Another one of my favorites...
Great movie, as was Stalag 17. For dramatic effect, POWs and submarines are easy dramas to capture on film. The tension is baked in.
Anyone watch old movies?
- Thread starter Marvin the Martian
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Great movie, as was Stalag 17. For dramatic effect, POWs and submarines are easy dramas to capture on film. The tension is baked in.
Obviously not an “older” film compared to the films we’re discussing, but I was always a big fan of Heartbreak Ridge as far as war/military related movies are concerned.
Its 32 years ago. Not exactly recent.
I will cut & paste from a thread I started in another section:
He's 29 yrs old now!!
The Great Escape and Stalag 17 are great films.Have any of you people been to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland?About a block away from there is the USS Cod,which is an American submarine that sank several Japanese ships in WWII.The deck cannon and periscope have been removed and you can walk through the sub.I am not tall,but I was stunned to see how narrow that thing is as you go through it and the ceiling is low,barely six feet high.Any history buff would enjoy it.
Another classic. Many people only think of slapstick comedies when they hear the name Charlie Chaplin. But he was much more than that.The Chaplin film that comes to my mind is “The Great Dictator”.
Can you imagine what Chaplin would have done with Donald Trump in a film?
I toured the USS North Carolina battleship last week (it's in Wilimington, NC). Enormous ship, but it's still claustrophobically tight below deck. I was in awe of the sailors of WWII while standing in the engine room imagining what it must have been like to be down there while the ship is under attack. If you are ever within driving distance of a WWII battleship you need to take the time to visit. 730 feet long yet capable of 28 knots (32 mph), using four steam turbines.
Incredibly, they actually salvaged parts from the USS North Carolina for use on the Iowa-class battleships--two of which saw action during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Some parts of the ship looked extremely dated, while other parts did not look much different from what you would expect to see on a modern ship (e.g., the stainless steel equipment in the kitchens almost looked brand new).
Everybody in old Hollywood thought he was a genius. He even was a composer of some note the song "Smile" is based on a theme that he composed for "Limelight"
Gas Light is great but it is not in my top 15 list.
My Top 15 old movies, prior to 2000 in no particular order:
My Top 15 old movies, prior to 2000 in no particular order:
- Casablanca
- For Whom the Bell Tolls
- 12 Angry Men
- On the Waterfront
- Dr. Strangelove
- Ran
- Seven Samurai
- The Godfather
- High Noon
- The Shawshank Redemption
- Amadeus
- Life Is Beautiful
- Forrest Gump
- Bonny and Clyde
- Doctor Zhivago
I believe what qualifies as an old movie varies from one person to the next.Around the year 2000,I was about 48 and a younger guy I worked with was about 25 and he cracked me up when he said ,he didnt like older movies like The Breakfast Club .It just sounded funny because in 2000,I didnt think that was an older film.And to hear that from a guy that much younger than me made it seem any funnier.
Stalag 17 is one of my all-time favorites. People often forget William Holden won the Oscar for that.
I think of "old" movies roughly as movies that are older than me. Anything pre-Star Wars, really.
If not, 2000, what should be the dividing line? I chose 2000 because that is the beginning of the new century.
Lawrence of Arabia was released in 1962. My Fair Lady and Dr. Strangelove in 1964. Doctor Zhivago and The Sound of Music in 1965.
Are these not "old?"
That's not a bad line. Things in the late 60s get blurry. I'd consider The Lion in Winter and Fiddler on the Roof to be more "old," while In the Heat of the Night and A Clockwork Orange to be more "modern," but there is no single dateline that allows for that kind of division.
I was trying to come up with a generic line. Stylistically movies changed in the 60s. Sure, some older style movies still came out, but sometime before The Graduate would be my guess.
I think that's pretty accurate. I think I picked Star Wars as my line because it was the first movie I "saw" in a theater (I "saw" it in the womb). So any movie older than that is before my time.
One of the earliest movies I remember seeing was Kansas City Bomber—the epic roller derby movie with Rachel Welch. Parents took us to the drive in to see it. It was a double feature with Pretty Maids All in a Row—an R rated flick with Rock Hudson and Angie Dickinson. Parents didn’t know it was R rated until it started. They told me and my sister to go to sleep on the floor of the backseat. I peeked; a lot. I was 8.
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0067610/parentalguide/nudity
I was there (on the Cod) two years ago and the deck gun and periscope were both in place... Did they remove them recently?
Hopefully they added them after you visited... They really add to the time frame with those in place...
Cool sub...; one of the more interesting ones I've been on.
OK, that's fair. I will change the date to 1965.
So, here's my revised list of 15.
- Casablanca
- For Whom the Bell Tolls
- 12 Angry Men
- On the Waterfront
- Dr. Strangelove
- Seven Samurai
- High Noon
- Lawrence of Arabia
- Doctor Zhivago
- From Here to Eternity
- Stalag 17
- Zorba the Greek
- East of Eden
- La Satrada
- Yojimbo
Das Boot certainly makes the tension case for submarines.
In the "Old" category, I think The Enemy Below is near the top of the submarine category. Curd Jürgens was outstanding.
My favorite old law movie is Inherit the Wind. Can't get enough of Spencer Tracy playing Clarence Darrow. Judment at Nuremberg is a close second.
My favorite old western is Red River. Hondo is a close second. Both among Duke's best. Also hard to not put Shane on that list.
Bridge on the River Kwai and Mister Roberts are a couple of great WWII films . I found Cary Grant, Holden, Tracy, and Stewart entertaining in just about all of theirs . I watch modern ones but very few are anywhere near as good as old ones.
Movies I like very much pre-1965 which no one has mentioned (I think)-not always necessarily great movies but a lot of fun to watch:
1.) To Catch a Thief-I know it is supposed to be a weak effort by Hitchcock but I like it.
2.) The Seven Year Itch-with Marilyn Monroe;
3.) Bringing Up Baby-with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn;
4.) Laura-because it's not only a great movie but also because of the beautiful Gene Tierney;
5.) North by Northwest-Hitchcock;
6.) Son of Paleface-Bob Hope shares a bed with Trigger on the orders of Roy Rogers;
7.) The Guns of Navarone;
8.) The Ten Commandments-what a hoot: As Howard Hawks said, "DeMille is so bad he's almost good";
9.) Arsenic and Old Lace;
10.) Harvey;
11.) The Adventures of Robin Hood;
12.) Rear Window-Hitchcock;
13.) Vertigo-Hitchcock-I know I'm kind of in a rut;
14.) To Kill a Mockingbird-that may be a movie that's even better than the book; and
15.) It Happened One Night.
1.) To Catch a Thief-I know it is supposed to be a weak effort by Hitchcock but I like it.
2.) The Seven Year Itch-with Marilyn Monroe;
3.) Bringing Up Baby-with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn;
4.) Laura-because it's not only a great movie but also because of the beautiful Gene Tierney;
5.) North by Northwest-Hitchcock;
6.) Son of Paleface-Bob Hope shares a bed with Trigger on the orders of Roy Rogers;
7.) The Guns of Navarone;
8.) The Ten Commandments-what a hoot: As Howard Hawks said, "DeMille is so bad he's almost good";
9.) Arsenic and Old Lace;
10.) Harvey;
11.) The Adventures of Robin Hood;
12.) Rear Window-Hitchcock;
13.) Vertigo-Hitchcock-I know I'm kind of in a rut;
14.) To Kill a Mockingbird-that may be a movie that's even better than the book; and
15.) It Happened One Night.
Have you seen the movie The Railway Man? It’s a mostly true story of another Brit POW who worked on that same railway. He returned to the scene to find his tormentors. Colin Firth plays the POW. Very Good movie. Kinda like Unbroken.
You make a good point.In the seventies,special effects became so good that the actors in movies werent as important .The actors in the Jurassic Park flicks were barely needed,since the dinosaurs looked so real.
I probably should have listed Citizen Kane and The Third Man but they are ultimately rather depressing but like you know there are just so many great ones that I don't need to go to the theater to see an inferior movie. I think many of us could easily come up with another great list in just a few minutes. A movie that is very old but still plays well from 1930 is "All Quiet on the Western Front", a great anti-war movie. If you have never have seen it I would highly recommend it. Some of the John Wayne movies like "Red River" and "The Searchers" are first rate, too.
All Quiet on the Western Front does hold up very well.What are some of your favorite sports movies?I like Knute Rockne,All American,North Dallas Forty,Hoosiers,Jim Thorpe,All American,Raging Bull,The Natural,and 42.Rudy was overrated.
No argument whatsoever on anything you listed. I love "The Natural" although one guy I know hates it (obviously he took it too literally). I can watch that over and over again kind of like the Shawshank Redemption. I liked Slapshot.
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