Let's Finally Watch This

It's 1964. The Golden Age of Hollywood is over, and New Hollywood is about to begin, an era known for anti-heroes, changing morality, and less traditional plots. At the same time, the spaghetti western emerges, ushered in with A Fistful of Dollars, starring Clint Eastwood as the "man with no name" and directed by Sergio Leone. This is a different type of western, a grittier, less black-and-white western, that takes place in a town where rival gangs rule and the coffin-maker is kept busy.

What A Fistful of Dollars offers casual movie fans who have always meant to watch classic movies: an seminal example of the evolution of the western; a mysterious, iconic anti-hero protagonist; a tale of crime and harsh justice; and a lot of cool, grimy, sweaty close-ups backed by Ennio Morricone's now famous score.

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It's 1954. The American occupation of Japan had ended a few years before, and Japanese cinema is beginning to make an impression on the world scene. Released the same year as the original Godzilla, Seven Samurai is an essential classic from director Akira Kurosawa. Poverty-stricken farmers threatened with bandits decide to hire samurai to protect their village. This seemingly simple plot begins a massively influential film and an undisputed classic of cinema.

What Seven Samurai offers casual movie fans who have always meant to watch classic movies: a window into famed director Kurosawa's style; the plot that popularized the "assemble the team" trope; a microcosm for war, love, life and just about everything else; and the character Kikuchiyo--when you watch it, you'll know.

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It's 1944. The Second World War is still raging, and the two top grossing films are musicals. However, Double Indemnity, directed by Billy Wilder, is a different sort of film, a seminal example of film noir. It begins with insurance salesman Henry Neff confessing to a murder, and it follows his involvement with unhappy wife Phyllis Dietrichson and their plan to kill her husband and collect the insurance money without being caught...if they can.

What Double Indemnity offers casual movie fans who have always meant to watch classic movies: an outstanding example of film noir, a fascinating framing device, a quintenssential femme fatale, and an examination of temptation, guilt, and the consequences of what follows.

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It's 1934. It Happened One Night, a film nobody thought would do particularly well, sneaks in just before the Hays Code is enforced. The movie, directed by Frank Capra, follows pampered heiress Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) as she tries to escape her controlling father and join her fiancé. She meets with ex-reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable) on the bus to New York. Hijinks ensue, and love blossoms. It's a romantic comedy that influenced many, many afterward, and one of three movies to win all five major Academy Awards.

What It Happens One Night offers casual movie fans who have always meant to watch classic movies: an early and quintessential example of a romantic comedy, Colbert and Gable's pitch-perfect onscreen chemistry, witty dialogue and colorful characters, and an iconic hitchhiking scene.

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It's 1924. Buster Keaton, one of the cinematic greats of this era, is at the height of his career. Called "The Great Stone Face" due to his distinctive stoical expression, Keaton's films include dangerous physical stunts and impeccable comedic timing. Sherlock Jr. is no exception. Keaton plays a movie projectionist who hopes to become a great detective as he tries to untangle mysteries and win the girl both in real life and in his daydreams.

What Sherlock Jr. offers casual movie fans who have always meant to watch classic movies: 45-minutes of superbly paced comedy; a quintessential look at one of film's great actor/directors; a series of perfectly orchestrated set pieces; a wild, "how did they film that?" motorcycle ride; and plenty of laughs.

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It's 1914. Out of Italy comes what many classify as the first film epic. In this silent film, the girl Cabiria survives an eruption from Etna, is kidnapped by pirates, nearly offered to the god Moloch, and spends years as a servant. Meanwhile, Roman soldier Fulvius Axilla and his Samson-like servant Maciste cross paths with Cabiria and their destinies are entwined as Rome wars against Carthage and years pass.

What Cabiria offers casual movie fans who have always meant to watch classic movies: an epic story set against major moments in Italian history, the iconic and unsettling "Temple of Moloch" scene, engaging characters (mostly) in wide-ranging plot, and the one-and-only strongman Maciste.

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It's 1904. French director Georges Méliès is at the height of his career, creating fantastic, creative movies in the early days of cinema. Like his earlier A Trip to the Moon, this film is about a fantastic voyage, but as the Institute of Incoherent Geography visits mountain villagers, the surface of the sun, and monster-infested oceans, it is in some ways a more frantic and adventurous movie.

What The Impossible Voyage offers casual movie fans who have always meant to watch classic movies: a 20-minute feast for eyes and imagination; another example of Méliès' cinematic experimentation and opulent sets; and an almost fever-dream level series of cartoonish escapades.

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It's time to wrap up another season of Let's Finally Watch This. We start by making a few corrections, filling in a few gaps in this season's discussion of film exhibition, and discussing how film continues to change up to the present.

But, then, the heart of the episode--our Ranking of Essentialness for this season's movies! We also share our personal favorites from the season.

Thanks for joining us for another journey through the decades of film!

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It's 2013. The top-grossing film of the year is Disney's Frozen, but that's not the only important fairy-tale based animated film released this year. In Japan, Studio Ghibli released The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, a beautiful, compelling retelling of the Japanese folk tale, "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter." It's a film that lets us experience Japanese history, Japanese animation, and the creative ability of Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata.

What The Tale of the Princess Kaguya offers casual movie fans who have always meant to watch classic movies: beautiful, water-color-inspired art; a thematically rich retelling of a popular folk tale; scenes of beauty, melancholy, and longing; and a 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating, even after 10 years and 97 reviews.

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It's 2003--and it's the holidays. Many of our standard Christmas movies were released in the 1940s, but since the 1990s, there has been a resurgence of Christmas movies, creating a number of new holiday classics. Among those is Elf, directed by Jon Favreau, a movie nearly everyone has seen, except for Let's Finally Watch This co-host Timothy Deal.

What Elf offers casual movie fans who have always meant to watch classic movies: a modern Christmas comedy that is both family friendly and heartfelt; love-him-or-hate-him Will Ferrell as the Christmas-obsessed Buddy the Elf; deep discussions of the proper use of fruits in children's books; and an introduction into the four food groups: candy, candy cane, candy corn, and syrup.

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