Another list compiled. This one is my personal definitive list for a broadened mind on cinema. It is dedicated to the love of my life Mariana.
A Clockwork Orange A Streetcar Named Desire The African Queen Alien Aliens All About Eve All the President's Men American Beauty American History X American Psycho Back to the Future Batman Begins Ben Hur Breakfast at Tiffanys Bridge Over the River Kwai Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid Casablanca Casino Chinatown Citizen Kane The Crying Game Dances with Wolves The Dark Knight The Deer Hunter Dial M for Murder Dirty Harry Dr Zhivago Drive Exorcist Fight Club The Fly The General Godfather Godfather part two Gone With The Wind Good, Bad and the Ugly Goodfellas The Graduate Gran Torino The Great Escape Groundhog Day Guess Who Is Coming to Dinner High Noon Inception Inglorious Basterds It Happened One Night Jaws Kind Hearts and Coronets L.A Confidential Leon Life of Brian Magnificent Seven Matrix Mean Streets Million Dollar Baby Momento Moscow Doesn’t Believe in Tears Mr Smith Goes to Washington My Left Foot Natural Born Killers Network North by Northwest Oldboy Once Upon a Time in America On the Waterfront Planet of the Apes Platoon Prometheus Psycho Pulp Fiction Raging Bull Rebel Without a Cause Rocky Romeo and Juliet Schindler's List The Secrets in their Eyes Seven Shaun of the Dead The Shining Silence of the Lambs Sleuth Social Network Some Like it Hot Stalag 17 Straw Dogs A Streetcar Named Desire Sunset Boulevard Taxi Driver Terminator 2 The Thing The Third Man This is Spinal Tap To Kill a Mockingbird Trainspotting True Romance Unforgiven Vertigo We Need to Talk About Kevin The Wicker Man Zombieland
Having re-ploughed through season 3 of The Sopranos and driving home listening to Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones I was suddenly inspired to examine Martin Scorsese's preoccupation with rock music and how he uses them to great effect.
For years of enjoyment of watching and rewatching Casino,Goodfellas, Mean Streets and The Departed, I just associated the Rolling Stones and Scorsese as just cultural parallels of coolness. The swagger of Jagger and the gangster life of consumption, casual violence and 'ball busting' just seemed to fit.
Some have argued that Scorsese has glamourised the life of organised crime but I find this a lazy generalisation. If we examine the films without soundtracks, we find that both Charlie (Harvey Keitel) and Johnny (Robert De Niro) end up shot, Henry descends from dizzy heights to drug addled and paranoid and sells out to live the quiet life, Sam Rothstein ends up 'back where he started' and everyone plainly shoots each other dead in The Departed.
The glamour of crime is very short lived, though highly appealing when contextualised with food, alcohol and partying. We happily reminisce about The Crystals, 'Then He Kissed Me' scene in Goodfellas which glamorized the sway and power in the gangster world combined with none of the violence attached. Compare this to the ending grey haired, bloodshot eyes of Henry when he is being tracked by the helicopter, being overplayed by Harry Nilsson 'Jump into the Fire' and we would still prefer the former. There are no redeeming features to Henry's character towards the end of Goodfellas.
We can examine these specific choice of music in several ways. One obvious example is that the Crystals track is 1963, released 8 years after the film was to have started and fits in culturally and chronologically. This goes the same for Nilsson's 1984 'Jump into the Fire', a drug infused jumpy track, spliced with The Who's Magicbus and Rolling Stones' Monkey Man. The song simply fits the times. Secondly, the Crystals track emphasises courtship, love and marriage which fits for Henry's and Karen's first date. Jump into the Fire is quite blatant drug inspired cataclysm of excitement and tripped up imagination. So there is the allegorical features of the music. Thirdly, and very Scorsese like, they are cool songs. I would argue that what Scorsese glamorises if anything, is not violence and consumption, but coolness. His protagonists in his film always seem happiest with minimal responsibility and just hanging out with their friends. All their character arcs peak at youthful exuberance, only when they grow up and face consequences do their fortunes plummet. Scorsese seems to suggest, yes, it would obviously be fun to have large amounts of cash and be able to eat in restaurants without paying. But could you pay the price on your soul? Do any of his protagonists win?
The Rolling Stones, spanning five decades of pop and rock music make it easy for Scorsese to segue them into his themes of contextualisation and allegorical storyboards. My favourite use is the entrance of De Niro's Johnny in Mean Streets. Strutting in with two girls on his arm with Jumpin Jack Flash overriding the audio. No its not subtle, docile or suggestive. It is hip gyrating, raw and visceral. And bloody amazing. What is enjoyable about Scorsese's gangster films is that despite the infrequent violence and bad language is that you feel the Scorsese is enjoying the film as much as we are. They aren't complex, they are signposted and narrated. You could leave the room for ten minutes, come back and rely that you will be brought up to speed imminently. This is why the Stones fit so well, they too are simplistic, heavy hitting and are plain good fun. Both Scorsese and The Stones are technically very proficient and appeal to mass audiences, they have spanned several decades and still enjoy their work.
Scorsese's protagonists, like the Stones, are rebels and consumers. They dominate the screen and their brash uncompromising language echoes the spicy direct tones of Keith Richard's guitar. Arguably the signature track of both Scorsese and The Stones would be Gimme Shelter. The Song is derived from the impending doom of Vietnamese war and the collapse of the virtues of Woodstock, peace and love. 'Rape, Violence, its just a shot away' screams both Jagger and Clayton as Richards wails his guitar. Scorsese's frequent depictions of his characters fall from riches to rags echoes this song's sentiments. If I had to pick another 70's song to emulate these fears and concerns it would be The Doors 'The End' and we know which film snuck that in to great effect.
Scorsese's back catalogue of music choices ranges from Cavalleria Rusticana-Intermezzo (1890) to 'I'm Shipping up to Boston (2005) and it would take an eternity to fully examine each choice. What we can rely on is deliberate subliminal thought provoking tracks that aren't just slipped in by a faceless producer but choices that echo and compliment Scorsese's direct directors style. To paraphrase my favourite fictional band, Scorsese turns the music up to 11. If the scene calls for an entrance, Scorsese will deliver it. If he wants to emulate the rock of roll lifestyle of one of his characters he will pick the rockiest track he can. The main difference between Scorsese and other directors who use rock music to good effect would be the collaborative relationship between the music and the shot. Both intertwine with each other to harmonise and compliment, not just to pay royalties to his favourite band.
Epic see, epic do. Epic gets thrown around a lot in regards to film. The Dark Knight Rises was considered an epic, Lord of the Rings, Gladiator and Saving Private Ryan. Sometimes any film that dares breach a 2 hour length gets considered epic. Perhaps epic is attributed to the endurance your bladder takes during a long film or an 'epic' amount of violence, love or drama. Personally I feel the title epic shouldn't be an enhancement or glorifier but an indication that the film will encompass drama, emotion, occasion and significance on their highest possible levels. Having real life extras helps further credibility. To describe Gladiator as an epic is misleading and irrelevant, the same applies to Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan and Kingdom of Heaven. In the last thirty years, I would say that only Dances With Wolves can receive my own definition. If I was asked to define an 'epic' as briefly as I could, I would say that if there is an interlude and no CGI armies then it is an epic. On to The Ten Commandments. Interlude-check, real life extras-check, hammy acting-check, kidney infection inducing bladder busting-pending. I don't mean to suggest that the subtitle of epic ever elevates the film to a different level, but when considering this film I think that it is important. Cecil B DeMille's remake of his own 1923 amplifies the scale to 14,000 extras, 15,000 animals and over 70 speaking parts. If the story of Moses was to be retold, DeMille intended everyone to hear. Its clear that accuracy over content wasn't valued highly but I question as to how important a role accuracy needs to play in a fictional tale that was written thousands of years ago. The love triangle served to differentiate Moses' pre prophet days and add tension between Heston's Moses and the excellent Yul Brynner. But I don't think audiences were encouraged to believe this was in the Bible. With this in mind, any other inaccuracies found after delving deep into the film are irrelevant unless one really feels that they could have made a both a more engaging and accurate film. Indeed this is a very long film and the pace is very slow. However it is helpfully signposted with characters chipping in and reminding the audience where we are and what is driving the film. The plot isn't at all complicated but I feel with a film of this length, the helpful chapters per se drove it onwards. What was never lacking was the real sense of occasion and the size of the project. The ambitions of DeMille really translated in full technicolour glory. What struck me was the extent of old school film-making that has left me disillusioned me in recent 'epics'. The CGI'd battles in Kingdom of Heaven flattered to deceive and the effects over acting in Troy really let the legacy of The Ten Commandments and Ben Hur down. With the post millennial budget, the higher quality resources and benefit of 80 years of film making; results have tended to be exceptionally disappointing. With that in mind, I have admired Christopher Nolan's attempts to perform stunts as accurately and authentically as possible and his retention of highly credible actors driving his stories through. Speaking of special effects, The Ten Commandments picked up the special effects Oscar and you can see why. Its easy to deride the effects on first glances but actually I found the authenticity was rarely lacking and easily better than Bohemian Rhapsody and I Am Legend for just two quick examples. In fact, most of the incredible effects were achieved with a lot of ingenuity and innovation. The parting of the Rea Sea was achieved by 300,000 gallons of water into a tank and then played in reverse. No ability to rewind on a digital player in 1956. The rivers of blood were achieved with red dye and clever placements. Very little was actually used by animation, in the grand scheme of things. The ambition has to be applauded rather than nitpicked. The Ten Commandments isn't half the film Ben Hur is if seeking a relevant comparison. It may have more grandiose scenes but the story of Ben Hur is more engaging, compelling and character driven. However, the scale and ambition of the project drives the film forward as a splendid spectacle. Hammy acting aside, The Ten Commandment's status as one of cinemas greatest ever epics is forever assured. We should also all be thankful that any lessons from The Ten Commandments were learnt in time for Ben Hur.
So this is my Top 100 films destined to elicit conversation. I’ve chosen through fantastic performances, controversial viewing, timeless classics or a beautifully directed film. Other opinions are available and I’ve only picked films that I have seen. The order was difficult but if you fly down the list I think they get a little less thought provoking! Incidentally I googled ‘thought provoking films’ and came quite close! Enjoy
