Best American Movie of the Last 25 Years

This Sunday afternoon I indulged myself by trying to choose the best American fiction film of the past 25 years. (This challenge came via film critic Andy Horbal's No More Marriages! blog.)

Immediately, I realized that many of my fave raves don't quite reach the level of greatness and gravitas required to be the best movie made since 1981. And so many directors aren't American. And so many directors made their best films before that date (Francis Coppola, for example, or Stanley Kubrick). Who are the great American directors? And who do we judge harshly because they are on the downward slope of their careers, or dead? For his part, the late John Huston made three astonishing films in the last years of his life: Under the Volcano, Prizzi's Honor and The Dead.

And Woody Allen's run in the 80s was extraordinary: Zelig, Purple Rose of Cairo, Broadway Danny Rose. Oliver Stone's filmography since 1981 is also strong: Any Given Sunday, Nixon, Natural Born Killers, JFK, Born on the 4th of July, Platoon, Salvador. Warren Beatty's political romantic epic Reds and agitprop Bulworth are both terrific. And then there's Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence and Empire of the Sun.

Also in the running: David Lynch's Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive; Brian DePalma's Scarface and Blowout; Robert Altman's The Player and Gosford Park; Michael Mann's Heat and The Insider.

Of the younger generation, Joel and Ethan Coen reach greatness with Fargo and Raising Arizona. Steven Soderbergh's Traffic is up there. So is Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing. Or is Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction the best?

Martin Scorsese has knocked out super documentaries along with such features as Goodfellas and The Departed, which are both in the greatness zone. But finally, my money's on Clint Eastwood, who with Million Dollar Baby and Mystic River is also at the height of his powers. My vote for the best American fiction film in the last 25 years goes to a western, the great American genre that reveals the violence and lies that threaten our national soul. 1992's Oscar-winning Unforgiven is more timely than ever.

Comments

[Sergio]

I can agree with some choices like Reds (Thank God it's finally coming out on DVD this month!) Scarface and Heat (of course what man doesnt like those films?)

BUT...believe me I LOVE westerns, but sorry, Unforgiven is for me the one most OVERRATED films of the last decade (No wait, Lost in Translation is very close behind) I've seen it a few times since it first came out in '92 trying to "get it" but I find it endlessly tedious and just flat out boring. Is there anyone out there who feels the same way as I do? Go ahead and laugh (I can take it) but I think Tombstone "directed" by Kurt Russell according to a recent article is more a true western than Unforgiven which is a long, dour disseratation in existenialism

[Crow T Robot]

E.T. and Pulp Fiction are the definitive American films of the past 25 years. The beauty and the beast if you will of what we've come to call the "MTV Generation."

Oh and Highlander. Don't forget Highlander!

[Alan]

anne

hard to argue with that selection. american beauty comes to mind, but it's a bit stilted and unnatural by comparison.

i do love unforgiven. it's one of the reasons i keep going as a writer. (did you know david peoples' script was passed on by a reader at eastwood's malpaso prodco? then, several years later clint read the script, found out his reader had passed on it, and was furious [no news on fate of reader]).

even if the godfather could be included -- i don't think it quite stands up. godfather is standoffish -- told from the outside in. unforgiven embraces the audience -- told from the inside out.

anyway, good choice.

[mark]

Hal Hartley? PT Anderson?, Alexander Payne? , Jim Jarmusch?