My top 5 English Movies

I never thought that choosing my top 5 favorite English movies would turn out to be one of my toughest tasks. It’s not because I’am indecisive (I’ am actually) but there is huge list of movies. So I decided to categorize and select one best from each category.

Comedy: The Great Dictator (1940)

Even though Charles Chaplin was a comedian and most of his movies were considered to be comedy movies, his movies are not just plain comedy; they reflect love, affection and humanity. The Great Dictator is a story that happens between two world wars. Movie shows two looking alike persons – one is a dictator and another is a barber. Egoist Dictator wants to start a war and finally rule this world. The other one just wants to live a simple life. And what happens when these two are interchanged at final scenes is a remarkable twist. That simple barber has a task against him to speak out to world, motivate soldiers to fight and to start a world war – but the actual speech he gives reflects real Charlie Chaplin.  

This movie has everything in it – a (brilliantly predicted real) story, beautiful screenplay, incomparable acting by Charlie Chaplin, teasing scenes, drama, dialogues and finally a message which is true till today and will ever be.  Charlie Chaplin once again proved that he was a master movie maker. To quote a line from his final speech – “we all want to live by each others happiness and not by misery”! It will always be true and that’s what a movie should achieve; not just plain entertainment - best movie is a one that sends out a message which is everlasting.

(Competitors are: ‘Modern Times’, ‘Gold Rush’, ‘My Cousin Vinny’ and ‘Scary Movie 3’)

Drama: The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

Whenever we think of a ‘Drama’ type of movie - a movie full of sadness and tears comes into our mind. Shawshank Redemption also starts with sadness – Tim Robbins is convicted for a double murder (his wife and her lover) and he gets a life term sentence. Sadly, he was innocent and didn’t commit the crime but the circumstantial evidences stand against him. So he was sent to Shawshank prison, where he faces realities of prison life. Obviously at this point it should make you search for your remote to change CD (or switch channel)… but wait. This isn’t another monotonous prison movie – Tim does not break down. He not only learns to survive that hard life but also waits patiently (20 years?) to set himself… see it for yourself.

This movie gives hope. And this movie is filled with friendship, jokes, wisdom and at end, it inspires. There are some good twists in screenplay. Another important point is the acting of Morgan Freeman, who does a supporting role. Wow, what an actor he is! An example is, how he differentiates acting for a same scene - 'appearing for Parole approval' - once at start and then sometime later in movie!. How he shows different emotions on his face in the movie, but never crosses limit to step into overacting! Gifted! Story line is simple but screenplay, acting, supporting roles, twists – all these sums up to make this one of best ‘Drama’ kind of movies I’ve seen. I surely recommend this movie but bear in mind that this is not a ‘Lockup’ or a ‘Tango & Cash’. One of my favorite quotes comes in this movie – “Get busy living or get busy dying”! Now that says it all!

(Competitors are: ‘Seven Samurai’, ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’, ’12 Angry Men’, ‘Life is Beautiful’ and ‘The Bucket List’).

Action: The Good, the bad and the Ugly (1966)

How to select the best action movie from Hollywood? I mean, how many action movies have I seen in my life? It should be more than the number of times I kicked my motorbike kick starter! To say the truth, I didn't need to understand dialogues in an action movie and that was a bliss and also a good excuse to see only action movies. Thankfully, now Dvd’s come along with sub titles. So instead of looking at body counts, bullets fired and muscle fibers, I started to feel substance of each movie.  

Still, it isn’t easy to choose. But as hard as I could try, I’am not able to convince myself that any other movies than this one is better. This movie is a classic. It is a story of three different personalities, going out to retrieve a huge treasure, during American civil war times. Clint Eastwood is the Good (not exactly the ‘good’ that we portray in Tamil movies), Lee Van Clef is (ruthlessly) bad and Eli Wallach is Ugly. ‘Ugly’ character steals most of scenes but that doesn’t impact the pace of movie anywhere. As a matter of fact, I like him! Especially some of his scenes are epic (!), like – the way he treats ‘Good’ after coming know that Clint only knows the final key to puzzle, or the way he converse with his priest brother and the way he utters a dialogue “when you have to shoot, shoot, don’t talk!” There are many brilliant unexpected twists in this movie. Above all, the music was an excellent piece.

In my opinion, these are essential for an action movie – story, way it is narrated, acting, music, end scene thrills… well, just like any other ‘category’, action movies also must have these essentials.

(Competitors are: ‘For a few dollars more’, ‘Enter the Dragon’, ‘Where Eagles Dare’, ‘Mackenna’s Gold’, and ‘The Departed’).

Thriller: Shutter Island (2010)

When it comes to Thriller movies, I included psychological thrillers too. Because the best thriller movies, most of times, plays with viewers minds. ‘Psycho’ (Alfred Hitchcock) was released in 1960 and I should say, it started a lineup of such movies. I have seen many psycho thriller movies but found many of them are too violent, too extreme, too obscene and too predictable! But ‘Shutter Island’ is one of best (if not the best of all). I thought hard to select between ‘Shutter Island’ and ‘Seven’ but this one is victorious for it’s suspense.

The main reason I like this movie is for that it plays with minds, right from start of movie. This movie is one of unpredictable and also one with less violence. Story is: Two US Marshals (1950’s) goes to an island, which has a hospital, which treats clinically insane criminals. Marshals are needed there to investigate a missing dangerous convict. Shutter Island is a highly secured prison and controlled by authoritative doctors. US Marshals get a suspicion that the doctors are using patients for some weird research. And eventually they find themselves caught in that island and they themselves could not escape from there. What happens next is to be seen in the movie. 

This movie has many mind playing (if I could say so) scenes. Real psychological thriller; at ending it may sound not so complex but it is complex for a person, who undergoes through that process. Leonardo Di Caprio had acted splendidly from first scene. He is supported well by other actors. His best capability is shown in final scenes. Brilliant, mystery, thrilling, suspense and a superb climax – says it all.

(Competitors are: ‘Psycho’, ‘Seven’, 'Inception', ‘Identity’, ‘Zodiac’ and ‘Devil’s Advocate’).

Children: The Children of Heaven (1997)

Unfortunately, not many movies are made about children. There are only few. Out of them, some are very good movies too but still I feel children need more films about them – mind it: not movies about parents but about children themselves. It seems as if we have decided, unfortunately, cartoon movies are sufficient for children.

But as I mentioned, there are few very good movies about children. Iranian director Majid Majidi made one such marvelous movie – The Children of Heaven. This movie shows bond and affection between a little boy and his sister, whose father is a poor man. Children get into a problem and they try to sort it out between themselves, not bothering their parents and whether they could achieve it or not is the climax. Problem is simple; brother unintentionally loses his sister’s school shoes. They try their best to get back that shoe but all goes in vain. Finally the boy gets a chance to participate in a running race – where third prize is a shoe. He promises his sister that he will come third and runs… ending scene should make you love those children.

It is a simple story. But the movie is made so perfectly, it moves our hearts. We don’t sympathize them; because those children show us how to lead our lives, solve our problems and most of all, how precious a life is! If children can try so hard – why can’t we!

(Competitors are: ‘The Kid’, ‘Song of Sparrows’).

I left out Gangsters category purposefully because that will need a separate post!

I welcome your recommendations for more / better movies that I missed to see.