Chris Gore, Founder/Owner of FilmThreat/Author/Filmmaker: It’s a true work of art and we don’t see a lot
of films that live up to the words true work of art these days.
Film Courage: What are your 10 favorite movies?
Chris: My 10 favorite movies is an impossible question. I would probably short circuit.
I will tell you what one of my all-time favorite independent films is the original Slacker directed
by Richard Linklater. That movie completely breaks your standard mold of traditional storytelling
with three-act structure. It’s a day in the life of Austin Texas where we meet all
types of people in all walks of life and they kind of have intersecting lives. Each story
kind of crosses over into the next and it’s beautiful and absolutely sweet and inspiring.
That would be in my top 10 list. Another film would be 2001: A Space Odyssey directed by
Stanley Kubrick is probably for me a perfect film in the sense thatI saw it when I was
five years old as a kid and it blew my mind and I probably watch it every few weeks and
by that I mean I keep it on in the background while I'm working on other things but 2001:
A Space Odyssey is so inspiring is so beautiful and then I mean it's a true work of art and
we don't see a lot of films that live up to the words true work of art these days and
I tend to notice something new about it every time I see it there's something fascinating
about that film and just the artistry the the cinematography the the way the way that
these special effects in that film stand up to today there was never a special edition
of 2001: A Space Odyssey although pro tip if you if you get the film on iTunes they
will allow you to watch the film with the original 1968 theatrical sound mix which I
strongly recommend but that film inspires me it just I just kind of turn inward whenever
I watch that film and think about life and death and the cosmos and the unknown and all
the unanswerable questions that we that religion attempts to to answer for us that are truly
unanswerable only perhaps by faith and that that film asks those questions without providing
an answer which I think is terrifying so I love that movie the original star wars also
has to be on that list along with the empire strikes back because
the time that they were made when you go back to filmmaking in the 1970s those movies were
dark another favorite I would add to the list see I'm actually going to get to the list
is taxi driver by Martin Scorcese and when you look at the films that were being made
at the time in the 1970s they were very dark the themes were this is a post-Nixon era when
in the shadow of all the cultural cultural upheaval of the 1960s and the 70s were the
hangover from that and still films were very dark even in the realm of science fiction
and George Lucas set out to to kind of flip that and say I'm going make a fairy tale for
kids because there are no heroes in movies today I mean at least that's what he thought
in the early 70s when he first began his journey of writing the original star wars film so
that one just stands out and when I say the original star wars the original cut that was
theatrical theatrically released on may 25th 1977 which I saw in a theater just a few days
later that original cut is just remarkable and famously George Lucas did continue to
cut even after it was only released on about what a dozen screens initially and The Empire
Strikes Back just sort of flipped that.
Interestingly when George Lucas set about working on the story forThe Empire Strikes
Back and determined that his heavy which was considered to be in the initial writing of
star wars a small role Darth Vader he considered I'm going to make this the main hero's father
and present a dilemma that is in order to defeat the evil empire I have to harm my own
father and he actually consulted a child psychologist to learn how this might affect children how
the idea of this might affect children we live in a time now where pop culture is consumed
so quickly that a new Disney + series episode will come out on a Wednesday and we've dissected
every part of it found every easter egg and discussed it to death within 24 hours of its
airing and the same goes with the film it opens on a Thursday night, Friday and by Monday
it's it's all been it's all been discussed at the time that that films opened when I
was a kid and seeing movies it was a discussion that lasted for for some of these films years
Logan's Run I would add to that list only as a I don't really have a guilty pleasure
I'm just going say Logan's Run because I like the ideas espoused in that film yes it's shot
in a shopping mall in Dallas with futuristic escalators and cheesy special effects that
do not hold up but the performance by Michael York and Jenny Agutter is just transcends
the poor special effects also an amazing score but that film had a profound effect on me
as a kid and I just love the ideas that was there's there's a little bit of brave new
world in that in Logan's Run kind of borrows from that and the theatrical version of that
movie with Michael York is very different than the novel by William F. Nolan which I
read as a third grader and it really scarred me because it's such a different the book
and the movie are so vastly different I a top 10 list for me is just like so difficult
to put together I can talk about favorite films and those kind of change with change
with what my current thinking is about things so this is an impossible question which is
what I'm happy you're asking it's really impossible for me for me to to respond to that with a
top but but these are some of my favorites and the and the reasons they and they they
resonate for me to today now if Boyhood had come out when you were a child do you think
that would replace Slacker is there something nostalgic about some of the like because for
me I love Boyhood it's not that I didn't like Slacker but I thought Boyhood was a masterpiece
so do you think you would have that would have been your your one of your top ten yeah
that's interesting point I do think that many of the films from that are in my top list
or movies that I saw at a younger age they because they left such a profound impression
films like apocalypse now I think and I would also say I would add to that list Pink Flamingos
John Waters I saw that film when I was 16 years old. I got a car not because I cared
about girls I got a car because I wanted to go to movies so when I went to this rep this
repertory theater did a John Waters tribute and I saw Pink Flamingos and it was shocking
to me I couldn't believe that people that that structurally speaking I mean yeah I guess
it follows 3x structure structure but there's so many shocking elements in that film in
addition to Glen Milstead the drag queen Divine who is probably one of the greatest drag queens
in cinematic history if that could be said but that movie had a huge effect on me when
I was 16 and then I just like sort of went down a rabbit hole I was fortunate enough
to work at a video store that had some of his other films. Female Trouble might be a
personal favorite because it involves Christmas day and cha cha heels which I thought was
so weird I mean John Waters kind of opened my world up to like movies don't have to be
this way they don't have to be Hollywood films so I would say everything from like Slacker
being this small indie movie made by this kid Richard Linklater in Austin Texas that
just huge effect on me to like John Waters who's been a true independent his entire career
too truthfully George Lucas is an independent filmmaker I mean yes he found funding in Hollywood
but his company Lucasfilm was not located in Los Angeles he relocated to Marin County
in Northern California specifically to get away from Hollywood I don't blame him but
I would say that if there's a thread that all the films that had an effect on me is
they're all by very independent minded voices and my fear with modern Hollywood as it becomes
more corporatized is that those voices will be lost and the ability to express oneself
in through cinema because it's so expensive that those voices will be lost and that's
what I have a real concern with and and I see where the 70s filmmaking in Hollywood
was very independently driven with this young group of filmmakers everyone from Spielberg
to Lucas and Scorsese and Coppola among others young at the time. They were these new mavericks
in Hollywood and truly had independent voices I don't know if we'll see an era like that
again and it's it's disheartening to me and I hope that there is some push to support
these independent filmmakers I do whatever I can with my own outlet Film Threat we champion
these small filmmakers but they just don't get the support from the mass media like whatever
the latest Disney Marvel Pixar Star Wars thing is which tends to consume all of the conversation
of film for that week and so that's kind of been my kind of my life's work through Film
Threat is just to elevate these smaller movies I just wonder if we'll see that same era again.
Question For The Viewers:
How many perfect movies have you seen? Can you list them below?