The GREAT movie thread

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OK.. post up your inputs/recommendations etc. for any GREAT movies that you have seen.

Don't bring any standard Hollywood shit in here and futz up this thread.

I am looking for things that genuinely well made films with great themes, great acting, etc.

Art house, indie films, foreign films not commonly seen here, as well as any Hollywood stuff that respect the craft of film making, not the swill that is normally put out by them.

Turbo, I expect to have a lot of input here, bro!

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I'll start.

Just watched "Come and See" - or "Idi i Smotri" in Russian.

A Russian movie about partisans (underground resistance) in Byelorussia in 1943 against the Nazis.

Amazing movie, amazing acting by a teenage actor, IMHO even better than Apocalypse Now in examining the horrors of war and the impact on the civilians, not focusing on the soldiers.

Can't recommend it highly enough. But it is very very difficult to watch - very brutal and painful.

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Some others I have watched in the last 6 months. Many of these are not new movies but I had not seen them before:


1. Pan's Labyrinth

A Spanish movie about a small girl in Franco's Spain who's fantasy world spills over into reality. A spellbinding movie that has been called "Alice in Wonderland" for grownups.

2. The Fall

A visual treat, supposedly without any special effects. Another fantasy movie with a remarkable storyline and probably the best child acting job since Christian Bale in Empire of the Sun.

3. The Band's Visit

An Israeli movie. A police orchestral band from Egypt is visitng Israel on a cultural trip and gets lost, ending up in the wrong town, a dusty little frontier town deep in the Negev Desert in Southern Israel. Lost, hungry and tired, they are put up by a restaurant owner for the night, a woman who is lost herself in the little culture-less town. A simple movie of two people who, despite all their superficial differences, are much more similar than they appear.

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Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam

Feature-length documentary film featuring real-life letters written by American soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines during the Vietnam War to their families and friends back home. Archive footage of the war and news coverage thereof augment the first-person "narrative" by men and women who were in the war, some of whom did not survive it.


Statement from a review on the web:

I did three tours in Vietnam. This movie is real It's not just the letters which tell more truths or the music which matches evocatively with the poetry of these soldiers, but the eyes looking back at you from the screen. Those eyes, with these letters, put more poetry of the soul in public view than ever before. I will warn you it's a hard movie to watch. If you know a Vietnam vet, love a Vietnam vet, or just care about what's going on today it's a must see. The price of war has never been tallied so vividly as what shows on the souls of these men. You will need kleenex.

[Bouncer]

Some others I have watched in the last 6 months. Many of these are not new movies but I had not seen them before:


1. Pan's Labyrinth

A Spanish movie about a small girl in Franco's Spain who's fantasy world spills over into reality. A spellbinding movie that has been called "Alice in Wonderland" for grownups.

2. The Fall

A visual treat, supposedly without any special effects. Another fantasy movie with a remarkable storyline and probably the best child acting job since Christian Bale in Empire of the Sun.

not agreeing with ya today bro, hated both of those movies. not because they werent well done. not sure i can really explain it, just didnt leave me with a good taste.

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you movie buffs that take it to serious will disagree but i fucken love Dark Knight.

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inglorious bastards is another one i love.

that guy that played that nazi who went to the house of those people hiding the jews is an amazing actor.

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Hollywood stuff has its place, I agree. But I've gotten to like indie movies more and more over the years.

You really didn't like Pan's Labyrinth and The Fall? Different strokes, I guess.. I loved both of them. Not something I would watch over and over, but I thought they were very well made.

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inglorious bastards is another one i love.

that guy that played that nazi who went to the house of those people hiding the jews is an amazing actor.

It's on my list to see. BTW, check out Come and See, bro! You'll like it.

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On my list to see over the next month:

1. Ivanovo Detstvo - another Russian movie about a 12 year old Russian spy on the Eastern Front in WWII.

2. Stalingrad - a 1993 German movie about the Battle of Stalingrad. Heard really good reviews about this one.

3. North Face - A movie about an ill-fated attempt on the North Face of the Eiger with a pre-WWII German backdrop.

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Also heard really good things about 2 documentaries on Afghanistan - Armadillo (Danish) and Restrepo. Will look for these as well.

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Wait until you see the main Nazi character act. Guy is amazing

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inglorious bastards is another one i love.

that guy that played that nazi who went to the house of those people hiding the jews is an amazing actor.

Great movie. Very well done.

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Hollywood stuff has its place, I agree. But I've gotten to like indie movies more and more over the years.

You really didn't like Pan's Labyrinth and The Fall? Different strokes, I guess.. I loved both of them. Not something I would watch over and over, but I thought they were very well made.

Pans was ok, depressing and I'm not into movies like that.

The fall was just boring to me, again, depressing bit also slow IMO. I have the fall on blu ray because so many people loved it, I though it was shit.

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District 13 is another one of my favs