espi

Phew...I thought we were going to go through that whole list and not get Cool Hand Luke. Great film. Absolutely brilliant - and you'll see things in it you'll never see in a moden film, such as Paul Newman singing, and a car washing scene that is sexy without being obscene. (A sweet, innoncent thing like that can only be named Lucille).

Here's a few that Kostya left of the list (maybe intentionally, I dunno), but I think are worth seeing:

The Graduate - It gets a little lost in the generation gap, But definitely worth seeing, if for nothing other than the scene on the bus at the end.

Midnight Cowboy - Definitely gets lost in the generation gap, but Hoffman is great as a small time hustler in this film. Jon Voight ain't so bad, either. The movie was rated X at it's release, and foreshadowed the pending AIDS epidemic. (Not intentionally, of course, AIDs wasn't even heard of in 1969).

Woodstock - The 1973 documentary. Great example of a long form documentary. If I could go back in time to 1969, I would bet the documentary captures the feels of the concert exactly. And, Martin Scorsese was one of the editors. The music, of course, makes it even better.

The Life of Birds - No one makes a better wildlife documentary than David Attenborough. If you can stomach an 8 hour documentary (broken into one hour chunks), this one is worth seeing. The photography is nothing short of amazing.

Winged Migration - Another bird documentary (my wife really likes birds, what can I say). This one is shot almost entirely without narration, just letting you see the birds in their natural habitats. It's rare to see something so pure (for lack of a better word). I actually think a little more narration would have added to the movie, but it's great as it stands.

The Singing Detective - Okay, I actually haven't seen this one, but my wife can't talk highly enough of it, and I trust her opinion. I'm talking about the original 1986 British version, not the recent remake.

I also have a whole bunch of modern spanish language films that I really enjoy. I'm not sure if they can be considered masterpieces, but I believe they're worth seeing, even if I can't give a reasonable explanation why:

Hable con ella (Talk to Her) - Wonderful film by Pedro Almodóvar about fate joining two men who have lost the loves of their lives to long term comas.

Amores perros - Stars Gael García Bernal, who seems to be a staple of spanish films these days. Mostly a movie about coincidences linking an unlikely group of people together.

Y tu mamá también - Another Gael García Bernal movie. This one about two boys who take a road trip with an older woman.

Finally, I think it's still in the theaters, but Garden State is definitely worth seeing. Some critics have compared Zach Braff favorably to Woody Allen. I wouldn't go that far, but it is really well done for a first time writer/director. Who knows, maybe Braff will make it big, and we'll all be looking back on Garden State as a masterpiece.

__________________
If it weren't for my horse, I never would've spent that year in college.