This film was among the nominees for the American Film Institutes's 10 Top 10 - the ten best films in ten different genres. Think it has a shot at winning?
You can find the complete lists of sci-fi and fantasy nominees here: http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/2008/02/07/afi-nominees-the-best-sci- fi-and-fantasy-films
Wasn't it Groucho Marx who said that he wouldn't join any club that would have him as a member? I think it was.
On that note....I think it is futile to hang on the evaluation by anal retentives and extremists....you like what you like. Make up your own list for your ownself. Just don't look at some list that other people have made and think it means anything.
Whatever those AFI apes think is the best this or the best that does not affect MY tastes one way or the other. It shouldn't yours.
Do I think Beast From Twenty Thousand Fathoms has a shot? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, cause I don't smoke crack. Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE,LOVE, LOVE that big ole Rhedosaurus and I have my Beastie dvd ( "I pick my teeth with it" ) But the smart money is on DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (I love that movie too but I also love the antithesis of it, THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD).
Dinosaur movies are for kids...and I oughta know 'cause I am a middle aged kid and I decided long ago not to "grow up"! And I love me some dinosaur movies....even the crappy ones where they are portrayed by handpuppets barely one step above Sherry Lewis fisting a sock puppet lamb!
"What d'ya think I am......balmy?"
http://www.woodywelch.com
I don't think of these lists as signs of quality so much as signs of acceptance. Once upon a time, it would be considered "ridiculous" for something like BEAST to be taken seriously. It was a B-movie; that's all - something for sci-fi geeks but not for real movie lovers.
The fact that the title is even listed among the AFI nominees shows that the tide has changed at least a little. Of course, it would be easier to get excited about is inclusion if there were not so many questionable titles on the list.
Well the Beast is an important film, it kick started the monster movie genre. Wasn't the first (King King of course which is 40 something on the complete lists YAY!), but it was the first to really make it popular and more mainstream.
shareI think "The Beast" is the best dinosaur film of the 1950's but far from the best science fiction film of that era (THEM, which it inspired for the following year, has a much better script and more solid performances.) Still, when the Rhedosaurus eats the cop....that is monster movie gold!!!!
http://www.woodywelch.com
I saw BEAST a year or two ago - for the umpteenth time but the first time on the big screen. It does hold up. It's got some moody atmosphere - it's not boring when the monster is not on screen. And the death of the paloentologist is, weirdly, funny and horrible.
shareA lot of the dialogue in the film is quite good (there were several writers) but I loved the Paleontologist's last words, describing the beast as anyone in that capacity would do....the dorsal spine arrangement being bi-lateral and not singular....the cateleveric clavicle.....
But we never found out what "the most astonishing thing about it is....."
I suppose the most astonishing thing about the beast is that its jaws were big enough to eat a diving bell, crunchy on the outside with a gooey center made up of a Paleontologist and a Navy flunky.
Gulp!
http://www.woodywelch.com