In Contention

Tag: Die Hard

  • CINEJABBER: For Your Consideration, ‘Die Hard,’ Best Picture

    Catch up with the idea behind these weekend posts here.

    Jeffrey Wells reminded me last weekend of Movieline’s latest restoration effort, i.e. providing scans of back issues and therefore keeping the magazines of the 1990s available and adding a bit of history to the newly designed outlet.  It also reminded me of an idea I had at Variety three years ago when I was writing the trade’s Oscar blog, Red Carpet District.

    Something people don’t know is that there is a small closet of a room (or at least it was a closet at the old digs across the street from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, not sure about the new tower down the street) full of handsomely bound back issues of Variety.  You’re talking decades of the print publication at your fingertips.

    But while it’s fun to go back and read old industry stories and news items, the best part is to grab a latter year volume, say something from December-January or February, and get a load of the for your consideration ads.

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  • POLL: The most influential films of all time, round one, part three

    Alright, we’ve moved on and three more films have survived: “The Birth of a Nation,” “The Godfather Part II” and “Metropolis.”  Color me confused on the inclusion of Coppola’s film.  Chalk it up to popularity, I guess, because it’s a shame to see truly deserving films like “The Jazz Singer,” “sex, lies and videotape” and even “Die Hard” get passed over for something that no one (I think) can argue as more influential (even if it is a masterpiece).  But that’s how it crumbles.

    Next up, a new set of ten and your choice of three to continue.  As always, check out the background on this series here.  Give us your vote in the sidebar and feel free to cut loose in the comments section below with your thoughts on the series so far.

    This poll will close in one week, Wednesday, May 6 at 2:00pm PST.

  • TCM’s top 15 most influential classic movies

    MetropolisWell, here’s something I guess.  Rope of Silicon points us to TCM’s list of the top 15 most influential “classic” films of all time.  I actually started working up such a list for the site a while back but abandoned it for whatever reason.  It was going to include all comers, though, not just classic films.  They seem to be listed in chronological order over at TCM.com.  The 15:

    “The Birth of a Nation” (1915)
    “Battleship Potemkin” (1925)
    “Metropolis” (1927)
    “42nd Street” (1933)
    “It Happened One Night” (1934)
    “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937)
    “Gone with the Wind” (1939)
    “Stagecoach” (1939)
    “Citizen Kane” (1941)
    “The Bicycle Thief” (1947)
    “Rashomon” (1950)
    “The Searchers” (1956)
    “Breathless” (1959)
    “Psycho” (1960)
    “Star Wars” (1977)

    My list certainly included most of those, which are by and large hard to argue with.  “Birth,” “Battleship,” “Metropolis,” “Night,” “Snow White,” “Wind,” “Kane” and “Star Wars” were definitely included in my tally.  If we were to extend it beyond the “classic” realm, I think we’d have to include “Jurassic Park” and the “Lord of the Rings” franchise.  “Toy Story” would have to have a secure place, while “Pulp Fiction” obviously sparked a revolution some would argue had roots in “sex, lies and videotape” (also a contender for an “all-time” list).

    Since TCM’s idea of “classic” obviously stretches into the late 1970s, I think it’s rather foolish to leave off “Jaws” and/or “The Godfather” considering what they meant to big business theatrical revenue before “Star Wars” came along.  And going way back, “The Great Train Robbery” had people running from the theater screaming after the final image of a bandit firing his gun at the camera.  There’s something to be said for one of the first films to enthrall like that.

    And what about “The Jazz Singer?”  How do you leave that title off a list of “classic” cinema?  I guess it had to be narrowed to 15 but there are a couple of films on that list that could have been bumped, I think.

    Let’s put it to the readership.  Assuming an “all-time” list rather than limiting it to the classics, what would you say have been the most influential films?  I could make a mean case for “Die Hard,” but I’ll anxiously await your input.  Rattle off your lists and maybe we’ll settle things with a series of polls.

  • THE LISTS: My top 10 perennial must-watch Christmas movies

    Bill Murray in ScroogedTis the season, no?

    I found it rather perplexing that, with In Contention being on the scene for three Christmas seasons already, we’ve never set about putting together the obligatory “best Christmas films” list.  Well, I’m setting out to amend that oversight this holiday week with such a collective, but I don’t have the heart to call it a “best” list per se, so I’m giving it a different angle.

    Every year I have a few staples of the season that make their way into my DVD player or, in some instances — gasp! — my VCR, like new friends come home to visit before going back on the shelf for another 12 months stretch.

    Typically, I just can’t feel right about the holiday season without taking in the films on this list at least once.  They’ve slowly gelled into my “must-watch” Christmas movie list for various reasons: reminiscence, unavoidable television programming, uniqueness in the face of the typical seasonal film glut, etc.

    While there are a handful of classic, well-made staples that would be agreeable to the masses as far as quality is concerned, I think everyone’s list would be different when it comes to this kind of thing.  With that in my, my list of the top 10 perennial must-watch Christmas movies should give you some insight into who I am.

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