This movie, without question, should be in the AFI's top 100 films. Andy Griffith's performance is nothing short of spectacular, and this film has become so real today.
If you agree, put a post here. Let's see if we can start a petition or something; replace Titanic with this!
Great movie. One of my all time favorites.
shareI thought until recently that Griffith was Oscar nominated for this role, but he wasn't.
He's brilliant and the film should definitely be considered a classic.
Elia Kazan was a family friend back in the '50s, and he used my father (carpenter) on many of his films. And while "On The Waterfront" is a great film, I don't think it holds a candle to "A Face in the Crowd."
This film deserves to be #1. It tells more truths about humanity, its shortcomings and its strengths, more than any other film ever made.
Sheer brilliance in 105 minutes.
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Depends. Why Kane is made the greatest film is because while Kazan and other greats were in their 40s making these mature satires (heck, Paddy Chayefsky was 54 when he wrote Network, in my opinion a better, if preachy, satire on humanity's folly to jump on a bandwagon of sorts), Orson Welles was 26 when he made a very mature story which also serves as a satire on media and its overreaction to problems.
Don't get me wrong; I loved both films, but Citizen Kane I could see in one session. It took me a while to see a Face in the Crowd. For accessibility, I would say Kane, but for a good message and free of that artiness that plagued a majority of Welles' work, check out Face and Network. Lonesome Rhodes is one of the greatest villains of all time and so is Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway's character in Network) for manipulating the minds of many, more than what Hannibal Lecter, Norman Bates, and the HAL 9000 could do to Clarice, Marion, Arbogast, and Dave Bowman. While Norman killed Marion and Arbogast, Larry Rhodes sold people these potentially lethal pills of proto-ecstasy on his show, insulted them behind their backs, and participated in more scandals than the people who inspired those scandals have ever participated in their life. In ways, Lonesome Rhodes is a villain so villainous, he is better than all.
Absolutely! Like I said in my comments...
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IMDb user comments for "A Face in the Crowd" (1957)
5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful:-
One of the Greatest of ALL films -- now on DVD (and about GD time)!!!
19 May 2005
10/10
Author: jim6263 from So.Cal.
Having read others' comments here and having just watched its new DVD, I'll add my two cents. This has been one of my faves since first seeing it (too) long ago. Well, it is more relevant than ever and should be seen be everyone (literally)!! I notice some (likely younger) folks mentioned comparisons to some contemporary politicians, but indeed Lonesome Rhodes was based on the phenomenally successful (and notoriously haughty) radio & early TV host Arthur Godfrey. Yes, Godfrey discovered Julius La Rosa, but La Rosa probably got fired for asking for a raise (after becoming very popular, both on the show and solo records). Apparently Arthur, like Lawrence Welk, was a cheap prick skinflint who only paid scale -- no matter what their tenure or how successful were his performers.
"A Face In the Crowd" was most definitely social commentary, NOT satire; although, as one from that era, I can understand why it seemed so to many at the time. And also why it inspired so many talents! That this film was not nominated on its own merits due to political differences/grudges is a GD crime! Can't say why Andy wasn't, but he sure deserved it... Awesome!! So awesome, it actually effected his personal life.
Anyway, re: politicians, "A Face In the Crowd" was a prescient warning of the dangers of that new media, thus akin to those who subsequently capitalized on its propaganda value and the *science* of people's weakness of mistaking "image" for truth!
But Kazan was not simply a great director; he was perhaps the most socially conscious of all Hollywood directors!! And he was one of the great actors' directors; hence, why you never saw an Andy Griffith act like in this film again! (The DVD also has an excellent up-to-date documentary about the making of AFITC and its genesis, with many pertinent historical tidbits re: Kazan.)
In just 21 films, Kazan directed at least 10 GREAT films: "America, America" (1963), "Wild River" (1960), "Baby Doll" (1956), "East of Eden" (1955), "On the Waterfront" (1954), "Viva Zapata!" (1952), "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951), "Panic in the Streets" (1950), "Gentleman's Agreement" (1947), and "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (1945).
In his films, 21 different actors had Oscar-nominated performances: James Dunn, Celeste Holm, Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, Anne Revere, Jeanne Crain, Ethel Barrymore, Ethel Waters, Karl Malden, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter, Marlon Brando, Anthony Quinn, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Jo Van Fleet, James Dean, Carroll Baker, Mildred Dunnock, and Natalie Wood -- of which Dunn, Holm, Malden, Leigh, Hunter, Quinn, Brando, Saint, and Van Fleet ALL won Oscars for their performances in one of Kazan's movies.
Not too shabby, eh!?
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And the media and Polilicos say H.W. is "liberal"; not liberal enough, even back then apparently, or still (insider biz politics). Suppressing such films as this is their statement.
Just watched this again for the umpteenth time.
No doubt about it. One of the best. Great story, strong performances, even some experimentation. A statement about our society that many need to recognize.
It deserves to be on the list.
“Your thinking is untidy, like most so-called thinking today.” (Murder, My Sweet)
Saw it last night on TCM - I would give it a 10 just for the screenplay - which is one of the most wickedly biting and funny things I have seen. Andy Griffith - a 10 - he was not even nominated?? I don't get it. And the B&W cinematography is so crisp and snappy - with some great shots of the NYC skyline and streets at night. My mom and I were both looking at it and saying - "Tiger Woods???" and even more apropos - "Sarah Palin!" A great illustration of a sociopathic, completely narcissistic, dangerous personality. It even talks about the television image of politicians years before the Nixon-Kennedy debates! A great film, and currently more topical than ever. And I love Patricia Neal - great acting on her part also.
Devil in a Blue Dress, waitin' for The Blue Train...
It's absolutely absurd that A Face in the Crowd, I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, Ace in the Hole & The Night of the Hunter are not on the AFI 100 list. Unfortunately, the people who vote on the AFI lists have either a pitiful knowledge of American films or really short memories. I'm going the Rosenbaum route and creating a list of my own alternative choices to those on the AFI 100.
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'Life is Beautiful' is to Holocaust movies what 'Twilight' is to vampire movies.
A Face in the Crowd definitely belongs among the top 100.
shareWhat is even more absurd is that I noticed that A Face in the Crowd isn't in the TSPDT 1,000 list either. Sadly, the ridiculously overrated, and IMO inferior, On the Waterfront makes it all the way into its top 100. Go figure.
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'Life is Beautiful' is to Holocaust movies what 'Twilight' is to vampire movies.
I'll keep this bad boy up near the top.
I'm so tired of the club scene... So are the baby seals.
I agree. Plus the movie was so far ahead of it's time. It is more relevant today than at any other time.
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