PF's favorite movies poll - nominations

[DaveC426913]

Roxanne was a great movie, to be sure - but top 20?

 

[pinball1970]

The longer this thread ran the more movies I remembered which could also be on my list, many from other users' nominations, many somehow in between, e.g. "The African Queen" with Bogey and Hepburn, "The Caine Mutiny", and definitely "We're No Angels" - a little jewel with Bogart, Ustinov and Aldo Ray which we all have forgotten! I think my ultimate list would easily exceed 100 200 - I have forgotten Walter Matthau, some domestic movies, Chabrol, Sidney Poitier, Helen Hunt, Morgan Freeman, Nicholas Cage, and and and ...

Summary: The more you list the better! My selection will definitely be different from my list!

Sidney Poitier! Deadly Pursuit with Tom Berringer.

 

[Klystron]

Roxanne was a great movie, to be sure - but top 20?

No, not top 20, agreed. Guess I was exhausting the idea of theme in favorite movies.

History and learning history never ceases. I was amazed to learn years ago that Cyrano de Bergerac was not only a real person, a renowned swordsman, but one of the first science fiction writers and an advocate for war veterans in his time. In a way Rostand created a 17th C. version of a modern superhero. With rapier in hand, Cyrano could easily dispatch enemies but chooses to defeat them instead with wit, eloquence and ideas.

"Hey! Is that your nose or has the moon risen early?"

 

[BillTre]

Something I liked about Roxanne was when the Chief (Steve Martin) went on his self nose-insult rant in the bar, which was in reality insulting to some guy for his poor quality nose insult.

 

[pinball1970]

Yup.

Which Thing is that Thing?
There were at least three.
I like the second one.

John Carpenter for me.

Oh damn. John Carpenter...

So... Assault on Precinct 13, The Fog and the Thing.

All three could be in there and there is always Casablanca...and Marathon man.

We need a follow up, by category this time? Or decade? Man this is harder than Christoffel notation.

 

[fresh_42]

Man this is harder than Christoffel notation.

... next time we should hand a spreadsheet around ... Title / Year / Genre / Director / Main Actor ...
or has someone a URL, a database and an Apache running? Are there services which offer temporary addresses?

 

[pinball1970]

... next time we should hand a spreadsheet around ... Title / Year / Genre / Director / Main Actor ...
or has someone a URL, a database and an Apache running? Are there services which offer temporary addresses?

Yes, this is as important as music. It's who we are.

 

[DennisN]

Hi all, I just want to say that I got stuck with thinking about how to do the final poll .
I didn't expect to get stuck at this when I started this thread, but after have read input from you others here in the thread, it became less clear to me how to do a good final poll. These things were among the things that got me stuck:

* How many movies to include
* And if I do a standard forum poll, is it really good to force users to choose one movie on a list?
That would be a difficult choice, I think.
* Some movies have not be seen by others. For instance, there are multiple nominated movies that I have not seen. To remove some of the polling consequences of this fact, a larger rather than a smaller list ought to be better.

Anyway, if anyone have any thoughts about this, I'd be happy to hear it. In any case, I have to think about this for a while before I do the final poll .

 

[fresh_42]

How about all and multiple choices?

 

[DennisN]

How about all and multiple choices?

Thanks, good idea! I wasn't sure if the poll system allowed for multiple choices, but I've checked it now and it does.

And with "all" do you mean every nominated movie or the 39 that got more than one nomination?

 

[fresh_42]

How many are all? I would aim at something between 50 and 75. It won't be enough by any selection. E.g. I have forgotten "Dinner for One!" which has become cult in many European countries and should have been on my list. But any movie which isn't a Hollywood production has lost anyway, which excludes a lot of fantastic French movies, or Scandinavian movies like Smilla’s Sense of Snow or Joulutarina, not to forget Bergman. As I mentioned earlier, if I had a public URL, I would set up a small database and a small program and let people vote each film with points from 1 to 5 or so.

 

[pinball1970]

Thanks, good idea! I wasn't sure if the poll system allowed for multiple choices, but I've checked it now and it does.

And with "all" do you mean every nominated movie or the 39 that got more than one nomination?

You are really letting a mathematician get hold of this?
When the results come out you can start a new thread, 'Film poll results, the statistical analysis and what that could mean.'

 

[Klystron]

How many are all? I would aim at something between 50 and 75. It won't be enough by any selection. E.g. I have forgotten "Dinner for One!" which has become cult in many European countries and should have been on my list. But any movie which isn't a Hollywood production has lost anyway, which excludes a lot of fantastic French movies, or Scandinavian movies like Smilla’s Sense of Snow or Joulutarina, not to forget Bergman. As I mentioned earlier, if I had a public URL, I would set up a small database and a small program and let people vote each film with points from 1 to 5 or so.

Perhaps not a top 20 fave because it is so sad but I liked both novel (translated) and movie of "Smilla's Sense of Snow". I meant to nominate Bergman's "Seventh Seal" as my first choice. Accidentally edited it out. Old Max remains one of my favorite actors, always so cool and droll, while "Seventh Seal" is another great movie about returning war veterans. The cynical Jon may be the best "sidekick" supporting character in cinema.

Speaking of dinner, "My Dinner with Andre" remains a favorite, particularly when action movies feel tedious.

Favorite actors must include Michael Caine of "Alfie" and "Ipcress File"; the inspiration, along with Sean Connery's James Bond, for Mike Myer's "Austin Powers" hilarious satires.

I like the idea of voting for listed movies. As Mark mentioned early in the thread, our choices tend to follow age groups but also culture and languages. Perhaps we should vote in a poll such as the weekly photo contest uses?

 

[DennisN]

or Scandinavian movies like Smilla’s Sense of Snow or Joulutarina, not to forget Bergman

Perhaps not a top 20 fave because it is so sad but I liked both novel (translated) and movie of "Smilla's Sense of Snow". I meant to nominate Bergman's "Seventh Seal" as my first choice

As a Scandinavian I am sad to say I have not seen any of those movies you mention. I don't watch much Swedish/Scandinavian movies in general.

My favorite Swedish movie is The Simple-Minded Murderer.
I didn't find a trailer, but here's a clip from the movie:


I also like Fanny and Alexander (Bergman).

 

[fresh_42]

Smilla's sense of snow is neither funny nor action like. I don't remember the details, only that I have been impressed. I'm waiting for a repetition. Joulutarina is a finnish christmas movie. I admit I'm a fan of christmas movies. They are nice, mild antidepressants. A good method to lighten dark winter days.

 

[DennisN]

How many are all?

There were 222 nominated movies totally, of which 39 movies got more than one nomination.

I would aim at something between 50 and 75.

...so maybe we should go for the 39 with more than one nomination...

 

[DennisN]

Ok fellows, I have thought this through now.

I plan to start the poll tomorrow with these rules:

1. The poll will have 39 movies to choose from.
   These are the movies that got more than one nomination; one was added to the previous 38, The Maltese Falcon, since @Klystron changed his nomination.
   
   
2. The poll will ask members for their ten (10) favorite movies among these 39.
   I think this restriction will make the whole poll better, since for instance it will force members who nominated 20 movies to narrow their choices down to 10 while also considering all the other nominated movies.
   
   
3. Members will be allowed to change their votes.
   I think this is a good idea, since it may be a bit challenging for some to decide on ten movies.
   
   
4. The poll will be open for two weeks in order to get a good number of PF'ers to participate in the vote.

I warmly thank everyone who has nominated movies and participated in this thread, and I thank you for a good discussion and good input (@fresh_42, @marcusl, @Bystander, @collinsmark, @DaveC426913, @PeroK, @Klystron, @BillTre, @Buzz Bloom, @OmCheeto, @pinball1970, @epenguin, @kuruman).

As I've said before the poll will reflect the favorite (most liked) movies of voters (at least currently i.e. at the time of the vote), and I personally don't take this very seriously, I do it most for fun. An added benefit is that I and maybe others have now heard of a bunch of movies that we have not seen which may be worth seeing .

If there are no major objections to the poll rules, I start the poll tomorrow. Cheers!

Edit: While going through the nominations for the poll tomorrow I noticed that I had counted wrong. There are totally 39 movies with more than one nomination, not 40.

Edit 2: And I noticed now there were originally 221 nominated movies in total, not 222. I will post all of them in a list after the final poll as a reference and as a list of suggested movies to watch.

 

[DennisN]

Hi again all!
Regretfully I won't start the poll today, since I found out that the forum poll system can only handle max 20 options in a poll . And we need 39.

This means I have to think of an alternative way like splitting the poll into two polls or something... (which isn't as easy as it seems if you think about it ).

I have to think about it for a while. This sure is harder than Christoffel notation!

 

[PeroK]

Smilla's sense of snow is neither funny nor action like. I don't remember the details, only that I have been impressed. I'm waiting for a repetition. Joulutarina is a finnish christmas movie. I admit I'm a fan of christmas movies. They are nice, mild antidepressants. A good method to lighten dark winter days.

Miss Smilla was a mathematician, I remember. I've read the book, but never seen the film.

A review of the book said "like Moby Dick without the metaphysical claptrap". I remember thinking it had just as much metaphysical claptrap as Moby Dick. I enjoyed it nevertheless.

 

[DennisN]

This means I have to think of an alternative way like splitting the poll into two polls or something... (which isn't as easy as it seems if you think about it ).

Finally it seems we can have our long awaited poll(s)...
I've managed to split the 39 movies into two categories:

• Drama, Thriller, Action (20 movies), and
• Science Fiction, Fantasy, Comedy and Western (19 movies)

So I will soon start the two polls...

 

[DennisN]

The polls are finally open!
Here they are:

• Poll 1 (Drama, Thriller & Action)
• Poll 2 (Science Fiction, Fantasy, Comedy & Western)

 

[DaveC426913]

While I don't wish to discourage your efforts, I'm wondering what another poll is intended to accomplish beyond what we've already done.

We've picked our favorite movies. If you produce another poll that asks us to pick only from those films, what new information will we get? I guess we'll get our order of preference for our top ten? (And I'm not sure how that'll be accomplished if you're using a PF poll - they're pretty limited. So I conclude you'll be using an external polling tool.)

I'm happy to participate; I just don't know what I'm doing.

[ UPDATE ] Case-in-point: as I mentioned, there's only two movies in the first poll that I would put in my top 40. So I only cast 2 votes.

 

[DennisN]

We've picked our favorite movies. If you produce another poll that asks us to pick only from those films, what new information will we get? I guess we'll get our order of preference for our top ten? (And I'm not sure how that'll be accomplished if you're using a PF poll - they're pretty limited. So I conclude you'll be using an external polling tool.)

I'm happy to participate; I just don't know what I'm doing.

My idea was to get a number of nominated movies from those who want to nominate (this thread), and then let anyone on the forum vote on the top nominated movies (the two polls).

 

[fresh_42]

While I don't wish to discourage your efforts, I'm wondering what another poll is intended to accomplish beyond what we've already done.

Poll is fun!

 

[epenguin]

While I don't wish to discourage your efforts, I'm wondering what another poll is intended to accomplish beyond what we've already done.

I'm happy to participate; I just don't know what I'm doing.

Well it would not be the first time someone did an experiment and afterwards realized that a different design would have given more information. Which I did... kind of... suggest at the start.

A main benefit has been it enabled people to mention things worthy of being better known, as for example #73, 74 (quote function not working).
Ah yes, Cyrano!

José Ferrar was a talent we didn't see enough of. Hollywood gave him a hard time, if I remember right. The Shrike was memorable and tragic. Candidate for the list. Though many years since saw, can never forget his Cyrano

Who, Is, That, Man?

Never achieved the same effect when I said it. In a small circle of my friends phrases from Cyrano achieved catchword status. Like a small ache or pain would be bravely passed off as "Nothing, nothing. Just my old wound from Arras." When outnumbered in my polemics on other forums I may still fall back on

You there---Who are you? A hundred against one---
I know them now, my ancient enemies---
Falsehood!...There! There! Prejudice---Compromise---Cowardice---
What's that? No! Surrender? No!

Heroic. But enough of me! Cyrano gives me the occasion to let you know of the IMHO best comics to emerge in Italy in the last 20 years, a trio called Aldo, Giovanni and Giacomo, who in the first clip below are rehearsing Cyrano, but something comes up. One of these guys is twice as intelligent as the other two. However the latter often steal the smart one's girlfriend. Without intention or special effort, it just happens. In the scene such an event is coming to light. Oh, just a kiss, nothing more. That's his story anyway. But then, to hear Cyrano, a kiss is not just a kiss.

“And what is a kiss, specifically? A pledge properly sealed, a promise seasoned to taste, a vow stamped with the immediacy of a lip, a rosy circle drawn around the verb 'to love.' A kiss is a message too intimate for the ear, infinity captured in the bee's brief visit to a flower, secular communication with an aftertaste of heaven, the pulse rising from the heart to utter its name on a lover's lip: 'Forever.”

You don't have to understand the words to get the gist, and what I am particularly drawing to your attention is the way that all three of the trio combine .



You should also not miss this. They have moved on a bit, Giacomo .is still apologising and excusing himself while Gianni is saying OK don't talk about it any more, and then...

 

[cobalt124]

Curses, missed the nominations, will look at the voting threads.

 

[DaveC426913]

Curses, missed the nominations

That's all right. We got all the good ones.

 

[DennisN]

By the way, here is an alphabetical list of all 221 nominated movies:
(so you know what to watch next time you go to the cinema, VHS store, laserdisc store, DVD store, Bluray store or Netflix)

• 12 Angry men
• 2001
• 2010
• A Christmas Story
• A Clockwork Orange
• A Passage to India
• A Streetcar Named Desire, A
• A Taxing Woman (1987)
• Aaah! Zombies! (Also known as "Wasting Away")
• Alexander Nevsky
• Alien
• Aliens
• All Quiet on the Western Front
• All the King's Men
• Almost Famous (2000)
• Amadeus (1984)
• American Beauty
• American Graffiti 1973
• Apocalypse, Now
• Avengers: Ragnarok
• Babes in Toyland
• Back to the Future
• Back to the Future 2
• Back to the Future 3
• Beat the Devil (1954)
• Being There, 1979
• Better Off Dead
• Bicycle Thieves
• Blade Runner
• Brazil
• Brazil, 1985
• Bull Durham (1988)
• Bulletproof Monk
• Bullitt
• Casablanca
• Cat on a hot tin roof
• Citizen Cane
• Cleo From 5 to 7
• Contact
• Cool hand Luke
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• Cyrano de Bergerac (1950)
• Décalage horaire
• Deja Vu
• Die Hard
• Dirty Harry
• Dirty Harry 2
• Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1998)
• Divorce Italian Style 1962
• Dogma, 1999
• Dr. Strangelove, 1964
• Dr. Zhivago, 1965
• Dracula 1931
• Empire of the Sun
• Eyes Wide Shut
• Fargo, 1996
• First Men in the Moon, 1964
• Floating Weeds
• For a Fistful of Dollars
• For Few Dollars More
• Freddie Got Fingered (Actually, this one is tied with "The Wraith")
• Friday the 13th Part 2
• From Here to Eternity
• Full Metal Jacket
• Goodfellas
• Grumpier Old Men
• Guns of Navarone
• Hallelujah Trail
• Hamlet (1948 Olivier)
• Harold and Maude
• Hatari
• Highlander
• Idiocracy, 2006
• Ikiru
• In The Heat Of The Night
• It could happen to you
• Jaws
• Jean de Florette
• Jules and Jim
• Jurassic Park
• Key Largo
• Kill Bill Vol. I
• Kill Bill Vol. II
• Kim
• Kingdom of Heaven
• Krull
• Kung Pow! Enter the Fist
• La Dolce Vita
• La Grande Illusion
• La Règle du Jeu
• La Strada
• Ladyhawke (1985)
• Last Man Standing (Willis)
• Le Caporal Épinglé
• Le Comte de Monte Cristo (Depardieu)
• Les Diaboliques
• Les Miserables (not the Liam Neeson version)
• Les rivières pourpres
• Life Of Brian
• Love, Actually
• M*A*S*H* 1970
• Matewan
• Men in Black, 1997
• Metropolis
• Men in Black II.
• Midnight Cowboy
• Million Dollar Baby
• Mindwalk, 1990
• Mister Roberts
• Moby Dick (G. Peck, not Patrick Stewart)
• Monty Python and the Holy Grail
• My Man Godfrey
• North by Northwest
• Nosferatu (1922) (never surpassed nor equalled in its genre IMO)
• Oceans 11 (remake Brad Pitt)
• Oh Brother Where Art Thou
• On the water front
• Papillon
• Paranormal Activity
• Personal Best (1986)
• Phenomen
• Polyester
• Pulp Fiction
• R.E.D.
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Ran (Lear)
• Red Beard (Kurosawa)
• Reservoir Dogs
• Robocop
• Rome, Open City
• Sanjuro
• Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
• Seven (7)
• Seven Samurai
• Shakespeare in Love (1998)
• Shane (1948)
• Shindler's List
• Shrek (2001)
• Shutter Island (2010)
• Singin' in the Rain
• Smiles of a Summer's Night
• Some Like It Hot
• Source Code (2011)
• Stagecoach
• Star Trek IV – The Voyage Home (1986)
• Star Wars (Episode IV -- A New Hope)
• Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
• Stop Making Sense
• Sunset Boulevard
• Support Your Local Gunfighter
• Support Your Local Sheriff
• Terminator
• Terminator 2
• The African Queen 1951
• The Age of Adaline (2015)
• The apartment
• The birds
• The Count of Monte Cristo
• The Crimson Pirate 1952
• The Dark Crystal
• The day after tomorrow
• The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
• The Eiger Sanction
• The Evil Dead
• The Exorcist
• The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Fifth Element, 1997
• The Forbidden Planet
• The Godfather
• The Good the Bad and the Ugly
• The Goodbye Girl (1977)
• The Graduate 1967
• The Grapes of Wrath, 1940
• The Great Escape
• The Horses Mouth (1959)
• The Illusionist (2006)
• The Imitation Game (2014)
• The Jungle Book (Disney, 1967)
• The Lake House
• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
• The Lion in Winter (1958)
• The Maltese Falcon (1931)
• The Man who Wasn't There
• The Master of Tea
• The Music Man
• The Omen
• The People Under the Stairs
• The Princess Bride
• The Remains of the Day
• The Return of the King 2003 (Lord of the Rings)
• The Right Stuff (1983)
• The rock
• The Running Jumping Standing Still Film
• The Searchers
• The Shining
• The Silence Of The Lambs (1991)
• The Sting 1973
• The Thief of Baghdad (1940)
• The Thing
• The Third Man
• Third Man, The
• The Thirteenth Floor (1999)
• The Time Traveler’s Wife (2009)
• The Truman Show (1998)
• The Untouchables (1987)
• The Wizard of Oz
• Thelma and Louise
• Throne of Blood (Macbeth)
• To Have and Have Not
• To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962
• Tootsie 1982
• Tora, Tora, Tora!
• Total Recall (Original)
• Trainspotting
• Twelve Monkeys
• Wasabi
• Werner - Beinhart!
• When Harry Met Sally (1989)
• When Worlds Collide
• Withnail and I
• Woodstock (original theater release)
• Yojimbo (The Bodyguard)
• Young Frankenstein

 

[Bystander]

We got all the good ones.

..., plus or minus a couple hundred.

 

[fresh_42]

..., plus or minus a couple hundred.

... which spread over many more categories.

 

[DaveC426913]

..., plus or minus a couple hundred.

Pshaw. Any that aren't in post #8 were just included as a formality.

 

[cobalt124]

That's all right. We got all the good ones.

And missed a lot of good ones, and I still had difficulty picking 5 from the two categories.

 

[DennisN]

And missed a lot of good ones, and I still had difficulty picking 5 from the two categories.

This is how I reacted when I read your post :