All time favorite movie

McClintock, TGB&U, Magnum Force (all the Dirty Harry movies really), Death Wish 2, Dirty Dozen, and many more.

If any of those come on TV they stay on til they’re over.
 
In the classics department we have Gunga Din 1939, which was the forerunner of the Indiana Jones/Raiders of The Lost Ark franchise. A very fast pace and witty action adventure with a great cast. Much of the plot gets ripped off in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom; but, watch the original, it is way better.

Then we have the all time greatest giant monster movie, King Kong 1933. The special effects hold up well through the present day, and the story is all the more remarkable for being based on true events. It was based on the experiences of The American Natural History Museum’s expedition of 1926 to Malaysia. If you look closely, the ship, it’s captain, the island, the girl (in the real life version she was the young wife of expedition leader Douglas Burden) and even the dinosaurs were directly borrowed from their real life counterparts. Even the ending is similar. The expedition brought back early examples of the ‘Kamono’ dragons and they tragically died while on exhibition at New York’s Central Park zoo. Perhaps someday, someone will do a film version of the actual expedition and capture the adventure and horror of the real expedition.

link:
slate.com

1926 Film of Komodo Dragons Inspired "King Kong"

The Vault is Slate's brand-new history blog. Like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter @slatevault. Find out more about what this space is all...
slate.com slate.com


n2s
 
Last edited:
not2sharp said:
In the classics department we have Gunga Din 1939, which was the forerunner of the Indiana Jones/Raiders of The Lost Ark franchise. A very fast pace and witty action adventure with a great cast. Much of the plot gets ripped off in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom; but, watch the original, it is way better.

Then we have the all time greatest giant monster movie, King Kong 1933. The special effects hold up well through the present day, and the story is all the more remarkable for being based on true events. It was based on the experiences of The American Natural History Museum’s expedition of 1926 to Malaysia. If you look closely, the ship, it’s captain, the island, the girl (in the real life version she was the young wife of expedition leader Douglas Burden) and even the dinosaurs were directly borrowed from their real life counterparts. Even the ending is similar. The expedition brought back early examples of the ‘Kamono’ dragons and they tragically died while on exhibition at New York’s Central Park zoo. Perhaps someday, someone will do a film version of the actual expedition and capture the adventure and horror of the real expedition.

link:
slate.com

1926 Film of Komodo Dragons Inspired "King Kong"

The Vault is Slate's brand-new history blog. Like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter @slatevault. Find out more about what this space is all...
slate.com slate.com


n2s
Click to expand...

The original King Kong is a great film. When I was a little kid and the first time I saw the scene where Kong first appeared, I still recall that feeling of menace. Also, the scene where Kong fights the T-rex is outstanding. I can't imagine the difficulty of stop-motion animating two different models of totally different animals with completely different movement characteristics, fighting each other. Or how Kong used actual strategy to take the T-rex down. Much better, and much more "alive" than the CGI effects in more recent King Kong movies.

Jim
 
Favorite westerns (in no particular order)-

Hombre
Open Range
Lawman

Hombre is one of those movies I've seen too many times. Open Range is a movie I enjoy watching once a year. I REALLY liked Lawman from the first time I saw it, both for the characters, the story, and the unapologetic, in-your-face ruthlessness and violence (but not gratuitous, all appropriate for the story and characters) . No happy, feel-good Hollywood-ending in Lawman (one of, if not THE greatest movie endings I've ever seen).
 
Too many of them to really pick “one” that’s definitively above the rest, lol. Couple of my favorites are:

Lord of the Rings trilogy
Aliens
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
The Last Samurai
The Patriot
Gladiator
The Dark Knight trilogy
 
It's mainly directors for me, anything by Andrew Dominik or P.T. Anderson.
 
I’m mostly into westerns and mountain man films so,
True Grit ( John Wayne)
Big Jake ( John Wayne)
Mountain Men ( Charlton Heston, Brian Kieth )
Open Range ( Robert Duvall )

Tv films , Lonesome Dove, Centennial, Streets of Laredo.
 
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