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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   4432 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for February 17, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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  1. Metropolis Labor vs Capital was an important debate in the 20th century and I think that film does a better job than others at touching it without being too preachy. Honorable mentions: There Will be Blood and Grapes of Wrath

  2. Casablanca is my guilty pleasure WWII pick. Honorable mention Saving Private Ryan, Das Boot, Patton. I say guilty pleasure because it's my favorite film so I'm sticking it as the pick over more represetative options that show people fighting in the actual war.

  3. It's a Wonderful Life is my first tech boom film. Honorable mention The Aviator and Citizen Kane. The first tech wave is radio/mass communication, autos and planes dramatically changing how people lived.

  4. An Affair to Remember is my flattening world film (honorable mentions Mr Mom, Titanic, Roman Holiday, and Charade).

  5. French Connection is my midcentury crime film. Honorable mentions to Godfather I and II, Goodfellas, American Gangster, and me insisting the Wire should be here).

  6. Forrest Gump is my Boomer film. No film hits as many Baby Boom culture touchstones. Honorable mentions to Love Story, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, and the Right Stuff.

  7. Robocop is my 80s/corporate satire I think it hits better on themes of corporatism, crime, and policing than the others in ways that become more important in the following decades. Honorable mentions to Terminator, Running Man, Predator, Alien, and making them watch a filmed RUR.

  8. WarGames is my cold war 2nd tech boom film. Honorable mentions to Dr Strangelove, Planet of the Apes, Hunt for Red October, Real Genius, and if you'll let me cheat, Tinker Tailor, Soldier, Spy (A 2011 film of a 1974 novel).

  9. Logan's Run included only as the winner of the 1976 Aademy Award for visual effects.

  10. Star Wars: A New Hope should immediately follow Logan's Run as the 1977 winner of the same special effect award.

Nine is something of a joke entry, and should realistically be Ben Hur or the Ten Commandments as an inclusion to show the importance of religion in the century (hit films were made with enormous budgets about Bible stories) and how rapidly that changed as a cultural touchstone.

My goal was to make a list that hits a variety of different types of films while not picking exclusively from a 100 best films/best films of the 20th century. I'm sure I'm missing some great foreign films but stuck with American studio films intentionally as the century saw American cultural domination emerge.

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