Jerm said:
What makes a movie great to one person may not to another.
Well, not quite, at least in general. Few movies can attain the status of "greatness" among public opinion that don't touch nearly everyone who sees them.
Everyone who sees the Mona Lisa understands immediately that it is great art. Everyone who hears Ravel's "Bolero" the first time understands immediately that it is great music. Everyone who sees
Circe de Soliel the first time understands that it is great performance art.
Everyone. Exceptions are those with IQ's of less than 88.
Jerm said:
I have a friend who thinks great movies are OSCAR winning movies and nothing else. If it's the most boring movie you've seen in your life but the actor does a outstanding performance then it's great to him but not to me.
Your friend's IQ is less than 88.
I suspect your's is much, much higher.
Jerm said:
I think great movies like others have said are movies that "stick." Personally I loved Wargames, I thought it was a great movie back in the day because I could relate to the character. Not the hacking part of course and running from the government.
But the high school kid, using his 300 baud modem, reading through computer magazines and playing video games in the local arcade. We were all David Lightman's, it was the beginning of the personal computer era.
I thought Weird Science was a great movie also, so many funny lines that I still remember. Would I rank them up there with Star Wars and Lord of the Rings, probably not because they are not that recognizable to alot of people. Still doesn't mean they weren't great movies. Just means that alot of people didn't see it or couldn't relate. So I use the word great sparingly around people when talking movies and usually just keep it neutral with GOOD.
The adjective "great" is overused, let's face it.
We can all list the movies we've seen that we consider to be above average or great or incredible or awesome or whatever word we wish to use to descibe them in the overall. But the lists we make won't all be the same ... because none of us sees every movie that's made or has been made in the past and our likes and dislikes aren't the same, and tastes change over time. Steinbeck's
"Grapes of Wrath" makes nearly all top 100 all time great movie lists; ditto his
"Viva Zapata!" One starred Hank Fonda, a legendary actor, the other Marlon Brando, in his prime, and he became super-legendary. But the stories are classics and the movies were hits when they were in release, big hits. And for all the right reasons, they were great.
But today, if you made a 14-year old kid watch either of those pictures, they'd hate them and say they were junk, probably. Well, it has become junk of a sorts, but that doesn't mean it wasn't great in its day and really across all the generations since. "Gone With the Wind," whatta freakin' title! Sounds like Bob Dylan. I see GWTW airing on cable all the time, to this day, 67 years later. Now
that's a great movie.
All we can do is applaud them and not try to write them over again, they're history.
"Treasure of the Sierra Madre" is another in this class, with Humphrey Bogart. Incredible movie. Classic story of greed. Bogart at his best.
Every movie era produces its great stuff. In time, they become museum pieces, fodder for the
galleria, and
afficianados, and students, who study them. Can't end this without mentioning
"Casablanca," also with Bogie. It's so classic Bob McKee uses it in his seminar as the instructional film.
It can be fun and entertaining to go back through the classics and see some of them again, or for the first time. Their story crafting is high class. This may be especailly true for writers and actors.
We have to write the movies that will be considered great by those who follow, our kids and their kids. In the past several years there have been several to many pictures that wll hold up over time and hang onto their status as great or classic movies,
"Titanic," "Saving Private Ryan," "Dead Man Walking," "Shawshank Redemption," "Forrest Gump," "LOTR." I can't name them all, but they seem to keep streaming out.
Friend of mine used to say, "The cream rises to the top."
Oscars are only generally relevant.
Most "great movies" enjoyed big box office, "smash hits," as it were. Most but not all. The top 100 lists you see always carry some pics that made little money, they get seleted for their art, not their box office (which is afterall a reflection of popularity).
It's like the guy said about porno, "I can't describe it but I know it when I see it."
