griggs's - 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die List

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In the Watergate Building, lights go on and four burglars are caught in the act. That night triggered revelations that drove a U.S. President from office.

Washington reporters Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) grabbed the story and stayed with it through doubts, denials, and discouragement. The entire 'All the President's Men' is their story. The film also explores a working newspaper, where the mission is to get the story - and to get it right.

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Based on a true story, this is the story of one of Japan's most notorious scandals. An ex-prostitute enters service in a household and promptly begins an obsessive and sexually perverse affair with the master. What starts as a casual diversion escalates into a passion that holds no bounds.

The intensity of the affair and the couple's mutual appetite for exploring the physical and sexual limits of their love-making completely overwhelms them and the strain of the relationship takes its toll on all concerned.

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After avenging his family's brutal murder, Josey Wales (Clint Eastwood) is on the run, pursued by a pack of killers.

He travels alone, but a ragtag group of outcasts Laura Lee and Lone Watie (Sondra Locke and Chief Dan George) is drawn to him - and Wales can't leave his motley surrogate family unprotected.

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At the centre of the terror is Carrie (Sissy Spacek), a tortured high-school misfit with no confidence, no friends... and no idea about the extent of her 'secret powers' of telekinesis. But when her psychotic mother and sadistic classmates finally go too far.

the once-shy teen becomes an unrestrained, vengeance-seeking powerhouse who, with the help of her 'special gift', causes all hell to break loose in a famed cinematic frenzy of blood, fire and brimstone that will take you to the very depths of horror - and beyond!

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Even more compelling today than when it was first released, Sidney Lumet's 'Network' is a wickedly funny, spot - on indictment of the TV news media.

Winner of four Academy Awards including Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Screenplay (Paddy Chayefsky), this searing satire stars Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch and Robert Duvall. When longtime news anchor Howard Beale (Finch) is fired, he suffers a violent, on - air breakdown. Ironically, his angry rantings boost his sagging ratings - much to the surprise and delight of the UBS brass. Subsequently rehired and reinvented as the "mad prophet of the airwaves", he soon becomes a pawn of ruthless programming executives who milk his madness for every share point it's worth. Of course, when the "prophet" ceases to be profitable, something has to be done about Beale, preferably on camera, before a live studio audience...

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This is the film that catapulted Sylvester Stallone into the international spotlight and launched one of the most successful series of films in movie history, This is the story of a loser, a two bit boxer from Philadelphia, who gets a second chance in life by being offered an impossible shot at the

heavyweight title. Stallone's performance is as powerful as his character's punches in the ring. This is one of the most exciting action movies you will ever see. Rocky is the simple story of a man whom fate chooses for a shot at glory in what has otherwise been an ordinary life. And while this subject matter is nothing new, it was unusual for Hollywood to release an old-fashioned 'feel-good' movie in the seventies, a decade whose films were mostly unconventional in attitude and anti-establishment in tone. Rocky is, of course, a fairy tale, but by grounding its characters in an everyday reality, the filmmakers were able to make them seem real and alive. And making the major contribution to that sense of reality was Sylvester Stallone, an out-of-work actor/writer whose faith in himself took him from utter obscurity to world-wide fame and fortune virtually overnight.....

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Jessica Harper stars as Suzy Banyon, a young American ballet dancer who arrives at a prestigious European dance academy run by the mysterious Madame Blanc (Joan Bennett) and Miss Tanner (Alida Valli).

But when a series of bizarre incidents and horrific crimes turn the school into a waking nightmare of the damned, Suzy must escape the academy's unspeakable secret of supernatural evil.

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Andrzej Wajda's dazzling Man of Marble is one of the key films of the 1970s. Often described as the 'Polish Citizen Kane', Wajda's epic masterwork operates as both an electrifying political saga and a compelling analysis of the nature of cinema itself.

Mateusz Birkut, a bricklayer, glorified as a State-promoted 'Worker's Hero' is subsequently removed from all official mention in 1952. In 1976 a young filmmaker, Agnieszka, obsessively pursues his story. Birkut's rise and fall and disappearance into obscurity provides Wajda with a framework for a brave reassessment of the period. Although suppressed by the authorities, Man of Marble became a milestone in Polish cinema and an undoubted influence in the dismantling of the totalitarian system in Poland.

Five years in the making, 'Eraserhead' contains all of the trademark attributes of a Lynch film - haunting visuals, an ethereal score, unsettling sound design, and, most notably, a black sense of humour - creating a world onscreen thatis exhilarating, terrifying, and truly unique.

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Alvy Singer (Woody Allen), is one of Manhattan's most brilliant comedians, but when it comes to romance, his delivery needs a little work.

Introduced by his best friend, Rob (Tony Roberts), to the ditzy but delightful nightclub singer, Annie Hall (Diane Keaton), no sooner is Alvy in love, when his own insecurities sabotage the affair, forcing Annie to leave Alvy for a new life - and lover (Paul Simon) - in Los Angeles. Knowing he may have lost Annie forever, Alvy's willing to go to any lengths - even driving L.A.'s freeways - to recapture the only thing that ever mattered...true love.

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In the darkest days of World War II, two partisans, Sotnikov (Boris Plotnikov) and Rybak (Vladimir Gostyukhin) set out for supplies to sustain their beleaguered outfit, braving the blizzard swept landscape of Nazi occupied Belorussia.

When they fall into the hands of German forces and come face-to-face with death, each must choose between martyrdom and betrayal, in a spiritual ordeal that lifts the film's earthy drama to the plane of religious allegory. With stark, visceral cinematography that pits blinding white snow against pitch black despair, 'The Ascent' finds poetry and transcendence in the harrowing trials of war.

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The Jedi Knights have been exterminated and the Empire rules the galaxy with an iron fist. A small group of Rebels have dared to fight back by stealing the secret plans to the Empire's mightiest weapon, the Death Star battle station.

The Emperor's most trusted servant, Darth Vader (David Prowse), must find the plans, and locate the hidden Rebel base. Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), a captive Rebel leader, sends out a distress signal that is intercepted by a simple farm boy, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). Seizing his destiny, Luke takes up the challenge to rescue the princess and help the Rebellion overthrow the Empire, along with such unforgettable allies as the wise Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness), the cocky Han Solo (Harrison Ford), the loyal Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), and the droids R2-D2 (Kenny Baker) and C-3PO (Anthony Daniels).

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In precolonial Senegal, members of the Ceddo (or "outsiders") kidnap Princess Dior Yacine (Tabata Ndiaye) after her father, the king, pledges loyalty to an ascendant Islamic faction that plans to convert the entire clan to its faith.

Attempts to recapture her fail, provoking further division and eventual war between the animistic Ceddo and the fundamentalist Muslims, with Christian missionaries and slave traders from Europe also playing a role in the conflict. Banned in Senegal upon its release, 'Ceddo' is an ambitious, multilayered epic that explores the combustible tensions among ancient tradition, religious colonization, political expediency, and individual freedom.

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After being released from prison, Berlin street musician Bruno Stroszek (Bruno S.) finds himself lost in a world where he simply doesn't belong.

So along with his prostitute girlfriend (Eva Mattes) and an eccentric neighbor (Clemens Scheitz), Stroszek moves to America, where he's told, everyone is rich. It doesn't take long, however, after moving into a mobile home and taking a job as a mechanic, for Stroszek to realize that the streets of Railroad Flats, Wisconsin aren't paved with gold.

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Professional frame maker Jonathan (Bruno Ganz) has been diagnosed with a terminal blood disease. A chance encounter with the enigmatic Tom Ripley (Dennis Hopper) offers him a way to ensure a stable future for his family.

But as Jonathan embarks on his new and dangerous role, Tom questions his motives for involving his new friend.