My choices are noted with a ★. A tie is indicated with a ✪. Historical Oscar winners are noted with a ✔. Best foreign-language picture winners are noted with an ƒ. A historical winner who won in a different category is noted with a ✱.
For a long time, I had Akira Kurosawa's Ran down as the best picture of 1985, and it's a beautiful, beautifully-made movie. But Filmsite.org defines classic movies as "renowned films of first rank, reference points in film mythology, or films that have become a part of American cultural folklore."
That sure sounds like Back to the Future to me so that's what I'm going with. But you decide.
Note: William Hurt won the Oscar for best actor in 1985, but to me, it was such a joint effort with Raul Julia that to split them apart would be like trying to assess Laurel without Hardy or Curly without Moe. They win together or don't win at all.
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2 comments:
what a laughable definition of classical movies (“part of American cultural folklore”).
Apart Brandauer’s acting and John Barry’s score, I don’t like anything else in Out of Africa. So I’d replace it for one of the following films: The Official Story, Come and See, My Life as a Dog.
Joe Morani
I like My Life As a Dog. I like parts of American cultural folklore.
Random House Webster's Unabridged has a fuckuva lot of definitions for "classic." "Of the first or highest quality, rank or class" is certainly there, but so is "traditional or typical" or "definitive," including "definitive in its field." I'm pretty sure between people who find Back To The Future" rank, and those who find it classic and definitive, we've captured a large segment of this blog's audience.
Well played, Monkey !!
PS As we have entered the late-70s and '80s, I find that your taste/choices and my taste/choices are beginning to align at a remarkable, if not alarming, rate. We should talk about the Beatles sometime. . . .
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