Unappreciated masterpieces?

[p51]

"Make Way for Tomorrow", Leo McCarey's take on the world before Social Security. He always believed it to be his finest picture .

Ye Gods, I just read the wikipedia page on the film and it's plot, even that was crushingly depressing!
And here I thought, "Penny arcade" had a pretty depressing ending...

 

[Nobert]

Big Night and The Imposters. I don't know why, but I just really like Stanley Tucci. Even his cameo at the end of Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle seemed to prop up that blighted tomato stalk of a movie a bit.

 

[DNO]

Some films that certainly deserve a wider viewing public just slip under the radar. Here’s a few that really should be better known…there’s a lot more.


Breaker Morant (1980) An excellent, well acted, well directed film.

The Beast of War (1988) Obsession, redemption, revenge…a terrific film…and not a Rambo in sight.

The Duellists (1977) Ridley Scott’s directorial debut. Beautifully photographed. Harvey Keitel is perfect as the obsessed French officer.

 

[Levallois]

"The Great Silence" - A very unusual spaghetti western with several twists - the hero is mute - he uses a Mauser broomhandle as his sidearm (way before Eastwood used it in a film) - klaus kinski is the bad guy - and it takes place in the snow instead of the desert among others - Sergio Corbucci directed

 

[Blackthorn]

Some films that certainly deserve a wider viewing public just slip under the radar. Here’s a few that really should be better known…there’s a lot more.


Breaker Morant (1980) An excellent, well acted, well directed film.

The Beast of War (1988) Obsession, redemption, revenge…a terrific film…and not a Rambo in sight.

The Duellists (1977) Ridley Scott’s directorial debut. Beautifully photographed. Harvey Keitel is perfect as the obsessed French officer.

Totally agree on Breaker Morant, one of my all time favorites. I haven't seen the other two you mention (yet).

 

[Blackthorn]

"The Great Silence" - A very unusual spaghetti western with several twists - the hero is mute - he uses a Mauser broomhandle as his sidearm (way before Eastwood used it in a film) - klaus kinski is the bad guy - and it takes place in the snow instead of the desert among others - Sergio Corbucci directed

I'm intrigued.

 

[p51]

I must add the 2001 HBO film 'Conspiracy', based on the one existing copy of the record of the 1942 Wannsee Conference. While maybe not the ultimate in film making, it's amazingly compelling for the acting, you get a true sense of immediacy, something you rarely see in historical movies. You see the people who orchestrasted the greatest crime in modern times clearly weren't comic book villians, but that they clearly believed in what they were doing. Which makes the aftermath far more frightening...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_(2001_film)

 

[mikespens]

Aside from any film from Werner Herzog, "Local Hero", Sam Peckinpah's "Pat Garret and Billy the Kid", "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia", "Pan's Labyrinth", "Searching for Sugar Man", "The City of Lost Children", "Blood Simple", "Reservoir Dogs", "The Lives of Others", and I suppose I should stop before I clog this up.

 

[Chasseur]

Some films that certainly deserve a wider viewing public just slip under the radar. Here’s a few that really should be better known…there’s a lot more.


Breaker Morant (1980) An excellent, well acted, well directed film.

The Beast of War (1988) Obsession, redemption, revenge…a terrific film…and not a Rambo in sight.

The Duellists (1977) Ridley Scott’s directorial debut. Beautifully photographed. Harvey Keitel is perfect as the obsessed French officer.

Man excellent selection there!

 

[HudsonHawk]

Some films that certainly deserve a wider viewing public just slip under the radar. Here’s a few that really should be better known…there’s a lot more.


Breaker Morant (1980) An excellent, well acted, well directed film.

How do the kids say it...

+ 1 BILLION!!

Love that film.

 

[Feraud]

Some films that certainly deserve a wider viewing public just slip under the radar. Here’s a few that really should be better known…there’s a lot more.


Breaker Morant (1980) An excellent, well acted, well directed film.

The Beast of War (1988) Obsession, redemption, revenge…a terrific film…and not a Rambo in sight.

The Duellists (1977) Ridley Scott’s directorial debut. Beautifully photographed. Harvey Keitel is perfect as the obsessed French officer.

I haven't seen Beast of War but Breaker Morant and The Duellists are very unappreciated masterpieces!


In the crime drama there are- Get Carter with Michael Caine (watched it again last night on TCM), Point Blank with Lee Marvin, and The Long Good Friday with Bob Hoskins.
You could do a lot worst than sitting through these three greats!

 

[Levallois]

I've see a lot of the films mentioned but a long time ago. Time to search them out.

Others that come to mind are the westerns -

"Will Penny" with Charleton Heston
"Monty Walsh" with Lee Marvin

And a 70s thriller set in Japan -

"The Yakuza" with Robert Mitchum

 

[Blackthorn]

I've see a lot of the films mentioned but a long time ago. Time to search them out.

Others that come to mind are the westerns -

"Will Penny" with Charleton Heston
"Monty Walsh" with Lee Marvin

Two of the very best westerns ever made, on my A+ list.

 

[Doc Smith]

I'll add a fine science fiction movie that was never marketed as a science fiction movie: "The Man in the White Suit," a 1951 Ealing Studios release starring Alec Guinness and Joan Greenwood.

 

[Fading Fast]

It might be strong to say Masterpiece, but a very well done film that flies under or completely off the radar:

-"Separate Tables" An elegantly done "little" movie that conflates characters driven by social snobbery, crushing insecurity, unbridled sexual passion, subtle and beautiful compassion and quietly painful heartbreak all brilliantly exposed just below the thin veneer of British stoicisms. I take more out of it every time I watch it. And it happens to have David Niven, Rita Hayworth, Burt Lancaster and the under-appreciated Wendy Hiller in it.

 

[p51]

"The Beast of War" is actually best known simply as, "The Beast."
I've seen the movie countless times and have it in DVD, I had no idea of that title as earlier referenced.
GREAT movie, best representation of main guns on tanks firing ever put to screen. Many people to this day think they're firing live rounds in the movie!

 

[DNO]

"The Beast of War" is actually best known simply as, "The Beast."
I've seen the movie countless times and have it in DVD, I had no idea of that title as earlier referenced.
GREAT movie, best representation of main guns on tanks firing ever put to screen. Many people to this day think they're firing live rounds in the movie!

I know it best as 'The Beast' as well. I encountered the longer title when looking up the date on IMDB. I suspect IMDB uses the longer title to avoid confusion with similarly titled works.

You're certainly right about 'Conspiracy' as well...a truly chilling film.

 

[DNO]

If I may, a few more:

The Battle of Algiers (1966): Compelling look at another dirty war (I'd lean toward 'Intimate Enemies' (2007) as well, but, though a well crafted film I'm not sure it would reach the masterpiece level)

Comedies never seem to be considered as masterpieces but I'd certainly be inclined to include:

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
and possibly Shot in the Dark (1964) as well.

 

[Ernest P Shackleton]

Birdy
The Warriors
Emperor of the North
Jeremiah Johnson
Stalker
THX 1138
The Motorcycle Diaries
The Lords of Discipline

enough.

 

[Fading Fast]

Birdy
The Warriors
Emperor of the North
Jeremiah Johnson
Stalker
THX 1138
The Motorcycle Diaries
The Lords of Discipline

enough.

"The Warriors" works better than it should and has held up better than I expected.