Older films worth another look

[sanityassassin]

There was a sci-fi weekend just past on channel5 in the uk and there was a couple of films I've never heard of but watched one called the final countdown which I really enjoyed it was from 1980 with kirk douglas and martin sheen.

Its a wonderful life can't be beat also the warriors(original) and escape from new york

 

[kyektulu]

Seeing some of these suggestions made me realsie how long it has been since I have seen some of them.
I will be watching them again soon!

Good thread.

 

[roddglenn]

Rear Window, The Birds, Psycho, etc - all brilliant. The Thing is an awsome film too (I still consider that one pretty new though, but that's just me getting old!!!).

I've got The Final Countdown on DVD - it's one of those films that seemed to drop off the radar (no pun intended!). I really like it as a down to Earth sci-fi.

 

[steve12553]

Rear Window, The Birds, Psycho, etc - all brilliant. The Thing is an awsome film too (I still consider that one pretty new though, but that's just me getting old!!!).

There were two versions of the Thing remember. One was a scary, paranoid, cold war allegory made in the early 1950s and the other was late 1980's with great special effects that was truer to the original story "Who goes There?" by John H. Cambell. AS to the Hitchcock movies thow in Vertigo, North by Northwest and a couple more and you can keep me occupied for a weekend. In the right mood I can watch them over and over.

 

[Winters_Sorrow]

One of my favourite Hitch movies was "The Trouble with Harry".
One of the funniest black comedies I've ever seen. I demand you all go out and buy/rent/watch this film immediately!

 

[ravenus]

There were two versions of the Thing remember. One was a scary, paranoid, cold war allegory made in the early 1950s...

Scary? I'd personally regard that film as campy and funny. It was basically a B-movie effort with all the hallmarks of a B-movie.

 

[roddglenn]

Doh, I forgot about the original 50s version - The Thing from Outerspace!

 

[littlemissattitude]

One of my favourite Hitch movies was "The Trouble with Harry".
One of the funniest black comedies I've ever seen. I demand you all go out and buy/rent/watch this film immediately!

Oh, yes. "Harry" is very nearly the perfect movie. I first saw it when I was a kid, at the theatre, which is weird, because it was made before I was born, and then wasn't around much. But somehow, it was out there when I was maybe 10 years old and I got to see it. And then it disappeared, along with several other of his films, until the 1980s. I've seen it several times since then, and I just love it.

 

[steve12553]

Oh, yes. "Harry" is very nearly the perfect movie. I first saw it when I was a kid, at the theatre, which is weird, because it was made before I was born, and then wasn't around much. But somehow, it was out there when I was maybe 10 years old and I got to see it. And then it disappeared, along with several other of his films, until the 1980s. I've seen it several times since then, and I just love it.

Your right. It, along with "Vertigo", "Rear Window" and I believe "Rope" were put away for quite a while and not released until after his death. All unique and worth seeing. Rope was the one where he shot everything in continuous 20 minute takes using breakaway sets and other trick. Gotta love his gimmicks.

 

[littlemissattitude]

Your right. It, along with "Vertigo", "Rear Window" and I believe "Rope" were put away for quite a while and not released until after his death. All unique and worth seeing. Rope was the one where he shot everything in continuous 20 minute takes using breakaway sets and other trick. Gotta love his gimmicks.

I've never seen Rope, but I did see something in a documentary once about how he made it. I especially like the trick of focusing in on the back of someone's jacket when he came to the end of a reel of film and then pulling back out to start the new reel. Very clever, that. Just as good as anything Orson Welles came up with in making Citizen Kane, as far as I'm concerned. Not saying Kane isn't a good movie, because it is. But I feel about Kane kind of like I feel about The Beatles and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Which is, that it's a good, innovative album technically speaking, but not the greatest album ever, just as I don't think Kane is the greatest movie ever, which some folks seem to think it is.

 

[steve12553]

I've never seen Rope, but I did see something in a documentary once about how he made it. I especially like the trick of focusing in on the back of someone's jacket when he came to the end of a reel of film and then pulling back out to start the new reel. Very clever, that.

Hitchcock had a lot of wonderful tricks that were never used before and seldom since. Another example was in "Vertigo". In on of the bell tower scenes he had the camera take Jimmy Stewart's perspective and he had the camera "truck" in and "zoom" out at the same time. The effect was very disorienting because it gave you simultaneous movement in both directions at different rates of speed.

 

[wildbill333]

I like old westerns like wildbill (who would have guessed) billy the kid
alias smith and jones. and back to the future 3 i think had a cool western scene in it

 

[roddglenn]

Outland is a fantastic western set in space - basically High Noon in space with Sean Connery playing the lead. It came out in 81, but it's managed to avoid looking dated so far.

 

[GrownUp]

"The Winslow Boy". I may be alone here. Once you get by the peculiarity of accent and style - which have changed so much since the time the film was made - it's a great. A film great, I mean.

 

[tiny99]

You're all right, there are so many old films worth another look, a personal fave of mine would have to be Apocalypse Now, one of , if not THE greatest war film of all time.

 

[Foxbat]

Dracula - starring Bela Lugosi is definitely worth another look on DVD.....and here's why.....there is an alternative soundtrack written by Philip Glass (I think) and performed by the Kronos Quartet. It's really worth watching this with a soundtrack that is a great improvement on the original (I never thought I'd say that about a rehash but, in this case, it's true)

 

[YOSSARIAN]

I have to mention three Paul Newman films (in order from bleak and depressing to uplifting): "The Hustler", "Cool Hand Luke", and "The Sting". I can't think of any other actor who has starred in so many good movies for such a long time. Thumbs up to whomever mentioned "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly". It is the third greatest movie ever! "The Godfather" parts I and II being the top two.

 

[roddglenn]

Ah yes Paul Newman has been in a fair few classics - Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid is another great one.

 

[Taltos]

Two of my personal favourites:
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)
Grande vadrouille, La (1966) aka Don't Look Now - We're Being Shot at (USA) - which is good even in original - and I don't understand french at all

 

[GrownUp]

There's another brilliant older film I watched with my Dad last night. 'Blazing Saddles'. Just solid perfection on a plate, to be ingested with ice-cream .