20 thoughts on “50 Great Films to Mumble About”

1. First of all, excellent list. Second of all, where the hell is CB? I’ve seen 29 of these, a handful more are on my “must-see” list, the others, don’t know ’em. I’ll think of some that might be on my list, come back over.

   Reply

   • Thank you sir. I like to imagine CB is sat it in a comfy leather armchair, cigar half-smoked and blissed our on jazz

     Reply

   • Also: no collusion???!!!! WTF?!

     Reply

     • Well, I think Mueller did a very thorough job and actually put some sunshine on social media and put away some bad guys. The problem – or maybe it’s the good thing – in our respective legal systems is innocent till proven guilty. But remember, innocent doesn’t always mean “innocent.” I think that Mueller is a very careful guy and only went after people he knew he could convict. Trump may be like the Godfather, just smart enough to use code words (like Cohen said) to get his underlings to do things with no fingerprints.

       Now obstruction, which is what they got Nixon on, is another story. There may be more there in the report but no one has seen it. And the New York attorney general may yet get him. But the even money now is that the steam has run out and the only way to get this guy out of there is to elect him out.

     • Yeah I see where you’re coming from. There’s also the handling of the report too, I read this earlier: “Imagine if the Starr Report had been provided only to President Clinton’s Attorney General, Janet Reno, who then read it privately and published a 4-page letter based on her private reading stating her conclusion that President Clinton committed no crimes.”

     • Right. Times have changed. Trump has changed the rules for the presidency. I heard an NBC legal analyst say that there are specific Federal prosecutorial guidelines for obstruction of justice. There is evidence of both ‘yes’ and ‘no’ but the ‘yes’ was not sufficient enough evidence to provide probable cause. All those guys Trump fired? Sure looks like obstruction. But guess what? He can fire anybody he wants. The real question is what was his intent? We think we know but we may not have the smoking gun.

       The House is still investigating this and who knows what the full report will say. But even money has it that unless there is some dramatic evidence in there, no impeachment. However, there may be enough info in there to damn him in the public eye for the next election. But those who are voting for him do so because they want to maintain the US’ white supremacist male patriarchy. That is 100% what ‘Make America Great’ is about. And so to preserve their perceived superiority, they will put up with all manner of bad behavior up to and including dictatorship. For them, the end justifies the means

     • I was reading a report in the Boston Globe comparing our respective political clusterfucks. Here’s a quote for you, mate: “At least in the US, one can faintly see a path forward out of our own mess. We’ve reached a rare moment in the last two years in which Americans can take some national pride in the fact that there’s at least one democratic electorate in the world who have messed up things worse than us.” May is cluleess, wot?

     • Interesting. I imagine it’s different perspectives from the outside.
       Parliament has now essentially wrestled control from May and taken charge of the process.
       Technically we were supposed to leave the EU today, it hasn’t happened yet.
       Parliament is committed to avoiding no deal and it looks like a comparative soft Brexit is on the cards but – for the first time since the referendum – there are growing calls (several million of them) for Article 50 to be revoked.
       Meanwhile a lot of us over here – press included – can’t see anyone taking the orange clown out of the circus for another 4 years

     • Today’s the day, eh? From what I read, much of the controversy is about the Irish backstop. Frankly, you lot would have been much better off had you given Ireland back to the Irish as Macca said. 🙂

       As to Schlump, there is a tremendous backlash over here against the white supremacist crime thug. The question is whether or not that translates into true political action, whether the Democrats can actually put up a viable challenger. Or continue to shoot themselves in the foot. America is NOT a socialist country, it is center-right at best, occasionally swinging left. If the Dems put up some wild lefty who wants America to be Denmark over night, we are fucked. But if there is a good, viable candidate, he can be beaten.. There are over 200 million potential voters in American. Only 63 million arsehole white trash, male patriarchy, racist losers voted for Trump. Therefore the odds are in our favor. I remain cautiously optimistic.

     • Today’s the day and we’re still in the EU 😀

       It’s a farce, that’s all there is to it. The Irish Backstop is the least of it…. there is zero way to get anything that’ll please anyone now except binning the whole thing off as a bad job and moving on.
       Those that were so staunchly LEAVE and RIGHT will… well, slip this mortal coil soon and the younger generations will continue to benefit from being part of the EU.

     • But don’t you have to vote again to change it? And we’ll trade you Trump for May.

     • Nope. The referendum wasn’t legally binding until the government decided it was. They could revoke it without either vote or eu

     • Wow. I didn’t know that. Well, good luck.

     • Of course, she can probably spell ‘clueless.’

2. Ok, me again. Here’s a few more: Godfather (1), Apocalypse Now, 12 Angry Men, Schindler’s List, Cuckoo’s Nest, Lawrence of Arabia, On the Waterfront, West Side Story, Bridge on the River Kwai, Streetcar Named Desire, The Exorcist, Deer Hunter, French Connection, Midnight Cowboy, The Graduate, American Graffiti, Maltese Falcon, Rear Window. And funniest movie ever, Airplane.

   Reply

   • Deer Hunter made the list, a lot of those almost made it and were on the long(er) list – Apocalypse Now, 12 Angry Men, Kwai etc. A Bridge too Far could’ve and should’ve

     Reply

3. The magic words “these are my favorites”. Something tells me that you’re telling the truth. Too many “lists” get aped without having the personal experience. As to your “list” we have a lot of common ground. I’m with you on DeNiro. At one time he was the man (maybe Viggo now?). Lots of varied styles and genres. Good to see a Hitchcock on here and ‘a couple of Leones’. The best part is , you’ve given me some new films to check out and because of your track record I will for sure do it. I’m more than curious on a few.
   I’m reading the take and comments and next thing I know I’m knee deep in your convo with Doc. I’m wondering what @$^**^$ movie are you guys are on about.
   Anyways, nice weekend coming up and CB will be “blissed” out and decked out in his velour smoking jacket sitting outside in an Adirondack chair encased in a cloud of smoke listening to something good.
   (Hey I know time is tight but drop by for a guest take sometime . Both Doc and J dropped a couple of good films on me)

   Reply

   • Thanks for swinging by CB. I need to spend a bit more time with Viggo’s work – haven’t caught up with him since A History of Violence. Always happy to drop a guest take, just tell me where and when 😀

     Reply

     • ‘History of Violence’. ‘Far from Men’ are a couple good Viggo films, Just watched ‘Green Book’. Liked his work but I prefer the two films I noted.
       Open invitation to run the projector anytime you want. Look forward to it. At your leisure. Pick one off your list. It could be one that we agree on or just what ever moves you to do it. Sounds great.

4. Nice list. I’ve only seen Spirited Away from Miyazaki but I love it and I’ve been dying to see more. His films are kinda hard to come by. Great to see two from Edgar Wright, as well as Blade Runner, Almost Famous and all the Scosese’s. Not a fan of Lebowski, Close Encounters and Forrest Gump. And I wish it had some Paul Thomas Anderson, Richard Linklater and Woody Allen! 😀

   Reply