Favorite Movies Of Conservative Bloggers
RWN’s John Hawkins polled his roster of conservative bloggers on their favorite movies of all time. Only two flicks from this millennium made the top dozen, although several others made the larger list:
8) The Godfather II: 6 (1974)
8) Jaws: 6 (1975)
8) Raiders of the Lost Ark: 6 (1981)
8) Pulp Fiction: 6 (1994)
8) Braveheart: 6 (1995)
6) The Shawshank Redemption: 7 (1994)
6) The Princess Bride: 7 (1987)
5) The Incredibles: 8 (2004)
4) The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring: 9 (2001)
3) Star Wars: 11 (1977)
2) Casablanca: 13 (1942)
1) The Godfather: 14 (1972)
Only two of my own non-ordered top 10 submissions made the list:
Pulp Fiction
Big Jake
O Brother Where Art Thou
Top Gun
Shawshank Redemption
Die Hard
Cool Hand Luke
Monty Python’s Life of Brian
Rio Bravo
Oddly, both “Pulp Fiction” and “Shawshank Redemption” were released in 1994. I’m not sure whether that’s purely coincidental or whether that represents some sweet spot in the age overlap of the polled bloggers.
It occurs to me that I left “Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan” off my list. But it’s not really a fair inclusion, in that it’s only great because of how it fits into the very long arc of the series, including the television series that preceded it.
Otherwise, Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction” and “Reservoir Dogs” are easily my favorite films of the gangster genre. While the Godfather flicks had some great lines, I actually find them rather tedious. And I never got the allure of “Goodfellas,” which seems to always make the “great guy movies” lists.
I don’t think “Jaws” has held up all that well. I still like “Star Wars,” although not as much as I once did; and it’s not even the best film in its own trilogy. “The Incredibles” was fine but wouldn’t make my top 100. “Princess Bride” is quite good — maybe even in my top 25 — but it’s merely clever on the tenth viewing, while “O Brother” remains hilarious and “Life of Brian” remains fresh and brilliant satire despite the passage of decades.
Feel free to submit your own favorites in the comments.
Snicker. Some conservative you are.
Some of mine that didn’t make their list or yours (I’m not a conservative, but y’all might like these):
Saving Private Ryan
Easy Rider
The Deer Hunter
Taxi Driver
Unforgiven
The Searchers
The last one surely is the preferred Duke movie. I don’t say this because all the critics say so, but because the last scene, when Wayne scoops up Natalie Wood, who he’s previously considered killing because she has been ‘defiled’ by the Indians who kidnapped her, and says “let’s go home”–is the most powerful scene Wayne ever acted in.
“The Searchers” is a great movie in a way that, say, “Big Jake” and “Rio Bravo” aren’t. The latter, though, are much more entertaining and re-watchable.
A movie can only be the greatest movie of all time in a specific time. A contradiction 😉
For a fun year, The Replacement Killers was the greatest movie of all time. Mira Sorvino and Yun-Fat Chow, and lots and lots of bullets. What wasn’t to like?
Here are a few of mine; it is impossible to be complete:
M (Fritz Lang, 1931)
The Man Who Would Be King
Ran
Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Paths of Glory
Serenity
The Third Man
Lawrence of Arabia
Unforgiven
Serenity may not be a filmic gem of the quality of M (but is there another movie as good as M?), but what it says about the perils of meddlesome centralized power and of “progressive” attempts to engineer human nature to produce utopia is golden. And it is at least a very good film in my view.
Unforgiven is a brilliant study in human depravity, in how the good and gentle can coexist with the vicious, in how coercion and violence often, or always, play a role in public order. But then, I’m a Calvinist, so I would say that, wouldn’t I?
Also forgotten by conservatives, who would probably admire:
On The Waterfront
Stalag 17
Bridge on the River Kwai
High Noon (!!!)
But people are apt to poorly remember their own favorites if asked to produce a list off the tops of their heads. So check out Flickchart, which presents you with pairs of movies and asks you to pick the better of the two. Then your favorites are gradually compiled over however many iterations you want to perform. Excellent time-waster.
So many great movies. Here a couple I have always enjoyed seeing over and over.
Outlaw Jose Whales
Spartacus
Alamo
Glory
Big Jake
How do you have a greatest movie list without “to kill a mockingbird” ?
I consider myself a conservative. I am surprised to find my movie tastes so radically different from the above. I absolutely hate and shun movies with lots of violence (No Country for Old Men, Inglorious Basterds, etc.) My favorite kind of movie is Travelers and Magicians or that Eddie Murphy movie about the little Buddhist child, the name of which I can’t recall at the moment. I also liked Animal House with John Belushi and that oddball student film by John Carpenter called Dark Star.
Two movies for sheer entertainment value:
The Jerk
The Boondock Saints
And one for being a masterpiece:
La Grande Illusion.
I always find it odd that a lot of top movie lists created by critics (AFI or some other institution) always includes Citizen Kane near the top, yet top movie lists that rate from more of an enjoyment perspective (blogs or entertainment magazines) never include it. I think its one of the most enjoyable movies I own, and watch it year after year.
Top Gun? Really?
Was it the volleyball scene that put it over the top?
Oh, darn, how did I forget to mention Mister Roberts? It was over-the-top Hollywood silly because no sailors actually act like that, but I lived a similar life aboard a Navy rescue and salvage vessel out of Pearl in the 1960s. The skipper let us go native at sea, i.e., no shirts, hats or shoes (except on the mess decks or in officer country). We caught sharks and made necklaces out of their teeth with our dog tag chains. We threw empty 55-gal drums overboard for target practice with machine guns. If you’ve never fired a Thompson (Tommy gun) full automatic, you haven’t lived.
Plenty of silliness in the flick but it’s picked with great dialogue, humor, action, and an interesting character arc.
Pulp Fiction
The Dark Knight
Raiders of the Lost Arc
Memento
Dr. Strangelove
Rear Window
Life of Brian or Holy Grail
Blade Runner (no narration)
Fargo
Wrath of Khan
Ghost in the Shell
Young Frankenstein
Serenity was good, but the series was far better.
Top Gun is definitely not the most awesome movie EVER that it was when I was a kid, but it still holds up for the people who love it.
Of course, I love every movie the Scott Brothers make (Ridley or Tony), even if it’s not very good.
My list:
Seven
Goodfellas
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Platoon
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (the Coppolla version)
Crooklyn
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance
Die Hard
Black Hawk Down
The Wild Bunch
It’s the kind of list for someone with a strong stomach for cinematic violence. What can I say, I like it dark…
Man not a single Kurosawa film so far. How disappointing.
Yojimbo,
Seven Samurai.
Both copied by other directors their analogs,
A Fistfull of Dollars,
The Magnificent Seven.
A Fistfull of Dollars is an almost scene-for-scene copy of Yojimbo.
Sanjuro is also a good movie which like Fistfull of Dollars and For A Few Dollars More and the Good the Bad and the Ugly continues the story of the masterless samurai in Yojimbo.
These three movies have some of the best sword fighting I’ve ever seen. None of the cartoonish crap we get today or in the past.
Another good Kurosawa movie is High and Low. Again Kurosawa uses his favorite actors Toshiro Mifune and and Tatsuya Nakadai.
I liked “Magnificent Seven” and the “Man with No Name” trilogy. I just don’t find them rewatchable in the same way as, say, “Unforgiven” much less the lighter John Wayne flicks like “Big Jake,” “Rio Bravo,” “The Commancheros,” and a dozen more.
Let’s see. My list of favorite films that I could watch and re-watch (which I also posted over at Dave Schuler’s website) is
1. “Groundhog Dayâ€
2. “The Dark Nightâ€
3. “Resident Evilâ€
4. “Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ringâ€
5. “The Bourne Ultimatumâ€
6. “Apollo 13—
7. “Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlustâ€
8. “Lord of Warâ€
9. “I Am Legendâ€
10. “The Day After Tomorrowâ€
Those aren’t in order of most favorite to least favorite, by the way.
Comparing them to the list of conservative blogger movies, I see that LOTR is on there pretty high, and “The Dark Knight” makes a showing, but that’s it.
I think the Samurai trilogy does it better. I think it’s very, very difficult to fake good Japanese swordfighting. You can fake fencing or fighting with a broadsword or saber and most Chinese swordfighting I’ve seen in the movies is actually dance.
But Japanese swordfighting either looks completely phony or it’s the real deal.
You missed Chuck Bearden’s listing of Ran in the 5th entry.
Off the top of my head:
Zero Effect
Man Who Would Be King
Empire Strikes Back
Brick
Memento
The Fountain
pi
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Ghostbusters
Blazing Saddles
Hot Fuzz
Unforgiven
Open Range
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence
The Maltese Falcon
L.A. Story
Die Hard
Trading Places
The Dark Knight
The Brothers Bloom
The Sting
Dr. Strangelove
WarGames
The Thirteenth Warrior
The Magnificent Seven
To Kill A Mockingbird
12 Angry Men
Inherit the Wind
Witness for the Prosecution
A Few Good Men
Road To Perdition
Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai
Alien
Blade Runner
The Terminator
Back to the Future
Bull Durham
The Usual Suspects
Seven
The Game
Quigley Down Under
Young Frankenstein
Silent Movie
When Harry Met Sally
My Cousin Vinny
The Karate Kid
Oh god, I could go on and on and on, so let’s just stop here.
Whta a horrible unimaginative list- here is one while omitting obvious classics (e.g., CITIZEN KANE, THE BICYCLE THIEF)
> BEFORE THE RAIN
> TALK TO HER
> REQUIEM FOR A DREAM
> IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE
> RAISE THE RED LANTERN
> THE EXTERMINATING ANGELS
> SEVEN BEAUTIES
> DON’T SHOOT THE PIANO PLAYER
> THE DOUBLE LIFE OF VERONIQUE
> THE MATCH FACTORY GIRL
> SLEEPER
Maybe you should try the original versions. :p
Again, that is Mifune. Tatsuya Nakadai’s sword work in Sword of Doom was also well done.
Yes, I did, whoops.
Wow, Raoul, that’s quite an eclectic list you have. Not having seen (or even heard of) any of them, I spent a couple hours doing research. I think Sleeper is the only one I’ll actively seek to view anytime soon, but Exterminating Angels sounds interesting too. Anyway, thanks for the list as I am forever looking for alternate means of understanding human nature.
In no particular order:
Pulp Fiction
Unforgiven
Godfather I and II
Casablanca
Citizen Kane
Deer Hunter
Taxi Driver
Doubt
To Kill A Mockingbird (see, Anjin, we have common ground)
Dr Strangelove
Clockwork Orange
Fargo
I’m sure there are more, its top of mind.
Items that might be best described simply as unique personal choices:
One Flew Over the Cookoos Nest
Amadeus (Enough to make you cry)
Silence of the Lambs
LA Confidential
In Cold Blood
Probably not what James meant:
The War, by Ken Burns (I know, a documentary)
And c’mon people, if you have kids.
For pure yuk it up on Saturday night with popcorn and sodas:
The Mask
This movie is in your future, James, once you get past SpongeBob and all that…….
I am glad to see Steve bring up AK (yojimbo my fav).
I always liked Goodfellas because it grabs you by the balls in the very first scene and doesn’t let go during one of the wildest rides ever until the final scene which is very anti-climactic considering all that passed before, which, to me anyway, makes it the perfect ending.
Also I am with Drew on The Mask… Carrey was brlilliant in it.
Like Alex, I have too many to list, but I find it hard to beleive that no one has brought up True Grit. For my money, JW’s best (I liked The Searchers too)
Oh yeah. The old school Woody Allen before he went artsy was very funny (Take the Money and Run, What’s up Tiger Lilly?, Sleeper, Bananas). Sleeper had some really classic ones like the Orgasmatron, Allen’s explanation of who Charles DeGualle was, and the future discovery that cigarettes were good for you.
For the other movies on the list, Seven Beauties is a classic of how things can get even worse than beyond imagination. As for the Zhang Yimou movies, I would nominate “To Live” as his best work in capturing the madness of Mao’s China in the first 20 years after the revolution. That the movie could have been made in China is even incredible by today’s standards.
Thanks, DC Loser, for noticing! I haven’t yet seen anything by Kurosawa that I didn’t admire.
I’m glad that some other conservatives like Dr. Strangelove, LA Confidential, and To Kill A Mockingbird.
Eastwood starred in a film Hang’em High that I liked a lot. It’s not a masterpiece like the Leone films or Unforgiven, but the bigger picture of the film as expressed in the judge’s final exhortation to the marshall is thought-provoking.
@Gregwills: There was an effervescent brilliance in Firefly that was missing in Serenity, but I confess that I found that the Western elements got a little old after a while, and I welcomed the turn to the more clearly dystopic setting in the movie. Also, I thought Chiwetel Ejiofor was great as the operative, though admittedly not as deep-down creepy as the guys with the blue gloves in the series. Reasonable people can differ on this question.
Speaking of dystopias, how about Enemy at the Gates for a real dystopia? The propaganda being shouted over the loudspeakers in the opening battle scenes bring Orwell to mind.
So many good movies listed in this post & thread.