*Film rolling*
*Old cinematic music and countdown beeps*
Let me start by saying there is no greatest movie of all time,
The question is just too difficult to really answer.
But I still think it's the most important question in cinema.
There are a number of concrete aspects of a movie that
That turn it from good movies to movies with a legacy.
The first is cinematic influence,
How did the movie change the way movies are made?
If you read anything about Citizen Kane,
You'll realise that it's probably the most innovative movie of all time
And that's a big reason why it tops every all time movie list.
Citizen Kane highlights a very clear distinction between two eras of film making,
Especially in it's cinematography.
Silent films were very economical with their editing,
They either showed their actors on a simple two-dimensional plane,
Or used montage cuts to quickly associate one idea with another.
And once sound was introduced in the late 1920's,
The first instinct for many directors was just filming dialog
shot reverse shot with shallow focus.
And it was boring.
"Here is your prize, Sir Archer."
"It is indeed an honour to receive it from the hands of so beautiful a lady."
"How is it that you didn't use a black arrow today?"
"That is my court of last resort, Sir Guy."
But Orson Welles and Gregg Toland changed the game in 1941,
By bringing back traditional theatrical staging on to the screen.
The use of deep focused camera allowed characters to be staged
In interesting and revealing ways.
"Kane, you are the soul owner."
Showing power dynamics, transitions of power, complex visual story telling,
And giving the viewer active participation in the scene.
Allowing the viewer to choose what to look at,
Instead of having a close up forcing you to watch one character at a time.
Welles and Toland weren't the first to use this technique,
But they executed it so effectively that they started a movement.
The iconic deep focus and sharp lighting of film noir movies?
All influenced from Citizen Kane.
Not to mention Welles' use of sound to transition from one scene to another,
Which is basically in every single movie now.
Not to mention the makeup, which had never been done so extensively.
Not to mention it's extensive use of flashback and unreliable narration,
Which had only been done majorly in literature.
Once you think about it, there's no question of it's greatness.
Great movies change things,
Star Wars ended a streak of dreary and sophisticated movies in the 1970's,
The Blair Witch Project changed the horror genre for good,
And it looks like Deadpool's gonna change the game when it comes to marketing a movie,
And we'll probably see a lot more R-rated comedies in the future because of it.
If a movie changed what other film makers were doing, it's gotta be at least a little bit great.
The second measure of greatness is the cultural impact.
How did the movie change the actual world it was made in, not just the world of cinema?
Like when Jaws made beach attendance plummet,
Or when Fight Club made actual fight clubs spring up around the US.
Personally, I think if the movie Fight Club inspired you to start your own fight club
The you're totally misreading the movie, but that's a topic for another time.
All I'm saying is movies aren't in a bubble.
Movies can make laws get enacted, they can spread awareness on a massive scale to billions of people.
The ones that catch the attention of enough people are great,
Even if it's just bringing back folk music.
"#The place where he, was born and raised."
The third and final way is personal impact, it's the way the movie changes you.
I think this is the most overlooked aspect of a great movie because it's hard to measure,
But I've always been a big believer that movies can tell us more about how to live our lives than the real world does.
I think Juno explores abortion in a more accessible way than any abortion pamphlet,
Or any talk show host.
"Yeah! And she was like 'Oh hi, babies have fingernails.' Fingernails!"
And I think that ability to tap into reality through a story
makes a movie one of the greats,
And it's the underlying beauty of cinema.
A movie doesn't have to change cinema forever,
And it doesn't have to change the world forever,
But if it changes you forever, it's gotta be pretty great.
I know this videos going more sentimental than usual,
But greatness is hard to discuss otherwise.
There's certainly measurable cinematic techniques to judge for greatness,
But at the end of the day, it's the way movies touch us personally that makes them great.
People pick different movies as their favourite, because at that point in their life
that was the movie they had to watch to help them out,
Or just to astound them the most.
It could be as simple as a movie that makes you laugh a lot.
I find that if I really liked the movie, I think about it constantly after I've seen it.
500 Days Of Summer really helped me with a bad relationship because
it felt like the movie was talking about me,
And explaining everything I was currently feeling so perfectly.
"I HATE THIS SONG!"
So how about this.
I'm normally terrible at keeping up with social media,
But tweet about you favourite movie to my Twitter @SwagThug4Lyfe
And I'll respond to it.
Let's talk about great movies.
And while I did start by saying there is no greatest movie of all time,
It's definitely The Princess Bride.
"LIAR!"
"Get back witch!"
"I'M NOT A WITCH I'M YOUR WIFE!"
Thanks for watching.