List Rank 08 - Rating 8.8/9.0

 

The Dark Knight (2008)

Director:

Christopher Nolan

Stars:

Christian Bale, Heath Ledger and Aaron Eckhart

Why So Serious?

Its stunning, mature, intelligent script makes it the best superhero movie ever made. As if that wasn't enough, Heath Ledger. He, the newest of the tragic modern icons present us with a preview of something we'll never see. A fearless, extraordinary actor capable to fill up with humanity even the most grotesque of villains. His performance is a master class. Fortunately, Christian Bale's Batman is almost a supporting character. Bale is good but there is something around his mouth that stops him from being great. "The Dark Knight" is visually stunning, powerful and moving.

What else could anyone want ? 

List Rank 07 - Rating 8.9/9.0

Schindler's List (1993)

Director:

Steven Spielberg

Stars:

Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes and Ben Kingsley

The List Is Life.

Schindler's List grips from it's first moments and holds audiences far beyond the final credits. Spielberg documents Otto Schindler's success in saving many Jews from the horror of Nazi death camps. More importantly the film chronicles, in horrific detail, the nightmare that Polish Jews went through.

Thankfully avoiding sentimentality or romanticism Spielberg takes us into the ghettos and camps, dispassionately observing moments of heartbreaking tragedy, we watch horrified as a young Jewish woman, an architect, is shot for being right, or as the camp commander 'plays' with the Jewish prisoners by shooting them from his balcony.

Shot in stark black and white (except for the final ten minutes) the film conveys beautifully the worst and the best of humanity. One exceptional touch is worth mentioning; as Schindler watches, in black & white, the Jews being hearded from the ghetto, he spots a little girl in a red coat, the camera follows her until she is swallowed into the teeming crowds. Later we see the red coat on a lorry of discarded clothing, but no little girl.

Spielberg has never been better and no Hollywood film has captured so accurately the human tragedy of the Holocaust

List Rank 06 - Rating 8.9/9.0

12 Angry Men (1957)

Director:

Sidney Lumet

Stars:

Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb and Martin Balsam

They have twelve scraps of paper... twelve chances to kill !

Sidney Lumet's directorial debut remains a tense, atmospheric (though slightly manipulative and stagy) courtroom thriller, in which the viewer never sees a trial and the only action is verbal. As he does in his later corruption commentaries such as Serpico or Q & A, Lumet focuses on the lonely one-man battles of a protagonist whose ethics alienate him from the rest of jaded society. As the film opens, the seemingly open-and-shut trial of a young Puerto Rican accused of murdering his father with a knife has just concluded and the 12-man jury retires to their microscopic, sweltering quarters to decide the verdict. When the votes are counted, 11 men rule guilty, while one--played by Henry Fonda, again typecast as another liberal, truth-seeking hero--doubts the obvious. Stressing the idea of "reasonable doubt," Fonda slowly chips away at the jury, who represent a microcosm of white, male society ,exposing the prejudices and preconceptions that directly influence the other jurors' snap judgments. The tight script by Reginald Rose (based on his own tele play) presents each juror vividly using detailed soliloquies, all which are expertly performed by the film's flawless cast. Still, it's Lumet's claustrophobic direction ,all sweaty close-ups and cramped compositions within a one-room setting--that really transforms this contrived story into an explosive and compelling nail-biter.

List Rank 05 - Rating 8.9/10

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)

Director:

Sergio Leone

Stars:

Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef

For Three Men The Civil War Wasn't Hell. It Was Practice !

Clint Eastwood returns as The Man With No Name in this final installment in Sergio Leone's epic Dollars Trilogy (or Man With No Name Trilogy). He plays Blondie (the Good), a sharp-shooter of debatable honor, iron will, and questionable motives. Leone also brings back Lee Van Cleef as Angel Eyes (the Bad), a sadistic man who always keeps his promises – as long as you pay him for it. Eli Wallach rounds out the trio as Tuco (the Ugly), a thief worried only about his own hide. The three men are held together by the wish to locate a stash of gold, its location imparted to them by a dying man. Alas, things are not so simple. The man whispers some of the information to Tuco, but only Blondie knows the true location. And so our thieves must overcome backstabbing and betrayal, as well as their mutual enemy of Angel Eyes, to reach the treasure.

List Rank 04 - Rating 8.9/10

Pulp Fiction (1994)

Director:

Quentin Tarantino

Stars:

John Travolta, Uma Thurman and Samuel L. Jackson

You won't know the facts until you've seen the fiction

Pulp Fiction may be the single best film ever made, and quite appropriately it is by one of the most creative directors of all time, Quentin Tarantino. This movie is amazing from the beginning definition of pulp to the end credits and boasts one of the best casts ever assembled with the likes of Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth and Christopher Walken. The dialog is surprisingly humorous for this type of film, and I think that's what has made it so successful. Wrongfully denied the many Oscars it was nominated for, Pulp Fiction is by far the best film of the 90s.