700 Movie Anniversary

 

700 Movie Anniversary

With “Zu Früh, Zu Spät”, I have reached the 700 movie mark and I am in the habit of making a post marking these corners. It is not that I am in the mood for celebrating, though. Since Saturday I have been following what is going on in Israel and we are concerned for family and friends there. Fortunately, none of them are hurt, but the next few weeks are going to be hard.

I was of a mind to skip my usual top 10, but then I thought of making a top 10 of movies that deal with the fight of evil incarnate. I know it is a bit too early, some of the most notable movies on that theme belong to later periods, but although there was in earlier years of cinema a reluctance to deal with evil, the seventies started to change that, and I actually found movies enough for a top 20.

Star Wars

                Darth Vader and the Evil Empire is a classic, but maybe also a bit cartoonish. Certainly, he is evil, he kills an entire planet, but it be a bit too remote for us to be truly scared of it.

Alien

                “Alien” on the other hand is truly scary. The Xenomorph is evil because it is a top predator. It is also an invader of space and fighting it off requires extreme measures. Again though, the futuristic space environment is sufficiently remote to protect us.

The Searchers

                This might be an odd choice, but I was struck by the story of a home being raided and the children abducted and how difficult it was to track them down and rescue the survivors. It is a smaller scale evil, but absolutely relatable.

The Exorcist

                An evil demon with the sole purpose to destroy and torment and the almost hopeless struggle against it to stay sane and human. This is truly evil, but with the aid of the supernatural

The Shining

                That is also the case for “The Shining”. Possession may be an excuse, but the resulting terror and barbarism is no joke.

Halloween

                We do not really need the supernatural to be evil and I never entirely worked out if the murderer in Halloween is possessed or simply evil beyond anything, but scary he is.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

I know this is a slasher movie, but the barbarism is almost Hamas level.

To Be or Not to Be

                Maybe an odd choice, but fighting indescribable evil by playing theater seems like a very heroic thing to do.

Night and Fog

                This could have been any Holocaust movie, really, but “Night and Fog” does not pull any punches and leaves you exhausted.

Apocalypse Now

                The journey into the Heart of Darkness is a journey into the insanity of human depravity when the barriers that make us humans fall down. No animal, alien monster or supernatural entity is as evil as a human with no humanity and that is why “Apocalypse Now” wins the title.