1993 in film.

Top ten box-office films of 1993:

1. Jurassic Park
2. Mrs. Doubtfire
3. The Fugitive
4. Schindler's List
5. The Firm
6. Indecent Proposal
7. Cliffhanger
8. Sleepless in Seattle
9. Philadelphia
10. The Pelican Brief

What are your top three films for 1993? We will keep a running tally and eventually have some sort of bracket. For me it would be:

1. Naked
2. Three Colors: Blue
3. Jurassic Park

What are some of the forgotten gems from the year? What is overrated? What did you discover at a young age and what did you discover later?

YEARS IN FILM • forum.chorus.fm

 

This was a tough year. In addition to the three I picked, Schindler's List, Dazed and Confused, Groundhog Day, or True Romance could have made the list.

 

A great year!
1. Dazed and Confused
2. True Romance
3. Sonatine


I just watched Sonatine the other night and absolutely loved it, holy shit! Wish I saw it as a younger film buff

 

1. Son-in-Law
2. Nightmare Before Christmas
3. Coneheads

hey buddy

 

1. Dazed & Confused
2. True Romance
3. Schindler's List

 

now we are cooking with gas

 

1. Jurassic Park
2. Dazed and Confused
3. The Sandlot

Great year. Had to give Jurassic Park #1 because it's one of the first movies I can remember watching and being blown away by. Even as you mature in your appreciation of movies, it's hard to replicate that feeling of newness when you're young.

The Sandlot I've watched about a million times and can quote most of it from memory. A perfect kids movie, and has a wistfulness you can appreciate as an adult.

Honorable mentions:
True Romance
Schindler's List
Groundhog Day
Naked
The Fugitive
Menace 2 Society
The Nightmare Before Christmas

 

Other good ones:
Scary Tales
The Sandlot
Matinee
Jurassic Park
Hocus Pocus
The Coneheads
Freaked
A Bronx Tale
Champagne and Bullets
A Nightmare Before Christmas
Judgement Night
Addams Family Values
Waynes World 2
Dennis the Menace

 

Scary Tales was a real gift. No budget, SOV regional horror anthology that got released by AGFA last year. Quotable, entertaining. Would have been number 3 if not for my more recent discovery. Every space feels like somewhere I’ve been before. Score is great, practical effects are fun. Without a doubt worth seeking out.

 

1. Cool Runnings
2. Robin Hood: Men in Tights
3. The Sandlot

 

This is a slightly stronger year than 1992 in terms of films I genuinely love but there are far fewer overall that I like, that said my top three are as follows -

1. Jurassic Park
2. True Romance
3. The Fugitive

Bold ones are more favorites followed by other notable, albeit lesser, efforts that I enjoy; Matinee, Red Rock West, Falling Down, In the Line of Fire, Groundhog Day, The Wrong Trousers, Carlito’s Way, Tombstone, A Bronx Tale, Sonatine, Menace II Society, Addams Family Values, Cliffhanger, Hard Target, and The Dark Half.

 

1. Dazed and Confused
2. Three Colors: Blue
3. In the Name of the Father

this was hard, I’m not sure at all about the order of those three. DDL was excellent in per usual in In the Name of the Father, I think the main flaw holding back the film for me a little bit is the unnecessary historical inaccuracies. Still great on its own though. The first of the 3 colors trilogy is excellent and probably should get the top spot but I just couldn’t put anything above Dazed and Confused.
Left out some really good ones, obviously Jurassic Park, True Romance, and Schindler’s List. I’m a little surprised Tombstone hasn’t been mentioned, not that I would put it up there but it seems like everyone I went to college with loved that movie. That and The Boondocks Saints

 

1. Schindler’s List
2. The Baby of Mâcon
3. True Romance

4. Groundhog Day
5. Three Colors: Blue
6. Falling Down
7. Jurassic Park
8. The Nightmare Before Christmas
9. Ninja Scroll
10. In the Name of the Father

another really great year.

 

As good as Dazed and Confused is, I have to root against it because if it wins it will validate @OhTheWater.

 

i’m choosing to take it as linklater validation instead

 

1. The Wrong Trousers
2. Naked
3. Three Colours: Blue

The Wrong Trousers may only be 25 minutes long, but it's just absolutely perfect. A wonderful bit of animation, with possibly the best chase scene in cinema to finish. Love it to bits.

Naked is Mike Leigh's ugly and uncomfortable film about a man wandering around London at night, causing all sorts of misery. David Thewlis is fantastic as the detestable, but captivating Johnny, a whirlwind of charisma and nihilism. This is something a bit different from Leigh, and it's a horrible success.

Three Colours Blue is Kieślowski's first entry of the Three Colours trilogy, this one starring Juliette Binoche trying to grieve, following the sudden death of her partner and daughter. As you can expect from the title, the film's colour palette is mostly blue, with Binoche eventually thawing and reviving slightly from her loss.

For some other stuff, we have two superhero films essentially from HK, The Heroic Trio and it's sequel (also released this year), Executioners. A great trio of Anita Mui, Maggie Cheung and Michelle Yeoh, it's a fantastic, larger than life fantasy.

I really like Tsui Hark's Green Snake about two Snake Gods that come to the Earth in human form, and one of them falls in love. A highly imaginative and colourful film, that attacks the sexist traditions and culture.

This is probably also the year with the foulest and nastiest Category III films from Hong Kong, including Daughter of Darkness, 3 Days of a Blind Girl, Run and Kill, Raped by an Angel & The Untold Story. The latter is probably the best, a "true" story about a man who killed people and then made Baos from them, with a totally unhinged Anthony Wong performance. At this point, these films really leant into the depravity, pushing the limits of taste and decency.

Jurassic Park is obviously brilliant, too. I haven't seen Dazed and Confused, which looks like a popular one this year.

Jim Jarmusch's Somewhere in California / Coffee And Cigarettes III was also released this year, which is a fantastic 10 minute short with Iggy Pop and Tom Waits bickering;

 

1. Groundhog Day
2. Short Cuts
3. Schindler's List

 

1. Abraham's Valley (Oliveira)
2. Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (Obomsawin)
3. The Tree, the Mayor and the Mediatheque (Rohmer)
-
4. Sonatine (Kitano)
5. Dangerous Game (Ferrara)
6. From the East (Akerman)
7. Blue (Jarman)
8. Three Colors: Blue (Kieslowski)
9. The Puppetmaster (Hou)
10. The Piano (Campion)

I think Kanehsatake should be mandatory viewing for anyone, but especially those interested in documentary or anti-colonial cinema. Obomsawin has been documenting the history and oppression of Indigenous peoples in Canada for some 40 years now and this on-the-ground portrait of the 1990 Oka Crisis in Quebec is her most accomplished work. In fact, it's probably the most important Candian film ever made. I had it as my number 1 until I noticed that the Manoel de Oliveira film also came out this year.

and one of the greatest short films of all time: Jean-Luc Godard's Je vous salue, Sarajevo:

 

Peep Hana-bi/Fireworks next! It's geneally considered the canonical Kitano film. I actually prefer his more dramatic work (A Scene at the Sea, Kikujiro, Dolls, Achilles and the Tortoise) but the genre inflected stuff is usually an easier sell.

 

1. Three Colors: Blue
2. Naked
3. Dazed and Confused

I thought about The Age of Innocence, Chantal Akerman’s D’est, Jurassic Park, and True Romance, and maybe seriously considered The Sandlot for a few seconds longer than was appropriate

 

I haven't participated in any of these, and I'll live to regret it, but True Romance is my second favorite film of all-time so I need to jump in here.

1. True Romance
2. Dazed & Confused
3. Carlito's' Way

Honorable Mention:
Groundhog Day
Schindler's List
Tombstone
Philadelphia
A Bronx Tale

 

Weekend at Bernies 2 deserves an honorable mention.

 

Almost listed Rookie of the Year for nostalgia alone.

Watched it recently with my son though, doesn't hold up.

 

Sandlot is the only 90s kids baseball movie that really holds up. Stuff like Little Big League and Rookie of the Year never touched the cinematic elegance of the Ray Charles fireworks scene

 

There is still some time left. Henry doomed this one to obscurity.