Saturday, December 26, 2020

The Year in Movies: 1956



  1956


Number of Movies I've Seen: 4

Number of Movies from my original top 365:  0

Oscar Winner:
Around the World in 80 Days - I promise... I'll catch this on TCM one day. I just don't have much desire to seek it out. Everything I've heard says its harmless fun... 3 hours... of harmless fun... :-|

Box Office Winner:
The Ten Commandments - I probably need a rewatch on this one. I know I've seen it a handful of times because it was required Passover season viewing in my Southern Baptist household. 

My Top Ten:
1. NEXT POST!

2. Giant - (PICTURED ABOVE) I'm always amazed at the movies they were making nearly 3/4 century ago. Half the movies on this post are more than three hours! This is a multigenerational epic about a Texas cattle rancher and his extended family and friends. If Giant were made today, it would be a 8 episode miniseries. I'm not sure if that would be for the better or not as I'm still getting used to these "movie-like" one-shot series (like Russian Doll and The Queen's Gambit), but I digress. This movie is a bloated, messy masterpiece. James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor, and Rock Hudson are all allowed to play gleefully in the cinematic sandbox created for them by journeyman filmmaker George Stevens. Everybody knows who James Dean is because of his iconic image, but so few people have actually seen any of his three films. I know most people prefer Rebel Without a Cause, but despite its length, I recommend this one as a good place to start instead.

3. The Ten Commandments 

4. The Searchers - This movie is beautiful.... It isn't beautiful to overcome its misogyny, xenophobia, and lack of any joy. We cannot advance as a film-loving society until we stop listing this one among the greatest films of any era....

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