A quick note:

• Some people are now saying it's before their time, so they haven't seen enough to vote... If you've seen even one film that you really liked from the year, and thus you consider it the best you've seen (even if it's the only one you've seen), go ahead and vote. Heck, I was born in '82, so yeah, it's before my time too, but I've still got a favorite from most years back at least through the 70s, even if I've just seen 2 or 3 from the year.

I know we've got polls like this all the time around here, but I figure this one will be a little more comprehensive and perhaps even informative.

This thread will be for your pick for best film released during 1959 (think Oscar considerations for what's eligible). I'm not making it a poll because whether you like it or not, that would influence some people's choice.

Results will be posted in this thread, and all subsequent threads for each year, and they will be ongoing... so you can still vote here even weeks after other year's polls have begun.

Please start your post with your #1 film from 1959 (try to limit it to one - after all, that's the point - two at the most (I'll split the vote)), and yes, discussions are more than welcome!

Current Leader -- North by Northwest

All Years:
2001 -- (currently) Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2000 -- Requiem For a Dream*
1999 -- Fight Club*
1998 -- Saving Private Ryan*
1997 -- L.A. Confidential*
1996 -- Fargo*
1995 -- (currently) Braveheart
1994 -- Pulp Fiction*
1993 -- Schindler's List*
1992 -- Unforgiven*
1991 -- Silence of the Lambs*
1990 -- Goodfellas*
1989 -- Do the Right Thing*
1988 -- Die Hard*
1987 -- Full Metal Jacket*
1986 -- (currently) Aliens
1985 -- Back to the Future*
1984 -- Ghostbusters*
1983 -- Return of the Jedi*
1982 -- (currently) E.T.
1981 -- Raiders of the Lost Ark*
1980 -- The Empire Strikes Back*
1979 -- Apocalypse Now*
1978 -- (currently) Halloween
1977 -- Star Wars*
1976 -- Taxi Driver*
1975 -- Jaws*
1974 -- The Godfather: Part II*
1973 -- (currently) The Exorcist
1972 -- The Godfather*
1971 -- A Clockwork Orange*
1970 -- Patton*
1969 -- (currently) Midnight Cowboy
1968 -- 2001: A Space Odyssey*
1967 -- The Graduate*
1966 -- The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly*
1965 -- Dr. Zhivago*
1964 -- Dr. Strangelove*
1963 -- 8 1/2*
1962 -- Lawrence of Arabia*
1961 -- The Hustler*
1960 -- Psycho*
1959 -- North by Northwest*

If you haven't voted on the previous years, feel free to go back and do so.

*Poll closed, winner declared.

I've only seen 5 from this year, but based on those 5 alone, wow! What a year! My vote, two years in a row, goes to a Hitchcock flick...

1) North by Northwest - 10/10
2) Ben-Hur - 10/10
3) Some Like it Hot - 9/10
4) Ballad of a Soldier - 8/10
5) Rio Bravo - 8/10

Oscar for Best Picture:
Ben-Hur *WINNER
Anatomy of a Murder
The Diary of Anne Frank
The Nun's Story
Room at the Top

Other notables:
The 400 Blows, Sleeping Beauty, Pillow Talk, On the Beach, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Hiroshima mon amour, Operation Petticoat, The Mouse that Roared, Suddenly, Last Summer, Imitation of Life, Black Orpheus, Good Morning

One thing that I don't know what to make of is the classic foreign films from the years coming up where the particular year to include them with is in question. For instance, Wild Strawberries is widely considered to be a 1957 film, but it didn't open in the US or get nominated for an Academy Award until 1959 (the Oscars that took place in 1960!)... so should we count that as 1959? I say that for films this old, we should abandon the policy of using US release date, and just change to original release date, so 1957 for Wild Strawberries. If you have an opinion on it, go ahead and post it.

Oh yeah, and Sleeping Beauty again for me falls into the category that I've seen, but it was WAY too long ago to rate.

North by Northwest

Top Ten:
1)North by Northwest
2)The Tingler
3)The Horse Soldiers
4)Plan 9 from Outer Space
5)Ben-Hur
6)Rio Bravo
7)Some Like It Hot
8)Anatomy of a Murder
9)Sleeping Beauty
10)Operation Petticoat

Some more movies from 1959:
The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock
4D Man
Alias Jesse James
The Alligator People
The Angry Red Planet
The Bat
The Beast from Haunted Cave
A Bucket of Blood
Darby O'Gill and the Little People
Don't Give Up the Ship
The Flesh and the Fiends
The Giant Behemoth
Have Rocket, Will Travel
The Hideous Sun Demon
Horrors of the Black Museum
The Hound of the Baskervilles
Invisible Invaders
Li'l Abner
The Man Who Could Cheat Death
The Mummy
Night of the Ghouls
Pork Chop Hill
Return of the Fly
The Shaggy Dog
Up Periscope

MST3k fodder:
Attack of the Giant Leeches
The Day the Earth Froze
The Giant Gila Monster
Girls Town
The Killer Shrews
The Monster of Piedras Blancas
The Rebel Set
Santa Claus
Teenagers from Outer Space

Ben-Hur

Rio Bravo

Solid year...

1. North by Northwest
2. Rio Bravo
3. Anatomy of a Murder
4. Ben Hur
5. Some Like It Hot

Ben-Hur

3) North By Northwest (one of my least favorite Hitchcock films, just seems like a non-stop barrage of unfunny sex jokes for the most part)
2) Anatomy of a Murder (despite the fact that according to Cameron Spencer Osborne, this film might have even started the hippie/drug era in the 70's)

1) Sleeping Beauty (a film I finally saw for the first time, recently, and enjoyed)

though I'm sure Hitch will win.

North by Northwest

Some Like It Hot

Finally to the 50's - probably my favorite decade for film.

1. North By Northwest
2. Ben-Hur
3. Anatomy of a Murder
4. Some Like it Hot
5. Rio Bravo
6. Compulsion
7. The Mouse that Roared
8. Operation Petticoat
9. The Horse Soldiers
10. The Hound of the Baskervilles

North by Northwest

Some Like It Hot

Gotta go with North by Northwest. One of Hitchcock's most enjoyable movies.

North by Northwest

Some Like It Hot

Grant is THE suave mother****er. But not this year.


SOME LIKE IT HOT

and

PICKPOCKET





and there you go...

North by Northwest

Some Like it Hot is a microscopic 2nd.

1. Ben Hur
1.5 North by Northwest

North By Northwest

The 400 Blows followed by Suddenly, Last Summer

Some Like It Hot

North by Northwest

Ben Hur