RoQuEr

As my collection grows, I find that there are less and less movies I actively desire, and I already own most everything I want made in the last 5 years.

Suggest some good movies that require a little introspection, and are older than 1997. Some examples I had in mind are With Honors, Wag the Dog, and Seven years in Tibet. All positive suggestions are appreciated.

ckolchak

The Swimmer from the late 60s is out on a beautiful disc. it's an adult film though (meaning you have to have matured to appreciate it). it will resonate even more when you revisit it as you get older. magnificent movie.

The Mosquito Coast ('86) is a very good film from an excellant novel by paul Theroux about a man who gets fed up w/ this culture and drags his family off to a third world tropical hell hole to create his own version of paradise with predictibly disastorous results.

Ky-Fi

Pre-1997 is old? Man, that makes me feel like Yoda's grandfather .

Two movies that I feel offer a lot of food for thought in regards to human nature, society and individual ethics are The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, and Paths of Glory.

MurraySiskind

The Bicycle Thief

Rashomon

Errol Morris documentaries

I don't know, these may be more esoteric than what you're looking for, but they are thought provoking and require some intelligence to appreciate.

RandyC

I read the title and was thinking pre-60s films.

There are SOOOOO many movies that are important and worthy and thought-provoking prior to 1997.

You could do worse than perusing the Criterion Collection's listings.

Where to start? How about great movies from Australia?

Picnic at Hanging Rock
Gallipolli
Walkabout


Or great movies by director? Kieslowski? Hitchcock? Kurosawa?

The list would go on and on.

DVDealer

Try Paul Verhoven's Soldier of Orange featuring Rutger Hauer before he became a star. Verhoven tells the story of his own country the Netherlands in World War II in a movie that's been hard to find over the years, and is underrated. It is out on DVD now.

MurraySiskind

I second all of this.

lizard

There are dozens of movies that could qualify. I'll suggest several obvious classics:
Seven Samurai
Citizen Kane
To Kill a Mockingbird

And one rarely mentioned title:
In the Heat of the Night

bboisvert

You're reading my mind. I clicked on this thread and my jaw hit the floor when I realized that "older" films meant things that were 5-years-old or more. Yikes!

I'll go with my standard answer... although this may not qualify since all of these people were *DEAD* before 1997.


Pick just about any film from Kurosawa, Lang, Chaplin, Hitchcock, or Keaton. Sit back. Enjoy.

Tyler_Durden

Yeah, I felt the same way when I read the first post... and both Wag The Dog and Seven Years In Tibet are thoroughly mediocre!

Singhal

Bicycle Thieves is fantastic. The English version is called bicycle thief i know remember, missing the whole point.

I just got 20k leagues under the ocean, man am i excited. I don't know if that is considered old.

JoeyOhhhh

If pre-97 is old, thats ancient

I second 20,000 Leagues. I never saw it, picked it up and was pleased as Christmas punch with the movie, and the extras were very nice.

RoQuEr

I didn't mean old as in aged, I meant old enough to not be on the cusp of my mind. Within a certain timeperiod, I can remember almost chronologically every movie that I have seen, when it was, and who I saw it with, but I know that pre 97 or so there are tons of gems that are great, but I can't recall.
Despite my obscure wording, the suggestions have been good so far. Try not to recommend OOP or not on DVD titles as well. Thanks!

jblackie

Got it.

Quote:

Rashomon

Got it.

Quote:

Errol Morris documentaries

Don't even know it.

Quote:

I don't know, these may be more esoteric than what you're looking for, but they are thought provoking and require some intelligence to appreciate.

Rashomon is Criterion, of course

Bicycle thief is Image, I think. Is it OOP?

Errol Morris has me stumped. What is/are that?

bboisvert

http://us.imdb.com/Name?Morris,+Errol

MrN

Documentarian who did The Thin Blue Line and A Brief History of Time etc.

Nick Danger

I continue to find Roger Ebert's list of great movies a good source for movies I haven't seen. http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/greatmovies/

The Tim Dirks list is also good, although my taste is closer to Ebert's. http://www.filmsite.org/index.html

rabbit77

Yeah, there is one bad thing about his list of great films... he creates more demand for OOP Criterions. Mon Oncle just started to drop in price on eBay and now that it's been reinserted into the public consciousness of the casual moviegoer, I may never be able to afford it at my pricepoint.

HistoryProf

I think one extremely underappreciated film that i thought of when i read your original examples is Bulworth - great movie, and certainly thought-provoking....

Deb

In the Heat of the Night is out, I've had it for a while.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...004643-4791812

dave955

The first titles that lept to mind are Kieslowski's work: the Three Colors trilogy and the Decalogue. Especially the Decalogue--no matter how strongly I recommend it, it's not strong enough.

mcarver

Breaking the Waves (1996)
English Patient, The (1996)
Ogre (1996)
Other Side of Sunday (1996)
Pillow Book, The (1996)
Ponette (1996)
Angels & Insects (1995)
Beyond the Clouds (1995)
Carrington (1995)
Convent, The (1995)
Dead Man (1995)
Fallen Angels (1995)
Foreign Land (1995)
Heavy (1995)
Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life (1995)
Maborosi (1995)
Ulysses' Gaze (1995)
Zero Kelvin (1995)

FreshOne

Not to hijack the thread, but at the end of his Great Movies review of Mon Oncle, it is stated that the three Tati films have recently been "restored on dvd". Is he way behind the times speaking of the Criterion, or is there a planned rerelease that he is alluding to?

FreshOne

Oh, I also agree that Eberts list is a great source of films I haven't seen that are really good.

A few personal favs:

The Seventh Seal
Barton Fink
Do the Right Thing
The Wicker Man
Higher Learning
The Shawshank Redemption
Pi