The Best Movies You've Never Heard Of

Many of us here have no doubt seen the popular spaghetti westerns from the master Sergio Leone. The trilogy includes "A Fist Full of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, the Bad and The Ugly". All starred by the man himself, Clint Eastwood. But has many of us seen the "other" masterpiece- "Once Upon A Time In The West"? A near 3 hour classic with both humor and violence using sounds in the background to great effect. Starring Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Jason Robards and Claudia Cardinale. A movie worth seeing even if you aren' t quite the western buff. :thumbup:

N.
 
Bob W said:
I like the independant films by Jim Jarmusch. All of these are good, a few are outstanding:
- Down by Law
- Ghost Dog
- Stranger Than Paradise
- Dead Man
- Broken Flowers
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I really enjoyed Down by Law and Dead Man, haven't seen the rest of these yet.

One movie I really like but can't seem to find on DVD is Delicatessen. Great dark humor.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101700/
 
Not exactly an indie film, but one that didn't get much/enough attention... The Fisher King. I absolutely love this film, and the fact that Mercedes Ruehl is in it does it for me.;)
 
Another vote for the Duellests. One of the most beautifully filmed movies ever. Plus it has great swordplay.

Recently - Dinner Rush

Also: Lake Boat (by David Mamet - Glengarry Glenross), The Moderns, and Diamond Men
 
Diamond Men
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I can't find that to rent anywhere around here. But it's definitely on my must-see list. IMO, Robert Forster was robbed of the academy award a few years ago for Jackie Brown. Giving the Oscar to Jack Nicholson for As Good As It Gets was charity.

Once Upon A Time in the West is a great film, and one of the few movies I actually own on DVD.

I really enjoyed Down by Law and Dead Man, haven't seen the rest of these yet.
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Of the great movies on the list, I thought Down by Law was the least great. I'm sure you'll like the others, especially Ghost Dog.

-Bob
 
Ride with the Devil - Spiderman and Jewel in the Civil War! Excellent 19th century speech patterns.

Doumentaries

Hearts of Darkness about the making of Apocalypse Now. Brilliant.

The Fog of War. 2 hours with Robert S McNamara. Equally engrossing.


I too liked the Duellists.
 
Bob W said:
IMO, Robert Forster was robbed of the academy award a few years ago for Jackie Brown.
-Bob
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Agreed. I bought Diamond Men on Amazon. Another great performance by Robert Forster (He's also in Lake Boat] BTW.
 
I liked,

Henry V
Waking Ned Devine
The Brothers McMullen
Stealing Home
The Messenger, great first person mass sword play shots in that film.
Network News
The Parallax View

Just a few that I liked and I cannot remember the directors.....
 
Ive put some of these on my netflix list, thanks for the reccomendations! I don't watch westerns, or martial arts movies, and I hate movies with love stories so those have to be eliminated, so sorry. lol

Keep em coming!

Danbo - 2005 was a really bad year. Sorry I haven't been around.
 
Danelle O'Shea said:
More than anything, I am a documentary junkie. Tell me your favorite movie that most people haven't heard of that you think I might like.
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Documentaries:

These probably don’t fit your most-people-haven’t–heard-of requirement, but on the off chance that there is one you might not be aware of I will throw them out.

Touching the Void (2003). Edge-of-your seat unbelievable survival story.

Riding Giants (2004). I am not a surfing fan but I still really liked the movie. A rare movie that my daughter and I both enjoyed.

Born into Brothels (2004). Academy award for best documentary of 2004.

Murderball (2005). Wheelchairs / Quadriplegics / Killer Competition

--SAK
 
Hearts of Darkness about the making of Apocalypse Now. Brilliant.
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That was great!

I'd like to add The Pledge, with Jack Nicholson. He proved with that film that he really can be a top-grade actor. I don't know if it got much theatre playtime, but it's been on DVD since last year.

-Bob
 
Hi Danelle, great thread.

Below are some awesome little-known films I've seen in the last 10 yrs or so:

The Indian Runner (Sean Penn's directorial debut...a haunting story, and one of Viggo Mortensen's first roles)
Box Of Moonlight (a cool little story with Sam Rockwell and John Turturro)
Bound ( a very suspenseful lesbian/mob flick)
Lion of the Desert (one of the best WWII movies ever)
Prefontaine (biopic about the famous runner)
A Simple Plan (not too obscure) (the superb Billy Bob Thornton and Bill Paxton)
Pharoah's Army (a superb Civil War era film)
Taking Sides (with Harvey Keitel and the brilliant Stellan Skarsgard)
The Machinist (very recent) (trippy, good story)
Shadowlands (true-life account of a love affair that C.S. Lewis had with an American; tearjerker)
Dagon (weird horror flick)
Frankenstein: The True Story (brilliant made-for-TV 2-parter from the early 70s)
The Other (strange horror film from the early 70s)
Black Robe (about the French missionaries)
The Beguiled (the most obscure Eastwood flick ever; ahead of its time)

Some GREAT documentaries:

The Thin Blue Line (brilliant Errol Morris flick)
When We Were Kings (about the legendary Foreman-Ali bout in Africa)
Crumb (about the 60's cartoonist)
Sick: The Life and Death of Bill Flanagan, Supermasochist (has to be seen to be believed)
Grizzly Man (what a character!)
Capturing The Friedmans (as you mentioned)
Mr. Death (another Errol Morris film)
2 Days In October (about Vietnam)
Lions of Darkness (the amazing lion documentary, as seen on National Geographic; it's nothing short of Shakespearean)
American Movie (very entertaining)

A great movie is something you want to see over and over; a great documentary is something you can only see once-- maybe twice-- in your lifetime.
 
Of Jim Jarmusch's films, I've seen "Dead Man", "Night on Earth", and "Ghost Dog". I really, really like "Dead Man", although I don't own it yet. I didn't like "Night on Earth" as much, except the Roberto Benigni segment, which was hysterical. I own "Ghost Dog".
 
Non-fiction:Koyaanisqatsi & Powaqqatsi (been years but I remember both blowing me away). Almost anything by Ken Burns (although his stuff's not exactly of the "never heard of it" variety)

Fiction: The Ruling Class, Vanishing Point, The Brother from Another Planet, Repo Man, Hell in the Pacific, Amelie, Le Dernier Combat, Wings of Desire, The Wind and the Lion, Jeremiah Johnson, Little Big Man, Three days of the Condor, Cemetery Man, Ran, The Gumball Rally, Blowup, The Limey, The Hill, Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead, Basquiat, The Anderson Tapes, Robin and Marian, The Conversation, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, A Boy and His Dog, The Sand Pebbles... Sorry, kinda zoned out & did a little free association/six degrees thing I could go on forever but I won't. Lotta 70's stuff there.

I really liked Ghost Dog, loved Dead Man & The Duellists (have all three on DVD),
 
An old film called Death Hunt, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082247/combined. The last time I saw it was when I was a kid, and I really enjoyed it. Charles Bronson is a mountain man in turn of the century Canada, and breaks up a dog fight, taking a badly wounded Husky/Malamute ?, to his cabin to recuperate, which angers the local bad guys to no end. Lee Marvin is the sergeant sent to capture Bronson after he is framed for a murder.

Heres the synopsis from IMDB...

Canada 1931: The unsociable trapper Johnson lives for himself in the ice-cold mountains near the Yukon river. During a visit in the town he witnesses a dog-fight. He interrupts the game and buys one of the dogs - almost dead already - for $200 against the owner's will. When the owner Hasel complains to mounty sargeant Millen, he refuses to take action. But then the loathing breeder and his friends accuse Johnson of murder. So Millen, although sympathetic, has to try to take him under arrest - but Johnson defends his freedom in every way possible
 
King of New York - with Christopher Walken, David Caruso,Laurence Fishburne,
Wesley Snipes

Fantasic action movie!
 
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