That's okay, I still like you.

_________________
I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

I've been on quite a bad movie streak of late with nothing but sub-C rating movies for weeks. Thankfully, within this batch of mostly duds is one shining masterpiece, only the 4th movie so far I've rated an A+. I had never heard of The Battle of Algiers and from what I gather it is little known but it's an astonishing movie. It's a highly realistic (almost documentary-like) telling of some of the events in the Algerian War of Independence of the 50s but its subject matter is, tragically, profoundly relevant in today's times. I pretty much want to post the whole movie as a response to the "Terrorist or Freedom Fighter" in Lammen right now. I would particularly love to hear Túrin's thoughts on the movie as it is very much up his alley as far as subject matter goes.



The Battle of Algiers A+
Cinema Paradiso B+
Fight Club B
Witness for the Prosecution C+
Chungking Express C
Diabolique C-
The 400 Blows C-
The Royal Tenenbaums C-
American History X D+
Cool Hand Luke D+
M D+
Once Upon a Time in the West D

_________________
I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

Spoilers for Witness for the Prosecution follow - don't read if you haven't seen it

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Yes, the Marlene Dietrich version.

_________________
I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

I've never heard of it. I'll have to look into it.

Posting the next batch (only two more batches to go till I'm done so you better appreciate 'em while you have 'em ) without much to say. Most noteworthy thing is that after the delight that was Raiders, Last Crusade was a huge disappointment.


Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? B+
Before Sunrise B
Memento B
Paths of Glory B
Grave of the Fireflies B-
Stalker B-
The Best Years of Our Lives C+
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade C
Hotel Rwanda D+
The Big Sleep D+
The Gold Rush D-

_________________
I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

I do enjoy your ratings.

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The Charlie Chaplin Gold Rush, really?

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“I am not so blind that I can't see darkness.”
Dangerous Beans
Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

Thanks, Lali.




Is the directed at my rating, or it's presence on the list?

_________________
I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

Your rating.

_________________


“I am not so blind that I can't see darkness.”
Dangerous Beans
Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

Chaplin was more appreciated in the USSR than in the USA when I was a kid (he was politically suspect, y'know), so I never saw the movie until I was an adult. Which means it probably doesn't get scheduled on TV much, either.

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“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

I'm curious what you did not like about Hotel Rwanda.

And why Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is even on the list.

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In gratitude forever … .

I think this is the 5th or 6th Chaplin I've reviewed for this list and I've disliked-to-hate all of them. His constant presence on the list is utterly baffling to me. There is nothing about them that doesn't feel extraordinarily dated. I absolutely do not get the love.
(The other silent movies on this list - Metropolis, Sunrise, The General, are all vastly superior to anything Chaplin managed. IMO!)



Oh man, that's one of those that is obviously dealing with a very important and serious subject but yeesh, I thought just about everything was poorly done - bad directing, bad script, bad dialogue, bad acting. I get that due to the extremely tragic subject it manages to be very powerful for many but I found the film-making too crappy to be at all effective.

_________________
I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

Is Hotel Rwanda the one with Robert Redford? I'm too lazy to look it up.

_________________


“I am not so blind that I can't see darkness.”
Dangerous Beans
Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

No, Don Cheadle. It's about the Rwandan genocide.

_________________
I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

Oh. Wrong movie entirely.

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“I am not so blind that I can't see darkness.”
Dangerous Beans
Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

I like you, yov, and you undoubtedly know more about film than I do, but I'll just say that I thoroughly disagree.

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In gratitude forever … .

I feel like I'm giving less A grades as I go along. I haven't given any A's in the last two batches. Maybe that's just a coincidence or maybe the more movies I watch, the harder I am to impress?

The latest:
La Haine B+
The Departed B
The Pianist B
Lost in Translation B-
Roman Holiday B-
Stand by Me B-
The Shawshank Redemption B-
In the Name of the Father C+
Solaris C
Modern Times D+


Only 11 more movies to go to finish up this project!

_________________
I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

Which Solaris?

_________________
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

The one by a dour and artsy Russian director. I found its vagueness more frustrating than intriguing.

_________________
I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists