Black Hawk Down also suffered as a movie by adhering so closely to its source material, its is damn near a docudrama, but while it made for a realistic movie it never made for much of a story for anyone who wasn't a military buff.
That's what made it perfect for me. I made a post earlier in this thread about movies that make getting the history correct the top priority and Black Hawk Down could have been mentioned in that. It didn't dumb down the history and ruin the movie like We Were Soldiers did
Based on that criteria it’d open up a whole new world of perfect movies, mainly comedies.
Trading Places, South Park, Animal House, Dr Strangelove, Super Troopers, Bad Santa, Clerks, Tommy Boy.
I’d also then include Silence of the Lambs, Terminator 2 and One Flew Over the ####oos Nest.
All of those movies were perfectly made for what they intended to do. Be it raunchy comedy, black comedy, satire, action, thriller etc.
I think comedies generally get way too little credit when great movies are listed, so I definitely would not mind "opening up" that side.
However, High Fidelity is not just trying to be a certain type of comedy, it's one of those movies that's about a highly specific topic (certain type of people, with a certain type of relationship to certain type of music, in a certain time in their lives), and it just nails so much of it. You couldn't really remake it, in part because so much of it is tied to a certain point of cultural history which is essentially now gone.
For me a perfect movie is a movie that's not just really good, but one that really, truly captures the topic (at least from one angle). Like High Fidelity does. Or Seven. Or I would argue Fight Club. Or 'Love, Actually'.
Then there's movies that are perfect because they're just so much their own thing. Like Ghostbusters, the story of three guys starting a company but told as a fantasy-comedy-action-horror-movie but with a relatively realistic tone. You can't replicate that actually working and being as good as it is. Groundhog day is another one of those, as I would say is Dr Strangelove. (Which is also so much about a specific point in history that you the window to do one better has passed.)
When you add in technical excellence (editing, cinematography, sound) and make an essentially perfect version of something that's been done a million times before and since, you get to something like Star Wars or Godfather, true cinema classics.
Something like Trading Places on the other hand while entertaining and well done does not IMO have THAT much to say about it's topic. It's one of the better movies with that specific gimmick, but I think there's definitely a better version of that movie not yet made. (In part because our common understanding of topics like class and race has improved massively since they made that film.)
Silence of the Lambs is a good movie, but there's a lot about the way it handles it's topic that's way too Hollywood nonsense for my tastes. Plus Jodie Foster isn't very good in it. (Especially her accent, so bad.)
I think one way recognizing a great version of a certain story is when you notice that it kind of shouldn't be popular. Like Dead Poet's Society. On a certain level, it's about kids who get really into classic poetry. It's not exactly uplifting, there's nothing very cool about it, there's barely even a plot. Stuff happens, it ends on a sad note, the end. Yet it became a big hit. Hard to imagine someone making a better version of that movie. (But I would kind of love to see someone try. Maybe with a different uncool art thing, like painting.)
Dunkirk. Biggest let down in the theatre for me since Matrix 2.
Agreed. Didn't like Dunkirk. Such a missed opportunity. I respected them wanting to only use practical effects but it made the scenes in town and on the beach just look laughably bad
I think comedies generally get way too little credit when great movies are listed, so I definitely would not mind "opening up" that side.
However, High Fidelity is not just trying to be a certain type of comedy, it's one of those movies that's about a highly specific topic (certain type of people, with a certain type of relationship to certain type of music, in a certain time in their lives), and it just nails so much of it. You couldn't really remake it, in part because so much of it is tied to a certain point of cultural history which is essentially now gone.
that where I'd put Dazed & Confused.
great movie that I dismissed until actually watching it.
also a movie that partly failed because the idiots that ran the studio didn't properly market it. they didn't have a clue.
I remember thinking when it came out that it was just a dumb stoner comedy and it wasn't anything like that.
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From HFBoard oiler fan, in analyzing MacT's management:
O.K. there has been a lot of talk on whether or not MacTavish has actually done a good job for us, most fans on this board are very basic in their analysis and I feel would change their opinion entirely if the team was successful.
I love Citizen Kane, as I do Apocalypse Now, and both would be in my top ten films of all time list, but I don't think they are perfect, different criteria.
Two films I do think are perfect though would be Drugstore Cowboy and Badlands, both perfectly written, superbly acted and filmed, evocative of the era they are set in.
Two films I do think are perfect though would be Drugstore Cowboy and Badlands, both perfectly written, superbly acted and filmed, evocative of the era they are set in.
Badlands. Yes. Easily one of the greatest films of all time and definitely achieves perfection. It inspired countless other, more popular films, and yet it seems like a lot of people haven’t heard of it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by btimbit
Agreed. Didn't like Dunkirk. Such a missed opportunity. I respected them wanting to only use practical effects but it made the scenes in town and on the beach just look laughably bad
Dunkirk ranks as a perfect film for me. Every moving part, every sound, every dramatic beat is perfectly timed and in sync with everything else.
Anybody mention True Romance yet? Easily one of the most entertaining and expertly paced films ever made IMO, with great casting and a fantastic screenplay by Tarantino (one of his earliest works).
This scene in particular is just perfect.
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