"Apocalypse Now" Best Film of Last Twenty-Five Years

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Apocalypse Now the best film of last 25 years: British critics and writers

LONDON (AP) - Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola's anti-Vietnam War classic, is the greatest film of the last 25 years, according to a survey of British film critics and writers.

Two movies by Martin Scorsese also made the top 10 in the poll released Friday by the British Film Institute's Sight & Sound magazine. The 50 respondents chose Scorsese's Raging Bull as the second-best movie of the past quarter-century, followed by Ingmar Bergman's Fanny And Alexander in third place. Scorsese's GoodFellas was fourth, with David Lynch's Blue Velvet coming in fifth.

The highest-ranking British film was Terence Davies's Distant Voices, Still Lives at No. 9.

Films dating from January 1978 to this year were eligible.

Nick James, editor of Sight & Sound, said Apocalypse Now topped the list because it's a richly complex, madcap experiment in war film-making that "never falls from the tightrope it walks between extravagance and profundity."

James said Raging Bull was a close second, thanks to Scorsese's direction, the wonderful texture of its black-and-white cinematography, and Robert De Niro's performance as boxer Jake La Motta.

In August, another Sight & Sound poll chose Citizen Kane as the best film of all time.

In the latest poll, the top 10 are:

1. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)

2. Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980).

3. Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982).

4. GoodFellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990).

5. Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986).

6. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989).

7. Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982).

8. Chungking Express (Wong Kar-Wai, 1994).

9. Distant Voices, Still Lives (Terence Davies, 1988).

10. (tie) Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1983).

10. (tie) Yi yi (A One and a Two . . . ) (Edward Yang, 1999).

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On the Net:

Sight and Sound: bfi.org.uk/sightandsound

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It's too bad Bertolucci's "1900" was 1976 as it should be in the list -- two suprises for me are "Blue Velvet" and "Blade Runner," although I agree with their being on the list.

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I loved Blue Velvet and Goodfellas and Blade Runner but I'm surprised they are on the list. I can see Apocalypse Now being in the top 10, but I don't think it should be number one.

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Note these are British film critics and writers, unlike the Sight and Sound poll of Best Films which are worldwide critics. American critics did not take well to "Blade Runner" as I believe they don't really understand serious, sociological sci-fi. Of course, the list would look very much different with US film critics and writers in the mix. What film do you suppose they would name number one.
I think that would be the least different from the rest of the list: "Raging Bull."

I really think they should have made the list from 1975 to 2000 -- there isn't one film after 2000 on the list anyway (have to ferret out the entire list to see what film after 2000 made it).

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I've seen only seven among the eleven films cited.

Apocalypse Now is, IMHO, a terrific movie, but I probably wouldn't mention it among the first 10 of that quarter century. As many others, I have trouble with the ending.

I would certainly mention Blade Runner and, most likely, Fanny And Alexander, among the top ten.

Lightwizard wrote:

Note these are British film critics and writers, unlike the Sight and Sound poll of Best Films which are worldwide critics. American critics did not take well to "Blade Runner" as I believe they don't really understand serious, sociological sci-fi.

As an example, I see Leonard Maltin rates BR incredibly low.

Would you be so kind to abound on the matter? I think I'm a fan of Blade Runner as much as you're a fan of 2001, A Space Odyssee.

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I put "2001" ahead of "Blade Runner" mainly because it broke the ice for serious sci-fi. Of course, movies have been made before that such as "The Day the Earth Stood Still," "Metropolis," and "Things to Come" but the impact of "2001" was also accentuated by just preceding the first moon landing. The director's cut of "Blade Runner" put it up a few notches for me and a lot of film critics reaccessed it's stature. I'm afraid some film critics have just decided to "get on the bandwagon" with "2001," realizing years later what revolutionary filmmaking it really was. It may take another ten years before American critics realized that "Blade Runner" is provocative and profound sci-fi that is multi-layered and needs to be revisited with multiple viewings to absorb the film. "2001" achieved its stature from the same aging process -- it was truly the shock-of-the-new when first seen. Some of the very dark sequences in "Blade Runner" still astound me with it's Gothic structure and brilliantly conceived characters. The murder of Tyrell, the snake dancer escaping, crashing through the windows, the lab where the Asian is creating eyes for the replicants.
Pretty incredible stuff and, guess what, you do have to think while your watching the film. Popcorn eating just gets in the way!

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After this poll was published I decided to rent the movies I hadn't seen on the list. Very strange. YI YI is a dull, confusing Taiwanese family saga--no idea why that made the cut. I bailed after 45 minutes on video. CHUNGKING EXPRESS is fun, a romantic comedy in two parts about 2 Hong Kong cops and the crazy women they get mixed up with--but no masterpiece and certainly nothing you'd list as a landmark film of the past 25 years.

Personally, I would nominate SHOOT THE MOON and SHORT CUTS if I were asked to compile a list for the period.

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Of the films mentioned I have seen just Apocalypse Now. I just don't get to the movies that much. While I really enjoyed the first part of the movie, shortly after Marlon Brando arrived I lost interest and dozed through the last parts.

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i had the same experience as edgar.

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I saw Apocalypse Now:Redux at the movies some time ago and sat there hypnotized.I´d only seen the original cut on the TV so this was a BIG treat for me.

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It is another one of those films that is impressive on the big screen and looses most of it's vitality when shrunk down to the small, square screen. I did see it on the big screen in the full wide screen ratio and found that although its high points were made larger than life, it accentuated the weaknesses. I liked some of the added scenes but they went on too long and broke the mood of the film. Brando mumbling his lines in his overdrawn character didn't help either and the destruction of the camp was still incongruous as a climax. It's like if the 1812 Overture ended and someone was still firing cannons.

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I prefer the original cut of APOCALYPSE to REDUX because I don't think any of the restored scenes improve the film--I can see why Coppola cut them all in the first place. And yes, it does lose something on the small screen, but the movie is so visually rich and inventive that I feel certain that something comes through even on the TV sized image. There are a lot of people out there younger than me who only know the movie from the video and who worship it...they flocked to see REDUX when it came out. APOCALYPSE is one of those rare movies that found an audience years after its theatrical release, thanks to the VCR.

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sounds like a list by the snootie for the gulible
imagine a list of great films made in the last quarter century that does not include kurosawa's "Ran".?????...... bullsh!t.

AN Redux is a masterpiece, a stunning achievement in film making, one of the top ten movies ever made. the best film of the last 25 years. that makes 3 films of coppola's including Godfather I, Rumblefish (sorry, just kidding!), and GFII in the top 25 ever made. making him perhaps the best director of the past 50 years.

blade runner is a fine film, technically and visually beautiful, the director's cut is what i hope the critics were voting for, because the theatrical release was inferior. the director's cut removed the hokey voice-over of dekkard's and released it from the updated film noir in outer space theme into the classic it is.

and i note the commonality of each's ending, viz., in AN kurtz allows his potential killer to live, as does the android in Bladerunner.

as to scorsese, i think that his Last Temptation of Christ is almost as good as Goodfellows.

also, i would say that Pulp Fiction was a film that should be on the top ten list.

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I'm sure if the list is examined for the top twenty-five films, "Ran" would be there. Of course, as the list of best films of all times showed some striking variances between the critic's choices and the director's choices, this list would also exclue and include what we might or might not agree with.

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Here's the result of the ten top directors of the past 25 years (again, 1978 is the starting year):

1
Martin Scorsese

2
Krzysztof Kieslowski

3
Wong Kar-Wai

4
Abbas Kiarostami

5
Machael Mann

6
David Lynch

7
Pedro Almodóvar

8
Francis Ford Coppola

9
Spike Lee

10
Ingmar Bergman

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I agree with kuvasz about everything except PULP FICTION, which I walked out of. Coppola is definitely one of the greatest directors of the last 50 years and, I might add, superior to Scorsese, even though their current reputations don't necessarily reflect that. I am a defender of later Coppola movies like PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED, RUMBLE FISH, and even THE COTTON CLUB (flawed as it is). ONE FROM THE HEART is much better than it was given credit for when it was first released. DRACULA is an oustanding movie. GARDENS OF STONE is superb, period. TUCKER, while not first-class, has excellent performances. I still have faith that Coppola, one of these days, is going to astonish all of us with another masterpiece.

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I'd put Coppola nearly on equal stature with Scorcese and as we've just seen a return of the Broadway musical brought back to life on the screen with "Chicago" (my choice for the best film of 2002), my hats off to another Coppola musical endeavor which is sometimes underrated -- "Finian's Rainbow." "Peggy Sue Got Married" is an endearing and inventive comedy and "Bram Stoker's Dracula" profoundly aesthetic production design as well as the magnificent score stand out over most of the acting in the film, although Gary Oldman's Dracula is just barely my second favorite rendering of that character. "Gardens of Stone," "The Cotton Club," "One from the Heart" are films I've always been conflicted about as Copolla just wan't getting through to me.

"Pulp Fiction" is one of those films that is so intense, so stylized that some viewers are put off by it. I love the film and mainly because of the performances Spike Lee got out of the actors in this surreal dark comedy (or is it?) I'd have to say that it's closer to how I think of Los Angeles than almost any film I can think of with "L.A. Confidential" and "Chinatown" coming in very close. (Offer me Los Angeles and Hell, I'd sell L.A. and live in Hell).

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LW. I'm with you on LA.

As to "Top Ten Lists", well, who's list it is determines which entries are on the list. That a Top Ten List of movies by anyone would exclude Kurosawa boggles my imagination, but then, I'd put together a diffferent Top Ten. Frankly, I rarely see a list of 10 recommendations to ANYTHING with which I totally agree. Rolling Eyes

AN Redux and Bladerunner; The Diector's Cut are very different movies than either of their earlier mass release versions, and I think both superior to their progenitors. Visually, both are stunning ... the more so on The Big Screen, but I believe Bladerunner translates a bit better to the small screen than does AN.

Coppola has secured his place in the pantheon of directors. Ridley Scott is no less considerable a talent, IMHO.

timber

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The other film is Alan Rudolph's "Choose Me," which exposes the dark social scene of L.A. There are pockets of good in L.A. but they are difficult to find. The Getty is one of them, on a hill overlooking the "City of Angles." I used to live on Hollywood Blvd. in the hills (yes, it wanders up into the hills at Coldwater Canyon) over the Sunset Strip. Another oasis then was Scandia Restaurant. It's gone... Crying or Very sad

I agree that the "Blade Runner" director cut is likely the best of an director's cuts as the studio severely doctored the original in an unabashed attempt to make it more attainable to those who would never like or understand this film.

I've already said why I prefer the original cut of "Apocalypse" but would have like something inbetween. The added scenes digressed from the forward thrust of the story for me and added nothing but some rather awkwardly staged sex scenes that didn't make a Hell of a lot of sense. A judicious cutting somewhere in between I would perhaps be more receptive to. Just different outlooks on filmmaking but that's IMHO.

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I finallly watched all of PULP FICTION on HBO last night and while I still don't like it much, I now see why other people might. I prefer RESERVOIR DOGS which I think is a better movie on every level--much scarier and much funnier. The trouble with PULP FICTION is that it is too absurdist and arbitrary, so that I really don't care who lives or dies, whether any of the characters succeeds or fails. The big ending, with Samuel Jackson having a spiritual revelation, seemed forced and artificial to me. PULP FICTION strikes me as a case of Traantino having nothing to say but saying it cleverly. Compare that to MEAN STREETS, for me still Scorsese's best movie, where Scorsese burns up the screen with meaning AND style. It's the difference between cleverness and being possessed by your subject. Tarantino is certainly clever, but I was left feeling, so what?

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"Apocalypse Now" Best Film of Last Twenty-Five Years

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