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

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/035-mccabe-and-mrs-miller.jpg

35. McCABE & MRS. MILLER (Robert Altman, 1971, USA) [855.6 points; 15 votes]
S&S: 324 | TSPDT: 206 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "McCabe & Mrs. Miller and 3 Women are somewhat overrated, and not better than Nashville."

saw McCabe & Mrs. Miller again, one of my favorite films ever, it still seems perfect to me, a beautiful recreation of frontier life. I liked the way it intertwined the events of the story with the lyrics of the Leonard Cohen songs
― Dan S, Monday, May 4, 2020 5:49 PM

I'm not really a fan of McCabe and Mrs. Miller.
― jaymc, Monday, May 7, 2007 12:40 PM

Always feel McCabe & Mrs Miller should be docked half a point for Julie Christie's terrible cockney accent (tho' I concede that might be the deep point - ie Mrs Miller is faking it)
― Darcy Sarto (Ward Fowler), Thursday, November 17, 2016 9:26 AM

Altman is overrated though (except for Nashville and McCabe and Mrs. Miller which can't be overrated enough.)
― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Wednesday, May 12, 2004 6:44 PM

McCabe & Mrs. Miller left me cold.
― flappy bird, Friday, January 19, 2018 12:27 PM

the weird thing about altman's "liveliness," and i don't mean this as a putdown, is that it feels held under glass. like he's set in motion something quasi-spontaneous but filmed it at a remove, in an almost anthropological way (at times). this is less true of mccabe & mrs miller which feels much more subjective to me.
― I dunno. (amateurist), Wednesday, August 20, 2014 3:59 PM

Any one of The Long Goodbye, McCabe, and California Split might be my favorite from that era, depending on my mood on a given day.
― Here Comes The Brain Event (Old Lunch), Wednesday, February 28, 2018 2:15 PM

mmmmmm romantic pretty gusty snowy wind
― Annouschka Magnatech (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, September 24, 2003 11:10 PM

McCabe & Mrs. Miller is my favorite Altman movie.
― Dan S, Friday, January 19, 2018 12:28 PM

so far have voted for all of the films that have shown up today!

john mccabe one of cinema's all time great dumb guys

But he's got poetry in him!

Zelig? (Gawd, I hope not.)

― Kevin John Bozelka, Monday, November 1, 2021 2:11 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

i think alfred meant zola

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson),

yeah, autocorrect lol

There's so much '70s Altman. I watched a different one recently to try and catch up, but I won't mention the title because it hasn't placed yet and I don't want to jinx it.

The closest I came to being pilloried by students was showing an hour of Playtime in 2019.

what were their reasons for hating it?

The reasons we love it.

The use of silence, the grandness and antiseptic gleam of the visual design, the lack of editing, the long shots...

oh i just cant bear the whimsy the cutesy vibe

re singing in the rain earlier my hatred of it and gene kelly has only grown with time

So not a good day for plax (ico) then

yah, sorry i missed the chat about johnny guitar which is one of my favourite movies of all time and a film that i'm shocked anyone could be lukewarm about because the first time i saw it in the cinema it was like magic was real

https://assets.mubicdn.net/images/notebook/post_images/23700/images-w1400.jpg

plax (ico) today

that scene is just not cinema gold idc

I love Mon Oncle, with Playtime the whimsy becomes heavy-handed and laboured. It's bad when the big scene where "everybody kicks back and gets spontaneous" looks as stilted as the rest.

Gene Kelly's smile can be terrifying, so I get plax's antipathy to a degree.

I was skeptical of Johnny Guitar based on the color of Crawford's scarf. Downhill from there. (I like it fine now).

xp
the stylization was the point though and was more alien-seeming than whimsical to me

Saw Johnny Guitar when I was doing Film Studies at uni, was not that impressed, but it was the wrong environment for enjoying films, actually the course put me off films for a good decade or so. Should revisit.

what about the film?

never revisiting that course, they made us watch laura mulvey films

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/034-the-long-goodbye-1.jpg

34. THE LONG GOODBYE (Robert Altman, 1973, USA) [865.38 points; 16 votes; Morbs silver]
S&S: 418 | TSPDT: 412 | BOXD: DNP

MORBS SEZ: "I always forget David Carradine's cameo as Socrates the cellmate ('Someday the pigs are gonna be in here and the people are gonna be out there') … people who think this is a 'travesty' don't get it … increasingly think his two great films are Nashville & The Long Goodbye"

ALTMAN POLL
Poll Results
The Long Goodbye (1973) 12
McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) 12

God, I love The Long Goodbye. I can't express in words how deep my love for that film truly is.
― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Tuesday, April 29, 2003 12:40 AM

I could watch it forever.
― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Wednesday, May 20, 2020 7:19 PM

just the greatest movie
― the clodding of the american mind (darraghmac), Friday, March 9, 2018 7:11 PM

I think this may latterly have become my favourite movie ever.
― "Taste's very strange!" (stevie), Thursday, November 30, 2017 4:39 AM

goddamn great movie. best director/best actor combined in one perfect story.
― ddd, Sunday, April 29, 2007 10:28 PM

There's one shot in The Long Goodbye--where the Russian (?) girl is waiting outside in the car for her gangster boyfriend, and as she reaches up from the back seat to turn up the radio, the camera gently tracks with her. There's something slyly humorous about that moment, where Altman is teasingly highlighting that ridiculous motif of hearing "The Long Goodbye" performed by 1,000 different singers, in the middle of one of the tensest moments in the film. I like stuff like that.
― amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, May 7, 2003 10:28 AM

I feel this is the most accurate screen Marlowe, most like the character in the novels. Bogey be damned.
― Ask The Answer Man (sexyDancer), Saturday, March 16, 2013 7:53 PM

Movie most overrated by people with decent taste? I think both director and actor are wrong for the movie, and the song gets really tiresome after a while.
― Moo Vaughn, Thursday, March 29, 2018 11:08 AM

you guys really like altman eh?

Some days, my fave Altman. Sterling Hayden has one line reading in it that may be the funniest in cinematic history (won't spoil for those who haven't seen).

There's one shot in The Long Goodbye--where the Russian (?) girl is waiting outside in the car for her gangster boyfriend, and as she reaches up from the back seat to turn up the radio, the camera gently tracks with her. There's something slyly humorous about that moment, where Altman is teasingly highlighting that ridiculous motif of hearing "The Long Goodbye" performed by 1,000 different singers, in the middle of one of the tensest moments in the film. I like stuff like that.
― amateurist (amateurist),

otm

I personally could've for sure done without California Split in this 100, but that's the way the chips fell.

Nash-ville! Nash-ville!

Presumably yet to come.

Needless to say, Altman became the first director in the countdown to have three films ... and then immediately became the first director here to have four.

OK, so this is the '70s Altman I watched recently for the first time. Pretty good, actually. I didn't love the ending.

I liked how grimy the '70s looked.

It's true. And just about every indoor public place smelled of stale cigarette smoke.

you guys really like altman eh?

― edited to reflect developments which occurred (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Monday, 1 November 2021 20:29 (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

can you even begin to imagine how much we like kubrick tho

no wait ofc you can

According to the ILX directors poll:

3. Stanley Kubrick (1920 points; 21 votes; 4 first-place votes)
12. Robert Altman (1546 points; 19 votes)

My favorite Altmans, back to back. With McCabe, honestly I think it's the set and setting that I love as much as anything else. I also like what a fundamental fuck-up McCabe is, it's an admirably non-narcissistic performance by Beatty. On the flipside, Gould's Marlowe gets knocked down a lot but he always manages to give a sense of control or at least equanimity. I don't think you could have updated noir cool more perfectly for the '70s.

kubrick is ok

i like eyes wide shut and barry lyndon

I don't watch him of my own volition.

Shining>2001>Barry>Strangelove>Paths>ACO>FMJ>EWS>Lolita imo

i like the long goodbye but there's 4-5 altmans that are better. chandler (and imitators) set after the 50s doesn't translate well.

I've only seen one Altman - yikes!

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/033-the-empire-strikes-back.jpg

33. THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (Irvin Kershner, 1980, USA) [872.2 points; 10 votes]
S&S: 613 | TSPDT: 283 | BOXD: 24

MORBS SEZ: "the original trilogy was on basic cable a few weekends ago and I couldn't take more than 30 seconds of Mark Hamill's screeching … Empire was on in a bar w/ sound off and "Linus & Lucy" from Peanuts was playing during Vder's first scene. How long did it take for Luke to traiCHRISTGETALIFE"

I recently had the experience of watching Empire with my 28 year old friend who had never seen it before. He'd only watched Star Wars for the first time a few days previously. He was mildly enthusiastic, I'd say he rated it about 6/10 by his reaction. He thought there was too much white plastic in it though.
― A brownish area with points (chap), Thursday, December 30, 2010 8:50 AM

another thing i like about "Empire" is how there is a running gag of everything they did in the first movie not working right away and having to try several times to get it right. you see this in everything from the hyperdrive to R2 being unable to open doors (which is something he did easily in SW1). there is a lot of dark humor in Empire.
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Sunday, January 17, 2016 2:19 PM

something great/weird about empire is how it's always pronounced "dark SIDE" ... with the stress on the last syllable, the way english people say "hot SAUCE" or "singaPORE".
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Sunday, January 17, 2016 2:01 PM

watched Empire with my son yesterday. got a bit choked up at the part where Luke is communicating telepathically with Leia while hanging from the bottom of Cloud City.
― too young for seapunk (Moodles), Monday, May 18, 2015 9:51 AM

it pleases me to no end that The Big Sleep, Rio Bravo, The Long Goodbye, and Empire Strikes Back were all written by a lady.
― espring (amateurist), Tuesday, February 18, 2014 2:39 PM

amazingly good, lest we forget.
― chap, Wednesday, March 19, 2008 10:55 AM

i finally accepted that much of the script and acting in Empire Strikes Back is just as lame as in Episodes 1 & 2
― stevem (blueski), Saturday, June 14, 2003 2:47 PM

Rather amazing that the series' only claim to greatness -- the only reason it has any resonance -- rests on one movie (The Empire Strikes Back) directed by someone not its creator.
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, June 27, 2011 6:15 PM

That's a load of bullshit but whatever.
― polyphonic, Monday, June 27, 2011 6:18 PM

The first Star Wars is fun, Return of the Jedi is as anonymous and terrible as any Bond film released in that era. What else remains?
― The Edge of Gloryhole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, June 27, 2011 6:21 PM

Willow!
― winoa ryder sexes creatures of the night (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, June 27, 2011 6:22 PM

Throughout tabulation, I noted if any new incoming ballot was, quote, "an Empire Strikes Back ballot."

xp i've seen three but one of them is downton abbey episode zero which barely counts

omg CALLED IT

ew a star wars

Still stand by my comment.

The film's also beautiful to look at, and all those small, almost vestigial comic touches (R2 on tip-toes peeking into Yoga's yurt) became impossible to find in the other films.

fakeout in the mid-30s, i like it.

(i voted for revenge of the sith)