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.
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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