Ten Best Films of the 1960's (With Pictures and More)

Submitted by CaptMal on Sun, 10/26/2008 - 01:47
Tags: 
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • StumbleUpon
  • Facebook
  • Google
  • Technorati
  1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
  2. Written by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke
  3. Directed by Stanley Kubrick
  7. I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
  9. Country: UK/USA
  11. IMDb: 8.4/10
  13. Rotten Tomatoes: 96%
  15. What the Critics Are Saying:
  17. Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times - 4/4
  18. "The fascinating thing about this film is that it fails on the human level but succeeds magnificently on a cosmic scale."
  20. Mick Martin and Marsha Porter, DVD & Video Guide - 5/5
  21. "Ponderous, ambiguous, and arty, it's nevertheless considered a classic of the genre by many film buffs."
  23. Persona (1966)
  24. Written by Ingmar Bergman
  25. Directed by Ingmar Bergman
  29. You can shut yourself in. Then you needn't play any parts or make wrong gestures. Or so you thought. But reality is diabolical. Your hiding place isn't watertight. Life trickles in from the outside, and you're forced to react.
  31. Country: Sweden
  33. IMDb: 8.1/10
  35. Rotten Tomatoes: 93%
  37. What the Critics Are Saying:
  39. Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times - 4/4
  40. "The nurse is maddened by the unspeaking actress in the same sense that the audience is frustrated by the movie: Both stubbornly refuse to be conventional and to respond as we expect."
  42. Mick Martin and Marsha Porter, DVD & Video Guide - 3/5
  43. "Ingmar Bergman's use of subtle split-screen effects dramatizes the metaphorical quality of this quiet film."
  45. The Graduate (1967)
  46. Written by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry, based on the novel by Charles Webb
  47. Directed by Mike Nichols
  51. Plastics.
  53. Country: USA
  55. IMDb: 8.2/10
  57. Rotten Tomatoes: 89%
  59. What the Critics Are Saying:
  61. Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times - 4/4
  62. "Nichols stays on top of his material. He never pauses to make sure we're getting the point. He never explains for the slow-witted. He never apologizes."
  64. Mick Martin and Marsha Porter, DVD & Video Guide - 4.5/5
  65. "Mike Nichols won an Academy Award for his direction of this touching, funny, unsettling, and unforgettable release about a young man (Dustin Hoffman, in his first major role) attempting to chart his future and develop his own set of values."
  67. Lawrence O'Toole, Entertainment Weekly - A
  68. "Mike Nichols' adult, sexy, stylish movie, The Graduate, brought the under-30s into theaters in droves and planted the seed for a college-revolt trend that lasted a decade."
  70. Psycho (1960)
  71. Written by Joseph Stephano, based on the novel by Robert Bloch
  72. Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
  76. A boy's best friend is his mother.
  78. Country: USA
  80. IMDb: 8.7/10
  82. Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
  84. What the Critics Are Saying:
  86. Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times - Great Movie
  87. "What makes Psycho immortal, when so many films are already half-forgotten as we leave the theater, is that it connects directly with our fears: Our fears that we might impulsively commit a crime, our fears of the police, our fears of becoming the victim of a madman, and of course our fears of disappointing our mothers."
  89. Michael Giltz, Entertainment Weekly - A
  90. "If director Gus Van Sant really wants to remake this horror classic shot for shot, he and Vince Vaughan (eyed as the new Norman Bates) would do well to pick up this disc chockful of extras."
  92. Mick Martin and Marsha Porter, DVD & Video Guide - 5/5
  93. "The quintessential shocker, which started a whole genre of films about psychotic killers enacting mayhem on innocent victims, still holds up well today."
  95. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
  96. Written by Horton Foote, based on the novel by Harper Lee
  97. Directed by Robert Mulligan
  101. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.
  103. Country: USA
  105. IMDb: 8.5/10
  107. Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
  109. What the Critics Are Saying:
  111. Ty Burr, Entertainment Weekly - A-
  112. "In his Oscar-winning role as Atticus Finch, Mockingbird's small-town lawyer, Gregory Peck summed up the qualities that had kept him a star for two decades: decency, nobility, and ungodly handsomeness."
  114. Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times - 2.5/4
  115. "To Kill a Mockingbird is a time capsule, preserving hopes and sentiments from a kinder, gentler, more naive America."
  117. Mick Martin and Marsha Porter, DVD & Video Guide - 5/5
  118. "To Kill a Mockingbird is a leisurely paced, flavorful filming of Harper Lee's bestselling novel."
  120. The Apartment (1960)
  121. Written by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond
  122. Directed by Billy Wilder
  126. When you're in love with a married man, you shouldn't wear mascara.
  128. Country: USA
  130. IMDb: 8.4/10
  132. Rotten Tomatoes: 90%
  134. What the Critics Are Saying:
  136. Ty Burr, Entertainment Weekly - A
  137. "It's a classic Lemmon role -- neurotic, misguided, good-hearted -- and we're meant to approve of his pluck even if we're aghast at his tactics."
  139. Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times - Great Movie
  140. "The valuable element in Wilder is his adult sensibility; his characters can't take flight with formula plots, because they are weighted down with the trials and responsibilities of working for a living. In many movies, the characters hardly even seem to have jobs, but in The Apartment they have to be reminded that they have anything else."
  142. Mick Martin and Marsha Porter, DVD & Video Guide - 5/5
  143. "Rarely have comedy and drama been satisfyingly blended into a cohesive whole. Director Billy Wilder does it masterfully in this film."
  145. A Hard Day's Night (1964)
  146. Written by Alun Owen
  147. Directed by Richard Lester
  151. He's very fussy about his drums, you know. They loom large in his legend.
  153. Country: UK
  155. IMDb: 7.5/10
  157. Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
  159. What the Critics Are Saying:
  161. Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times - Great Movie
  162. "Richard Lester's innovations in A Hard Day's Night have become familiar; because the style, the subject and the stars are so suited to one another, the movie hasn't become dated. It's filled with the exhilaration of four musicians who were having fun and creating at the top of their form and knew it."
  164. Mick Martin and Marsha Porter, DVD & Video Guide - 5/5
  165. "Put simply, this is the greatest rock 'n' roll comedy ever made."
  167. Ira Robbins, Entertainment Weekly - A+
  168. "Throughout their first film, a deceptively straightforward masterpiece that's neither simple nor naive, the Fab Four throw away so many Liverpool-accented quips that even careful viewers might discover a few surprises on the umpteenth replay."
  170. The Hustler (1961)
  171. Written by Sidney Carroll and Robert Rossen, based on the novel by Walter Tevis
  172. Directed by Robert Rossen
  176. Fat man, you shoot a great game of pool.
  178. Country: USA
  180. IMDb: 8.1/10
  182. Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
  184. What the Critics Are Saying:
  186. Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times - Great Movies
  187. "The Hustler is one of those films where scenes have such psychic weight that they grow in our memories."
  189. Bruce Fretts, Entertainment Weekly - A
  190. "Paul Newman won his Best Actor Oscar for its 1986 sequel, The Color of Money, but he executed an equally award-worthy turn in Robert Rossen's jazzy, boozy pool-hall morality play."
  192. Mick Martin and Marsha Porter, DVD & Video Guide - 5/5
  193. "This film may well contain Paul Newman's best screen performance."
  195. Hud (1963)
  196. Written by Irving Ravetch and Harriet Frank Jr., based on the novel by Larry McMurtry
  197. Directed by Martin Ritt
  201. Nobody gets out of life alive.
  203. Country: USA
  205. IMDb: 7.9/10
  207. Rotten Tomatoes: 79%
  209. What the Critics Are Saying:
  211. Mick Martin and Marsha Porter, DVD & Video Guide - 5/5
  212. "When asked, Newman dubbed this one 'pretty good.' An understatement."
  214. Le Samouraï (1967)
  215. Written by Jean-Pierre Melville and Georges Pellegrin
  216. Directed by Jean-Pierre Melville
  220. I never lose. Never really.
  222. Country: France/Italy
  224. IMDb: 8.1/10
  226. Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
  228. What the Critics Are Saying:
  230. Ty Burr, Entertainment Weekly - A
  231. "At last available on video, Jean-Pierre Melville's breathtakingly spare crime saga now looks like a pivotal work for the genre: It boils previous Hollywood film noirs down to their existential essence and provides a clear attitudinal template for such later acolytes as Quentin Tarantino and John Woo (who's quoted on the cassette box as calling this 'the closest thing to a perfect movie' he's ever seen)."
  233. Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times - Great Movie
  234. "The movie teaches us how action is the enemy of suspense--how action releases tension, instead of building it. Better to wait for a whole movie for something to happen (assuming we really care whether it happens) than to sit through a film where things we don't care about are happening constantly."
  236. Mick Martin and Marsha Porter, DVD & Video Guide - 5/5
  237. "John Woo's The Killer was largely inspired by this classic that can be enjoyed both as a gripping thriller and as a muted but wholly intoxicating exercise in cinematic style."