AFI's Top 100 G.A.M.E.R. Movies #100-91

[JoelWmusic]

This is the Top 100 Greatest American Movies Endurance Run based on this list: 

http://www.afi.com/100years/movies10.aspx

 

I did it. I watched #100 on the list and, good lord you guys, that was freakin' awesome. Ben Hur had so much going for it. I got about halfway through it before I figured out what was making it feel so impactful. The moments of silence. I don't know if this is accurate or not but movies nowadays don't let moments breathe like this movie does. So much staring but the tension is so good. Sure, that's probably why the movie is 4 hours long. That and the 20 minute overture.  As a Christian I feel kind of ashamed that I've never seen this before as it ties so closely to my faith, but I think the movie stands on its own and I didn't start this list to preach to anyone.  I have more thoughts but I kind of want to see where the discussion goes. Did anyone watch or have any thoughts that you can remember about it?

[Patrick R]

Guess who has three days off in a row and has spent the last year watching a bunch of William Wyler films and is currently reading a book about him and also has a big special edition version of Ben Hur he's never touched? I'm excited to watch this soon.

[JoelWmusic]

Can't wait to hear your thoughts! Incredible cinematography in general, let alone for a movie from 1959.

[JoelWmusic]

Moving on to #99!  A movie I was old enough to see upon its release. I'm about to re-watch Toy Story!

[Ben X]

7 hours ago, JoelWmusic said:

Moving on to #99!  A movie I was old enough to see upon its release. I'm about to re-watch Toy Story!

 

Once you've watched it, check out our (languishing) Pixar re-watch thread!

[Patrick R]

Ben Hur - For most it's running time, it's the definition of a stodgy old epic, large for the sake of largeness rather than necessity. You could tell this story in 3 hours and lose basically nothing, but the mandate for largeness stretches this on and on, slowing down each scene for maximum wow factor. I'm not so callous as to not be impressed by a whole lot of money onscreen, but that wears off pretty quickly.

 

The only time the approach truly pays off is the chariot race, which is just as spectacular as everyone's always said it is. I've always believed that the Raiders truck chase is the greatest action sequence of all time, so it was a pleasant surprise to find out just how much Spielberg took from the chariot race, down to Judah flipping out of his chariot and climbing back in and the individual beats of reversal with the whip. Wyler is on fire in this scene, and the slow gigantic build up of massive production value before the race's start serves him well to build incredible tension, and really hammer home that this chariot race is really happening in a real space. The combination of Wyler's direction, some of the best rear projection I have ever seen and some incredibly dangrous stuntwork cements Ben Hur's place in history, if only for the 15 minutes it's taking place.

 

Sadly, this is the only part of the film you can call Wyler's work exemplary. Most of this feels very old-fashioned (epescially compared to films like Spartacus and Lawrence of Arabia that would follow only a few years later) and plays against Wyler's strengths. He's a director who excels in emotional nuance in a story that has none, an actor's director in a film that only requires it's actors to bellow, a master of subtle blocking in a project that has no room for subtlety. And, perhaps, if this were directed by a Christian the religious throughline would feel more than an afterthought. As is, Christ's appearance feels like literal deus-ex machina, a Hail Mary (so to speak) for profundity in a film that is about little more than the simple mechanics of revenge. The final 45 minutes of this film, that take place after this revenge is complete, feel like an unnecessary slog as a result.

 

Also, I must say, I really find Charlton Heston a singularly unpleasant screen-presence. I usually don't allow the real lives of actors to get in the way of their work, but man I fucking hate that guy.

 

Overall I was glad to see it (or maybe just glad to have finally seen it), and it certainly tops some other epics I've attempted to watch, like Quo Vadis or Cleopatra. But the religious/historical epic is not a genre I generally go in for, so it's perhaps no surprise that I can't get onboard the masterpiece train. Also, it's worth noting that I saw a DVD on my modestly sized TV, and this is probably a whole different thing on the big-screen. Particularly a lot of those early long shots filled with extras lose a lot when they are just an ultra-wide sliver across a 30 inch TV.

 

Toy Story - Here's what I wrote in that Pixar thread when we re-watched Toy Story:

 

I just took a bunch of bullet point notes.

 

• I will echo everyone else's surprise at the rough animation. Facial animations especially are JACKED. I always remembered this as being roughly equal to 2 & 3 but noooo no no no.
• Speaking of faces, the humans all look really really creepy. I don't know if this is because of animation limitations or just really terrible design, but Sid's sister is the craziest looking thing in any Pixar movie. Truly unnerving.
• Sid is awesome. Sid has way more imagination than Andy. If I had to guess which one would grow up to work at Pixar, it'd be no question. To think he's probably traumatized for the rest of his life because he likes to build things is messed up.
• I was shocked at the lack of textures in general. If you look at the duct tape around Buzz at the end, it's just a plain grey. And the textures on the aliens look WEIRD, especially compared to Toy Story 2.
• I concur with Ben, the pace is really great. I wish more live action movies would be daring enough to come in at 80 minutes. It used to be way more common in the era of the double feature. 
• The hardest I laughed was either "Marie Antoinette...and her little sister" or all of Woody's pull-string quotes. "Somebody's poisoned the waterhole!" is HILARIOUSLY dorky. All those dorky quotes really made Woody feel like a real toy from a real time and place.
• I watched it too many times as a kid to really be objective about this sort of thing, but I really love the army man sequence. I think it's beautifully staged and edited. Maybe the most iconic sequence in the entire film.
• All the voices are incredible. Amazing casting all the way through. It's a shame it took a children's film for the world to realize the comedic potential of Don Rickles and John Ratzenberger as a duo, when it was too late for them to star in their own movies.
• The animation feels a bit more "cartoony" and key-frame based than later Pixar stuff. Lot of more visual gags than later Pixar films. Probably because the facial animation wasn't at a point where you could really do strong subtle character-driven comedy. But maybe also the studio just wasn't there as comedy writers.
• I think maybe they just didn't finish the scenes where Woody and Buzz are running through the arcade machines. The bottom of those machines look like a first pass.
• Getting things to convincingly feel like they have weight and are propelling themselves through the world was still a little rough. A lot of the toys have so few points of articulation that they look fine, but whenever you see the birthday kid's legs running through the room, or Scud chasing them down the street, things feel a little floaty and off.

All in all I'm still all about this. I can't not be, it's too deep in my blood.

[JoelWmusic]

Not much to say about Toy Story. I never realized Joss Whedon helped write it. So that kind of blew my mind. I still adore Toy Story. I was laughing at every little thing again like I did when I was 6. But I'm ready to keep going to see movies I haven't seen. Which means it's time for Yankee Doodle Dandy with my first view of Blade Runner close behind.

[Patrick R]

Yankee Doodle Dandy is a fun movie, even if the soup-to-nuts biopic structure couldn't feel more old-fashioned in 2017. Probably not going to rewatch it, so I'll just say my piece here. Cagney is definitely one of my favorite actors of all-time, and the way he effortlessly tap-dances down the stairs in the opening is maybe my favorite moment of his in any of his movies. It's the only James Cagney movie on the list, which points to the tendency of AFI to go big or go home, as his other stand-out films tend to be smaller, tougher crime movies (or the unbelievably extravagant but still tawdry and politically incorrect Footlight Parade). I think Angels with Dirty Faces is the best Curtiz/Cagney pairing, so if you like Yankee Doodle Dandy I'd earmark that one for a watch sometime. 

 

I will be very interested to see what you think of Blade Runner. I remember I put off my first viewing for a long time and the version of the film I had constructed in my head via pop culture osmosis was way different than what the film actually is.

[Ben X]

On 6/27/2017 at 7:23 PM, Patrick R said:

 I've always believed that the Raiders truck chase is the greatest action sequence of all time, so it was a pleasant surprise to find out just how much Spielberg took from the chariot race, down to Judah flipping out of his chariot and climbing back in and the individual beats of reversal with the whip.

 

And this continues when The Transporter's storage container lorry chase pays extended homage to Raiders! (I'll assume it's not taking from Ben Hur as there's also a direct lift from Crusade and a supporting actor from Doom in the film.) Hopefully a fourth classic film will pay tribute to the Transporter in about 5 years from now.