ILX All-Time Film and Morbsies Poll: RESULTS Thread for ILX's Favorite Movies, Films, Cinema, Flicks & Moving Pictures

For a horrible moment there I thought Birth of a Nation had made its way into the 100.

78 slots left for that to still happen

eric, if you put a dw griffith in as a fakeout I am afraid I cannot be responsible for my actions

I had Under the Skin on my long list, it has an indelible atmosphere. It has a lot of reference points, but I don't think it feels like anything else. And like Matt Damon's roles where he's supposed to seem fake, I think ScarJo makes a virtue of some of her usual weaknesses — her blank affect is perfect.

Love California Split, that and The Long Goodbye are the only Altmans to have truly clicked for me so far.

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78. THE WICKER MAN (Robin Hardy, 1973, UK) [668.5 points; 8 votes]
S&S: 1,176 | TSPDT: 645 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "The Wicker Man is extra special to heathens … at least The Wicker Man is better than The Shining."

Wicker Man is more like a comedy to me … nothing remotely scary/horrifying about it
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, May 24, 2012 11:47 AM

I guess I should rewatch The Wicker Man again. Like, when I'm not actively dozing off throughout it's runtime, maybe.
― Quiet Desperation, LLC (Deric W. Haircare), Tuesday, May 22, 2012 5:15 PM

Wicker Man rules, fuck y'all
― Simon H., Thursday, May 24, 2012 2:28 PM

whoa crazy according to wikipedia the wicker man opened its us run in...minneapolis? now i have to try and find a way to like it out of hometown pride. plus i really dig anthony schaffer.
― I want L'interieur chicken, not Hausu chicken (jjjusten), Thursday, May 24, 2012 3:00 PM

with the wicker man there is the sense that the usual movie rules don't apply and anything could happen. this is a key ingredient for horror imo.
― the acquisition and practice of music is unfavourable to the health of (abanana), Thursday, May 24, 2012 3:01 PM

is everyone just ignoring that half of its creepiness... well, we actually did that shit (still do, in some cases/places)? Maypoles and morris men and animal costumes and fertility dances are real, and they tap into a sense of England that is both pastoral and primal, bucolic and highly dangerous... We're a strange people in an ancient land.
― emil.y, Thursday, May 24, 2012 3:10 PM

I think my favourite thing about the film is that the hot air currents have failed so that the island is dying / it's not even an unbroken chain back to the pagan past, because it was Lord Summerisle's grandfather who instigated the paganism - so it's about pagan reconstructionism, not just paganism. Neither the island's way or the policeman's way 'work'. So viewed in terms of 'Environmental Cinema', that edge is what keeps the film from being a regressive fantasy like Avatar or LotR.
― cardamon, Tuesday, July 23, 2013 1:10 AM

It was interesting and fine and everything, but the protagonist was SO unlikeable that I really just didn't give a shit that he died. And when it's him vs. Christopher Lee, I mean who am I supposed to be cheering for? Chris Lee needs to be eating puppies or some shit before I stop rooting for him.
― Jessie the Monster (scarymonsterrr), Sunday, July 30, 2006 6:00 PM

Christopher Lee is one actor from whom I'd tolerate puppy eating.
― Tab Hunter loves to take his shirt off (kenan), Sunday, July 30, 2006 6:10 PM

The apoplexy over The Wicker Man's 5th place finish in the ILX horror poll (over Psycho, Carrie, NotLD, Texas Chainsaw, etc.) was probably the biggest headline from that thread.

Fun double bill these last two would make.

i think that just as with its many-flowered 21st-century analogue, we are definitely meant to be in some sense cheered by the final conflagration

scarymonsterrr in 2006, yes it is more than OK to be on Christopher Lee's side in this fil.

love the image for this one

Been meaning to watch this one forever.

Under the Skin and The Wicker Man are both "interesting enough to watch once" movies, for me.

skewing kinda more culty than canon thus far, nothing i voted for but im here for it

the last three were on my list, all three create their own very specific sense of place that i have to revisit every once in a while

Did not vote for Wicker Man, but I love it. The best parts are just the depictions of daily life on the island. Seems influenced by The Prisoner? Or maybe they were both products of that particular time, channeling a lot of paranoia and instability.

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77. THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (Sergio Leone, 1966, Italy) [670 points; 12 votes; Morbs silver]
S&S: 136 | TSPDT: 138 | BOXD: 23

MORBS SEZ: "Leone > ultraviolent-phase Peckinpah … I need Ford, Hawks, Mann and Boetticher along with Leone, tho. 'Johnny Guitar' too."

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly gets better with each viewing. And what is often forgotten is that it contains one of cinema's more inexplicably haunting depictions of war. Aside from the battle between a couple of liquored-up armies fighting over a useless bridge, the war is nothing but retreating armies, dead bodies, military cemeteries, and prisoner-of-war camps.
― Gear! (can Jung shill it, Mu?) (Gear!), Wednesday, March 9, 2005 1:31 AM

The more I watch it, the more I am convinced that is my favorite movie.
― Leon the Fatboy (Ex Leon), Wednesday, March 9, 2005 10:45 AM

it's hardly ever noted how Eastwood gives such a good performance, and he's so understated throughout that it's hard to miss next to Wallach and Van Cleef and the more colorful supporting turns. And he's very good with the low-key comedy
― omar little, Thursday, October 11, 2018 11:12 AM

Tuco is better in A Few Dollars More.
― CaptainLorax, Thursday, November 29, 2007 10:15 PM

Wicker Man is my #16, first of my 25 to place. Agreed about sense of place, think that sums up about half of my balot.

skewing kinda more culty than canon thus far

To me this list is more "100 films that ILX likes" rather than a definitive take on film history, it's that balance between canon and cult that I'm interested in seeing.

omar little otm

i voted for this one

i have butch cassidy on my list and not tGood, tBad, a tUgly, wtf

Wicker Man is more like a comedy to me … nothing remotely scary/horrifying about it
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, May 24, 2012 11:47 AM

this has always been my experience w/this one as well, i try & try to be scared by it but the camp is just too much for me... scene after scene of that guy getting apoplectic over people drinking alcohol and singing folk songs, and then they torch him... its high regard as a legit scary movie has always baffled me

I love it but don't find it scary at all

scary is a strong word, but i do find the enthusiastic cultishness of the summerilse community eerie, even as (or maybe especially as) i root for the death of the prude

didn't vote at all but 'meshes' + 'mulholland drive' = perfectly apposite short + a feature combo

― donna rouge, Monday, October 25, 2021 11:21 AM

Delivered! From the Criterion Channel November titles announcement:

Short + Feature: Trance-Formers
Meshes of the Afternoon and Mulholland Dr.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9
Two giants of the American avant-garde speak through the language of the subconscious in a pair of surrealist masterpieces set in the shadow of the Hollywood dream factory.

sorry, can't make that showing, i have a poll to read

whoa whos out there lurking show urself

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76. DAISIES (Vera Chytilová, 1966, Czechoslovakia) [674.29 points; 7 votes; 1 first-place vote]
S&S: 297 | TSPDT: 292 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "8/10"

It is truly a great work of art, almost certainly the best of the Czech New Wave. Though in recent years I have grown increasingly irritable with people who don't realise/don't want to realise that its superficial absurdist joy masks deeper messages.
― emil.y, Wednesday, March 12, 2014 3:44 PM

i doubt i'll ever figure out what half of it 'means' in any literal sense, but such a great, fun, bracing, life-affirming experience.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, March 12, 2014 3:51 PM

daisies is fun, but it can be tiring.
― sarahel, Friday, August 20, 2010 9:39 PM

That photo gives me '70s food nightmares.

TOO LOW

Surprised (and happy) to see California Split. The Long Goodbye and 3 Women will place higher, and guessing Nashville won't. I left Altman off my list, just to break age-old habits.

Never even heard of Daisies!

Daisies is the Daphne and Celeste of surrealist Czech cinema. It's a wonderfully annoying riot and I hope I voted for it.

really into Czech films and shamefully have never heard of Daisies, will check it out asap

TOO LOW

otm. In my top 20! I love this movie. Rewatched it a few years ago, was still charmed and surprised. (And I agree the whole thing has an implicit dark side, its anarchy is a reaction to oppression.)

...and the anarchy is also condemned as self-indulgence on the part of the main characters, it's not just a celebration of making a mess.

The director actually got into trouble with Czech authorities for depicting wasting food and it set back her career.

Or that was the pretext, anyway.

daisies is dope

hope we get at least one more Czech film

Gahhhhh, forgot to put the Morbs silver medal on The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. Just imagine it's there.

Onto another gold medalist....

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75. THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (John Ford, 1962, USA) [683.63 points; 8 votes; Morbs gold]
S&S: 120 | TSPDT: 93 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "Perhaps the best 'career summation' by a major filmmaker … being a Man of Civilization has its price."

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence is high in the running for best western film of all time. It puts Shane to shame.
― the unappreciated charisma of cows (Aimless), Monday, November 2, 2020 3:02 PM

Wonderful performance from Wayne, but what a sad ending. Stewart's character has been a good man throughout the film, yet is left with a sense of unfulfilment.
― the pinefox, Tuesday, April 12, 2011 10:01 AM

oh you do not need to see very much ford, honestly. man who shot liberty valance is fucking great tho.
― ghost rider, Wednesday, April 11, 2007 10:33 AM

I recently watched Man Who Shot Liberty Valence... well, ok, there are like 50 racially awkward scenes in every John Ford movie, but the one that really stood out in my mind is when the attorney is teaching the class about the Declaration of Independence and the black guy blanks out on the part about "all men are created equal." Fuck off, John Ford.
― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Thursday, January 11, 2007 9:02 PM

My two favourite Westerns show up on the same day!

I too can imagine this being my favorite western and maybe one of my favorite movies period once I've gained another 20 or so years.

What a strange way of calling me old!

unused MORBS SEZ (because it was more about Ford as a whole) from the ILX directors poll:

"who are the 27 clowns who don't think Ford is one of the 50 best filmmakers, Christ on a cracker"

followed almost immediately by:

"i really don't get ulcers over what a bunch of ahistorical anime wankers pull out of their hairless butts"

Hoping that's all the John Wayne westerns to show up

What about all the John Waters westerns?

Fine by me