“Best” is a subjective term. Most successful financially? Most groundbreaking? Best social commentary? Best Cinematography? Best historical epic? Best at setting a trend? The list could go on and on.
For better or worse, mine are as follows:
BEST TRILOGY: The Ring Trilogy, Hands down. Great from the first to the last. There’ve been other memorable trilogies (The Godfather trilogy, for one) but all seem to have one episode that fell significantly short of the others. Not so with The Ring.
BEST HISTORICAL EPIC: Lawrence of Arabia. Pretty true to the facts with some embellishments (Sherif Ali was a complete fabrication) and with uniformly great acting. Plus, the visuals were out of this world.
MOST GROUNDBREAKING: The Birth Of A Nation. Set the standard for many subsequent movies, including wide-action shots, a score that was part of the storytelling, great close-ups, use of color to emphasize scenes, etc. …and this was in 1915! It gets often ignored, particularly by those folks who seem that to recognize its excellence in light of its really cruddy story line somehow would tarnish them, but it is great on so many levels.
BEST SOCIAL COMMENTARY: Nuremberg. It’s topic of the responsibility of a nation’s judiciary is as pertinent and contemporary (maybe “timeless” is a better word) today as when it came out in 1963. And to call the cast a “constellation” of stars is not understating it. Both nuanced and hard hitting…two qualities moviemaking has seem to have lost in the years since. Others that IMO rank right up there would be Schindler’s List and Lincoln.
BEST HISTORICALLY ACCURATE: Gettysburg. True to the actual battle in almost every respect. Too bad it was succeeded by that clunker Gods and Generals…would have had the makings of a great trilogy, otherwise.
BEST REVISIONIST WESTERN: Dances With Wolves. Not too many pictures where the Native Americans are the going-away heroes and the Civil War soldiers, almost to a man, are despicable toads, but Dances With Wolves pulls it off. Very entertaining, as long as you’re not really that much into historical accuracy.
BEST OUT-AND-OUT ENTERTAINING: Quigley Down Under. Great American (transplanted) Hero offs the chief bad guy and about a thousand of his supporters along the way, rescues a baby, is idolized by the Aborigines and (of course) wins the Fair Maiden in the process. Nothing there a red-blooded American guy wouldn’t like. And I would give a lot to get my hands on that rifle or on one of the replicas that have been made since.
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