Top 10 Favorite Movies

Yesterday evening, a Facebook friend of mine had been requesting that his Facebook friends name their 10 favorite movies in response to Sight & Sound’s 2012 quintessential 10-year film poll, released earlier this year. I didn’t want to make a list at the time, but given my ranking obsession, I couldn’t resist. So I submitted my top 10 list. But there were some frustrations and feelings of guilt in making my list. As much as I love the act of ranking, I feel like there are so many great films I haven’t seen that it wasn’t fair to make a list at this point. Nevertheless, I did (and I have been obsessively watching films and thinking about my 10 favorite films ever since Sight & Sound released their poll). On the form that my Facebook friend linked us, there was not a place to make comments. I suggested that there should be, and he happily obliged and said I could re-submit my entry. I did, and I probably took advantage of this new-found comment space, as I kind of used it to talk about my concerns and issues and reticence in making my list. And now, I’m going to post my (slightly-edited) comments here, as it’s a more appropriate forum anyway. But first, my top 10; you’ll notice that there are several films on this list I’ve already discussed:

1. The Godfather
2. Airplane!
3. There Will Be Blood
4. Goodfellas
5. The Third Man
6. Rashomon
7. Duck Soup
8. North By Northwest
9. High Noon
10. Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Now for the comments:

First of all, I love making lists, ranking things, and movies, so it would seem like this exercise would be a piece of cake or at least something I enjoy doing. I certainly can’t say I didn’t enjoy making this list, but at the same time, I feel a little guilty. Guilty because there are so many films I haven’t seen, whether they’re adored by critics or simply huge cult classics or whatever else, and I’m afraid that I could enjoy a film I see in the very near future (as I make a very concerted effort to watch more films, especially classic foreign films) more than I do the films I listed. Additionally, the external surroundings of my watching a film (i.e. age, philosophical disposition, what I know about the film beforehand, critics’ opinions, common moviegoers’ opinions etc) has a huge impact on my enjoyment of these films, and I’m not sure what that means, if anything, in terms of the films being my favorites– it’s a very personal exercise after all. For instance, I saw Airplane! for the first time in middle school, and never have I ever laughed as much or as intensely during a film as I did when saw it for the first time. I’ve seen at least 15 times since then probably, and I wouldn’t laugh nearly as much today as I did when I first saw it. But the fact that I have that memory will always keep Airplane! at the top of my favorites. Another example, I saw Citizen Kane for the first time in middle school as well. I didn’t care for it all that much, but I tried to appreciate it for how I was told or had read how it had influenced filmmaking. I’ve watched it several times since then, and at one of the subsequent viewings, something clicked in my brain, and I realized how great of a movie it was beyond its mythical influence.

As I semi-implied above, I began to get into film watching in middle school, first with what people considered classic comedies (because that was and is my favorite genre, the one that’s most important to me), and then with classic movies in general. After consulting my parents for a short time, I decided to double my efforts and do some research on my own. I came across AFI’s (the American Film Institute) 100 Years…100 Movies series, and I eventually made their 1997 list of 100 greatest movies my reference point for watching classic films. Of course, their list is limited by only including American-proudced/directed/written films. The list is also predictable in its content and order and takes very few risks, but despite these problems, I think it’s a great jumping off point if you want to learn what films are commonly considered classic.

I made it my goal to watch all 100 of the AFI films (only a handful of which I had seen when first starting out), but in 2007, the AFI took a page from Sight and Sound’s book and decided to make their poll every 10 years too. 23 films were taken out of the poll and 23 new films were added (including a few released between 1997 and 2007). So now I had even more films to watch! Out of the 123 total films, I’ve seen 82 of them at least once, which I believe is exactly two-thirds.

The reason I bring all this up goes back to my love/hate relationship with ranking these movies. Not only was my goal to watch all of the AFI films, but I also attempted (am attempting actually) to rank all of them to my own taste. Yet my tastes might have changed, and my memories of certain movies have grown hazy. For instance, Schindler’s List, a very meaningful and personal movie to me, is ranked highly on my list from how I remember it impacting me when I watched it, but I’ve only seen it once, and I don’t remember the content of it very well. Another kind of problem that I have is that I rank them as I go, so if I saw a movie for the first time today, and I rank it at a spot above or below a movie I saw only once, 6 or 7 years ago, I don’t know how fair that is. I guess it doesn’t really matter all that much. But I’ve been trying to re-rank the movies based on I’ve changed or think I’ve changed and a few other movies. Star Wars (the first one is the only one on AFI’s list), for a long time, was my 2nd place movie on the AFI list, right behind The Godfather, but at some point, I realized I wasn’t a true Star Wars fan in the sense that I don’t really remember all the scenes and plot points as well as most fans do; I just remembered the critical and most exciting moments. And some of the cheesy acting and dialogue also began to bother me a bit more. So I dropped Star Wars on my rankings (I like Star Wars better when the original trilogy is considered one movie rather than looking at each of the films individually). But I still consider Star Wars to be among my favorites on AFI’s list and of all time, if nothing else for the excitement and memories it gave me as a kid. In fact, I would consider at least 18 movies on AFI’s list among my all time favorites, including 6 on this top 10 list and including Citizen Kane, which is clearly not on this list, but like I said, it’s grown on me.

A couple of movies not on AFI’s list that are on this list are laugh-a-minute comedies. I wanted to make sure I included some of the movies that have made me laugh the most on here because to me, laughter can be as or more profound as a movie that itself is profound. So it may be weird to see a movie like Airplane! in company with a movie like The Godfather, but it’s honestly been just as important to my movie-watching experience.

Lastly, I want to mention that I made a purposeful effort to include North By Northwest on this list. I haven’t seen a ton of Hitchcock movies, but of the ones I’ve seen, North By Northwest is my favorite. And, while it’s one of my favorite films on its own merit, I wanted to be sure it was on here so I could say I liked it better than Vertigo. For that matter, I liked Citizen Kane better than Vertigo. And for the record, I just re-watched Vertigo recently, and as you can tell, I did not have a dramatic realization of it being the greatest film of all time. But it’s still a good movie.

Okay, so that’s everything I wrote last night, slightly edited. I want to mention that once I see every AFI film, if it ever happens, and re-watch some of the films I think I need to re-watch, I plan to post my personal re-ranking of all 123 AFI films in a blog post on here. For now, I’ll post my top 18 that I would consider among my all time favorite films. As always, the order of them could change, and in fact, I’ve changed the order recently:

1. The Godfather
2. Goodfellas
3. The Third Man
4. Duck Soup
5. North By Northwest
6. High Noon
7. Forrest Gump
8. The Shawshank Redemption
9. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
10. The Godfather Part II
11. Schindler’s List
12. Star Wars
13. The Maltese Falcon
14. Citizen Kane
15. Unforgiven
16. Rear Window
17. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
18. 12 Angry Men 

As I mentioned in my comments, there have been two AFI lists so far, and you can see how my top 18 deviates or doesn’t deviate from both AFI lists here: http://www.afi.com/100years/movies.aspx ; http://www.afi.com/100years/movies10.aspx

It may seem a little conservative? ( I’m not sure what the word I’m looking for here is) to have so many AFI films (and critically acclaimed films) among my all time favorites and even beyond the 18 I listed, there is a second tier of AFI films that could be considered among my favorites as well, including Dr. Strangelove, The Silence of the Lambs, The Searchers, and Double Indemnity. So I like classic, critically-acclaimed films I guess. But I will say that they are considered classic and critically-acclaimed for a reason. I will also say that some of the so-called “critically-acclaimed” films that are among my favorites are somewhat maligned now by critics and fans, namely Forrest Gump. I still love that movie though, and it’s one of my favorites. I also differ from AFI’s list in my own personal re-rankings a good bit, and some of the films on their list, I simply don’t like. I don’t like every classic film! Still, like I said, they are considered classic for a reason and are worth watching if you have the chance and are interested in film, even if you end up not liking the movies that much.

Now, I want to post the much more perceptively credible Sight & Sound lists (there’s both a director’s poll and a critic’s poll), as those lists inspired this exercise in the first place, critics’ list followed by directors’ list:

1. Vertigo
2. Citizen Kane
3. Tokyo Story
4. La Regle du Jeu (The Rules of The Game)
5. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey
7. The Searchers
8. Man with a Movie Camera
9. The Passion of Joan Arc
10. 8  1/2 

1. Tokyo Story
2. Citizen Kane (Tie-2)
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Tie-2)
4. 8  1/2
5. Taxi Driver
6. Apocalypse Now
7. The Godfather (Tie-7)
8. Vertigo (Tie-7)
9. Mirror
10. Bicycle Thieves

It’s worth looking up Sight & Sound’s poll over the course of its history, as it’s been around since 1952 (directors’ poll has only been around since 1992). You can find all of the polls on wikipedia at this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sight_%26_Sound

It’s fun to see how their list has and hasn’t changed (and remember people who voted in 1952 and 1962 may not be voting today).

Well, that’s all I have to say about this subject. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! As always, feel free to comment and/or let me know of any mistakes I may have made.

Favorite Movie Songs

I caught snippets of last night’s Olympic Closing Ceremonies in London, but one part I did see was Eric Idle performing “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.” This gave me an idea (or at least brought an idea I already had to the forefront of my mind) to post my favorite original songs from movies. So, this list is my top three favorite original songs from movies. As always, these lists are fluid, both in terms of what is omitted and in terms of order. It’s definitely possible that I left out a song that I like better than these songs, and it’s possible that I would change the order of how I have them ranked. I judged these songs based on how much the songs emotionally resonated with me,  how well it fits with the movie (whether that fit is functional, comical, or emotional), and just my overall enjoyment of the songs. And my liking of the songs individually does not necessarily mean the movies themselves are amongst my favorites.  Additionally, there are certain “movie” songs I like that I don’t truly associate with the films for which they were written or performed, the foremost example being a Steely Dan song called FM, which is the title track to a movie I’ve never seen. It’s a song I enjoy tremendously, but I don’t really think of it as a movie song. Songs like that didn’t make the list. Also not making the list are  songs not originally written for the movies in which they may prominently appear. For example, “Layla” a great song, definitely one of my favorites and a very memorable part of one my all time favorite movies, Goodfellas, did not qualify for this list.   Lastly, despite the fairly long introduction, I expect this to be a thankfully relatively shorter post. We’ll see how that turns out.

3. “High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling)” from High Noon, 1952, performed by Tex Ritter, Music by Dimitri Tiomkin, Lyrics by Ned Washington

High Noon is considered one of the greatest westerns of all time and for good reason. It’s one of my all time favorites and definitely one of the best movies that many people from my generation probably haven’t seen. Don’t let the fact that it’s a western fool you; it’s a movie about making choices and the conflicts are largely internal rather than external, i.e. not a lot of action or gunfight scenes. The cinematography was done by Floyd Crosby, father of famous singer/songwriter/musician David Crosby, and the theme song, which I’ll discuss in a minute, was performed by Tex Ritter, father of actor/comedian John Ritter. Somehow the Cold War keeps popping up as a recurring theme in the early posts of this blog, and the screenwriter of High Noon, Carl Foreman, was an infamously blacklisted Hollywood screenwriter. People have called the film an allegory for Communism, and John Wayne called the film “Un-American.” Ironically, it was also criticized in the U.S.S.R. as “a glorification of the individual.” I think I’m more inclined to agree with the Soviets on this one, as would U.S. presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton, who were big fans of the film.

Anyway, the movie takes place in real time (the movie’s about an hour and a half and the story is about an hour and a half) and tells the story of a small town sheriff (named Will Kane, played by Gary Cooper), who just got married. He is about to leave with his wife, when he is informed that a man who he had incarcerated several years previously has escaped from prison and is set on exacting revenge against the Sheriff Kane. The rest of the film involves Kane making a decision on whether to stay in the town and finish his last sentimental duty as sheriff (he had already resigned) or to go with his wife and how the decision affects the people around him and how the townspeople react. The song, in my opinion, is really catchy, but it also is very functional. The song kind of tells the story of the film and is used as a refrain throughout the film. But not just the melody is used as a refrain, as a typical movie theme would be, but the lyrics are as well. That’s what makes the song so unique and special, and it was sufficiently parodied in Blazing Saddles.

2. “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” from Monty Python’s Life of Brian, 1979, written and performed by Eric Idle

Yes, the song that gave me the idea for this blog post has made this list. Not as lengthy of an explanation for this song is required as the one from High Noon, as its comedy is pretty self-explanatory. Life of Brian is not my favorite Monty Python film, nor is it the funniest in my opinion (Holy Grail takes both of those titles for me). But it probably has the best plot, is the cleverest, and comes together the best at the end largely thanks to its famous song, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.”

For those that don’t know, Life of Brian is kind of about a random Jewish guy who lives in the era of Jesus and his life mimics that of Jesus in a comical manner. So the movie ends (SPOILER ALERT) with Brian hanging on a cross, but without any legacy whatsoever, and one of the people sentenced to death begins singing this ironically joyful song. Like I said, it’s pretty self-explanatory from there. It’s also worth posting two more Monty Python related videos: the moment right before “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” which is a really funny moment and the famous “Knights of the Round Table” song from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which I think is even funnier than “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” but doesn’t really suit the purposes of this list.

1. “Springtime for Hitler” from The Producers, 1968, written by Mel Brooks, performed by ensemble

The Producers is probably more famous now for its reputation on Broadway and the 2005 film remake, but before any of this, it was Mel Brooks’ directorial debut.  For those that don’t know, the story is about this down-on-his-luck theatre producer, who comes into contact with an accountant, and they somehow come to the conclusion that they can make more money producing a flop than a hit. They set out to make the worst play ever and settle on a a sincere “love letter to Hitler,” written by a former Nazi. (This was 1968, so there were a lot more former Nazis around then). They hire the worst director available and seemingly terrible actors and prepare to receive terrible reviews but a ton of income. Semi-predictably, the plan backfires, the audience interprets the play as a brilliant comedy and the producers wind up in jail. (And this concept was cleverly recreated in the 4th season of Larry David’s brilliant Curb Your Enthusiasm).

The song, “Springtime for Hitler” is the title track of the fictional play in the film. In my opinion, it is the definition of satire and features brilliant lines like: “We’re marching towards a faster pace/Look out here comes the master race,” and “Springtime for Hitler and Germany/Winter for Poland and France.” I find it just so well-written, and in a weird way, kind of a triumphant moment for post-WWII Jews. And it’s really catchy too, although it might be a difficult song to perform in a cover band or at karaoke given that the audience might not understand its satirical elements.

There you go. As always, feel free to comment, make suggestions, corrections etc. Thanks for reading!

Favorite Movie Scenes

To start off this blog with my first non-introductry post, I have decided to emphasize my love of filmmaking and post my top five scenes from films. The scenes are from movies that are favorites of mine but are not necessarily my absolute favorites. These scenes inspire me and keep the filmmaking flame ignited within me.

One thing that you will probably discover about me if I continue with this blog is that I love making lists and ranking things. Therefore, these scenes are in an order ranked by my personal preference. However, these rankings aren’t at all binding, as I could change my mind pretty easily, and most of these scenes are pretty close in terms of how I feel about them. Additionally, there are a lot of scenes that I’m sure I love but might have forgotten about in making this list. So it’s possible that these aren’t truly my exact top five favorite scenes. Nevertheless, all of these scenes are fairly important and mean something to me.

Oh, and one last thing: MAJOR SPOILER ALERT. Many of these scenes take place near the ends of the films or otherwise reveal something. If you haven’t scene these movies and don’t want to see scenes from them before watching them, then I recommend not watching the linked videos and reading the posts about them. For those of you who don’t want to be spoiled but are interested in film recommendations, the films are: Dr. Strangelove, Duck Soup, There Will Be Blood, The Third Man, and The Godfather. Without further ado…

5. End scene of Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964): 

I am fortunate to have not grown up during the Cold War. Dr. Strangelove is  a satirical film about the absurdity of nuclear war and was released during a heightened period of the Cold War (shortly after the Space Race kicked off but before the mission to the moon, shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis and Kennedy’s assassination–in fact, the film was delayed in its release because of the Kennedy assassination, and right around the time of the beginning of the Vietnam War)  . It was loosely based on a novel called Red Alert by Peter George, which I have never read, but differs strongly from the movie in that the book was a thriller and the film was a satire.

The plot of the film is about this out-of-his-mind US Air Force general who orders some of his men to drop nuclear bombs on various Soviet locations, as he is frightened his own imaginative conspiracy of the Soviets contaminating “precious bodily fluids.” The planes with bombs are in flight, and the only way they can be recalled is by using a recall code, which the US Air Force general (named Jack D Ripper) goes to absurd lengths to protect, going as far as killing himself. Meanwhile, the US president is disturbed that the system has allowed a mission so potentially important to occur without his approval or knowledge. The bigwigs convene in the “war room,” which gives us the famous line, “gentlemen, there’s no fighting in here; this is the war room,” and eventually, a drunken Russian premier informs through an ambassador that the Soviets have installed a Doomsday Device, which will end all human life pretty much if there is a nuclear attack on the USSR.

The title character, Dr. Strangelove (one of three characters played by the brilliant Peter Sellers) really doesn’t have much screen time, but he’s a former Nazi scientist who for some reason is now advising the US president and is confined to a wheel chair. Towards the end of the movie, it becomes apparent that the Doomsday Device will go off, and the bigwigs in the war room must come up with a plan to salvage what’s left of humankind. After several heated arguments, Dr. Strangelove is so excited about what he has to say that he miraculously gets out his wheelchair, and as he’s about to state his next idea, he becomes amazed at the miracle and states “mein fuhrer, I can walk,” which is immediately followed by a montage of nuclear attacks with an upbeat jazz song called “We’ll Meet Again” playing in the background.

The end scene with famous Dr. Strangelove line and the nuclear attack montage is   brilliant for its influence. The idea of using a song or music as a satirical tool (something serious/violent/dramatic happens but an upbeat cheerful song is in the background for the purposes of irony) has permeated filmmaking significantly, from the Coen Brothers to Tarentino. But Dr. Strangelove was one of the first films that I’m aware of that did something like that and did it so effectively. And it’s influenced me in my small filmmaking career, and that’s why I like this scene so much.

As I stated before, I’m lucky to not have grown up during the Cold War. I’m sure a film like Dr. Strangelove resonates better with people who did grow up or were around during that era. I imagine it had to be pretty scary to think about–despite the comedic nature of Dr. Strangelove, nuclear detonation was not only possible but also probable in the minds of a lot of citizens. I mean, bomb shelters were the norm in those days. So, no, I don’t know if I can appreciate Dr. Strangelove as much as someone who was actually alive in that era, but I still think it’s a great movie, and it’s definitely my favorite Kubrick movie that I’ve seen. It’s not laugh-out-loud funny most of the time; however, it’s still a great comedy. If you don’t want to watch it, at least watch the trailer, which is also brilliant: 

4. “The Laws of My Administration” song from Duck Soup (1933): 

The first two films on this list are both technically considered comedies but are vastly different. Dr. Strangelove is completely meant to be a satire; Duck Soup is really only a satire by accident. I do not think the Marx Brothers intended for the movie to be a satire; nevertheless, it has certain satirical elements and was banned by Mussolini in Italy as he thought that Groucho Marx’s character of Rufus T. Firefly was a personal indictment of him.

Duck Soup  is more of a traditional comedy in the sense that it’s based on gags and jokes and one-liners. It more-or-less is a carbon-copy of most classic Marx Brothers films, which were inspired by their days on Vaudeville, but for one reason or another, it’s their funniest and arguably their best. The plot isn’t particularly important, but just for a frame of reference, a guy who isn’t at all suited for politics ( and is really too silly to be suited for anything) named Rufus T. Firefly for some reason becomes the leader of the fictional nation of Freedonia, and another country wants to takeover Freedonia. That’s about all you need to know about the plot.

“The Laws of My Administration” is not the funniest or most famous scene of the movie (in my opinion, that would be the “mirror scene”), but for some reason, when Groucho steps up the frame and recites the line, “these are the laws of my administration,” there’s a certain cinematic quality that makes me want to make movies. The rest of the song is filled with great lines, such as “the last man nearly ruined this place, he didn’t know what to do with it. If you think this country’s bad off now, just wait ’til I get through with it.” Groucho/Firefly also bans chewing gum, smoking, dirty jokes, whistling, and pleasure, yet also refers to his nation as the “land of the free.”

Duck Soup might not make filmgoers laugh as much as modern comedies; then again, it might. At any rate, it probably has influenced pure comedic filmmaking as much as or more than any film. It’s well-worth a watch, whether or not you find it laugh-out-loud funny, and luckily, it’s on youtube in its entirety and is only about 68 minutes 

3. “I am a false prophet” from There Will Be Blood (2007): 

Going all the way from the oldest film on this list to most recent, I think There Will Be Blood is arguably the best film of the 2000s, and I hope it will be remembered that way. (Of course, that’s a pretty bold statement considering it lost to No Country for Old Men for best picture; I think it should’ve won, but many peers like No Country better).

There Will Be Blood paints a picture of turn-of-the-century US capitalism, and the reluctant and sometimes hypocritical reliance of various institutions, such as the church, on that capitalism. Really though, it’s a character portrait of eventually ruthless “oil man” Daniel Plainview, played by Daniel Day-Lewis in what’s considered one of the most virtuoso acting performances of modern times.

Daniel Plainview could be a case-study for modern psychiatrists. I know very little about psychology, but I know Daniel Plainview isn’t quite right. I’d say he has narcissistic tendencies, and that might be putting it mildly. Anyway, he’s an oil man who uses his cute “son” as a means to get business and calls himself a “family man.” After receiving a tip from a stranger about land with a lot of oil under it, Daniel travels to that land, and much to his delight, there is a whole “ocean of oil” under the ground and he’s the only one who can “get at it.” Meanwhile, a lot of stuff happens–his “son” goes deaf, for a time, he thinks he has a half-brother, he tries to integrate with the townsfolk to a certain extent and most importantly, he must deal with the evangelical church of the “Third Revelation,” run by the naive/weird Eli Sunday, twin brother of Paul Sunday, who gave Daniel the tip about the land in the first place.

Nearly from the get-go, Daniel is at odds with Eli for his beliefs and often takes some of his frustrations out on Eli. Eli gets his revenge by blackmailing Daniel into being baptized at the Church and prompting Daniel to admit that he “abandoned his child.” A time after this, Daniel becomes successful enough to retire to a house with a bowling alley. Years later, with Daniel living at this house, Eli comes to visit him to ask for a portion of oil proceeds to help with the Church, which has succumbed to the effects of the Great Depression. Daniel doesn’t hold back and humiliates Eli by making him recite the line “I am a false prophet and God is a superstition,” and not just recite it but recite it loudly and vocally, as if it were his sermon. After humiliating Eli, Daniel gleefully proceeds to tell Eli that his idea won’t work because the lands already been “had.” Daniel continues on and releases years of pent-up frustration by famously informing Eli that he “drinks his milkshake” and eventually beating Eli to death with a bowling pin. The scene I chose was with Eli saying that he’s a false prophet, but I really love the whole sequence from when Eli meets with Daniel to the end when Daniel says “I’m finished.” It’s just a really powerful sequence, with brilliant acting and quotable lines and a lot of catharsis.

2. Reveal of Harry Lime in The Third Man (1949): 

This is really an unheralded classic. A British-produced film that takes place in post WWII Vienna, Austria, The Third Man is often considered an Orson Welles movie, as he played a main character (albeit with not that much screen time, relatively speaking) and stylistically, it seems very much like an Orson Welles film. However, he didn’t direct, and he is even quoted as saying “it was Carol’s (Carol Reed, the director) picture. However, the influence of Welles is undeniable in the overall nature of the film. Still,  The Third Man is sharply unique in several areas. Firstly, the music is played on an unusual string instrument called a zither and sounds nothing like any other music score of which I’m aware. The very catchy theme song became a popular song in 1950, and rock and roll group The Band (the namesake of this blog) even did a cover of it. Secondly, it’s one of the most picturesque and visually compelling movies I have ever seen. In my first post, I said I wasn’t a very visual person in terms of filmmaking or just in general really; however, The Third Man is an exception to that idea. A combination of distorted angles, scenic set design and overall film noir style cinematography probably all combine to make the film so visually compelling.

Of course, neither of those things would matter without great characters and great plot. The Third Man tells the tale of Holly Martins, an American western book author who arrives in Vienna looking for a job promised by his old friend Harry Lime (the character played by Orson Welles). Upon arriving, he finds out that his friend has apparently died. He technically has no reason to stay in Austria upon hearing this news, but circumstances cause him to do so. Eventually, he comes to believe that there might have been foul play involved in his friend’s death, who was involved in the illegal penicillin market.  He begins to investigate and is occasionally chased by suspicious men and is surrounded by suspicious behavior. Martins is convinced to leave, but after visiting with his “romantic” interest Anna (who was also Lime’s romantic interest), he believes he is being tailed by a man in the shadows. As light briefly flashes, he shockingly discovers that his “good friend” Harry Lime is still alive, and voila, that’s the scene.

Neither my summary here nor the clip posted here can truly do the scene justice without knowing the context of the entire film. Still, the cinematographic style combined with the unique zither music and the magnitude of the moment within the film as the camera dollies in on Harry Lime’s face is another one of those moments that makes me want to make films. If you haven’t seen this film, it’s a must-watch. And here’s a link to that famous theme song: 

Note: As much as I love this scene, I still am not sure why someone who’s faked his own death and been in hiding would reveal himself so easily and smile while he was being noticed as if it was no big deal.

1. Baptism scene in The Godfather (1972): 

I’m guessing that if anyone reads this blog and sees this post, people are more likely to have seen The Godfather over any other movie discussed. Therefore, I won’t spend as much time discussing it. I will say that this is my all time favorite movie, and I have a hard time understanding anyone who doesn’t like this movie. It all comes together so perfectly at the end and just has such a powerful poignancy to it.  The baptism scene is a perfect example of that.

Much like with There Will Be Blood, I wish I could post more than I have because really from the beginning of the baptism scene/sequence until the very end of the movie when Michael Corleone’s door is closed to his then-wife Kay are the best however many minutes in film history in my opinion. But the baptism scene still suffices on its own. It’s probably the foremost example of parallel editing in cinema, where the film cuts between one location/action to another in one scene or sequence. In other words, it’s an extremely effective example of showing supposedly simultaneous action. I probably don’t need to tell most of you how powerful (cool?) it is to see Michael Corleone denouncing Satan while also ordering and fulfilling acts of murder. It’s important to stress the how much the music impacts the scene–it’s minor key Bach organ music that Francis Ford Coppola said really made the scene what it was and that it wasn’t anything special before the addition of the music.

I don’t need to talk much about the plot of The Godfather, but it’s really the story of Michael Corleone’s transformation, and the baptism scene does a fantastic job of just showing how much he’s changed.

Note: I find the killing of Moe Greene incredibly unrealistic. The massage parlor guy doesn’t at all react to the fact that there’s a man with a gun, and Moe Greene takes a minute to put his glasses on before the guy shoots him. Why doesn’t the guy just fire away immediately? I guess because it’s kind of cool? Either way, it shouldn’t take anything away from the overall impact of the sequence.

Well, there you have it. Those are my top five favorite movie scenes at the moment. Thanks for reading; feel free to chime in with your own favorite movie scenes.