Which films best define the decade?

[Silvermoth]

Feel free to state yours. Mine would probably be...

* Fahrenheit 9/11
* Team America: World Police
* The Bourne Supremacy/Ultimatum
* Lord of the Rings (all three count as one)
* Amelie
* The Dark Knight
* Spirited Away
* Spider-man
* Up
* V for Vendetta
* An Inconvenient Truth

 

[chaseter]

Team America, Amelie, and Farenheit 9/11??? Wut??? I will agree with An Inconvenient Truth...2000-2009 was a decade huge for Global Warming talk.

 

[Zanham]

If you're talking about the people of this planet as a whole then the answer is easy - Avatar. Sure doesn't seem like it but when you sum everything up and wrap it up into a ball that we all call our brains that is what the collective consciousness is thinking about.

Now if you're talking about what sums us up from an 'outsiders' view, what we collectively look like on the surface, then the answer isn't as easy. I'm not sure humanity for a decade can be summed up in a single film. It may be because I just saw it but No Country for Old Men seems sensible and here's why:

1. There's no children in it. I believe there are a great deal more adult-humans than child-humans so if you're defining a decade of people it's probably goiing to be with adults opposed to humans.

2. Names are a bit of non-sticking, factor except Altom or Anton or whatever they were, you can't sum up an entire decade with a name.

3. Psychopathic killers and money - what better sums up a decade?

 

[childeroland]

The Dark Knight -- still the best 9/11 film I've seen, and that includes Oliver Stone's film and United 93.

No Country for Old Men -- the best film about the after effects of the breakdown of civility in our culture.

Millennium Mambo -- youth set adrift in the (then) new decade.

Millennium Actress -- a story of how reality and cinema gets blurred, and hell, that IS this decade. It's every decade, maybe, but particularly this one.

Memento -- 2000, but really speaks to this decade, so f(*& it, it's in.

Paprika--Another of Kon's examinations of fame's corrosive effect on a person's identity. Some people will cite Christopher Nolan as this decade's most defining filmmaker, but Kon's got a much better claim than anyone on that title. Except maybe Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman, just for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence -- Talks about how humans can become so indistinguishable from their machines that everything about them can be commodified much better than the Matrix sequels (or the first film).

 

[JAK®]

Avatar won't be remembered as a 2000's thing. It will be known as a 2010's thing along with the rest of the 3D explosion that happened this year.

Spider-Man defines the decade film-wise, because it kick started the comic book movie craze. Along with the Harry Potter franchise and Lord Of The Rings, this decade will be known for franchises taken from sci-fi/fantasy fiction.

 

[marvelman2006]

Avatar won't be remembered as a 2000's thing. It will be known as a 2010's thing along with the rest of the 3D explosion that happened this year.

Spider-Man defines the decade film-wise, because it kick started the comic book movie craze. Along with the Harry Potter franchise and Lord Of The Rings, this decade will be known for franchises taken from sci-fi/fantasy fiction.

actually xmen kick started that but thats nethier here nor there.

I would say in no particualr order:

star wars prequels

avatar

spiderman

ironman

batman

harry potter

lord of the rings

pirates of the caribeann

the departed

rollerball (just kidding)

 

[JAK®]

actually xmen kick started that but thats nethier here nor there.

X-Men was the first of the decade but Spider-Man set the trend, it was a massive success compared to X-Men.

If we're going to go by who did it first then Blade came before X-Men in 1998, but that's one year after Batman & Robin ...which supposedly killed comic book movies. Technically, comic book movies have been coming out with some frequency since 1978 after Superman: The Movie. But Spider-Man was the one that started the concept of comic book movies being major blockbusters.

 

[John Locke]

The Dark Knight -- still the best 9/11 film I've seen, and that includes Oliver Stone's film and United 93.

Um What? Are you sure you're not talking about another movie.

 

[JTStarkiller]

Yeah, I think he was referring to Fahrenheit. Unless there was some major 9/11 subtext that went completely past me.

 

[Doctor Jones]

Are we talking mainstream films or smaller films?

Mainstream I would say the rise of comic book films and LOTR.

More personal films, I think it's There Will Be Blood.

 

[Carmine Falcone]

I take it this is about American cinema and society. Because, even though you might expect that it's also representative for the rest of the world, it's not really.

 

[Heretic]

The Dark Knight was often referred to as a post-9/11 film...with it's "we can't cave in to terrorists and let them destroy our way of life" undercurrents.

 

[chaseter]

90's

- Jurassic Park
- The Lion King
- Aladdin
- Shawshank Redemption
- Forrest Gump
- Matrix
- Adam Sandler movies
- Toy Story
- Austin Powers
- Independence Day

and of course Titanic...that would probably win the 90s. Everyone saw that movie.

Basically the 90s were filled with cartoons and comedies with a few good dramas.

 

[WeaponXProject]

Batman Begins with the serious take on a superhero. A realistic approach that leaves no questions unanswered on how he works. No campy feel to it. Creative control with the director, a film that got adults to superhero movie.

Memento - an original shooting style and mind game.

LOTR - brought back the epic films.

 

[TheShah]

Team America, Amelie, and Farenheit 9/11??? Wut??? I will agree with An Inconvenient Truth...2000-2009 was a decade huge for Global Warming talk.

My thoughts exactly.

 

[Zanham]

Someone could argue Transformers based on the apparent leaps and bounds technology is making. I won't do that though.

 

[childeroland]

Yeah, I think he was referring to Fahrenheit. Unless there was some major 9/11 subtext that went completely past me.

Nope, I meant The Dark Knight. Though I should have said post-9/11, and I have no idea whether Nolan meant any of this, I think it does deal indirectly with a lot of same issues as Michael Moore's great film.

 

[marvelman2006]

X-Men was the first of the decade but Spider-Man set the trend, it was a massive success compared to X-Men.

If we're going to go by who did it first then Blade came before X-Men in 1998, but that's one year after Batman & Robin ...which supposedly killed comic book movies. Technically, comic book movies have been coming out with some frequency since 1978 after Superman: The Movie. But Spider-Man was the one that started the concept of comic book movies being major blockbusters.

yeah thats true, but didnt alot of people at the time not know blade was a comic book movie till much later on? It also sucks knowing in a decade of spiderman, xmen, ironman, batman we also had catwoman, elektra and 2003 hulk.

 

[Cmill216]

I think LOTR and Harry Potter will come away as the defining franchises of the decade, based on their sheer global impact.

 

[Pink Ranger]

I'm not sure what criteria people are using here, whether it's popularity, money made, impact on film as an industry/art or reflective of the prevailing values/concerns/zietgeist of the time.

I tend to use the last one (for example, for me The Crow is the manifesto of the 1990s, even though it didn't make that much money in comparison to a lot of other movies that decade). The big question is, when people watch this same movie 30 years from now, will it give them an idea of what we were like at this time? For example, I loved LOTR, but it doesn't tell me much about the decade in which it was made; special effects aside, the movie could have been made at any point in time without altering it thematically in any way.

Conversely, my standard forces me to list some movies I hate. For the aughts, I would have to say: Babel, Saw, Minority Report, Kill Bill, Knocked Up, Battle Royale, The Dark Knight, The Road, 28 Days Later, Precious, The Wrestler and The Hangover.

 

[Carmine Falcone]

I'm not sure what criteria people are using here, whether it's popularity, money made, impact on film as an industry/art or reflective of the prevailing values/concerns/zietgeist of the time.

I tend to use the last one (for example, for me The Crow is the manifesto of the 1990s, even though it didn't make that much money in comparison to a lot of other movies that decade). The big question is, when people watch this same movie 30 years from now, will it give them an idea of what we were like at this time? For example, I loved LOTR, but it doesn't tell me much about the decade in which it was made; special effects aside, the movie could have been made at any point in time without altering it thematically in any way.

Conversely, my standard forces me to list some movies I hate. For the aughts, I would have to say: Babel, Saw, Minority Report, Kill Bill, Knocked Up, Battle Royale, The Dark Knight, The Road, 28 Days Later, Precious, The Wrestler and The Hangover.

Interesting list you got there, care to explain what makes those particular movies relevant?

 

[Doctor Jones]

I'd say 28 Days Later, or any post apocolypic zombie film would have to have some commentary on people and society in some way. That stays consistantly relevant.

Minority Report I would agree with. It says alot on national security and the flaws of the government. A higher order thinking what is best, but even what we hold in highest regard and think is safe it may in fact not be, and someone has to suffer for it, going through hell in the process. Government and law perverting personal matters.

 

[Pink Ranger]

Interesting list you got there, care to explain what makes those particular movies relevant?

Cool, thanks. I could write an essay on each of them, but I'll be brief with a few keywords

Babel: Globalization, developed vs. emerging world, immigration, terrorism, aimless youth with no future
Saw: Torture, use of viral media (admittedly on a smaller scale), casual use of violence as a form of "justice," electronic voyeurism
Minority Report: Hi-tech, cyberculture, preventative arrest, public order panics, civil rights vs. security
Kill Bill: Pastiche of older film styles, female empowerment through destructive acts, globalization again
Knocked Up: I hate this movie, but if I were to pick 3 from this list, this would be one of them. Represents the erosion of traditional family units, casual sex and casual reproduction, Gen Y relationship culture, parents trying to "take back" their old lives, multi-family and collectivist households
Battle Royale: Again, a statement of the aimless and destructive youth culture and society's destructive attitudes towards youth (Japan was years ahead of the rest of the world in this), destruction of social compacts amid desperation
The Dark Knight: liberty vs. security, terrorism, disintegration of social compact, dark heroism
The Road: breakdown of social compact, man eating man, poverty, change in economic order
28 Days Later: as above, with it bio-engineering revolution and destruction of traditional old world societies
Precious: race, poverty, disproportionate impact of social problems on women and girls, a very 2000-ish treatment of things like sexual abuse, homosexuality, alternative education and HIV
The Wrestler: Individual struggling against economic, social reality that has no place for him
The Hangover: Male culture taking back and celebrating the things they were supposed to be ashamed of, celebrating excess against a backdrop of unwanted responsibility and traditional family roles

God help me, I forgot to put the (IMO overrated) Slumdog Millionaire in here as well. Themes of globalization, modern capitalism in action and culture of quasi-celebrity.

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

Remakes.

 

[Soapy]

Surprised no one mentioned Wall-E.