Top 10 Movie Masterpieces of all Time Review

Part 2 of my Baker's Dozen of  top 10 Best & Most Essential  Movies of all time.

See  Part 1 Here

#6  RAN  1985   Directed by Akira Kurosawa

King Lear  has always been considered the climax, the last great role an aging thespian can take on to display his matured craft as an actor.   So Akira Kurosawa took it on, as an aging director. 

Kurosawa's adaptation of Shakespeare's King Lear is set in feudal Japan.  An aging father splits his kingdom between three son in laws.  Substituting pure cinema for Shakespeare's language, Kurosawa uses color, sound, camera angles and a near perfect aesthetic to create  a towering epic the is stunningly beautiful, at times very bloody and 2 hours and 40 minutes of epic genius that I doubt anyone will ever top.   The director had great difficulty in getting the movie financed and believed it was going to be his last film.   Indeed the movies he made after this could not compare.

Ran translates as "chaos".  Though that chaos in the film is elemental like the wind or the hail of arrows in a bloody battle.    Lead actor Tatsua Nokadai was the villain of the classic Kurasowa films Yojimbo  and Sanjuro and plays the King haunted by his ghosts, dealing with being responsible for what the future will hold for everyone who comes after him and to the land he is cursing with bloodshed.

There were several Kurosawa's that I considered for my top 50 list including  the Seventh Samurai of course, but the crowning achievement of his work is what I'll stick by.

5A.    Sherlock Jr. Directed by Buster Keaton

There were a half dozen bonafide mini-masterpieces that Buster Keaton gave us. Perhaps the crème de la crème of Buster Keaton's work was Sherlock Jr. one of the most technically innovative, comedically risky and brilliant films ever made.

It increased the vocabulary of the movies-what I mean is-- it showed a whole new way to use cinema that few had considered ever before. As if that was not enough, it was laugh out loud funny as well.

Keaton plays a projectionist in a movie theater who for the love of a woman fancies himself a amateur sleuth. At one point he enters a dream state and walks in and out of various movie scenes. He is projecting himself a hero in pursuit of a villain for the hand of the girl he loves.

The ideas, from his satire of the Great Detective, to the combination of narratives, to the use of dreams and fantasies to further plot and comedy, to the technical innovations he employed to pull off the whole thing are ground-breaking, influential and as entertaining and funny as anything you have ever seen.

Yes, this idea has been ‘borrowed' many times, perhaps best in Woody Allen's Purple Rose of Cairo and in several films by Jacques Rivette and Luis Bunnuel. (Not to mention, Jackie Chan and many others).

Note Keaton broke his neck and nearly killed himself doing a stunt on a train with a large water spout (which is in the finished film). And we haven't even talked about other brilliant short movies Buster Keaton made like Cops 1922, One Week 1920, The High Sign 1921, Neighbors (1920), The Haunted House (1921), Hard Luck (1921), The Playhouse (1921), The Boat (1921), My Wife's Relations (1922), The Blacksmith (1922), Daydreams (1922), and The Electric House (1922) Not to mention his work with Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle in such films as The Butcher Boy.

5b   Steamboat Bill Jr. Directed by Charles F. Riesner and Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton's attention to detail infuses his best work and he was obsessive about getting as much historical detail correct in the classic The General   which many consider his feature film masterpiece.     I agree in terms of it being a nearly perfect film, but I find myself laughing more and consequently watching more often  Steamboat Bill Jr. which I believe captures the spirit of his best shorts and concludes with the amazing hurricane storm sequence that will have you both amazed and laughing at the same time.

 Remember  Keaton did a lot of the effects and tricks via the camera and he truly did all of his own stunts, getting knocked about quite a bit.     There are flashes of his brilliance in several Jackie Chan movies.

His character is a rather meek fellow in Steamboat Jr. who has come to town to prove himself to his  tough macho Steamboat captain father.  After the typically deliberate slow start (that many Keaton movies have) this one takes off and is one comedic set piece after another until everything is forever topped with his hurricane storm finale.

This is the second part of #5 on my Greatest movies list.    The first part was Keaton's  Sherlock Jr. a 45 minute short film.  Steamboat is 71 minutes long.

#4.   The Wild Bunch    1969   Directed by Sam Peckinpah

"If they move. . . kill 'em "

The heart and soul of this movie is about betrayal and the death of a friendship told in the context of the end of an era (the old West). The band of old-time bank-robbers knows it's time for them to retire and so before they break up they plan one last bank robbery.  The end is near.

Peckinpah's masterpiece re-invented the Western film and how brutal violence was filmed.   Censored after it was first released it has been restored on a beautiful DVD.

My longer review can be found here:  THE WILD BUNCH

The opening, the bridge, the Mexican whorehouse and the finale  are 4 of the films several highlights.  A once in a life-time cast including some of Sam's wonderful rogue company of actors. 

Robert Ryan, William Holden, Ben Johnson, Edmond O'Brien, Warren Oates and believe it or not Ernest Borgnine are superb.  

#3.    Grand Illusion  1937  Directed by Jean Renoir 

It was made just before World War 2 exploded and is a World War 1 story about French Prisoners of War in Germany. 

 It seems at times like a prison escape adventure, but is more about  class distinctions, and cultural differences amongst  the rich, the middle class, the poor, military officers and working class heroes.   Jean Gabin is cast as a working class hero of sorts, Pierre Fresnesy is the cultured aristocrat, Marcel Dalio plays the nouveau riche Jew.  Erich von Stroheim is the Prussian blue-blood jailer.   Director Renoir has a supporting role as well.  There are many elegant, moving scenes between the characters that you will amuse, move and touch you.  At times the message is obvious but that does not take away from the perfectly orchestrated poignant moments that few films come close to getting right.   It's remarkable how some of the men bond and form unlikely friendships and alliances.

The final scene is one of the most touching and memorable I've ever seen.     

The Criterion DVD looks amazing and includes a very detailed and interesting (though dry) commentary by Film historian  Peter Cowie.  There are rare film clips and radio excerpts as well.

#2.   Chinatown  1974   Directed by Roman Polanski

Director Roman Polanski  took Robert Towne's brilliant screenplay and improved what could have been a compromised ending.  The film embraces and re-invents American film noir.  It masterfully uses the framework style of a classic Chandler-esque detective story and adds an additional layer (based on a true story) that involves a political conspiracy.

Jack Nicholson is perfect as Jake Gittes the cynical Los Angeles private detective who takes on another infidelity case that winds up being much bigger, much more complicated and much more important the he would ever imagine.   Faye Dunaway, John Huston are at their best.  There's an impressive supporting cast.    The locations, attention to detail, music score, Polanski's brilliant direction add up to one of the finest motion pictures ever created.

The screenplay has been the model of a perfect screenplay for writers and filmmakers ever since the film has been made. It's been broken down, analyzed scene by scene, line by line and most consider it one of the very finest.

It may not be exactly the film you were expecting, and may seem slightly cold on your first viewing, but watch again.  There are so many subtle perfect moments,  a look, a nod, a word of dialogue that you will miss the first time you see the film, it stands up as good as any film no matter how many times you watch it.

The look of the film with its smokey interiors,  warm exteriors,  shadows, venation blind lighting is the culmination of styles in several noir movies taken to new heights.  It has been copied and ripped off by hundreds of  music videos, dozens of films and several stage plays.

Savor this one like you would an expensive bottle of fine wine.

#1. Citizen Kane   1941  Directed by Orson Welles    

 This isn't a special effects roller coaster ride, this is a literal biographical film that is part bubble gum, part sophisticated art.  It mixes a pseudo documentary newsreel approach with a pulpy detective yarn, It mixes  Shakespeare and sophisticated melodrama with vaudeville and burlesque.   It mixes up every technique used by the best filmmakers in Europe with the low budget techniques of News camera-men and everything Welles had learned to do with sound from both the radio (War of the Worlds) and theater work he had done

Do yourself a huge favor and watch the movie, the same way you would watch a medium to low budget critically acclaimed film today.   Expect a good film-not a great one.. and expect a stylized, theatrical, talky smart film, not a special effects razzle dazzle flash in the pan summer blockbuster.  This was the far beyond the work of someone like a Quentin Tarrantino creating a Reservoir Dogs.  Remember Orson Welles was 25 when he made this!!!

I consider  Citizen Kane  the Greatest Film ever made.   A lot of people do.  It's a consensus among film writers and critics-  but who the hell likes to agree with a consensus.   I have considered my thoughts on this over and over again.   I'm sure I've been influenced by what people have written about this film, and have a deeper respect and understanding about it then most... but it still is a brilliant impressive, influential film.  It isn't a difficult film to watch or understand, it's entertaining AND smart.

I've found flaws with the film, I know where its imperfect, tries a bit too hard.     

None of that matters.    Hail  Kane !!!  67 years  after its premiere it's still the best.

The DVD set includes a great commentary, introduction, and feature length documentaries on the film and about Welles.   

A longer review can be found here:   Longer Citizen Kane Review

ENJOY. Thanks for reading this review. I welcome your comments, feedback, & good points.  Please write your own list soon !!!