Most Visually Beautiful films ever made:

[Ozzy]

Here is my list, I do have a tendency to rate anything Western, country or anything with a green nature vibe higher than some others might.  The lean towards fantasy also, which is always interesting and have to give props for originally created worlds that do not look crappy because of misplaced computer graphics that look fake or not realistic.  I did include all of the Star Wars original films together because not sure one is visually that much better than the rest of the original three and all are ridiculously creative in terms of the ships, wardrobe.

 

 

1) The Fall

 

 

2) The Assassination of Jesse James (2007)

 

 

3) The Wizard Of Oz

 

 

4) Blade Runner

 

 

5) Tess (1979)

 

 

6) Suspiria (1977)

 

 

 

7) The Shining

 

 

😎 A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

 

 

9) Scarface (1983)

 

 

10) Dark City

 

 

 

 

The rest 10-20
No Country for Old Men
Star Wars (IV, V, VI)
Mad Max Fury Road
On the Waterfront
Cape Fear (1991)
Psycho
Spencer (2021)
The Cell
Dances With Wolves
Blood Simple

 

 

 

 

 

Honorable Mention, but some could easily be up a little higher just depends...

 

*Fried Green Tomatoes
*Pan's Labyrinth (Foreign)
*Glengarry Glen Ross
*Stand By Me
*The Godfather
*Alien
*The Matrix
*Let the Right One In (2008 Foreign) 
*Wind River
*The Ten Commandments
*The Bride of Frankenstein
*Kill Bill I 
*Sabrina
*Kill Bill II
*2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Edited March 28, 2023 by Ozzy

[BetterCallSaul]

I mean…Avatar? Even if you don’t like the movie itself…Avatar’s unreal visually. 

[Malfatron]

1 hour ago, Ozzy said:

Here is my list, I do have a tendency to rate anything Western, country or anything with a green nature vibe higher than some others might.  The lean towards fantasy also, which is always interesting and have to give props for originally created worlds that do not look crappy because of misplaced computer graphics that look fake or not realistic.  I did include all of the Star Wars original films together because not sure one is visually that much better than the rest of the original three and all are ridiculously creative in terms of the ships, wardrobe.

 

 

1) The Fall

 

 

2) The Assassination of Jesse James (2007)

 

 

3) The Wizard Of Oz

 

 

4) Blade Runner

 

 

5) Tess (1979)

 

 

6) Suspiria (1977)

 

 

 

7) The Shining

 

 

😎 A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night

 

 

9) Scarface (1983)

 

 

10) Dark City

 

 

 

 

The rest 10-20
No Country for Old Men
Star Wars (IV, V, VI)
Mad Max Fury Road
On the Waterfront
Cape Fear (1991)
Psycho
Spencer (2021)
The Cell
Dances With Wolves
Blood Simple

 

 

 

 

 

Honorable Mention, but some could easily be up a little higher just depends...

 

*Fried Green Tomatoes
*Pan's Labyrinth (Foreign)
*Glengarry Glen Ross
*Stand By Me
*The Godfather
*Alien
*The Matrix
*Let the Right One In (2008 Foreign) 
*Wind River
*The Ten Commandments
*The Bride of Frankenstein
*Kill Bill I 
*Sabrina
*Kill Bill II
*2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Avatar made more money than any of these "choices" so it must be a better product

[Ozzy]

1 hour ago, BetterCallSaul said:

I mean…Avatar? Even if you don’t like the movie itself…Avatar’s unreal visually. 

Avatar?  I said "originally created worlds that do not look crappy because of misplaced computer graphics that look fake or not realistic"

 

Sorry but to me nothing about Avatar character is visually beautiful.  Sure it is moderately impressive to create a computer graphic world but they still have a long ways to go with that one.  The "Avatar" are just human beings with long torsos and the face, so visually to me that is pretty awful, what they have big ears and yellow eyes with blue skin?  A CGI mapped human face that looks like the actor that played that character and the actor helped the facial expressions in that regard.  That is not impressive or unique.  

 

Oh wow Sigourney Weaver's 'Avatar', no actually it is pretty awful and is not beautiful in any way at all.  

 

You like the movie go right ahead, but to me that is not a beautiful film at all, not to mention the story is pretty lame and the fake background is really nothing great.  Give me something that actually looks real, and not sure Avatar pulled that off.  When I say beauty I do not just mean computer graphics, then I would have included the Lord of the Rings movies as well, but again to much CGI is kind of a turn off honestly in terms of a beautiful film.  I would rather have little plastic models in Blade Runner and the original Star Wars that pull off crazy realism than total CGI movie that honestly still looks a bit fake.  

 

 

50 minutes ago, Malfatron said:

Avatar made more money than any of these "choices" so it must be a better product

You and like the other two people better get back to watching that XFL game.  You do not even know some of the players because you do not watch college football, so in your eyes you probably view these guys as some type of new prospects or something.  Sadly they are not new prospects, sorry.  

 

 

[Malfatron]

1 minute ago, Ozzy said:

Avatar?  I said "originally created worlds that do not look crappy because of misplaced computer graphics that look fake or not realistic"

 

Sorry but to me nothing about Avatar character is visually beautiful.  Sure it is moderately impressive to create a computer graphic world but they still have a long ways to go with that one.  The "Avatar" are just human beings with long torsos and the face, so visually to me that is pretty awful, what they have big ears and yellow eyes with blue skin?  A CGI mapped human face that looks like the actor that played that character and the actor helped the facial expressions in that regard.  That is not impressive or unique.  

 

Oh wow Sigourney Weaver's 'Avatar', no actually it is pretty awful and is not beautiful in any way at all.  

 

You like the movie go right ahead, but to me that is not a beautiful film at all, not to mention the story is pretty lame and the fake background is really nothing great.  Give me something that actually looks real, and not sure Avatar pulled that off.  When I say beauty I do not just mean computer graphics, then I would have included the Lord of the Rings movies as well, but again to much CGI is kind of a turn off honestly in terms of a beautiful film.  I would rather have little plastic models in Blade Runner and the original Star Wars that pull off crazy realism than total CGI movie that honestly still looks a bit fake.  

 

 

You and like the other two people better get back to watching that XFL game.  You do not even know some of the players because you do not watch college football, so in your eyes you probably view these guys as some type of new prospects or something.  Sadly they are not new prospects, sorry.  

 

 

I don't like avatar that much but i was told something can only be preferable if the masses enjoy it, which both CFB and Avator demonstratively proved.

[seminoles1]

Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water.

[adamq]

Any one of the LOTR movies don't even land a HM? Much better than Star Wars imo.. The CGI Lucas inserted is so bad at times, especially in New Hope 

[Ozzy]

28 minutes ago, adamq said:

Any one of the LOTR movies don't even land a HM? Much better than Star Wars imo.. The CGI Lucas inserted is so bad at times, especially in New Hope 

I am talking the original Star Wars not the CGI inserted parts or edited ones.  I literally bought the unedited first three Star Wars because those added parts were so annoying.  The unedited original ones are amazing and that super fine model detail is really impressive, similar in Blade Runner.  Say what you want to about CGI but those little models with proper lighting are seamless.  LOTR is cool and all but I am less impressed by a huge band of digitally animated characters put on screen attacking each other.  I am more impressed with literally thousands of people on screen like in say The Ten Commandments.  That took far more effort and that kind of effort would never be put into a movie now a days.  

 

If the entire world in the movie is digitally created, like everything is now a days it seems, then everything just looks more like a cartoon and anything can look "realistic" because the lens is all fantasy, so who cares if it looks real because obviously it is not and everyone accepts that.  The original Star Wars for the time looked like literal ships in outer space.  And they looked real because they were an actual object not a digitally created one.

 

Just to me, CGI is fine and all but is way overused and again if everything is digitally created then it will just seamlessly blend because it all has that odd look.  People say, and for good reason like Jabba the Hunt when put into Star Wars A New Hope looked stupid, and yes he did!  But put him in Avatar with a bunch of other digitally created things in a digitally created world and it is like ok that fits.  That is beautiful?  Not so sure about that one but that is my own opinion.  

[adamq]

I get what you mean, but in no way was it overused in those films.. maybe Return of the King with the Elephonts and green ghosts, but a vast majority of those were done practically. I would recommend watching the appendices from the extended edition DVDs, the deep dive into all the work Weta did and how they shot the movies is pretty fascinating. (At least for someone who loves those movies it is 😂)

[DawgX]

Glad you mentioned Assassination of Jesse James. Arguably my favorite movie and the cinematography is incredible.

[Ozzy]

22 minutes ago, adamq said:

I get what you mean, but in no way was it overused in those films.. maybe Return of the King with the Elephonts and green ghosts, but a vast majority of those were done practically. I would recommend watching the appendices from the extended edition DVDs, the deep dive into all the work Weta did and how they shot the movies is pretty fascinating. (At least for someone who loves those movies it is 😂)

True but watch the bonus material on the original Blade Runner, just as much work if not more so was put into that and I would argue it is a far better product as a result.  There is a difference between real light and smoke compared to fake light and smoke for example.  LOTRs is a digitally created world for the most part so it is easier to blend that together, but like Star Wars kind of gets diluted because there are so many films with that same look and vibe and maybe is underrated because of it.  Still I would go with LOTRs over Avatar in terms of pure story and interest level, it is a lot more realistic of a world even if it is fantasy.  But same can be said for the Harry Potter films, so many of them and they are quality fantasy worlds just hard to evaluate them with so many different films.  

 

8 minutes ago, DawgX said:

Glad you mentioned Assassination of Jesse James. Arguably my favorite movie and the cinematography is incredible.

I agree that is one of my all time favorites as well.  And the "director of photography" aka cinematographer is Roger Deakins in that one.  Probably the best in the business right now, sadly he won his first Oscar for Blade Runner 2049 when it should have been Assassination of Jessie James not to mention a few other ones.  

 

 

Roughly in order these are the films Roger Deakins was the cinematographer for.  And the ones in bold are honestly some of the best films of all time, outstanding work by Deakins and he is potentially the best ever at it.   Arguably few if any have a list of films like that.

 

1917
Blade Runner 2049
Sicario
Unbroken
Prisoners
In Time
Skyfall
Revolutionary Road
Doubt
Assassination of Jesse James
No Country for Old Men
The Village
Jarhead
A Beautiful Mind
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
The Hurricane
Fargo
Dean Man Walking
The Shawshank Redemption
Thunderheart
1984

[minutemancl]

Annihilation is up there for me, and its also one of the best sounding films I've ever seen. It's the first movie that came to mind when I saw the thread title. 

[Ozzy]

14 minutes ago, minutemancl said:

Annihilation is up there for me, and its also one of the best sounding films I've ever seen. It's the first movie that came to mind when I saw the thread title. 

That is a solid film but the world is like a muddled painting as the background over the top of real items and different color tones for most of the stuff.  Also this last scene kind of ruined it for me, was not a huge fan of that or the ending which hurt the film overall for me.  That final character seemed kind of lame in a way, interesting film though.

 

If I wanted to see a bunch of colors in a background I would say What Dreams May Come is a way better film not only in story but also overall look.  

 

To me it is harder to capture beauty in natural occurring things then to just make stuff up in a world where you can make everything up then nothing has to look exact because it is all off and made up.  Kind of like when certain films that uses a lot of CGI tint the entire look of the film in general to help hide the CGI and shadows.  I recall Transformers doing that one, the film almost looked orange like tint and was super dark which again is not rare now a days tons of films are just crazy dark to save money or whatever.

 

 

The story does matter though, cannot totally disregard that, The Northman at times was visually super cool and very well shot but the story really sucked and was so damn dark at times in the movie, like literal blackness, made it kind of suck ultimately.  

[Ozzy]

I did not include Samsara, is a documentary of just visually interesting things throughout the world.  The lack of story really makes it not a movie of course but there is interesting things in it and it is shot well.  

 

 

 

This is really what steals the show in the film and is the best thing about it honestly, The Thousand Hands of Guan (Buddha) dance performed by Chinese People’s Art Troupe of People with Disabilities.  All of the dancers are deaf from what I have read.  

 

 

Tai Lihua is the lead dancer, and honestly the dance is not the same without her in the front as the lead and face.  

[rob_shadows]

Looking at the movies on your list I'm pretty surprised the revenant isn't on there.