Happy Australia Day

To all the Australians out there, no matter where in the world you may be situated,

Happy Australia Day!

Movies and the like

On a rare trip into Brisbane today, I had the chance to wander around a DVD shop, and it got me thinking about movies I've seen, TV shows I've loved, and ones of each that I have yet to see.

So what do you do in that situation? Apparently you wait until you get home, then 'google' for classic movies. And what do you get when you do such a thing? A list of 100 movies you just HAVE to see before you die. 

Given I've been around now for awhile (I'm officially reaching that age when perhaps I could be considered 'middle aged', though given the people in my family live well into their 80s and 90s, I've a ways to go yet before I reach that particular 'title'), I thought I would have a go at their '100 movies' lists and see how I am going :-)

When looking at the lists, I realise that I've seen nearly all of them, and that quite a few are ones best left forgotten, rather than made to be repeatable viewing!

Others are films your English teacher would expect you to watch for School, and if you didn't, then you feel as an adult that perhaps you are missing out on something, so you included it in a list of films you should watch before you die. 

Then I start to wonder where the really good ones are. You know, cult classics like "Donny Darko" (he of the giant scary rabbit) and "Storm Boy" (an Australian classic, and worth watching whenever it's broadcast, or picking it up on DVD now that it's been released), also "Howl's Moving Castle" (a Studio Ghibli film). Or the original version (1949) of "The Secret Garden". Getting on to films most people would know (my tastes are rather eclectic, and not for everyone, I know that), how about Alfred Hitchcock's rather stunning "Rope", with Jimmy Stewart, or Danny Kaye in "The Five Pennies"?

Other classics, perhaps more well known to the Australian market, are things like "Breaker Morant", "Gallipoli", "Sirens", "Picnic at Hanging Rock", even "The Delinquents" (with a young Kylie Minogue in it - filmed mostly in Brisbane).

I agree that films like "Seven Samurai" should be included - it is indeed a classic, and one I well remember from my childhood. For me, it is right up there with Godzilla, as it was another film that Dad would get me up for in the middle of the night just to watch!

And yes, "Citizen Kane", "Rear Window", "Casablanca", "Metropolis' (1927), "Psycho", "Gone With The Wind" etc are all very much films to see, but where is "All Quiet On The Western Front"? What about "Ivanhoe", or "The Sea Chase" (a little known, but very good, John Wayne film that isn't a Western, and actually starts in Sydney Harbour aboard an old Steam Ship)?

I do not think things like "Ace Ventura - Pet Detective" have any place on a top 100 list of films you must see before you die, however, but perhaps that is just my taste not being the same as everyone else.

Ho hum.

I do know that most of my tastes are either going to be of the 'seriously classic' (ie, anything from pre-talkies up to probably the 1960s), foreign (include films like "Chocolat", "Delicatessan" and "Peculiarities of the National Hunt (a very good Russian film about a black bear who likes his beer a bit too much), also "Amelie" in this), anime (anything from the people at Studio Ghibli, pretty much), or monster movies (gotta love King Kong, Godzilla, Gamera and the rest of the bunch), though I do watch modern movies too.

I just happen to like films that leave me thinking, rather than films that make my head hurt, or leave me reeling from the blood, guts and gore within the first two minutes of the film.

One day I will compile my top 100 films to see, I think, and perhaps publish it here on my blog, but that is for another day.

Birth of a Federation

Today, 113 years ago, Australia became a Federation. While our States still disagree on a lot of things, we are more combined than we were pre-Federation day, in 1901.

Happy Federation Day, Australia.