A fan of anything that gets you shoved into your locker at school, Alexander “The Filmologist” Barahona is That Film Guy’s resident expert on in-depth exploration of films. Providing a series of essays on classic-to-modern science fiction and fantasy films, he looks in great detail at their themes, meanings and overall impact of these genres and individual pieces.
Presented here are his top 10 favourite films of all time as part of the 2014 That Film Guy 3rd Year Anniversary.
10. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
With a certain film occupying my number 2 slot, it should come as little surprise that I’d count this similarly camp sci-fi among my favourite films of all time. I was first exposed to this transvestite romp at Catholic boarding school (yep, not making this up), where Bro Kelly, when not suffering from one of his reoccurring bouts of malaria or dressing in women’s underwear to go to the theatre, would lend us his VHS of the show. From that point on I never really looked back, donning my own fair share of suspenders in celebration of this insane and surreal film that through sheer force of absurdity, just works.
9. Les Miserables (2012)
It has becoming increasingly rare for films to be released that enchant me enough to warrant excessive viewing. Perhaps I have lost my childish wonder, or perhaps movies just aren’t as good as they used to be. Les Miserables however played every night for week on my television over a year after it’s realise because I couldn’t be bothered to remove it from the player… and I had no problem with this.
8. True Lies (1994)
To avoid my Top 10 being an Arnold Swartzenegger filmography, I’ve chosen just a single flag bearer. Predator and Terminator were pioneers of the action genre, Terminator 2 delivered cutting edge CGI to our screens. Total Recall and 6th Day provided conceptually clever stories that in any other auspice could have made highly credible dramatic productions. But ultimately I had to go with True Lies… or Kindergarten Cop… no, True Lies, we’re going with that!
7. Duck Soup (2002)
I’m a big fan of economy in films, yet The genius of the Marx Brother’s displayed in all the hectic glory of their early Paramount days, Duck Soup is often considered the best of their classic films. Pioneers of their art and the inspiration to a generation of Comedians, if I had to pick one of their films (and at least one MUST be picked) it would be this.
6. The Princess Bride (1987)
“Everyone loves a storybook story”, some just more than others. Me? Well I’m pretty obsessed. I first watched this at a best friend’s house as his brother was in the band Dire Straights. Obviously I decided to like the film because my friend’s famous brother had something vaguely to do with it and that by extension that would make me cool. Over time however, I grew to realise: I actually loved it in its own right. I distinctly remember a game where we picked out occasions in the film to drink whiskey to, I got: whenever someone says “inconceivable” and whenever a mask appears on screen. Needless to say I was dead after twenty five minutes, but the fact I awoke from the trauma still desperately in love with the film proved it was meant to be.
5. Blazing Saddles (1975)
“They don’t make them like this anymore” is an often heard criticism, but as regards Blazing Saddles it’s entirely fair. With the fists of political correctness firmly balled around script writers’ necks, the likes of this will never be seen again. Replete with racial pejoratives it would easy to condemn at a glance, if not coming from the Jewish director who conceived The Producers and it’s ‘Spring-time for Hitler’. Indeed, Mel Brookes is no stranger to ironic satire as he gifts us with this hilarious comedy, with provincial idiots slinging the N word in the direction of the only character with an IQ bigger than the gene-pool he sprung from, the black sheriff, Bart. While at eight years old I didn’t get many of the jokes (and still find the occasional gem I only just get now), I was old enough to realise that all of the racism is absurd and the racists, as the Wako Kid informs us, are just “simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know… morons.”
4. Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
No Top 10 would be complete without an addition from the Star Wars pantheon and rather predictably it’s the Empire Strikes Back that makes the cut. After all, everyone loves a story where the bad guys win, right? Well for 127 minutes they do that, flattening Hoth, carboniting Han, and lopping off Luke’s hand… who, by the way, is Darth Vader’s son!!! Tonally very different to episodes 4 and 6, Empires Strikes Back really ups the futility of the freedom fighter as he struggles against the monolithic oppressor; even Luke’s respite in Act 2 sees his desperation take him to the faecal end of the galaxy in search of help. Like so many my age, the Star Wars saga were formative films for me and as such; will always have a place in my heart.
3. American History X (1999)
This is one of those tricky films that to anyone who’s seen it; it requires no justification and to anyone that hasn’t a single paragraph cannot extoll its exceptional virtues enough. Telling the story of a Venice Beach family torn apart by neo-Nazism, this non-linear narrative is a masterpiece of film making, challenging the subject matter without moralising it shows the gaps between the extremes, showing sympathy for the victims duped by extremist propaganda while never condoning their actions. This film is not fun, and it cannot be ‘enjoyed’, but if you‘re looking to admire the excellence of a challenging social commentary, this is it.
2. Flash Gordon (2002)
When I say that Flash Gordon makes my top ten films the usual response is “guilty pleasure?”… no, there is no guilt. Absurd and over the top, anyone who criticises the garish costumes and ridiculous overacting just doesn’t get the simple fact: this is what it is meant to be! Everything is larger than life in this epic, Ming’s eyebrows, Voltan’s cod-piece, Gordon’s hair, Princess Aura’s… well, all of Princess Aura. Seriously, there is nothing not to love about this movie and if I was forced to watch only one film for the rest of my life; this would be it. If I was forced to watch none? Well who cares, I know Flash Gordon off by heart anyway!
1. Fight Club (1999)
There are many reasons why this movie is the first that springs to mind whenever I’m asked “what is your favourite film”. At a time when I was playing a lot of online games (the original AVP mostly), Fight Club aggressively marketed itself to me in match making rooms as a sort of Blood Sport with Brad Pitt. I’m sure I wasn’t the only person surprised by the distinct absence of the eponymous Fight Club in the film; pugilism taking a distinct back seat. However, I’m also sure I wasn’t the only person who didn’t care as I was instead blown away by a movie that rather disturbingly spoke to me.
My life wasn’t really drudgery, but as a young guy trying to work out what being a man is all about Fight Club really did make me think. So much so that my friend and I spend a good five minutes after the film trying to grow the balls to hit each other as hard as we can, after all “how much can you know about yourself if you’ve never been in a fight?”…those balls were never grown and I still haven’t been in a fight.
Regardless, the film captured my imagination. I loved the subversive critique, the grimy chic backdrop and beautifully penned monologue. The Narrator’s awkwardness and Tyler’s bravado, very much mimicked my own shy musing as I, like so many others, wished I could just repaint myself on a similarly self-assured canvass and “let that which does not matter truly slide”… I even shaved my head, never again.
In a time before ‘the twist’ became an obligatory staple of film-making I was left in awe of the Fight Clubs revelation, only the twist in Usual Suspects had left me similarly impressed by the silver screen and for anything rivalling the shock from Fight Club I’d have to dig into literature and the exceptional children’s book: The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler.
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