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Greatest British Film
Simon Rosbottom


Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 287
Location: London, UK
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Following on from the "Documentaries" thread, now there's a thought. Clearly, people will like different films for different reasons and there will no doubt be some blurring of what "British" means but just for some pre-Christmas fun, here goes.

In no order whatsoever, my top 10 would be :

Brief Encounter
The man who would be king
Lawrence of Arabia
Ice Cold in Alex
Gosford Park
The English Patient
Alien
Kind hearts and coronets
A bridge too far

Oh, .. er... yes, not forgetting

Zulu

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Simon
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peterw


Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 865
Location: UK
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Alien


Great film, possibly pushing the boundaries of "British" despite Ridley Scott's direction and the presence of Ian Holm.

Cracking list though. I'll have a think as well.

Peter
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Sheldon Hall


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 377
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ALIEN is no less "British" than ZULU or LAWRENCE OF ARABIA - mostly British cast and crew, made in a British studio with American money. These things are very fluid!
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peterw


Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 865
Location: UK
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I was thinking more of the setting but I take your point.

And I've just remembered John Hurt (how could I forget that?).

Peter
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Sheldon Hall


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 377
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Why is outer space any less appropriate to a British film than Africa or Arabia?!
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Sheldon Hall


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 377
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Okay, here are mine (in date order):

LISTEN TO BRITAIN
BRIEF ENCOUNTER
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
BLACK NARCISSUS
KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS
MANDY
A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS
WHERE EAGLES DARE
THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES
STRAW DOGS

plus ZULU, of course. But you knew that already.
P.S. These are my personal favourites, NOT the "best" British films of all time - though some of them are that as well (in fact, all of them except WHERE EAGLES DARE).
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John Young


Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 1020
Location: Lower Sheering, Essex
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PeterW,

To bring it back round to the Zulu War, do you know why John Hurt was in Alien?

Henry V - the Branagh version! Watched it in HD yesterday what a cast!

John Y.
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Mel


Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 345
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Sheldon
I'm wondering what your favourite scene is from Straw Dogs? Wink

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Sheldon Hall


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 377
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John,
I do, I do! He was supposed to be in ZD but was refused entry to South Africa because he had made too convincing a job of playing the homosexual Quentin Crisp in THE NAKED CIVIL SERVANT. I forget which role he was supposed to play.

Mel,
I'm not sure that i have a favourite scene in SD - the whole movie is so powerful.
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John Young


Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 1020
Location: Lower Sheering, Essex
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Sheldon,

Close, but not close enough, the SA authorities thought it was the American actor John Heard, who had been arrested for his anti-apartheid beliefs, and refused Hurt's visa at the airport. He was replaced by Ronald Lacey in the role of 'Noggs' Norris-Newman. I heard first-hand at Pinewood.

John Y.
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Sheldon Hall


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 377
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Aha! This makes much more sense. Thanks for putting to rest an urban myth!
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Peter Ewart


Joined: 31 Aug 2005
Posts: 1797
Location: Near Canterbury, Kent, England.
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For what it's worth, a quick list of my favourites off the top of my head, but I've probably missed or forgotten some - and as I've hardly been to the flicks for 40 years they're probably a bit dated! No particular order:

Lawrence of Arabia

Dr Zhivago - presume this was British? Cast packed with top British actors.

NW Frontier - how can one possibly exclude More, Lom, Hyde-White & the Eton Boat Song!

Bridge on the River Kwai - never seen a cinema queue as long, either before or since.

Battle of Britain - they used my pub in the film!

Reach for the Sky - I once met Bader. (But I liked the film anyway!)

Dunkirk - getting a bit predictable, isn't it? But I witnessed the film being made & my brother was an extra!

GOAL! (Colour film of the 1966 World Cup). Released only a few weeks or months afterwards - absolutely amazing to see it all in colour. Never seen it since. Who else remembers it?

A Night to Remember - Kenneth More again!

Chariots of Fire - missed it when released but caught up in the days of DVD. (My uncle met Abrahams before his triumph).

A Canterbury Tale - as discussed with Rich here earlier this year.

London Can Take It - 1940 WW2 propaganda film at the beginning of the Blitz for exporting to the US. Quentin Reynolds' timely antidote to Ambassador Joseph Kennedy's "Britain has had it." I have the accompanying booklet with full script and stills. This short film is on Youtube, I see.

Oops - listed too many! And still no James Robertson Justice or Norman Wisdom, neither of whom can really be excluded. OK, Dr in the House & Trouble in Store. I'd be no good on Desert Island Discs, would I? Too many WW2 films here but that was the staple diet of my boyhood. In at least six of these, the musical theme almost selects it on its own. (Did I mention 633 Squadron or The Dam Busters? I'm not sure they'd have been so well remembered without their music). The last three in the list only seen on the small screen.

Peter
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peterw


Joined: 30 Aug 2005
Posts: 865
Location: UK
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I think most of the great/good ones have already gone. Sadly, the appeal of a number of these has not transferred to more recent generations. I tried to interest my boys in North West Frontier but it didn't grab them.

One (non-war) candidate - The Railway Children.

There has to be room for the original Four Feathers.

Master and Commander

The Long Good Friday

The Man Who Would be King
- majestic (and duplicating Simon's nomination)

And a fringe candidate - No Blade of Grass - but I haven't seen that in years.

Peter
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Sheldon Hall


Joined: 01 Sep 2005
Posts: 377
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Peters (if I may),
I think that technically both DOCTOR ZHIVAGO nor THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING are American, not British, despite the director of the first and the subject of the second (no British studios were involved).

Re. music, one of the first LP records I ever owned (and still have) was "Great War Movie Themes", by the Geoff ove Orchestra on MFP Records. Anyone else got it? I knew the themes before seeing many of the films - and Peter E is right, some were better.

Peter W, you've picked a film I've never seen - NO BLADE OF GRASS, which I missed on TV in 1978 and have never caught up with.

As for NORTH WEST FRONTIER (which I also love - kids have to see it at the right early age!), you've allowed me to name-drop Herbert Lom, who came to my talk at the opening of the ZULU exhibition at the London Film Museum in July...
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Paul Bryant-Quinn


Joined: 14 Oct 2007
Posts: 551
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Sheldon

Does The African Queen count, technically, as a British film?

The other films people have mentioned are all great ones. I'm going to sneak in Genevieve and The Titfield Thunderbolt. Nostalgia ain't what it used to be. <sigh>

Either that, or I'm turning into Peter Ewart in my old age ...

Wink

(Only joking, Peter - and yes, I remember Goal! very clearly: like everyone else, we only had a black-and-white steam powered TV in 1966, and I can remember everyone flocking to the Astoria to watch it.)
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Greatest British Film
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