I remember being put off by the extreme vulgarity of Mozart’s language in that movie. That kind of naturalism can spoil a good movie.
I’m not a big fan of it myself. However, they did try to portray him as an unrefined character. Remember, Salieri called him “the creature”.
Greatest Movies I have ever seen: (not in any particular order, just off the top of my head)
Without Limits (movie about Steve Prefontaine) - PLEASE WATCH THIS ONE!!
Rudy
October Sky
The Shawshank Redemption
The Matrix (Part 1)
Gladiator
Remember The Titans
Dangerous Minds
Humour Wise - “Analyse This”
My three favorites
Young Frankenstein
Mel Brook’s best - what more can you say!
We Were Soldiers
When I first saw this movie, the memories came rushing back, I swear that I could smell the Army paint and feel the roughness of starched uniforms.
In Country
The final part at the Vietnam Memorial for me is the most moving part of any movie that I have ever seen. I have known too many whose names are on that wall.
The trilogies of Lord of the Rings and The Matrix.
Gladiator
X-Men
Spiderman
Braveheart
Enemy at the Gates
The Truman Show
My three favorites
Young Frankenstein
Mel Brook’s best - what more can you say!
We Were Soldiers
When I first saw this movie, the memories came rushing back, I swear that I could smell the Army paint and feel the roughness of starched uniforms.
In Country
The final part at the Vietnam Memorial for me is the most moving part of any movie that I have ever seen. I have known too many whose names are on that wall.
I concur about “Young Frankenstein”, i.e., best Mel Brooks film. (Though I loved “Blazing Saddles” as well.)
I can barely watch anything about Viet Nam. Not only is my husband’s name on the Wall, but I nursed many others as well. Thankfully, most of those I nursed made it!
My tastes run more towards the old movies, especially many of the screwball comedies and the Fred and Ginger movies. For drama, give me movies such as “The African Queen”, “Notorious”, etc. I’ll also add my name to the fan list for “Flight of the Phoenix.” One of the best.
Westerns: “The Big Country” is one I never miss. Marvelous camera work, and a great story.
I also like “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” for Stewart’s character.
For the oater as comedy, I like “Cat Ballou.” I can’t stand Fonda, but it is worth watching just to see Lee Marvin do his schtick. Marvelous!
I’m not too crazy about most modern movies. They are too loud and, while I enjoy special effects, I don’t like movies that are nothing but. I liked “The Piano” for reasons I’ve yet to articulate. I loved the film about the Irish boy who fought to dance ballet – sorry I can’t remember the name off the top of my head. Billy something? I like “Chocholat.”
Comedy: As I said, I like many of the old screwball comedies, such as, “My Favorite Wife,” “The Awful Truth,” “My Man Godfrey,” etc.
I liked Python’s “Holy Grail” a lot, but I think I liked “The Life of Brian” even better. Every time I hear the talking heads rattle off the different Palestinian terror groups, I think of the scene in the collisium. I also enjoyed the “What have the Roman’s ever done for us?” scene.
This is already too long, but before I go, I want to recommend “Bad Day at Black Rock.” I know the title sounds like like a B western, but it isn’t. It is set somewhere in the post WWII American dessert. Spencer Tracy plays a man who lost the use of one arm after being injured at Anzio. He has come to Black Rock, one of those tiny dessert towns stuck in the middle of nowhere. The tension is palpable the minute he steps off the train as he is met by the station manager who immediately starts questioning him. Tracy’s character has given up on life and is there to perform his “final duty”, giving the medal a Japanese-American boy earned saving his life to the boy’s father. The father has disappeared, however. Tracy finds himself again as he works out what the dirty little secret poisoning the people at Black Rock. Good story and good performances all around.
I also like “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” for Stewart’s character.
Eh???
As I remember it, John Wayne’s character is the hero while Stewart’s takes credit for something he knows he didn’t do and couldn’t do. And he ends up with all the accolades, going to congress as “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” while he knows he would have been gunned down while shaking in his boots had it not been for the real man (Wayne) coming in to save him.
Eh???
As I remember it, John Wayne’s character is the hero while Stewart’s takes credit for something he knows he didn’t do and couldn’t do. And he ends up with all the accolades, going to congress as “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” while he knows he would have been gunned down while shaking in his boots had it not been for the real man (Wayne) coming in to save him.
He accepted the credit because Wayne’s character insisted on it. In the beginning he thought he had done the deed. I admired Stewart’s character because he had the courage to stand there, shaking in his boots, and face certain death. No one would face up to the bully Valance, not even Wayne’s character, though he was the only one who could have done so. Instead, Wayne’s character stood in the shadows and shot Valance while Stewart faced him. He did it to save Stewart’s life, but that doesn’t mean that he faced Valance down, or even bested him in a fair fight. It was Stewart’s character who stood for and fought to bring law and order to the area. It was Stewart who had the courage of his convictions, even if he lacked the skill to handle a gun. That is why, regardless of whose bullet killed Valance, Stewart was the man to win the Congressional seat he held.
Maybe this might strike some as a strange choice.
“28 Days Later”
I’ve always enjoyed it. I really do think it might have more to it than a standard horror movie plot.
I also like druggy movies like “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and “Trainspotting.”
Of all the questions I’ve been posed, even those philosophical ones, this is one of the hardest questions for me to answer. I have watched hundreds of movies in my lifetime. In terms of my modern dramatic criteria, I would have to watch many over again. I imagine that I would need a thick movie guide, to go through it page by page and list those movies that I remember really loving.
For example, when I was very young, I loved Commando with California’s governor. And many more which it is so hard to remember. I love movies as such, as a medium. I have come to appreciate stage drama in the recent years, and I see movies as an extension and perfection of that medium.
But what I did do is read the previous posts and jot down the noteable movies that others named.
Shawshank Redemption–Yes!
Princess Bride–The hero is so physically beautiful and so Franciscouesque.
Braveheart–One of the most exciting movies I have ever seen.
For the last seven years Good Will Hunting has been my favorite movie. But the philosophy of the hero has come to bother me, lately.
But some noteable movies that people haven’t mentioned are:
Running on Empty–the beautiful and young River Phoenix is a pianist prodigy BUT his parents are running from the law as former hippie protestors.
The Killing Fields–The beautifully souled Sam Waterston loses an intimate friend to the Kamur Rouge. Will he find him again? (Just shivered as I remembered it).
Scareface (Pacino)–One of the best tragedies in film. Tony Montana could have been a good guy but he was a victim of Castro and of racism in America. His best characteristic is that he had “BALLS!” (or in a spanish accent “bowals!”)–That is, he had daring. There are crucial moments, when he makes crucial choices, when his past choices come to haunt him.
Far and Away–Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman–I love the last scenes, the race to win their own land. And if I remember correctly, he was saved with a kiss. Now correct me if I’m wrong.
Pear Harbor–I have never cried so much with any other movie.
Actually crying is a standard for any movie. If it can make me cry, I definately like it.
Love Letters (screenplay by Ayn Rand)–Wonderful Plot. And the style is remarkably beautifully, not necessarily on the screen because a modern version could be much better–but in the script itself: Ayn Rand was a genius.
We The Living.
The Count of Monter Cristo.
I recently bought October Sky–It is one the best films I have ever seen. I certainly cried and cheered all the way.
Jefferson in Paris–He sets someone free at the end. And the character of Lafayette is admirable.
However, I know I am missing out on so many that I can’t remember. There must be dozens. There are at least dozens that I’ve cried for.
As for the movie that made me laught the hardest the first time I saw it: Dumb and Dumber. However, the second time I saw it I didn’t laugh as much. I actually almost had a heart attack the first time I saw it, but I was young.
Oh yeah: The Untouchables–Jame Bond: A View to the kill–Meet Joe Black–A River Runs Through it–Spy Games–The Legends of The Fall–Oceans Eleven–Seven…
I’ll stop now.
Americo.
Some of my favorite movies:
Immortal Beloved (Not an entirely factually correct account, but Oldman’s performance is genius. Also, the flashback scene during the “Ode To Joy” theme of the Ninth with young Beethoven fleeing & floating on the water with the reflected stars is incredible & exalted - Beethoven: child of the universe.)
The Man Without a Face (Braveheart was great but this is my favorite Gibson movie - absolutely brilliant. The plot, characters & dialogue are all perfect. The beginning & the end are two perfectly constructed complimentary bookends.)
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly (Classic morality play with a twist - most have moral vs. immoral. This one adds “amoral” as well. An excellent combination of a stark, taunt mythological style & a gritty, bare-bones realism.)
Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang (This has great songs, a wonderful plot & Dick van Dyke in his prime dancing. Good stuff. Light, benevolent humor abounds - I love Jefferies doing “Posh” floating off in his outhouse!)
Christopher Schlegel
hmm…favorite movies…
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, DAWN OF THE DEAD, DAY OF THE DEAD (…and hopefully soon, LAND OF THE DEAD…) - When you come from Pittsburgh, there are two things that you hope to be when you “grow up”: a Pittsburgh Steeler and/or a zombie in a George Romero film. His other films are great, too - THE CRAZIES, MARTIN (greatest vampire film EVER!), KNIGHTRIDERS - but its the DEAD series that made him.
LOST HORIZON - I could listen to Ronald Colman read an Appleby’s menu, and I’d think it was great literature.
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK - Action, adventure…and that ginchy Karen Allen…BOO-YA!
As for as sports movies go, I gotta go with VICTORY. Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone, Max Von Sydow, and Pele. PELE?!? Oh, yeah! A ragtag bunch of prisoners in a WWII POW camp vs. the German national soccer team. I learned how to drag the ball behind me and flip it over my head by watching Ossie Ardiles over and over and over…
Being its the season and all…A CHRISTMAS STORY. I don’t care if TNT finds a way to pump the movie directly into my cortex for a week straight during the holidays…its still a funny movie. “You use all the glue…on purpose!”
Gotta throw in some Cronenberg so…maybe…THE BROOD or RABID or CRASH. David Cronenberg is pretty amazing. Hollywood tries to offer him crummy movie after crummy movie, and yet he stays the course and is true to himself and his vision. My favorite story is how he was supposed to write and direct TOTAL RECALL. When he turned in his script (which was very faithful to Philip K. Dick), the studio execs were like "What the hell is this? We wanted “Indiana Jones-goes-to-Mars”. Ahh…Hollywood “high-concept”…gotta love it…
NORTH BY NORTHWEST - I could name a bunch of other Hitchcock movies, but this one is THE Hitchcock movie. Suave, sophisticated, intelligent, funny…you name it. I love “mistaken identity” movies…a man vs the law AND the bad guys. And Cary Grant is…well…Cary Grant. Plus, you got James Mason. What I said about Ronnie Colman above…same goes for Jimmy Mason…
There are tons more movies…but I don’t want to hog space…
Star Wars trilogy (as my name here indicates)
Contact
For Love of the Game
Contact
I’m so glad to see that movie mentioned. It is so rarely found on anyone’s list, yet I too think it to be a great movie. Everytime I watch it, it gets better and better.
Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (12 chapter serial from 1940, starring Buster Crabbe) – thrilling fight to stop Ming the Merciless from devastating the earth with the Purple Death. I grew up on this.
Love Letters
We the Living – aside from the great acting and story, the music by Renzo Rossellini is a treasure in itself
The Fountainhead
You Came Along (1945) starring Bob Cummings and Lizabeth Scott; Ayn Rand co-wrote the screenplay
Conan the Barbarian (1982) – because it’s about PSYCHOLOGICAL strength
The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976) starring a young Jodie Foster as Rynn Jacobs, a fiercely independent heroine. Incrediby suspenseful!
Cyrano de Bergerac – the Gerard Depardieu version (1990)
Romeo and Juliet – the Zeffirelli version (1968)
Equilibrium
Blade Runner
Fist Full Of Dollars
The Matrix
American History X
Fight Club
Notorious by Hitchcock
Princess Bride
Inherit the Wind
Philadelphia Story
Iron Monkey
Count of Monte Cristo
Life is Beautiful
Trainspotting
Saw (since I no longer believe in God this has replaced the Exorcist as the best horror movie…not for the faint of heart) 
ooh ..almost forgot Memento!
The Matrix Trilogy (Yes, yes, I’m aware of the flaws, but I still love them)
Star Wars movies
Ghost in the Shell
Memento
Contact
12 Monkeys
Outbreak
The Count of Monte Cristo
Spy Game
Se7en
Vanilla Sky
Magnolia
Hmm, that’s all I can think of off the top of my head without going through my movies.
Sorry for the double post, but I had to add Man on Fire to my list.
Mine are:
Empire Strikes Back
Shane
Raiders of the Lost ArK
Shawshank Redemption
Groundhogs Day
October Sky
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Star Wars: A New Hope
Planet of the Apes (the original)
Jaws
Others that are right up there for me are:
The Road Warrior, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1954 & 78’ versions), Superman the Movie, Dirty Harry & Magnum Force, Cyrano with Jose Ferrer, The obscure 2001 for it’s hypnotic cinematography, Tombstone, Conan the Barbarian, Singing in the Rain, and Die Hard.
I own all these films on DVD and never tire of watching them. Excluding 2001, they all serve their purpose of refueling my sole (not in a religious way)
Lord of the Rings (all)
Matrix (all- yes, all)
Contact
Beautiful Mind
Shawshank (duh)
Kill Bill 1/2
Pulp Fiction
Resevoir Dogs (Quentin Fanatic, obviously)
Children of Dune Miniseries
The Great Escape (I can’t believe it hasn’t been mentioned yet!)
Bridge over the River Kwai
Lawrence of Arabia
and…
Christmas with the Kranks! (there’s not vomit smiley on this forum)