This past year, I had the pleasure (and time) to go through and watch 100+ films on the Criterion Channel and all the fixings that come with these films. I still champion this site over other streamers like Max because, while there is crossover on a number of films, the depth CC has is so massive that the rabbit hole in film history is infinite. I made my list on Letterboxd on what are my favorites and I decided to not give a Top 5, but just a sample of what I really loved. Other movies I saw that I enjoyed on the CC include Yojimbo, Czechmate: In Search of Jiri Menzel, Bringing Up Baby, and What’s Up, Doc? There were a few clunkers (Color Of Night – not erotic at all), but I saw a lot of good films.
Aguirre, The Wrath Of God (1972)
Getting acquainted with a film you saw years ago reopens your mind to why you love that film. It certainly occurred with me upon rewatching Werner Herzog’s New German Wave masterpiece set in 16th century Peru. While not entirely accurate, Herzog successfully captures the descent of madness conquistador Lope de Aguirre (played by Klaus Kinski, himself a madman) experiences into his search for El Dorado, no matter the human cost. It was made with a fairly small budget, forcing Herzog and the crew to improvise with their single camera. It’s no surprise that Apocalypse Now was influenced strongly by Aguirre.
Battle Royale (2000)
Before Squid Game, before The Hunger Games, there was this shocking graphic novel adapted for the screen in Japan which certainly caused a moral panic. School children killing each other for the right to live? The government sanctioning this barbarous act? Regardless, this tale of juvenile delinquency and survival by father-and-son Kinji and Kenta Fukasaku is a sensational, bloodthirsty extravaganza that parades authoritarian rule through generational gaps and the social dysfunction that would allow such an idea to happen. Per Quentin Tarantino, this is his favorite movie he has seen from the last two decades this millennium.
The Day After Trinity (1981)
In conjunction with the release of Oppenheimer, this documentary chronicles the entire Manhattan Project with those who were there and still alive intercutting with archive interviews, including those with the man himself. Nominated for Best Documentary at the Oscars, it gives real-life insight to this ambitious, classified story that was one of Criterion Channel’s most watched films. The film was written by couple David and Janet Peoples; David would script Blade Runner and Unforgiven and later collaborate with his wife on 12 Monkeys. The film’s title reflects Oppenheimer’s concern for nuclear weapons when he told President Lyndon B. Johnson that any plan to prevent the spread of nukes should’ve been done the moment the Trinity test was over.
Diary For My Children (1984)
Hungarian director Márta Mészáros created this deeply moving story of a girl who moves to Hungary from the Soviet Union where she lives with her aunt, a communist supporter, after her parents were killed by the Stalinist purges. She seeks the truth about her dead parents, resisting her aunt’s desire to install communist views. Meszaros uses parts of her life in this harrowing film, produced while Hungary was still under communist rule, about the bleakness youth had to live under after World War II. Gorgeous black-and-white brings in a more accurate mood to the times and carries an emotional burden from Hungary’s bleaker years since it turned into a Soviet satellite state.
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