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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   4044 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for February 17, 2023

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I'm trying to compile a list of movies that would be useful in an overview of 20th Century History. I have two versions of the list, one with about 90 movies and a longer one with about 130 movies. I feel like I've covered most key events and themes, but the 1950s and 1990s feel a little thin. I probably have most of the obvious choices covered, but am likely missing some key outside-the-box options.

If you could pick 10 movies to show, say, a teenager to supplement their understanding of the century before they existed, what would you pick?

Edit: I've uploaded my long list to Letterboxd here:

https://letterboxd.com/dorrk/list/20th-century-the-movie/

Edit 2: To be clear: This not meant as a list of "important movies in movie history," or "the best movies of the last century," but rather as a list of movies that can be used to inform discussions of real world history, even if through fictional treatment of or adjacent to its subjects. What was important in/about the 1900s, 1910s, 1920s, etc.: what key events happened, how did people live, what were the thematic currents that for you summarize key times and places in the 20th century?

Days of Heaven for a movie that kind of quietly shows a lot of aspects of the 1910s around a personal romantic story. One of the great Malick films so it's one of the most beautifully shot (and edited imo) movies of all time. (oh I see you have it, nice)

I was also thinking if you wanted to use a Herzog film, Lessons of Darkness could be a good 90s one, as it just brings an interesting visual understanding towards an aspect of modern war (burning things)

Midnight Cowboy might be a good one, it's been a while since I've seen it

I think the Untouchables should be on the list. Prohibition was a big deal in American history.

It didn't seem very realistic, and pushed a view of the FBI that was rather.. romantic.

Not sure what'd be a better film - but there's probably something similar but less well known.

  1. Metropolis Labor vs Capital was an important debate in the 20th century and I think that film does a better job than others at touching it without being too preachy. Honorable mentions: There Will be Blood and Grapes of Wrath

  2. Casablanca is my guilty pleasure WWII pick. Honorable mention Saving Private Ryan, Das Boot, Patton. I say guilty pleasure because it's my favorite film so I'm sticking it as the pick over more represetative options that show people fighting in the actual war.

  3. It's a Wonderful Life is my first tech boom film. Honorable mention The Aviator and Citizen Kane. The first tech wave is radio/mass communication, autos and planes dramatically changing how people lived.

  4. An Affair to Remember is my flattening world film (honorable mentions Mr Mom, Titanic, Roman Holiday, and Charade).

  5. French Connection is my midcentury crime film. Honorable mentions to Godfather I and II, Goodfellas, American Gangster, and me insisting the Wire should be here).

  6. Forrest Gump is my Boomer film. No film hits as many Baby Boom culture touchstones. Honorable mentions to Love Story, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, and the Right Stuff.

  7. Robocop is my 80s/corporate satire I think it hits better on themes of corporatism, crime, and policing than the others in ways that become more important in the following decades. Honorable mentions to Terminator, Running Man, Predator, Alien, and making them watch a filmed RUR.

  8. WarGames is my cold war 2nd tech boom film. Honorable mentions to Dr Strangelove, Planet of the Apes, Hunt for Red October, Real Genius, and if you'll let me cheat, Tinker Tailor, Soldier, Spy (A 2011 film of a 1974 novel).

  9. Logan's Run included only as the winner of the 1976 Aademy Award for visual effects.

  10. Star Wars: A New Hope should immediately follow Logan's Run as the 1977 winner of the same special effect award.

Nine is something of a joke entry, and should realistically be Ben Hur or the Ten Commandments as an inclusion to show the importance of religion in the century (hit films were made with enormous budgets about Bible stories) and how rapidly that changed as a cultural touchstone.

My goal was to make a list that hits a variety of different types of films while not picking exclusively from a 100 best films/best films of the 20th century. I'm sure I'm missing some great foreign films but stuck with American studio films intentionally as the century saw American cultural domination emerge.

Good list, but missing some big ones, especially from comedy. His Girl Friday, Some Like it Hot, Dr. Strangelove, Die Hard, Tootsie, Network, Star Wars IV, Airplane!, Rambo, Gone with the Wind, and I’d throw in some Marx bros. and James Bond.

I tried to stick to movies that depict the actual times of the 20th Century, so no Star Wars or Gone With the Wind. And I tried to avoid -- with the exception of the first movie, which is a bit of a thematic gag to start it off -- obvious fantasy elements. My object was to pick movies that reflect mostly real-ish events and lifestyles. In that vein, Le Carre is a more apt type of spy storyteller than Fleming. I think I did a poor job of outlining parameters. But it's interesting to see how others interpret the prompt.

‘Realism’ is an aesthetic as artificial as absurdism in many (most?) cases IMO. Le Carre seems more ‘real’ because of his tragic tone but his MI6 was just as fantastical as the shark tanks Bond swings over using his wrist-watch grapplehook. But jokes and fantasies are often better than serious drama to grok the spirit of a time. Contemporary films about the past always carry with them modern concerns, no matter their fidelity in set dressing, so we can’t come to a true meeting of minds across time. But stuff like this or this can let us peek across that chasm, if only to realize how big that gap is.

In no particular order, without repeating the other commenter (+1 for matrix), and trying to get 50s/90s

  1. Forrest Gump

  2. Back to the Future

  3. Boyz In The Hood

  4. American Graffiti

  5. Cool Hand Luke

  6. Baz Lurhman Romeo and Juliet

  7. Quiz Show

  8. The Apartment

  9. Manhattan

  10. The Big Lebowski

Prioritizing for cultural impact/relevance would have my list looking something like this:

  1. The Dirty Dozen

  2. The Matrix

  3. Full Metal Jacket

  4. Apollo 13

  5. Terminator 2: Judgement Day

  6. Who Framed Roger Rabbit

  7. Mary Poppins

  8. The Great Race

  9. Good Will Hunting

  10. Any of Steven Seagal's earliest works, Above the Law or maybe Marked for Death (this can also be swapped for Death Wish)

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