The Dark Knight - Best Film Ever??

mechcit

I have seen on a number of websites (including www.flickchart.com) that The Dark Knight is the number one movie of all time. I find this hard to believe, it is a really good movie. However I find it hard to believe that it gets the title of best movie of all time.

Does any one else agree?
Any one got any ideas for the top spot?

A couple of mine are:

Heat
Donnie Darko
Snatch
The Last Samurai
American History X
Matrix (all three)
12 Monkeys

rednik

Great film that it is, however no way is it the best ever made. Peoples memories are too short or else they just haven't seen enough films. Personally I could not name one particular film as being the best ever.

liah

Doesn't belong there, end of. It's good, but it's not exceptional, not even slightly, and to be the number one movie of all time, it better be a pretty fúcking exceptional work.

Irishrossoblu

Dark Knight is ok. Nothing more, nothing less.

Davao8000

Many online best film lists consist of recent films.

Personally, if a best film list doesn't have Chinatown or The Seven Samurai or something like that in it then it's not much of a list.

mechcit

Davao8000 wrote: »

Many online best film lists consist of recent films.

Personally, if a best film list doesn't have Chinatown or The Seven Samurai or something like that in it then it's not much of a list.

Ive seen alot of those type of movies, not sure if Ive seen these 2 as I always get the titles of Japanese and Chinese movies mixed up.

Tea_Bag

Snatch is really good..
StarWars (old ones)
Lord of War
Thank you for smoking


more later?

RealJohn

mechcit wrote: »

Ive seen alot of those type of movies, not sure if Ive seen these 2 as I always get the titles of Japanese and Chinese movies mixed up.

Chintatown is an american film, starring Jack Nicholson but since you say you haven't seen it, I can see where the confusion would arise.

OP, none of the films you've mentioned deserve to be anywhere near the top 20 all time, not to mind number 1 (though I confess that I quite like Snatch, American History X and 12 Monkeys). You're right about The Dark Knight though. It's good but the only reason it will reach classic status is because it's a Batman movie (and not awful like Batman Forever and Batman and Robin).

The best film ever has to stand the test of time and so far, the only ones that even feature in that bracket (that have been mentioned in this thread) are Chinatown and The Seven Samurai.

Personally, I couldn't pick a single best film ever but up there would be the likes of Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Psycho, Star Wars etc. The most modern ones I'd even consider would be Unforgiven and Dances With Wolves (I might have overlooked something and Dances With Wolves might be stretching it, given that it's rarely aired anymore).

Most people forget that the odds are the best film of all time probably hasn't been made in the last 10 or 20 years.

DazMarz

The Dark Knight is a superlative piece of film-making... but in no way is it anywhere near the best film ever made.

Films that could easily be in contention for that gong:

-The Godfather
-Shawshank Redemption
-The Godfather Part II
-Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope
-Schindler's List
-Goodfellas
-Casablanca
-The Silence Of The Lambs
-Psycho
-Se7en
-Rear Window
-The Shining
-Fight Club
-White Heat
-American Beauty
-Citizen Kane
-Raging Bull
-Jaws
-Fargo
-No Country For Old Men
-The Deer Hunter
-Deliverance
-Scarface
-Casino
-Philadelphia
-The Usual Suspects
-Pulp Fiction
-One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
-The Matrix
-Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
-Goldfinger
-Alien
-Blood Simple
-Dirty Harry
-The French Connection
-This Is Spinal Tap
-Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King
-The Terminator
-Heat
-Carlito's Way
-The Sting
-The Fly

and many, many more I have probably unjustly left out/forgotten. Have a gander at a selection of the above, and then see where you rank The Dark Knight.

mechcit

RealJohn wrote: »

Chintatown is an american film, starring Jack Nicholson but since you say you haven't seen it, I can see where the confusion would arise.

OP, none of the films you've mentioned deserve to be anywhere near the top 20 all time, not to mind number 1 (though I confess that I quite like Snatch, American History X and 12 Monkeys). You're right about The Dark Knight though. It's good but the only reason it will reach classic status is because it's a Batman movie (and not awful like Batman Forever and Batman and Robin).

The best film ever has to stand the test of time and so far, the only ones that even feature in that bracket (that have been mentioned in this thread) are Chinatown and The Seven Samurai.

Personally, I couldn't pick a single best film ever but up there would be the likes of Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Psycho, Star Wars etc. The most modern ones I'd even consider would be Unforgiven and Dances With Wolves (I might have overlooked something and Dances With Wolves might be stretching it, given that it's rarely aired anymore).

Most people forget that the odds are the best film of all time probably hasn't been made in the last 10 or 20 years.

Dances with Wolves is a good choice, did any one else think that the last samurai was a copy of that movie only in a Japanese setting??

The movies listed above are just a few good ones i could think of, off the top of my head. The ones below may be better:

Goodfellas
Battle royale
Lord of the rings trilogy
matrix trilogy
Trainspotting
Apocalypse now
Pulp Fiction (obvious one i know!)
Fight Club
Resevoir Dogs

I dont know though, the ones above are just my opinion...

cashback

Yeah, it's a great Batman film but nowhere near best of all time.

So many films are much more deserving. For example last night I finally got around to watching The Killing Fields that I'd bought months ago.
Amazing film, the Dark Knight is bubblegum in comparison.

Magic Eight Ball

Dark Knight is a severely overrated piece of work.

Owen

The Dark Knight was a great movie to see in the cinema, and I remember coming out still feeling excited about it, but after watching it again on Sky, you have to wonder why they ruined the end with the Harvey/Twoface story crammed into 20 minutes, with terrible acting, and no character development.

BlitzKrieg

it is strangely one of those films that when you start watching you end up watching the whole film.

Was messing around on sky player when I first got it and thought I'd just see what the quality is like, then I thought I'd watch the opening scene, then it was until the pencil trick, then it was until hong kong etc etc etc.

Ended up watching the whole film with no intention to. So it is one of those appealling films where once you start its hard to stop.

Valmont

I think the whole concept of "no.1 movie of all time" is fairly ridiculous. Obviously some movies are objectively better than others in terms of their direction, story etc but to say that one is better than everything else ignores far too many variables and trounces all over simple subjectivity. Not to mention any criteria for judging "best film ever" are bound to be suspect.

For example, Lost in Translation is my No.1 movie of all time even though I know that others will disagree.

The Dark Knight was great though.

Valmont

PaintDoctor wrote: »

The Dark Knight was a great movie to see in the cinema, and I remember coming out still feeling excited about it, but after watching it again on Sky, you have to wonder why they ruined the end with the
Harvey/Twoface story crammed into 20 minutes, with terrible acting, and no character development.

I'm not doubting you but I didn't notice any difference between the cinema version and the sky one. I probably just wasn't paying as much attention the second time.

Although I thought Dent's transformation into twoface was rather forcefully done. It didn't really convince me.

mechcit

Valmont wrote: »

I think the whole concept of "no.1 movie of all time" is fairly ridiculous. Obviously some movies are objectively better than others in terms of their direction, story etc but to say that one is better than everything else ignores far too many variables and trounces all over simple subjectivity. Not to mention any criteria for judging "best film ever" are bound to be suspect.

For example, Lost in Translation is my No.1 movie of all time even though I know that others will disagree.

The Dark Knight was great though.

Fair point. I was just trying to gauge people's interest in the film.

Jax Teller

if heath leadger never died would it have got as much publicity? i dont think it would .

Owen

Valmont wrote: »

I'm not doubting you but I didn't notice any difference between the cinema version and the sky one. I probably just wasn't paying as much attention the second time. .

I didn't say there was a difference between the two.

tman

mechcit wrote: »

A couple of mine are:

Heat
Donnie Darko
Snatch
The Last Samurai
American History X
Matrix (all three)
12 Monkeys

Really????

I mean seriously????????????????:eek:
I'll have some of whatever you were smoking when you watched the last one please...

TDK was a pretty damn good film, but isn't really all that it was made out to be. Seemed to be more of a vehicle for the Joker than anything else...

fonecrusher1

Not a chance, not even in the top 10 best film list, in my opinion.
Yeah I liked it, its a very good movie but its a bit too long & drawn out in places.

Now if you were to change the thread title to Lord of the Rings - Best film ever?? That would be interesting.

jaykhunter

I'm a huge mark for action/superhero/dark-horror movies so this is really up there with my favourite film of all time. I loved pretty much EVERYTHING in the film. I bought it on Blu-Ray without owning a PS3 (my gf has one lol)

Terminator 2 is my favourite film of all time

Saying 'best' implies the majority think it's the best made film in every type of catagory....I'll just say it's an amazing film and my 2nd favourite ever.

latenia

keysersoze_88 wrote: »

if heath leadger never died would it have got as much publicity? i dont think it would .

Yeah it was a pretty low-key release.

jaykhunter

Hmmm...saddens me to think that a lot of the box office (netted just over $1 billion) was because of Ledger's death...would have gotten the Oscar if he hadn't died?

It's all a moot point though, his performance was amazing and deserved an Oscar. And if Pirates 2 can break 1 billion dollars, so should Batman

Valmont

PaintDoctor wrote: »

I didn't say there was a difference between the two.

So you didn't. My mistake. It was the only blemish on an otherwise fine movie.

Flamed Diving

Good movie, certainly not the best ever. My favourite three are:

1 - Shawshank
2 - American Psycho
3 - There Will Be Blood

Otis Driftwood

liah wrote: »

Doesn't belong there, end of. It's good, but it's not exceptional, not even slightly, and to be the number one movie of all time, it better be a pretty fúcking exceptional work.

+1,000,000

krudler

jaykhunter wrote: »

Hmmm...saddens me to think that a lot of the box office (netted just over $1 billion) was because of Ledger's death...would have gotten the Oscar if he hadn't died?

It's all a moot point though, his performance was amazing and deserved an Oscar. And if Pirates 2 can break 1 billion dollars, so should Batman

Box office can be an odd thing, Ice Age 3 has made almost 900 million dollars worldwide, someone explain that

fonecrusher1

krudler wrote: »

Box office can be an odd thing, Ice Age 3 has made almost 900 million dollars worldwide, someone explain that

Because the target audience for those sort of movies is enormous.
Im actually starting to get annoyed with the current boom in animated films. Ever since toy story theres been a financial feeding frenzy around that particular market.
Make the movie, get really popular contemporary actor's/actress's to do the voice overs & pump millions into advertising.
.....Ka-ching!!!!$$$$$$$$$$

Whats box office figures got to do with a movie actually being good?
James Cameron's Titanic made over a billion dollars & its the biggest load of rubbish you'll ever see.

Karl Hungus

It was good, but it was no Seven Samurai.



Honestly, I don't really think there is such a thing as best. The Dark Knight being ranked so highly on so many different sites is really more to do with popularity than anything else. It is an absolutely fantastic film, I've watched it quite a few times already and loved every minute, but people who'd say it's the best film of all time really haven't seen enough films. Looking at the top 10 best films on that site you linked, those are really just the most popular, aren't they?

I think if something could be considered the best, it has to be a milestone in cinema, something that had great influence and helped shape films as we see them, something that still resonates with us today, and is still as magnificent and enjoyable as ever.

indough

ive never really rated seven samurai as that great a movie but most likley its because i watched the incredibly long version which probably could have done with a good hour of bits cut out