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The Greatest Documentaries Of All Time

Started by ThickAndCreamy, July 05, 2009, 10:05:25 PM

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lipsink

Quote from: mrfridge on July 06, 2009, 11:36:11 AM
American Movie - Great doc about a guy trying desperately to realize his dream of directing a horror movie. Engaging protagonists, funny, touching and entertaining throughout. More info HERE.

I remember watching that scene where he's trying to get his old uncle (is it?) to say the one line right. I was crying with laughter. Mark and his acid casualty friend seem like theyd be 2 of the the best sitcom characters ever.

Egyptian Feast

Most of my favourites have been mentioned already, but I'd like to give a shout-out to Jonathan Ross' The Incredibly Strange Film Show and Son Of The Incredibly Strange Film Show. I would've only been around 11 or 12 when it was on, but I remember watching it religiously. I still hold Ross responsible for heavily influencing my future taste in movies - this series introduced me to George A Romero, Sam Raimi, Jackie Chan, Russ Meyer, Herschell Gordon Lewis and one of my biggest heroes, John Waters.

I watched the whole series again recently (minus the El Santo doc - if anyone knows where to find it on the 'net, please PM me!) and it holds up very well, despite being 20 years out of date. Ross is much less obnoxious than he is nowadays and obviously cares a great deal about the subject matter. It's a shame he won't use his influence to get something like this commissioned nowadays, but I suppose being an obnoxious unfunny prick pays better.

Jemble Fred


vrailaine

Quote from: TotalNightmare on July 06, 2009, 01:35:13 AM
Next I'd like to recommend King of Kong which is just a brilliant story if nothing else. There has been talk of turning this into a narrative movie, but i don't see the point, this doc works as well as any mainstream sports movie i can think of. The 'Tortoise and Hare' style adventure, set in the world of competitive video game playing has a wonderful and mental cast of characters - namely,all the lackies that fester around the might of Billy Mitchell - a brilliant villain worthy of Disney.
I didn't name it because it's basically complete lies. The idea of making a movie from it is ludicrous cos it's one anyway. Love it though, one of my favourite films from this decade.
Chasing Ghosts is a really good documentary about the arcade gaming scene of the early 80s with a bit of a dark turn... works better if you watch it after King of Kong though cos of intertwining plots.

ThickAndCreamy

#34
I forgot to mention Cold War before.

It's a truly incredible 24 part series, alike to The World At War except hardly anyone ever seems to have seen it. This is because it's limited VHS release was banned, along with any potential DVD release as it was too detailed about Afganistan in the 1980's and due to potential intelligence it may give after 9/11.

It's a truly incredible, highly detailed and fascinating look at every aspect of the Cold War, from 1945 to 1991. It deserves as much recognition as The World At War really yet due to it's limited release it seems hard to find. I have VHS copies on my PC that I downloaded over a long time ago from a UK torrent site yet the torrents now seem to have disappeared.

Overall, it really is just unbelievably good for such a now forgotten series, It's epic in it's scale and magnificent in it's fruition. One of the greatest documentaries ever made detailing war and politics over a period of time.

Gulftastic

'Beyond The Mat', the wrestling documentary is good. Showing the wrasslin' industry from top to bottom, and laying a lot of the ground that 'The Wrestler' covered later on.

The stuff showing Mick Foley's insane bump taking is interesting, but the scenes showing how Jake 'The Snake' Roberts life has ended up were quite disturbing.

Ignatius_S

The ones created by Humphrey Jennings.

Quote from: Egyptian Feast on July 06, 2009, 02:30:53 PM
Most of my favourites have been mentioned already, but I'd like to give a shout-out to Jonathan Ross' The Incredibly Strange Film Show and Son Of The Incredibly Strange Film Show....

The book to accompany the series was also very good - but despite all claims on the Net, I don't believe there was any input from Ross.

Desi Rascal

Quote from: Gulftastic on July 06, 2009, 02:56:51 PM
'Beyond The Mat', the wrestling documentary is good. Showing the wrasslin' industry from top to bottom, and laying a lot of the ground that 'The Wrestler' covered later on.

The stuff showing Mick Foley's insane bump taking is interesting, but the scenes showing how Jake 'The Snake' Roberts life has ended up were quite disturbing.

You might well be interested in searching out a copy of Wrestling with Shadows a behind the scenes doc with Brett Hart

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitman_Hart:_Wrestling_with_Shadows



NoSleep

Quote from: Santa's Boyfriend on July 05, 2009, 11:23:31 PM
One of the greatest documentaries of all time is, in my opinion, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.  It's the story of the military coup d'etat against Venezuela's Chavez government in 2002, and is filmed from inside the government itself by two Irish documentary film-makers who happened to be there at the time.  A really extraordinary story, and a real eye-opener regarding how Latin American politics works.  You won't find the film for sale anywhere due to some kind of complex rights issue*, but you can see it in its entirety on google video, here:

http://video.google.co.uk/googleplayer.swf?docid=5832390545689805144&hl=en&fs=true

*Some believe its lack of availability to be somewhat political in nature, which wouldn't surprise me considering what the film implies regarding the Bush administration.  I have no idea myself.

Also another documentary, like King Of Kong, that has a cast of characters to rival a Hollywood film, complete with a triumphantly happy ending.

The distributor of the film appears to have dragged their heels (at the very least) regards giving this a legimate release on DVD.

samadriel

Quote from: ThickAndCreamy on July 06, 2009, 02:54:21 PM
I forgot to mention Cold War before.

It's a truly incredible 24 part series, alike to The World At War except hardly anyone ever seems to have seen it. This is because it's limited VHS release was banned, along with any potential DVD release as it was too detailed about Afganistan in the 1980's and due to potential intelligence it may give after 9/11.

It's a truly incredible, highly detailed and fascinating look at every aspect of the Cold War, from 1945 to 1991. It deserves as much recognition as The World At War really yet due to it's limited release it seems hard to find. I have VHS copies on my PC that I downloaded over a long time ago from a UK torrent site yet the torrents now seem to have disappeared.

Overall, it really is just unbelievably good for such a now forgotten series, It's epic in it's scale and magnificent in it's fruition. One of the greatest documentaries ever made detailing war and politics over a period of time.

Well, you've piqued my interest, TaC.  There are two very poorly-populated torrents (each containing half the series) I'm having a shot at now.  A drip-feed of bytes lies ahead!...

Gulftastic

Quote from: Desi Rascal on July 06, 2009, 03:46:59 PM
You might well be interested in searching out a copy of Wrestling with Shadows a behind the scenes doc with Brett Hart

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitman_Hart:_Wrestling_with_Shadows

I forgot that one. That too is a good documentary, but perhaps more rewarding if you know the truth of some of things that were going on.

It's good for showing who the boggest mark is for Bret Hart.

Egyptian Feast

Quote from: Ignatius_S on July 06, 2009, 03:31:30 PM
The ones created by Humphrey Jennings.

The book to accompany the series was also very good - but despite all claims on the Net, I don't believe there was any input from Ross.

He didn't write the book? I have a copy of it as well - I thought it was great when it came out, but re-reading it again recently I was quite disappointed. I suppose when it came out there weren't so many books about Italian exploitation films and the like, so it was quite useful to my 15-year old self (not half as much as Kim Newman's Nightmare Movies though) but reading it now, I can't get over the amount of factual errors and sloppy writing in there.

Starlit

I can't remember the title (it may have been something like "Meet The .......s"), but there was a fly on the wall series about Coventry's third largest double glazing company. It was run by a husband and wife team who seemed to believe that they were the greatest business people ever to have lived.
It was on the BBC a couple of years ago.
Not particularly educational, but riveting and hilarious.


Robert McNamara's just died, 'Fog of War' fans.

Ignatius_S

Quote from: Egyptian Feast on July 06, 2009, 04:19:13 PM
He didn't write the book? I have a copy of it as well - I thought it was great when it came out, but re-reading it again recently I was quite disappointed. I suppose when it came out there weren't so many books about Italian exploitation films and the like, so it was quite useful to my 15-year old self (not half as much as Kim Newman's Nightmare Movies though) but reading it now, I can't get over the amount of factual errors and sloppy writing in there.
If memory serves me right, the book is credited to two writers, who I guess wrote much of the show, but these days it seems to get credited to just Ross. Although I know what you mean about the errors and careless writing, these flaws are rather endemic in books about cult films, but have seen a fair bit worse and tend to expect such sloppinesss,

At the time it came out, I think you're quite right about there being a scarcity of easily obtainable material about these films – especially to teenage boys. I guess in many respects it's something of a potboiler (and certainly I don't think one that would be too hard to knock up) – but arguably, I suppose it's meant to be more of a taster than an authoritative work.

From what I remember, when I compared a couple of episodes I had, the book provided pretty much the same material (although I could be wrong!), so I mentioned it more as a decent companion to the series.

Quote from: Starlit on July 06, 2009, 04:33:07 PM
I can't remember the title (it may have been something like "Meet The .......s"), but there was a fly on the wall series about Coventry's third largest double glazing company. It was run by a husband and wife team who seemed to believe that they were the greatest business people ever to have lived.
It was on the BBC a couple of years ago.
Not particularly educational, but riveting and hilarious.

The Armstrongs. When they did the first episode, they weren't married but had been together for years – quite a few people doubted the subsequent series was real, and it was certainly rather knowing.

Egyptian Feast

Quote from: Ignatius_S on July 06, 2009, 04:46:05 PM

From what I remember, when I compared a couple of episodes I had, the book provided pretty much the same material (although I could be wrong!), so I mentioned it more as a decent companion to the series.


I find the book is better on filmmakers covered by the series, but it falls down in the sections about porn and Italian exploitation - but it was a long time ago and many of these films were quite difficult to see. Still, I can't fault the book for introducing me to Mario Bava.

The series does have a number of errors too.

Serge

Quote from: massive bereavement on July 06, 2009, 12:45:54 PM
Dancing In The Streets (1997) - By far the best series on the history of pop/rock music.

Absolutely. Would love to see it again. Made me see what the fuss about Dylan was all about for the first time ever.

What was the name of the more recent series on BBC2 about the history of soul music? That was fantastic. BBC4 does some great music documentaries as well.

ThickAndCreamy

The Seven Ages Of Rock however was pretty dreadful, especially from the 90's onwards. It was like watching a show made by someone who had 5 days to create it and only wikipedia as their knowledge basis.

Egyptian Feast

Quote from: Serge on July 06, 2009, 05:36:16 PM
Made me see what the fuss about Dylan was all about for the first time ever.


Speaking of whom, Don't Look Back and No Direction Home are both fantastic.

Detective John Kimble

Overnight is one of my favourites that hasn't been mentioned yet.  It's all about the rise and fall of Troy Duffy, the guy behind "The Boondock Saints" - how he was feted as the next Quentin Tarantino after his script became the subject of a bidding war, how he managed to land a golden deal which even included a major record label contract for his band, and how he managed to throw it all away - Miramax (the folks who landed his signature in the end) eventually screwed him over, of course, but it all went to pot mainly because he's a bastard who ends up alienating pretty much everybody, including his closest friends who've worked their arses off for him without recieving anything in return.  Troy Duffy might be the greatest villain in cinema history, actually.

Koant

Connections by James Burke. Great way of telling the history of science and technology, rife with accidents, coincidences, serendipity and unforeseen consequences. And there are 3 series of it.
The secret life of machines by Tim Hunkin, where the functioning of everyday objects is explained in simple terms.
Corpus Christi and The origin of Christianity by Mordillat and Prieur are both fantastic.

Egyptian Feast

Quote from: Detective John Kimble on July 06, 2009, 05:52:38 PM
Overnight is one of my favourites that hasn't been mentioned yet.  It's all about the rise and fall of Troy Duffy, the guy behind "The Boondock Saints" - how he was feted as the next Quentin Tarantino after his script became the subject of a bidding war, how he managed to land a golden deal which even included a major record label contract for his band, and how he managed to throw it all away - Miramax (the folks who landed his signature in the end) eventually screwed him over, of course, but it all went to pot mainly because he's a bastard who ends up alienating pretty much everybody, including his closest friends who've worked their arses off for him without recieving anything in return.  Troy Duffy might be the greatest villain in cinema history, actually.

Good call. "I'm Hollywood's biggest hard-on", indeed. The Boondock Saints is a terrible, terrible film, but they do make for an interesting double bill.

biggytitbo

The beatles anthology directors cut
Catching up with these on youtube, and for beatles fans I think they're far better than the standard anthology, a lot more interviews and a lot more detail.

Century of Self
Adam Curtis' fascinating look at psychoanalysis and advertising.

Blind Watchmaker
If you're into Dawkins this is the one to get, before he disappeared up his own arse.

Spin
Always gets mentioned in these threads, but it really is a stunner - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_(film)

rjd2

Quote from: Santa's Boyfriend on July 06, 2009, 09:26:57 AM
Paradise Lost is a really, really unpleasant watch - not least because it starts with police footage of the bodies of three naked children lying murdered in woodland.  The story covers the trial of three boys who have clearly been arrested and tried for the murder because they're heavy metal fans, which in a small town in the US deep south, is apparently a reasonable suspicion.  It's one of the most upsetting documentaries I've ever seen because whilst the trial clearly fails to establish guilt, the community are clearly convinced that they did it from the very beginning.

Yeah I remember this and your review is spot on. The most terrifying element is of both documentaries is the father who wants them dead initially and came off as slightly unhinged admitted towards the end of the second part that the trio looked innocent and is now campaigning for their release. I remember talk of a a third film in the pipeline ago as the case is still ongoing.


rjd2

Quote from: Gulftastic on July 06, 2009, 04:16:04 PM
I forgot that one. That too is a good documentary, but perhaps more rewarding if you know the truth of some of things that were going on.

It's good for showing who the boggest mark is for Bret Hart.

Bret screwed Bret!
I liked Bret but the whole thing is really one sided. It is still worth watching just for the insight into Bret's life and family though.
You can watch it free and legally on the National Board of Canada website.

http://nfb.ca/film/hitman_hart_wrestling_with_shadows/

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: massive bereavement on July 06, 2009, 12:45:54 PMDancing In The Streets (1997) - By far the best series on the history of pop/rock music.

Oh absolutely, it's a masterpiece. Sadly unavailable on DVD, though, presumably because of rights issues. I'd love to watch it all again.

Don_Preston

Another good music series is Tony Palmer's exhaustive All You Need Is Love (1976 - 80) which chronicals everything that has ever fallen under the popular music banner.

Then there's The Blues, which was Scorcese's film series on Blues music.

JPA

Quote from: biggytitbo on July 06, 2009, 06:09:35 PM
Blind Watchmaker
If you're into Dawkins this is the one to get, before he disappeared up his own arse.

Yeah it's really good, and the book is great.

I'd just like to mention The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off. Despite the ridiculously sensationalist title, I found this a really moving and uplifting piece of television with some suprisingly funny moments (particularly when he chooses to have a tin of baked beans carved into his casket, purely to make people wonder about its significance).

Not an easy watch mind you, I remember there being some debate on here about the merits of the bandage-removal scene.

Saucer51

I never saw it but World In Action's Death of a Princess must have been sufficiently good, credible and damaging to upset the Saudi Arabian authorities who got their knickers in a diplomatic twist. I say, if the cap fits, wear it.

NoSleep