Like other films listed in my top 10, this is one of those films where everything clicks, from the script to the cinematography and production design to the casting, even the timing of when it was released. It's one of the funniest films of all time about a very unfunny subject: nuclear warfare, and yet it's hilarious thanks to the dead-on script by Stanley Kubrick and Terry Southern, that is acted to a tee by Peter Sellers (in triple roles), Sterling Hayden, George C. Scott (superb in a rare comedy role), Keenan Wynn, Peter Bull, Slim Pickens (his best role ever!), and James Earl Jones in his film debut. Among the also-rans in my TOP TEN COMEDIES are: Duck Soup (It's the Marx Brothers in their absolute funniest film. Any questions?), Stanley Kramer's elephantine, but sidesplittingly funny It's a Mad, Mad, Mad World. (A note to my readers: Any time I'm in a really bad mood, all I have to do is watch the scene where Jonathan Winters demolishes the gas station single-handedly and my bad mood evaporates).
Norman Jewison's The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming is too long, but it's also a real hoot, probably the second-best Cold War comedy of the 60s, and it's got Jonathan Winters, to boot, as well as Carl Reiner in his funniest film role, and Alan Arkin's excellent debut. I also really like Monty Python's Life of Brian, though many religious people think this film is highly offensive. Fuck "em if they can"t take a joke, I say. Brian is not only the funniest Monty Python film; it also has some very perceptive things to say about human gullibility and the silliness of organized religion. (You've got to work it out for yourselves, people!) It's almost an understatement to call Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot a masterpiece, but like many of the other films on this list, it's nearly perfect in every frame, and certainly ranks among the career highlights of Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe. My final comedies are the madcap Nothing Sacred and Harold Lloyd's eyepopping and hilarious Safety Last!
I've got to wrap this up, so let's bounce on over to the last two categories. For the Best Drama of All Time: I vote for Gone With the Wind. It's got scope, it's got sweep, it's got Rhett and Scarlett, and was directed by Victor Fleming the same year he directed The Wizard of Oz. (Man, what a year, he had!) Citizen Kane deserves to be listed here for reasons that should be obvious to anyone who's ever seen it. My other runners up for Best Drama are: A Streetcar Named Desire (Tennessee Williams and Marlon Brando, need I say more?), Coppola's The Godfather I & II, and The Conversation (A brilliant and underrated film about paranoia and spying, with a superb performance by Gene Hackman), Spielberg's epic of the Holocaust, Schindler's List, Michael Curtiz's fabled Casablanca, 12 Angry Men, Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder (his best film), and finally, To Kill a Mockingbird, a beautiful classic with a gentle soul and a wonderful message of tolerance and the hateful effects of racism.
I have no choice but to offer up David Lean's magnificent Lawrence of Arabia. This is another film that just gets better each time you see it, and I try to see it every few years because I like it so much. It may take liberties with historical fact, but in its artistry probably gives audiences a greater insight into the character of T.E. Lawrence than any mere documentary ever could. Superlative performances by Peter O'Toole in the lead role, with equally fine work by Anthony Quayle, Arthur Kennedy, Omar Sharif, Anthony Quinn, Jack Hawkins, and Alec Guiness. The cinematography by Freddie Young, rarely equaled and never surpassed, is one of the things that give this film its epic sweep and sense of scope. A tour de force by all concerned.
Next, I nominate Kubrick's Spartacus, one of the best directed and most intelligent of the cycle of epics from the 50s and 60s. Kirk Douglas is nearly perfect and heads a powerhouse cast that includes Lawrence Olivier, Charles McGraw, Jean Simmons, Charles Laughton, Peter Ustinov, Woody Strode, John Ireland and Herbert Lom. My other choices for runners-up for the best Historical Epic include: David Lean's Bridge on the River Kwai, and Dr. Zhivago, both are excellent. And, as much as it pains me to say anything nice about Mel Gibson, his Braveheart is one of the most stirring and exciting epic films ever made. Rounding out my list of Best Historical Epics, I choose Peter Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Franklin Schaffner's Papillion, Warren Beatty's ode to Commies, Reds, Richard Attenborough's breathtakingly good biography of Ghandi, and finally, two films from the great D.W. Griffith, Birth of A Nation and Intolerance, the latter of which boasts some of the best editing and acting in any silent film.
Well, folks, love "em or hate "em, those are my choices for the 10 Best Films of All Time. If you disagree with my choices, then I strongly encourage you to make your own list. It's one of the most fun aspects of being a film fan, picking favorites and then arguing your choices with other film lovers. See you at the movies, folks.
