Achieving Greatness: The Definition of a Great Film And the Academy Award for Best Picture goes to…The Artist! The silent film also won three other awards at this year’s Oscars; add those awards to the wide praise the movie received from both critics and viewers, and a strong case can be made in calling The Artist a great movie. However, at the time of its nomination, The Artist had only grossed about $12 million; compare that to critical flop Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which grossed over $350 million. If huge budgets, huge profits, hugely famous actors, and huge amounts of special effects do not necessarily make a great movie, what does? Most great movies start with a great script—they have interesting plots that provoke thought and
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Take The Dark Knight—the immensely popular superhero movie directed by Christopher Nolan. In theory, very few audience members could identify with a billionaire with multiple personalities who dresses as a bat and beats criminals to a pulp on a nightly basis. However, the Batman of The Dark Knight is easy to sympathize with, because he faces the same general experiences that most people do. At some point or another, everyone must deal with the death of a loved one—just as Batman does. Many people can say that they have fallen in love—just as Batman does. And, throughout their lives, all people are faced with some type of moral dilemma, without any obvious or absolute right choice—just as Batman does. The character the audience relates to does not even need to be a good character either. If done correctly, people should be able to relate to any protagonist. Roger Ebert writes about The Godfather, what is referred to by many as one of the greatest films of all time, that the audience “sympathize[s] with characters who are essentially evil”, because the film forces them “to consider the Mafia entirely on its own terms; in fact, “Don Vito Corleone…emerges as a sympathetic and even admirable character”. That is the beauty of The Godfather; the film so envelops the viewer, that he becomes a part of it—regardless of morality or legality. Therefore, what makes The Dark …show more content…
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey is a great example of this. The film moves slowly, dialogue is sparse, and the ending provides anything but closure to the viewer. Even so, 2001 only gets better upon reviewing, because the copious amount of detail and overwhelming ambiguity in the storyline and its construction allow the viewer to see and experience something new each time. A movie that could exist as simply a festival of impressive images flashing across the screen with a lazy viewer becomes, when watched actively, an intense, philosophical, and open-ended masterpiece. A more recent example of a thought-demanding film is Christopher Nolan’s Memento. Nolan presents his story in a nonlinear perspective, moving backwards in one storyline and forward in another. In doing so, the film puts the viewer in a similar situation as the amnesiac main character. Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly called Memento “one of those jigsaw puzzles whose pieces snap together more tightly with each viewing”. More often than not, a person watching a great film cannot simply lean back and relax. The movie draws in every ounce of focus and
Take The Dark Knight—the immensely popular superhero movie directed by Christopher Nolan. In theory, very few audience members could identify with a billionaire with multiple personalities who dresses as a bat and beats criminals to a pulp on a nightly basis. However, the Batman of The Dark Knight is easy to sympathize with, because he faces the same general experiences that most people do. At some point or another, everyone must deal with the death of a loved one—just as Batman does. Many people can say that they have fallen in love—just as Batman does. And, throughout their lives, all people are faced with some type of moral dilemma, without any obvious or absolute right choice—just as Batman does. The character the audience relates to does not even need to be a good character either. If done correctly, people should be able to relate to any protagonist. Roger Ebert writes about The Godfather, what is referred to by many as one of the greatest films of all time, that the audience “sympathize[s] with characters who are essentially evil”, because the film forces them “to consider the Mafia entirely on its own terms; in fact, “Don Vito Corleone…emerges as a sympathetic and even admirable character”. That is the beauty of The Godfather; the film so envelops the viewer, that he becomes a part of it—regardless of morality or legality. Therefore, what makes The Dark …show more content…
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey is a great example of this. The film moves slowly, dialogue is sparse, and the ending provides anything but closure to the viewer. Even so, 2001 only gets better upon reviewing, because the copious amount of detail and overwhelming ambiguity in the storyline and its construction allow the viewer to see and experience something new each time. A movie that could exist as simply a festival of impressive images flashing across the screen with a lazy viewer becomes, when watched actively, an intense, philosophical, and open-ended masterpiece. A more recent example of a thought-demanding film is Christopher Nolan’s Memento. Nolan presents his story in a nonlinear perspective, moving backwards in one storyline and forward in another. In doing so, the film puts the viewer in a similar situation as the amnesiac main character. Chris Nashawaty of Entertainment Weekly called Memento “one of those jigsaw puzzles whose pieces snap together more tightly with each viewing”. More often than not, a person watching a great film cannot simply lean back and relax. The movie draws in every ounce of focus and