What makes a great movie?
// November 18th, 2008 // No Comments » // Media, Top 10
I’ve just been involved in a great conversation on Facebook with my good friend Mr Hodges who started it off by posting a list of his top 10 movies as follows:
1 ) Lost In Translation – Sofia Coppola
2 ) One Hour Photo – Mark Romanek
3 ) The Thin Red Line – Terrence Malick
4 ) Magnolia – Paul Thomas Anderson
5 ) Road To Perdition – Sam Mendes
6 ) The Truman Show – Peter Weir
7 ) Brick – Rian Johnson
8 ) Cast Away – Robert Zemeckis
9 ) Unbreakable – M. Night Shyamalan
10 ) Meet Joe Black (such an under-rated classic) – Martin Brest
I decided to get in on the action with my ‘off the top of my head – in no particular order’ list of:
1. The Dark Knight
2. The Matrix
3. Castaway
4. The Truman Show
5. Lord of the Rings – Two Towers
6. Star Wars – Episode 4 (the original one)
7. Jurassic Park
8. Toy Story
9. Saving Private Ryan
10. the new Star Trek movie yet to be unveiled – cause you know it will turn the entire world into star trek lovers… (just seen a bootleg trailer and it looks amazing! will do for star trek what batman begins did for the batman franchise)
What’s interesting is what people think makes a good movie. Here’s an extract of our conversation so far:
Ben: these are good films but in a few years time will the dark knight really hold up?
It’s a classic fo-sho but without heath ledgers performance would there be as much too it? I dont think there would
Me: Eh? Isn’t that like saying – without Bil Murray’s performance there wouldn’t have been much to Lost in Translation… isn’t that why you think it’s such an amazing film…
Ben: A fair point to consider, there are possibly a bare handful of other actors who might have near-achieved what bill murray accomplished – and id argue that the movie is as much scarlet johansson’s as it is murrays – though lost in trans is a drama not an action movie, and so its focus is these two characters and their interaction – it lives and dies by how well these two characters interact – without any fights or car chases to support it, action movies however are about different things – if the acting is strong then thats a bonus but if the movies strength is based on the performance of one character then surely the movie as a whole isnt as strong? not to say I dont think The Dark Knight is an epic film!
Me: hmmm… I wonder if its as simple as that to seperate out the assesment of movies from different genres. I think strong acting HAS to be an essential ingredient of any great movie whether action / comedy / romance etc. To use these 2 films as illustration: Lost in Translation is actually a well crafted movie.. I just didn’t find it funny… just dark and strangely interesting… what made it watchable was the engaging characters. But the same could be said of the Dark Knight. What makes it watchable is the engaging characters of the Joker, Batman, and others. The action pretty much comes second to the quality of the actor. So surely whether you like Action, Comedy, etc. the thing that makes most films stands out is the quality of the acting.
I guess the real problem is that movie likes and dislikes is completely subjective to the viewer’s personality and their particular genre likes and dislikes. Which is why you’ll never find a chick flick in my top 10! Even if the lead role is worthy of an oscar!
I was sat watching The Matrix last night and realised how odd a movie it was to watch for the very first time. After the first 20mins we were sat there thinking “where on earth is this going?’ and yet by the end we were stunned and amazed at the brilliance of its entertainment wrapped up in a quasi-religious storyline that would supply conversation for months to follow for every Christian across the lunch table and over a coffee at church on a Sunday!
So what do you think? What makes a great movie for you? What are you looking for when you go to the cinema? What’s your top 10???
Chris is the Congregation Pastor of 
