Movies

I've said previously, I'm not one to watch TV. However, I have been known to watch the occasional movie, more than once. In fact, I usually won't buy one unless I'm prepared to watch it more than a handful of times.

Here are some of my favourites;

Pink Floyd The Wall

Pink Floyd The Wall is a 1982 British live-action/animated musical film directed by Alan Parker based on the 1979 Pink Floyd album The Wall. The screenplay was written by Pink Floyd vocalist and bassist Roger Waters. The film is highly metaphorical and is rich in symbolic imagery and sound. It features very little dialogue and is mainly driven by Pink Floyd's music.

The film contains fifteen minutes of elaborate animation sequences by the political cartoonist and illustrator Gerald Scarfe, part of which depict a nightmarish vision of the German bombing campaign over the United Kingdom during World War II set to the song "Goodbye Blue Sky".

A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 darkly satirical science fiction film adaptation of Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel of the same name. The film, which was made in England, concerns Alex (Malcolm McDowell), a charismatic, psychopathic delinquent whose pleasures are classical music (especially Beethoven), rape, and so-called 'ultra-violence.' He leads a small gang of thugs (Pete, Georgie, and Dim), whom he calls his droogs (from the Russian друг, "friend", "buddy"). The film tells the horrific crime spree of his gang, his capture, and attempted rehabilitation via a controversial psychological conditioning technique. Alex narrates most of the film in Nadsat, a fractured, contemporary adolescent slang comprising Slavic (especially Russian), English, and Cockney rhyming slang.

This cinematic adaptation was produced, directed, and written by Stanley Kubrick. It features disturbing, violent images, to facilitate social commentary about psychiatry, youth gangs, and other contemporary social, political, and economic subjects in a dystopian, future Britain. A Clockwork Orange features a soundtrack comprising mostly classical music selections and Moog synthesizer compositions by Walter Carlos (later known as Wendy Carlos). The now-iconic poster of A Clockwork Orange, and its images, were created by designer Bill Gold. The film also holds the Guinness World Record for being the first film in media history to use the Dolby Sound system.

Blade Runner

Blade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick.

The film depicts a dystopian Los Angeles in November 2019 in which genetically engineered organic robots called replicants—visually indistinguishable from adult humans—are manufactured by the powerful Tyrell Corporation as well as other mega manufacturers around the world. Their use on Earth is banned, and replicants are exclusively used for dangerous, menial or leisure work on Earth's off-world colonies. Replicants who defy the ban and return to Earth are hunted down and "retired" by police special operatives known as "Blade Runners". The plot focuses on a brutal and cunning group of recently escaped replicants hiding in Los Angeles and the burnt out expert blade runner, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), who reluctantly agrees to take on one more assignment to hunt them down.

Blade Runner initially polarized critics: some were displeased with the pacing, while others enjoyed its thematic complexity. The film performed poorly in North American theaters. Despite the box office failure of the film, it has since become a cult classic, and is now widely regarded as one of the best movies ever made. Blade Runner has been hailed for its production design, depicting a "retrofitted" future, and it remains a leading example of the genre. Blade Runner brought the work of author Philip K. Dick to the attention of Hollywood, and several more films have since been based on his work. Ridley Scott regards Blade Runner as "probably" his most complete and personal film. In 1993, Blade Runner was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Seven versions of the film have been shown for various markets as a result of controversial changes made by film executives. A rushed director's cut was released in 1992 after a strong response to workprint screenings. This, in conjunction with its popularity as a video rental, made it one of the first films released on DVD, resulting in a basic disc with mediocre video and audio quality. In 2007, Warner Bros. released in select theaters, and subsequently on DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray Disc, the 25th anniversary digitally remastered Final Cut by Scott.

The Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman.

Adapted from the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, the film portrays the story of Andy Dufresne, a banker who spends nearly two decades in Shawshank State Prison for the murder of his wife and her lover despite his claims of being innocent. During his time at the prison, he befriends a fellow inmate, Ellis "Red" Redding, and finds himself protected by the guards after the warden begins using him in his money laundering operation.

Despite a lukewarm box office reception that was barely enough to cover its budget, the film received favorable reviews from critics, multiple award nominations, and has since enjoyed a remarkable life on cable television, VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray, was included in the American Film Institute's 100 Years…100 Movies 10th Anniversary Edition.

The Matrix

The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Joe Pantoliano, and Hugo Weaving. It was first released in North America on March 31, 1999, and in Australia on April 8, 1999, and is the first installment in the Matrix series of films, comic books, video games, and animation.

The film depicts a future in which reality as perceived by most humans is actually a simulated reality created by sentient machines to pacify and subdue the human population, while their bodies' heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source. Upon learning this, computer programmer "Neo" is drawn into a rebellion against the machines, involving other people who have been freed from the "dream world" and into reality. The film contains many references to the cyberpunk and hacker subcultures; philosophical and religious ideas such as René Descartes' evil genius, the Allegory of the Cave, the brain in a vat thought experiment; and homages to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Hong Kong action cinema, spaghetti westerns, dystopian fiction, and Japanese animation.

Terminator 2: Judgement Day

Terminator 2: Judgment Day, commonly abbreviated T2, is a 1991 science fiction action film directed, co-written, and co-produced by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, and Robert Patrick. A sequel to 1984's The Terminator, it follows the characters of Sarah Connor (Hamilton, reprising her role from the original film) and her son John (Furlong) as they are pursued by a new, more advanced Terminator, the T-1000 (Patrick). Schwarzenegger reprises his role as the Terminator, but while the character was the antagonist of the first film, in Terminator 2 he is a protagonist, defending John and Sarah from the T-1000 and assisting them in their attempt to prevent Judgment Day, a future event in which machines will begin to exterminate humanity.

Unforgiven

Unforgiven is a 1992 American Western film produced and directed by Clint Eastwood with a screenplay written by David Webb Peoples. The film tells the story of William Munny, an aging outlaw and killer who takes on one more job years after he had hung up his guns and turned to farming. A dark Western that deals frankly with the uglier aspects of violence and the myth of the Old West, it stars Eastwood in the lead role, with Gene Hackman, Morgan Freeman, and Richard Harris.

Eastwood dedicated the movie to deceased directors and mentors Don Siegel and Sergio Leone. The film won four Academy Awards including Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Hackman), Best Director, Best Film Editing and Best Picture. Eastwood himself was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, but he lost to Al Pacino for Scent of a Woman. In 2004, Unforgiven was added to the United States National Film Registry as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

And my personal fav;

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is a 2004 American romantic fantasy film about an estranged couple who have each other erased from their memories, scripted by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Michel Gondry. The film uses elements of science fiction, nonlinear narration and neosurrealism to explore the nature of memory and romantic love. It opened in North America on March 19, 2004, and grossed over US$ 70 million worldwide.

Kaufman and Gondry worked on the story with Pierre Bismuth, a French performance artist. The film stars an ensemble cast starring Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Wilkinson, Elijah Wood, Jane Adams, and David Cross.

The title is taken from the poem Eloisa to Abelard by Alexander Pope, the story of a tragic love affair, where forgetfulness became the heroine's only comfort:

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd;

The film was a critical and commercial success, developing a strong cult following and receiving a myriad of accolades, winning the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The film was lauded by critics as one of the best and most thought-provoking films of 2004.

Some of the others... in no particular order;

The Thing, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, V For Vendetta, Pulp Fiction, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, Platoon, The Dark Knight, Goodfellas, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, 12 Monkeys, The Breakfast Club, The Usual Suspects, Scarface, Million Dollar Baby, Unbreakable, Alien, Casino, What Dreams May Come, Phantasm, Braveheart, Gladiator, The Godfather, Léon: The Professional, Se7en, The Bourne Supremacy, Hancock, Angel Heart, Pale Rider, Thank You for Smoking, 8-Mile, Snatch, Shaun of the Dead, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Die Hard, Taken, Back to the Future, Clerks, The Kid, Reservoir Dogs, Spaceballs, Stanger than Fiction, The Bodyguard, Boogie Nights, The Life of David Gale, Mr Holland's Opus, Rocky, First Blood, Serpent and the Rainbow, The Wrestler, A History of Violence, Green Street Hooligans, Layer Cake, True Romance, Cube, Friday the 13th, Das Boot, Ghost Story, Hellraiser, In the Mouth of Madness, Almost Famous, X-Men

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