Dez's Top 50 Movies, #'s 50-46 and Introductory Comments

OK, more lists. All of life can be reduced to a good, well put together list. I'm going to give you my favorite 50 flicks in list form at about 5 per week. As much as I do love movies, I am not quite the expert in this arena as I am in music. But I'd like to think I've got good taste and I know enough. The purpose of these lists is twofold: first, I hope they inspire some discussion, be it agreement or disagreement. That is what makes these things fun for me. You won't hurt my feelings, because I know I'm smarter than you. =) Secondly, I do hope that some of these picks inspire you to check them out. Many a movie on this list came from close friends suggesting to me that I see them.

This is NOT a definitive, AFI-type list of the most important or classic films. Some of these picks do overlap with that type of inquiry, but that is purely coincidental. If I wanted to look intellectual or be overtly artsy fartsy, I could definitely construct such a list and fill it with obscure Japanese and French films to impress my readers. These are films that have struck a chord with me over the years. The criteria used here was simple: if I'm sitting on my couch with an afternoon to kill and flipping channels, which movies are most likely going to make me stop flipping channels and shout out "alight!"...even if I've seen them 50 times already. Anyway, more observations in later installments. I challenge JMW and ANCIANT to post their own lists on their own blogs (and anyone else, for that matter). I'm always looking for more great suggestions from people I semi-respect...

50. Tyler Perry's...

Just kidding. Here we go.

50. Wages of Fear (Fr)(La Salaire De La Peur) (1953), dir. Henri Georges-Clouzot

The plot is simple: an oil company pays four desperate men to drive an extremely volatile cargo of nitroglycerin across 300 miles of dangerous Central American terrain. The film has a slow start, but once the men actually depart on their trip, almost every moment is filled with tension. Imagine driving an old battered truck full of dangerous explosives that could blow you to smithereens with each bump in the road. Clouzot directed several masterful sequences, especially the famous scene where the men try to maneuver their trucks around on a crumbling bridge over a mountain gorge. The film has some political subtext that is fairly obvious, but it should be enjoyed primarily as a top notch thriller. Thanks to ANCIANT for suggesting this one to me a few years back.

49. Rear Window (1954), dir. Alfred Hitchcock

Hitchcock gave us an innovative twist for the time when he made the hero of the film an invalid. James Stewart’s cynical but resourceful L.B. Jeffries is clearly a man of action under normal circumstances, but throughout RW he is confined to a wheelchair recovering from an accident. Jeffries passes the time by spying on his neighbors through his apartment window which overlooks the backside of an adjoining apartment building. Over several evenings, he sees and hears suspicious goings on in a particular apartment and begins to suspect one of his neighbors (a creepy and imposing Raymond Burr) of murder. Hitchcock is a master of detail here, and he wraps the viewer up in the lives of several of Jeffries’ neighbors, not just the possibly homicidal Burr. The only unbelievable part of the film? No presumably heterosexual man would play hard to get like the grumpy Jeffries does when the radiant Grace Kelly is practically begging him to marry her.


ABOVE: Is Jimmy Stewart's L.B. Jeffries a homosexual? That is the only explanation I can think of as to why he resists Grace Kelly's attempts to seduce him through most of Rear Window

48. The Shawshank Redemption (1994), dir. Frank Darabont

I was a latecomer to the Shawshank party. Many of my friends declared it an instant classic, but I was a bit more cautious. Turns out they were right. I recall having a heated discussion with my friend Johannes regarding whether Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) or Red (Morgan Freeman) was the main character of the film. It is a rich film full of ideas and themes over which you can have such heated discussions.

47. No Man’s Land (2001) (Bosnia), dir. Danis Tanovic

A wonderfully dark comedy/drama that takes place during the Bosnian conflict of the 1990’s and winner of 2001's Oscar for Best Foreign Film. It is the deceptively simple story of a Bosniak soldier and Bosnian Serb soldier who get trapped together between enemy lines and are forced to come to an uneasy truce in order to survive. The film’s most biting satire is saved for the inept United Nations peacekeepers. If you missed this one, I highly recommend you check it out.


ABOVE: The UN as effective as ever

46. The Blues Brothers (1980), dir. John Landis

I’m usually not a fan of musicals, but when a musical features exuberant performances from Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, John Lee Hooker and Cab Calloway…I’ll make an exception. John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd’s genuine affection and respect for blues and soul music shines through in every scene, and they buy into the ridiculousness of their characters so completely that we can’t help but go along for the ride. Plus, there are many funny moments in this film that have helped to make it a classic. “What kind of music do you play here?” “Oh, we play both kinds. Country and western.”


ABOVE: I’d go to this church with the Rev. James Brown presiding (or, Rev. Cleofus James in the film). “I don’t want to go hear no jive-ass preacher talking to me about heaven and hell.” “Jake, you get wise! You get to church!”