#74: Silence
of the Lambs vs. Pan’s Labyrinth
#73: Butch
Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
vs. The Prestige
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| Okay, if I have to watch it... |
Let’s start with Butch
vs. Prestige. I do not feel like either of these films
should be on the top 100 – The Prestige
especially. Prestige is an example of
the sort of thing I feared would happen often in a list based on the voting of
the “masses” like the IMDb list is. That it would just become a popularity
contest, whichever en vogue director/actor/movie could get the most votes. So far that hasn’t happened much, so I’m
not going to sweat it.
But I definitely give my vote to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid over The Prestige. Butch
is charming in that pure entertainment sort of way. An early buddy-cop… er,
buddy outlaw… movie. And Paul Newman and
Robert Redford are definitely easy on the eyes.
The Prestige (Hugh
Jackman also no hardship on the eyes) was a good movie and I liked it, but a Top 100 movie? No. Sorry
Nolan fans.
Let’s get to the real showdown: Silence of the Lambs vs. Pan’s
Labyrinth
I was excited about this pairing because for the
first time in a while it felt like I was comparing apples to apples. Both
movies are definitely creepy in the very best sense of the word.
I had never
seen Pan’s Labyrinth. Loved it. Biggest difficultly was deciding who was scarier:
the evil fanciful characters or the evil realistic ones. Set in Francoist Spain
(so yes, another sub-captioned movie) it’s about a little girl and her search
for escape. Complex and captivating. A fairy tale, but definitely not for kids.
But… against Silence
of the Lambs?
I hadn’t seen Lambs
in a while, although I cut my teeth on it in the early 90s and watched it
regularly while in college. It had been at least 10 years. I was concerned it
wouldn’t hold up as well in a world that had changed so much and gotten pretty
scary on its own since 1991. But I’m happy to report that Sir Hopkin’s Hannibal
Lecter is still as bone-chilling 20 years later. Scary to the point that when I visited Madame
Tussaud’s on Hollywood Blvd a couple of months ago, I could not stand directly
in front of the wax portrayal of Lecter – lest he, in all his wax glory, decide
I be his dinner guest.
 |
| Who would you rather have show up at your house? |
So it was a tough call. I enjoyed Pan’s creativity, but I just have to
give it to Lambs. Talk about an
anti-hero -- perhaps the most brilliant one
in the history of cinema.
AFI’s
Top 100
|
IMDB’s
Top 100 (as of 1/1/12)
|
|
#58
|
The Gold Rush (1925)
|
Memento
(2000)
|
#73
|
Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
(1969)
|
The
Prestige (2006)
|
#74
|
Silence of the Lambs (1991)
|
Pan’s
Labyrinth (2006)
|
#75
|
In
the Heat of the Night (1967)
|
Raging Bull (1980)
|
#76
|
Forrest
Gump (1994)
|
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
|
#77
|
All
the President’s Men (1976)
|
Singing In the Rain (1952)
|
#78
|
Modern
Times (1936)
|
Some Like it Hot (1959)
|
#79
|
The
Wild Bunch (1969)
|
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
|
#80
|
The
Apartment (1960)
|
Rashomon (1950)
|
#81
|
Spartacus
(1960)
|
All About Eve (1950)
|
#82
|
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
|
Amadeus
(1984)
|
#83
|
Titanic (1997)
|
Once
Upon A Time in America (1984)
|
#84
|
Easy
Rider (1969)
|
The Green Mile (1999)
|
#85
|
A
Night at the Opera (1935)
|
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
|
#86
|
Platoon (1986)
|
2001:
A Space Odyssey (1968)
|
#87
|
12
Angry Men (1957)
|
Inglorious Basterds (2009)
|
#88
|
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
|
The
Great Dictator (1940)
|
#89
|
Sixth Sense (1999)
|
Braveheart
(1995)
|
#90
|
Swing
Time (1936)
|
The Bicycle Thief (1948)
|
#91
|
Sophie’s Choice (1982)
|
The
Apartment (1960)
|
#92
|
Up (2009)
|
Goodfellas
(1990)
|
#93
|
The French Connection (1971)
|
Downfall
(2004)
|
#94
|
Pulp Fiction (1994)
|
Gran
Torino (2008)
|
#95
|
The
Last Picture Show (1971)
|
Metropolis (1927)
|
#96
|
Do The Right Thing (1989)
|
The
Sting (1973)
|
#97
|
Blade Runner (1982)
|
Gladiator
(2000)
|
#98
|
Yankee
Doodle Dandy (1942)
|
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
|
#99
|
Toy Story (1995)
|
Unforgiven
(1992)
|
#100
|
Ben Hur (1959)
|
The
Elephant Man (1980)
|
Next week: Back
to the Future vs. Shawshank
Redemption. Back to the Future
has been called by some of my (moronic) cinema guru friends as a “perfect” film.
Cue my rolling of eyes and snickering.
