My 5 Favorite Best American Movies

Earlier this week BBC released a list of what their judges think are the greatest American films of all time.  I have something of a love/hate relationship with these kinds of lists.  I think it's futile to try to rank something so subjective but lists like this introduced me to some of my favorite movies, TV, and music.  For instance, Rocky is glaringly absent but that's not a huge loss compared to the gain of someone taking an interest in Alfred Hitchcock.  Also, I'll take any opportunity to discuss movies I like.  The BBC already did a decent job of describing the appeal of their top 25 so I thought I'd explain what I like about some of my favorites in the bottom 75.

Duck Soup

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Just before I started writing this I thought "it's been too long since I've seen a Marx Brothers movie" and went on Netflix to see what they had that I hadn't already seen, more than ready to settle for one I'd already seen if it came to that.  I was furious to see that they didn't have any Marx Brothers at all anymore.  The Marx Brothers are a pivotal part of any comedy fan's development.  The siblings were like a small army of comedy Terminators, each singlemindedly determined on flawlessly executing their individual roles: Chico with his smooth talking charm and Italian accent, Harpo with his wild physical antics and unsettling attitude towards women, Zeppo the self aware straight man and Groucho with his distinctive look and mind bending witticisms.  Duck Soup is their masterpiece.  It has all the elements of a typical Marx Brothers' outing but with a decade's worth of Daily Shows political satire stuffed into one movie.

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

I recently developed a taste for western films.  Originally I had Segio Leone in mind who I know to have influenced several modern directors, but I soon realized John Ford is the true master of the genre.  He was an unparalleled storyteller with access to some of the greatest actors of his time.  Liberty Valance subverts expectations at every turn to tell a tale of two men, one a well intentioned scholar played by James Stewart and the other a hardened farmer played by John Wayne.  The two earn each other's respect in their battle against the villainous Liberty Valance, played by Lee Marvin, as they both woo the same woman, Vera Miles, and Stewart's character enters the political landscape.  However, only one man shot Liberty Valance and he's the hero of the story, whatever that means. 

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Charlie Kaufman is one of the most unique and skilled screenwriters in history.  Eternal Sunshine is one of his more digestible films but it's still pretty strange.  It's impossible to describe it any simple terms.  It deals with broad concepts like love and fate and memory and doesn't give any conclusive answers.  There's no question, however, in the talent of the cast.  Jim Carey and Kate Winslet play the main couple who make the regrettable choice to erase their memories of each other.  Elijah Wood, Kirsten Dunst, and Mark Ruffalo play the team of technicians running the memory-erasing procedure on Carey's character while dealing with their own personal complications.

The Dark Knight

My love for superheroes is well documented.  My respect for Christopher Nolan is less so but it is very real.  I love Inception and Memento and The Prestige and of course The Dark Knight.  I saw it in theaters when I was 16.  At first I thought it was just a very good superhero movie but once I witnessed all of the acclaim it received I looked at it differently the next several times I watched it.  The script is complex and fascinating, a morality tale of the best kind.  Nolan's directing is crisp and vivid as always and Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker is truly phenomenal.

Johnny Guitar

As previously mentioned, I'm still fairly new to the western genre.  I don't know what exactly attracted me to Johnny Guitar when I randomly saw it on the TV guide.  A major factor might have been that I was still looking to build my knowledge on the topic, but it also could have been the campy title, or that I had never seen any of Joan Crawford's work, or any combination of those reasons.  Whatever it is, I'm sure glad I watched it.  It is the oddest and most colorful western I've seen out the dozens I've watched over the past several months.  I found it at a time when I was starting to get weary of all the white guys in Westerns, so it was an exciting relief to see one that was about a conflict between two women.  The titular Johnny could almost be taken out completely and you'd have the same magnificent film.  It's really about the utter hatred between a casino owner and her local rival, played with captivating ferocity by Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge respectively.  It all culminates, as all westerns must, in a shootout between the two women, ending the violence and McCarthy-esque witch hunt at least for a little while.