi-character inhabited Altmanesque masquerade of an extremely well put together piece of work. A very brilliant script which brings characters together in the most eyebrow raising and yet the most human and heartbreaking ways. Featuring a range of fantastic performances, particularly from Anderson regulars Philip Seymour Hoffman, John C Reilly, Philip Baker Hall and Julianne Moore. But most outstanding and arguably the highlight of the film is a barnstorming role by Tom Cruise, who plays a sleazy, misogynist, motivational speaker about the control of women for the sexual dominance of men. Brilliantly tapping into to the slightly unhinged persona of Cruise, Anderson finds a rare brilliance in both him and the scenes which he dominates. Beyond that it’s a supremely well told film that features everything from coincidental suicide/murders and a biblical plague of frogs.

15. E.T. the Extra Terrestrial (1982, Steven Spielberg, US)

Often quoted as Spielberg’s most intimately personal film and the film which also is the cornerstone of everything creative about his career. It is a film which defines all the trademarks of his marvellous back catalogue which is now too easily sneered at by pretentious film historians and simple contrarians. A populist filmmaker through and through, this story of childhood and essentially growing up has yet to be matched as a rites of passage film as well as a family film. It touches very deeply on an emotional level, especially to anybody who was a lonely child.

A smirking bandito takes our Clint prisoner

14. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966, Sergio Leone, Ita)

Across a truly gripping 3 hours, Leone gives us a wonderful variety of everything you could want from a film. A huge battle, a very nasty torture sequence, sweeping desert shots, intense shootouts and incredibly good looking Western visuals. It is true that the scape created by the Italian filmmakers will always more interesting than the classic Westerns of John Ford or whoever. This is a more brave and visceral visual that disposes of the generic trope of those pesky Red Indians and goes for a more comic book inspired style that evokes Huston’s Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

13. The Exorcist (1973, William Friedkin, US)

The definitive horror film of all time. Maverick filmmaker William Friedkin brilliantly takes Blatty’s Oscar winning script (adapted from his own bestseller) and puts it on the screen with a very particular visceral and hysterical power which chills to the core. A classic good vs evil morality tale that pits a young girl against the ultimate evil. Nearly 40 years on it is still a hysterical and disturbing work, some of the effects maybe a little cronky but the truly terrifying is found more in suggestion and cold tension. A high class of film. Not just horror.

The good cop, bad cop routine.

12. L.A. Confidential (1997, Curtis Hanson, US)

Harking back to the great classic film noirs of the 40′s and 50′s, Hanson’s adaptation of pulp author James Ellroy’s supreme detective odyssey is a classy and wondrous film. Gorgeously shot and sumptuous in set design, pitted against an astounding ensemble cast, a very smart script and assured direction. The film has a twisty plot which keeps the audience bopth suitably in the dark and sort of in the know. We uncover the details with the detectives, and although we piece together some stuff, we never get prepared to the true shock of the film, in a moment brilliantly played by Kevin Spacey.

11. Apocalypse Now (1979, Francis Ford Coppola, US)

The quote from Coppola in Cannes echoed around the heads of film critics and over the film “My film isn’t about Vietnam. My film is Vietnam.” Along with that comes a fascinating story of the trouble which surrounded the film. Originally starting principle photography in 76, Coppola’s film was only just finished for its release in late 79. A odyssey, a very dark journey of Martin Sheen as Willard’s journey to find a deranged Kurtz, played by Marlon Brando, who has gone renegade. Although not a typical Vietnam story in the vein of Killing Fields or Deer Hunter, it does a better job of capturing the mad spirit of that war. It does no job of glorifying it or the American intervention, which those films did, but it shows a more stilted view injected with some LSD flashes of madness. A truly engrossing experience.