0 responses so far ↓

• 1 Jonathan Blake // Oct 9, 2007 at 12:57 pm

  I’ve watched a lot of the same films, but I would recommend Brazil. It captures the absurdity of modern life quite well.

  [It would be nice to have subjects optional - preferably left blank rather than a nonsensical selection of whatever I say first.]

• 2 Elaine // Oct 9, 2007 at 7:14 pm

  I’m older than you, John, and I like old movies anyway, so I’ve got to say that some of my favorites on the full list come from before the 1980s.

  So, if I might, and if you haven’t seen them, I’d like to recommend:

  1. Metropolis (1927)
  11. Sleeper (1973)
  22. Planet of the Apes (1968) - still one of my favorite films of all time; hated the remake, though
  31. War of the Worlds (1953)
  37. Silent Running (1972)
  40. A Boy and his Dog (1975)
  41. Soylent Green (1973)

  Elaine

• 3 JohnR // Oct 9, 2007 at 10:02 pm

  Elaine, I debated back and forth about modifying the list, but ultimately made the selfish decision that I watched very few of the older ones (though I have cultural awareness of a bunch of them, including Soylent Green, Clockwork Orange, Logan’s Run, and others).

  I should be shamed for not including a reference to Planet of the Apes, since the fourth film in the series was filmed at UCI. What is a completely mundane scene to me (Social Sciences Plaza) is the setting of a futuristic ape city!

  And you’re not *that* much older than me!

• 4 JohnR // Oct 9, 2007 at 10:04 pm

  I have to add Brazil to my list–isn’t it directed by Terry Guilliam?

  And thanks for the suggestion. I’ll add that to my bug-fix list that I’m slowly eking away at!

• 5 aerin // Oct 10, 2007 at 5:54 am

  Funny how I’ve seen many of the same movies you have in bold. And not seen the movies not in bold.

  I love Brazil. It was very difficult to get ahold of - but I find it fascinating. Clockwork Orange was also very disturbing, but thought-provoking. I also loved Gattaca, Twelve Monkeys (another Gilliam) and a Scanner Darkly.

  I didn’t like V for Vendetta, although it was thought-provoking.

  There was this strange film on sci fi some years back with Jennifer Jason Leigh - X something? All about some disgusting bugs and gaming - strange different worlds. It was odd and interesting.

• 6 Matt Thurston // Oct 10, 2007 at 4:43 pm

  The dystopian film is one of my favorite genres. I’ve seen most of the films listed above… my top eleven list would read like this:

  1.) Blade Runner (1982)
  1a.) The Road Warrior (1981) (why isn’t this on the list???)
  2.) Children of Men (2006)
  3.) The City of Lost Children (1995)
  4.) The Matrix (1999)
  5.) Minority Report (2002)
  6.) Twelve Monkeys (1995)
  7.) Dark City (1998)
  8.) Delicatessen (1991)
  9.) RoboCop (1987)
  10.) Brazil (1985)

  One of my all-time favorite authors is Cormac McCarthy, and his most recent novel is post-apocolyptic/dystopian The Road. (Oprah unfortunately picked The Road for her book club… and nothing against Oprah, but her book club picks carry a certain movie-of-the-week stigma, though recent selections, including her latest pick by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, are clearly meant to reverse that stigma/trend.) In any case, The Road is excellent(!), and I hear it is being made into a movie, which, if done right, should be a worthy addition to the dystopian canon.

  I saw Wings of Desire years ago and don’t remember liking it. (I also don’t remember it being a dystopian film which should tell you something about my memory!) But I frequently see it referenced in various film articles so maybe I need to give it another look.

  One dystopian film not mentioned above is also by Wings of Desire director Wim Wenders: Until The End of the World. Though not a perfect film, it should have made the Top 50. I dig the ambience of the film and have always loved the soundtrack featuring atmospheric songs by Talking Heads, Lou Reed, Depeche Mode, U2, REM, Daniel Lanois, Nick Cave, Jane Sieberry, etc.

• 7 xJane // Oct 12, 2007 at 9:28 am

  This is my favorite genre of movies, although there are some on this list that I don’t think belong there (the Wings of Desire…? how is that dystopian?). Ones that I think are missing:
  Open Your Eyes (1997)
  Mullholland Drive (2001)
  Being John Malkovich (1999)
  Run, Lola Run (1998)
  the Fifth Element (1997)
  Night Watch (2004)

  I’ve seen about half of these but the ones I’ve not see are already on my NetFlix :-p which I think should count for something. A friend of mine and I used to have a Fucked-Up Movie Festival. One would provide the fucked-up movie and the other, dinner. Battle Royale was our first, which started the trend. His response after watching it (it was my roommate’s choice) was, “What the fuck was that?!” We then agreed to do it again and he brought Mulholland Drive. I think that one with the guy who can’t remember anything (Memento?), you know, with the tattoos & stuff, also counts, but since I’m not sure of the name, I didn’t put it on the list (that was the third fucked up movie).

Leave a Comment