Movies Of The Year.... Every Year

[philosoraptor42]

Okay, so fabfunk recently posted links to his (or her?) favourite movies on moviebuffs . He left the comment: "Now, where are your lists?"

My response to this was that I still haven't finished watching all the movies from 2009 I want to see. (Most excited about about "An Education", "The White Ribbon" and Werner Herzog's "Bad Lieutenant".) However, another issue I am discovering is that while I am trying to make sure I watch every well-reviewed movie from 2009, I have missed many of these from previous years. How can I judge my favourite movie of the year when I have missed many awesome independent movies which might reasonably vy for the title?

What I am about to show you is my personal favourite movies from each year in recent decades. Why should you be interested?

Well you might not have seen some of them (and I can definitely recommend every movie in the list), you might find yourself surprised to be agreeing with my choices, but most helpfully for me, you might want to suggest some alternatives which I may not have seen. So while these are recommendations to those who have not seen them, this is also a request for recommendations from those who have seen a wider range of films. (The years are provided by imdb.) Some further explanation is provided at the end.

1930s                                                  1940s
King Kong - Merian C. Cooper                                    It's A Wonderful Life - Frank Capra


1950s                                                                                   1960s
The Day The Earth Stood Still - Robert Wise     Lawrence Of Arabia - David Lean


1970s
The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three - Joseph Sargent


1980                                                                                        1981
The Empire Strikes Back - Irvin Kershner              Time Bandits - Terry Gilliam


1982                                                                                         1983
The Thing - John Carpenter                                               Videodrome - David Cronenberg


1984                                                                                         1985
Gremlins - Joe Dante                                                            Brazil - Terry Gilliam


1986                                                                                         1987
Flight Of The Navigator - Randal Kleiser                 Evil Dead 2 - Sam Raimi


1988                                                                                         1989
Who Framed Roger Rabbit - Robert Zemeckis   UHF - Jay Levey


1990                                                                                         1991
Total Recall - Paul Verhoeven                                         Terminator 2: Judgment Day - James Cameron


1992                                                                                         1993
Reservoir Dogs - Quentin Tarantino                             Schindler's List - Steven Spielberg


1994                                                                                         1995
Pulp Fiction - Quentin Tarantino                                           Twelve Monkeys - Terry Gilliam


1996                                                                                         1997
Fargo - Joel Cohen                                                               Open Your Eyes - Alejandro Amenabar


1998                                                                                         1999
The Big Lebowski - Joel Coen                                      The Matrix - The Wachowski Brothers


2000                                                                                         2001
Memento - Christopher Nolan                                           Amelie - Jean-Pierre Jeunet


2002                                                                                         2003
Road To Perdition - Sam Mendes                                Zatoichi - Takeshi Kitano


2004                                                                                         2005
The Sea Inside - Alejandro Amenabar                           Capote - Bennett Miller


2006                                                                                         2007
Pan's Labyrinth - Guillermo Del Toro                             Eastern Promises - David Cronenberg


2008                                                                                         2009
Let The Right One In - Tomas Alfredson                     A Serious Man - The Coen Brothers



I've started from the 30s because, to be quite honest, I couldn't name you a film any earlier than that which I have seen. I do intend to see "Le voyage dans la lune" (A Trip To The Moon) from 1902 at some stage, but asides from that I can't imagine things changing much. So, for the whole of the 1930's my best recommendation is King Kong. I feel my choice for the 1940s is far less controversial. While Casa Blanca might be put forward as a contender, but there's no doubting that It's A Wonderful Life is not just a powerful movie, but one which pulls of the remarkable feat of somehow not seeming twee even when an angel comes on the scene. It's a wholly incredible piece of cinema.

Choices like Gremlins, Time Bandits, Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and particularly Flight Of The Navigator go to show just how young I was during the 80s that these are the movies which stood out for me. Interestingly, while Time Bandits holds its position because I had a soft spot for it, Brazil is simply there because there are so few movies from the year that I was impressed by.

Total Recall and Terminator 2 are also most likely in their places due to the age I was at the time of their release. They were both movies which adults around us were watching and enjoying while we were left waiting. In the case of Terminator 2 the hype was all around us. In case you ever wondered what those featurettes which spoil half the movie are for, the answer seems to be young children who are not old enough to see the actual film. I watched the "making of" documentary for Terminator 2 avidly, while the rating for the actual movie prevented me from seeing it. Footage of Total Recall didn't appear to be so widespread, but imagine you're an adult explaining the basic gist of Total Recall to a young boy. Secret agent on Mars? Science-Fiction plot where not all is what it seems? Gunfights? Weird gadgets? I had to see that movie! I know full well that Black Book might be a more deserving Paul Vehoeven movie, but we are judging these by the year, not by the director.

Naturally once I've seen a particularly impressive movie by one director I'm going to start looking back into their career. That explains why we have some repeat appearances from Terry Gilliam, The Coen Brothers, David Cronenberg, Alejandro Amenabar and Quentin Tarantino.

Finally a few honourable mentions:

1984                                                                                        1992
The Neverending Story - Wolfgang Petersen          Braindead - Peter Jackson


In the same year that I awarded Gremlins, another          Forget the Lord Of The Rings movies (unless you get hold
children's movie came out which would continue to         of the extended editions), Peter Jackson's real career
fascinate me for years. It also features perhaps the         highlight is this incredible zombie comedy. The amount of
most moving death scene in a movie. ARTAX!!!!                ideas stuffed in here is incredible. And watch out for the priest:
                                                                                                     "I kick arse for the Lord!"

1993                                                                                        2009
Groundhog Day - Harold Ramis                                   Julia - Erick Zonca

I couldn't give this the prize over Schindler's List for    It was a toss-up whether to put this or Moon here, but I   
obvious reasons, but it felt wrong to leave out                felt I needed to put an honourable mention for 2009.    
perhaps the best comedy of all time. Sadly the poster This movie received so little attention that it's left me
above does the movie a great disservice. I'm                  rather baffled. The review quotes on the Rotten 
generally of the opinion that American comedies are   Tomatoes page sometimes seem upset because the
no bloody good, so if you hear me harping on about an main character is horrible (so?) and because the
American comedy then trust me we're talking about    ending wasn't clear cut (is there a problem with
something rather special.                                                     ambiguous endings?). This movie was a rollercoaster
                                                                                                     ride of drama and if you're still not convinced check out
                                                                                                     my review. 
                                                                                                     (Actually imdb has Julia as 2008 - whoops!)