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Want to revel in the very best of hyper-passionate Filmspotting Nation? Want to incite a debates that rival the biggest and blocybusteriest superhero Vs. films? Want to reach peak Michael Phillips dismissal of the whole idea? Then vote Pantheon fellow Filmspotters. Start the hype now.
Adam v Josh - fight to the death. Two garbage can lids, a baseball bat and a knife.
'Are you not entertained?'
Best Filmspotting co-hosts?
How about a bracket to determine the best year for movies all-time?
Screenwriters! You should do screenwriters!
When it comes down to it, the films are why we're here. Who wouldn't love to discuss the merits of Out of Sight vs. The Big Lebowski, etc.? (I know this has been mentioned frequently on the show, but that particular contest has had me contemplating it for days.) The amount of intriguing potential match-ups is endless. And while I would love an expanded actor/actress field, I worry that it would be too soon after last year and just end up Fassbender vs. Chastain again.
Another option would be Greatest Film Characters. I'd echo an earlier Commenter's suggestion of Heroes vs. Villains, but I'd fear that the candidates would be disproportionately male and the film choice would be genre-heavy. Although who would we be kidding---the inevitable final showdown would be Daniel Plainview over Anton Chigurh. The Bronze?---The Joker of Dark Knight over Annie Hall. In the initial 64, I might have the added restrictions that the characters can't be based on real people or historical figures (so, no Lincoln or Jesus). And, that the characters have to be played by flesh and blood actors or actresses (so no animated characters and no puppets---sorry Yoda and Jar Jar).
Probably a little late if you're making the selection on this week's show, but I voted for Filmspotting Heroins in the other category so I may as well explain it a little. If I'm not mistaken we're at least in part playing the role of producers for an ultimate Filmspotting movie. We've got the directors now, and a lead actor, but to me cinema isn't complete without a female presence so I say we make it a sure thing.
The first round was coed actors, so essentially doing that again would be repetitive as other comments suggested. Restricting the bracket to female characters in heroic roles would be different and exiting. You get the best of both worlds.
Would Sigourney Weaver make it in to the 16 vs 16 bracket? Doubtful. But Ellen Ripley would certainly make it into a field of 32 heroins. What about Naausica of the Valley of the Wind? I, to my shame would probably would find it difficult to think of 32 heroins. I'm pretty sure you and Filmspotting nation could. So there's a much bigger chance that I'll end up getting turned on to a movie or actress I've never seen before. Familiarity is great - but don't really look forward to death matches between masterpiece films from all genres. The field is too wide open and I don't really get a lot of value out of picking a winner. I can't compare them on any logical level because they're all unique and grand from top to bottom, in every discipline.
You should have to think about who or what goes in the poll. There should be criteria beyond "The Greatest films of all time."
So if you look up the word Heroin in the Filmspotting dictionary, what is the definition and whose picture is shown?
As much as I'd love to see a Pantheon edition of Madness, pitting personal favourites like Taxi Driver against The Godfather seems more nerve-racking than fun. Instead I propose the ultimate battle royale, 32 of films' greatest heroes against 32 of their finest formidable foes - culminating in an epic good vs evil stand-off. Imagine the possibilities, finally a James Bond Vs Hans Gruber, The Bride Vs Hannibal Lector, Luke Skywalker Vs Freddy Kruegar, or even RDJ's Tony Stark Vs Affleck's... Fred O'bannion? There can only be one winner!
The best choice here would be the pantheon and sacred cows, as the actors have already had their go around and I would personally love to see a Cool Hand Luke/Unforgiven stand off. But one I considered would be a foreign film favourites. Filmspotting is well regarded in introducing Western audiences to many films and filmmakers from around the world that we would not be exposed to if not for the show, and Filmspotting Madness (or FSM, as it should be known by now) could be an easy way to introduce newcomers to a world outside of Hollywood. Exterminating Angel versus Yojimbo, anyone?
I vote for all time performances. This really unpacks the acting and allows a greater breadth of genre and time period where we could see Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind vs Denzel Washington in Malcolm X or Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia vs Natalie Portman in Black Swan.
I say it should be 32 reliable directors--not the sexy picks, but reliable none-the-less; names like George Roy Hill and Ken Loach...
European soccer fans will be familiar with Champions League, an annual tournament that pits each country's pro league's club champions against each other. I bring you Filmspotting Champions League. Oscar winners vs. Independent Spirit winners vs. Cannes Palme d'or winners vs. Toronto Film Fest winners vs. Golden Globe winners vs. NY Film Critics winners vs. LA Film Critics winners vs. Village Voice Critics Poll winners vs BFI winners, etc.....you get the picture. I leave it to you all to select how many years you want to go back, or if you'd only like to cherry pick titles that would be particularly delectable to Filmspotting Nation. Obviously, duplicate winners would be cancelled out. Sample match-up: Amour (2012 Palme D'or) vs. Wall-E (2008 LA Film Critics Award).
The obvious choice is the Pantheon - bye bye Chinatown! - however I did add another option for very selfish reasons. I love movie soundtracks, but don't know much beyond the obvious songs, scores, and soundtracks that cut through to the masses.
I'd presume that, if it were a choice of composers, John Williams would brush off the competition with an "ostinato of bass notes" - Jaws, Wikipedia
However, even if Jaws, Raiders, and E.T. ended up in the semi-finals, I think I'd still learn a lot from such a Madness Poll... before, of course, being unable to listen to any of them as the poll closes on a winner!
I love many of the "other" proposals here - screenwriters, cinematographers, movie quotables; all fun, all worth giving a shot someday. That said, the obvious choice here is the Pantheon/Cow tourney.
Straight up, folks: it would be fun. Much as I'd love to parse out the finer points of this script versus that one, or to champion my favorite art director, what comes more naturally to this crowd than comparing movies? Directors, actors, writers, quotables... it all boils down to the flicks, folks.
To the films.
The films we spot.
Let's take it home next round.
My vote goes to other, although I do genuinely love the pantheon/sacred cow idea. (I'm with the majority of people that think actors vs. actresses is too much like a remake of last year). My idea for other is this: movie quotes.
Think about it, a primary way we show love for movies is to quote them. Just look at the comments for this year to see how many people referenced milkshakes in their votes for PTA.
So, make us vote for the most memorable, quotable quote of all time. "Here's lookin' at you kid." vs. "That's what I love about these high school girls man..." "I am your father." vs. "They call me Mister Tibbs!" "I'm gonna make him an offer he can't refuse." vs. "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore."
Definitely a lot to chose from and it could be quite fun. If nothing else, it will give us a chance to hear Adam and Josh do their rendetions of these iconic lines.
Filmspotting madness with Pantheon films is the way to go. I believe a match up of actors vs actresses will almost certainly lead to an actor winning the tournament because of gender bias. I don't believe filmspotting nation to be misogynist but I believe it would be a natural inclination for the seemingly mostly male audience. Maybe I have my demographics wrong but I think it to be unjust to the wonderful actresses who can certainly hold their own in a fair tournament.
My suggestion is a combination of the last two tournaments: actor/director pairings. Lots of possible past and present entries here...Scorcese/De Niro, Nichols/Shannon, Herzog/Kinski, etc. If all duos were working today in their primes, which would you be most excited to see a new movie from?
I expect pantheon madness will be mad hatter fun. But, Since I can already say that for me Kubrick will take anything you put against him, I feel like there aren't enough Kubrick movies in the Pantheon. The shinning might get included since it's a sacred cow, but what about Dr Strangelove? Full Metal Jacket? or A Clockwork Orange? Surely they should be included too..
I'd love to see a Film Spotting Madness based on a particular genre of film each year to help decide what would be the one film from each genre to survive if in a dysopian future, Trump were to rise to power and demand only one film from each genre be allowed to remain and all others would be destroyed.
What is the one comedy that would survive? Some Like it Hot? Tootsie? Clueless? Dazed and Confused? Rushmore? Choosing a favorite Christopher Guest film alone is hard enough!
If listeners could only have one science fiction movie would it be Metropolis or The Empire Strikes Back or Wrath or Khan Alien or Aliens or Blade Runner?
If listeners had to choose the only crime movie would it finally force us to make a definitive choice between the Godfather and the Godfather Part 2? Pulp Fiction changed the cinema landscape but would it beat Reservoir Dogs or Jackie Brown, the latter which gets better and bettee with each viewing? Goodfellow vs Taxi Driver?
Do we want to imagine a world where the choice must be made to have just one musical? Being forced to choose between Singing in The Rain over The Wizard of Oz? Or Bob Fosse's Cabaret vs All That Jazz? Would my beloved Moulin Rouge! even get a seat at the table?
What Panfora's box have you mad men opened with your annual Hunger Games reapings?!
I think a Pantheon topic would be great fun, and here's why:
- The number of films is fairly manageable: the existing Pantheon is easily available to listeners right now, the Sacred Cow list is easy enough to get from the show archive, and there are (I think) ten whole months before the first round if Madness 2017... plenty of time to (re)watch all the entries in advance. Compare that with trying to view all the films of 64 different actors and actresses in the same period...!
- This topic would also lend itself well to more Sacred Cow reviews of those Pantheon films that are maybe less well known. For example, I've always found it odd that Midnight Run is way up there in the Pantheon, rubbing shoulders with Vertigo and The Godfather - not saying it doesn't deserve its place (personally, I think it's a wonderful film) I'd love to hear it get the full Sacred Cow
treatment! Similarly, I don't know anything about "In America", so it would be great to hear you discussing it in depth.
- The alternative match-up of actors v actresses is (with the best will in the world) *very* similar to FS Madness 2015; gender balance aside, there must be a strong probability of getting the same kind of matchups again, and I don't know if I could take 5 weeks of listening to Michael Fassbender destroy every actor he's put up against, and then beat Jessica Chastain in the final! The Pantheon poll seems a lot more open-ended, with no obvious frontrunner.
Looking forward to a fascinating tournament next year!
So I was thinking how to tighten the Pantheon tournament and I realized that it's needs a little adjustment so here is my OTHER suggestion.
Take 16 movies from the 70s. Take 16 movies from the 80s. Take 16 movies from the 90s. Take 16 movies from 2000-2009. Battle out! Which decade will win? This would be more personal picks to almost all of the Filmspotting listeners. My suggestions for each decade. 70s: Godfather, Godfather 2, High Plains Drifter, Star Wars, Grease, Willy Wonka, Rocky, Network, All the President's Men, Jaws, A Clockwork Orange, Annie Hall, Superfly, Taxi Driver, Close Encounters, Young Frankenstein.
For the 80s: Raging Bull, Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET, Platoon, The Breakfast Club, Amadeus, the Little Mermaid, Die Hard, The Thing, Pale Rider, Empire Strikes Back, American Werewolf in Paris, The Blues Brothers, Lethal Weapon 2, Blade Runner, ALIENS
90's: Jurrasic Park, Silence of the Lambs, Unforgiven, Tombstone, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Braveheart, Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction, Clerks, Dazed and Confused, Trainspotting, Forrest Gump, Malcolm X
2000s There Will Be Blood, Royal Tennabaums, Oh Brother Where Art Thou, Lord of the Rings (all three), The Proposition, No Country for Old Men, 40 Year Old Virgin, Once, WALL-E, Up, Before Sunset, Pirates of the Caribean (1), Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Brokeback Mountain, Catch Me if You Can
We have to get Midnight Run out of the pantheon.
I can't vote for "Actors V. Actresses" for two reasons: (1) if Fassbender and Chastain are included, I have no reason to believe they wouldn't walk away with a win for the second time; and (2) if they are NOT included, it sort of taints the pool and whomever DOES win would really just be third place next to them. I can't vote for "Pantheon" because - isn't the whole point of the Pantheon that we just accept the greatness of these films, therefore not needing to ceaselessly mention them? Putting one masterpiece against another masterpiece seems just plain wrong on a number of levels. So my vote is for "Movie Characters". I would love to see you guys sit down and come up with a list of the 32 greatest screen characters of all-time and then have them face off in Filmspotting madness. Whom would you choose in a match-up that might see Daniel Plainview facing off against Anton Chiguhr? How would Clarice Starling do in a bout facing Ripley? Think of all the fun possibilities?!
Actors/Actresses would be too much of a repeat of last year -- I think we should wait a couple of more years for that. I vote Pantheon/Sacred Cow.
I fear the toll creating this bracket will take on Filmspotting. Adam seeding the Pantheon is like Martin Sheen's Captain Willard traveling upriver in 'Apocalypse Now." What he gains in truth, he will lose in sanity.
I love the Pantheon & Sacred Cows idea. I think the concept might cause less mental anguish week to week in my voting process. Movies are much ore self-contained and definable than a director's whole filmography and amorphous future prospects. Doing the "theater test" pitting two movies against each other seems like a much easier gambit.
If you DO go all the way up to 64 combatants and are looking for more movies to fill out the bracket, maybe consider adding all the Golden Brick Winners, and all the films that appeared in the "Top 5 Films of the Filmspotting Era" on episode 500 (including picks from Rian Johnson & David Wain). The Pantheon tends to skew older, so it might be nice to have some more contemporary favorites in the mix.
As far as Filmspotting Madness 2018 goes, maybe that will be the time when Filmspotting really digs into movie music: I suggest a bracket of 32 great movie scores. THAT would be a bigger source of voting anguish than I've ever known.
I so very much wanted to vote for some form of Other here. I wondered if it wasn't time to delve into screenwriters (could the Coens win this as well?) or cinematographers (Lubezki vs. Deakins anyone?), but I am a technician and I work behind the scenes in theaters, so I always look at the designers and the other members of the creative team, maybe more than even your average cineaste. But a screenwriters name will get me into (or keep me out of a theater) just as much as any director. One of the reasons to see 10 Cloverfield Ln for me was Whiplash's Damian Chazelle's screenwriting credit. But maybe it would be way too hard to create a full bracket out of these credits (quick, who's your 20th ranked cinematographer of all time? I mean, it's gotta Tak Fujimoto, right?), but I think there is something to be said for working on the details of that tournament idea before I pitch it as an official suggestion.
In the mean time, I am comfortable with the carnage a Pantheon/Sacred Cow playoff will cause next year for a couple of reasons. If you think about filmmaking the way that the Academy does, it would be totally improper not to have a tournament based on Best Picture before going back to the other categories (Aside: putting 64 Best Picture winners against each other would make for a brilliant future tournament idea as well). And I like the idea of switching from pitched battles over future prospects to just a singular work. It's a different kind of conversation, a different way of evaluating movies. It's especially great to talk about one hit wonders like Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast, Under the Skin), who we would never talk about when entire careers are part of the conversation. And it lets us handle a singular film that is just clearly better or different than that director usually accomplishes, like Luc Besson and The Fifth Element (for my money, but your mileage may vary) or Martin Brest and Midnight Run (no disrespect to Beverly Hills Cop). It would be nice to have a tourney where you, well, we, deal with the less speculative question of "who might be a Hall of Famer in 20 years" to the more objective and immediate question of "who's getting in the Hall of Fame right this minute." I mean, the comments are going to be a bloodpath, a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, mine included and I can't wait. For example, I adore The Big Lebowski, I can probably recite it from memory, hysterical, absurd and all film noirish but . . . Out of Sight is pretty freaking great, I mean it's Jennifer Lopez's best performance ever, and Soderbergh gets to be all avant garde stylistically, but you don't notice because it's so damn' cool. This matchup is only theoretical and I am already tortured by the mere possibility of it. Yes, this one. Let's do that.