Ace in the Hole - MatthewHunt

Raiders of the Lost Ark
(Steven Spielberg, 1981)
The first in the Indiana Jones series, and a distillation of pure, old-fashioned Hollywood
entertainment for all the family, directed by a master storyteller who creates an easy and
effortless-looking swing for the narrative. Harrison Ford reinforced his Mount Rushmore status
as Indy, the swashbuckling adventurer who must find the Holy Ark of the Covenant.
Ran
(Akira Kurosawa, 1985)
Kurosawa was well into his 70s when the project began shooting; the film-maker's eyesight
was in bad decline, he'd been battling depression, and his wife died during production. Yet
Ran (aka "Chaos") - partly based on King Lear - is undoubtedly the great director's late-career
masterpiece, and something of a paradox: an impeccably orchestrated depiction of moral
pandemonium. Set in 16th-century Japan, the film looks on uneasily as the aging overlord
Hidetora (Tatsuya Nakadai) decides to divide up his kingdom among his three sons. The
youngest son protests and is banished for his impudence, but the lord's real sworn enemy
turns out to be his eldest daughter-in-law. The weather becomes torrential in tandem with the
drama, until Hidetora loses all his senses; Nakadai's soul-scraping performance is just as
stunning to behold as the renowned battle scenes. This is a bleak and pessimistic film, one
that looks back not just on feudal Japan but on the calamitous 20th century itself, finally
stumbling to its end still overshadowed by the threat of nuclear annihilation. The contradiction
at the core of Ran only adds to its primal power: it's a visually magnificent film that exposes
humanity at its ugliest.
Jessica Winter
Rancho Notorious
(Fritz Lang, 1952)
This is a western where the rocks are papier-mache. Who cares? In the hands of Fritz Lang,
it's a bitter revenge story, with Arthur Kennedy and Mel Ferrer as the deadly rivals and
Marlene Dietrich as Altar, who runs a gambling joint up in the hills and keeps the guys in
order.
Rashomon
(Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
Four storytellers deliver contradictory accounts of an alleged rape and murder in Kurosawa's
hugely influential puzzler, which feels almost interactive for its constant engagement of the
viewer's judgment. A disquieting examination of the nature of truth and the fallibility of
memory: the more we see and hear, the less we seem to know.
Re-Animator
(Stuart Gordon, 1985)
Every decade or so a film comes along to give the horror genre a much needed shot in the
face. Based on an episodic tale from HP Lovecraft, Gordon ladles on the gore and black
humour, pulling no punches in either department. Jeffrey Combs gives one of the greatest
demented doctor performances of all time.
Rear Window
(Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
Surveillance classic from the master. Who but Hitchcock could squeeze so much tension from
an incapacitated James Stewart stuck in his apartment with only a telephoto lens and Grace
Kelly to keep him company? As a murder mystery seems to appear out of nowhere from the
everyday routines of the neighbours he spies on, Stewart's paranoia and frustration builds to
a nervous climax.
Rebecca
(Alfred Hitchcock, 1940)