Top 30 Movies of All Time

[cmoon]

[Kevin]

[Kevin]

The Great Dictator

Charlie Chaplin's movie was far beyond that of a simple comedy or social commentary. The speech at the end was a direct assault on Hitler, while the idea of a Jewish boy being used as a double for the Nazi leader was a direct attack on the hypocrisy of Hitler's own personal background - done before we "officially" entered the war.

This movie had such an effect on the populous, Charlie wrongly thought his movie belittled the terror going on during WW2, and had the movie pulled from theaters. This only spurred public opinion more against the war and against the Woolies (domestic Nazis).

The direction of this movie is also more powerful than any comedy at the time, or prior too - ranging from Hitler playing with a balloon of the world, to Charlie's tearful speech at the end of the film.

This movie is almost as important to the Film world as "Judgment at Nuremberg"


Judgment at Nuremberg

This movie encapsulates the frustrations Americans felt at the bureaucracy and diplomatic ties with the European governments that shackled all attempts at seeking justice against high ranking Nazi members after World War II.

Though this movie centers most of the prosecutor's disgruntled view against his commanding officers, it was, in truth, the diplomatic treaty with the outdated World Court/International Court that prevented any justice from being sought against key members of the Nazi party. This trial and the diplomacy which lead to this trial were the key reasons why our strong diplomatic ties with the European Nations began to falter, why we gave secret information to Isreali Secret Service to hunt Nazis during the 60s-80s, and why we banned the world court for interceding during the Japanese trials.

People sometimes ask "Oh, why do we hate the French? Why don't we listen to the European Union? Why do we have military bases in Europe?"

Well this movie answers some of the questions, the others can be found imbedded with these facts:

* Belgium folded like a deck of cards to Hitler's blitzkrieg
* Poland signed the peace treaty with Hitler despite warnings
* French military was ejected from rebuilding of Germany because they had raped and murdered more German citizens than the Russian army.
* French involvement (diplomatic and military) prior to Korean conflict and Vietnam War which drug us in.
* The various Nuremberg Trials which let over 200 war criminals off the hook.
* World War II being a repeat of World War I, and American military officers knew that without heavy military presence from someone Russia would roll right over and start World War III. Since the European countries showed no desire to operate their own, we began our military emplacement.



However, the base military mentality of America's distrust, and disgust with much of the European countries can be zeroed in on Nuremberg. This movie covers a lot of the frustrations felt by many people due to the World Court and Diplomatic situations as it goes over one of the trials.

Other aspects include the terror felt by the populace under events leading up to the jewish holocaust, as the German people all "followed orders" for the "good of the country" by "obeying the laws" rather than standing up for what was right.

[Jeffbert]

[Kevin]

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

More science than fiction is in this science fiction novel to move, to top it off, this movie encapsulated the ORIGINAL Captain Nemo far more than the forced edit of the "widely" publicized novelization.

Few people know that the Original Captain Nemo was Polish, and it was a statement against the vulgar Russian conflict with Poland. Jules Verne was forced to re-write Nemo as a Barbary captain (closer to an Arab) who was upset with the Americans because of a French Treaty with Russia. Verne was livid, but eventually re-wrote the Nemo character with as little reference to his past as possible.

Disney dumped all vestiges of any possible Arabic nature from Nemo and made him look as Eastern Bloc as possible. Whether this was intentional or not, well, I don't know. They also changed Nemo so he attacked all ships, rather than just singling out a specific nation.

This movie frightened and inspired kids everywhere, from Giant Squid (which is now been proven to be entirely possible), to nuclear power and "green living". Nobody in 1954 would eat seaweed and octopus - now it's an every day food you can find in the supermarket!

Incidently this movie came out in 1954, same year the USS Nautilus was christened into the Navy. I hardly doubt it was coincidence, but an interesting fact none the less.

[Recca_Phoenix]

[Rock's Sunglasses]

[Kevin]

[cmoon]

[Kevin]

The Ten Commandments

Regardless of your religious affiliation (I'm very not religious), this movie did such an amazing job of providing an incredibly, ridiculous fictitious account of the exodus from Egypt, not only did it create waves in how to improve special effects and methods of cinematography but it spurned real life "bible seekers" to find out what actually did happen!

For those without a scorecard, let be bring you up to date:

* The man named Moses did not live turing the time of Ramses II. Rather, his adoptive brother's name was Akmoses/Ahmoses (depending apparently on what scholarly translation you use) back in 1500-1600 BCE.
* Moses was part of the Hyksos exodus.
* Moses was a military general.
* It was the parting at the Reed Sea not the parting of the Red Sea, though there is room to suggest the Reed Sea did in fact part. Why? Well, at the same time there was a massive geological disaster when Santorini in the Aegean Sea erupted, destroying the Minoan islands and the ever elusive Atlantis. When this happened it caused a massive tidal wave, and tetonic shift, causing an entire sandbar of nothing but silt to slide down shutting off the inlet that lead into the Reed Sea. After which another aftershock opened up the Reed Sea.
* The "Thirteenth Tribe of Isreal" was actually the Minoan goldsmiths and traders who were working for Pharaoh at the time. They tried to go back home, found it totally ravaged by the tidal waves, and then settled into Greek settlements between Greece, Crete (which was rebuilding), and Turkey.
* We know these people were Minoan because they were referred to as in the historical documents Egyptian/Hebrew as traveling with the "Evil Ones"/"Children of God" titles respectively given, but after the disaster of Santorini, there were no more major accounts of Minoan/Micenean traders.
* The exodus only lasted a couple of months, maybe 3 years (rather than 40).
* Also, Moses had a stuttering problem (something ol NRA didn't have).
* The "bloodied water" was, actually, a result of the post volcanic earthquakes - as they released a mass of iron oxide and carbon monoxide. Which, incidentally, turns blood red in an Oxygenated liquid.
* The first born dying was the carbon monoxide seeping out of the water - it even TURNS into green mist that rises 2-3 feet off the ground - and since all First Born males sleep on the First Floor of their homes... well you do the math.
* Everyone knew Moses was adopted, in fact, his grandfather was an EGYPTIAN LORD. Moses was adopted INTO the Royal blood line as -- A SON OF ISIS to denote his pure lineage.
Ahmoses = Embodiment of RA (Son of Isis the WATER GODDESS)
Moses = Son of Isis the WATER GODDESS
= Legitimated BROTHERS!
The whole water motif was to denote royal blood. It was accepted by the populous since his grandfather was already an accepted lord of the "Children of God" and Egypt.
* Volcanic Ash becomes superheated and encapsulated in "ice" when it reaches the upper atmosphere. It was the "burning hail" which warmed up the temperature of Egypt which was going through a cool season, heated up the blood of the Locusts, which in turn caused the frogs to come out.

Depending on how you look at it:
It was either a Mega Disaster or a Mega Miracle.

Considering the fact the Greeks had many such "Miracles" Attributed to their gods, I tend to lean on the "Mega Disaster which saved the Israelite Keester" rather than Miracle. But you can believe what you want I won't argue.


In either case -- Without this movie to spur archaeologists into action, facts like that would've been lost to time and "Intelligent Design".

There are a bunch of other good things about the movie, despite a total lack of any realism, it's fun to watch. The F/X were ground breaking. The film quality was and still holds up to the test of time. The direction was astute. It also re-defined the concept of "Epic Film".

[Jeffbert]

After reading Joseph Campbell's lectures* I naturally concluded that the Exodus itself was pure mythology. Just as the Romans' Romulus & Remus as the mythical boys adopted by a she wolf, who went on to found Rome, so the Israelis had their own mythical 'history.' Likewise, many cultures have similar myths of divine origins. Having said that, I do realize that even myths have some historical basis, such as comets falling into the ocean causing tidal waves that inspired flood myths not only in Isreal, but many other places that were affected.

I have yet to begin reading about the documentary hypothesis in any real depth, but have been considering the creation story in a metaphorical sense for quite some time, & it only makes sense as a coming of age mythology. It has no credibility as a creation history, as there are more than a few things that are simply non sensical if considered as historical. Where is Satan? Whose daughter did Cain marry?

I appreciate this film because, as I understand it, this started the life-long friendship between C. Heston & E. G. Robinson. When I watched the extras on the Soylent Green DVD, it made Robinson's death scene all the more emotional every time I watched since then.

*The lectures I read were apparently condemned by the Joseph Campbell foundation as unauthorized, despite the fact that my university used these as texts.

[Kevin]

Well, that's because there's no historical reference to any great exodus during the reign of Ramses II, or to the cataclysm of Greece during that period. However, there is a massive amount of historical records dating back to the type of the Hyksos, some 400 years PRIOR to the reign of Ramses II, during the reign of Ahmoses/Akmoses (which literally translated means brother of Moses), concerning a great exodus of thousands of people (far more than the population census allows for the Hyksos tribe). At that time Moses was a very Egyptian name - not Hebrew. Not only that but it occurred during a major cataclysm that affected not just the Greek isles, but 1/4 of the entire earth.

http://www.theexodusdecoded.net/

http://www.amazon.com/Exodus-Decoded-Hi ... 105&sr=8-1

Is an incredibly amazing video done by one of the leading Biblical archaeologists of our day. Just ignore some of the fancy video theatricals and look at the stuff he's saying.


The "Great Exodus" as depicted in the Ten Commandments is complete fiction, but, the "Great Exodus" of the bible, or one LIKE it (which could've been ripped off by the Bible), did happen - Egyptian Records, Greek Records, Hyksos records all agree on that.


We would've never known about it either without movies like tTC to spur archaeologists into action.

[cmoon]

[Kevin]

cmoon - yes, I agree, but then again you already knew that about me

[cmoon]

Actually I really love The Ten Commandments, but it only bares any connection to the bible in that there is some dude named Moses and some hunks of rock called the ten commandments; other than that it is just this huge hollywood spectacle that is mostly (if not completely) out of control. Yul Brenner has every possible cool outfit imaginable, while charleton heston's beard just keeps getting huger.

Dude, where's the love for the 1933 king kong?