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

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Jules (Frederic Andrei) is a Parisian mail courier in possession of two highly sought-after tapes: the first contains a rare recording of American opera singer Cynthia Hawkins (Wilhelmenia Wiggins Fernandez), with whom he has fallen in love; the second is a tape slipped into his bag by a young

woman just before she is murdered. The unwitting Jules thus finds himself being pursued by Taiwanese bootleggers and a thuggish gang of drug dealers who will do anything to get their hands on the cassettes.

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The poignant true story of two British sprinters vying for gold in the 1924 Paris Olympic Games.

Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross), a driven athlete of Jewish ancestry, runs to overcome prejudice and to achieve personal fame; his rival, Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson), a devout Scottish missionary, competes for the glory of God. An inspirational story of spirit and strength in the face of enormous odds, the film combines the finest elements of athletic competition and human drama to create a compelling and timeless cinematic classic.

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Join the legendary hero Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) in one of the greatest screen adventures of all time with Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Accompanied by his feisty, independent ex-flame Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen), the two-fisted archeologist embarks on a thrilling quest to locate the mystical Ark of the Covenant. Indy must discover the Ark before the Nazis do, and he has to survive poison, traps, snakes and treachery to do so. Explore the darkest jungles of South America, the bustling marketplaces of Cairo, and a top-secret submarine base with Indiana Jones as your guide to adventure.

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The film is a continuation of the story of Maciej Tomczyk, the protagonist of Wajda's earlier film, Man of Marble.

Here, Maciej is a young worker involved in the anti-Communist labour movement, described as "the man who started the Gdansk Shipyard strike", and a journalist working for the Communist regime's radio station, who is given a task of slandering Maciej. The young man is clearly intended as a parallel to Lech Walesa (who appears as himself in the movie). Their narrations become flashbacks using actual news footage of 1968 and 1970 protests and of the later birth of free unions and solidarity.

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Mel Gibson delivers an electrifying performance in directors Peter Weir's compelling story of friendship and adventure between two Australian soldiers in 1915.

They cross continents and great oceans, climb the pyramids and walk through the ancient sands of Egypt to join their regiment at the fateful battle of Gallipoli. The echoes of history blend with the friends' compelling destiny as they become part of a legendary World War I confrontation between Australia and the German allied Turks - a battle that is to Australians what the Alamo is to Americans.

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American tourists David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne) are savaged by an unidentified vicious animal whilst hiking on the Yorkshire Moors. David awakes in a London hospital to find his friend dead and his life in disarray.

Retiring to the home of a beautiful nurse (Jenny Agutter) to recuperate, he soon experiences disturbing changes to his mind and body, undergoing a full-moon transformation that will unleash terror on the streets of the capital...

Attorney Ned Racine's life coasts along in neutral - until he meets a siren in white (with a well-to-do husband) named Matty Walker (Kathleen Turner). Ned (William Hurt) knows Matty's the kind of woman a man would kill to be with. So he does.

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Ever-present, ever-listening, the Evil Dead lie in wait for the one ancient incantation that will give them license to possess the living.

Watch in horror as five vacationing college students unwittingly resurrect these slumbering demons, and are forced into battle with the supernatural forces that occupy the forests and dark bowers of man's domain. The innocent must suffer. The guilty must be punished. One-by-one, the students are possessed by these demons whose thirst for revenge is insatiable. As the night wanes, only one man remains... Ash. He must now defend himself while trying to uncover the horrible secret of The Evil Dead.

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"Das Boot" is a graphic and gripping tale that follows the daring patrol of U-96, one of the famed German U-Boats known as 'The Grey Wolves'. Prowling the North Atlantic, they challenged the British Navy at every turn.

The crew abroad the U-96 is portrayed in a desperate life-and-death struggle, coping with life beneath the waves quickly gives way to terror when confronting the enemy...

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Inspired by a letter by Friedrich Engels and a 1974 account of two militant Marxist writers who had been imprisoned by the Nasser regime, Straub-Huillet filmed 'Too Early, Too Late' in France and Egypt during 1980.

They reflect on Egypt’s history of peasant struggle and liberation from Western colonization, and link it to class tensions in France shortly before the Revolution of 1789, quoting texts by Engels as well as the pioneering nonfiction film Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory (1895).

The film, based on actual events, tells the story of John Reed (Warren Beatty), American Communist, journalist and activist, whose love affair with writer/feminist Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton) unfolds against the explosive backdrop of the Russian Revolution.

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Housewife Christine M. tries to shoplift some merchandise from a boutique in a shopping mall but is caught by the male shopkeeper. Christine and two other customers, waitress Annie and secretary Anna, beat the man to death, witnessed by a large group of other female shoppers.

They are tried with murder and deny the plea of insanity that the male prosecutor and judges assume they should plead. The female criminal psychiatrist assigned to ascertain their level of sanity comes to identify with the women's situations and concludes that they are not insane but have been driven to murder by the strain of living in a patriarchy.

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Iquitos, Peru, is a town Isolated in the middle of the jungle at the turn of the century. On the outskirts, a few shacks are rotting in the mud. In the centre are the splendid houses of the nouveaux-riches rubber barons.

It is in this setting, rich in grotesque contrast, that Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald - Fltzcarraldo (Klaus Kinski), as the natives call him - has his dream of bringing together Enrico Caruso and Sarah Bernhardt for one great celebration of Grand Opera. To finance his fantastic dream, Fitzcarraldo decides to exploit a vast area of rubber trees growing beyond the impassable Ucayala Falls. In order to circumvent this barrier, he literally has his huge steamboat lifted over a mountain from one branch of the river to the other. With the aid of a tribe of Indians bewitched by records featuring the voice of the greatest singer of all time, Fitzcarraldo fights fever, mosquitoes and suffocating heat to achieve the impossible.

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Fries with gravy, a cherry cola. Friendship, bragging rights...and does Sinatra or Mathis croon the best makeout music? Before there was the counterculture of the '60s, there was the counter culture.

From his Oscar-nominated script, Barry Levinson makes his directing debut with this endearing study of pals in transition. Film-debuting Ellen Barkin plays a neglected wife. Steve Guttenberg, Daniel Stern, Mickey Rourke, Kevin Bacon, Timothy Daly and Paul Reiser - chosen from over 600 hopefuls - play the up-all-night buddies who work out the remnants of adolescence during ritual grazings at a busy steel-and-vinyl hangout in 1959 Baltimore. Stars, laughs, interlocking stories: entertainment is the daily special in Diner.

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Double bill featuring two of the films produced by the acclaimed partnership of composer Philip Glass and filmmaker Godfrey Reggio.

Koyaanisqatsi (1983)

Prepare to experience a truly remarkable film - a cinematic masterpiece so extraordinary that it regales the senses, stimulates the mind and actually redefines the potential of filmmaking. Celebrated director Godfrey Reggio, innovative cinematographer Ron Fricke and Golden Globe-winning composer Philip Glass have created a spellbinding film so rich in beauty and detail that with each viewing it becomes a new and different film. Unique, profound, mesmerizing, and thought-provoking, Koyaanisqatsi contrasts the tranquil beauty of nature with the frenzied hum of contemporary urban society. Uniting breathtaking imagery with a hauntingly evocative, award-winning score, it is original and fascinating.
Powaqqatsi (1988)
Hailed by audiences and critics around the world as mesmerizing, this second instalment of writer/director Godfrey Reggio's apocalyptic "qatsi" trilogy is quite simply one of the most magnificent visual and aural spectacles ever made. Combining stunning cinematography with the exquisite music of award-winning composer Philip Glass, Powaqqatsi is a breathtaking experience working on many levels - emotional, spiritual, intellectual and aesthetic! Bold, haunting and epic in scale, this extraordinary film calls into question everything we think we know about contemporary society. By juxtaposing images of ancient cultures with those of modern life, Powaqqatsi masterfully portrays the human cost of progress. It is a film that engages the soul as well as the mind - it is truly an absorbing experience.