I came across this thought...

Which film do you feel represents each decade of the 20th century the best?

This film does not neccesarily have to be made in the decade it is representing, the story just has to be set there. I would score this on terms of attention to detail, the look and style of the film, the dialogue, anything pertaining to setting the story in the given decade.

Here are my picks for some of them.

90's - American Beauty
80's - Thief/The Breakfast Club
70's - Boogie Nights
60's - The Graduate/Dr. Strangelove
50's - The Godfather Pt II
40's - The Godfather
30's - Citizen Kane/Chinatown
20's - Miller's Crossing/The Godfather Pt II
10's - Titanic
00's - The Godfather Pt II

Hey MistaMista, cool thread!

was wondering, what in this movie represents the 00's ?

Interesting question.

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with any of your choices, but I thought I'd throw these in there for consideration:

1970's: Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, Good Morning Viet Nam, Annie Hall

1960's: Rosemary's Baby, Midnight Cowboy, Manchurian Candidate (original), Fail Safe, Seven Days In May, Ocean's Eleven (original), Tin Men, Mean Streets

I'd try and go with a picture made to depict a diferent era than the one that it was made in, though.

Any good movie made in the decade that it's supposed to take place in is gonna do a fairly good job of depicting that decade (see my 1960's list above, except for the last two).

1950's: L.A. Confidential, Diner

1940's: Saving Private Ryan

1920's: Road to Perdition

Here's my bit, Forrest Gump does a great job for most of these.

2000s: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (?)

90s: American Beauty

80s: The Breakfast Club

70s: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Full Metal Jacket

60s: Easy Rider, Woodstock(the Movie), Dr. Strangelove, Don't Look Back

50s: Reefer Madness, On The Road(book), The Dharma Bums(book)

40s: Casablanca, The Great Dictator

20s-30s: Citizen Kane

Great topic! Some of these might not represent EXACTLY that decade but the feeling and emotion in the movie is what is important.

The Doc

Hey MistaMista, cool thread!

was wondering, what in this movie represents the 00's ? [/b][/quote]If I'm not mistaken, the scenes in Sicily where Vito is 9 or 11 years old take place somewhere before 1910.

In case youre confused, the OO's I'm referring to are from 1900 - 1909.

Did I get the year wrong or something?

Thanx man, silly me I thought you meant 2000's, 00 - but now that I think about it, what should we really use to distinguish the two? mmm...

I added a few non-decade picks.

20's - Once Upon a Time in America, The Roaring Twenties
30's - Schindler's List
40's - The Godfather, Bob The Gambler, Saving Private Ryan (at least crime-wise)
60's - Five Easy Pieces, The French Connection, American Graffiti
70's - Taxi Driver
80's - Scarface (crime-wise)
90's - American Beauty, The Insider
Isolation of Fame/wealth - Citizen Kane, Last Days
High School - Elephant
The West - The Wild Bunch
Marriage - A Woman Under the Influence

By the way MistaMista Tom Hagen, Citizen Kane covers decades from before the 1900's to his death somewhere around the 30's-50's.

More to come later.

Schindler's List and the thirties?

I guess I should've make a group for the Holocaust.

It begins in the late 30's and ends in the 40's.

It's difficult to choose only one film per decade, because many times a decade can have more than one "culture" that can be considered representative.

Anyway, a couple of my choices:

60's: Celebration at Big Sur, Monterey Pop, Alice's Restaurant.

70's: Mean Streets, Saturday Night Fever.

Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinions.

Signor V.

The Man Who Wasn't There is also a great depiction of the late 40's.

I tried to avoid this confusion by saying decades of the 20th century.

I applaud you for thinking ahead though.

As far as the films, seeing all the lists, I'd conclude that perhaps we should make two separate lists; one consisting of films released within the decade and one consisting of films release outside of the given years.

90's - American Beauty
80's - Thief
70's - Taxi Driver
60's - The Graduate
50's - Vertigo
40's -
30's -
20's -
10's - never seen any
00's - never seen any

I'll edit the rest in once I come up with them.

90's - Jarhead
80's - Donnie Darko
70's - Boogie Nights
60's - Forrest Gump
50's - The Godfather Pt II
40's - The Godfather
30's - Chinatown
20's - Miller's Crossing
10's - Titanic
00's - The Godfather Pt II

1900-1910-Willoughby episode of the Twilight Zone.
Teens-All Quiet On The Western Front.
20's-Little Caesar
30's-Grapes of Wrath
40's-The Godfather
50's-The Blackboard Jungle
60's-Guide to the Married Man
70's-Dog Day Afternoon
80's-Gotti
90's-Seinfeld
2000 and since-The Sopranos

Films

While period films can often go to some length in capturing the time and setting they depict, I find it far more truthful and insightful to watch the contemporary films of those years. I'll post a list later. So, for the nineteen-teens, I wouldn't put Titanic, personally, though have no problem with those who do. If anything, Titanic could sum up the nineties more relevantly: a box-office smasher, Oscar galore and breakthrough film, really, for CGI epics made since. Is that not a fairer reflection of the film's era than of the film content's era?

I'll post my list later.

How about Paths of Glory for the teens?

I also think that A Night to Remember (also about the Titanic), with it's B & W cinematography and almost documentary style, captured the feel of that decade better than the film Titanic.

Also, if you want to talk about the "feel" of the late 50's and early 60's, you can't go too far wrong with some of those Rock Hudson-Doris Day comedies, like Pillow Talk and Lover Come Back.

I've thought about this several times before. Although, instead of wrapping the decade up in general, I try to think up the movies that "define a generation" or, whatever... So:

90s - Fight Club
80s - Donnie Darko
70s - Taxi Driver
60s - The Graduate
50s - Rebel Without a Cause

And then, I basically have trouble with the other five generational-decade films...

90's - Singles
80's - Wall Street
70's - Almost Famous
60's - American Grafitti
50's - Stand By me
40's - A Christmas Story
30's - Radio Days
20's - Once Upon a time in America
10's - Eight men Out
00's - Ragtime

I've been getting into grunge recently, and I now just feel like this was some attempt to cash in on the genre... Kind of like the first step towards ultimate capitalism on the genre and scene (let's not forget the ad campaigne's for designer flannel back around the time of Cobain's death...). Although, if memory serves, the soundtrack was pretty cool.