10. Apocalypse Now (1979)
Apocalypse Now is a movie that I cannot watch very often, but it’s one of the most engaging films ever made. I can honestly say it’s the darkest movie I’ve ever seen; it’s the epitome of a “war is hell” movie.
This is director Francis Ford Coppola’s and supporting actor Marlon Brando’s final masterpiece, and probably the greatest war movie ever made. It’s about Martin Sheen being assigned a mission to go upriver to Cambodia and kill an American colonel (Brando) who seems to have gone crazy. All the memorable characters are perfect examples of what war can do to a man.
This is such a disturbing movie because it fills you with this feeling of uneasiness and depression. That’s why I can’t watch it all the time but no one can say it isn’t an effective film. Coppola once notably said: “My movie isn’t about Vietnam; it is Vietnam,” and I know what he means. The film combines harsh realism with surrealism to paint a frightening portrait of the war.
Of course, this is a film that is difficult to find in its original form. There is a Redux version which isn’t as good because it’s overlong and filled with some scenes that take away from the bleak tone of the film. I’d still recommend Apocalypse Now Redux, but try to find the original if you can.
9. Rear Window (1954)
I’d argue Rear Window as the most suspenseful film ever made. By now if you’ve been reading these reviews, you’ll know that I’m a huge Alfred Hitchcock fan, and this might be his best-directed film. It’s an excellent practice in minimalism, with one location for the entire time. Because of the directing, the acting, and the screenplay, it’s still ridiculously entertaining.
James Stewart plays a photographer who’s been put in a wheelchair and cannot leave his apartment. To pass the time, he spies on his neighbors, making keen observations on how they live, until he suspects one neighbor of his, Lars Thorwald, of murdering his wife.
The rest of the film, Stewart, his girlfriend Grace Kelly, and Thelma Ritter all work on finding evidence while staying in his apartment. They find some important clues but it’s not enough to get the police involved.
Like many of Hitchcock’s films, this is darkly comedic in tone, with Thelma Ritter being absolutely hilarious. It also is an interesting satire on film. The climax is actually a bit disappointing because it’s pretty cheesy, but the scene with Grace Kelly in the murderer’s apartment might be the most suspenseful scene ever filmed, so it’s all good in the end.
8. Titanic (1997)
This movie gets a lot of crap now and I don’t know why. When it came out, people were comparing it to movies like Casablanca, saying it might be the greatest movie ever made. That was probably an overreaction, but this is one of the great Hollywood love stories, comparable to Doctor Zhivago and Gone with the Wind in its epic scale.
We all know the story of the Titanic at least a little bit, and this tells the story of two lovers who meet on the ill-fated ship. Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a very poor man in steerage, only able to win his ticket in a lucky hand of cards. Rose DeWit Bukater (Kate Winslet) is a hapless young woman caught in a loveless engagement to rich and miserable Cal Hockley (Billy Zane). They meet under the strangest of circumstances and Dawson is immediately hated by all the rich people on the ship.
The love story is really engaging, mostly because of the acting by Leo and Winslet. They start out as just friends really, but eventually they come to love each other, and you believe every bit of it. In fact, this is the first movie love story that I actually found myself caring about, so it paved the way for me in seeing and enjoying movies like Eternal Sunshine and Annie Hall.
And on top of all that, James Cameron directs the disaster sequences phenomenally. The visual effects are great, of course, and every shot in the film is impressive.
7. Jaws (1975)
Jaws is a flat-out brilliant film, and I believe it’s the only film still in this list that at one point was my favorite movie. It’s an excellent film of man versus beast, filled with some great acting and characters, and the signature direction of Steven Spielberg. It’s easily one of his masterpieces.
The opening scene is one of the most legendary of all time, opening the movie up with a shark attack in which you don’t see the shark. You don’t see the shark until about halfway through the movie, actually, and while this was a result of the mechanical shark not working well, it ended up working remarkably well in terms of building suspense and gathering scares.
Now I’ve seen this movie so many damn times that I’ll never be scared of it but when I first saw it, it was quite frightening. It was also the goriest film I had seen at that point, but of course now I’ve seen Dawn of the Dead, Humanoids from the Deep, and Tokyo Gore Police.
Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) wants to close the beaches with news of the shark attack but the stubborn mayor (Murray Hamilton) refuses due to his town’s need for tourism. There are some more attacks but the beaches remain open for the 4th of July, the biggest day of the year, when another man is killed.
That enables Brody, a shark hunter named Quint (Robert Shaw), and a scientist named Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) to go out on Quint’s boat and hunt down this shark. This is almost half the movie and while the first half works well in building suspense, this is where the movie really takes off. They are out in the ocean, completely helpless, with a killer great white shark hunting them down as much as they are hunting it.
My favorite scene is probably when Hooper goes in the shark cage. It’s such a terrifying and suspenseful scene and it’s shot so well. The underwater cinematography is great in this movie.
The climax is outstanding, of course. Easily one of the greatest movies ever made.
6. Psycho (1960)
Psycho is my favorite Alfred Hitchcock movie and maybe his greatest. It’s one of his few horror films, and just about every horror movie following can owe a great deal to it.
This is a movie I am not going to say a whole lot about the plot. If you are relatively unfamiliar with it, then see it, because it will sweep you away with some of its plot twists. If you are familiar with the plot and a few of its notable twists, then you can still enjoy it for the very suspenseful film that it is.
The acting is great. The best word to describe Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates is absorbing. And Janet Leigh was rightly nominated for an Academy Award for her performance as Marion Crane. The direction is outstanding as in all Hitchcock films, filled with memorable images, great editing, and a dark, foreboding presence about the entire movie.
One scene I will talk about is the conversation scene in the parlor between Bates and Crane. I love this scene because it tells so much in the area of foreshadowing. The dialogue is so dark and interesting. I also love how it goes from an innocent conversation to a creepy one, much like the Indianapolis monologue in Jaws or the conversation between Jack Torrance and the former caretaker in The Shining. It’s flat-out brilliant.
To be perfectly fair, the entire movie is brilliant.
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