Ten Favorite Dramas
Mar 24 '00
Like I know from dramas. I'm a genre guy. Assuming that Epinions will put up categories for horror, sci fi, musicals, mysteries, and other kinds of movies dearer to my heart, I have put together a list of the non-genre dramas that I watch over and over. The best of all time? Definitely not. Just my favorites.
10. The Ten Commandments (1956)
This has been my favorite epic since I was young enough to take it at face value. Charlton Heston is a godlike Moses, and everything looks just like the Bible pictures in the books I had as a child. The best line of movie dialogue ever: "Moses, Moses, you splendid, adorable fool."
9. Boogie Nights (1997)
Paul Thomas Anderson's fictionalized biography of porn star John Holmes is the only recent drama I have loved. I admire this movie's willingness to take extreme and ridiculous situations seriously, and I was impressed that I never knew exactly what was going to happen next. The scene at the home of Rahad Jackson is one of the most excruciating ever filmed, a cinematic equivalent to Russian Roulette.
8. Blue Velvet (1986)
David Lynch's masterpiece is another movie that I admire because of how upsetting it is. Dennis Hopper's Frank Booth is a villain of unparalleled nastiness, and Kyle MacLachlan is a quirky enough innocent to be led down a path of corruption that starts with his discovery of a severed ear.
7. Citizen Kane (1941)
Could I have made a more boring choice? Does anyone need to read anything more about Citizen Kane? Okay- best visual story telling in any movie ever.
6. Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
This movie is most famous for the great performances given by James Dean, Sal Mineo, and Natalie Wood. I think the look of the film, with its bold, primary colors and carefully composed shots, is just as important. Bigger than life without losing honesty, this is an almost perfect movie for and about teenagers.
5. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
What doesn't this movie have going for it? I think adapter Ernest Lehman actually improved upon Edward Albee's play about the self-destructive games enjoyed by a married couple. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor are both towering and pathetic as George and Martha. Thanks in large part to Mike Nichols' direction, the look and pacing of the film are perfect.
4. The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
This is the best movie I've ever seen about an era in American history. Director John Ford captures perfectly the spirit of Steinbeck's novel about survival and the need for political consciousness during the Depression. Especially notable are the strong, real performances of Henry Fonda and Jane Darwell.
3. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
Tennessee Williams' story of lust and madness is my favorite American drama because of its nearly Shakespearean opposition of characters. Fragile Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) and brutish Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando) are both given full voice by the legendary performers.
2. Ordinary People (1980)
I probably love this movie because I was fifteen when it came out- it was the best expression of teenage angst to be made during my own miserable adolescence. It still works for me because of the pain and anger that Timothy Hutton and Mary Tyler Moore bring to their performances as distraught son and icy mother. Also, first time director Robert Redford gets the details of upper-middle class sterility so right that it's somehow painful to watch something as simple as a glass of orange juice being placed on a table.
1. All About Eve (1950)
Joseph L. Mankiewicz' treatise on the theater is my favorite drama. Bette Davis gives her best performance, and created one of the most memorable characters in any film, as Margo Channing, an actress who is as self-indulgent as she is talented. I love movies that show people who are good at their work and passionate about it, and this is one of the best of them.
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Epinions.com ID:
fdknight
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Member: F. Douglas Knight
Location: Astoria, OR
Reviews written: 115
Trusted by: 101 members
About Me:
When he awakes the summer night is filled with screams.
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