Treasure of the Sierra Madre

Bogart plays and anti-hero across from a quirky Walter Huston, and Tim Holt. The movie is a bit obvious with Bogart's character becoming a real life realization of the parable Huston's character told in the shelter relating to the nature of man, greed, and what gold will do to a man's soul. The end of the movie was particularly susceptible to some awkward, forced deus ex machina, such as the Indian's asking Huston to come revive the drowned boy--who displayed symptoms not consistent with either shock, a coma, or water ingestion--and the bandit's not recognizing unrefined gold in the saddle bags and discarding them. Entertaining if you are the mood for spaghetti Tex-Mex.

American Graffiti

George Lucas' second movie, produced by Coppola, that seminal tale of americana and inspiration for Happy Days. It's not a bad film--entertaining enough but it seems sort of saccharine, nothing is really on the line until the race between Harrison Ford and Paul Le Mat, but even then everyone goes home and back to normal. I've been told this movie has a lot of prototype framing and scene placement that were used in Start Wars: A New Hope, but frankly, I didn't see it, and I'm a bit of a Star Wars fan. The most amusing thing to me was that Ron Howard was in it, and I happened to be watching Arrested Development at the time.

Platoon

I never knew this movie has so many famous faces in it: Charlie Sheen, William Defoe, Forrest Whittaker, Johnny Depp, Dr. Cox from Scrubs. It's a nice foil to Apocalypse Now which despite having the older Sheen was only made 9 years earlier. This is a lot more realistic--in Oliver Stone style--and less subtle and poetic than Apocalypse Now, but I enjoy it slightly more; you can relate to Charlie's Chris Taylor than you can to Martin's Ben Willard.

Easy Rider

Meh. That's all I have to say about this film. Peter Fonda is nice to look at, Dennis Hooper is an ass. Fun to know they really smoked and did all the drugs shown in the movie. I know this is the beginning of 'new Hollywood', but the scene cuts were schizophrenic and the graphics really poor in comparison to Apocalypse Now and Bonnie & Clyde, especially in the scene where Jack Nicholson gets beaten to death. I also question the intelligence of hiding the money in something as flammable as the gas tank.

Network

A really entertaining, witty, and progressive film. As usual, Faye Dunaway and Robert Duvall are standout with great support William Holden. It's funny how applicable the message about manipulative media is still so applicable today. The references to the Symbionese Liberation Army and their selling out are pretty cheeky. In a lot of the movies I've watched for this list, I've had to suspend my disbelief, if you will, and remember they were made in 'another era', however this is one that his held up and is still feels relevant.