MovieChat Forums > Psycho (1960) Discussion > CNN's 'The Movies' title-sequence

CNN's 'The Movies' title-sequence

posted 4 years ago by swanstep (2616)
10 replies | jump to latest

CNN has a genial but ultra-superficial 10-hour (including ads), Tom Hanks-produced series called 'The Movies' focussing strictly on US film. Its two eps on The '70s are up on youtube to give yourself a taste of what it has to offer.

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Thanks for putting this up, swanstep.

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Anyhow, of interest immediately here is the show's Titles sequence which races through a roughly chronological sequence of some of Hollywood's greatest hits,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_u0LEC_7jQ

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I love this title sequence for the sheer sweep of it. At a certain point, it reaches the years of my birth and entry into the world and then, there they all are(with great music along for the ride), the movies of my life(and all of our lives) from the Hitchcocks through Bond and Bullitt and on to The Godfather and Star Wars and eventually past Die Hard and for another 30 years ...its a very emotional ride.

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e.g., the cropduster flies past a running Cary Grant then directly over the Psycho house on which a screaming Janet Leigh is superimposed.
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I LOVE that part of the "ride through movie history" and it really makes the case for my personal "movie love." THOSE are the two greatest Hitchcock films, made back-to-back at the turn of an important two decades, neither Vertigo right before them nor The Birds right after them quite matched them in entertainment value and perfection of everything. Plus, together, NXNW and Psycho set the templates for all thrillers to follow them, action and horror divisions.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

The films chosen to represent the 21st century are:
Moulin Rouge, Training Day, The Dark Knight, Harry Potter, The Devil Wears Prada, Bridesmaids, There Will Be Blood, Gravity, and Black Panther.

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On some other thread somewhere, I noted that wheras the American Film Institute could come up with a pretty historic list of the "100 Greatest Films of the 20th Century," the 21st Century -- awash in Marvel movies and indie art films seen by few -- would not be able to generate a similar list at the end of this century(its just a guess...I won't be here to find out.)

But here is "The Movies" offering up a pretty solid bunch of films in the first 20 years of the 21st Century...and maybe I'm wrong. Still it is hard to say that there have been as MANY great films released in the first 20 years of the 21st Century as in any given 20 years(from 1930 on) of the 20th Century.

For my personal record, those movies listed by The Movies include my favorite film of 2001(Moulin Rouge) and my favorite movie of 2008(The Dark Knight) the latter of which is a DC movie(not Marvel) with the Joker as the reason for its greatness.

Harry Potter is its own thing, isn't it? A massive series of best selling BOOKS(in an era where the "soon to be a major motion picture" best sellers of long ago are a thing of the past) that became a massive series of best selling blockbuster MOVIES. Unto itself. (I saw the first one in a theater, and one of the later ones, not much moved by either, and I saw a third on a plane.) The niftiest thing about Harry Potter was to watch Three Young Kids grow into Three Young Adults, before our very eyes.

But I tell you: my ability to commit to -- what? seven of them? -- Harry Potter movies over a decade just wasn't in it for me. One reason I like NXNW and Psycho is that they are both fairly short(though NXNW is the longest Hitchcock film at 2 hours, 16 minutes) and their stories are told to perfect endings "for the ages."

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Meanwhile, over at the Roger Ebert site, where the Late Great Populist Critic has been replaced by a massive team of critics, all those people have been asked to turn in their "Best Movies of the 2010s" lists and boy -- I haven't seen hardly any of those movies. I've READ about all of them, though.

That said, what looks to be my favorite movie of the 2010s -- The Wolf of Wall Street -- is on a list or two, and gets its own essay(I'm not sure what rules of the Ebert Best of articles are.)

THAT said, I'm reminded that I'm really and truly NOT a film buff, even though I've spent my life going to the movies. As a kid, whether it was a movie(The Big Sleep) or a TV episode(The Man From UNCLE) on tv, I never watched anything all the way through; I liked credit sequences and climaxes and that was about it. Still, I came to learn titles of movies like The Big Sleep and eventually saw them.

I saw a movie pretty much every weekend of my life from 1962 on, but my family went to stuff like "McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force" (a Navy father, saw all the Navy films) and "The Thrill of It All" as much as to "Dr. Strangelove" and "A Man for All Seasons." I've seen a LOT of fluff in my movie going life.

I made my most concerted effort to go to "good movies" in the 70's and I did see a lot of them. But I saw few foreign films. Still, the "entertainments" of the early 70's -- MASH, Dirty Harry, Get Carter, The Godfather, Frenzy, American Graffiti The Sting, Charley Varrick" are a great bunch of films and I'll never forget them.

Anyway, whoosh me up to the 2010's and those Roger Ebert lists and -- no, I haven't seen hardly any of them. I'm not a film buff. Maybe never really was. A Hitchcock buff, yes. A thriller buff, yes. A Western buff, yes. A comedy buff...sometimes(rarely enough "meat on the bones" to last.)

And yet...I love the movies.

And superficial as it was, I liked watching "The Movies." All those clips....all those years...our very lives on screen.

[–] db20db (16206) 4 years ago

I watched that entire series and enjoyed it also, ecarle. I agree with this as well:

I love this title sequence for the sheer sweep of it.

[–] swanstep (2616) 4 years ago

Here's the overall list from Ebert's site's critics:

Honorable Mentions
“Annihilation,” “The Babadook,” “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” “Before Midnight,” “BlacKkKlansman,” “Blindspotting,” “Blue is the Warmest Color,” “A Bread Factory,” “Brooklyn,” “Burning,” "Call Me By Your Name," “Certified Copy,” “A Dangerous Method,” “Dawson City: Frozen Time,” “Dogtooth,” “Elle,” “Ex Machina,” “The Farewell,” “Fences,” “First Reformed,” “The Florida Project,” “Fruitvale Station,” “Gone Girl,” “Goodbye to Language,” “Hidden Figures,” "Holy Motors," “Inception,” “The Irishman,” “La La Land,” “Last of the Unjust,” “The Love Witch,” “Madeline’s Madeline,” “Marriage Story,” “Minding the Gap,” “Only Lovers Left Alive,” “Paterson,” “Personal Shopper,” “A Quiet Passion,” “Shirkers,” “Sorry to Bother You,” “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” “Stories We Tell,” “Toy Story 3,” “Zama,” and “Zero Dark Thirty”

The 25 Best Films of the 2010s
25. “Boyhood” (2014)
24. “Melancholia” (2011)
23. “Manchester by the Sea” (2016)
22. “Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood” (2019)
21. “The Act of Killing”/”The Look of Silence” (2012/2014)
20. “Inherent Vice” (2014)
19. “Cameraperson” (2016)
18. “This is Not a Film” (2011)
17. “12 Years a Slave” (2013)
16. “If Beale Street Could Talk” (2018)
15. “Parasite” (2019)
14. “Inside Out” (2015)
13. “Silence” (2016)
12. “A Separation” (2011)
11. “The Social Network” (2010)
10. "The Master"
9. "Get Out"
8. "Roma"
7. "Under the Skin"
6. "The Wolf of Wall Street"
5. "Phantom Thread"
4. "Mad Max: Fury Road"
3. "Inside Llewyn Davis"
2. "Moonlight"
1. "The Tree of Life"

[–] swanstep (2616) 4 years ago

I've seen at least 80% of these, and I'd rate most of them pretty highly too. I don't have my own 'Best of 2010s' but six of my yearly faves didn't make it onto their 50+ list:

2010: True Grit
2012: Amour
2014: Grand Budapest Hotel
2015: Son of Saul
2016: The Lobster
2017 A Ghost Story
2018 Leave No Trace

Other films I'm a little shocked *not* to see on their list:
The Fighter, Winter's Bone, We Need To Talk About Kevin; Once Upon A Time In Anatolia; Martha, Marcy, May, Marlene; Gravity, Frances Ha, The Immigrant, Room, Victoria, The Handmaiden, Toni Erdmann, The Witch, The Favourite, Hereditary.

Films I'm a little shocked *to* see on their list (at least as high as they call them):
“Annihilation,” “Before Midnight,” “BlacKkKlansman,” [mediocre] “Blue is the Warmest Color,” [seriously flawed] “Brooklyn,” [seriously mediocre] “A Dangerous Method,” “Hidden Figures,” “La La Land", “Only Lovers Left Alive,” [terrible] “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” [terrible]
5. "Phantom Thread" [not a major film, not as good as The Master]
4. "Mad Max: Fury Road" [spectacular but seriously flawed, not a top 10 film IMHO]
3. "Inside Llewyn Davis" [not top-tier Coens sorry]
1. "The Tree of Life" [available in different cuts - I don't like any I've seen]

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

Nice to see the lists all organized from the "Ebert Group."

For me personally, it looks like I've seen 9 of the Top 25...which is better than I thought I'd do.

Still, certain movies that I read a lot about and haven't seen yet-- Phantom Thread; Inside Llewyn Davis --are by high profile filmmakers , and are NOT obscure.

But there's a lot OF obscure indie/art film on those Ebert lists, a "corollary" to Scorsese's Marvel/Cinema argument: the "good films" of the 2010s simply weren't seen by enough people to gather any sense of "public identity." Reversibly: we gave "great film status" once upon a time, to narratives that were popular but perhaps a bit too "basic": On the Waterfront, From Here to Eternity, High Noon.

Bottom line: the world changes. Movies changed along with it.

Oscar-wise, I'm reminded that the Oscar voters tend to follow the critics a lot nowadays; the final lists of nominees are "impeccable" if not always of popular works. Hell, Oscar used to give "courtesy Best Picture nominations" to movies like Airport, Love Story, and The Towering Inferno(that one, I think was worthy, however.) Anyway, no more.

Popular hits among the Ebert lists would seem to include: The Last Jedi, La La Land, Gone Girl, Mad Max, Inside Out, Toy Story 3, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood(the only 2010's QT film to make their cut; Django and Hateful Eight did not); and, of course, The Wolf of Wall Street (but I don't see "The Irishman" on any of the lists -- released too late? Or not good enough?)

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

What were the nine Best Pictures of the 2010s so far? Rhetorical, I'm not demanding the information, I can look it up. But again: many popular films among the winners? Moonlight didn't do too great. Green Book did.

Here are the ten Best Pictures of the 1960s:

The Apartment
West Side Story
Lawrence of Arabia
Tom Jones
My Fair Lady
The Sound of Music
A Man for All Seasons
In the Heat of the Night
Oliver
Midnight Cowboy

Hits all, I think. Pretty well known by all, I think. The Sound of Music was gigantic.

Better still in the 70s Best Picture wise. HUGE hits in there:

Patton
The French Connection
The Godfather
The Sting
Godfather II
Cuckoo's Nest
Rocky
Annie Hall
The Deer Hunter
Kramer vs. Kramer

I think I can rest my case on that 70's list. The 2010's simply can't compete in a mix of "art and commerce hits." THAT era is over.

[–] ecarle (14979) 4 years ago

I think I can rest my case on that 70's list.

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But...with my case "rested"....I still have to salute you, swanstep, for your personal sweep of knowledge of so MANY of the films being made today. You are that person among us who "knows the work," knows the stuff, has the breadth of knowledge and interest in seeing these films that will keep this type of filmmaking alive, Marvel or no Marvel.

I'm not in the same place as you, and I'm probably getting worse rather than better. Whereas at one time, The Godfather would be a fine "movie of the year" for me personally AND as a matter of "the greater world," now I'm picking movies like "The Magnificent Seven 2016" and "John Wick" almost solely as a matter of personal entertainment choice...with(I believe) at least a sense of "quality and craftsmanship" in those films that's reflective of the other eras. Hitchcock was better than those two, but he still had a certain visual sensibility, musical employee choice, and screenwriting teams that created a quality I personally found in "Mag 7" and "Wick."

Still...impressive and somewhat movie, swanstep.. All the movies you know. All the movies you've seen.

I'm not worthy.

But I'm having my own sort of fun.

With about one or two "memorable" movies a year for me, personally.

[–] swanstep (2616) 4 years ago

The 2010's [Best Picture] simply can't compete in a mix of "art and commerce hits."

Yikes:

King's Speech, The Artist, Argo, *12 Years a Slave, Birdman, Spotlight, Moonlight, Shape of Water*, Green Book

No really big hits & only the *-ed five are IMHO even worth rewatching. Only a couple are on their way to becoming treasured classics, whereas by my count at least 7 of the '70s list are in fact treasured classics & at least 5 of the '60s winners are.