Entertainment For Lively Minds
the three most important movies of the last half century
Posted by Glenbervie on 20 December 2009 - 2:01am.
1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
2. Blade Runner
3. The Matrix
discuss ...
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Star Wars
changed cinema for ever. The reliance on special effects, the merchandising and tie-ins, the behind the scenes achievements, the creation of the modern blockbuster. It was the first 'modern' film if you like. Whether it's legacy is good or bad is whole other question, but it's certainly the most important film of the last 50 years.
2001 set the scene for it's success, a little bit like the Velvet Underground laid the groundwork for punk and the whole Indie thing. But Star Wars was the one that had people queuing around the block handing over their cash.
Neither Blade Runner nor The Matrix would probably have gotten made without the success of Star Wars.
Agreed
Also pioneered the idea of a mega-successful series of sequels, thus encouraging studios to develop "franchises". And the success of Star Wars (and also "Jaws") meant that the money and marketing men moved in to film-making, getting rid of the old era producers.
I happen to think Star Wars is awful, but I can't deny its influence on everything that has come after - I'll happily argue that the huge amounts of rubbish cinema that has come along in the last thirty years has its roots in Mr Lucas' blockbuster.
I beg to differ
Punk laid the groundwork for the acceptance of the Velvet Underground which had, until 1976, been largely overlooked.
Acceptance by who?..
..nobody buys their records.
speak
for yourself.
Star Wars led to it being acceptable...
for grown men to relive their childhoods in perpetuity.
The 3 greatest movies..
..according to Comic Book Guy off The Simpsons, I'd say.
Nah...
he'd have gone for The Empire Strikes Back.
Important?
Putting aside the fact that it's not even a good film, what was "important" about The Matrix?
And as for Blade Runner
Surely a prime example of style over content?
in some ways
There is definitely *content* in there, but there is also rather a lot of style. I can see why it would irritate people.
Yeah I've had this discussion a few times before
I think you nailed it - it is SO stylish (and visually influential) that people often assume it must just be style.
But as Andrew Harrison of this parish has pointed out before, it's got a good, simple story at its heart that raises some pretty basic questions about what it means to be human.... I don't think it's superficial at all, I find it deeply moving more than anything else.
Agree with that
I think the recent flick Moon also handles the same underlying issues, maybe in a more palatable form?
Star Wars and Jaws
Agree with the comments above.
How about Toy Story? Groundbreaking computer generated animation which started a boom in animated features and was followed by several more Pixar/Disney masterpieces such as The Incredibles.
Bladerunner..
..style over content perhaps, but very, very stylish. I agree with all the Star Wars comments too. But The Matrix?
What about...
Citizen Kane?
The Godfather?
Star Wars (already mentioned)?
Psycho?
etc.
The Matrix shouldn't be in anyone's top 20 far less top 3.
Hey...
Remember Fellini, Kurosawa, Truffaut, Bergman ? They make films outside the USA, you know !
I already mentioned
the French new wave.
Eraserhead
Exorcist
St*r W*rs
*exits stage left*
Steven Spielberg/Jonathon Demme
I'll probably choose another three in five minutes time but for now -
Jaws/ET
Silence of the lambs
Stop making sense
oh and lets not forget
On the buses........
Oh yes...
...especially as it paved the way for the truly magnificent Holiday On the Buses.
The one-two punch of Jaws and Star Wars is hard to beat
and I also think The Exorcist is a good shout but for sheer number of imitations my picks are Halloween and National Lampoon's Animal House.
How about some
French new wave? Very influential on a whole generation of directors.
If important means influential then
On her majesties secret service (or whatever the first bond film was called).
The towering inferno (which set the tone for a multitude of epics)
The exorcist
For me, today , it would be
The Third Man
Dr. Strangelove
Easy Rider
Tommorrow would see Lawrence of Arabia in there for starters..
Have a good day all.
For me
The most influential on modern cinema...
Jaws
Star Wars
Toy Story
Can i rephrase and say...
... the most important movies of the last half century when you come in from the pub and Bladerunner's on iPlayer? Any accurate list would have to include Donnie Darko of course ;-)
Matrix influence
Don't know about important (who am I to judge these things) but the look of that film has had a huge effect in advertising and design, and in lower level TV. The development of the bullet time effect for that movie is well-documented.
I actually like Blade Runner, but it seems to occupy the space it was designed to occupy, that of a curate's egg.
Blade Runner
The great thing about Blade Runner for me was that it was made in the old school way in the days before computers made films and it still looks fantastic.
Wonder how many unemployed model makers there are in Hollywood now.
Absolutely, Doug.
As Young Master Jones realised with Moon. CGI makes it much easier and cheaper to produce the accompanying video game, but the way light falls through a lens makes models look so much better. Rare is it that CGI makes for proper immersive cinema. Sadly, it's what people now want. All film has to have CGI in the same way that all vocals have to have Autotune. Hopefully, it'll change.
tricky question - am I allowed 5?
the "most important" is of course the point of the question. So we're talking about movies that moved cinema forwards and maybe influenced a number of later important directors and actors.
So I've come up with five since 1960 that might compete.
The Godfather (the first, and some say the best, great crime gangster drama of the modern era)
In the Heat of the Night (broke new ground in terms of cinema as a mirror on social political issues of the day)
The Sound of Music (set the standard for all musicals to follow)
The Outlaw Josey Wales (the last truly great western. Nothing as good since in that genre).
The Battle of Algiers (the first political docu-drama of the modern era about an issue which is now regrettably a part of our lives - terrorism).
No
I don't think that 2001 or The Matrix really affected the way people think or the way that other art is made in any significant way... Blade Runner I think DID mark an important shift in the way people visualised the future and thought about technology and our relationship to it, but the other two... No I don't think so.
I'd have to agree with the Godfather: I think that set out a lot of how we think about narrative and heroes/antiheroes in the modern world...
On the whole, though, I don't watch films unless they have Jackie Chan or "The Rock" starring in them, so I don't really know...
Matrix
For people nay-saying the influence of the Matrix, just watch any big budget movie, especially in an action format. Most have at least one "bullet time" part. And what of the quasi-intellectual confusing plots that twist and turn? See no further than Lost or Flashforward.
It's been an important film, though certainly not one of the best.
The three are...
JAWS
Oh for goodness sake
So, the (ahem) Most Important Movies Ever Made are three science fiction flicks starting about 70 years after the dawn of cinema. Fun - maybe. But Important ? Influential ?
By definition the pioneers are important and influential, so lots of the silent boys for a start. Then, important and influential - The Jazz Singer. Crap, dated by our standards, yes, but as the first sound picture undeniably important and influential.
Star Wars : yes , important and influential, and not necessarily in a good way. The Matrix is more to do with video games, but I can't talk, as I have never watched it to the end, as I found it absurdly pompous and boring.
I could go on, and on, and on. But if the Massive have it that there is nothing Important and Influential before the mid-1960s, and, apart from rocker43, all in English then this game isn't worth playing, and I am going to naff off to Sight & Sound where I clearly belong.
Well intentioned clarification
The title of the thread is "the three most important movies of the last half century" so, since 1959. But I for one would be quite happy to see it go beyond that, and I think it already has.
One thing that has struck me from my own film watching, is that in the 70s "art-house" films seemed to cross over and sometimes influence the mainstream. Films such as McCabe and Mrs Miller, Fanny and Alexander, Tarkovsky's Stalker and that has now gone. Is this because I was a student, and then ex-student, and went to cinemas and film societies which showed these, or has there been a genuine move to blockbusters. Like prog rock, were ambition and experiment something mainly of that period (although with more fans now than you might think)?
The title of this thread is...
...the three most important movies of the last half century.
Edit: (Sorry to make the same point, Melville.)
Ooops
...I overlooked the half-century bit.
I could rant separately ( Au Bout de Souffre, Star Wars, whichever film was the tipping point that allowed film series to go forever, giving us Police Academy 6) but I had better slink away now...
Just say Breathless,
it's easier to spell!
Star Wars
Rocky
Toy Story
Often the 'most important'
Often the 'most important' equates to some of the worst and, quite frankly, any film that purports to be an influence on the dire industry that goes under the name 'film' in 2009 is almost certainly awful.
I'll nominate Truffaut's '400 Blows'.....the (superb) British new realism of the late 50's and 60's was virtually built on it.
And for me, the idea of seeing a war film after 'Paths of Glory' or a sci-fi film after '2001' seems a bit 'after the Lord Mayor's show'!
In any case the cinema of the 30's, 40's and 50's is far more innovative than the 'Jaws' inspired dross of the 1970s and beyond.
Make that the three most disastrous things..
...that ever happened to cinema.
.
Removed unneccesary comment after one too many beers me thinks -Doh
Don't know whether these are important, but....
All quiet on the western front
West Side Story
Dr Strangelove
on a lower level, Tinto Brass movies also hit the spot
Please excuse my ignorance of european movies
Jaws - start of blockbuster movies, which we're only just seeing a vague reduction of
La Dolce Vita (may be too old to qualify)
2001 Space Odyssey
I think Psycho without any
I think Psycho without any doubt is a key influential film and still very watchable. I think one can claim that Annie Hall (which I now find hard to watch) actually gave birth to a particular kind of film language that explored the neuroses and foibles in relationships in a way that went beyong what was common prior to it. And then I think Alien (partly because Blade Runner has lots of votes already) because of its very simple but very effective story in the context of sci-fi and the way that it avoided romance despite the exquisitely sexy performance from Weaver.
So... Psycho, Annie Hall and Alien. There are arguments for Toy Story.
Goodfellas
Not only possibly THE best film but very influential in its cutting commentary narrative and the whiplash inducing pace at which the film runs.
As for the other two, in terms of overall cinematic influence, I'll plump for ET (merchandising, the media driven mass hysteria and queueing and Spielberg's saccharine sickly nice ending - not necessarily a good thing but one used time and time again) and Toy Story - fuelling studio wars not seen since the 30's and kids cartoon stories with adult appeal.