Temporal Top Ten – 1969

Number of movies seen from this year – 44
Number of movies reviewed – 45 (including 1 Encore Review)

My #1 for this year is probably the only foreign language film to ever reach such a high position on a top ten of mine. They did an amazing job telling a story there and it is without a doubt the best film of the year IMHO. It was also only the second time in Academy Award history where a non-English Language film was nominated for Best Picture. The other four nominees truly pale in comparison to this amazing film.

Update 11 Jul 2017 – Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice has now been added to the list at #5 moving all subsequent entries down accordingly

Update 1 Aug 2018 – They Shoot Horses, Don’t They has now been added to the list at #8 moving all subsequent entries down accordingly

Update 3 Mar 2019 – MacKenna’s Gold has now been added to the list at #4 moving all subsequent entries down accordingly

Honorable Mention – Anne of a Thousand Days
Honorable Mention – Topaz
Honorable mention – Support Your Local Sheriff10. Take the Money and Run

9. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?
8. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service 7. True Grit6. Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
5. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid

4. Mackenna’s Gold
3. The Wild Bunch
2. Marooned
1. Z.

Here’s a complete list of movies that I’ve seen from 1969

Here we go again. Have to agree with Dell on Movies. You lost me here early on. You only saw 15 films from ’69. That means two thirds of what you saw makes your Top 10 list – and Midnight Cowboy ISN’T ON IT?! Ridiculous. I know the movie is dark and depressing and gritty and dealing with some dregs of society and social misfits and outcasts – but he’s right when he calls it “a phenomenal Ffilm” and mentions the 2 superb performances by Voight and Hoffman (who probably canceled one another out for the Oscar). It won Best Picture – the only X-rated movie in Oscar history to do that (since re-rated to an R). I may be a sucker for period costume dramas – but I think Anne of The Thousand Days is too low on your list at #10. Beautifully done. Burton is excellent and Genevieve Bujold is superb as the young queen. Even though you’re heavy on the westerns with True Grit, Wild Bunch and Butch & Sundance – I can’t argue with any of those choices – other than maybe the order they’re in. And Support Your Local Sheriff is worth it if only to see James Garner play a “Maverick” type role on screen. But Topaz? I’m a HUGE Hitchcock fan – but that one is a bust. take The Money and Run is early low rent Woody. Plotless and full of gags. Marooned? Sorry. And in the Bond universe, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is not one of the greats. Z was impressive – although I saw it when it was released and not since. So in the scheme of things – might still make a Top 10, but not sure. I could almost make an alternate Top 10 just from films you didn’t see (yet), because 1969 was a banner year for some really good, if not great films: They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Easy Rider, a remake of Goodbye, Mr. Chips with Peter O’Toole, THE REIVERS (a wonderful film with Steve McQueen), Last Summer, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Goodbye Columbus (from the Philip Roth novel) – ALL of them released in 1969 – and NONE of them seen by you. So again, the dearth of films seen for this year kind of renders your list inconsequential. As I said before – unless you’ve seen 20-25 movies from any given year – why make a list of 10? Skip years until you ratchet up your totals.

LikeLiked by 1 person

5 thoughts on “Temporal Top Ten – 1969”

SLIP/THROUGH - Dan · 17 April , 2017 at 9:01 PM · · Reply

You got me intrigued about ‘Z’. I read your review and now I’m even more intrigued. And foreign film, eh, buddy? Hehehe. Sounds like you ended up loving a lot of the foreign Oscar flicks you’ve seen. I think that’s a pretty good ratio 😉 You gotta watch some more, Rob. Wink wink. Nudge nudge. My philosophy is if we hear about a movie from another country, it must be really good for the word to spread that far… Thanks for spreading the word on ‘Z’.

LikeLike
- movierob · 17 April , 2017 at 11:31 PM · · Reply
  
  glad to have kept u on ur toes 🙂
  
  this was an exception for me, not the rule 🙂
  
  LikeLiked by 1 person
Dell on Movies (@w_ott3) · 18 April , 2017 at 8:00 AM · · Reply

Haven’t heard of Z, but now I want to see it. Interesting that Midnight Cowboy doesn’t crack your top 10. I thought that was a phenomenal film with two great performances from Voight and Hoffman.

LikeLike
Michael Eddy · 19 April , 2017 at 12:42 AM · · Reply

Here we go again. Have to agree with Dell on Movies. You lost me here early on. You only saw 15 films from ’69. That means two thirds of what you saw makes your Top 10 list – and Midnight Cowboy ISN’T ON IT?! Ridiculous. I know the movie is dark and depressing and gritty and dealing with some dregs of society and social misfits and outcasts – but he’s right when he calls it “a phenomenal Ffilm” and mentions the 2 superb performances by Voight and Hoffman (who probably canceled one another out for the Oscar). It won Best Picture – the only X-rated movie in Oscar history to do that (since re-rated to an R). I may be a sucker for period costume dramas – but I think Anne of The Thousand Days is too low on your list at #10. Beautifully done. Burton is excellent and Genevieve Bujold is superb as the young queen. Even though you’re heavy on the westerns with True Grit, Wild Bunch and Butch & Sundance – I can’t argue with any of those choices – other than maybe the order they’re in. And Support Your Local Sheriff is worth it if only to see James Garner play a “Maverick” type role on screen. But Topaz? I’m a HUGE Hitchcock fan – but that one is a bust. take The Money and Run is early low rent Woody. Plotless and full of gags. Marooned? Sorry. And in the Bond universe, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is not one of the greats. Z was impressive – although I saw it when it was released and not since. So in the scheme of things – might still make a Top 10, but not sure. I could almost make an alternate Top 10 just from films you didn’t see (yet), because 1969 was a banner year for some really good, if not great films: They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Easy Rider, a remake of Goodbye, Mr. Chips with Peter O’Toole, THE REIVERS (a wonderful film with Steve McQueen), Last Summer, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Goodbye Columbus (from the Philip Roth novel) – ALL of them released in 1969 – and NONE of them seen by you. So again, the dearth of films seen for this year kind of renders your list inconsequential. As I said before – unless you’ve seen 20-25 movies from any given year – why make a list of 10? Skip years until you ratchet up your totals.

LikeLiked by 1 person
Pingback: Temporal Top Ten |