Older movies that still are good today

[tonyvdb]

I was siting down with my wife this weekend and watched the first two in the series of The karate Kid movies and it made me think what movies from the late 70's through the early 90's were good then and still worth re-watching again.
The movies that come to mind right now are, (in no particular order)

The Karate Kid
Jurassic park
Better off dead
Quiet earth
Superman
Pay it forward
Terminator
Chain reaction
Indiana Jones
The holy grail
Star wars
War of the worlds
Back to the future
Home alone
Die Hard
Towering inferno
Volcano
Daylight

Just added:
Dances with wolves

and I am sure I'm missing some.....

[Prof.]

This could be a very long list Tony...but I'll add a few that in addition to some of yours were standouts for me..

The Abyss
Impact
Deep Blue Sea
Twister
Armagedden
Congo
The Peacemaker

And a really old one that was a classic in my day..
The Day Earth Stood Still..


Just a few that come to mind..

[Richard W. Haines]

Since this is a very subjective subject matter, we should first discuss what you think makes a film worth seeing more than once.

If I were to make a list of attributes that make a movie worth watching over and over again
I would suggest the following:

1) Style. Something lacking in most contemporary films. For example, Sergio Leone had such
a unique style of filmmaking it made his simple Western stories far more interesting than they
would've been had they been shot in a conventional manner. Style encompasses a broad
spectrum which includes composition, editing and sound design.

2) Cinematography. With all of the digital imagery and alterations common now, I have to admire
the cameramen of the past who achieved their effects through elaborate lighting designs or
'painting with light on film' as Freddie ("Lawrence of Arabia") Young used to call it. This applies
to both color and black and white camerawork.

3) Themes. I don't mean the main storyline but what the director and screenwriter examined
beneath the surface. For example Hitchcock liked to uncover the darker side of human
nature. David Lean examined morally flawed heros. Pekinpah found nobility and honor in
the worst criminals. Unfortunatley you're not going to find these themes in too many contemporary movies because their targeted demographic wouldn't be interested.

4) Technology. What I'm referring to is when the director utilized whatever process they
selected for maximum impact. For example, "2001: A Space Odyssey" used 70mm and Cinerama
to literally put you in outer space and into another dimension. "Star Wars" re-invented stereophonic
sound to create a unique 'sound field' that made you feel like you were on location and the sound surrounded your entire hearing range. Stereo sound was pretty much dead before it made a major
comeback after this film. Within a few years, most movies were in Dolby Stereo rather than mono.

I'll tell you the type of film that I rarely watch more than once. It's the 'talking head' movie
like "Driving Miss Daisy". Nothing wrong with the film other than it wasn't cinematic and it would've
worked just as well as a television movie. I guess the kind of movie that you can follow by
just listening to dialogue on the soundtrack is the least interesting to me.


In any event, using the above criteria the movies that I continue to watch
over and over again from this time period that had at least some of these
attributes would be in no particular order:

Towering Inferno (mentioned above but early seventies)
Jaws (mid-sevenites rather than late seventies)
Grease
Close Encounters (original version)
Star Wars (original version)
Superman
Hair
Barton Fink
Ed Wood

There may be more but this was the not Golden Era of filmmaking in
my judgment. Most of my favorites come from the fifties and sixties
which was certainly the zenith of motion picture technology and showmanship.

[superchad]

Crimsoon Tide

Second Hand Lions

Shawshank Redemption

Das Boot

Goodfellas

Pulp Fiction

Biloxi Blues

Those are few off the top of my head

[BluNote]

Gotta have

Aliens
Usual Suspects
Untouchables
Full Metal Jacket
Scarface
Goonies
Princess Bride

Back to 70's but still must haves

A Clockwork Orange
Monty Python & The Holy Grail

[Rich Jura]

3 Days of the Condor

[mddbb]

Shawshank Redemption is the best movie ever made.

[mddbb]

And you can't beat the Godfather 1 & 2

[nova]

My list;

Blade Runner
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Indiana Jones
The Wind and the Lion
The Hunt for Red October
Star Wars

and the older ones:

The Quiet Man
John Ford's Calvary Trilogy (Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon and Rio Grande)

[Rich Jura]

How about 'The Man who would be King'

Later
Rich

[BruZZi]

Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)

[salvasol]

What about this ...

200px-Fistful_Macaroni.jpg 200px-Good_the_bad_and_the_ugly_poster.jpg

[Richard W. Haines]

Two excellent choices but make sure you watch the special edition restored DVDs not
the earlier releases which look bad.

[salvasol]

Richard W. Haines wrote:

Two excellent choices but make sure you watch the special edition restored DVDs not the earlier releases which look bad.

Thank you for the advise

I like the movies but don't own the DVD ...I've been looking online and found the restored version for The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

Do you know if this collection (Amazon.com: The Sergio Leone Anthology (A Fistful... ) has all the movies restored??? ... It said that it was released 06/05/07 and they mention something about 5.1 (just want to be sure before I order one)

EDIT: After a long reading at the reviews on Amazon ... I pulled the trigger and got me the spaghetti collection (you learn something new everyday

[thxgoon]

Good list so far! I'll add

Outbreak
Casino
Scent of a Woman
A Few Good Men
Top Gun
Apollo 13
Terminator 1 and 2
Forest Gump
Heat
Grumpy Old Men
Caddyshack
Pulp Fiction

Richard - I'd define a movie still good today with a 5th category. Entertainment! Good story, good characters, fun plot.

[mrsollars]

1986- RAD
Sneakers
Royal Tenenbaums
Bottle Rocket
(Wes Anderson Stuff)

[da_ezman]

M*A*S*H

Dune
The White Buffalo
American Grafetti
Blazing Saddles
Fast Times At Ridgemont High
Mad Max series

[Toolatecrew]

Just watched Blade Runner Directors cut on HD DVD and reminded me how good it was considering the time period it was made. Plus its got a remaster HD sountrack that is way more enveloping than I rember ANY movie of that ear happening. I felt like I was immersed in the sounds of the city rain etc the entire movie. Really impressed.

Also Enter the Dragon on HD DVD. Mayb the all time classing martial arts movie. It entratained me just as much as when it first came out.