I was born in 1989. I know there is a history before me and was lucky enough to get my hands on the gold mine of movies. In this post, i will write about the most memorable movies of the years from 1920's to 1960's, that i have watched. In my opinion, they are all classics that should not be missed. In other words, these are a few of my favorite ones. Comment down below if you understand the pun :)
I am not a movie critique to talk about scenarios or cinematography here. I wanted to save this post for others or future generations to let them know what they are missing. If you are grown in 2000's, believe me you will see a very different world. I won't criticize today's movie industry, even though it deserves heavily. I rather want to talk about what was out there before. All of them have a unique reason to be here. Most of them have some sort of message which are mostly lost these days. Most of them have huge amount of effort behind them, even though today's cinematic and tehnological movie world looks fancier and bigger.
The stories in these movies are not about superheros saving the world. They are not about fictional worlds or invasions. They are about real people you might come across in the street everyday. They are about families with strong bonds, They are about values of humanity. They are about real feelings and tragedies. They shed light on the history that we didn't witness.
You might find them too basic or boring or old or cinematically ancient and etc. Actually this was my thought before watching them too. Then i realized the acting + unique skills of people in these movies and the difficulties they overcame to create them and the deep reflections of society in their scripts. In the end i literally feel like this post is a gold mine. Lots of values we must remember, lots of history we don't know... How much can be expressed through simplicity? That is the question that you'll find the answer after watching these movies. Ok, i tried to convince you as much as i could :) Here is the list without any particular order, all of them have links for you to check out.
This is about a young man lending his apartment to his employers for their kinky purposes. Events get spiraled out of control one day when the woman he likes gets involved in all this. It actually starts out as a comedy but most of it is a pretty warm representation of purity of selflessness. It will remind you of caring about someone more then your own feelings. The technique to create a huge floor full of workers is genius in this movie. The punchline is "Shut up and deal" :)
This one is about fame, honesty and dignity. When a movie star couple experiences the world of movies turning from silent pictures to talking pictures as technology develops, things get complicated. You will find what it means to love your job and the true value of friendship. You will also realize there is always an element of deception in the world of entertainment. There is a very strange fact in this movie. The character in the movie is dubbed by the person that is actually being dubbed :) In other words, the person A is voicing person B in the movie but in reality, person B is voicing person A at some point behind the scenes. My favorite part is "Make 'em laugh".
Shall We Dance is like a musical in which you will find a man and a woman connects through dance. The man is a ballet and the woman is a movie star and the famous tap dance brings them together, of course through a strange and funny series of events. The message here is that despite the differences of people, there must be some way we can connect, like dancing. My favorite song is "Let's call the whole thing off" and i will put it here since i liked it very much :) They had bruises after taking this scene for couple of times.
This one was very impressive. Justice has never been questioned like in this movie. This is about a trial in which a young man is accused of murder. The jury must come up with a unanimous decision in order to announce the final verdict. It becomes harder and harder to decide when one of them thinks differently and sets off a wave of self reflection. Justice is a sharp blade. It must be handled delicately in the hands of those who are responsible to serve it.
The most dramatic movie of old times i guess. This story is about a young boy growing up to be a mischievous young man. All his tragic story is set in motion even before he is born. He eventually gets involved with different aspects of life and most importantly, love. This one will make you think how much of your life is actually not under your control and you just take it for granted.
Fun, tragedy, love, humanity is all in this one. The message here is that even though you think life sucks, you might have a wonderful life just ahead of you or you have already had one. This is a story of a young man living, loving, failing and witnessing miracles. He is saved by his guardian angle to prove that he already has a lot to be thankful for. The movie is originally black and white but there is a colored version of this. This one is probably the most entertaining one other than Charlie Chaplin's movies, since they are silent. The funniest line looping in my head is "JOSEPH !! JOSEPH !!!" :)
A movie about the gold rush era of United States, where people started pouring into Alaska for gold. In the movie, our hero Chaplin goes to Alaska and everything after that is hilarious. The twist here is that there are values in this world as valuables as gold. I have written about silent movies and how much hard work are behind them in this post. They used a real bear in this movie. This is a silent movie but "Where's Georgia?" is the line i remember a lot.
You will be laughing a lot in this movie. Yet another Chaplin movie were the main character is falling for the girl, who is blind in this case. He is going through strange and funny chain of events. All his efforts are channeled into making one special person happy. Maybe the message is love can find its way through the heart, not the eyes.
Another fun and hard work filled movie of Chaplin and this one is about the industrialization era of United States. You will find how it started to exploit people, causing strikes and all sorts of trouble for people. It is basically the prelude to the 100 years of ongoing struggle. This movie will take you into different stories of an unfortunate and somewhat lucky worker. The real message here is to never give up. This is a very cute love story.
This one is psychological and will give you chills at some point. A young man finds himself in trouble and runs into another one inadvertently. This is a story of a movie star losing her fame over time and trying to force her way out through a young writer. She eventually becomes obsessed and things start getting more emotional and unstable. You will find the unpleasant side of being famous, like it being temporary, addictive and toxic. The main female character in this movie kind of experiences the same in her real life too, but she doesn't get weird about it. It is hard to describe this movie with 1 sentence but this one was striking: "I am big. It's the pictures that got small".
This movie could have another title, the unifying power of music. It is about a stern gentlemen and a young woman with full of life. Music is what overcomes this gap. The message here i guess is that the universal common ground of people is not words, it is rather notes. No matter what the circumstances, music always has a way to reach what's inside us. This one is based on a true story.
There you go. I have listed my favorites and i am sure there are more than that. There are lots of lists on the internet like "X number of movies you should see". This small list is the ones that i think could be forgotten over time. Also, they have deep meanings too. We are losing sight of where we are going and i think if we look at what we used to do and how we got here, we can project a better future. See you at the next post :)
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