Yet over its three-and-a-half hour length, Lean manages not only to make the setting practically a character in its own right, but assembles one of cinema’s greatest supporting casts (Alec Guinness, Claude Rains, Anthonys Quayle and Quinn, Omar Sharif et al), and then tops it off with peerless cinematography from Freddie Young and an immediately iconic score by Maurice Jarre. One of the films that Oppenheimer was justifiably compared to, David Lean’s masterpiece boasts one of cinema’s greatest ever performances in Peter O’Toole’s intense, driven TE Lawrence, a man capable of peerless heroism and hideous cruelty at almost the same time, and increasingly unsure of who or what he is, as the desert slowly eats away at his psyche. But it’s one of those rare classic pictures that’s both intellectually rigorous and great fun to watch. Its DNA can be found in everything from Mad Max: Fury Road to Blade Runner, and countless filmmakers and critics have described it as their favourite film ever made. ![]() Forget The Magnificent Seven, the inferior (although still hugely enjoyable) American remake this peerless picture, pitting a group of samurai against the bandits who continually pillage their village, features some of cinema’s most exciting action scenes, coupled with Kurosawa’s near-anthropological dedication to exploring the codes of honour, loyalty and integrity that the eponymous samurai live by. That this peerlessly affecting tale of a young courtesan and the men who find themselves near-obsessively in love with her should be not simply a completed film but one of the finest examples of cinema ever made is a remarkable testament to Carné’s skill as a filmmaker it has been compared to Gone With the Wind, but (whisper it), it’s better.Īkira Kurosawa’s epic remains one of the most influential and thrilling films ever made. High praise indeed, and the picture is all the more impressive for the circumstances under which it was made: shot between 19, production was continually delayed by everything from rationing to the effects of filming in Occupied and Vichy France. ![]() None other than the great director Francois Truffaut said of Marcel Carné’s drama that “I would give up all my films to have directed Les Enfants du Paradis”. Here are 16 of the best (in chronological order). But there are also some timeless masterpieces that deserve every frame of their length. Sometimes, these pictures can end up being interminable, whether because of directorial over-indulgence (Meet Joe Black, or rather, don’t), production issues (Cleopatra, notoriously) or simply by being a decent hour or so of blockbuster cinema sandwiched between two dismal ones (Pearl Harbour). Abel Gance’s 1927 epic Napoléon, about the life of the Emperor, lasted a staggering 330 minutes, although it was swiftly cut down to a more conventional length, and Gone with the Wind ran nearly for four hours when the various overtures and intervals were included. From the beginning of cinema, there have been long films. Although most contemporary cinema has been suffering from bloat for years, Nolan, like other true master filmmakers, understands that, in the right hands, a three (or, on special occasions, four) hour picture can fly by in the blink of an eye. This, the true film lover knows, is nonsense. Unfortunately, EMI offshoot Fuel 2000's reissue of this previously unreleased gem features nothing in the way of liner notes or additional material, marking it as a bit of a disappointment for film music buffs.The success of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer – both critical and commercial – has occasionally been qualified with the words “despite its three-hour length”. The soundtrack provided Turner with one of her biggest hits, the sprawling and majestic "We Don't Need Another Hero," which despite containing the silly lyric "All we want is what's beyond the Thunderdome" spent a good deal of the year at the top of the Billboard charts. His segue into the raunchy "Bartertown" saxophone section showed a keen ear for the era, and complemented Turner's "One of the Living" opener with a sly wink. Jarre, who previously helmed the baton for films like Witness and A Passage to India, conjured up an elegant storm of a score that remained reverent to May's brutish dissonance, while establishing a memorable melody - "The Children" - and introducing a lushness that was absent from the first two films. What sounded odd in theory came across a great deal better onscreen. Gone was composer Brian May (not the Queen guitarist) and in came Maurice Jarre and Tina Turner - the latter had a starring role - to give the Australian series some mid-'80s shine. Upon its 1985 release, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome divided critics and fans alike with its big-budget rendering of Mel Gibson's iconic vigilante.
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