My 5 Most Influential English Films

5. 12 Angry Men (1957)

 

This is the one of the best court room movie I ever saw. The film opens up in a room with 12 jury members discussing whether the convict is a guilty or not.

The discussion which started on a lighter note takes a huge turn when one out of eleven men finds that the boy is not guilty.
What follows after that was the heated argument between the twelve men.

This is timeless classic directed by Sidney Lumet.

A Hindi film was inspired from the same movie – Ek Ruka Hua Faisla (1986) featuring Annu Kapoor, Pankaj Kapoor and other 10 men. 

4. Fight Club (1999)

 

Well, I’m breaking the first rule of Fight Club. Damn I need to fight now!

90’s was the era which brought the art of neo-noir film making back again. The era was marked by seamless classic movies that went on to became cult movies. Fight Club was one of them. The impact of the Fight Club on whoever saw was that he/she felt there’s still something more of it which they wanted to see. The whole movie set up from the point of view of The Narrator (Edward Norton), the voice that cannot be sad and pathetic than his.

The one thing out of many I loved about the movie is that it purposely shapes an ambiguous message, the interpretation of which is left to the audience. A lot of audience who watched this movie classifies this as an action movie and they are not wrong, the only thing wrong about them is about their immature psyche corroded by a narrow view of the world. The fight sequences in the movie does not signifies the physical combat skills in fact it gives the feeling to the participants which otherwise are vague and numb in our current world. The fights represents a resistance to the impulse to be enclosed in the society and it strips away the fear of pain and the reliance on material signifiers of their self-worth leaving them to experience something valuable.

It is directed by David Fincher. The remarkable work of the duo Fincher-Pitt is also seen in the movie The Curious Case of the Benjamin Button (2008), Seven (1995). My second favorite work of Fincher is Seven and not to mention which is first. And yeah! Heard about the U.S. television series called House of Cards? He has played an important role in its creation.

3. Pulp Fiction (1994)

 

I saw this movie a year ago. When I was in my PG hostel. I exactly remember the time when I was done with the movie. 2:55 in the A.M. I walked out of my room to take a piss and my mind still drenched by the bucketful of visual art that I hit me. 2 and a half hours of incredible cinema. 2 and a half hours of intense story told by some genius. The cold breeze that passed through my body could not even move a single erected hair of my body. I came back to bed just to open my laptop and play it again. I discovered an unconditional mésalliance with the cinema which was once lost long ago was reincarnated again and how much time it took. Only 2 and a half hours!

I don’t wish to write anything more about this film as of now. Because in the coming articles you will read a saucer full about Pulp Fiction only here, here in movie cafe.

2. Easy Rider (1969)

 

There are movies which get your spine and head a motionless erect stance on to the screen right from the very first scene. And there are not many films which highlights what the film is actually about right from the very first scene. If anyone wants to know what freedom is and what freedom actually stands for see this movie. I am not bolting out of time so I can least explain what the first scene was. The two protagonist of the movie Wyatt aka Captain America (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) before hitting the road stops for a while. Peter Fonda looks at his golden color Rolex wrist watch. Removes it and stares at it for a while only to throw it down in the mud and hits the highway. He disengages himself from the so called scheduled and uptight world which controls man.

After that what followed was a one and hour of cinematic journey on which they take you to the one of the most beautiful landscapes across the States, you get to know what hippie culture was, how the drugs and marijuana where taking over, the communal lifestyle, cynical people at that time and the outlaw bike culture that stressed on one thing, just one thing, “Individual Freedom”…

Well you may argue the movies Sean Penn’s Into the Wild (2007), The Motorcycle Diaries (2004) inspired by Che Guevara, Reese Witherspoon’s Wild (2014) and many more fetches the same idea than what is so different about Easy Rider. Well I’m gonna say is... let’s just cut it. My dear reader lets go on a biking trip from Kanyakumari to Ladakh and after that from the White Desert of Kutch to the Trans-Himalayan trip to Arunachal. And we will promise ourselves that we’ll spent the night only in camps instead of hotels and with bonfire stories that would share our experience of our trip and how India has changed over the years. Only our views not from some blogs or news channels. Sounds cool ah? Well that’s how exactly Easy Rider was made. No Script, no predefined dialogues. Just original views of Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper on how they couldn’t find the real America that was built on the bloods of fathers who died for exemption. This movie has influenced me to pursue and listen to my heart.

1. The Big Lebowski (1998)

 

Speaking about the influence. What if I told you the movie that I am about to talk had such an impact that there is a whole new religion rolled up that is solely inspired by the lifestyle of its lead protagonist. Not only religion but there books written about the core idea on which the movie was based upon (For egs. Tao Te Ching by Laozi, The Dude De Ching, Big Lebowski Spawns Religion, The Tao of the Dude and many more…) The Tao of the Dude is actually a good read. The book eases up the idea of Taoism in the form of Dudeism and how over the long history of our mother Earth, from Lao Tzu to Lebowski, Epicurus to Einstein, The Buddha to Bob Dylan, The Upanishads to John Lennon, Mozart to Pink Floyd all have reminded humanity what is the most important in life: personal liberty, peace of mind, leisure time and good friends. Oh Dude! What in god's holy name you are blathering about?

Coming back to the movie. It is a neo-noir, stoner, adventurous, acid trip, and comedy film. The character of the “The Dude” (portrayed by Jeff Bridges) was inspired from the Chinese religious philosophy, Taoism and from some concepts of the philosopher Epicurus, all presented in a style exemplified by the character of The Dude. The Dude takes it easy at all time and keeps his mind limbered away from the uptight world. The conscious mind must relax and stop standing in its own light man! Let it go so that it can flow with the Tao of the universe. And live in the moment to… Ah look at me I’m rambling again!

So these are for me the top five most influential English movies. Share your thoughts and please do tell me which movies have change the way you think. I hope the article was good because I try to keep myself in the hip of our time.