What have you watched recently? 3D!

Neil Young Archives set on the shelf. Nice!

On the Waterfront – 9/10 (Netflix) Top rated movie #223

This was a lot more “Season 2 of The Wire / Frank Sabotka on the docks” than I expected. Brando’s groundbreaking performance is still magnificent after all these years, but I didn’t realise how much of a freaky looking dude he was. His eyebrows are mental. 

The plot is engaging, the dialogue is gripping, I had no issues with the pacing whatsoever and it has one of the best endings I’ve seen for a good while. An all-round brilliant time at the movies.  

I’ve only ever seen Lee J. Cobb in this and 12 Angry Men, but he has a presence about him that makes you feel like you’ve known him all your life. What a guy. 

Lawrence of Arabia – 10/10 Top rated movie #100

Astonishing filmmaking on the grandest scale imaginable. The whole production is just unbelievable, and the story itself is equally as fascinating. The 4K restoration gets lauded as being the best there is, and from the titles that I’ve seen I find it tough to disagree. Not only do you get all these jaw-dropping landscape shots, but the intimate interior shots are equally impressive. It is vivid to the point that it feels like you could reach through the screen and touch it. 

The only flaw in it is Alec Guiness being browned up to play the Arabian Prince Faisal. I can excuse it as being just ‘one of those things’ that you are sometimes forced to endure when watching old films, but I don’t think his performance was all that good either. Other than that, it was perfect. Quite possibly the most immersive film I’ve ever seen and despite being a historical true story, watching it feels comparable to some of the big Sci-Fi epics, such as Star Wars, Bladerunner and Dune.   

The score is just magnificent, and David Lean’s direction is boundary pushing. Without this, there would be no John Williams, no Spielberg, no Indiana Jones, no Star Wars. It feels like the precursor to so much of what followed. 

I am in complete awe, and in the spirit of Football Manager, I have run out of superlatives.

4K eh? Bloody hell.