Best movies ever
Bestowing the credit of “Best Movie Ever” on a singular movie is near impossible due to the fact that there not only many great movies to have been made in cinema’s history of over a hundred years but also there are many genres of film and to choose a film of one genre above another film of another genre seems a little harsh.
Also, the fact that such an accolade would be awarded based purely on the taste of whoever awarded the status flaws the idea anyway but what the hell, this is all a bit of fun so here is my idea of the best five movies ever made. The choices represent my own personal choices and feature as much variation as possible.
I would also point out that I have not seen every movie ever made and therefore am not capable of deciding the “Best Movie Ever”, only the “Best Movie I’ve Seen”.
So, in no particular order
TAXI DRIVER
I first saw Taxi Driver when I was about fourteen and too young to truly understand it’s message. I liked the film but only because my juvenile mind perceived it to be about a guy going nuts and killing everybody he could get his guns trained on (which seemed like a cool concept to the misfit teenage me).
I then watched the film again when I was about twenty five and was struck by how excellent a portrayal of disenfranchised paranoia Robert DeNiro gave with his character Travis Bickle. Unlike a great many modern films, Taxi Driver took its time and allowed the character and his audience the time to see all that was wrong with his world and when Bickle eventually loses his ability to let the evils of the world pass him by, the viewer is forced into a situation of sympathising, empathising and almost cheering him on in his campaign.
Taxi Driver features excellent performances from Robert DeNiro, Jodie Foster and even Sybil Shepard. It marks a bold kick in Hollywood’s teeth from director Martin Scorsese and Paul Schrader’s script is loose enough to give the character’s time to bloom but tight enough to portray the horror of Bickle’s life.
THE EXORCIST
As a British resident, The Exorcist was unavailable to me for a great many years but I had read the book and it terrified me. Then when I was eighteen, a local cinema played a one-off showing of the film while it was still refused certificate on video.
The film blew me away, not only because of the extreme content but also the magnificent performances from Linda Blair, Ellen Burnstyn, Jason Miller and Max Von Sydow. Also the slow pace of the movie, which
Tags: Director Martin Scorsese, Genres, Nuts