Great films that needs to be treasured not seen..!. Review on Ten Best English Movies

Picking the ten best films of all time isn’t an easy task. There are countless lists on this topic and the more lists you read the more films you’ll get familiar with. Although you can approach such a topic from different angles of film-making such as artistic values, culturally importance etc.. etc.. I’ve decided to stay simple and straight forward in my approach. While most critics try to pick their films based simply on the movies artistic values I’ve decided to pick them based on their artistic, cinematic as well as emotional values. In simple words these are the films that satisfied both the movie-goer in me as well as the critic in me by providing pure unadulterated entertainment. Let the countdown begin..

1. Casablanca

Okay. Number one is Casablanca directed by Michael Curtiz starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, two of my all time favorite actors. It’s a love triangle set in the aftermath of World War II. It has some of the most terrific dialogues ever penned and it deals with Shakespearean level issues. Watching this film for more than 5 times now, I’ve realized why I like this more than any other film. It’s because it has the kind of characters that has the ability to live on in our hearts forever and ever even after hours of watching it. The simple basic elements in this movie such as the piano player looking up when Bergman’s character enters the cafeteria and the final sequence where Bogart and Reins disappearing in to the clouds uttering the line -- this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship -- left a lasting impact on me and made me realize the power and beauty of black and white cinema.

1. The Godfather

The Godfather is arguably the best drama film I’ve ever seen (and I love drama). The story of Corleone crime family moving in to America and taking the law and order in to their hands makes its way for one of the most absorbing and riveting family movies of all time. For ambitious movie goers growing up The Godfather was the emotional equivalent of the Italian Star wars. It’s impeccably scripted, superbly acted and is backed up by sublime direction from Francis Ford Coppola and features arguably the most memorable theme song ever in any feature length film. I’ve already mentioned early on that you can see countless lists in the net about this topic but chances are you can’t see not even one list without this movie mentioned in it.

1. Notorious

Notorious is my favorite Hitchcock film. Hitchcock really shows us what visual style really is in this masterful work starring Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant. It’s the fullest expression of the master’s visual style just as Vertigo is the purest of his obsessions. I fell in love with the former where most critics fell for the latter.

1. The Third Man

Very few movies use the background music so efficiently such as this 1949 thriller classic starring Orsen Wells and Joseph Cotton. Orsen Wells’s Harry Lime is the best screen villain I’ve ever seen in a motion picture and Carol Reed directs the movie which is both visually striking as well as emotionally involving. Apart from its thriller aspects this movie is nothing but a long speech over looking Vienna and it’s Orsen Well’s who delivers that speech.

“ In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love--they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long, Holy.”

1. Do The Right Thing

Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing is the one and perhaps the only American movie that made me cry as well as laugh both virtually at the same time. It achieves what Hitchcock used to mention as the sign of a craft full filmmaker that is playing the audience like a piano. It’s a movie that touches up on the sensitive issue of tribalism in America, which is, the black vs white issue and Spike Lee’s film is a classic example of how violence can break out of simple little things which normal people tend to ignore on the first instance. If you’re not moved by the final moments of this film check your pulse..!!

1. 2001: A space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A space odyssey is a meditative, religious and transcendent experience set in outer space. I’ve seen it a long time ago and honestly couldn’t digest it at the first time but later realized that movies like 2001 tend to have growing impact on its viewer – the more you see it, the deeper it gets. Stanley Kubrick’s film is about Man’s obsession with machines and technology and it shows us how insignificant we are in a galaxy full of glittering stars. It’s one of the best science fiction stories ever made with the deft touch of an old master in Stanley _ Kubrick.

1. The Dark Knight

Directed by Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight is a rich, complex, visually thrilling piece of pop entertainment that came whisper-close to achieving enduring work of art. I put it on my list because I believe it’s the best of all escapist movies which includes a prestigious list including movies such as E.T, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Thief of Bagdad and Lawrence of Arabia. Even with a lead in a bat suit, The Dark Knight had an authentic feel of a crime thriller like Heat, The town or even The Departed echoing the sheer visual poetry of Charles dickens’s novels.

1. Raiders of the lost Arc

My favorite Spielberg film is Raiders of the lost Arc. It’s one of the most consummately entertaining masterpieces ever put on film. It’s full of bravura set pieces and is known for Spielberg’s customary flair. It not only gave us one of the most memorable screen heroes in Indiana Jones but also produced a great filmmaker in Stephen Spielberg, the ultimate name when the onus is on providing block buster entertainment. It’s one of the best, audacious pieces of action/adventure film if ever there was one.

1. Taxi Driver

Taxi Driver is my favorite film of Martin Scorsese. I like it even more than Raging Bull because of that astounding final five minutes, the sequence where the driver looks up towards the rare view mirror of his car in a dream like sequence which is brilliantly acted by Robert De Niro, who I believe is the great living American actor of the 21st century.

For Number 10, I have two choices : First is Pulp Fiction directed by Quentin tarantino

10 (A). Pulp Fiction

The movie that broke the conventional storytelling format is Quentin tarantino’s 94 gangster classic titled Pulp Fiction. It’s a film driven by dialogues and one that resurrected the careers of two highly talented actors namely Samuel L Jackson and John Travolta. Most importantly it gave us an audacious, gifted filmmaker in Quentin Tarantino who went on to make a half dozen of movies which includes many of my favorites from the last 20 years.

10 (B). Citizen Kane

The Film that signaled the birth of modern cinema is Orsen Well’s Citizen kane. It’s a highly original, inventive piece of storytelling and one that sets the standards for generations of movie makers to emerge out of Hollywood and also across the world.