Top 100: 30-21

     After a week's hiatus, this week I move past the final quarter mark of my countdown as we approach the end (if you missed them, check out the previous weeks: 100-91, 90-81, 80-71, 70-61, 60-51, 50-41, 40-31). It's a huge week for comedy, as four of my absolute favorites from the genre pop up. These are movies that will keep you laughing through multiple viewings. I also have the only 100% silent film on my list this week, which is also my only film from the 1920's (making the oldest film on my list). In terms of genres, I also reach my all-time favorite horror film, my all-time favorite Christmas film, my all-time favorite super hero movie, and my all-time favorite war film. Looking through the decades, this week's ten are fairly spread out through the timeline, with the 1980's making the most appearances (3). No director makes more than one appearance this week, with the exception of Mr. Frank Capra, an auteur who pretty much created his own genre (pejoratively referred to as "Capra-corn"). There are also some one-time appearances from some very famous directors, in what I consider to be their very best work. Now on to the countdown!

30. "The Shining" (1980)

     This is actually the film on my countdown that I most recently saw, as I finally got up enough courage to see the horror classic this past Halloween (and reviewed it here). As I have stated before on this blog, I am not a very big fan of the horror genre. A lot of that has to do with the fact that as a child I was easily scared by horror flicks, but even now as I have grown a backbone and begun to plunge into the popular genre, I have still not seen many horror films that are anything more than simple derivatives. Loud sounds, screeching music, blood and gore, beyond stupid protagonists, and dumb set-ups seem all that is necessary for many horror films. With the low bar set by its peers and even with the prestige that comes along with being a "Kubrick film" (a director I find to be slightly overrated), I wasn't expecting all that much, but boy was I ever blown away. The result was "The Shining" without a doubt becoming my favorite film in the genre, and as evident by its inclusion on this list, one of my favorite films ever. This truly is a masterpiece to behold.

     "The Shining" is based on the book of the same name by the modern day master of horror Steven King. The story tells the tale of Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), a struggling writer who agrees to bring up his family, consisting of wife Wendy (Shelley Duvall) and son Danny (Danny Lloyd), to a Colorado hotel, known as the Overlook Hotel, for the winter so that he can be paid to be the hotel's caretaker. The hotel has a dark past though, with many of its former guest still stomping around in ghostly form that the spiritually gifted Danny, along with hotel employee Dick Hallorann (Scatman Crothers), can communicate with, through a power Hallorann refers to as "the Shining". The dark forces of the old resort, along with a serious case of cabin fever, drive Jack completely mad ("All work and no play make Johnny a dull boy") as he begins to see and communicate with some of the dead himself. Eventually, Jack is convinced by a vision of the former butler/caretaker of the Overlook to "correct" the problem of his annoying family in the same way that the butler did with his family: chopped them up with an axe. From then on, it's a matter of life and death for Wendy and Danny who do everything they can to escape the murderous Jack and prevent the Overlook from becoming their wintery tomb.

     Although I have never read the book, apparently their were significant differences between the book and the movie that made Steven King unhappy with Kubrick's final product. Apparently in the book, Jack starts off as a genuinely nice person, unlike Nicholson in the film, and there was also a larger focus on Jack's alcoholism, something that was very personal to King as a recovered alcoholic. The ending of the book and the film also differ drastically, and while I'm sure King's decisions make for good literature, I am happy Kubrick made the changes he did, because they absolutely served in the best interests of cinema history. "The Shining" does so many little things well that are uniquely possible only in the medium of cinema and make the film stand out as probably the most brilliantly paced film ever. For instance, as small as it may sound, one of my favorite parts of the film was its use of quick cuts to a black screen displaying the day or the time. The effect is an almost episodic feel to the film that creates a slow build of tension and dread with the audience, a truly remarkable achievement that takes mere seconds of screen time. The other scene(s) that I would be remiss to not mention are the bar sequences with Jack and the apparitions. In particular, the scene in the oddly red bathroom between Jack and the ex-caretaker is a classic. While most films rely gore and high-volume noises to scare the audience, Kubrick's genius scene of creepy dialogue between two men (or though one is dead) in a bathroom does more to send shivers down your spine than a thousand slasher films. With Kubrick's brilliant direction, along with remarkable performances by Nicholson (who only reconfirmed his status as my all-time favorite actor with this performance) and child-actor Lloyd, this film is a must-see, for horror fanatics and cowards alike.

29. "This is Spinal Tap" (1984)

     The most famous (and best) of all the films in the "mockumentary" genre, "This is Spinal Tap" is pure comedic gold. If you aren't aware of the term "mockumentary", it is a film that is done in documentary style for the comedic purpose of poking fun at its subject matter, which in this case is rock and roll. While not the first in the genre (Woody Allen's "Zelig", which made it to number 55 on my list, came out a year earlier), it was the first foray in the area by Christopher Guest, who would later go on to star and write many more films in the genre such as "Best in Show" and "For Your Consideration". "This is Spinal Tap" though will be his legacy, as the film built an immense cult following over the years and was in fact named the number one all-time cult film by Entertainment Weekly. The film started out as a collaboration between Christopher Guest, Rob Reiner (who directs the film), Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer (who is most famous for providing the voices for some of the characters on the long-running television show "The Simpsons"), who were given $10,000 to make a 20-minute short. After the completion of the short (including some scenes that were used in the final film), the studio was impressed enough to green-light the project, and all four men starred and "wrote" the film (with quotations around wrote due to the fact that most of the lines were ad-libbed, even by thee bit actors).

     The "Rockumentary" being helmed by Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner, and the name being a combination of the directors Martin Scorsese, Brian De Palma, Steven Spielberg, and Federico Fellini) focuses on the American comeback tour of the British heavy metal band Spinal Tap, composed of David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), Derrick Smalls (Harry Shearer), and a continuous round-robin of drummers who keep spontaneously combusting. The tour, which is meant to promote their new album "Smell the Glove" which includes an album cover of a woman bondage being forced to smell a glove, is not very successful, as the washed up band is forced to play in perpetually worse dives. The lack of success, along with tensions between St. Hubbins and Tufnel partly caused by St. Hubbins girlfriend who wants to take the band in a different creative direction (Yoko Ono anyone?), the band careens toward what appears to be an inevitable breakup. There are many famous scenes and gags in the movie. From the scene where the the band gets lost backstage trying make its way to the stage, to the infamous "Stonehenge prop", to the guitars that "go up to 11", if you haven't seen this film you have probably missed out on a lot of inside jokes in other films or shows referencing this movie. All of the actors actually play their own instruments (which is more than the Monkees could say) and wrote the hilarious songs, such as "Tonight I'm Going to Rock You Tonight", "Cups and Cakes", "Sex Farm", and "(Listen to the) Flower People". The songs aren't half-bad, or at least better then the songs of some of the bands their meant to parody ("Gimme Some Money" in particular stands out as a great song in its own right), and the fake band itself developed a fanbase that allowed the actors to tour as Spinal Tap. There are also numerous reference to real rock bands and incidents in rock history (such as playing a guitar with a whole violin, a reference to Led Zepplin guitarist Jimmy Page's "Dazed and Confused" solo where he played the guitar with a violin string), so for any rock and roll buff, the film is an absolute must, but even if you're not into rock music, this film is a comedic classic that deserves your attention.

28. "Black Hawk Down" (2001)

     While there are many great films in the "war" genre, I am not a big war film nut. In fact, there are probably only one or two other films on this list that would meet the criteria of being a "pure war film". Part of my problem with some of the films in the genre is that they come off as a bit patronizing to its characters. We typically get to know squad of soldiers, each with their own nicknames, quirks, and back-stories. Some live, some die, but our time with them is very superficial, leaving the audience with no more substantial understanding of war or its warriors. How can a filmmaker fix this problem then? Ridley Scott was able to find the solution in 2001, with my all-time favorite war film "Black Hawk Down". The brilliance of "Black Hawk Down" is it came up with the counter-intuitive solution that "less is more". We don't really get to know much about any particular soldier, as one name and face is pretty interchangeable with the next, but we learn more about all of them as a whole. By putting the focus on the minute-to-minute battle to survive, the audience essentially plays the part of "the soldier", causing the film to parallel the mission of a soldier. Through the incredible realism and focus to detail, "Black Hawk Down" finally brings to light why the soldiers are so dependent on each other, and all other meaning than this is thrown out the window as soon as battle begins.

     The film is based on the real life incident in Somalia on October 3, 1993. U.S. Army Rangers were tasked with the mission of being dropped into the middle of war-torn Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, to capture two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord. Unfortunately, the mission doesn't go as planned, as the Somalis were better equipped than expected and shoot down to Black Hawk helicopters with RPGs (Rocket Propelled Grenades, not Role-Playing Games for any video game nerds reading this blog). This leads to a scramble by the Army to get soldiers to the two crash sites as fast as possible to save any survivors. In order to get to the stranded soldiers in the middle of the city, the Rangers must go deep into the hostile Mogadishu in an extremely difficult urban combat situation. The war scenes are absolutely stunning and breathtaking, and even included some actual satellite images from the real battle. Ridley Scott has the tendency to be "overly stylistic" (especially as of late), but the fast-paced grimey imagery is well placed in this case. The film also boast a large ensemble of talented young actors, such as Ewan McGregor, Josh Hartnett, and Eric Bana, as well as older actors such as Tom Sizemore and Sam Shepard, and while no particular character especially stands out, they all work together very well to create the feeling of soldiers in war, doing the best they can in a difficult situation. It all comes together, to create the best traditional war film in cinema history.

27. "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946)

     People have the tendency not to care about anything that happened before they were born, and this includes movies. If an individual takes a particular interest in a certain actor or actress growing up, they might do a little research into his or her previous work and check it out, but that's about as far as it goes. Not everyone is going to be a cinephile, and that's understandable, to each his own (although I do wish more people were at least open to watching movies outside their comfort zone), but the consequence is a lot of great older movies are not known very well to the modern public. That includes many of the films I have written about on my list (1939's "The Rules of the Game" for example), and I am well aware that many of you readers may not have seen, or heard of some of these films. Despite the age of "It's a Wonderful Life" though, my guess is you probably seen, or heard of it. While this has a lot to do with the fact that it is played every year around Christmas time because the film is set around the holiday, it also has to do with the fact that the film is that damn good. The emotions and themes are so transcendent, so universal, that it bridges are generational (and maybe even cultural) gaps. I would not want to live in a time where "It's a Wonderful Life" is not regarded as an all-time classic.

     If you don't know the film's famous story, it follows the life of George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart), a brash young man who has dreams of leaving his home town of Bedford Falls in order to travel and see the world. When the town is threatened to be completely taken over by the greedy banker Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore), George sacrifices his dreams in order to stop this by taken over his father's small savings and loans company. When George's Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) accidentally loses $8,000 of the banks money, which Mr. Potter finds and hides, the shortage causes a panic and a run on the bank by his small town customers. Distraught, feeling he let the whole town down, which will now be taken over by Mr. Potter, George comes to the conclusion that the town and his family would be better off if he were dead. Contemplating suicide on a wintry night on a bridge, the prayers of the towns people lead an angel named Clarence (Henry Travers) to prevent the suicide. Clarence brings George to an alternate reality in which Clarence never existed. This doppelganger version of Bedford Falls, ran by Mr. Potter, is a dark, dingy, dilapidated place, where everyone he cares about in his life is drudging through a miserable existence. Realizing how much his life has meant to everyone, George is brought back from the pit of despair, and happily reunites with his family and the town's people. It's an excellent story, masterfully directed by Frank Capra. Many chastise Capra's films as overly idealistic sentimental fluff, and criticize him as a grand manipulator of the audience. While this may be somewhat true in a few of Capra's films, when Capra is on his A-game, there truly is no better director. You may cynically scoff at moments of "It's a Wonderful Life", but to anyone who does not shed one tear throughout this movie, my only message to you is that you may be a heartless bastard. The film also has many great performances, but none more so than Jimmy Stewart, whose spectacular portrayal is truly gut-wrenching. Jimmy Stewart filmed the movie as an recent veteran World War II, and in some of the scenes he literally broke down on set. This realism does not go unnoticed and extremely, as is the whole film, the most life-affirming images ever put to the silver screen.

26. "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986)

     As I believe I have mentioned in a few of these film write-ups (I know for sure I mentioned it in my review if "Roman Holiday", #43 on my list and a plot very similar to this film), I like films that have a real irreverence towards life. This is because I wholeheartedly embrace the oxymoronic idea that the less seriously you take life, the more meaningful it becomes. It may sound like some overly simplistic Buddhist riddle (things are one way then they're the other, sort of thing), but I really believe the people who get the most out of life are the people who just enjoy the ride, and no film embodies this idea more than "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". The film's plot is self-explanatory, it follows the exploits of ultra-cool high school student Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) on his "day off" of school he creates for himself by faking sickness. After some clever scheming and manipulation, he also gets his best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) and his girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara) to come along his excursion in downtown Chicago, much to the dismay of the school's principle (Jeffrey Jones) and Ferris' jealous sister Jeanie (Jennifer Grey), who are both obsessed with catching Ferris playing hookie. Throughout the magical day, we get to learn more about the three main character's hopes and fears, as they it up the best they can while they can.

     The overall feeling of bliss that the film generates is truly unique in cinema history. A lot of other films try, and sometimes succeed, at creating a sense of lighthearted fun, but none do it as effectively as "Ferris Bueller's Day Off". There are a lot of wonderfully written scenes in this movie, but if I had to pick one that stood out as the pinnacle of enjoyment, it would be the parade scene. In this scene, Ferris takes over a huge parade in downtown Chicago, lip syncing Wayne Newton's version of the song "Danke Schoen" (great use of the song), and then doing the same for the Beatles' "Twist and Shout". During the "Twist and Shout" scene, as is a staple with many John Hugh's films, there is a random dance scene, as the crowd watching the parade partakes in a moment of Ferris' ultimate day on the town. I enjoy any film that manages to stick in random dancing, but for this film in particular, including dancing (which is often the irrational reaction to joy) is the perfect cherry on top of the sundae. Scenes like these all go to the credit of writer/director John Hughes, who amazingly wrote the script in only six days. Hughes was one of the foremost autuers of the 1980's who defined cinema (and culture) for a decade (without him the 1980's would not be the 1980's), and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" is his crowning achievement. The acting of the cast is wonderful as well, with all the main player, Jeffrey Jones, Jennifer Grey, Mia Sara, Alan Ruck, and especially Matthew Broderick, creating pitch perfect characters. Broderick's Ferris Bueller is one of the coolest characters in the history of film, and the fact that the film manages to makes Matthew Broderick appear to be one of the coolest cats on earth, should tell what a awesome film this is.

25. "The Dark Knight" (2008)

     While "The Dark Knight" is my favorite super hero movie, and it is immensely enjoyable as a Batman film, this is much more than an action film with a larger-than-life protagonist. The film is essentially a philosophical battle between the morality of order and control, and morality of chaos and freedom. Batman, aka Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale), believes in rules of objective morality that must be upheld (although he forced to bend or break some of those rules to defeat the Joker), while the Joker (Heath Ledger), believes in the sincerity and honesty of chaos, when people put aside all pretensions of right and wrong and act as they naturally would if not inhibited by social standards and norms. And while Batman is definitely the good guy, and the Joker is definitely the bad guy, the film is at times ambiguous to whether Batman is completely right and the Joker is completely wrong. Any decent film villain in movies usually has an element of truth in his world view (though the problem is they take it to the extreme), and Christopher and Jonathan Nolan seemed to this in their screenplay for the film. In particular, in a scene where the Joker visits the half-faced Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart), the Joker's monologue about "schemer's trying to control their little worlds" comes across as fairly rational and sympathetic. The Nolan's choice (along with story consultant David S. Goyer) to forgo the Joker's origin story (the Joker offers up multiple versions of how he got his scar) so that the character would be absolute is another example of a great decision that makes the film as brilliant as it is. Few comic book films would dare to try something like this, and we're all better off for these wonderful choices.

     The film's plot (which I won't detail here) is based on a few issues of the Batman comic books, the issues entitled "The Killing Joke" and "The Long Halloween" in particular. It basically is a game of high-stakes poker between Batman and the Joker, which ends with an interesting variation of the classic game theory parable known as "Prisoners Dilemma". The film has a terrific cast of many actors who give great performances, but the star of the film is Heath Ledger, who gives one of the greatest performances of all-time (Top 5 in my view). To prepare for the role, Ledger hid himself away in a secluded motel for six weeks in order to develop the dark psychotic nature of the Joker. He reportedly based the Joker on a combination of punk rocker Sid Vicious (of the Sex Pistols fame), and Alex De Large, the protagonist of Stanley Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" (#91 on my list). However he got to the character, the results are truly frightening and breathtaking, and actually scared Michael Caine so much on the first day of shooting together that he forgot all his lines. Of course, this amazing performance made it all the more tragic when Ledger unexpectedly died in January of 2008, before the movie had even been released. Like James Dean before him, audiences can't help but fill robbed over what would have likely been an amazing career. There are some reports that it was the role of the Joker, whose voice Heath could not get out of his head, that drove him to overdose on pills. While I hope this is not the case, if this is true, at the very least Heath can be proud that he created one of the most memorable characters in any medium ever.

24. "The Gold Rush" (1925)

     Maybe the first real auteur (as he was a writer, director, and actor), Charlie Chaplin is one of my all-time favorite comedians (if not my favorite). You would think without sound (and therefore the opportunity to make witty comments and jokes), comedy would be pretty hard to come by, and just a few years ago, I would have been inclined to agree. This was before I had seen any Charlie Chaplin films though. Being as famous as he is, even if you haven't seen any of his films, it is likely you would recognize his distinct Tramp character, or at least have heard of his name. Growing up, I had briefly seen a few bits from his shorts that they would occasionally play on Sesame Street (or at least that's where I think I saw them) and found them to be weird breaks to the entertaining Muppets. For this reason, I had never been to keen to see Hollywood's first true star, but when I finally did, it was an awakening. Chaplin's mastery of physical comedy, irony, absurdity, wit, and empathy is a one-of-a-kind package that no other comedian has since matched. In all three areas of filmmaking that Chaplin undertook (writing, directing, and acting), he excelled. Chaplin was also one of the first people to really grasp the medium of cinema, and what worked well and what didn't, and this influence is continued to be felt in many films today, which is a monument to his great success.

     "The Gold Rush", which is the only completely silent film to make my list and is the oldest film of the 100, tells the story of The Lone Prospector (Charlie Chaplin), a vagrant who has made his way to cold tundra of Alaska in search for gold. During his time in Alaska, The Lone Prospector has to deal with starvation, criminals, fellow prospectors, and a dance hall girl named Georgia (Georgia Hale) that he falls in love with (and apparently he did fall in love with the original actress lined up to play Georgia, as she became pregnant with Chaplin's child before shooting could begin), all on his journey to striking it rich. There are a lot of classic scenes in the film. Chaplin and his buddy Big Jim McKay (Mack Swain) are forced to eat a cooked boot (that was actually made of licorice and sent Chaplin into insulin shock), and the starvation drives Big Jim mad to the point where he begins to hallucinate that The Lone Prospector is a chicken, and proceeds to eat him. In another famous scene where Big Jim and The Lone Prospector are back at the cabin trying to find a spot that Big Jim knows is filled with gold, a blizzard blows the cabin to the point where it is teetering at the edge of a cliff. The most famous scene though, and one that was so popular that projectionists would roll the film back to play it again, is when Chaplin does a little dance with dinner rolls (click here to see this famous scene). The scene is actually a fantasy Chaplin has when he falls asleep waiting for Georgia and her friends to come spend New Years Eve night with him as they had promised. It is a really touching scene, and moments like this combined with some hilariously comedic moments, make "The Gold Rush" the best film from the silent era, and a classic even to this day.    

23. "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1974)

     "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" was not all that popular upon it's initial release in 1974. Today, there are t-shirts, toys, replicas, and even a Broadway musical called "Spamalot" all in honor of the movie that is routinely sited as the funniest comedy of all-time. For some, it's wacky sense of British humor is too hard to penetrate, but for those who can appreciate it's zany style, there is no film that can quite tickle the funny bone like "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". Funded by the money earned through the massive success of the Pink Floyd album "The Dark Side of the Moon" (the band was such a huge fan of the comedy troupe that they would stop in the middle of recording sessions to watch the Monty Python television show, "Monty Python's Flying Circus"), the film's "story" is a parody of the grandeur of the tale of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round table. The film goes all over the place, but the main theme of the movie, and the thing that inspired Monty Python to make the movie, was to mock the whole idea of knights, and the supposed honor and chivalry they had. Arthur (Graham Chapman) comes off as a prideful idiot, Lancelot (John Cleese) is a boastful buffoon, and Sir Robin (Eric Idle) is a coward.

     The point of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" though is not so much the plot, but the crazy scenes. Almost every line of dialogue, every gag, every shot, is a famous piece of cinema history and can easily be recalled by Monty Python fans. In fact, I don't know if there is another movie in which such a high percentage of what is on screen is considered to be part of classic cinema history. It's really astounding.  From the hilariously awful opening credits, to the argument of whether a swallow can carry a coconut, to  the "bring out your dead" scene, to the song and dance number "Camelot" (and Arthur's response, "On second thought, let's not go to Camelot. It is a silly place"), to the the Black Night who continues to fight limb-less, to the Knights Who Say Ni, to the horny maidens at the Castle Anthrax, to Tim the Enchanter who is very fond of explosions, to the scene of the witch trial, to the scene with the killer rabbit and the Holy Grenade and its longwinded directions, to the anticlimactic conclusion of the search for the Holy Grail, this movie is chuck-full of hilarious moments (this is all I came up with from the top of my head, so if I forgot your favorite part of the film, my apologies). Along with some of the more obvious funny parts of the film that people tend to remember, there are a lot of good subtle one-liners too. For instance, in a scene where the King of the Swamp Castle points out at a window and says to his son, "One day lad, this will all be yours", to which his son responds, "What, the curtains?". Or in another scene when Arthur passes two peasants and one asked the other, "Who is that?", "I dunno, must be a king", "Why?", "He hasn't got shit all over him". Lines like these, along with the more famous gags, helped but directors Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam, along with the rest of the troupe that helped write the movie, into halls of comedic history.

22. "The Truman Show" (1997)

     When I first saw this film, I was a little miffed. Starring Jim Carrey, I figured it would resemble something in the vein of a comedy, as all his previous films had been comedies. While there are lightly humorous moments here and there, it definitely was not made of the same cloth as Carrey's other films. As a drama, I found it be a decent, straight forward film with an interesting concept, but nothing particularly special stuck out about the film to garner it a spot on any "all-time" list. Since that time though, and after delving into some of the writings of philosophers such Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean-Paul Sartre, as well as the whole Existentialist movement, I saw "The Truman Show" in a whole different light. The key difference is that instead of viewing the film as part of the television audience that is "in on the joke" so to speak, I began to look at the events through Truman's eyes. For Truman, the world of Seahaven was his inescapable existence, it is everything he knew to be real and true. This turns out not to be enough for Truman, as the eery sense that his world may not be all that it seems begins to creep into his mind as he questions the nature of his existence. The thought takes a hold of him, as he is willing to go to continually more dangerous feats in order to find the truth and press the limits of his existence. This all culminates into a powerful final scene in which he conquers his ultimate fear of sailing (due to his dad's "death" during a fishing trip), where "nature" itself does it's best to destroy him and keep him from knowing the truth. Then, we he talks to Christof (Ed Harris), as far as Truman knows, he is essentially speaking to God, and rejecting his cage of existence. Truman basically becomes Nietsche's "uberman", a true existential warrior.

     After waxing philosophical, let me explain the plot for those of you who have not seen the movie. The concept of the film is that a director/documentarian Cristof created a television show known as "The Truman Show" where he picked a child at birth and created a fully realized world inside a high-tech bubble for the child to live in. He then filled the world with actors to flesh out the world, and let the cameras role 24/7 on Truman to make a television that is just one man's life (frighteningly prophetic of the reality television phenomenon that would start just a few years later). To keep it natural and real though, Truman is never let in on the fact that he is the star of a huge social and artistic experiment, until he starts to suspect that the world surrounding him may not be genuine. This then leads to the existential journey I described above, as Truman, with help from the memory of one woman who tried to help him see the truth (Natascha McElhone), challenges the boundaries of his known world. The film is wonderfully directed by Peter Weir, who used smaller ratios in order to give the movie more of a television feel. There are also some fun moments of regular people in the "real world" (not the stupid MTV show) watching Truman on the television station dedicated to his life, cheering alongside him, hoping he will uncover the truth. Jim Carrey also gives one of his best performances, portraying a regular everyday man who ponders some of the same questions that many of us do, but actually finding some answers to his questions. Ed Harris, who received an Oscar nomination for his performance, is mesmerizing as an auteur with a serious God-complex that brings him to the brink of killing Truman. The movie is one of my favorites of the 1990's, and one that everyone, but especially the philosophically inclined, should give a look.

21. "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939)

     My second Capra/Stewart collaboration on this weeks list, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" was originally meant to be a sequel to "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town", and thus was going to be titled "Mr. Deeds Goes to Washington" and was a star vehicle for Gary Cooper. When Cooper was unavailable for the role though, Stewart stepped in, and the movie gods shined on us again because, while I occasionally like Mr. Cooper (see my write up of "Sergeant York", #92 on my list), the passion and sincerity required to play this role is something that only Jimmy Stewart, and maybe a couple of other actors (maybe), could pull of. The film's story revolves around an appointment to the U.S. Senate of an idealistic, but naive, leader of the boy rangers, Jefferson Smith (Jimmy Stewart). The surprise appointment is the idea of the unnamed states boss of the unnamed states political machine, Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold), who only wants some one stupid enough not to get in the way of their shady land dealings where they plan to build a dam and graft some money off the top of a Public Works bill. In order to keep him busy, the states other senator and presidential hopeful, Joseph Paine (Claude Rains), who was a friend of Smith's father and a man who Smith holds in deep admiration, tells him to work on a bill. Smith comes up with the idea of making a bill where the government would loan some land to the Boy Rangers in his home state where Rangers from all over the country could come to camp. With the help of his assistant, Clarissa Saunders (Jean Arthur), he drafts the bill and proposes on the Senate floor. Coincidentally though, the land that Smith proposes the government loan to the Boy Rangers is the same land that the political machine was planning to build there dam. Stunned, Paine resists taking down his idealistic colleague, but after a bit of arm twisting by Taylor, the political machine goes in full force to destroy the newly appointed Senator Smith. In one of cinemas most dramatic endings, Smith protests the graft bill through a old-fashioned, 24/7 filibuster, where he puts his whole body and soul on the line in principle for fighting for this "lost cause".  

     Ironically, both Washington D.C. politicians and insiders, and fascist and communist dictators despised the movie, and banned it in the case of the latter despots. The government higher-ups in D.C. didn't like it because they felt it painted them all (probably accurately) as corrupt officials only interested in making money (many Senators walked out of the film at its premiere in D.C.). The dictators banned the film from their country for almost the exact opposite reason, as they felt it showed that in the end, democracy works. Also more humorously, the Washington Press Core disliked the film because the movie portrayed them all as alcoholics. With this many elite people hating the movie, that is already a check in the good column in my book, and the country and Academy agreed, as the film was successful both at the box office, and at Oscar nominations (although "Gone With the Wind" swept most of the awards). Many cynics may criticize the film as overly idealistic, patriotic schmultz, and while I am not usually a fan of idealism or idealist, to shut yourself off from caring about things, or standing for anything, is just as stupidly idealistic in my view. If your looking for pap in this film, you will find it, and while pulling sappy material is a challenge of immense proportions for any director, no director did with as much success or ease as the great Frank Capra. The main reason that Capra is able to pull off this idealistic material while most other directors fail, is because there is a clear sincerity in Capra's every decision. You can criticize him all you want, but I'm sure he went to his grave a romantic idealist, which is something I admire. As good as Capra is though, the film might not have worked without Jimmy Stewart, who gives the best performance of his career. The level of sincerity I'm talking about all stems from Stewart's breathtaking performance. Just as Mr. Smith, he clearly gave all he had to this role, and the results earned him a place among the all-time best performances in cinema history.

     Once again, I apologize for the weeks delay, and thank you for your patience. Until next week, as always you can let me know what you think in the comments section.