AV Club: The 50 Best Films of the 90s

Obviously any list like this is completely subjective, but that list makes my head hurt.

 

Saving Private Ryan, which we have debated endlessly here, is moral war porn. It hurts people to hear this, because they act like you're insulting their grandfather, but it's not the film it so nakedly wants to be. It has some incredeible set pieces in it, but as storytelling it is mawkish and ridiculous. The ending is laughably maudlin. Even it's central metaphor is mangled. By Saving Private Ryan we are, I guess, saving ourselves? Is that because Saving Private Gaston wouldn't have played as well at the box office?

And before the hissy fit begins, I had two grandfathers fight in WWII, including one who survived the unspeakable misery of the Pacific.

It may very well be better than Shakespeare in Love, but that doesn't make it a great film.

 

SVP has always been one of those films I've been willing to take for what it is. I know it's mawkish and maudlin, but every time I come across it on TV, I invariably end up leaving it on.

 

Though I loved it when I was 19, I think Braveheart pretty much falls into the same category, DD.

 

What fails 'SVP' most is its framing device.

And 'Shawshank' is as mawkish and implausible in its own way.

Either of which belong on any reasonable 90s list far ahead of 'Starship Troopers.'

 

Shawshank is very much a film version of a crowd-pleasing top-40 radio single, but it was absolutely one of the best 50 flicks of the 1990s.

This, sir, is why I simply cannot stay mad at you.

 

If Top-40 is one of our analogs, where's 'Titanic?'

 

Agreed.

Looking at the list, I'm not sure I've seen half those movies. Would have put Matrix, Boogie Nights and Hoop Dreams higher. Did I miss Silence of the Lambs?

Glad English patient is nowhere to be found.

 

'Silence of the Lambs' absence may be the tipoff that this list is only . . . linkbait.

 

DD and I seem to be on the same tip with 'Private Ryan.'
I think 'maudlin' and 'mawkish' are too strong, but we're on the same page.
I enjoyed the movie, but 'Private Ryan's' sentimentality and melodrama prevent it from being great.

 

Top-40 filmmaking as done by 1990s Spielberg.

Stunt casting with big names playing random soldiers left and right, cliche-ridden pablum for everything past the opening 30 minutes, and Spielberg's typical "Tie it all up with a cute little bow!" ending. His third blatant Oscar grab of the decade, and second successful one.

 

Zeke, I have to agree on Braveheart, which I too loved at 19. Fun film, but once you mature and realize Gibson's desire to make himself a Christ figure, it's a little weird.