British Critics Pick Best British Films
by Andre Soares
Total Film magazine recently asked twenty-five British film critics to come up with their choices for the best British films ever made. The result is somewhat surprising, with the 1971 Mike Hodges-directed thriller Get Carter chosen as Britain’s very best movie ever. Other top-ten surprises include Monty Python’s Life of Brian, the James Bond actioner From Russia with Love, and Mike Leigh’s Naked.
Other surprises — not found in the top ten: David Lean’s Brief Encounter (1945) and Great Expectations (1946); Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes (1938) and The 39 Steps (1935), or any other British-made Hitchcock film, for that matter; Alexander Mackendrick’s The Man in the White Suit (1951); Laurence Olivier’s Henry V (1945) and the Oscar-winning Hamlet; John Schlesinger’s Darling (1965) and Sunday, Bloody Sunday (1971); and Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s Black Narcissus (1946) and The Red Shoes (1948). No pre-1945 film made it to the top ten.
The top-ten list:
1. Get Carter (1971)
2. A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
3. Trainspotting (1996)
4. The Third Man (1949)
5. Life of Brian (1979)
6. The Wicker Man (1973)
7. Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
8. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
9. From Russia With Love (1963)
10. Naked (1993)
According to the BBC News, besides Get Carter three other Michael Caine films made it to the top 50: Zulu, The Italian Job, and Alfie (its 2004 remake starring Jude Law will open later this month in the United Kingdom).
The full list will be published in this month’s edition of Total Film.
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