The penultimate grouping of 50 has films that earn a 97 down through 2001. After that, they are a 98. The intro is here. Other parts can be found here. (more…)
9 May, 2022
A Century of Film: The Top 1000 Films (#100-51)
Posted by nighthawk4486 under Academy Awards, Erik, film, lists | Tags: academy awards, altman, ang lee, bergman, billy wilder, branagh, capra, century of film, Chaplin, coen brothers, coppola, david lean, eastwood, film, kubrick, kurosawa, lists, lord of the rings, orson welles, paul thomas anderson, peckinpah, peter jackson, ridley scott, scorsese, shakespeare, spielberg, Top 1000, woody allen |1 Comment
10 April, 2022
A Century of Film: The Top 1000 Films (#150-101)
Posted by nighthawk4486 under Erik, film | Tags: almodovar, bergman, branagh, capra, christopher nolan, coppola, david lean, dickens, disney, eisenstein, film, hamlet, hitchcock, howard hawks, john ford, kurosawa, miyazaki, pixar, polanski, preston sturges, scorsese, shakespeare, spielberg, The Beatles, Top 1000, truffaut, von Stroheim |1 Comment
13 February, 2022
A Century of Film: The Top 1000 Films (#250-201)
Posted by nighthawk4486 under Academy Awards, Erik, film, lists | Tags: academy awards, alfonso cuaron, billy wilder, branagh, cameron crowe, century of film, christopher nolan, coen brothers, film, hitchcock, howard hawks, kubrick, lists, mel brooks, peter jackson, polanski, robert altman, scorsese, shakespeare, sidney lumet, spielberg, terry gilliam, The Beatles, Top 1000, truffaut |[9] Comments
24 July, 2021
A Century of Film: The Top 1000 Films (#550-501)
Posted by nighthawk4486 under Erik, film, lists | Tags: billy wilder, branagh, bunuel, capra, century of film, disney, dracula, eastwood, fellini, film, hemingway, howard hawks, john huston, kevin smith, lists, mel brooks, pixar, polanski, ridley scott, shakespeare, Top 1000 |[2] Comments
This is the 10th part of the Top 1000 list. The introduction can be found here. This might be the only group of 50 in the Top 1000 without a single Hitchcock, Spielberg, Kurosawa or Woody Allen film among them.
Except for the four films at the bottom, these are all a 91 which is mid-range ****. The bottom four films are all 92. (more…)
11 May, 2021
A Century of Film: The Top 1000 Films (#600-551)
Posted by nighthawk4486 under Academy Awards, Erik, film, lists | Tags: almodovar, ang lee, branagh, cameron crowe, century of film, disney, Ealing, elia kazan, film, graham greene, Harry Potter, hemingway, hitchcock, john huston, kubrick, lists, orson welles, pixar, shakespeare, spielberg, tintin, Top 1000 |[4] Comments
21 December, 2019
Best Adapted Screenplay: 1996
Posted by nighthawk4486 under Academy Awards, Erik, film, lists, literature | Tags: 1996, academy awards, adapted screenplay, baz luhrmann, branagh, film, golden globes, lists, literature, shakespeare, star trek, vonnegut |[2] Comments

“Then Renton was hit by a wave of shock which threatened to knock him incoherent. A girl came into the room. As he watched her, a coldness came over him. She was the double of Dianne, but this girl looked barely secondary school age. It took him a few seconds to realize that it was Dianne.” (p 145)
My Top 10
- Trainspotting
- The English Patient
- The Crucible
- Cold Comfort Farm
- Emma
- Hamlet
- The Birdcage
- Romeo + Juliet
- Mother Night
- Star Trek: First Contact
note: A fantastic Top 5 and a strong Top 10 with a few more listed down at the bottom. A rare year in that it’s also fantastic for Original Screenplay. This year has the highest average score for the two Screenplay awards in history. (more…)
29 September, 2019
Best Adapted Screenplay: 1993
Posted by nighthawk4486 under Academy Awards, Erik, film, lists, literature | Tags: 1993, adapted screenplay, branagh, film, lists, literature, robert altman, scorsese, shakespeare, spielberg |[8] Comments
My Top 10
- Schindler’s List
- The Age of Innocence
- The Remains of the Day
- In the Name of the Father
- Shadowlands
- The Snapper
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Short Cuts
- Like Water for Chocolate
- What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
note: A very strong Top 5 and Top 10. There are several more movies on my list at the bottom though The Fugitive (#13) and Strictly Ballroom (#17) aren’t included because they’re reviewed below as award nominees. (more…)
16 July, 2019
Best Adapted Screenplay: 1989
Posted by nighthawk4486 under Academy Awards, Erik, film, lists, literature | Tags: academy awards, adapted screenplay, batman, branagh, disney, film, lists, literature, shakespeare, spielberg, tim burton |[4] Comments

“Now the narrow neck of sand where Shaw was buried with his men is washed by Atlantic storms. St. Gaudens’s monument to Shaw and his men marks a place where the Colonel and his regiment passed by on their way to war.” (p 147)
My Top 10
- Glory
- Field of Dreams
- Born on the Fourth of July
- Henry V
- My Left Foot
- The Little Mermaid
- Enemies, a Love Story
- Drugstore Cowboy
- Batman
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
note: A fantastic Top 5 and Top 10 which is pretty much the case for any category in this year. There’s also some irony to note here in that this is the Adapted Screenplay post but I used to own the novelization of two of these films (although it should be pretty obvious which two).
1 January, 2019
A Century of Film: War Films
Posted by nighthawk4486 under Erik, film | Tags: academy awards, branagh, century of film, coppola, david lean, film, golden globes, kubrick, lists, renoir, shakespeare, spielberg |[6] Comments
A Century of Film
War
The Genre
Though there are those who consider a less stringent definition, for me, a War film is one that actually depicts what is going on during the war. By that, I generally mean the combat field, though it can also mean those fighting the war who aren’t in actual combat. I don’t, for the most part, mean things that are happening due to effects of the war (for instance, Holocaust films or other films about civilians during the war), though those do sometimes get war sub-genres. (more…)
4 March, 2017
My Top 100 Favorite Films
Posted by nighthawk4486 under Erik, film, lists | Tags: alfonso cuaron, ang lee, batman, billy wilder, branagh, cameron crowe, christopher nolan, coen brothers, disney, dracula, Ealing, film, Harry Potter, hunter s. thompson, james bond, john huston, lists, lord of the rings, mel brooks, michael chabon, miyazaki, peter jackson, pixar, shakespeare, spielberg, star trek, star wars, terry gilliam, The Beatles, tim burton, tintin, top 100, wes anderson, woody allen, X-Men |[21] Comments
I have always been a proponent of the idea that I can separate what I think is brilliant from what I personally enjoy. Let’s just look at 2015. I think that Carol and The Revenant were the two best films of the year. But if I’m going to sit and watch a movie from 2015, odds are it will be The Force Awakens (this is borne out by the fact that I’ve seen Carol twice, The Revenant all the way through once and The Force Awakens, at a modest count, 21 times complete plus the final 20 minutes about 15 more).
To that extent, I have finally culled together a list of my 100 Favorite Films, the ones I am most likely to sit still and watch, or at least not change the station if I come across them. They’re not heavy Drama. In fact, when I went through the genres, only one film on the entire list is one that I classify primarily as Drama (Casablanca).
It’s really hard to do this kind of list when you’ve seen as many films as I have (14,000+). I put it together by going through year by year and adding films, and once I hit 100, knocking off the films at the bottom. When I first read Veronica a list of 50 films, I then pointed out that those were the 50 I was about to delete because they didn’t make the list and she was stunned. “But you love those films!” she pointed out. “But I love the Top 100 even more,” I replied. It was very, very tough. Though they are easily two of the greatest directors of all-time if not the two greatest directors of all-time, not a single Kurosawa or Kubrick film ended up on the list. There is no Bergman. There is no David Lean. The Ealing Comedies and the Hammer Horror, both of which I love so much I wrote about them only have one film each. I did For Love of Film posts for James Bond (1 film) and Star Trek (2 films). It’s really, really hard to narrow it all down. (more…)