Discussion Thread: What films do you feel are most important to cinema.

[tinister]

I second that.

Jaws started the whole summer blockbuster trend.

And the original Planet of the Apes was the first movie to have a successful toy and merchandising campaign.

Lucas tends to get credit simply because SW was so massively popular - so the box office and merchandising take was phenomenal. But he didn't start those trends.

Technically - the only thing that he really pioneered with SW was in creating Lucasfilms to do the SFX - and that company spawned a new era in SFX - and defined movie production for a long time afterwards.

 

[Motown Marvel]

damn, im so terrible at explaining and/or recognizing why certain movies are great.....i can recognize awesome/important movies when i see them....im just not smart enough to know or explain why they're awesome/important.

 

[muertevilla]

well...whether my choice is important enough to be on the list is good enough or not....i have to say that TRON is one of the best flicks...i remember it totally blew my mind when i saw it as a kid...and even when i catch it on the tube today (which isnt very often nowadays) i have to sit and watch it till its over...

 

[vibeke_T]

LOTR

The Passion of the Christ

Metropolis

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm

Akira

 

[Alpha and Omega]

Important films are the heartfelt ones[genre doesn't matter]; they're the ones that people make because they love the craft and respect it - a la - money's not in the equation. Quality films are an endangered species; obviously, most today don't apply to that, but that's why Hollywood is an arguable ****hole and will be until they start promoting better stuff.

There are still a few good films that come along every year, but it's almost impossible for me to get psyched for a movie of any sort. There are just too few that are worth the ticket price.

 

[Danger Mouse]

As a whole load of crap the movie may appear to the majority, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace broke new ground and pushed the envelope further in hi-def digital photography. By sticking to his convictions in breaking away from traditional movie-making and shooting the movie in digital media, Lucas has set the bar at a new height. Today, digital photography is being used by more and more filmmakers.

 

[bluejake01]

As a whole load of crap the movie may appear to the majority, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace broke new ground and pushed the envelope further in hi-def digital photography. By sticking to his convictions in breaking away from traditional movie-making and shooting the movie in digital media, Lucas has set the bar at a new height. Today, digital photography is being used by more and more filmmakers.

It wasn't until Attack of the Clones until all the principal photography was shot digital, and even then it was not shot in HD. It was upconverted later for an HD master.

 

[ultimatefan]

I second that.

Jaws started the whole summer blockbuster trend.

And the original Planet of the Apes was the first movie to have a successful toy and merchandising campaign.

Lucas tends to get credit simply because SW was so massively popular - so the box office and merchandising take was phenomenal. But he didn't start those trends.

Technically - the only thing that he really pioneered with SW was in creating Lucasfilms to do the SFX - and that company spawned a new era in SFX - and defined movie production for a long time afterwards.

The original Apes was also successful as a sci-fi serialized franchise. Before it, the better knowns serialized movies were horror ones like the old Frankenstein and Dracula from Universal and then also Hammer.

I also dare to say that the theater serials from the thirties and fourties were important as being the source of the format that is now used by television shows - especially the cliffhangers, which are now constantly used by shows like 24 and Prison Break.

 

[Sandman138]

Okay, so the vignette technique. Vignetting is a staple of early silent cinema. Before camera technology started to evolve, there weren't a great deal of lense choices available, the Cinematographe had only one. In addition to the cameras themselves being hard to manuever, traditional close ups are rare in early cinema. Instead, to emphasize an aspect of the shot, be it a character's face or a sign, they would vignette the rest of the shot out. The effect is the same as a spotlight in theatre. Now, the spotlight, vignette, and close up all share the same intention, to direct the audience's attention to something; my question, is their a difference between the vignette and the close up. This is to say, are the two part of the same fundamental rule, seperated merely by convention, or does the difference seperate them on a deeper level. Can a vignette convey something a close up is unable to and vice versa? There is one very important distinction between the two: a close up will almost always change the depth of field from that of the previous shot, a vignette never does this. Such a difference may seem incosnequential, and it may indeed be, but Turner's (see conceptual blending) work along with Merlin Donald's concept of the Mimetic Mind (as elaborated on in Origins of the Modern Mind) gives evidence that much of our understanding of stories has to do with movement through space. Could our perception of depth play an integral role in the way we come to understand the stories we are seeing?

 

[Sandman138]

bump

 

[The Hero]

Toy Story - the first feature-length film done in 100% CGI,a technique that has now nearly replaced conventional animation.It also introduced the world the the glory of Pixar,brought Disney out of it's dark age,created a demand for more wit and intelligence in children's movies,and made it socially acceptable for grown men to admit going to the theaters for a Disney movie.

 

[xwolverine2]

killbill vol 1 and 2

 

[The Hero]

Discussion Thread, no one word statements around here.

Make us post it again,we cut you.

 

[Ash J. Williams]

I'm suprised no one mentioned The Evil Dead. This little cult classic was banned in the UK, West Germany, Malasyia, Iceland, Ireland, and Singapore for being reported as "video nasty" when, in turn, there were movies like The Burning that were a lot worse than this. Stephen King dubbed it as "The most feriouscly original horror film of the year..." in 1981. I feel this movie has changed the way we look at horror films today and inspried a lot of 'em. It was a milestone for Sam Raimi, mainly because Evil Dead was a project he did for high school or college with some friends of his. People liked it even though it had a lot of controversey surrouding it. If there was no Evil Dead, then Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell wouldn't be where they are today.

 

[Sandman138]

 

[The Hero]

This thread is too good to die.

 

[Sandman138]

On the vignette technique, what did you think about its use in The Departed?

 

[KingOfDreams]

Citizen Kane
Star Wars
Metropolis
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Nosferatu
Waking Life
Toy Story
Snow White & The Seven Dwarves
A Trip To The Moon
Birth of a Nation
2001: A Space Odyssey
This is Spinal Tap
Psycho
Pulp Fiction

 

[Sandman138]

No lists, it's a discussion thread.

 

[The Hero]

Don't make Sandman have to kill him a ***** up in here.

 

[comicgirl]

Don't make Sandman have to kill him a ***** up in here.

yes, back to the discussion

I think the first "Halloween" was very important. It built mood and suspense without a lot of blood thrown around

 

[Sandman138]

I thought Halloween did a great job of taking the suburban landscape, and making it incredibly bleak. It also used POV to great effect.

 

[The Hero]

This is Spinal Tap

I second that.This is Spinal Tap not only gave the world Christopher Guest,but it brought the mockumentary to mainstream America.It was also done in a manner so unprecedentedly straight and realistic for a comedy that there are still people out there that think Spinal Tap is a real band.