Greatest Of The Modern Age

Our list of the 10 greatest directors of the last 30 years.

Critics of Hollywood often decry the lack of quality roles for women as a major failing of a male-dominated industry. I beg to differ. Not only are there plenty of good quality roles for women (never mind that quality roles for the fairer sex are on the increase thanks to sexual equality!) but the quality of actresses to play them is also on the up and up.

As part of our Greatest of The Modern Age series, this particular list has been perhaps the most difficult to compile. Choosing, out of the thousands of films released since 1980, the ten best cinematic moments, has been one of the hardest top 10 lists I’ve been involved in. The communal moments in film, where an audience is stunned, shocked or simply entertained by some of cinema’s most astonishing scenes; be it dramatic, funny or thrilling, they’re moments that stand apart from the others, often standing apart from the very films they appear in. Mention the words “the shower scene” and you go straight to Psycho. Mention “Warm apple pie” and you get that mental image of Jason Biggs thrusting himself into a desert on his kitchen table in American Pie. Mention “the chariot race” and you go straight to Ben Hur. Moments in cinema that transcend the medium and enter the pop culture zeitgeist. That’s what we’re chasing here. We have cast our eye across the many varied film moments since 1980, and we think we’ve come pretty close to an unalterable list of the very best of moments in film in the last 30 years.

Great films are often so due to the characters appearing in them – the Good Guy, the Bad Guy, the Fair Maiden In Distress; archetypal characters and the unique, often strike a chord with audiences to almost become larger than the films they appeared in. This list represents our choices for the greatest characters in film over the last 30-odd years – a list which was no mean feat to put together. Thousands of famous characters from hundreds of thousands of films, all with varying degrees of popularity. Often, a character in a film becomes part of the pop-culture lexicon, a touchstone for a generation, if you will. We’ve chosen 10 characters in film that, in one form or another, have become cultural icons of our time.

When you think of great films, quite often their greatness is established by one of three things – a great performance, a great scene, or, in this case, a great line. Dialogue makes or breaks a film, and some of the lines below truly made the films they appeared in; they’re memorable, repeatable (although not always in esteemed company) and eminently classic – they’re the greatest film lines of the last 30 years.

In the years since the early 80’s, cinema techniques and technology have come an incredibly long way. Today, we celebrate that advancement by giving you our choices for the top 10 advances in technology and craft for the film format. It’s been tough going, but I think you’ll agree with the majority of our choices. We’ve considered everything from new sound technology, new film formats and even, yes, even the venerable internet, all seeking to influence the way people watch, make and think about film. This Modern Age of Cinema list includes technology developed (or significantly improved) since 1980.

While stars of the bygone era, names like Shirley Temple, Burt Lancaster, Clark Gable, Rita Hayworth and others may have faded from the forefront of our social conscience, due mainly to the passing of time and the innocence of youth, a youth more obsessed with Justin Bieber than James Dean, the stars of the modern era have, and can, reach a global audience unlike any in history before now. Whereas Hollywood of the 30’s seemed like a fairytale time by today’s standards, nowadays, stars run their own shows and have such a social presence thanks to online media and saturation TV coverage, it’s impossible to not see them every day. Which begs the question: if the stars of today had lived back in the heyday of Hollywood, alongside the greats of cinema, who would be the biggest and the best? It’s like equating apples and oranges, I know, but I wanted to take a chance and try and sift through the smorgasbord of superstars getting about today and put together a definitive list of the ten best actors and actresses living today. I realize it’s a mission fraught with danger and controversy, but here at fernbyfilms.com, we’re all about danger and controversy. Okay, perhaps not exactly all about it, but we don’t mind stoking the flames of fan passion from time to time.