from Hacker News

The Sight and Sound “Greatest Films of All Time“ poll

by thazework on 9/12/23, 10:06 PM with 45 comments

  • by ggm on 9/12/23, 10:37 PM

    Having seen quite a few of these, amongst the feeling of validation I can't entirely shed a sense that this is also a list informed by snobbery, and the trans-epochal hipsterism of "It's only cool because I said so and now you say it, its not cool" movement.

    Some of the experimental, art-house films are in the bucket of "massively influential, but not that many people watch it all the way through" Like Chien Andalou. -And speaking of Luis Buñuel how come only his b&w stuff gets "in" and not "the discrete charm of the bourgoisie" or "that obscure object of desire" or "Belle Du Jour" It's really in the end, about a bunch of prefereneces weighted by "everyone else's eyes are on me"

    The more recent and high score films tend to box office. It's also heavily weighted into specific genres and styles. One Indian movie, despite the massive weight of Indian film production.

  • by nineplay on 9/12/23, 11:43 PM

    It's always nice to see a list which includes movies I haven't watched or heard of. Alas I suspect many are hard to find now, the streaming services don't show much interest in picking up the classics.

    My sub-list:

    Film I'm pleasantly surprised to see in the top 10: Mulholland Dr.

    Film I'm not going to complain about: 2001. It's impact can't be denied even if the last bit drags

    Film I'm happy to see recognized: Yi Yi

    Films I found underwhelming:

    -- Melancholia

    -- Tree of Life

    Films I'd forgotten about that I now have to watch again:

    -- Dr. Strangelove

    -- Playtime

    -- Yi Yi

    -- 8 1/2

    Film I would have ranked higher: The Third Man

  • by jonahrd on 9/12/23, 11:27 PM

    Mad Max Fury Road?

    Also, heavily biased towards the 20s-50s

    Edit: more detail, 35/250 films are from the past 25 years, from 1998 to now. Less than 1/7 of films from over 1/5 of the entire history of film?

    And then the consistant bias of impact to the industry vs actual filmic value... this isn't supposed to be a list of the 250 most impactful films... I've seen a few of these older films from the 20s or 30s. For sure, they were developing the language of film and are absolutely key to film history. But are you really going to say they stand up to films made in recent years with a fully mature vocabulary?

    This is such a common occurrence on lists like this, they might as well be called "250 films you will probably watch in film studies class"

    Another edit: I counted 42 films from the 25 year period from 1920-1945

  • by roydivision on 9/13/23, 6:58 AM

    As a counterpoint, you may want to consider the IMDB top 250:

    https://www.imdb.com/chart/top/

    There are some common titles, but they remain quite different lists.

    It's all subjective, and these lists make for fun discussion.

  • by sakex on 9/12/23, 11:24 PM

    Notable omissions:

        - Schindler's list
    - The Pianist
    - La vita è bella

  • by gooseus on 9/13/23, 11:57 AM

    Some great movies and some I still need to see... but there are four David Lynch movies, including two Twin Peaks movies spin-off movies, but not a single Coen Brothers? And Dr. Strangelove is tied with Mad Max: Fury Road?

  • by rvieira on 9/13/23, 7:38 AM

    I couldn't find an explanation for why a TV series (Twin Peaks: The Return) is in a Greatest Films of All Time list.

    In any case, that's a handy reference list for things to watch.

  • by the_snooze on 9/13/23, 1:38 AM

    The Godfather is timeless. More than 50 years since its debut, it's still as beautiful and tragic and captivating as ever.

  • by gweinberg on 9/12/23, 11:13 PM

    "Pink Flamingos" scored surprisingly high.

  • by harel on 9/13/23, 12:48 AM

    I can't take it seriously when "Back to the Future" and "The Princess Bride" are not mentioned.

  • by thazework on 9/13/23, 9:31 PM

    Big Lebowski a glaring omission.

    Rohmer deserves more than one film, Green Ray is not even his best.

  • by mikhailfranco on 9/14/23, 6:09 AM

    Good that "Come and See" is relatively high.

    Certainly the best (anti)war film.

  • by PlkMarudny on 9/13/23, 7:02 AM

    "The Saragossa Manuscript" is missing.

  • by CalChris on 9/12/23, 11:21 PM

    2001, which I like, is not the 6th best film of all time. It’s 3/4ths of a really good movie. The rest is psychedelic nonsense.