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

mulholland dr is only ok

That's not what clemenza was referring too, Lynch dorks.

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/006-the-night-of-the-hunter.jpg

06. THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (Charles Laughton, 1955, USA) [1,651.30 points; 20 votes]
S&S: 53 | TSPDT: 43 | BOXD: 141

MORBS SEZ: "The child actors in Hunter aren't particularly outstanding, are they? I also prefer about ten Mitchum performances to this one, even though he's indelible … Has a horror villain ever been dispatched by a superficial wound from an old biddy with a shotgun? then led away by the police... insufficiently apocalyptic ... also 'spawn of the devil's own strumpet' is one of my fave things to call kids … there's no doubt it's a superbly crafted religious-fable-meets-Big Bad Wolf film, but something about it still bugs me. Mostly Lillian Gish."

Acting is so 2010. Concern for "good acting" has blinded many a viewer to genius cinema. And the condemnations are never insightful, pivoting on some bogus, received notion of verisimilitude. Yawn. And yeah, if you told me this was the greatest film of all time, I wouldn't argue with you for a second.
― Kevin John Bozelka, Friday, May 20, 2011 11:53 AM

loooooooooove night of the hunter
― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Wednesday, May 23, 2012 1:17 PM

Once again, a film so ahead of its time it basically destroyed the director's career.
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, May 23, 2012 1:18 PM

i still wish i liked this film more than i do
― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, January 1, 2004 12:44 PM

Old things bore me.
― Llahtuos Kcin (Nick Southall), Thursday, January 15, 2004 8:40 AM

I love Curse [of the Cat People] for many of the same reasons I love Night of the Hunter. It doesn't read as "horror" as well to those who didn't enjoy the thrill of horror as kids.
― michael assbender (Eric H.), Thursday, October 13, 2011 1:40 PM (7 months ago)

love night of the hunter, don't consider it a horror movie … i don't know what it is exactly
― congratulations (n/a), Wednesday, May 23, 2012 1:17 PM

i love this film so much i can barely bring myself to defend it. i dunno, i'm sure there are things to criticize about it, but none of the criticisms on this thread really ring true for me -- or if they do, i don't see them as flaws. like, the kids undeniably act 'poorly' and woodenly, but somehow that works for me as part of the texture of the film. i sure don't think that more 'realistic' kids would have made the film better.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, May 20, 2011 12:13 PM

I was genuinely shocked to see Shelley Winters dead at the bottom of the lake in a movie from 1955.
― it was a dark and stormy genitals. (Phil D.), Wednesday, May 23, 2012 1:20 PM

TS Out Of The Past vs. Night Of The Hunter
Which is the iconic Robert Mitchum performance: the passive wisecracking tough guy or the malignant preachifying bogeyman? Votes cast for Cape Fear go to Night of the Hunter.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Tuesday, March 20, 2007 11:00 PM

You cannot poo poo the scare factor of this movie if you didn't see it when you were a little kid. this was the catalyst of many years worth of nightmares. still one of my three or four fav movies evah, also solidified Robert Mitchum as my future sexual ideal. creeeeepy :(
― AIDS BENEDICT (Adrian Langston), Tuesday, December 28, 2004 5:01 AM

i put that "pretty fly" song on all my mixtapes back when i was small
― good news if you wear cargo shorts (contenderizer), Tuesday, July 20, 2010 5:08 PM

For a second I thought you were talking about "Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)" and was confused.
― Cunga, Tuesday, July 20, 2010 5:20 PM

whooooa nice!!

*to

(xpost) All that would be left is Nashville, though, and I'd say no chance. I've always been one of its more vocal advocates on here--possibly the only person who loves the songs--and even I didn't vote for it. That's another film that I think will fade in the next decade or two as the moment that produced it recedes.

Wow!

The day's first genuine surprise.

Wow. Didn't vote for this but won't complain about it, it's great and one of a kind. (hat tip to my hometown boy James Agee, though obviously most credit goes to Laughton)

i love this movie so much

Oh cool, first thing in the top 20 that I haven't seen yet.

i forgive the list for previous transgressions, this rules

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Thursday, November 4, 2021 4:37 AM (two hours ago)

maybe i won't be excoriated if i decide to post my ballot, then. Aguirre was high on my list but so were at least a few that people noisily griped about :(

Mitchum's slow-building scream in the river is such an all-time moment.

lol i sampled that in a song one time

Best movie by a director who never made another film.

this is a great film

So either one of those tight six isn't getting in, along with no Casablanca, no Raiders, no Breathless, no Rashomon, no Jaws, no Badlands, some Country for Old Men... or one of those (or something else) is in, and two of the six are out.

i don't know on what kind of world casablanca is a contender for placing?

seriously

Did Leonard Maltin send a ballot?

i have never seen or heard anyone ever have a conversation about casablanca. it is a very famous movie, is it one a lot of people care about?

No, fair enough, it's still a Big Film in my head but no-one been seriously suggesting it so far.

xp 'ability to generate conversation' is not really the same as quality, is it?

My (latest) longshot surprise is Double Indemnity.

i still - somehow - harbour a crazy hope...

yeah, looking forward to Citizen Kane, Vertigo & Casablanca placing outside top 77 and a DNP for Shawshank.

― edited to reflect developments which occurred (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 26 October 2021 09:36 (one week ago)

Kane and Casablanca are the ones that will place that I'm good with.

― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 3 November 2021 08:52 (yesterday)

I knew I hadn't entirely imagined it!

Ok, I revisited the relevant scenes of Tavernier's doc:

Jean Paul Le Chanois is in archive footage suggesting that what drew Renoir to political movements was mostly a love of strenght. The quote about fascism and marxism I mentioned comes from Charles Spaak, and it differs substantially from what I wrote, his take was more that Renoir, if he saw a well dressed fascist that moved with style, would decide that this man's cause was his cause without considering the contradictions between being a marxist and being a fascist. But, Spaak also says, he was the kind of guy you'd forgive anything.

Likewise Gabin doesn't refer to Renoir as a human being as "less than zero" but rather "a whore". Tavernier says Gabin told him that, prior to escaping to the US, Renoir gathered all his actors and told them that he was going there to "show the Americans that Pétain's regime is full of good will towards them". There's also the matter of some letters Renoir sent to the minister of information in 1940 complaining about "subversive elements" but I don't know enough about the historical context to understand that fully.

Anyway this is all within the context of a much larger appreciation of Renoir's work, with lots of interesting stuff on his use of depth of field, the way he dealt with actors, the fallacy that he hated the studio, etc. Great doc!

ty for viewing + expanding, Daniel :)

Iirc, The Night Of The Hunter was #2 in the '50s Poll (the #1 probably coming up)

I enjoyed the YMRT podcast episode on Night of the Hunter and had already been meaning to check it out.

Top 10 is making up for 20-11 so far

Is that it for today then?

I totally love Casablanca and included it on my long list, but didn't expect it to place high here and still don't. I'll happily watch it any time, though. So many great performances and great little moments. "Yvonne, I love you. But he pays me."

Feel like ILX’s biggest Casablanca stan was the C-man and I don’t think he voted.

This c-man had it in his long list.

If you were allowed to plonk -50 points on just one film, etc etc

https://cansesclasseled.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/005-do-the-right-thing.jpg

05. DO THE RIGHT THING (Spike Lee, 1989, USA) [1,707 points; 24 votes; 1 first-place vote; Morbs silver]
S&S: 132 | TSPDT: 137 | BOXD: 46

MORBS SEZ: "i chuckle w/ only the smallest bit of guilt at Armond White calling DtRT 'Spike Lee's good movie' … didn't realize Trump is namechecked between Aiello and cop, or think that we'd notice in 2019"

Do The Right Thing pretty much the most important American film ever made at this point? and sadly too relevant still
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Monday, June 15, 2020 8:32 AM

If you think "Do The Right Thing" is a good movie, then you're simple.
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Tuesday, March 7, 2006 11:39 AM

I wonder if Do the Right Thing led everyone think Spike would be a great social critic kind of director, someone with insight into the complexities of race and class in America. And while I wouldn't want to deny those elements in his movies wholesale I feel like his real strength is a kind of operatic grandeur. Even the Katrina doc is stronger for its righteous anger than any substantial socio-political insight.
― ryan, Wednesday, July 11, 2012 12:24 PM

Do the Right Thing is a masterpiece, one of the best films of the 80s. When considered as part of his overall CV it's weird how much it stands out, it's just so much better constructed and executed than p much anything else he's done, not sure what to attribute that to.
― Οὖτις, Friday, August 14, 2015 1:08 PM

rosie perez shouting in do the right thing is just some of the funniest, sexiest acting in cinema
― mark s (mark s), Monday, May 26, 2003 5:23 AM

90% of the music in Do The Right Thing is pretty lousy sax heavy Jazz. Sure there are a few moments with the beatbox, but the incidental music is mush.
― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, May 27, 2003 8:30 AM

Talk about a time capsule of hot Tri-State summers of yore that also holds it down as a bona fide classic. He's made other good films (and a shit ton of terrible ones ) but I don't think he's ever topped it.
― An Uphill Battle For Legumes (Capitaine Jay Vee), Wednesday, August 29, 2018 4:37 PM

I think he went on to make better films.
― clemenza, Wednesday, August 29, 2018 9:14 AM

ppl still seriously underrate what a dick he is.
― Pangborn to be Wilde (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, July 10, 2012 9:13 AM

morbs, from what I hear alfred hitchcock was a pretty big dick, too. he still made good films, no?
― Aimless, Tuesday, July 10, 2012 11:15 AM

We all know Morbs prefers the old dicks.
― heated debate over derpy hooves (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, July 10, 2012 11:26 AM

I thought it was ending today.

voted for another spike lee, but very happy to see this so high.

Bye thread.

(I like Do the Right Thing fine. I really do have to duck out for an hour.)

There are a handful of Lee films I like just as much or possibly even better, but this nevertheless feels like a proper placement.

https://miro.medium.com/max/1400/1*0z5Zxb3MBknLyagyMvT1hQ.jpeg
The Stories of Love and Hate, back to back.

A movie I watch every year, I did skip it the summer of 2020 because, well ...

Okay, I guess it is ending today, since we are are back to ten a day.

haven’t seen this in probably 10 years now but I find it hard to argue with this placement

Saw it in the theater a couple years ago and an old white woman next to me cheered when Aiello smashed the radio.

Out of the remaining contenders, I would have been worried for this, except that I voted it highly enough that there's basically no way that it wouldn't have made the ~400 points necessary to crack the top 100?

I think I was finally inspired to watch it when Siskel and Ebert included it on a special show they did about their favorite Summer movies (as in “movies about…”)

My students love every second of it.

I saw it in the BFI before an audience with Lee afterwards (which I didn't have a ticket for) - he stood out in front of the film beforehand anyway, said welcome to the movie, if you've not seen it in the last 25 years, you need to think about that.

In my top 20, great movie in all kinds of ways but the first thing I always think of is the brightness of its colors, all those warm vibrant tones that set the stage for the many kinds of heat that build throughout.