LU's Favourite Movie: #15 - #11
#15 - Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) - 508 points
Director: George Lucas.
Starring: Mark Hammil, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, and Alec Guinness.
Awards: Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound, and Best Visual Effects.
Where it all began! George Lucas' seminal
Star Wars (later renamed
A New Hope) remains one of the most beloved space operas and film franchises in history. It has since given rise to a much-maligned prequel trilogy, a polarizing sequel trilogy, and a pair of pretty well-regarded spin-offs, as well as countless novels, video games, animated series, and the critically acclaimed
Mandalorian TV series.
Taking elements of Kurosawa's
The Hidden Fortress and Joseph Campbell's
The Heroes With a Thousand Faces, Lucas built out a fascinating universe and populated it with likeable characters pitched against a nefarious enemy. Its unique visual style, captivating soundtrack, and the instantly recognizable story made it a phenomenon.
#14 - Back to the Future (1985) - 624 points
Director: Robert Zemeckis.
Starring: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, and Crispin Glover.
Awards: Best Sound Editing.
Another beloved throwback, Zemeckis'
Back to the Future mixed Michael J. Fox's affable charm, a hefty dose of nostalgia, plenty of comedy & action, and a bitching soundtrack to create a critically acclaimed blockbuster that would go onto spawn two sequels.
It is hard to fully quantify just how large a cultural impact the film had, but you would be hard-pressed to find a film countdown that doesn't have
Back to the Future high in its rankings.
#13 - Jurassic Park (1993) - 630 points
Director: Stephen Spielberg
Starring: Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck, Samuel L Jackson, BD Wong, and Wayne Knight.
Awards: Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects.
From a cultural touchstone from the 80s to one from the 90s, Stephen Spielberg's adaptation of the hugely popular Michael Crichton novel of the same name was a truly massive blockbuster hit that single-handedly inspired a generation of boys and girls to an abiding fascination with dinosaurs.
Using a combination of practical effects and (at the time) cutting edge computer generated graphics,
Jurassic Park avoided being all about the spectacle, with a delightfully slow build and plenty of tension before audiences were finally introduced to the terrifying velociraptors, dilophosaurus, and the anti-hero T-Rex.
The film has since spawned two average sequels, the very popular
Jurassic World, and another unremarkable sequel.
#12 - Apocalypse Now (1979) - 654 points
Director: Francis Coppola.
Starring: Martin Sheen, Robert Duvall, Marlon Brando, Dennis Hopper, and Larry Fishburne.
Awards: Best Sound and Best Cinematography.
Perhaps more than any other film about the Vietnam War, Coppola's
Apocalypse Now does a fantastic job of capturing the lawless, terrifying, maddening state of Vietnam during the ill-fated war. Based on Joseph Conrad's
Heart of Darkness, the film tells the story of a US soldier sent to assassinate a colonel who has gone mad in the jungle.
What follows is an often dizzying, disorienting glimpse into the madness that was the Vietnam War. Recognized today as a truly monumental feat of filmmaking, the documentary
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse is a similarly fascinating glimpse into the hell that the cast and crew underwent to birth the film.
#11 - Saving Private Ryan (1998) - 715 Points
Director: Stephen Spielberg
Starring: Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore, Adam Goldberg, Vin Diesel, Giovanni Ribisi, and Barry Pepper.
Awards: Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound Effects Editing.
Featuring one of the most ambitious and gory openings in film history, 1998's
Saving Private Ryan is one of the most beloved war films of the past century. Telling the story of a group of soldiers sent to fetch back the last surviving member of a family decimated by the war, its gritty realism and a moving performance from Tom Hanks breathed new life into the war film genre while also spawning a pair of loosely related TV series:
Band of Brothers and
The Pacific.
Praised as both a fantastic film and a faithful depiction of the brutality of the conflict,
Saving Private Ryan is seen by many as one of the finest films of all time.
) So interesting. Loved it. It might be a bit ‘snug’ for me these days though. We saw a lot of the south but didn’t get up the north which we will do one day.
