Last week after watching The Odyssey, I found myself musing about what actually defines a “great-great-great” classic movie. To be clear, I don’t label myself nor do I consider myself a cinephile or even novice movies critiques. I’m just an ordinary person who gets thrilled, fascinated and genuinely enjoys watching movies. After mulling it over for a while, I decided to try curate some of the classics I’ve watched1. Not all of them though, just five of my personal “cherry picks”, the best classic movies I’ve come across so far.
The list here isn’t sorted by favorable reviews or anything like that. I just simply wrote things down as they came to mind. And I don’t think there’ll be major spoilers, since I’ll try to give each review purely based on what I felt
2001: A Space Odyssey
What was that…
That was the first thing that struck my mind after watching one of the finest movies ever produced by Stanley Kubrick. To think that it was made around 1968 blew my mind. The multi-layered interpretations, the visualization and custom setups displayed to us and the themes revolving around the movie. The ending itself made me wonder why it concluded like that. I actually rewatched this movie around 2-3 times until I got even a small gist of the overall interpretations and storytelling within it (I even started joking with my friends, whoever watched this movie and understood what the intention was, they definitely lied :D). The concept of the monolith itself is quite unsettling to me, and its origin is just as mysterious. But I’d like to think that the arrival of the monolith is a ‘new dawn’ for humanity, the start of a transcendence into something unknown.
Godfather Part I
I’d fairly say this movie is one of the many that helped me start learning and understanding English (especially pronunciation) so much better, since I’m not from an anglosphere. The thing I liked most about this movie is that, eventually, the setup and storyline are quite straightforward. However, the personification of each character and the motion of acting were so seamless. I can’t even fathom that they were just casually having a daily-basis conversation, like the director simply said: “yeah, here’s the script and here’s the plot, off you go”. Incredibly monumental movie. To think that its main theme and storyline kept repeatedly occurring afterwards in other mafia-packed movies (GoodFellas, Casino, Boardwalk Empire, Donnie Brasco, American Gangster, Public Enemy, and such)
Later on, I discovered that there were so many scenes cut from The Godfather Part I, which definitely explains why several scenes or plot points make more sense once you know that. Regardless, The Godfather for me, is (I can say for sure) placed in the top 5 of the greatest movies I’ve ever watched
Dog Day Afternoon
Between this, Taxi Driver, Serpico, A Clockwork Orange, or The Deer Hunter (I have no idea why I’m listing these movies like this), Dog Day Afternoon holds a special place in my mind. It’s somewhat refreshing to watch Al Pacino and John Cazale outside of serious, heavy material stuff unlike what they did in the Godfather series. What I find most amusing is John Cazale’s acting method. He feels like someone running out of patience2. But deep within, you also sense a subtly tragic and saddening person, and yet he’s somehow even funnier because of it. Personally, I find that John Cazale’s performance in this movie was a ‘superb standout’ which, in my opinion, actually overshadows the lead role given to Al Pacino. Overall, this movie depicts what human conflict is about: a mixture of everything a person could possibly do while still holding deep empathy for one another, all while trying to dismantle and overthrow authoritarian regimes and standing against the police.
And sadly, I didn’t like the ending: not because it was horrendous or lacked clarity, but rather because, in the end (as I interpret it) you’re just a cog in the machinery, a small subset of a much greater system
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Well, well, well… After much thinking and a few setbacks, I decided to put the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre on this list. To be fair, it was quite difficult to decide between Alien, The Shining, The Exorcist, Possession, Jaws, The Thing or several other great horrors from 1970-1980. I watched this movie with my neighbor off a bootleg DVD (if I remember), and I honestly didn’t understand a single goddamn thing about what the actual intention of this movie was. The one thing I keep wondering to that day is: what on earth was the director thinking when they came up with a movie like this.
Regardless of the fact that it’s based on a true story. It was genuinely disturbing and it left me feeling shaken for a while afterward. When I came back recently to sit down and watch it again, I found it kind of amusing since it was clearly one of the most influential horror movies of its time. Likewise, if I’d compare it with the other horror movies mentioned earlier, I’d say the difference lies in the depiction of reality versus science-fiction (or surrealism). It was actually quite frightening. I still remember the ending, the female lead screaming at the top of her lungs while crying and all I could do was take a deep breath and sit in stunned, shocked awe
Stalker
This movie has similar feelings and vibes to 2001: A Space Odyssey once you finish watching it. But what sets Stalker apart is a strong urgency of feeling that gives you a moment like “anjer, ini aku nonton apaan dah”. Seriously, I didn’t understand a freaking single thing: not the intention, not the theme, not even the setup, storyline, plot, the choice of soundtrack and so on. I watched this movie last year after stumbling upon a review on Letterboxd. I gave it a go (you can watch it for free on YouTube as well), and there were moments where I kept pausing just to scroll down to the comments, hoping to find some kind of meaningful explanation.
What intrigued me most was the choice of locations and the way the shots were composed in this film. Personally, it’s so surreal that it feels more like viewing an art gallery than following a movie plot. While I can’t say for sure that I got the gist of what this movie was about, I felt like it was beautifully crafted, and I can’t help but wonder: how is it even humanly possible for someone to arrange and compose such a dense, complex theme into a single cinematic narration?
Are We There (Yet)?
To be honest, there are so many classic movies that likely didn’t make this list, simply because I was quite struggling with what to choose (I really shouldn’t have limited it to just five films 🤣). I also found it difficult to write short, concise reviews based purely on my feelings.
Personally, there were several classic movies that were surely phenomenal and have stood amongst the rest, and I found myself sitting on the borderline either “that was PEAK, holy shit” or “emang akunya aja sih yang kagak paham dan gak cocok jadi sinefil ala-ala”
These include, but are not limited to:
- Seven Samurai (I gave it go to watch it with very messed up and untangled subtitles, and yeah, I’m still figuring out why this movie is considered cult-classic and epitome of cinema)
- Citizen Kane, Lawrence of Arabia
- Psycho
- Scenes from a Marriage (the original one, by Ingmar Bergman)
- Nosferatu, Man with a Movie Camera (you may watch on YouTube) or Intolerance (this one surprisingly you can watch from Wikipedia, HAHA)
- Twenty Years Later (not the Cilian Murphy, but it was a Brazilian documentary from 1984. Again, you can watch it for free on YouTube)
- Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark
- Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now, Platoon (shared similarities since they were set in Vietnam war)
- Raging Bull, La Haine
- Some westernized-cowboy-themed movies. I don’t remember this one fondly, but there was a scene in which a person ate red beans with bread on a whole plate.
Footnotes
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The definition of ‘classic movies’ that I’m depicting here is clearly a little different from yours, or even from person to person. For me, a movie is considered a classic if it’s been around for over 30 years, since they can stand to survive across different eras ↩
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As you can see in the scene where he asks for a cigarette and reluctantly reveals his fear of death, admitting he’s afraid of getting cancer, with a punchline that is exactly why he’s robbing the bank ↩