Decades of Cinema - 10 Best of the 1950's

You can find my lists for the 1920's here, 1930's here, and 1940's here. It's time to cover the 1950's, a pretty incredible ten years of filmmaking.

10. Wild Strawberries

The brilliance of Ingmar Bergman can not be overstated. The man was a genius, and one of my favorite works of his is Wild Strawberries, a film that beautifully walks the line of real and surreal with grace and ease. This is without a doubt a far more accessible movie compared to some of his others, as we go on a journey with Isak Borg both in the literal and deeply personal sense as he drives a great distance and also reflects on his life and finds inner peace with himself along the way.

9. Ugetsu

Ugetsu is a tremendously beautiful, haunting ghost story that is celebrated for being one of the defining pieces from the Japanese Golden Age of Film. It is a mystical, magical fable that utilizes gorgeous cinematography to set an atmosphere that is impossible not to admire.

8. A Man Escaped

A man condemned to death in a Nazi prison camp in a then German-occupied France. Much of the film is spent inside the claustrophobic confines of a prison cell, and you can feel the walls closing in around him. The only way out is via escape and a plan is methodically put into place, and the tension is built brilliantly using sound and space. This Robert Bresson film is not only a masterclass in filmmaking on its own regard, but it has since been the inspiration for other major pictures including the Oscar winning Alfonso Cuaron picture Gravity. A Man Escaped is a must see.

7. Rashomon

A film that literally invented terminology referring to scenarios in which multiple eye witness accounts of a single event offer conflicting information. The Rashomon effect. This is a movie worthy of being described as spellbinding, as I cannot look away as I watch it. Rashomon is essentially perfect cinema on every possible level, yet it only ranks as my #7 of its decade. That's how great the 50's were.

6. 12 Angry Men

A sublime example of minimalism done right, 12 Angry Men almost entirely takes place in one room and yet the setting is probably more vital to the storytelling than any single character. A jury deliberates the fate of a man who has been charged with a murder, and the tension in the room is reflected by the climate outside. One of the finest examples of a film being carried by performances that I can think of.

5. The Night of the Hunter

In the review I wrote for Only God Forgives, I explain what is wrong with blindly following a site like Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic without giving a movie a chance and making up your own mind. One of the biggest historical examples of thing is The Night of the Hunter, the only film ever directed by Charles Laughton. Why only one? Because it was panned critically out of the gate and was a commercial failure. Now you can't find an expansive list of the greatest films of all time without seeing The Night of the Hunter on it.

4. Paths of Glory

There have been a fair amount of hard hitting war films released since the dawn of the medium, but Paths of Glory is surely one of the greatest. One of a few examples of the genius Stanley Kubrick using his platform to artistically express his anti-war sentiments, the story here involves a group of soldiers who refuse to participate in an attack that is essentially suicide. Three of these men are chosen randomly to face a court-martial for cowardice. 

The first time I saw Paths of Glory, I was literally speechless when it ended. I then proceeded to immediately press play on the remote and watch the entire thing over again without even so much as standing up.

3. Rear Window

For the second straight list of my favorite films from a decade, Alfred Hitchcock will occupy two of the top three spots. Safe to say I am a fan, eh? The difference between the two sets of films is the 1940's variety, with Shadow of a Doubt and Rope, were two movies I had not even seen until relatively recently and I fell in love with as an adult. Here with Rear Window, the love is both due to the exquisite filmmaking and also the nostalgic feeling I get from seeing this so many times throughout my life. I cherished Rear Window nearly 20 years ago and I admire it even more today.

2. Singin' in the Rain

If I am ever even in a slightly dour mood, a little headache, a bad day at work, hell simply stubbing my toe would suffice, I can turn to Singin' in the Rain and everything will be just fine soon after I press play. I used to claim I hated musicals. I used to be an idiot. This is one of the great joys of cinema, a film that absolutely glows thanks to memorable musical numbers, amazing set pieces and tons of laughs. 

1. Vertigo

The best film of the 1950's is also one of my favorite of all time from any era. Vertigo sort of represents what cinematic perfection feels like for me because it was the first film I ever saw that made me understand what the word masterpiece meant. Not to mention the fact that when I lost my Vertigo virginity, I was a 14 year old boy so beautiful women were certainly in my wheelhouse. Probably explains why I was smiling like an idiot whenever Kim Novak was on the screen.

Next will be the 1960's, which will feature some of the finest films ever made.  

100 Favorite Films - #60 - #51

A continuation of my list counting down my 100 favorite films of all time.


60. Rope (1948)

When the name Alfred Hitchcock is mentioned, instantly the mind races through classics like Psycho, Vertigo, Rear Window and The Birds, and understandably so, but Rope is a masterful film that seems to not get enough credit. During the very first scene of the movie, we witness a murder, a tragedy for no real purpose beyond the thrill the two killers get from doing it.

While the story taking place on screen is chilling enough, the innovative style of Rope is part of the reason I fell totally in love with it. Hitchcock used a series of long takes, each roughly ten minutes in length, and then the picture was edited in a way that it appears as if the camera never once cuts. It as if we are a fly on the wall and were able to witness something deranged, and the camera pans around and brings us incredible frames that bring exactly what we need to see into focus at that moment. A masterpiece of tension building and technical wonder.


59. Rashomon (1950)

For the most part I am still shamefully unfamiliar with the work of Akira Kurosawa, but Rashomon is one I know very well and a film that has left a powerful mark on cinema as a whole. The structure of the storytelling was game changing at the time, as the plot revolves around multiple people telling their differing version of events regarding the same incident, and the end result is a remarkable film about morality and the untrustworthy nature of storytelling.


58. Baraka (1992)

No narrative, no voiceover, yet nothing short of spectacular. Baraka is a documentary film that explores themes with surprising depth and clarify despite merely being a series of powerful imagery from across the world. The themes being explored need no explanation because if you are watching closely, they will reveal themselves in meaningful, unforgettable ways.


57. Fargo (1996)

The Coen brothers have mastered the art of crafting films that are both dark comedies and thematically rich dramas, and Fargo is a sublime example of this. At times jarringly heartbreaking yet also hilariously scripted and performed, Fargo manages to deliver a little bit of everything over the course of 98 incredible minutes.


56. Inception (2010)

Ultra ambitious and massive in scope, Christopher Nolan transitioned from Gotham to a science fiction marvel involving the ability to enter dreams and thus alter real life. I remember vividly how in love with the Inception trailer I was, practically watching it on repeat for months leading up to its summer release. The actual film did not disappoint.


55. Mulholland Drive (2001)

Instantly I knew I was in love with Mulholland Drive yet if you would have asked me why after the first time I saw it, the answer would have been similar to "It's creepy and weird and I love it." Vague, sure, but the picture is so confounding I still to this day find it difficult to put into words what I extract from the experience. What David Lynch crafted here is likely not something often referred to as "mediocre" or "average", because it has all the makings of a polarizing work that you either cherish or admonish for its abstract nature. Count me among those that hold it in high regard.



54. Donnie Darko (2001)

Speaking of head scratching cinema, from the very same year as Mulholland Drive comes my next film, Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko. A very young Jake Gyllenhaal plays the lead role as Donnie, and the film revolves around his search for meaning and understanding after experiencing bizarre visions warning him of an approaching Doomsday. The most often reaction to this film after a first viewing is also to search for meaning and understanding, and it took a few revisits for me to form an opinion of what actually occurs in the end. I find Donnie Darko to be a meaningful and fascinating cinematic journey.



53. Gone Girl (2014)

My Review of Gone Girl

If it weren't such a recently released film, I honestly might have it ranked even higher, but it demands a second viewing for me to cement down my initial thoughts, which were that this is quite possibly the finest work by director David Fincher to date. Gone Girl is a dark, gloomy, beautifully made thriller that also serves as a very clever satire of both the struggles of marital life and of the landscape of American media. I was wrapped up in this one from beginning to end, and Rosamund Pike is a revelation, a performance that reminded me of a perfect combination of old and new Hollywood. I feel like she both could scare the piss out of me here yet also time travel to 60 years ago and star along side Jimmy Stewart in a Hitchcock film. So good.



52. Hana-Bi (Fireworks) (1997)

Written by, directed by, edited by and starring Japanese filmmaker Takeshi Kitano, the man does it all and what he poured his heart and soul into is a beautiful film called Hana-Bi, released in the United States under the title Fireworks. Kitano plays a cop named Nishi who feels compelled to quit the force after his partner is badly injured during an incident and is relegated to a wheelchair. With his retirement, Nishi now has the time to look after his ailing wife Miyuki who is fighting a battle with leukemia, and the film explores their relationship along with the added tension of Nishi owing money to the Yakuza with no means to pay them back.

This is a film I credit for my love of cinema, as I saw it at a time when I didn't understand what an art form the medium could be, and Hana-Bi really opened my eyes.



51. Back to the Future (1985)

What do I really need to say about this one? A blast to the past from director Robert Zemeckis, Back to the Future is a film I was raised on since childhood, a VHS tape that I wore down from so many viewings. The film was and continues to be a massive success and it deserves it, as it remains an important piece of pop culture and a quotable, beloved film even roughly thirty years later.

50 down, 50 to go. Above is an image from a film that will appear on my next list of ten.