John Dule's 100 Favorite Films Thread
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« Reply #50 on: February 25, 2021, 11:09:17 AM »
« edited: February 25, 2021, 11:19:52 AM by Laki »

#1: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly - 9/10 (my 75th favorite movie)
#2: Lawrence of Arabia - not seen (probably not my cup of tea)
#3: Cinema Paradiso (not seen, will someday)
#4: Raiders of the Lost Ark - 6/10 (i'd think i'd appreciate it slightly more now)
#5: 12 Angry Men - 8/10 (my 206th favorite movie)
#6: Pulp Fiction - 9/10 (my 31st favorite movie)
#7: A Clockwork Orange - 9/10 (my 28th favorite movie)
#8: The Big Lebowski - 8/10 (my 164th favorite movie)
#9: A Hard Day's Night - not seen (probably not my cup of tea)
#10: Doctor Zhivago - not seen, will someday
#11: Before Sunrise - 8/10 (my 212th favorite movie)
#12: 2001: A Space Odyssey - 8/10 (my 103rd favorite movie)
#13: High and Low - not seen, but will likely watch it this year
#14: The Grand Budapest Hotel - 7/10 (not in my top 250 anymore, but since I replaced it today, technically my 251th favorite movie)
#15: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan - not seen, don't want to either
#16: Badlands - 9/10 (my 25th favorite movie)

Ranked:
1. Badlands
2. A Clockwork Orange
3. Pulp Fiction
4. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
5. 2001: A Space Odyssey
6. The Big Lebowski
7. 12 Angry Men
8. Before Sunrise
9. The Grand Budapest Hotel
10. Raiders of the Lost Ark

I haven't seen te others.

Seems like that's a great result. I still suspect we have a very different taste, because mostly they're the usual suspects (though the right 'usual suspects', i give you that, since there's a lot of trash or overrated movie in top lists). Kuddo's for Badlands, which is less of a usual suspect. With Kubrick, you can never go wrong.

Although his magnum opus is not 2001 or A Clockwork Orange, not The Shining, Dr. Strangelove, Full Metal Jacket either, it's Eyes Wide Shut which is one of the best movies i've ever seen (though all are great, exc. for FMJ which I liked less).
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John Dule
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« Reply #51 on: February 25, 2021, 04:38:04 PM »

not in my top 250 anymore, but since I replaced it today, technically my 251th favorite movie

How freaking far down have you calculated your favorite films...

Also, Eyes Wide Shut will indeed make an appearance on this list.
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« Reply #52 on: February 25, 2021, 05:18:55 PM »
« Edited: February 25, 2021, 05:32:34 PM by Laki »

not in my top 250 anymore, but since I replaced it today, technically my 251th favorite movie

How freaking far down have you calculated your favorite films...

Also, Eyes Wide Shut will indeed make an appearance on this list.
250 favs

I participate in a lot of list-making projects. For one, i have to file in at minimum a top 250. This is why I have a top 250. In addition to that, i love ranking stuff, but it's hard to be precise or accurate about it. It however doesn't matter that much for a list if a movie is your 160th or your 220th fav. I have ranked all animation movies i've seen as well.

I'll present my top 250 later this year or early next year also here on this forum.


Also, Eyes Wide Shut will indeed make an appearance on this list.
That will probably be the movie i'll have liked the most the most in your list. It's my 4th fav. I doubt my top 3 will make an appearance, since they're either not exactly plot-driven or too obscure.
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« Reply #53 on: February 25, 2021, 06:50:53 PM »

It was odd how the original cast Star Trek movies pretty consistently switched between clunkers and good movies, with II, IV, and VI being good and I, III, and V being awful.

Personally, I enjoyed The Undiscovered Country slightly more than The Wrath of Khan.  Maybe that's because when it comes to movies, the only earworms I want from them are musical.
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John Dule
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« Reply #54 on: February 25, 2021, 09:45:13 PM »

#17: Stray Dog



I'm probably in the minority here, but I think Kurosawa's modern films are even better than his samurai ones. Sure, Seven Samurai and Yojimbo are more entertaining from an action perspective, but the modern setting of Stray Dog gives its moral dilemmas a more immediate, visceral feeling. Almost all of Kurosawa's movies deal with interesting themes, but there is something about the context of this story that makes it perhaps his most personal and emotionally involving film ever.

Stray Dog is the story of a Japanese detective named Murakami (Toshiro Mifune) who, on a hot summer day in Tokyo, has his pistol stolen by someone in a crowd. This simple act creates a butterfly effect, and as Murakami tries to uncover his lost pistol, he must deal with the knowledge that his failure has indirectly caused the deaths of innocent people. This deterministic chain of events should fascinate philosophy nerds-- how removed does someone have to be from an event before they can no longer be considered "responsible" for it? Mifune delivers another great performance here (of course), taking on uncharacteristic fragility when compared to his other roles in Kurosawa's films. The character becomes likable not through his abilities, but through his choices-- a nuance seldom grasped by Stray Dog's future buddy-cop imitators.

The backdrop of postwar Japan creates an atmosphere of nihilism and despair in the film, and the heat wave that grips the city is palpable. This movie illustrates heat in a myriad of subtle and clever ways, an element that adds to the unending parade of obstacles that confront our hero. You can feel the sweatiness of the crowds and the heat radiating off the screen, and you imagine Murakami's frustration and desperation becoming even more amplified. The attention to detail in the film's noirish visuals is virtually unmatched.

I could go on about this movie for some time. But in any case, I think that if you want an introduction to Kurosawa's filmography, you would have trouble finding a better first step than Stray Dog.
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« Reply #55 on: June 07, 2021, 06:50:30 PM »

I was trying to rank these movies by how much I like them, but it was excruciating to try placing them all in the proper order. Because of this, I'm going to stop trying to rank them. The rest of this list will still be numbered, but I don't consider these rankings of quality. I'll just post about whichever movie on my list I want to talk about at any particular time.

#18: Ben-Hur (1959)



While old Biblical movies are not necessarily my cup of tea (for obvious reasons!), Ben-Hur has been one of my favorite films ever since I first saw it as a kid. While it's weighed down by a few anachronisms (for instance, the heavy purple eye makeup that women apparently wore in Roman times), the sheer power of the mythology and the scope of the storytelling is enough to pull anyone in. This is more than an adventure film-- it is a love letter to the resilience of the human spirit.

While most people remember Ben-Hur for its chariot race (which is indeed the highlight of the film), my personal favorite aspect of the movie is actually the way it chooses to portray Jesus. Jesus is filmed solely in over-the-shoulder shots, which allows the movie to sidestep the issue of using an actor's face. This leaves Jesus' appearance up to the viewer's imagination, which is far more effective. By focusing instead on the reactions of the Romans and Judeans to the messiah's presence, the viewer experiences the feeling that he, too, is in the audience of this scene, and that he is sharing in the shock and awe of the masses. It's an ingenious visual tool that enhances the storytelling.

I cannot talk about Ben-Hur without mentioning the 2016 remake, which is memorable in its own right for taking everything clever in the original and then doing it in the dumbest way possible. Whereas the 1959 film maintained this fascinating air of mystery around its Jesus, the 2016 version features a scene where two people are talking and then Jesus randomly injects himself into the conversation. It shows his face straight-on and the tone of the scene barely changes, as though he was just some regular side character. One of many reasons why that movie sucks.
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« Reply #56 on: June 08, 2021, 03:11:34 AM »

Have you ever watched the 1925 version of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ? Of the three full-length film adaptations of Wallace's novel, it certainly follows the text the closest, including subplots and parts of the text that the others chose to omit.
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« Reply #57 on: June 08, 2021, 02:37:58 PM »

You’ve got really good taste in movies (especially liked your reviews of Pulp Fiction, 2001, and A Clockwork Orange)
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John Dule
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« Reply #58 on: June 08, 2021, 03:00:28 PM »

Have you ever watched the 1925 version of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ? Of the three full-length film adaptations of Wallace's novel, it certainly follows the text the closest, including subplots and parts of the text that the others chose to omit.

Like Andrei Rublev, I've wanted to see the 1925 Ben-Hur for years, but I haven't been able to find a decent copy of it anywhere. Would you say it's better than the '59 version?

You’ve got really good taste in movies (especially liked your reviews of Pulp Fiction, 2001, and A Clockwork Orange)

Thanks bubby Purple heart
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« Reply #59 on: June 08, 2021, 04:43:26 PM »

Since most of these are classics, I would love to read a Gone with the Wind review.
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True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)
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« Reply #60 on: June 08, 2021, 11:20:48 PM »

Have you ever watched the 1925 version of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ? Of the three full-length film adaptations of Wallace's novel, it certainly follows the text the closest, including subplots and parts of the text that the others chose to omit.

Like Andrei Rublev, I've wanted to see the 1925 Ben-Hur for years, but I haven't been able to find a decent copy of it anywhere. Would you say it's better than the '59 version?


The Internet Archive has a fairly good copy.

https://archive.org/details/BenHur_20161225

It's definitely different. Both have their points. The 1959 has the advantage of a full soundtrack instead of just music; the 1925 has the advantage of being able to alternate between various tints for some scenes and the use of two-color Technicolor for others. (The Wizard of Oz wasn't the first film to alternate between using monochrome and Technicolor for stylistic effect.) Sadly, by 1959, using different film stocks for different scenes just wasn't something audiences would've accepted, even if the director would've even considered it.

I like the vicious inventiveness of the pirates in the sea battle. Catapulting glass jars full of poisonous snakes and "returning" a Roman captive to the Romans by lashing him to the prow of a pirate galley before ramming a Roman galley were definitely ruthless.

The 1925 chariot race is superior as far as the actual race, but the preliminaries are done better in the 1959 version.

The 1959 version makes more use of Messala than the 1925 version, tho whether that's primarily because in the 1959 version some other characters were cut/reduced from the 1925 version, or a deliberate attempt to increase the spitefulness of Messala, I can't say. For example, in the 1959 version, after the chariot race, Messala tells Ben-Hur he can find his family in the Valley of the Lepers. In the 1925 version, he doesn't even know what's happened to Ben-Hur's family, and they are still in prison. (In the 1925 version, Pontius Pilate orders a general release of prisoners of unproven guilt when he arrives in Jerusalem, and this happens after the chariot race, which takes place in Antioch, not in Jerusalem. Incidentally, since there was a Roman Circus in Antioch, but not in Jerusalem, this makes the 1925 version more historically accurate.)

The 1925 Judah Ben-Hur was more actively involved in trying to gain his revenge, and in saving Quintus Arrius during the sea battle.

The one thing I would definitely drop that was in the 1925 version if I were to try to combine the two and keep only the best is a sideplot of Ben-Hur raising for the use of the Messiah a pair of legion-sized units, one amongst the Jews of Galilee and one amongst the Arabs of the desert. They don't play any part in the plot except to accentuate that Jesus didn't come (the first time) to fight with armies but to conquer by love and that Judah Ben-Hur was extremely wealthy.
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« Reply #61 on: June 10, 2021, 01:40:24 AM »

Have you ever watched the 1925 version of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ? Of the three full-length film adaptations of Wallace's novel, it certainly follows the text the closest, including subplots and parts of the text that the others chose to omit.

Like Andrei Rublev, I've wanted to see the 1925 Ben-Hur for years, but I haven't been able to find a decent copy of it anywhere. Would you say it's better than the '59 version?


The Internet Archive has a fairly good copy.

https://archive.org/details/BenHur_20161225

It's definitely different. Both have their points. The 1959 has the advantage of a full soundtrack instead of just music; the 1925 has the advantage of being able to alternate between various tints for some scenes and the use of two-color Technicolor for others. (The Wizard of Oz wasn't the first film to alternate between using monochrome and Technicolor for stylistic effect.) Sadly, by 1959, using different film stocks for different scenes just wasn't something audiences would've accepted, even if the director would've even considered it.

I like the vicious inventiveness of the pirates in the sea battle. Catapulting glass jars full of poisonous snakes and "returning" a Roman captive to the Romans by lashing him to the prow of a pirate galley before ramming a Roman galley were definitely ruthless.

The 1925 chariot race is superior as far as the actual race, but the preliminaries are done better in the 1959 version.

The 1959 version makes more use of Messala than the 1925 version, tho whether that's primarily because in the 1959 version some other characters were cut/reduced from the 1925 version, or a deliberate attempt to increase the spitefulness of Messala, I can't say. For example, in the 1959 version, after the chariot race, Messala tells Ben-Hur he can find his family in the Valley of the Lepers. In the 1925 version, he doesn't even know what's happened to Ben-Hur's family, and they are still in prison. (In the 1925 version, Pontius Pilate orders a general release of prisoners of unproven guilt when he arrives in Jerusalem, and this happens after the chariot race, which takes place in Antioch, not in Jerusalem. Incidentally, since there was a Roman Circus in Antioch, but not in Jerusalem, this makes the 1925 version more historically accurate.)

The 1925 Judah Ben-Hur was more actively involved in trying to gain his revenge, and in saving Quintus Arrius during the sea battle.

The one thing I would definitely drop that was in the 1925 version if I were to try to combine the two and keep only the best is a sideplot of Ben-Hur raising for the use of the Messiah a pair of legion-sized units, one amongst the Jews of Galilee and one amongst the Arabs of the desert. They don't play any part in the plot except to accentuate that Jesus didn't come (the first time) to fight with armies but to conquer by love and that Judah Ben-Hur was extremely wealthy.

I'm now morbidly curious to know if you've seen the 2016 version...

From just watching bits of the online version now, I have to say that the music kind of takes me out of it. Not having a full score is really a detriment (especially in the chariot scenes I imagine). However, I'm very curious to see how they went about telling this story in the 20s-- the technological limitations of that time always forced filmmakers to pursue unusual and clever visual strategies.
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« Reply #62 on: June 10, 2021, 07:47:35 AM »

I haven't seen the 2016 reimagining, and based on what I've heard of it, I don't want to.
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« Reply #63 on: August 13, 2021, 09:47:35 PM »

This thread makes me want to do my own 100 favorites list. But that would be a pain! I can’t even remember the last 100 movies I watched.

Overall however, a lot of these movies listed on here would easily make my top 100/200/etc.
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« Reply #64 on: August 21, 2021, 01:19:34 AM »

Continuing to go out-of-order:

#19: Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)



Searching for Bobby Fischer could have been a fairly standard feel-good drama, but in the capable hands of Steven Zaillian (who wrote the scripts for Schindler's List and Moneyball, among others), this material is elevated to a much higher artistic level. Sure, there's plenty of schmaltz and heart-tugging, but when you look past the veneer of early 90s sentimentality, you'll find a film that examines some of the darker aspects of human nature-- talent, power, greatness, fame, and hierarchy. Because its main character is a prodigy, the film must confront several controversial and deeply unsettling questions about how we organize ourselves. Is it right that those with natural gifts should dominate the weaker among us? How should those at the top of the hierarchy conduct themselves? Should someone with natural talent be compelled to use that talent, even if they would prefer not to?

Like many of my favorite films, Searching for Bobby Fischer asks questions that have left me thinking ever since. One's responses to these questions can reveal-- and even inform-- one's core values. A prodigy is a raw, unique example of the natural inequalities that are essential to the human experience. What is your reflexive reaction when confronted with such a person? In this film, the prodigy's father tearfully states that his son "Is better at [chess] than I've ever been at anything in my life." This cathartic statement encompasses a range of emotions-- pride in his son, jealousy at his talent, guilt that he is feeling jealous of his own child, shock at the amount of talent he displays, and anger with himself for not having the same gift. It is a whirlwind of emotional baggage rolled into a single line of dialogue, and it remains one of my favorite scenes in movie history.

While Searching for Bobby Fischer isn't the all-encompassing cinematic tour de force that some of these other films are, its quiet genius is endlessly fascinating. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to take some time thinking about the questions posed by natural inequality. The movie might be about chess, but it speaks to far more universal themes-- the mark of a truly great film.
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« Reply #65 on: August 24, 2021, 12:05:43 AM »

Continuing to go out-of-order:

#19: Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993)



Searching for Bobby Fischer could have been a fairly standard feel-good drama, but in the capable hands of Steven Zaillian (who wrote the scripts for Schindler's List and Moneyball, among others), this material is elevated to a much higher artistic level. Sure, there's plenty of schmaltz and heart-tugging, but when you look past the veneer of early 90s sentimentality, you'll find a film that examines some of the darker aspects of human nature-- talent, power, greatness, fame, and hierarchy. Because its main character is a prodigy, the film must confront several controversial and deeply unsettling questions about how we organize ourselves. Is it right that those with natural gifts should dominate the weaker among us? How should those at the top of the hierarchy conduct themselves? Should someone with natural talent be compelled to use that talent, even if they would prefer not to?

Like many of my favorite films, Searching for Bobby Fischer asks questions that have left me thinking ever since. One's responses to these questions can reveal-- and even inform-- one's core values. A prodigy is a raw, unique example of the natural inequalities that are essential to the human experience. What is your reflexive reaction when confronted with such a person? In this film, the prodigy's father tearfully states that his son "Is better at [chess] than I've ever been at anything in my life." This cathartic statement encompasses a range of emotions-- pride in his son, jealousy at his talent, guilt that he is feeling jealous of his own child, shock at the amount of talent he displays, and anger with himself for not having the same gift. It is a whirlwind of emotional baggage rolled into a single line of dialogue, and it remains one of my favorite scenes in movie history.

While Searching for Bobby Fischer isn't the all-encompassing cinematic tour de force that some of these other films are, its quiet genius is endlessly fascinating. I would recommend it to anyone who wants to take some time thinking about the questions posed by natural inequality. The movie might be about chess, but it speaks to far more universal themes-- the mark of a truly great film.

Is this the one with the black guy from The Matrix in it? If so, I think I remember seeing this when I was in like sixth grade (?) and being inspired to play chess in the middle school team because of it.

I never re-watched it, but I’m surprised that it is apparently considered to be more than a generic feel good movie. It certainly seems like it’d be one!
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« Reply #66 on: August 24, 2021, 12:07:25 AM »

Most of these movies are good.
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« Reply #67 on: August 24, 2021, 12:47:57 AM »

Is this the one with the black guy from The Matrix in it? If so, I think I remember seeing this when I was in like sixth grade (?) and being inspired to play chess in the middle school team because of it.

I never re-watched it, but I’m surprised that it is apparently considered to be more than a generic feel good movie. It certainly seems like it’d be one!

I was surprised as well. The movie is billed as an extremely tame piece of feel-good claptrap in the vein of August Rush, but its message has implications that reach far outside this one story. I think narrative storytelling is at its best when it can use one person's experiences to illustrate broader points about society as a whole, and this movie certainly does that.
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« Reply #68 on: August 24, 2021, 01:07:14 AM »

#20: Come and See (1985)



Come and See is not so much a film as it is an experience. Its narrative is rather sparse, its characterization is rather simple, and viewers who enjoy elaborate story structure or clever dialogue will likely have a difficult time with it. This film is about one thing only: Giving the viewer the experience of being in the midst of a brutal war.

Put simply, it succeeds at that goal. No other film in history has depicted warfare in such brutal, vicious terms as Come and See-- even supposedly "anti-war" films such as Apocalypse Now are guilty of romanticizing certain aspects of combat by providing the viewer with "cool" moments, thus slightly lessening the blow of the message. I'm sure some people walked out of Apocalypse Now humming Flight of the Valkyries while making machine gun noises. Nobody will do any such thing after finishing Come and See.

The movie's period-accurate realism-- helped along by the stunningly believable performance of its lead actor-- is so arresting it often feels like it must be a documentary. It pays attention to the collateral damage of war in ways no other film has; the hunger, the sickness, the filth, and the desperation experienced by average people are front-and-center. In doing so, it creates what is without question the most accurate depiction of warfare in film history. It is shocking. It is brutal. It is difficult to watch for most of its runtime.

Come and See challenges the very idea of film as escapism. Artistic depictions can be used to inform, and in many ways, this is the greatest educational film ever made. I have only seen this movie once, but after finishing it, returning to my day-to-day life felt like waking up from a terrible nightmare. It gives the viewer a greater appreciation for life.
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« Reply #69 on: August 24, 2021, 01:28:44 AM »

Come and See is a great film. I haven't seen Searching for Bobby Fischer in a long time though, it's a tough movie for me to watch.
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« Reply #70 on: August 24, 2021, 11:04:43 AM »

Come and See is the greatest World War Two movie ever, and one of my favorites.
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« Reply #71 on: August 28, 2021, 03:41:45 PM »

#21: Memories of Murder (2003)



I will admit that my introduction to Bong Joon-ho was a bit rocky. The first film of his I saw, Snowpiercer, was based on a graphic novel, and I thought the story clearly didn't transition well from the comic to the screen. There are certain genres of storytelling in which suspension of disbelief works better than others (it's much easier to suspend your disbelief while reading a comic than while watching a live-action film or TV show). He followed that up with Okja, a movie I truly hate.

But Memories of Murder is a gem-- a near-perfect crime film that blends humor, tragedy, mystery, and suspense to create a wholly unique tone and story structure. When tackling serious subjects such as sex crimes, it's exceedingly difficult for a writer to incorporate humor into the story in a way that does justice to the material. At the same time, a totally humorless film is an unrealistic one-- part of the human experience is finding comedy in extremely morbid circumstances. But Bong Joon-Ho walks this tightrope with expert precision, and the film strikes a perfect balance between its seemingly disparate tonal elements.

The whole cast is stellar, but Song Kang-ho, who played the father in the somewhat better-known Parasite, carries most of the dramatic weight on his capable shoulders. His character arc over the course of this film-- from a sympathetic-yet-incompetent small-town cop to a more morally righteous individual-- is achieved in subtle yet believable ways. By the end, the story has become so morally blurred that this rather flawed hero seems positively righteous in comparison to the excesses of some of the other characters.

For anyone who enjoyed Parasite-- skip Snowpiercer, skip Okja, and check out this wonderful, subdued film.
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« Reply #72 on: September 08, 2021, 09:03:29 AM »

I recently saw Memories of Murder for the first time. I need to watch Come and See yet, but I'd like to do it quite soon.
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« Reply #73 on: September 10, 2021, 07:45:52 PM »

I recently saw Memories of Murder for the first time. I need to watch Come and See yet, but I'd like to do it quite soon.

Come and See is a A+ film. The greatest war movie of them all.
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« Reply #74 on: September 11, 2021, 12:39:28 AM »

A+ for putting Searching for Bobby Fischer on the list.  It's such a sweet, thought-provoking, wonderful little film and every single aspect of it is well-done.

You may be interested in The Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin, the kid in the movie.  Although marketed as a self-help book, it's actually an autobiographical account of his life since the events of the movie.  He's a super-interesting guy and a very good writer who has a lot to say.
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