Decades of Cinema - 10 Best of the 1960's

Previous lists are the 1920's, 1930's, 1940's and the 1950's. Here we have my ten favorite films from the 1960's.

10. The Apartment

Thanks to the Katherine Heigl's and Gerard Butler's of the world, the words "romantic comedy" have gotten a bad name. Here's the thing though: a good film is a good film, regardless of genre, and there have been a lot of terrific rom com pictures over the years. The Apartment by Billy Wilder is one of the all time greats. 

9. Winter Light

I find it ironic that I am always drawn in by pictures filled with religious themes and those that frequently feature religious imagery because in reality such things have little to no meaning in my life. I may not go to church, well, ever, but I will certainly attend a sermon directed by Ingmar Bergman. Winter Light is a truly special film that follows the pastor of a church as he searches for answers from a silent God. 

8. Persona

Oh, that Ingmar Bergman guy? Was I just talking about him? Well how about that, here we are again with one of his masterful works, this time the psychological mind fuck known as Persona. When I saw this film, I had no idea what I was watching unfold, but I didn't care. I knew what I was seeing was brilliantly crafted and the definition of memorable.

7. Night of the Living Dead

The ultimate zombie film from none other than the master himself, George A. Romero. Night of the Living Dead has so much more going on than just the walking dead. It is easy to ignore these days and treat as inconsequential, but this is a horror film released in 1968 and the lead role was a black male who bossed around the white people. Think about that for a second. Think about how controversial it must have been to see at the time.

On a much simpler level, this is a brilliantly made classic and it's entertaining as hell.

"They're coming to get you, Barbara!"

6. Breathless

This film from Jean-Luc Godard can only be described in the most simplistic of terms, even though the picture itself is anything but: it's just so god damn cool. From the model himself in the vein of Bogart Michel to his hip and beautiful girlfriend Patricia, Breathless is one of the earliest and most influential movies from the French New Wave.

5. La Jetee

One of the finest films ever created and it clocks in at less than 30 minutes in length, La Jetee is short but utterly brilliant. Director Chris Marker takes us on a science fiction journey in an unconventional way by delivering a story not with a normal cinematic flow but as a slide show of images and a voice-over narration. La Jetee ended up being the work that influenced the creation of the movie 12 Monkeys, and while I love the Terry Gilliam picture, the original is the masterpiece for me.

4. Dr. Strangelove

The top four films from the 1960's will be a perfect representation of why I consider Stanley Kubrick to be quite possibly the greatest cinematic mind in history. While only two of the four films will be his, they represent just how much range he demonstrated as an auteur and here we have one of the all time most brilliant comedies ever made. Yet another example of Kubrick being extremely anti-war only instead of delivering these messages via Paths of Glory or Full Metal Jacket type narratives, he makes us laugh out loud early and often here.

3. Psycho

If you have been following my lists thus far, you have figured out by now that I am quite the fan of Hitchcock. Psycho is iconic and having the chance to see it on the big screen last year for the first time in my life was quite the experience. Also, is it just me or does Andrew Garfield look an awful lot like Anthony Perkins? Too bad they wasted a remake on Vince Vaughn.

2. Lawrence of Arabia

There was never another film like Lawrence of Arabia and there never will be again. It is a once in a lifetime miracle of cinema, a massive epic that, if it were made today, would demand a 300 million dollar budget and most of it would be wasted on special effects. Don't be fooled by the daunting length of this one and let that stop you from watching, Lawrence of Arabia is one of the smoothest and easiest films I have ever digested.

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey

A haunting monolith of cinema, 2001: A Space Odyssey is considered by many to be the greatest achievement in movie history and it is difficult for me to find a compelling reason to disagree. Stanley Kubrick does something mesmerizing and profound with the material by baffling us yet also inspiring his audience into believing that film can be an art form unlike any other. Personally, I think 2001 is a giant, amazing representation of the evolution of humanity, but hey, what the hell do I know?

The most important thing to remember when experiencing 2001 is to not get frustrated trying to analyze the details to death. That first time you see it, who cares what it is about? Just sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.

Next up, the 1970's. Oh boy the 1970's. I had to make some real tough choices and leave off some amazing films there. One that did make the cut is depicted above.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence Review

As the months on the calendar continue to fall off far too rapidly and the years start to sound more like a science fiction setting rather than the present, the year 2001 starts to remind me less of the Kubrick masterpiece and more of a time long since passed. While I recall the memories of things that will be impossible to forget, like the surreal day in September in which America was attacked, very little of what I personally experienced back then will register in my mind ever again. I was 17 years old and the days I lived then all blur together in a mess of underage alcohol consumption and raging hormones, but oddly enough I have carried a hatred for a specific film with me for over thirteen years now: A.I. Artificial Intelligence.

The strange part is, I could no longer even remember why I hated it so much. I had seen it with friends when it opened in June of 2001, and I recall walking in with expectations of a grand, wildly imaginative science fiction masterpiece, and walking out bitching about the ending and the way it was "too long" and "boring". All these years later and I still found myself scoffing at the film when I would see it receive praise, and it occurred to me that I have forgiven people I actually had reason to dislike back then in recent years. I have transformed from a turd teenager to a 30 year old man with a 7 year old daughter since my one and only viewing of A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Wasn't it about time I gave the film a second chance?

While still not a masterpiece, A.I. Artificial Intelligence is certainly grand and wildly imaginative and I feel a bit of shame for holding such an odd grudge for 13 years when I could have been revisiting it and discovering the reasons to embrace it instead. The original vision of this film came from the master himself Stanley Kubrick all the way back in the 1970's, but he simply could not get the project off the ground, having issues with the quality of special effects available to him. Kubrick felt that they would not be worthy to create the child android character of David appear human enough, which is mandatory for the narrative. It wasn't until 1995 when Kubrick decided to hand the project off to good friend Steven Spielberg, and even then nothing moved forward until Kubrick passed away in 1999. 

While Kubrick never got the chance to see his finished vision finally put to celluloid, I now believe he would have been proud of what Spielberg achieved. I was blown away by how strong the visuals of the film stand up in 2014, which seems like a silly statement when referring to a film only released 13 years ago, but the progression of the quality of effects available continues to unfold rapidly and yet A.I. feels as if it could be put into cinemas today and no one would ever know the difference. The performances of Haley Joel Osment and Jude Law are hauntingly on point for the android roles they are playing, and the Pinocchio inspired story is constantly compelling and heartbreaking, which is ironic because while I shed tears for the pain of David, in truth David is feeling no pain. He has no heart, he has no soul, and yet I wanted nothing more than for him to find the blue fairy and become a real boy. If Kubrick picked Spielberg because he felt he was the correct choice to make the audience connect so deeply with something not human, much the way we did with an alien in E.T., than he certainly got it right. While the film may suffer from a small amount of flaws, the depth of how I connected to it on an emotional level was not one of them.

Speaking of those flaws, only one thing I recall feeling way back in 2001 still registered with me this time around and that is with the pacing. I don't know what it is exactly, but I was totally invested in the first and second acts of the film, but by the third act which takes place in a far distant future I felt myself fading away from the work a bit. A.I Artificial Intelligence went from a riveting, joyous ride to a bit of a lean back in my seat and check the clock to see how much more was left experience, and I cannot be certain whether this is truly the fault of the film or if I should be taking issue with myself as the viewer. I suppose a third viewing will be what makes or breaks this issue with my drifting away during the final thirty or so minutes.

Also, while it only comprises of about seven seconds of screen time, there is a sequence where Chris Rock does a voice cameo and it really feels out of place. I don't understand creative decisions like this, because it really wasn't amusing and it certainly didn't add anything to the film and yet it was a jarring reminder that I was indeed just watching a movie. I prefer to let the experience overtake me, when I lose sight of what is fact and what is fiction and instead just get swept away in the story, but little things like celebrity cameos meant for nothing more than a giggle or a talking point don't sit right. 

As a massive fan of the science fiction genre, I will not be quickly moving A.I. Artificial Intelligence to the top of any all time lists, but I certainly regret not finding time for a second viewing sooner and recognizing how silly my hatred was. For the most part this is a masterfully handled film with depth and passion seeping out of every pore. If you are like me with this or any other highly regarded picture, carrying with you the negative energy of a bad cinematic experience for years, I suggest you sit down with an open mind and give it a second chance. I'm thrilled I did.

4/5

Genius Directors - Stanley Kubrick

Despite being a fan (to say the least) of Stanley Kubrick and his films, I didn't quite grasp the level of brilliance he achieved during his career until I visited his IMDB page recently and really soaked in the list of his work. The man was essentially a masterpiece machine, and what impresses me even more is that he wasn't a one trick pony who mastered a genre and stuck with it.

In 1957 he released the devastating film Paths of Glory, an anti-war story of a troop of soldiers who refuse to follow through with a suicidal attack and are thus charged with the war crime of cowardice, a potential sentence of death at the hands of their own country they trusted with their lives. In 1960 Kubrick was at the helm of the historical epic Spartacus, a film twice as long as Paths of Glory and far grander in scope. In 1964 the world was lucky enough to witness the absolutely brilliant anti-war satirical comedy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, which I consider to be one of the greatest comedies ever released.

His next film after Dr. Strangelove is considered by many to be not only the greatest science fiction film of all time, but perhaps the greatest period. 2001: A Space Odyssey is without a doubt my favorite work of Kubrick and sits comfortably in my top ten films of all time, an abstract and polarizing cinematic behemoth that is designed to confound and challenge the audience, and it succeeds as even after double digit viewings I can merely present my hypothesis on the meaning of the film rather than absolutes.

Skip ahead all the way to 1980 when one of the truly iconic horror classics was released, The Shining, a film that not only scares the shit out of viewers but also has left a lasting legacy on pop culture and anyone who has allowed the haunting imagery to linger in their minds. Next was Full Metal Jacket in 1987, another Kubrick anti-war classic that plays in two jarringly different acts, the first at boot camp as we witness the mental breakdown of Leonard Lawrence, more famously known by the nickname Gomer Pyle, and the second act allows us to witness the awfulness of the Vietnam war. Full Metal Jacket is a wonderful movie as a whole, but the first act at boot camp and the final scene of the film are the two aspects that will forever stay with me.

Finally, twelve years later in 1999, sadly Kubrick's final and most misunderstood masterpiece was released, Eyes Wide Shut, a film that literally gave me nightmares after seeing it. If you sit down to watch Eyes Wide Shut because you are looking for nudity and the infamous orgy scene, don't bother. Sure, those aspects are indeed there, but if your main goal is to be aroused by the experience you are sure to be disappointed, as the narrative of this film is instead a giant advertisement for the positives of monogamy, a slice of cinema that left me feeling anything but sexy.

Amazingly, all these films I mentioned and I didn't even cover Barry Lyndon or A Clockwork Orange, considered to be two of the finer films ever released. That is how brilliant the filmography of Stanley Kubrick.

Ranking his work is a tall order, but here is my attempt to do so:

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey
2. Eyes Wide Shut
3. The Shining
4. Full Metal Jacket
5. Dr. Strangelove
6. Paths of Glory
7. Barry Lyndon
8. A Clockwork Orange
9. Spartacus

Not listed are those I have (sadly) never seen, his first feature from 1953 titled Fear and Desire, the 1955 film The Killer's Kiss, The Killing from 1956 and Lolita from 1962. A part of me feels ashamed to still have these four films to experience before I can truly understand everything the man accomplished, but the other part of me is thrilled to have Kubrick work left to discover.