Your top 5 ("Three sir!") 3 movies

[apophenia]

This is timely, since it's been a topic for much discussion around Strange Castle and environs. I think it very tough to limit to three. However I know definitely what my favourite is, because I have such a love hate relationship with it.

1. The Shining. I will now explain why in tedious detail.

Trigger Warning!!!1! :

Kubrick seems to have made a movie which on the face of it seems like a dark farce (something I think all his later movies share) From Jack's daffy duck performance to Shelley's clothing and mannerisms being reflections of goofy (cartoon characters appear a lot in the movie) the whole thing has an air of the absurd about it, even down to the big teddy bear with the eyes that are mirror images of the dials above the bloody elevator. But beneath the overtly cartoonish aspect there are several things going on that I think Kubrick did deliberately to disturb the viewer, without them being conciously aware of it. For example the dead children appear in a corridor that is never seen in the hotel no matter how many times Kubrick maps the place out. The scene with Jack an the zombie chick in the bathtub seems to not be real but a vision of Danny's and of course there is the proliferating and disappearing photographs as well as the moving chairs(in many scenes including the dead girls scene and the bloody elevator) and entrance to the maze moving from the front of the building to the side. Some people have suggested such things are continuity errors. If so there are a lot, too many in fact for someone as obsessive about image as Kubrick I'd say.

There's the whole subtext of the hotel being a place for the elite, placed on an indian burial ground and Jack always being the "muderous" caretaker. This monster character sets about trying to kill a woman and a child and succeeds in killing a black man (a nigger cook as O'Grady has it). In this sense it becomes a horror movie about colonialism and oppression (even having Jack talking about booze being White Man's Burden. Having recently read the Decline and Fall of the British Empire, one of the things that stood out was just how drunk off our asses we were). The hotel manager even mentions them living in the West Wing. I'm stopping because I could go on and on and on.

I'm riveted. You've instilled in me a hunger to return to The Shining, and discover it all over again. And, a desire to hear more.

[Svartalf]

LOTR.

Interesting, but I could never agree on that.
Just the fact that the theatrical releases had me wanting to messily slaughter everybody who had to do with making them, Jackson, scriptwriters, producers, editors... some more; is enough that I'd never put it in my top ten.
Even the long versions have me want to slap jackson and some of the responsible personnel regularly, and NOTHING will save the people responsible for the cave troll scene if I get my hands on them.

In fact, you plan a real-life re-enactment.

Given my size, dye me red and give me a battle axe, it would be Gimli counting orcs in battle. and sticking his axe in their nerve system.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

He's only pettifogging.

*pinches cheek* "Who learn a new word today!"

[Ian]

I fucking LOVE Dazed and Confused (and the other movies on your list), but Dazed and Confused can be watched anytime, at whatever point in the movie one runs acroos it....it so reminds me of my time in high school. My school was about 6 or 8 years behind the times...lol...they closed the student "smoking lounge" the year before I started high school. Kids still were able to drive their cars to school, and everyone had beaters or muscle cars.

Keggers in the woods! We even had the equivalent of a "moon tower" like in the movie...

Watching a midnight showing of Dazed and Confused, in a theather packed with Ohio State students in various stages of sobriety on a Friday night... best movie experience EVAR!




And that night was about six years after the movie came out. The fact that the theater was full for a midnight-to-2am show gives one a good idea of its cult film status.
The girl I was dating got to see it for the first time that night. She became an instant fan.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

LOTR.

Interesting, but I could never agree on that.
Just the fact that the theatrical releases had me wanting to messily slaughter everybody who had to do with making them, Jackson, scriptwriters, producers, editors... some more; is enough that I'd never put it in my top ten.
Even the long versions have me want to slap jackson and some of the responsible personnel regularly, and NOTHING will save the people responsible for the cave troll scene if I get my hands on them.

In fact, you plan a real-life re-enactment.

Given my size, dye me red and give me a battle axe, it would be Gimli counting orcs in battle. and sticking his axe in their nerve system.

gimli-zilla.jpg (52.11 KiB) Viewed 429 times

[apophenia]

My list would be
3) Something by Kurosawa, most likely the 7 Samurai, though Castle of the Spider, Yojimbo, or maybe one of those I've not seen yet might take the prize

Strangely enough, I forgot all about it, despite just having rewatched it again after driving halfway across town to acquire a copy, but Rashomon is my favorite of Kurosawa. If I could squeeze it into my list, well, alas, that die is already cast.

[Coito ergo sum]

He's only pettifogging.

*pinches cheek* "Who learn a new word today!"

I learned how to misuse it.

[Svartalf]

Hey Zilla, that's MY character.

[Svartalf]

My list would be
3) Something by Kurosawa, most likely the 7 Samurai, though Castle of the Spider, Yojimbo, or maybe one of those I've not seen yet might take the prize

Strangely enough, I forgot all about it, despite just having rewatched it again after driving halfway across town to acquire a copy, but Rashomon is my favorite of Kurosawa. If I could squeeze it into my list, well, alas, that die is already cast.

Rashomon, sadly, is among those I've yet to view.
and as you could see with my 4 list and multiple choice lines, you can cheat.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

He's only pettifogging.

*pinches cheek* "Who learn a new word today!"

I learned how to misuse it.

My work here is finished. *looks around for sunset to ride into*

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Hey Zilla, that's MY character.

I did that one last year. Where were you?

[tattuchu]

Monty Python and the Holy Grail
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
The Bad News Bears

[Svartalf]

Hey Zilla, that's MY character.

I did that one last year. Where were you?

Either in the wrong thread or wanking to na'vi porn.

[Audley Strange]

I'm riveted. You've instilled in me a hunger to return to The Shining, and discover it all over again. And, a desire to hear more.

Okay well I'll derail this no further and start a thread for those who are interested.

[Ronja]

I'm riveted. You've instilled in me a hunger to return to The Shining, and discover it all over again. And, a desire to hear more.

Okay well I'll derail this no further and start a thread for those who are interested.

Count me and MiM in! (he's got more sense than me so he's likely already asleep)