Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great classic film but if you look the rest of the 250 list it seems most voters are young people. A dialogue-driveb black and white film that takes place in one room shares the top ten with The Dark Knight, the 4th best movie according to them?
And don't get me started on The Shankshaw Redemption being on the top of the list.
I'm more surprised that the Dark Knight made the list so high. I mean, it's a good movie and yeah most voters appear to be young but if I had to choose between them 12 Angry Men is way better. What's remarkable about that film, I think, is that it IS in black and white and it's pretty much twelve people just talking for the whole movie not even leaving the room but it's so compelling. It's fascinating and it's smart and it has a good message. And we don't even know if the guy was innocent. The deck was stacked against him, to be sure. There was class prejudice and xenophobia and his lawyer was a worse lawyer than the random citizens in the jury but that doesn't mean he's not guilty. Maybe they spent all that time and, despite the lousy eyewitnesses and more common than you'd think knife and the guy's street fighting experience, he really did do it. Maybe the whole movie was about one man trying to do the right thing and letting a killer go when the justice system had him dead to rights. I don't think Fonda's character ever said he thought he was innocent, just that the court case wasn't enough and didn't convince him beyond a reasonable doubt.
shareThe thing with most films on the Top 250 is that lots of people like them, but there's also a chunk of people who dislike them and that brings the rating down from a potential 9.0 to around 8.1
With Star Wars and LOTR, some people don't like male fantasy stuff. American Beauty and Clockwork Orange, too repulsive for a portion of people. 12 Angry Men is just one of those movies that just wont offend anyone.
The Dark Knight is constantly praised as one of the greatest films of all time by people who've never seen most of the greatest films of all time.
Please don't call someone a _____tard.