To Sky One first, on this tape, and Treehouse of Horror XII. Which are usually a bit of fun.
The first story is Hex and the City (after having a bit of the actual show two days ago). Homer gets cursed by a gipsy.
Next it’s House of Whacks. Marge has the house converted to an Ultrahouse with the voice of Pierce Brosnan, who then falls in love with Marge. It’s a comic version of the film Demon Seed.
The third story is the inevitable Harry Potter parody.
Pierce Brosnan turns up in person during the credits.
There’s another episode following this, The Parent Rap. Bart and Milhouse steal Wiggum’s police car.
The judge performs some creative sentencing and tethers Bart and Homer together.
Then, there’s The 100 Greatest Movies – part 2. The top 40 movies, featuring a sparkling array of talking heads. Let’s count down from 40 to 1, pop pickers.
40: Toy Story
Talking about this are Dr Jonathan Miller
Terry Jones (who I’ve met)
And Jon Ronson, who I’ve also met.
39: The Great Escape
Discussing this, three football fans who play the theme at football matches. “It’s definitely up there with Tittybangbang and Sound of Music for me.”
Also discussing the film, Richard Attenborough.
Spike Lee, who doesn’t think much of Steve McQueen’s baseball throwing action.
38: Withnail and I
Discussing this, film critic Antonia Quirke
James Brown, editor of Hotdog Magazine.
Actor Ralph Brown
Two Withnail fans explain how to play the Withnail drinking game.
37: Silence of the Lambs
James King says that Anthony Hopkins is the reason the film is a success. I would disagree. I think the character is the reason, and the film would have been a success with, say Brian Cox reprising the role from Manhunter.
Rowan Pelling, editor of The Erotic Review.
36:Alien
Michael Palin is a surprising fan of the film. “We were absolutely knocked out by it”.
Directory Ridley Scott explains the film’s secrets, for example the moving Alien inside the egg is his hands in some rubber gloves.
Sigourney Weaver talks about Ripley.
Adam and Joe do a ‘you’re watching’ bit.
35: The Graduate
Anne Bancroft introduces the movie.
Film critic Jason Solomons sings its praises. I quite like it, although Dustin Hoffman is very stalky, and the ending is horribly bleak.
34: The Full Monty
This is introduced by two extras, proud to come from Sheffield, home of The Full Monty. They were in the final scene. “One of them, he was supposed to be well endowed. He wasn’t.”
Simon Beaufoy talks about the scene in the unemployment office, which he considered cutting because it felt like it wasn’t real. “But it’s people’s favourite scene, so what do I know?”
Emma Cochrane of Empire Magazine discusses its word of mouth.
33: Trainspotting
Wittertainment’s own Mark Kermode says the film is to the current generation, the most important movie of the last 20 years.
The book’s author Irvine Welsh talks about it. When I was at the BBC, one of the sites that ran on the platform I designed, Book of the Future. The BBC solicited contributions from a lot of famous people (as well as members of the public, as it was a user generated content site) and one of those contributors was Irvine Welsh. Trouble was, his contribution had the C-word in the first paragraph. So the site owners came to us and asked us to build in some kind of ‘watershed’ so that children weren’t in danger of seeing such filth. I think we built a ‘Click here if you are honestly over 16’ thing. I’d link to it, but I don’t think the BBC are still supporting those old sites.
Director Danny Boyle talks about the jump cuts representing Spud’s character.
Ewan Bremner says the dialect was a little easier for him.
32: Gone with the Wind
Macolm McLaren adored the film. I wonder what that says about him.
31: Fargo
Father Ted creator Graham Linehan (who I’ve also met) thinks that the caption at the start, claiming the film is based on a true story, is because the story is so odd, and unstructured, they thought “this feels like a true story, let’s pretend this is true.”
Actor William H Macy talks about discussing the script with the Coens, and asking if he should read up about the background to the story. “There is no story. We made it up.”
Mark Kermode Lamaar says it’s only a comedy because it’s set in Minnesota, and I have to agree.
30: Lawrence of Arabia
Spike Lee says David Lean is King of the Epics.
Omar Sharif tells of watching Lean just sitting and staring at the desert for hours on end.
Steven Spielberg calls Lean the king of the personal stories, albeit set against epic backdrops. He describes the arrival of Omar Sharif’s character as the greatest introduction of a character in film history. He says that Lawrence of Arabia was the most inspirational film experience he ever had.
29: Vertigo
Natasha Walter discusses it. “You almost feel as if Hitchcock is saying ‘this is how I see women'”
28: Kes
John Thompson is a fan.
Director Ken Loach talks about the film.
Gabriel Byrne is another fan.
Kes himself, Dai Bradley, talls the (rather shocking) story of how the boys were genuinely caned during a caning scene. Although he does say, after the boys went on strike and refused to shoot any more, they offered 50p per caning, so they all made a bit of extra money.
Producer Tony Garnett became a hugely influential producer.
27: 2001: A Space Odyssey
Steven Spielberg and Bryan Singer both talk about ‘the greatest jump cut in history.”
2001 is one of 45 films commended by a Vatican film committee. Archbishop John Foley, who seems to say that the one message from the film is that there is a God. I suspect Kubrick and Clarke might have disagreed with him.
26: The Wizard of Oz
Salman Rushdie wrote fan fiction after seeing The Wizard of Oz.
25: LA Confidential
Director Curtis Hanson
Another contribution from Graham Linehan.
24: Singin’ In The Rain
Jon Ronson says “Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds and the one whose name nobody can remember.” It’s DONALD O’CONNOR, Jon.
23: Monty Python’s Life of Brian
Michael Palin talks about the infamous TV ‘debate’ he had with John Cleese versus Malcolm Muggeridge and a Bishop. It’s believed to be the only footage available of Michael Palin getting angry in existence, as Muggeridge calls it a ‘tenth rate film’ for the second time, and Palin snaps ‘you started with an open mind, I realise that.”
22: Taxi Driver
Simon Pegg talks about this.
As does writer Paul Schrader
21: ET The Extraterrestrial
How can ET be so low? Come on, Channel 4 viewers. Steven Spielberg tells of the film’s origin in his own parents’ divorce.
20: Raging Bull
Fuck off. Boxing is shit. But here’s Henry Cooper.
Melvyn Bragg thinks it’s the greatest film about sport ever made. Better than Escape to Victory? I think not.
Real Life git Jake La Motta, the Raging Bullshit himself.
19: Citizen Kane
Editor Robert Wise, no slouch as a director himself.
Exorcist director William Friedkin loves it.
18: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Now, I like this movie, but no way is it better than ET. It’s this high because it had only just come out.
RZA of the Wu Tang Clan talks about the quality of wire work in the movie.
Empire’s Emma Cochrane. “This isn’t Buffy, you believe it.”
17: The Usual Suspects
Gabriel Byrne was sceptical about whether the film even works.
Director Bryan Singer talks about filming the identity parade scene. He reveals that, after Benicio del Toro reads the words from the card, the offscreen voice who says “In English, please” was an ad-lib from writer Chris McQuarrie (the true talent behind this film, I suspect) and the laughter from the cast was almost a blooper.
16: Casablanca
Not surprisingly, since he teaches an entire class on it, Robert McKee is there to talk about Casablanca.
Mark Kermode returns. I’m going to assume that The Exorcist will also appear in this list.
15: The Matrix
Simon Pegg is giggling when he talks about how cool the lobby shootout is. You can see where Hot Fuzz came from.
14: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
Melvyn Bragg is back to talk about another ‘important’ movie. Although I like this move.
Christopher Lloyd was one of the patients.
13: Apocalypse Now
Another chin-stroker’s movie that’s got longer and longer over time, when actually someone should have cut it right down. Walter Murch did the sound design, one of the actually admirable things about it. (I’d take Murch’s own film Return to Oz over Apocalypse Now any day.)
Martin Sheen talks about the legendarily long shoot, and I laughed when he said “I was only on it for 15 months” as if that was a long weekend.
Dennis Hopper says “Most people under pressure start rushing. Francis slows down.” The film must be under enormous pressure then.
Robert Duvall implies that Francis Coppola was a bit of a bully on set.
12: Jaws
At last, a genuine classic (translation, one that I like). Possibly Spielberg’s greatest masterpiece. I saw it again recently in the cinema, and it totally holds up. It’s not slow, like a lot of older films can seem.
Roy Scheider tells of the difficulties of working with a shark that doesn’t work.
11: Psycho
Janet Leigh says that Hitchcock thought the opening scene wasn’t steamy enough.
10: Goodfellas
Paul Sorvino thought the movie was terrible at first. He says he didn’t get it at first.
9: Schindler’s List
Ben Kingsley talks about the film, how Spielberg is able to show some of the horror, but never revels in it.
Holocaust survivor Zev Kedem talks about its importance, and also about survivor’s guilt.
8: Blade Runner
Writer Jonathan Glancey tells us how excited he was to see it. He’s a writer about architecture, which might explain his excitement for the film.
Director Ridley Scott again.
7: It’s a Wonderful Life
Frank Darabont is a big fan.
Not surprisingly, Archbishop John Foley is a fan too.
Zuzu herself, Karolyn Grimes, talks about the film.
6: Gladiator
Another beneficiary of being a recent film, I suspect. No way it’s better than, say, Alien.
Actor Djimon Hounsou talks about it.
5: Some Like It Hot
Jack Lemmon talks about the film. The caption ‘talking in Feb 2001’ is presumably because this show went after shortly after he died.
Tony Curtis talks about his impression of Cary Grant.
4: Pulp Fiction
Sam Jackson says he read the script twice it was so good.
Quentin Tarantino talks about making the deal with Harvey Weinstein. About Travolta’s death in the middle of the film, but the last scene being set earlier in the story, he says “If he’s still alive when the film ends, it’s a happy ending.”
3: The Shawshank Redemption
Director Frank Darabont is back to talk about his own movie.
Morgan Freeman talks about playing Red.
Tim Robbins. “How do you create freedom in a place like that?”
2: The Godfather & The Godfather part II
Unsurprising. Guys love The Godfather. I’m less of a fan. That might just be me being contrary.
Here’s Robert Duvall
Walter Murch talks about the sound design of the scene just before Michael kills two men in a cafe.
1: Star Wars & The Empire Strikes Back
Channel 4 manage to pull off a win. Here’s Adam and Joe.
And of course Simon Pegg is there to talk about it. We won’t mention The Phantom Menace.
Steven Spielberg remembers his first screening of Star Wars. Without any special effects, all the space scenes had placeholder shots of WWII aircraft flying. “The power of Star Wars to me was that at the end of that rough experience I loved the movie.”
So that’s it. Without seeing the first part, the bottom 60, it’s hard to know which films have been overlooked. I’ve never really understood the love that people have for Shawshank, but then, Prison movies are a blind spot for me (like boxing movies).
The tape ends right after this episode.
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