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Million Dollar Movie

Here’s 85 movies that matter according to Martin Scorsese.

11 comments

1 Matt Blankman   ~  Feb 28, 2012 9:45 am

It's a cool read, this list, but it keeps being presented in a false way. It's not as if Scorsese wrote up a list and said "everyone should see these movies!" He mentioned them all over the course of a lengthy interview. My point being that there are a lot of movies missing that he routinely mentions in other interviews. This is just how the guy's brain works - he's always thinking movies.

2 Alex Belth   ~  Feb 28, 2012 9:47 am

Absolutely.

3 Matt Blankman   ~  Feb 28, 2012 10:03 am

I don't mean to dis it - I loved reading it. I just mean that it's being presented as if he'd drawn up a curriculum for a cinema studies class and these were his absolute 85 greatest films, when in fact it's nothing of the kind.

It's usually my favorite thing about Scorsese interviews, all the movies he mentions. There's always some semi-obscure western or melodrama from the 40s or 50s I've never heard of that I have to track down.

4 Alex Belth   ~  Feb 28, 2012 10:35 am

Yup. But it's also got some of his favorites like "Force of Evil."

5 Matt Blankman   ~  Feb 28, 2012 10:47 am

[4] Cool movie. Yeah, I love hearing his comments about some of the flicks, particularly those of his contemporaries.

6 Alex Belth   ~  Feb 28, 2012 11:27 am

5) Especially the Altman.

7 Mr OK Jazz Tokyo   ~  Feb 28, 2012 8:40 pm

That was fun! I'm not a huge fan or Rosselini though Paisan is great. No Pier Paolo Pasolini though? One of Italy's (and the world's) greatest film makers..as you said though, not a complete list and no Japanese entries at all.

8 Mr OK Jazz Tokyo   ~  Feb 28, 2012 9:21 pm

I saw "Klute" a few years back and was no impressed..is it dated? Maybe need to give it another shot..

9 joejoejoe   ~  Feb 28, 2012 9:58 pm

Jane Fonda looking a little bit like Joan Jett?!? Pretty cool.

10 Boatzilla   ~  Feb 28, 2012 10:58 pm

Interesting list. Jason & The Argonauts. House of Wax. Funny, how I remember seeing those as a boy and how they grabbed me. Especially House of Wax. I became scared shitless every time I went to a wax museum.

I remember seeing McCabe & Mrs. Miller when I was 8 with my mom.(My parents always took me to whatever they wanted to see.) The violence really touched me....very uncomfortable. Great flick.

11 Matt Blankman   ~  Feb 29, 2012 12:29 am

[7] Right - for instance, he touches on a couple Ford flicks, but doesn't mention The Searchers, which he has talked about endlessly for decades. He doesn't mention Leave Her To Heaven, which he talks about fairly extensively in the book of interviews he did with Richard Schickel.

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