lol bitch plz.

Britney is legendary, trying to be different cuz yer self steem is so low you need people to notice you, is not.

Britney has been around for about 15 years. Trying to be different because your self-esteem is so low has been around for centuries, and is therefore more legendary.

You just did not say that.

Hello ignore list.

45. Manhunter (1986) - I know I am in an extreme minority, but I prefer this film, an early adaptation of Red Dragon by Thomas Harris, to the far more popular The Silence of the Lambs and the subsequent films in this loose franchise. Crafted with intense care on an aural and visual level to maximize atmosphere and suspense, the film recognizes the intrigue inherent to psychological profiling and scientific criminal investigation. This is, of course, the type of modern law enforcement which now dominates film and television. William Petersen, a recognized, yet still undervalued performer who never achieved the level of absolute A-list fame he deserved, is an engaging and nervous anchor as troubled detective Will Graham.



44. Near Dark (1987) - Five years ago, Kathryn Bigelow rose in prominence and is now a director whose every film is expected to contend for top awards and win glowing critical notices. It is important, however, to not forget her earlier genre films, which revealed her as an ace craftsman and stylist long before she went to war (in a cinematic sense). Here, she populates a dusty and hard-edged revisionist Western with vampires, including a scenery devouring Bill Paxton, to create a dynamic, frightening, and hypnotic hybrid which failed to find a vast audience during its theatrical run, but, in my experience at least, wins over almost everyone who discovers it on home video.



43. Gattaca (1997) - Here is another film which failed to turn many heads in theatres, but has, I am glad to say, continued to grow in stature in its second and longer life on home video and television. A grounded science-fiction story, it is set in a grim near-future America in which genetic technology is used to perfect children before their birth, rendering the few still conceived and born without intervention a subjugated minority. With a concept which perfectly complements the conversation regarding the place of morality and the human condition in modern science, the film has remained relevant and is still cited in conversations and debates well over a decade later. Credit also a storyline which draws upon the universal power of a put-upon underdog desperate to prove himself to a family, to a society, which cannot help but regard him as inferior.



42. The English Patient (1996) - Do not listen to Elaine. This inspiring and transcendent romantic drama set during the Second World War weaves together the fates and hearts of numerous characters, including an aristocratic Hungarian adventurer, an estranged British couple, and a sympathetic French Canadian nurse, and slowly and confidently reveals itself, transforming a tragic love story into a riveting personal mystery and triumphing as both.



41. The Cincinnati Kid (1965) - I am a fan of Steve McQueen, one of the greatest American stars to ever live and almost definitely the coolest, and of his several memorable films and roles, my favorite is this gambling drama set in New Orleans in the 1930s, a time and place which cannot help but electrify and spice the storyline. McQueen exudes foolish and hungry confidence as a talented card player on the rise and is complemented by a fun ensemble cast which also includes the beautiful Tuesday Weld as the protagonist's earnest girlfriend and the magisterial Edward G. Robinson as a veteran rival player. The hands dealt are, as is almost always the case, on the unrealistic side, but the card playing scenes are still as intense and involving as they come.

I'm on a roll. Two in one day!

Gattaca!

I will add The Cincinatti Kid, Gattaca and Near Dark to my download list.

I've seen Manhunter (good film, but not in my Top 5,000), and I have little desire to watch The English Patient.

I could definitely see you digging Near Dark, Algren.

I'm fond of Paxton so that is enough to get me to download it. Your recommendation has pushed it to near the front of the queue.

It also stars Lance Henriksen, who I would imagine you also enjoy.

I do like a bit of Henriksen.

40. Born on the Fourth of July (1989) - A major career highlight for both star Tom Cruise and director Oliver Stone, this film depicts the true story of an idealistic American youth left paralyzed and otherwise hardened by his time fighting in Vietnam who returns home to become a vocal peace activist. It is a sad, but fulfilling and, in the end, uplifting story, and Cruise, often undervalued as an actor because he is so iconic as a star, perfectly captures the character's journey through extreme anger and pain and subsequent reemergence and renewal.



39. Leaving Las Vegas (1995) - Even when it entails enduring a film such as Ghost Rider, I have an enormous respect for and fascination with Nicolas Cage, and he delivers one of his finest performances here, one for which he won a deserved Academy Award. He vanishes into the role of a down-and-out screenwriter and alcoholic who burns many of his belongings, including photographs of the family he no longer has, and leaves for Vegas intending to commit suicide by alcohol poisoning. There, he begins a complicated and erotic relationship with an abused and isolated prostitute, a bond predicated upon a mutual aversion to condemnation and judgment. It is a beautiful and devastating portrait of two people on the edge finding and understanding each other, however briefly.



38. Walkabout (1971) - A great deal of Australian cinema and literature focuses on the space dividing the continent's European population, still newcomers in the grand context of time, and the indigenous people, set apart by their complex system of languages and ancient spiritual beliefs. This haunting and provocative, and incredibly photographed, literary adaptation turns on two white children from the city, a brother and sister, who are abandoned in the desert by their suicidal father. Facing almost certain death, they are saved by a native undergoing the title rite. He guides and protects them in the bush and begins to develop an innocent crush on the teenage girl, but their inability to directly communicate is a problem with profound implications and no simple solution.



37. Witness (1985) - When an Amish child secretly observes a murder in a train-station restroom, he must be protected, forcing a no-nonsense Philadelphia detective, played by Harrison Ford in his best performance ever, to go undercover in the Amish farming community. One reason I adore this film is the number of levels on which it operates and operates well: as a drama of police procedure, as a touching romance as Ford's character and the Amish mother (a widow) draw closer during their time together, and as a portrait of rural life as contrasted with an urban existence. There are sequences of enormous beauty, one depicting the daylong construction of a barn, and others defined by suspense and violence, including a climactic chase and shootout. The blend is expert and sophisticated, and it results in a film which satisfies as a piece of art and as a popcorn entertainment. I believe it is fairly well known here my favorite director is Peter Weir, and this is the first of four films by him on my list.



36. Z (1969) - Set in an unidentified nation easily understood to be a representation of Greece, this fast-paced and galvanizing film is among the most beloved and influential pieces of political cinema ever produced. The plot, populated by characters ranging from streetwise thugs to a intrigued photojournalist and a quietly noble magistrate, is set in motion by the abrupt murder of a left-wing politician candidly standing against fascists. The investigation, disrupted at almost every turn by powerful and scared men, leads to a revelation of conspiracy. An examination of how dangerous and hard it often is to enact change and stand for justice and truth, the film grabs hold of the viewer at the start and leaves them energized and infuriated. As it should.

Oh no, not the worst Tom Cruise movie of them all.

I have Witness downloaded and ready to watch. I've been hoping it is good. I will watch it when I have some quiet time. I love me some Ford.

I didn't include the second Mission: Impossible!

I feel like going all Mau on you.

Very good list Corpse, I wasn't expecting that from you.

Dave, not too shabby so far. Witness is downright awesome though. The barn scene mentioned, the initial murder, and the dancing scene are extremely beautiful. Ford made a lot of different great films during this time. Frantic, Working Girl, Mosquito Coast, and Presumed Innocent are all wonderful films with awesome performances by him, and even Regarding Henry which may fall short as a film, is still part of the pinnacle of his acting chops. I'm gonna guess Galipoli, Truman Show, and Dead Poets as your other 3 Weir films. I'd love to see Mosquito Coast though.

Dracula seems so random though! Never thought of you as loving that film so much.

Frantic is one of my favourite Ford movies. Probably in my Top 5 of his movies behind Six Days Seven Nights, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Fugitive and Patriot Games.

Oh, and Born on the Fourth of July just missed out, love that film. 3rd best Stone film in my opinion. Cruise has made much much much much much worse films. But he's never had worse hair.

35. The Truman Show (1998) - There is always pleasure when an ingenious concept is realized perfectly. Such is the case with The Truman Show, a comic drama with science-fiction elements which imagines a 24/7 television series devoted to the life of a man imprisoned in an artificial island suburbia, unaware his existence provides entertainment for the world outside. More than just a simple critique of the media and reality television, the charismatic Truman's rousing journey toward self-realization, culminating in a journey to the end of his world to escape from his utopian enclosure, has an almost mythic dimension.



34. My Own Private Idaho (1991) - River Phoenix delivers the best and most haunting performance of his short, but bright career in this Pacific Northwest set tale of wayward male prostitutes, directed with characteristic sensitivity and style, and a sharp eye for male beauty, by Gus Van Sant. Phoenix plays a street-smart narcoleptic abandoned by his mother who falls for the son of a wealthy politician in this heartfelt and melancholy tale of lost children in search of comfort and family in an often harsh world.



33. Bright Star (2009) - "I almost wish we were butterflies and liv'd but three summer days—three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain." Turning the life of a writer into a film is no minor feat because, among other challenges, writing is not a cinematic activity. Many films in the end insist their literary subject is important, but fail to convey the point on a more profound and humane level. This astonishing drama depicting the final year in the life of Romantic poet John Keats, however, consists of euphoric and fluid images equivalent in impact to his beautiful poetry. A film of grace notes and closely observed moments of largely chaste, but still red hot intimacy, Bright Star is among the most exquisite and romantic films I have ever experienced, one worthy of a great artist whose words still enchant centuries after his early death.



32. Adaptation. (2002) - I imagine the life and career Charlie Kaufman involves a certain amount of intense pressure: he cannot just write a solid and straightforward script and earn his wage, but is instead expected to deliver ones which bend minds and rules while also delivering potent amounts of humor and poignant drama. Here, he turns this pressure into a focal point and theme: his painful and slow bid to adapt the nonfiction hit The Orchid Thief for the screen becomes part of the film's storyline alongside a heightened vision of The Orchid Thief itself and the colorful people and places it depicts. Nicolas Cage delivers an ace performance as both Charlie the overweight, self-loathing writer focused on achieving originality and his fictional twin brother, Donald, a more confident and playful man with a more accessible writing style. The film blends fact and fiction fast and furiously, and the further one digs into its structural complexities and secrets, the more amusing, touching, and captivating it becomes. Mind, blown.



31. The Bourne Supremacy (2004) - I am an enormous fan of this franchise in general, including last year's undervalued Legacy, but the second film is the best by a hair. Casting the U.S. government as the enemy and including a sequence in which the hero, a former CIA sanctioned hit man now on the run, apologizes to the daughter of two of his victims are ways in which the film establishes how spy themed action cinema should be conceived in the aftermath of September 11th and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The intense hand-held action, including what I consider the best car chase ever (staged in snow swept Moscow), is blended with a grim and smart sense of the real world, the one we see sadly unfolding on the evening news. Though titles higher on this list contain elements of action, suspense, and violence, this is my favorite direct action film and my favorite sequel.

Truman Show and Bourne Supremacy

I'm glad you also think that The Bourne Supremacy is the best. I also did until about two months ago when I noticed that Identity is a much easier watch (not as much shaky shit). I only saw Supremacy in cinemas, and I loved it.

Adaptation is good too, but no where near "Top List good".

Near Dark just finished downloading.

gee, i really want to see Z now.

adaptation is fun and self-indulgent in all the right ways.

30. Jeremiah Johnson (1972) - Robert Redford puts his larger-than-life movie-star charm and inherent rustic authenticity to perfect use as the title character, a veteran of the Mexican War and a mountain man who, through his exploits in the natural world and amidst the Native Americans, becomes mythic, in this gorgeous Western ode to masculinity and survival. A simple story told directly and extremely well, leaving time and space to ponder the scope of the American landscape and the men who dared to venture forth into it.



29. A Passage to India (1984) - The final film of David Lean is an ambitious and thoughtful literary adaptation, the story of an inquisitive and youthful Englishwoman who travels to colonial India with an elderly friend and, engulfed by an intense culture foreign to her, falsely accuses a friendly Indian doctor of raping her during a daytime expedition. With an arsenal of fine performances and the type of beautiful photography and production design to be expected of Lean, the film is an expert examination of the complexity of distant cultural encounters and a final gift from one of the most masterful men to ever stand behind a camera.



28. Trainspotting (1996) - Choose life? Choose a career? Choose heroin? Such are the decisions facing the characters in this '90s sensation, a controversial and vital film which is shaped by the culture from which it sprang forth, but also in turn shaped culture moving forward. The personalities of the colorful and flawed characters, drug abusers living fast and free and on the edge of death in Edinburgh, are electrifying. The music, including choice cuts by Blur, Lou Reed, New Order, Pulp, and Underworld, is of the highest quality (and indeed strongly influenced my taste in music as a teenager). And the screenplay, adapted from the novel by Irvine Welsh, is full to the brim with dialogue worth remembering and quoting. To be honest, one can never see Trainspotting too many times.



27. In the Name of the Father (1993) - There are few stories more cinematic than a wrongly punished man fighting for justice. Daniel Day-Lewis, considered by many to be the greatest living actor, gives what may be his strongest performance as a free-spirited man falsely convicted of participating in a bombing by the Irish Republican Army and sent to prison for over a decade, an injustice also inflicted upon his quiet and respectful father. The film, based on a true story, leaves the viewer first incensed and then sad and, in the end, invigorated and hopeful.



26. Howards End (1992) - This is the third and final adaptation of a novel by E. M. Forster on my list after Maurice and A Passage to India. He is, I admit, an author for whom I have a soft spot both as a casual reader and as a student of literature, and his novels lend themselves to cinematic adaptations, at least with calm, smart, and tasteful directors in control. Same as Maurice, this film, an ensemble drama led by an on-point Emma Thompson and concerned with economic and social inequality in England in the early 20th century, is the product of the unique and wonderful Merchant Ivory partnership. They are consistent pros aligned with a cinematic style both literate and opulent, and I still anticipate any new film by Ivory.

Never even heard of Jeremiah Johnson. I must say that I am intrigued. It looks like a Clint Eastwood, lone cowboy type film.