Top Ten Films by Rob St. Mary
10 - Most Werner Herzog films but chiefly “Aguirre: The
Wrath of God” and “Fitzcarraldo”. Working with the crazed but amazing Klaus
Kinski, Herzog tells stories of men driven by ambition into the wilderness:
one, it’s the drive for gold and the other, a drive to bring art to a small
town in the Amazon. Herzog is one of the greatest filmmakers of the past 50
years who can work both ends of the film spectrum – as a fiction storyteller
and a documentarian.
9 - “Pulp Fiction” – Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 film is the
high water mark of his career. It was innovative for taking ideas from the
French New Wave, film noir, Blaxploitation and making it hip for modern
American audiences. I saw this when it came out in the theater when I was in
high school and it really lit a fire under my imagination when it came to film.
I believe I’ve seen “Pulp Fiction” more times in a theater than any other film,
13 times.
8 - “Dawn of the Dead” – the zombie film that can’t be
topped. George A. Romero’s 1978 film is about more than just bloodletting and horror.
The film is a statement on consumerism, small group dynamics and how we live.
The remake is bad. But, I just don’t feel that dead people should run.
7 - “Battles Without Honor and Humanity” – Kinji Fukasaku is
one of the most overlooked Japanese directors. While it’s easy to like
Kurosawa’s samurai films, Fukasaku’s movies may be violent but it’s very
humanistic. This is not violence entertainment sake. It’s shocking, bloody and
awful – just like how violence truly is in real life. Fukasaku’s “Battles
Without Honor and Humanity” series – shot over 2 years in the early 1970s – is
a five film arc telling the tale of rival gangs in post-atomic bombed
Hiroshima. This series makes “The Godfather” look like kindergarten and never
loses a step.
6 - “A Clockwork Orange” – I saw this film at the age of 9.
My father wanted to show it to me the day we got our VCR. Hardly a kid’s film,
but even then I knew it was something special, even if I didn’t know why.
Today, I see it as Kubrick’s philosophical masterpiece. Sure, “2001” is
visually stunning. “The Killing” is a masterwork of non-linier story telling.
Basically, I could say every one of his films is amazing piece in its own way –
but “A Clockwork Orange” has always been the film I come back to. It’s a film
that talks about what humanity truly is, even at its most inhumane.
5 - “The Dark Knight” – More than a Batman movie, but one of
the best comic book movies ever. The Dark Knight is an examination of the
post-9/11 America and the War on Terrorism.
4 - “Brazil” – Terry Gilliam’s darkly comic “1984”-like tale
is about the nightmare of structure and bureaucracy run amok. It also shows
that behind all the plans and facades of the order lies a chaos that cannot be
controlled. It also offers one of the most hopeful downer endings ever.
3 - “There Will Be Blood” – Paul Thomas Anderson’s greatest
film to date. This will be the movie that will be on the “SIGHT AND SOUND”
greatest films of all time lists in 20 or 30 years. “There Will Be Blood” is a
digs deep into the twin drivers of the American story – business and religion.
2 - “Blade Runner” – What needs to be said about it? It’s an
existential neo-noir that asks us fundamental questions about what it means to
be human. Also, I don’t care what Ridley Scott says; Deckard is not a replicant
– END OF DEBATE!
1 - “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie” – Luis Bunuel’s
1972 surrealist comedy of manners is so important to me that the first, and so
far – only, tattoo that I have is the poster art to this film. It tells the
tale of two couples, a single woman and a priest who keep trying to meet for
dinner, but fate has other plans. Everything from they showed up on the wrong
day for dinner to finding themselves on stage to live fire military exercises
taking place on the front lawn keeps them from stuffing their faces. The first
time I saw this, I hated it. I didn’t get it at all. I came back about ten
years later and it makes so much sense to me. Funny, considering Bunuel was
always cagy about talking about his films, their themes in meanings. But, I
guess that’s why it works for me.
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