I devour the BFI Best Films of All Time list whenever they deem it necessary to revise and (invariably) disagree with most of the findings, but I still get a kick out of browsing. Same with Rolling Stone's inane Best 100 Albums (how does Sgt. Pepper drop from #1 to #24 in the latest incarnation?); the anger I feel subsides when I see they've put a couple of Aerosmith albums on the list! We all disagree with that number one but we keep right on scrolling through each choice.
This project, which has been percolating for quite a while, originated from the constant back and forth "good natured bickering" between John Scoleri and myself. John invariably loves everything and I hate it all (for more of the discourse, I advise one and all to pick up a copy of bare•bones print magazine and read our debates about streaming and movie theaters to get a taste). I began to think it would be fun to compose a Favorite (as opposed to Best) 100 and compare our selections. Making it even more tantalizing, I managed to talk the third head of Ghidorah, Jack Seabrook, into participating. This could be interesting, since John's never seen a movie the two Georges (Romero and Lucas) didn't have a hand in, and Jack usually favors the flicks that have words at the bottom of the screen (dis-moi que j'ai tort, Jack!). I, on the other hand, can't wait to educate these two gentlemen as to what constitutes good cinema.
Every Thursday, we'll count down our picks two at a time. We're hoping this will generate discourse outside of our trio. Let us know just how crazy we are. This is going to be fun!—Peter
"I'd hate to wake up some morning and find out that you weren't you."
There's not one ounce of fat to this one; it gets right into the story and fills you in with the minor details along the way. McCarthy's Miles Bennell is back from what appears to be either a long vacation or one of those stuffy medical conventions and is immediately thrust into "mass hysteria." Patients reporting their loved ones aren't who they're supposed to be; oh, they look the same, sound the same, have all the memories, but there's just something missing. What follows is Bennell's trek through hell, as he watches his allies, one by one, become "pod people" until he's the last human standing, screaming like a madman on a Los Angeles overpass. "You're next!"
Those of us who love bleak, downbeat endings know that's where the flick should have ended (and that's where the first cut did end before the studio demanded the clunky bookends with Whit Bissell) and, lucky for us, we have the power to end it right there with the flick of a remote. The performances are all top-notch, with McCarthy stellar as a guy who, let's face it, wants to put all this pod stuff behind him and get into Dana's knickers. Body Snatchers could very well be the first science fiction/noir film, with Don Siegel lighting his sets and setting up his shots just as he would have one of his crime pics.
The 1950s was stuffed full of quality science fiction films and a lot of them, like Body Snatchers, seemed to have been made with no intention to be anything more than 90 minutes of product. Jack Finney's The Body Snatchers has been filmed several times and some would say Philip Kaufman's is the best of the lot. I won't argue with that... well, yes, I will. This one is the best.—Peter
Remarks from the Gallery:
Jack: What a great choice! I'm a big fan of this movie and agree that it's the best version. I saw the 1978 version when it came out and enjoyed it, but it can't hold a candle to the original. Best not to mention the 1993 mess.
John: This was a formative movie for me growing up. But as much as I enjoy it, it's no longer the most watchable version for me. I popped it in just a few months back and, while there was a certain amount of nostalgia, it lacked the special sauce needed to break into my top 100. Rest assured, the great Don Siegel will show up on my list, just not for this classic.
In Ancient Greece, Jason is sent on a quest to recover the legendary Golden Fleece, unaware that the man who sent him is evil King Pelios, who hopes Jason will be killed.
Okay, enough with the plot—let's get to the cool parts! I had to include a Ray Harryhausen movie on my list and I picked Jason and the Argonauts for one main reason: the fight with the skeletons. Sure, the single skeleton in The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad is awesome, but seven of them? Incredible! The special effects still hold up and I will never get over how much work went into these sequences. The hydra, with its multiple heads; the bronze statue coming to life—it's all great. The rest of the movie is okay, but Todd Armstrong never did anything else worth watching.
The Bernard Herrmann score is great, and I thought I heard a snippet of something he had used (or would use) on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour at one point. The movie was filmed in late 1961, right before Honor Blackman began co-starring in The Avengers on TV. She was certainly gorgeous, but I think Nancy Kovack was even more attractive in this! She had a long career and appeared on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Batman, and Star Trek, so we certainly know her. I have a feeling at least one more Harryhausen flick will show up on John's list, but we'll have to wait and see.—Jack
Remarks from the Gallery:
Peter: Oh boy, oh boy! I will have a lot more to say than "Oh boy, oh boy!" when I get to this one much later! I'll put a fiver down that this is another one that makes all three lists (and if not, the guy who leaves it off is a dope!).
John: I may be a dope, but hey—I'm $5 richer! Without question, Harryhausen's finest hour. But I'm afraid this one, and several others for that matter (Seventh and Golden Voyage of Sinbad), just couldn't fight their way into my top 100.
"If I'm curt with you, it's because time is a factor. I think fast, I talk fast, and I need you guys to act fast if you wanna get out of this. So, pretty please... with sugar on top. Clean the fucking car."
Having seen and loved Reservoir Dogs, I was there on opening night for Pulp Fiction. And of course the film blew me away. So many things we take for granted in cinema today can be traced back to this film. And while there have always been non-linear narratives in film, Tarantino masterfully uses the format to introduce us to, witness the loss of, and then go back and hang out with the characters for a little while longer before sending us on our way.
It's populated with a great cast who navigate the wild, entertaining, and twisting stories. And once again Tarantino scores the film with songs both familiar and unfamiliar that, once you've seen it, will forever be associated with the film.
Is it a perfect film? No. Are there indulgences on his part? Sure there are. But it's an amazing achievement for a sophomore effort. And it reiterated the importance of being there on opening night for every film this unique voice delivers.—John
Remarks from the Gallery:
Peter: File this under.... amazing. I thought this was a lock for Top 20 at least but I guess you gotta bump something to make room for Highlander 2, right?
Jack: I liked it enough to include it my top 100, but I still would fast-forward through much of the Bruce Willis stuff. The classic scenes and lines are worth watching over and over, though.
"Do you have a lahsonse for your minkey?"
Whatever the reason, its visual comedy really appealed to me and I saw it again that summer in a better setting (at the Century, I think). I've seen it at least a couple dozen times over the last fifty years thanks mostly to my kids, who put the film on heavy rotation when they were young. It has a timeless quality to it; anyone can appreciate the sight gags. Yeah, it does drag at times when Clouseau is not around (Plummer looks like he's there for the money) but, mercifully, that is not often. Who watches it for the intrigue, anyway?
My favorite sequence of the movie would have to be when Clouseau is snooping around in the hotel room of Lady Claudine Litton; he's dressed as some kind of cleaning man, equipped with a very strong vacuum. There's a parrot in a cage and, of course, the bumbler sucks the thing right off its perch into the vacuum; when the bird climbs out of the tank, he's wearing the Inspector's fake mustache. Clouseau has trouble with a light bulb that keeps popping out of its socket so, naturally, he sticks his finger in to see if there's an obstruction and receives one of the most realistic electric shocks in all of movie history.
The scene goes on, involving an indoor sauna and a helpful bellboy ("Keep up the good work, and I shall see to it you become a bellman" promises Clouseau) and, by the end of the long scene, my laugh-o-meter measured me at eleven. That scene never fails to make me piss myself. And that's just one of many such riotous passages in The Return of the Pink Panther, my second favorite comedy of all time!—Peter
Remarks from the Gallery:
Jack: Those three Pink Panther movies in the mid- to late-'70s killed me. I laughed and laughed and saw them over and over. All I had to do was put on a bad French accent and mention my "minkey" and everyone would laugh. You didn't mention Cato, who also led to much hilarity. I love it when Clouseau tries to figure out where he is hiding or if he's even there at all and them-BAM!-a martial arts battle (of sorts) erupts.
John: I guess you had to be there. Though to be perfectly honest, the most shocking thing isn't that Return of the Pink Panther made it into your top 100—it's that with 62 movies to go, you've only got one more comedy on your list?
"Do I feel lucky?"
San Francisco in 1971 is a dirty, depressing place, and things only get worse when a killer named Scorpio randomly shoots a woman while she's swimming in a rooftop pool. Scorpio sends a note demanding $100,000 or he'll kill again. Inspector Harry Callahan is put on the case and eventually tracks down the killer, leading to a gunfight at a quarry.
Watching Dirty Harry last night I was both fascinated and repelled. When the scene late in the film arrived where Scorpio pays a Black man to beat him up, I began to question whether I wanted to keep this movie on my list or not. But by the end, I decided to stick with it. It's a complicated movie that seems like a simple one.
Don Siegel's direction is excellent. He keeps the story moving along rapidly and uses darkness and shadows evocatively. Eastwood is so effective as Harry that it almost doesn't seem like he's portraying a character. The movie is very violent but doesn't make the violence seem appealing in any way. The catch phrase, "Do I feel lucky?," is used twice—once at the beginning and once at the end, and is what most people remember about the movie. I wish the film had even a tiny bit of humor or something to relieve the unyielding sense of doom and gloom. Hitchcock knew how to do that, but Dirty Harry is just bleak from beginning to end.—Jack
Remarks from the Gallery:
Peter: It's the gloom that makes this immensely rewatchable for me. Do you think I'll be talking more at length about the Dirtiest Harry of them all at some point? Well, do ya... punk?
John: I didn't get the memo that this was Don Siegel week in the 100. Dirty Harry still resonates for me after what must be dozens of viewings, and revisiting it via its stunning new 4k restoration recently just reinforced why I won't be talking about it in depth for quite a while. But I can't let a mention of the film pass without acknowledging the important contribution of composer Lalo Schifrin. As far as I'm concerned, he's a key ingredient in the franchise, second only to Eastwood (and his absence is the reason why The Enforcer gets docked a star in my book).
"Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!"
While coming up with my list of 100 favorites, I gave a lot of consideration to which Ape film would make the cut. At times, all but the last (Battle) have probably held the spot of my favorite. While my love for Beneath has waned a bit over the years, it's certainly the most horrific of the series. Conquest has grown in my esteem as I was better able to appreciate the class dynamics at play as I got older. I will always have a soft spot for Escape, with another fantastic Goldsmith score, a bold new direction, a classic villain, and an extremely downbeat ending (with a slight glimmer of hope). But the more I thought about it, I came around to the fact that if I was going to elevate one, it had to be the original.
Remarks from the Gallery:
Peter: The only thing I'll disagree with is that this is the best of the Apes flicks. But we'll talk about that more at a later date.
Jack: It didn't make my top 100, but it's a memorable film. I'll watch anything written by Rod Serling and I love the prosthetics.
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