Your "perfect" films

[Benzadmiral]

Now I know that any list of "perfect" movies is going to be highly subjective. My definition here is "a movie that I would change nothing in" -- not casting, scenes, dialog, even music. I'd bet, however, that some of my choices would intersect with those of other film buffs.

Anyway, the list as of today:

The Shop Around the Corner (1940) and its semi-remake, You've Got Mail (1998)

Larger than Life (1996)

Ghostbusters (1984)

Groundhog Day (1993?)

Die Hard (1988)

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)

White Heat (1949)

The Apartment (1960)

City Slickers (1991)

Odd, perhaps, that for an avowed action/drama/science fiction junkie, I only have 2 crime/action movies and 1 SF on the list. And peculiar, also, that no less than 3 of my choices star Bill Murray, who until I compiled this list I would not have mentioned as my favorite actor of all time; but there it is.

What would be on your list of films you would change nothing about?

 

[Fading Fast]

"Shop Around the Corner" is a really good choice - not one I would have thought of, but I can't think of a thing I'd change to that excellent movie.

My off-the-top-of-my-head list would include:

"Separate Tables -" every scene, every actor is perfect. Just a gem of a movie that shows the human tragedy that so many endure quietly and anonymously in their lives.

"The Uninvited -" a very tight, no boring scenes, perfect actors for the roles ghost story that works for someone like me who isn't that into ghost movies

"Jaws -" perfect, wouldn't change a single thing

"48 Hours -" best buddies / cops movie IMHO that also has no boring scenes and perfectly cast actors

"The Lost Weekend -" an ahead of its time, incredibly powerful look at how alcoholism ruins a man's life and all those in his orbit (I would change the end - the last five minutes - but absolutely nothing else).

"The Country Girl -" another movie with grit about alcoholism that gets almost no attention, but IMHO, nails every scene with Bing Crosby killing it in an "against type" role.

More to come

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Broken Blossoms" (1919)

"The Mark Of Zorro" (1920)

"The Big Parade" (1925)

"Girl Shy" (1926)

"Three's A Crowd" (1927)

"White Shadows In The South Seas" (1928)

"Sunny Side Up" (1929)

"Monkey Business" (1931)

"Peach O' Reno" (1932)

"Horse Feathers" (1932)

"I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang," (1932)

"The Match King" (1932)

"Footlight Parade" (1933)

"Diplomaniacs" (1933)

"Duck Soup" (1933)

"It Happened One Night" (1934)

"It's A Gift" (1934)

"Thanks A Million" (1935)

"Wake Up And Live" (1937)

"Meet John Doe" (1941)

"Sullivan's Travels" (1941)

"The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" (1943)

 

[AmateisGal]

State Fair (1945)

Laura (1944)

The Longest Day (1962)

Frenchman's Creek (1944)

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Rio Bravo (1959)

 

[Bushman]

I have very high standards for perfection and less than a handful make the cut. I think it should be with no surprise that the perfect movies I've seen are all book adaptations. Those being:

"The Green Mile"
"Jaws"
"The Shining"
"Shawshank Redemption"

 

[EngProf]

Since nothing is really perfect, these are movies such that the small problems are so negligible that I would not bother to change anything. (Example: Doc Holliday gets off three shots from a double-barreled shotgun at the OK Corral in "Tombstone", but that's OK, all other things considered.)
A partial list:
"Tombstone"
"American Graffiti"
"It Happened One Night"
"Rio Bravo"
"The Longest Day"
"Casablanca"
"Godfather I and II"
"The General"
"The Wizard of Oz"
"Stagecoach" (the real version - John Wayne, John Ford, etc.)
More thought required...

 

[DNO]

What a difficult task! Here's some films that I wouldn't alter:


Gallipoli (1981)

Breaker Morant (1980)

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Seven Samurai (1954)

The Cruel Sea (1953)

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)

Battle of Algiers (1966)

Apocalypse Now (1979)

Paths of Glory (1957)

Unforgiven (1992)

Fargo (1996)

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

 

[ND1SU]

The Hunt for Red October

The Sting

Fiddler on the Roof

 

[MisterCairo]

City Lights
The Maltese Falcon (Bogart)
Casablanca
It's A Wonderful Life
Bridge on the River Kwai
Zulu
Lawrence of Arabia
Big Night
Withnail and I
Cold Comfort Farm (1996)

 

[Joe50's]

Calamity jane 1953
The wizard of oz 1939
Casablanca 1942
Shakiest gun in west
Curly top 1935
Miracle on 34th street
Breakfast at Tiffany's 1962
Sunvalley serenade 1941 liked seeing glen millers in the mood performed live for the most part.
Private bucks 1941 liked bugle boy of company b from the Andrews sisters
Private buckaroo 1942 liked when patty Andrews says if I were a man I would join the army and Harry's friend goes me too confusing patty as he was just turned down for flat feet right before she came in
Grease 1978 although i wound't mind if it were cleaner but from what I've heard the play was considered almost r rated when they made the movie so they numbed it down slightly so they could show it in theaters . the cast chemistry and the classic songs make the movie great unlike its flop sequel grease 2

 

[LizzieMaine]

Cold Comfort Farm (1996)

What a great picture that is. I still refer to rain as "nature's fecund blessing."

 

[William G.]

For my money (not necessarily in this order)
TUCKER: THE MAN AND HIS DREAM
AMERICAN GRAFFITI
CASABLANCA

 

[Fading Fast]

For my money (not necessarily in this order)
TUCKER: THE MAN AND HIS DREAM
AMERICAN GRAFFITI
CASABLANCA

I really like "Tucker," but see it as a very flawed but enjoyable move. That said, in a oblique way, "Seabiscuit" felt like a better version of "Tucker:" same underdog-individualist-with-a-crazy-idea-showing-the-world-he's-right theme, but with a horse not a car.

 

[William G.]

I really like "Tucker," but see it as a very flawed but enjoyable move. That said, in a oblique way, "Seabiscuit" felt like a better version of "Tucker:" same underdog-individualist-with-an-crazy-idea-showing-the-world-he's-right theme, but with a horse not a car.

Seabiscuit would be another one I should've added to my list, although I haven't watched it in years.

 

[Edward]

For me, the latest Paddington was perfect (though Herself was very upset at the story-truncation that saw them kill his uncle).

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is near perfect (I'd excise the 'Class of 1967' jacket patch and the Nixon speech which causes some to lose sight of its timelessness) - such a shame Lou Adler has felt the need to make what looks set to be a diabolically awful remake. But hey - whoever will go to see that at midnight in drag? Yeah. Take that, Lou.

Casablanca (and all Bogie's best stuff)
Reservoir Dogs
Pulp Fiction
The Wind That Shakes the Barley
Rock and Roll High School
The Young Frankenstein
The Producers (both versions, in different ways)
In Bruges (or anything else featuring Brendan Gleeson)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original and best)
Night of the Living Dead
Dawn of the Dead
Shaun of the Dead
The Wild One
Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn

Probably many more...

Breakfast at Tiffany's 1962

It's a beautiful film, but fatally flawed by how they screwed it up with Hollywood's obsession with shoe-horned in "happy" endings.

Grease 1978 although i wound't mind if it were cleaner but from what I've heard the play was considered almost r rated when they made the movie so they numbed it down slightly so they could show it in theaters . the cast chemistry and the classic songs make the movie great unlike its flop sequel grease 2

They dumbed down a bit for the film, though itg is still, all said and done, the story of a teenage girl deciding to sleep with a boyfriend for the first time. I love it for the irony of how 'wrong' it is - "Girls" Want the boy? Smoke, drink, ecome everything you're not - just for him!". Pretty typical Hollywood sanitisation of the period - hide a few naughty words and a couple of sexual jokes, but let the big point slip. As I've laways understood it, the original show was veyr much a tongue-in-cheek parody of blind / rose-tinted nostalgia for the "moral" fifties, but I think the film didn't quite get that... . The stage show has its superior aspects, but alas for the most part these days they don't play the original show, but a cannibalised version designed to ape the flim as closely as possible, for the dollars, obvs.

 

[Fading Fast]

Breakfast at Tiffany's 1962

It's a beautiful film, but fatally flawed by how they screwed it up with Hollywood's obsession with shoe-horned in "happy" endings.

The Hollywood happy ending thing bothers me in the movie, but not as much as Mickey Rooney's obnoxious, insulting and idiotically racist performance. I know times were different - and I try very hard to think about things in the context of the time - but even given that, his character is inconsistent with the thoughtfulness, the style and the tone of the movie. He comes off like nails on a chalkboard.

Another near perfect movie is "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir." Simple, smart and handles the "ghost thing" intelligently.

 

[Haversack]

The Man Who Would Be King
The Wind and the Lion
Kind Hearts and Coronets
The Palm Beach Story
Whisky Galore
Tunes of Glory
The Prisoner of Zenda (1937)
The President's Analyst
One, Two, Three

 

[Touchofevil]

For me, the latest Paddington was perfect (though Herself was very upset at the story-truncation that saw them kill his uncle).

The Rocky Horror Picture Show is near perfect (I'd excise the 'Class of 1967' jacket patch and the Nixon speech which causes some to lose sight of its timelessness) - such a shame Lou Adler has felt the need to make what looks set to be a diabolically awful remake. But hey - whoever will go to see that at midnight in drag? Yeah. Take that, Lou.

Casablanca (and all Bogie's best stuff)
Reservoir Dogs
Pulp Fiction
The Wind That Shakes the Barley
Rock and Roll High School
The Young Frankenstein
The Producers (both versions, in different ways)
In Bruges (or anything else featuring Brendan Gleeson)
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original and best)
Night of the Living Dead
Dawn of the Dead
Shaun of the Dead
The Wild One
Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn

Interesting choices. Many I really enjoy. Some (RRHS and YF) bring back memories of my youth, but it is In Bruges and the remark about Brendan Gleeson that I most agree with. I am not sure if I find any film to be perfect. I have viewed a lot of really good movies, but perfect, I do not think so.

 

[Edward]

The Hollywood happy ending thing bothers me in the movie, but not as much as Mickey Rooney's obnoxious, insulting and idiotically racist performance. I know times were different - and I try very hard to think about things in the context of the time - but even given that, his character is inconsistent with the thoughtfulness, the style and the tone of the movie. He comes off like nails on a chalkboard.

Oh, yes - there's no way they'd get away with that today. Similarly, there's no way Peter Ustinov would be allowed to play Chinese now (One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing) - I think the last person I can remember doing that now was Eddie Murphy in Norbit, the film which killed his career. Whatever the Chinese equivalent of blackface is, that was it...

I do wonder if, in forty years' time, we'll all look back at how insensitive it was having a white, Anglosphere-type playing Moses or Noah.

 

[Fading Fast]

Oh, yes - there's no way they'd get away with that today. Similarly, there's no way Peter Ustinov would be allowed to play Chinese now (One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing) - I think the last person I can remember doing that now was Eddie Murphy in Norbit, the film which killed his career. Whatever the Chinese equivalent of blackface is, that was it...

I do wonder if, in forty years' time, we'll all look back at how insensitive it was having a white, Anglosphere-type playing Moses or Noah.

The racism of Rooney's character is the most offensive part, but even if he was playing the role as an American annoying neighbor (i.e., taking out the horrible racism), the slapstick, the screeching, the sheer goofiness of his character didn't fit the style and thoughtfulness of the rest of the movie - it's like he was forced into the movie by some studio exec who saw that some "focus group" said loud, stupid, obnoxious characters are what people want.