Rear Window (1954)

I'm sorry to say I only had room for one Hitchcock picture on this list, and Rear Window seemed like it would be the most representative.  He is the "master of suspense" after all, and in Rear Window - a movie in which basically nothing happens for one and a half hours - he very nearly succeeds in producing suspense devoid of context, right out of thin air.  This he manages through the meticulous presentation of information; taking care in what we know, and when, and how.  Sometimes James Stewart will take a moment to brief another character (and us) on the story so far, but initially we are allowed to discover almost everything on our own, just by watching.  Soon his questions become our questions, and we are drawn in through participation.  And as the benign alternatives are gradually eliminated, suspense is not built by shadows or scary music, but by logic.  The movie would never work if Hitchcock didn't trust us to draw our own conclusions, or if we were too lazy to draw them.

On the Waterfront (1954)

A rough, boorish and callous film, not always easy to approach or relate to - like many of its characters.  If the bleak, almost cheap-looking photography doesn't make the point, the music should do the rest (by Leonard Bernstein, composer of West Side Story).  It's sparse, but quite overbearing when it appears, almost to the point of absurdity.  Definitely not pretty, but it drives home the point that this is not a refined story about refined characters.  None of them are masters at what they are doing, but instead often flailing about as they take their first steps into new territory.

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

I find it fascinating that, so far, most of the movies chosen for being the most financially successful of their decade have been among the least well remembered.  I'd never even heard of Mickey or The Big Parade before starting my research, and The Best Years of Our Lives only sounded hazily familiar.  Some featureless drama among many; fodder for AMC/TCM.  Yet both Mickey and Big Parade turned out to be my favorite movie of their respective decade, and, while I'd be pushing it to rate The Best Year of Our Lives above Casablana or Kane, it was certainly a pleasant surprise.  A warm, unassuming slice of Americana, devoid of artistic ambition perhaps, but also of ego or cynical manipulation.  Oh, it's manipulative alright, and oh-so-convenient, but not cynical about it.  It's just that it has a little less than three hours to tell over 15 million stories.

Citizen Kane, Casablanca, and Double Indemnity

Well, I've recently returned from an Alaskan cruise with my family, which I wish I could blame for not writing more reviews.  But truthfully it's been a combination of laziness and some trepidation in finding something worth writing about some of the most written-about movies ever produced.  Not to mention that, as I said in an earlier post, the history of movies from Birth of a Nation to Gone with the Wind felt like a fairly tidy whole.  To go beyond that is a little like starting again, but this time pushing off into broader, darker, and more tumultuous waters.  Which I imagine is much like what filmmakers of the time felt like as well.

Again, there is little I could say about these mega-classics that hasn't already been said.  So I just want to summarize some of my strongest reactions to each.