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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Films You've Never Seen

miss wonderstarr

19:49 / 25.09.06

Following a very successful thread on this forum, albeit with 60% of the posts written by the thread-starter, I thought it was time to ask the community what significant, classic, "great" films you have never got round to seeing.

It's like that game in David Lodge's novel, where all the academics go around the table (probably just before or after shagging each other's partner in a pastiche of various authors' distinctive prose style) and admit that they've never read Hamlet. But with the added bonus Lodge's transatlantic philanderers didn't have ~ you also have to confess what scraps of info you've gathered about this movie.

Embarrassing? Not so much for me now I finally saw the Godfather films two years ago. However, I think I can still do a pretty good job of cineaste suicide.

THE DEER HUNTER: some buddies come out of a... factory (?) at the star of the film. (I saw this in a clip.) Later, they are captured by the Viet Cong, held in a pit and forced to play Russian Roulette (another clip). Someone mentioned to me the other day that it involved Christopher Walken in an orange headscarf, so I'll claim that too.

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST: Jack Nicholson is in a mental asylum. He has some sort of scary, sexy nurse. It's a bit like the flashbacks with Hurley from "Lost". I really don't know what happens in the movie.

APOCALYPSE NOW: Vietnam film based on Heart of Darkness. There's an iconic shot of choppers over jungle, with... "Paint it Black" on the soundtrack? At the end they meet Kurtz, who I think is played by Marlon Brando. People went half-mad on the shoot, or something.

I've shown my shame! you! now you!

21:30 / 25.09.06

Casablanca. Wartime flick, complete with Nazis, romance, etc. Smouldering looks and cheesy lines that only classic Hollywood films can really pull off. Humphrey Bogart and, possibly, Ingrid Bergman in the main roles. Very short, at only an hour and a half. Constantly misquoted "Play it again, Sam." It's spoken about with a sort of awe/respect, yet, I'm not sure how bothered with it I'd be, given my slight aversion to Humphrey Bogart.

22:45 / 25.09.06

Deliverance: Buggery, bush and banjos.

Highlander 2: Highlander in Spaaaaceee! Scottish people are aliens and Sean Connery is Yoda.

00:05 / 26.09.06

It's a Wonderful Life: Jimmy Stewart's going to commit suicide, but an angel shows him how the world would be different if he never lived. It leads to an uplifting Christmas finale. Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings.

Metropolis: Workers toil underground. There's a robot that looks like a female version of C-3P0, a mad scientist is present.

And Apocalypse Now and Casablanca are both essential viewing. I'm sure you've heard of it before, but these aren't films where you respect it, but don't really like it. They're both still vital, emotionally alive pieces that are as relevant today as ever.

00:38 / 26.09.06

Snakes on a Plane: snakes on a plane.

I'll get my proverbial coat...

00:47 / 26.09.06

Seriously, now, I was looking forward to seeing SOAP until my Dad-who's a bit an amatuer herpetologist-shamed me out of seeing it.

Now my conscience won't let me go see a film where the snakes are the villains. Also, I suspect there may be scenes of gruesome brutality against snakes, which will probably be roundly cheered by the audience of snake-hating redneck bastards. And then I'll just end up getting into a regrettable bout of fisticuffs, which will do no one any good.

So I suppose I'll just wait till one of my friends rents the DVD.

Threadrot over: Samuel Jackson's in it, 'cause he liked the name, he sends his kids to the finest school in town. No actual snakes were harmed in the making of the film. Many of the "poisonous" snakes used in the film were in fact non-venomous species. There is much swearing.

04:56 / 26.09.06

Believe it or not:

Superman. With Christopher Reeve.

Here's what happens, Supes flies around, meets Lois and evades Lois' journalistic tendencies. Gene Hackman yells a lot and has bad hair and has bad sweaters. Lois falls out of a building and Supes saves her. They fly together and kiss under the stars. Yes?

miss wonderstarr

06:24 / 26.09.06

They're both still vital, emotionally alive pieces that are as relevant today as ever.

I think it would be possible for someone not to like them, though. I haven't seen Apocalypse Now, but I think Casablanca could quite easily not be someone's cup of tea. Same with other important films like Citizen Kane, Battleship Potemkin. I wouldn't be especially surprised if someone told me they didn't actually enjoy either of them.

Not in the Face

07:29 / 26.09.06

Dr Zhivago - Lots of faux snow and strained looks between a male and female lead. Sleighs. Probably violins. Its only recently I found out it is set during the Russian Revolution, so I imagine very little of that actually being on screen.

pointless & uncalled for

07:46 / 26.09.06

Citizen Kane - Kid loses his sled, grows up to be rich and famous and then only on his deathbed does he realise that he never got around to finding out where he left the damn sled. Probably allegorical but frankly implausible as what kid would eber call their sled Rosebud. It should be called SuperMegaChariotOfDoomMkIV. I think snowglobes feature prominently.

08:19 / 26.09.06

Solylent Green.
Everyone's happy, right, a bit like Stepford Wives meets the end of It's a Wonderful Life, in a pretty town called Soylent Green (I'm sure that's not right, but for some reason it sounds like it ought to be) then someone finds a body part in their Soylent Burger. No-one cares much until someone notices people are going missing, a bit like Morrsion's Dare, and then they realise that "Soylent Green is people". Which is why it can't be the town.
Adding it to my Sofacinema list as we speak.

miss wonderstarr

09:03 / 26.09.06

Dr Zhivago - Lots of faux snow and strained looks between a male and female lead. Sleighs. Probably violins. Its only recently I found out it is set during the Russian Revolution, so I imagine very little of that actually being on screen.

I haven't seen it either, but from Umberto Eco's chapter on wax museums in California (where there was a Dr Zhivago room) I believe it also has a famous piece of music attached ~ Laura's Theme or something.

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF: Absolutely no idea what this is about. A musical. I imagine something like the sweeps' dance number "Chim Chim Cheree" from Mary Poppins. In Greece? Also slightly confused in my mind with Cat On A Hot Tin Roof.

pointless & uncalled for

09:07 / 26.09.06

Fiddler on the Roof, like Dambusters and Snakes on a Plane are all part of the lesser known Does What it Says on the Tin genre.

The description for Dr. Zhivago sounds like it was lifted by the writer of Remains of the Day except without any snow. One more in a desert and we'll know that strained looks between male and female leads can happen in all climate. Anyone?

09:09 / 26.09.06

Isn't that what The English Patient is about? I haven't seen it, of course. I hear someone fit gets her muff out.

pointless & uncalled for

09:26 / 26.09.06

Nope, that would be Zhivago again when they do the whole sleigh thing.

10:29 / 26.09.06

THE THIRD MAN: Based on a book by Graham Greene. Orson Welles plays Harry Lime who is the eponymous 'third man'. Don't know who the first two are. Welles spends a large part of the film not turning up, and when he finally does, he says something about the Renaissance being bloodthirsty but interesting (as opposed to Switzerland, which is peaceful but boring) then buggers off again. Zithers feature prominently.

BEN HUR: Charlton Heston is a Roman slave who competes in a chariot race and meets Jesus. Presumably lots of other stuff happens too, because the movie is pretty long.

GODFATHER PART 3: Everyone is older and not as good as they were in the first two films (inc. Coppola). Al Pacino's daughter (possibly played by Sofia Coppola?) gets shot and dies. Opera features prominently.

miss wonderstarr

10:59 / 26.09.06

I was going to write about my understanding of LAWRENCE OF ARABIA but when I realised I wasn't 100% sure whether it stars Peter O'Toole or Lawrence Olivier, it crossed the line from amusing confusion into things you don't much want to mention.

12:20 / 26.09.06

Lawrence of Arabia: I saw this one, backwards. It was an old copy at my mom's and someone had put the second VHS where I thought the first one should go and visa versa. So I saw the second half first. I think I know what it's generally about, but the character development is all messed up in my head.

Oh, and that one had Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif in it.

The Birds: Alfred Hitchcock makes the idea of masses of birds attacking people actually seem plausible. Or at least plausible enough that people remembered the movie, and didn't classify it with the cheesy/thriller section.

Or did they?

miss wonderstarr

12:31 / 26.09.06

So I saw the second half first. I think I know what it's generally about, but the character development is all messed up in my head.

I did that with Giant last week. I didn't realise there were two discs, and I enjoyed the second half, though I wondered why James Dean looked about 50. Then I worked out that there were another 90 minutes preceding that bit.

14:44 / 26.09.06

I think it would be possible for someone not to like them, though. I haven't seen Apocalypse Now, but I think Casablanca could quite easily not be someone's cup of tea. Same with other important films like Citizen Kane, Battleship Potemkin. I wouldn't be especially surprised if someone told me they didn't actually enjoy either of them.

I feel like Casablanca is different from those other films you mention in that it's not an important film because of its contribution to the medium, rather it's a mass appeal film where everything comes together perfectly. I've watched Citizen Kane with 'civilians,' and they usually like it, but don't totally get why it's considered the best film of all time. But, you watch Casablanca with people and it still has the strong emotional pull it had back when it was released.

And a side note, Casablanca always reminds me of Empire Strikes Back, there's that same dynamic of a small group of freedom fighter taking on a huge empire, and Han Solo has all the charismatic charm of Rick.

15:27 / 26.09.06

TAXI DRIVER - Robert DeNiro (Travis Bickle?) drives a taxi in... New York? Jodie Foster is a teenage prostitute. Robert DeNiro looks in the mirror and says 'You talkin' to me?' in a bit that he improvised. Think he subsequently/concurrently sinks into a decline.

16:27 / 26.09.06

This thread is poking my eyes with the "but... but... but..." stick.

I'll try not to say anything about the above films, largely because I'm on the same page with The Deer Hunter. (I did read the book for Cuckoo's Nest, though -- narrated by a silent Native American from somewhere along the Columbia River, who I'm guessing plays a much smaller role in the film, what with the not talking and all.)

What else?

Ooo - now I have that video store feeling. There was something I meant to get, now what was it....

OKLAHOMA -- Singing pioneers, yeah? Hearty American Heartland types, perhaps with star-crossed lovers hoping to succeed in a land of promise -- for those brave enough to work for it? I only know a couple of the songs, and one's about wishing for a new car. Well, a surrey with a fringe on top. Crass materialism, 1860s-style.