60). Rocky (1976, John G. Avildsen) – AFI Ranking: 52nd
The ultimate sports movie. Like some other entries from the AFI, Rocky is more drama than thriller, but it’s too enjoyable of a movie to remove from the list. It’s spawned several sequels that are largely very enjoyable, but it’s easy to forget that the original movie was all heart, no cheese, and we didn’t really know what would happen.
The training montage will jack up your heart rate and, though it’s been said a million times, the use of music in these montages is outstanding.
Add to that the fact that we didn’t know how the fight would end! Back in ’76, there weren’t really any sports movie tropes that made the outcomes more predictable. This movie introduced a lot of the tropes. SPOILERS AHEAD, it’s easy to forget that in the original Rocky, he actually loses the fight in a judges’ decision. Of course, it wasn’t really about winning or losing, it was about respect.
59). The Hurt Locker (2009, Kathryn Bigelow) – AFI Ranking: N/A
As noted in earlier posts, war is stressful. However, The Hurt Locker swaps a lot of the traditional fire fights in war movies for an elite bomb squad unit. It’s pure tension. These men find explosive devices and dismantle them. Are there remote detonators that can trigger the bombs from far away? Is there a trip wire that they’ll hit by accident?
There is a scene where they attempt to take a compound, which is as tense as any war movie, but this movie stands out for its focus on explosives, and the men whose job it is to dismantle them.
I have this movie replacing Platoon (AFI #72), a movie I remember liking quite a bit. The Hurt Locker’s focus on explosives was a different idea that presented a new level of unease for the audience. Additionally, once Jeremy Renner is back home after the war we see he’s a bit uneasy with civilian life. Similar to Shawshank, there’s a lot of tension created over how our protagonist will solve his sense of despair/discomfort. The movie ends with his decision.
58). Uncut Gems (2019, Ben and Josh Safdie) – AFI Ranking: N/A
There are some movies that just focus on a dumpster fire leading toward doom. Similar to Blood Simple, I don’t know if there’s any ending to Uncut Gems that would provide catharsis for the audience. It’s just a guy, an addict, making a series of bad choices, for over two hours. And not the types of small choices that add up to be an issue, but rather, blatantly bad choices. It’s just uncomfortable to watch.
I have Uncut Gems replacing The Phantom of the Opera (AFI #83, from 1925). I’m sure this movie was groundbreaking for its time, and I haven’t actually seen it, but I find it very hard to believe that movies from that long ago could still really thrill a viewer just because so many movies have come out since 1925. Again, this is a totally uneducated assumption, but I can’t imagine Phantom keeping me in a constant state of discomfort the way Uncut Gems did.
57). Shutter Island (2010, Martin Scorsese) – AFI Ranking: N/A
A detective story about a disappearance at a creepy mental institution. Directed by Martin Scorsese. That’s really all you need to know.
It’s replacing The Adventures of Robin Hood (AFI #57). I guess I’ve never been that into Robin Hood, but how could you pass up on the premise of Shutter Island?
56). The Prestige (2006, Christopher Nolan) – AFI Ranking: N/A
I have The Prestige replacing Thelma and Louise (AFI #76), which is also a very good movie, but we’re swapping out a fun, buddy road trip for a dark rivalry between magicians. While there’s a protagonist-antagonist relationship in nearly every movie, there aren’t a ton of movies about rivalry, and its impact on the participants, and those close to them.
“Are you watching closely?” is the perfect quote to summarize The Prestige, which is perhaps why it’s repeated at the start of each act of the movie. Christopher Nolan movies generate a lot of buzz, often for exploring a complicated idea and a crazy third act twist. Many of his movies generate arguments about plot holes and meaning. The Prestige is the perfect amount of confusing. It’s a movie about magicians, so naturally, there’s going to be misdirection and seemingly impossible feats. But in actuality, everything you need to know is shown to you in the beginning of the movie.
55). The Godfather (1972, Francis Ford Coppola) – AFI Ranking: 11th
As with other entries, The Godfather, to me, is more drama than thriller. It’s a meditative, 3-hour journey. In a vacuum, I probably wouldn’t include it on a list of thrillers. But I believe it to be the greatest movie ever made, so I can’t really justify removing it after the AFI included it. The above scene is an exercise in tension, and one of the truly thrilling moments in movie history.
On this list, there will be 54 movies ranked ahead of The Godfather for their thrills. It doesn’t feel right, but I think it’s in line with what the AFI did. They ranked The Godfather as the #2 movie of all time, and the fact that it fell outside the top 10 on their list of thrillers, behind more typical genre entries like Raiders of the Lost Ark and The French Connection, just tells you that the AFI didn’t really consider it a thriller either. It’s a grandiose drama with a couple of thrilling scenes. Be that as it may, the movie is so intoxicating that you can’t wait to see what happens next, which is why it stays on the list.
54). Michael Clayton (2007, Tony Gilroy) – AFI Ranking: N/A
Tough beat for Michael Clayton since it’s the first entry after The Godfather, but corporate conspiracies are a great backdrop for a thriller. This is because we already think of them as immoral profiteering entities that would do anything for a dollar. Add to that, they have the resources and the stomach to do anything to make their problems go away.
Fifteen minutes into the movie we see Michael Clayton’s car explode while parked on the side of a rural road. At that point, all we really know is that he’s gambler, and a fixer at a large law firm. It’s full of intrigue.
I have Michael Clayton replacing The Great Escape (AFI #19) because they’re both movies about a guy trying to get out of prison, albeit under vastly different circumstances. The Great Escape is literally about POWs in WWII. The prison in Michael Clayton is metaphorical. Michael Clayton is a flawed man who hates his job as a fixer for a law firm and their evil corporate clients. He had a restaurant with his brother, but that folded; a failed escape attempt. He’s a recovering gambling addict, another form of escapism that clearly left him worse off. He’s divorced. He clearly just wants to hit the reset button on his life, and it seems like he’s prepared to do so, but we’re not sure if he’ll be able to make it out of this corporate conspiracy alive.
53). Pulp Fiction (1994, Quentin Tarantino) – AFI Ranking: 53rd
Pulp Fiction is another movie that seems more like a drama than a thriller until you realize that Tarantino creates a lot of tension in and around the key events of the movie!
When Jules and Vincent enter the Brad’s apartment feeling that they “should’ve had shotguns” for this job, we know an explosive situation is on the horizon. It all builds to them shooting Brad, and even though that feels inevitable, Tarantino draws it out.
Vincent has to take the boss’s wife, Mia, out for dinner and we know he’s nervous about this because he was discussing it with Jules earlier in the movie. He shoots heroin and then goes on the date, which can make the audience feel anxious over whether or not this will lead to him messing up the date. Of course it doesn’t, but then there’s the awkward sexual tension, where we wonder if Vincent is going to make a bad decision with the boss’s wife. And then that is all eschewed when Mia accidentally snorts his heroin and overdoses. Now we know Vincent is in trouble! He speeds over to his drug dealer’s house for a wonderfully chaotic scene where they try and bring Mia back to life. The tension builds as they countdown from 3 to give her a shot of adrenaline.
There are several more thrills like this: Butch going back to his apartment for retrieve his watch, then trying to escape Marcellus; everything that happens in the pawn shop; the standoff ending in diner. They’re all injected with loads of tension. Add to that, the nonlinear story is confusing and creates some unease. Even if this movie is more of a drama than a thriller, Pulp Fiction is a masterclass in creating uncertainty and excitement.
52). Spotlight (2015, Tom McCarthy) – AFI Ranking: N/A
Spotlight replaces All the President’s Men (AFI #57); swapping out one excellent journalism movie for another. One thing off the bat is that well-done journalism movies are few and far between because a lot of the work that goes into journalism is boring, or at least, more administrative and research oriented, compiling documents and putting the pieces together. However, when done well, it can be very exciting because, in essence, they function like any type of mystery where a detective is looking for clues.
I didn’t know the true story of the Spotlight team. It wasn’t on my radar when it came out in the early 2000’s. Given the resources and reach of the Catholic Church, and how many people have died in the name of religion (across all religions), there were several points in the movie Spotlight where I thought one of the reporters was in grave danger. Particularly this guy, since he was the least famous actor on the investigative team. I thought that guy was going down several times.
Even with a backdrop as drab as print journalism, McCarthy is able to create drama around the discoveries, and danger lurking around every corner. Like any conspiracy movie, they were pulling on the threads of corruption and cover-up, and as we know, that’s always a dangerous proposition.
51). Taxi Driver (1976, Martin Scorsese) – AFI Ranking: 22nd
It’s another example of a movie that’s more of a drama than a thriller, however, unlike a lot of those other examples, there’s an impending sense in Taxi Driver that something is going to explode. Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) is a ticking time bob. He’s having trouble dealing with the isolation and loneliness of 70’s New York City, and also probably PTSD from his time in Vietnam.
Travis is desperately reaching out for personal connection, but lacks the social awareness to really connect with anyone. He feels awkward around the other cabbies and of course, he has trouble dealing with the rejection from Betsy, after building her up into an angel.
This is all compounded by his time spent driving a cab, particularly through the rough neighborhoods in 70’s Harlem. Although he seems to like driving around, his job is emotionally isolating, and forces him to see a lot of desperate, unsavory characters populating the dirty late night streets. His overexposure to this particular portion of the population helps confirm his worldview, that the world is full of horrible people and hopefully, “…a rain will come and wash all the scum off the streets.”
Little by little, we see Travis descend into a rage that’s going to come to a head. The question is who will be the unfortunate recipient? We see him buy weapons and make modifications to said weapons as if he’s planning an attack. He shows up at a political rally seemingly intent on killing the candidate (because Betsy worked for this candidate), but is thwarted. In the climax of the movie he goes off and kills a pimp, and some of his associates, in order to free a young prostitute named Iris (Jodie Foster). It’s violent and bloody and only heroic because the guys he kills a little worse than he is (they employ teenaged prostitutes).
On a scene-by-scene basis, Taxi Driver doesn’t play like a thriller, but over the course of the movie, the weight of each scene starts to build, until Travis is pushed to his breaking point.
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