This is a rare Friday Five that has been brought to you from Dom Dirk in recognition of this week’s Academy Awards celebrations over in that there America. It is a little known fact that the statuette is actually based on the image of the naked Dom Dirk, so who better to present a pick of the best (and one worst) of the best winners since cinema actually began (back in 1977, on the release of Star Wars).
NEW HOPE
1) THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991) A film that breathed a breath of fresh air into the lungs of the American thriller. It has suffered from having too many imitations. Jodie Foster has never matched it since… then again, neither has Demme or Sir Hopkins!
2) UNFORGIVEN (1992) The best western since the WILD BUNCH. At the time I thought there was going to be Western revival. I’m still waiting.
3) SCHINDLER’S LIST (1993) Proof that Spielberg could make a credible adult film, or rather ‘a film for adults’. It wasn’t SHOAH (thank goodness).
4) NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN (2007) Dare I say it, this is the best Coen brothers film!
NO HOPE
5) DRIVING MISS DIASY (1989) In a year when THE DEAD POETS SOCIETY, FIELD OF DREAMS and MY LEFT FOOT were all in contention – who picked this one? No competition. It is the worst best picture … ever!
The Dirk Malcolm Alternative 
Films eligible for this list which are better than ‘The Silence Of The Lambs’:
Gandhi
Amadeus
Platoon
The Last Emperor
American Beauty
The Departed
It is the Sunday evening ITV drama of serial killer films.
Tsk Tsk …
If you are going to knock one out of the Dom Dork list – I think I would go for Schindler’s List – Adorno was right, there is no place for art following the holocaust – and this opened the door to a theme park version…
Not withstanding the brilliant performances, I just think there is something uncomfortable about the experience of watching the film …
Dom Dork ? Surley shum mistake -ed
The Silence Of The Lambs still stands at THE Pivotal film of the early 90s, you will be saying that the best version is Manhunter next, now that does look like a TV Movie, but then what can you expect from someone who cut their teeth on “Miami Vice”.
Amadeus is probably the best of the 80s, but I’d rather listen to “Rock Me Amadeus”! The Last Emperor was only given an Oscar because it is Bertolucci, The Departed was only given an Oscar because Scorsese had never been given one. I’m not entirely sure about American Beauty anymore, it is Ok, but far from the Barry Norman quote “The best debut from a director since Citizen Kane” and you must be joking with Platoon, utter rubbish!
Schindler’s List showed how far Spielberg had come and how far he could go, it is his defining film, but on the whole would we rather watch Jurassic Park, made the same year, i’ll leave that up to you!
I have to agree. At the time, Silence of the Lambs was positively ground-breaking. It is difficult to imagine now. However, I saw a respected Cultral Studies lecturer, Anthony Easthope (RIP), who thought that the film would struggle to find an audience beyond the intelligentsia. He was being a bit elitest, however it was clear that SILENCE … Was challenging beyond its potboiler roots.
For me, it did the same to the serial-killer genre as THE GODFATHER did to gangsters.
I’m afraid I can’t really see it, you’d already had ‘Manhunter’ (yes! it is a better film!) and you were 4 years away from ‘Seven’ which *did* transform the genre in my opinion.
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