As of late, one thing I've been doing a lot of is watching movies. My fiancee and I love to watch ridiculous amounts of movies, good, bad, and often ugly.
One thing I've noticed is that for many genres, the majority of the canon is utterly pointless. This doesn't just apply in movies, but in television, music and other media too, but basically, it seems to me like in a lot of situations, there is one definitive example of the classic. Or at least, to me, the best of its kind. And it means that anything that came after it is redundant, because nothing will ever better it, no matter what.
Examples - and more will follow, as I can never come up with any when I need to such as times like this.
Jimi Hendrix - All Along The Watchtower - This is the cover to end all covers. Now, I'm not being so ridiculous as to say that no-one should ever cover anything again following this. I'm not even saying no-one should cover Bob Dylan again. I'm a massive Dylan fan and covers of his work are often great, and often... not. What I'm saying is that people should stop covering 'All Along The Watchtower.'
Hendrix turned this song on its ear, giving it a ridiculous guitar solo, awesome production and making it one of the defining songs of the 1960s. 9/10 montages of the 1960s will be soundtracked by this. It was such a classic cover that even Dylan himself now plays his version a bit more like Hendrix's.
This hasn't stopped people like Paul Weller and U2 trying to cover it again, and it's totally irrelevant. Indeed on the latter, Bono, that colossal idiot, actually tried to add more lyrics to it. Adding more lyrics to a song by someone referred to as the greatest lyricist of all time on a regular basis? That's just stupid.
When Harry Met Sally - I touched upon this in my last post (has it really been three months???) but there is no romantic comedy that is as good as this one. There just isn't.
Twenty times a year, a new romantic comedy will come out - usually directed by Richard Curtis - and you know who it's going to end. They get together. Obviously. There's no suspense, no investment, no twist, no interest. Who cares?
When Harry Met Sally is in many ways the same as those other films. Without giving away any spoilers, everybody knows how these things end up. But it is just flawlessly written from front to back. The dialogue is razor sharp, the characters all act like one would in real life, not like characters in a movie. There are countless witty observations on love and lovemaking, and both Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan turn in career-best performances as their respective characters.
It is simply a magnificently written film that renders any other romantic comedy pointless. No other film could observe so insightfully, no other film could have you as invested emotionally, and no other rom-com (which are really more com-roms) will ever be as funny. The vast quotability of especially Crystal as Harry is unequalled within its field. See this film, because even if you're single and bitter (as both characters are for a lot of the film) you will find something to love about it.
As I think of more examples, they shall be posted!
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