The Best Movie Ever Made According to You (AND WHY)

[MacReady]

Don't be lazy, make a case.  Either give a reason for why your personal favorite movie is the best ever made, or create a compelling or at least a little case for what movie you think is the best ever, regardless of whether or not you like it. 

If you haven't seen The Thing, it's available to watch on Hulu now.

John Carpenter's The Thing (1982):

 

For any movie to be considered the best movie ever made, in my opinion, it has to have three things:  
1. Technical achievement (score, cinematography, other).
2. Entertainment quality.
3. A lasting influence in film and in the genre.

The Thing has all three and then some.  I’ll start with Technical Achievement, which I will break down into three categories:

Technical Achievement:

1. Score
2. Cinematography
3. Practical Effects

The Score:

To me, there are maybe five themes in all of cinema that stand out more than this one.  Harry Potter’s theme, Jurassic Park’s, Jaws, Predator, Star Wars and maybe a few others.  The music portrays a creeping sense of doom and impending terror, but it’s subtle at the same time just like the threat they’re up against.  It’s a score that’s so popular it was turned into a record for the film’s 35th anniversary, and Tarantino reused parts of the score in The Hateful Eight.  

The Cinematography:
Dean Cundey recently offered strong clues to the ambiguous ending of the movie stating that he wanted, through cinematography, to give visual cues to which of the crew was human, and which were “one of those things.”  Said Dean Cundey,

Quote

You’ll notice there’s always an eye light, we call it, a little gleam in the eye of the actor. It gives life.

In addition to the clues and hints provided by the cinematography, the film was also shot in Anamorphic.  For a really quick, yet very intriguing read, go to this link to read more about and look at some of the cinematography that gets highly overlooked when comparing this movie to other masterpieces in the genre.  I feel if there’s one thing that sets The Thing apart from its biggest competitor (Alien), it’s the cinematography.  There are no spoilers in this link:

http://vashivisuals.com/thing-atmospheric-anamorphic/

Practical Effects:

I don't care who wants to argue that The Thing isn't the best movie ever made, I don't even care when people want to say it's not the best science fiction horror movie because, as much as it hurts to admit it, there are arguments to be made against it.  HOWEVER... There is no movie that has EVER had such a lasting, iconic influence on and mastery of practical effects.  If you ask anybody working in practical effects, 999 out of 1,000 of them will either say that they were inspired to get into it because of The Thing, or that they consider The Thing to be the pinnacle of practical effects accomplishment.  Rob Bottin, the man who made The Thing come to life, literally had to be admitted to a hospital due to exhaustion for his efforts in making The Thing come to life.  There are spoilers in the following video, but for anybody in doubt, just look at this scene and compare it to CGI in similar body horror films that have been made 37 years later:

https://youtu.be/JjIXwkX1e48?t=20s

 

Entertainment Quality:

I don't think there's an aspect of The Thing that isn't entertaining, but I'm going to break it down into three categories:

1. Dialogue
2. Humor
3. Terror

Dialogue:

Out of all the movies I've ever seen (I currently have 2,784 rated films on my IMDB account), there's only one more quotable movie than The Thing, and that's Predator.  The movie is so loaded with one liners, but not one of the one liners is tongue-in-cheek or forced like some of them are in Predator (Stick Around comes to mind).  They are all fitting with what's going on in the movie and fitting the paranoia and fear and confusion of its characters.  Some of my favorites:

Quote

MacReady: Yeah, **** you too!

Quote

Garry: I know you gentlemen have been through a lot, but when you find the time, I'd rather not spend the rest of this winter TIED TO THIS ******* COUCH!

Quote

Clark: I dunno what the hell's in there, but it's weird and pissed off, whatever it is.

Quote

Garry: The generator's gone.
MacReady: Any way we can we fix it?
Garry: It's GONE, MacReady.

Humor:

The humor is entirely situational and there are no forced jokes.  It's entirely based around the incongruity of near a dozen men going up against what they can't possibly understand or hope to fight, and none of the characters have to stoop to generated laughs because their reactions to their environment and the antagonist is pure and genuine.  The quotes I just provided are even better in the context of the movie. 

Terror:

Although The Thing never scared me once, not even the first time I saw it when I was ten, it's still one of the most terrifying concepts I can possibly imagine.  A single cell of the organism is enough to completely overtake you and take you over completely, creating a perfect copy.  Your memories and even your personality.  I've read the novella the movie is based on several times because it's one of the best concepts in film and science fiction history.  It's a shame that zombies have taken over cinema when this far more terrifying concept/creature/antagonist has been relegated to one masterpiece and one alright prequel. 

Other Entertaining Elements:

Although Guillermo del Toro recently went on a Twitter rave about this, I'm still taking credit for it because I've been saying it for years.  The Thing is not an easy movie.  It doesn't provide everything for you, and in a lot of cases it doesn't provide enough.  The shadows aren't conclusive, the order of assimilation isn't conclusive, the timing of it isn't conclusive, and the movie leaves MULTIPLE questions unanswered.  As GDT said it, you have to DIG to enjoy this movie.  It doesn't telegraph the transformations, it doesn't clue you in on how this happened or how that happened.  Who got to the blood?  How did they get the keys?  The movie provides a LOAD of hints, but ZERO answers.  Who was a human at the end?  Who was The Thing?  The script gives an explicit answer, but the movie doesn't acknowledge it.  The cinematography hints at it, but doesn't acknowledge it.  You have to work at this movie, which is a truly rewarding experience.  You have to look at the facts, look at what you're seeing and what you're hearing and what you saw and heard in order to come up with your own solution to these problems.  It's why I still watch the movie once a year on my birthday and still come away entertained with new theories.  It has multiple conflicts.  Man versus self, man versus man, man versus nature, man versus supernatural, and for those of you who want to consider man versus machine a literary conflict, MacReady has a fight with a computer. 

Additionally, there has never been a better case of building tension than the blood test scene.  I'm about to list a bunch of films that reference The Thing, and most of them pay direct reference to this scene.  If you haven't watched the movie, do not watch this scene because I would literally pay ten thousand dollars to be able to watch The Thing for the first time again, and mostly because of this scene. 

The Thing's Influence:

The thing is probably referenced more often or as often as Alien, and movies inspired by The Thing are numerous.  There was a video game.  Quentin Tarantino made The Hateful Eight so strongly influenced by The Thing that he brought in its star (Kurt Russell) and its composer.  Ennio Marriconi even reused unused score from The Thing.  This is after Tarantino's first film, Reservoir Dogs, was also highly inspired by The Thing.  The movie has been referenced in Night of the Creeps, The Wraith, Wicked City, the sound of The Thing is used in Rambo 3, Akira references it, The Blob (1988) references it,  The Terror Within, Leviathan, Terminator 2 references it, The Simpsons, Last Action Hero pays homage to it, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine directly references the blood test scene, Independence Day makes a direct reference to it, Event Horizon, Phantoms, The X-Files has a whole episode that pays homage to The Thing, The Faculty pays homage to it throughout the entire movie, Ice Age, Cabin Fever, Dreamcatcher, Star Trek: Enterprise references it, The Day After Tomorrow gives a direct shot-for-shot reference to The Thing, Slither references it, Supernatural had an episode that paid homage to it, South Park directly referenced the blood test scene, Planet Terror, The Mist, Stranger Things and so many more movies, writers and directors reference the movie that I'd be here for an hour listing them all.  If you want the full list, go here:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084787/movieconnections

I've provided my case.  From now on, every time I'm made fun of on this site for loving this movie, I'm just going to link to this post.  Now what are your own personal favorite movies?

 

[MikeT14]

Oh man, this is hard. Not sure I could ever pick.

I think I'd have to break down Die Hard, T2, Empire Strikes Back, and Forrest Gump.

[ET80]

The Gods Must be Crazy. 30+ years and I'm still in tears from laughing so hard.

 

[UKTexans]

The Shawshank Redemption is my favourite film but I don't think it's the greatest ever film.

2001: A Space Odyssey 

Apocalypse Now

Would be two contenders for me.

[BroncosFan2010]

Probably Apocalypse Now for me. Its a lot easier if you could pick favorite for each genre, but I suppose that's cheating lol

[THE DUKE]

My favorite movie is Gladiator.  What I think is the best movie is The Godfather.

[Forge]

2 hours ago, texans_uk said:

The Shawshank Redemption is my favourite film but I don't think it's the greatest ever film.

2001: A Space Odyssey 

Apocalypse Now

Would be two contenders for me.

Shawshank was one that immediately sprang to mind for me. I just watched it two nights ago. Even after all this time, still love that movie to death. It's certainly in my upper pantheon of greatest movies ever made. 

[cddolphin]

Good post OP. The Thing is a fantastic film.

I'm going to differentiate between what may be the BEST movies compared to what may be my favorites. For example, A Clockwork Orange and Dr. Strangelove are two of my all-time favorites, but I wouldn't put them in "best movie" category.

Apocalypse Now
The Shining
Reservoir Dogs

^Those are the first to come to mind, but there are a lot of classics I've yet to see.

[UKTexans]

The Usual Suspects is a brilliant movie and brilliantly acted. 

[Rich51]

Casablanca is my favorite. IMO it is the ultimate fantasy. Who doesn't want to walk away from the woman you love for a greater cause. It had 3 great supporting actors in Peter Lorre, Paul Heinreid and Conrad Veidt and three great leads in Bogart, Bergman and Raines. Not to mention one of the greatest love songs of all time in "As time goes by" song by Dooley Wilson.

i'm a big Bogart fan so movies like Petrified Forest, Key Largo, To Have and Have not, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, etc. are also high on my list.

Favorite pure comedy is  Some Like it Hot (although the comedy/drama The Apartment would rate higher on my list) It wasn't until my fourth or fifth viewing that I stopped laughing at the end. It featured Lemmon and Curtis at the top of their game and Monroe never looking more gorgeous. 

 

 

 

[MacReady]

4 hours ago, MikeT14 said:

I think I'd have to break down Die Hard, T2, Empire Strikes Back, and Forrest Gump.

Bolded are 2/30 movies I have rated 10/10. 

[TENINCH]

Field of Dreams

[cddolphin]

23 minutes ago, HorizontoZenith said:

Bolded are 2/30 movies I have rated 10/10. 

You have piqued my curiosity. Post the full list.

[MacReady]

Just now, cddolphin said:

You have piqued my curiosity. Post the full list.

The Innocents (1961), A Very Long Engagement, Sneakers, The Prestige, Inglourious Basterds, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, The Princess Bride, Jurassic Park, The Mummy (1999), Fargo, Hot Fuzz, Unbreakable, The Thing, The Truman Show, Tombstone, Predator, The Royal Tenenbaums, Empire Strikes Back, Die Hard, The Wizard of Oz, Amelie, Toy Story, Once Upon a Time in the West, Last Action Hero.  I forgot I had to modify some of them after I re-watched them all to test whether or not they still held up.  So 25 instead of 30. 

[PARROTHEAD]

Wizard of Oz.

Music score was flawless. The use of colors and the switching from B/W was done to perfection. And the time frame, released late August 1939. So playing, and making it around the country to all theaters back then. It had to of run into WW2 in theaters. Think of back then, country heading into war. Youve been called up/signed up, wanting to get in time with your kid, or little brother/sister before you take off. And you have whats considered the greatest movie ever made by some, including myself to go and spend time with them at before you take off.

Thats something I also give alot of credit to the 3 Stooges for. After Pearl Harbor, they had film hitting theaters by April that bashed and made fools of the Japanese forces. They went directly to work on it after it happened.

My backup is Good, Bad, and the Ugly. Another flawless musical score, with the writing being perfection. What I love most about it though, is they had these spots where it would give the feel of things winding down for a finish, only to fire back up and take off all over again. Like the scene close to the end where theyre heading to the graveyard, but get stopped by Union troops and say theyre there to join up. Felt like it was coming to a close, and they cranked it back up with that whole bridge battle before entering the final leg. Shawshank pulled close, but cant really say any match the storytelling feel I got from GBatU.