Top 5 – Movie Trilogies

Posted on by Kevin Wozniak

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Over the last few weeks, I have been focusing on watching film series.  Whether it’s a trilogy or a six-film saga, I’m trying to run through different series a day.  I have watched a number of great trilogies, some for the first time and some were long-needed rewatches.  It is because of this that I needed to update my picks for the greatest movie trilogies ever.  This was a tough, tough list to make, but some of the trilogies I recently watched deserved a spot on this list.  I easily could have made a list of ten, but that would be too easy.  Here are my picks for the top five movie trilogies of all-time.

 

 

 

 

5 – THE GODFATHER 

  • The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
  • The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
  • The Godfather Part III (Francis Ford Coppola, 1990)

The Godfather would probably be the greatest trilogy of all-time had the third one not been such a disappointment.  The Godfather and The Godfather Part II are two of the greatest films ever made, capturing the family and business turmoil of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) and Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando/Robert De Niro).  The duo of films could have survived on its own, but director Francis Ford Coppola was in such financial strain, he needed a hit and made Part III.  The film by itself is not bad.  It’s actually a rather good movie and does end the series pretty well.  It added a new level of remorse to Michael and really humanized him from the monster he ended Part II on.  However, compared to two American classics, the movie fails miserably.  It is this inconsistency in quality and makes The Godfather Trilogy a great one, but not the best.

  • BEST MOVIE – THE GODFATHER 

 

 

4 – THE LORD OF THE RINGS

  • THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING (Peter Jackson, 2001)
  • THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS (Peter Jackson, 2002)
  • THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING (Peter Jackson, 2003)

I saw all the Lord of the Rings films when they came out in theaters and I was not a fan of them at all.  I respected things about them, like the scale of movie and the Battle of Helms Deep in Two Towers, but overall, I thought the movies were boring and not for me.  I recently gave the trilogy a rewatch and boy, was I wrong.  This is an exceptional trilogy and an astonishing achievement in storytelling and scale.  Peter Jackson, who co-wrote and directed all three films, knew exactly the film he wanted to make and his vision is really what makes this trilogy successful.  The action is spectacular and this is a technically astounding film, with top-notch make-up, visual effects, costumes, cinematography, and score.  The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is the definition of a towering achievement.

  • BEST MOVIE – THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING

 

 

3 – THE ORIGINAL STAR WARS 

  • Episode IV: A New Hope (George Lucas, 1977)
  • Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980)
  • Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand, 1983)

Star Wars would probably be number one on most people’s lists, but it ends up with the bronze medal here, as much as it pains me.  What more is there to say about this iconic trilogy?  The story of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) becoming the greatest Jedi in all of the galaxy while going through Darth Vader and the rest of the Imperial Army is as legendary as movie plots get.  The special-effects were ahead of its time, the characters are classic, and the twists are some of the best ever on screen.  I put this at number three because of the emotional attachment of the top two.  Yes, Darth Vader revealing himself as Luke’s father was a sucker punch, but that’s really the only true emotion in the movie.  The top two trilogies affected me more on a personal and emotional level, something no Star Wars movie has ever done (Han Solo dying in Episode VII is the closest).  With that being said, this is flawless filmmaking and storytelling and a true icon of cinema.

  • BEST MOVIE – EPISODE V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

 

 

2 – THREE COLORS TRILOGY

  • BLUE (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1993)
  • WHITE (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1994)
  • RED (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1994)

I had always known of the Three Colors Trilogy, as my favorite film critic ever, Roger Ebert, ranked the trilogy as number five on the Best Films of the 1990’s.  Not just one film, the entire trilogy.  Much like most of Ebert’s opinion on film, he wasn’t wrong.  Krzysztof Kieslowski’s stunning trilogy is a study on life and human condition.  Split into three colors, Blue, White, and Red (the colors of the French flag) each movie represents what that color represents on the French flag, yet also brings up questions and situations that we face in everyday life.  In Blue, we watch as a woman (masterfully played by Juliette Binoche) tries to get over the sudden death of her husband and daughter.  In White, a down-on-his-luck Polish immigrant (Zbigniew Zamachowski) tries to get revenge on his wife after she divorces him.  In Red, we watch a model (Irène Jacob) build a relationship with a judge (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who is keen on spying on people’s lives.  Each film has a different look, with their color representing the pallet of the film, and each film has their own theme, yet together, the Three Colors Trilogy looks at the human condition and makes us think about our own lives.  Why do we meet the people that we do?  How do we handle trauma and sadness?  Why do bad things happen to us?  The Three Colors Trilogy is a trilogy you will be thinking about days, weeks, years after you’ve them.

  • BEST MOVIE – RED 

 

1 – THE BEFORE TRILOGY

  • Before Sunrise (Richard Linklater, 1995)
  • Before Sunset (Richard Linklater, 2004)
  • Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, 2013)

Far and away the most underrated and under-appreciated trilogy in the history of cinema, The Before Trilogy is storytelling at its absolute best.  Before he made one of the most ambitious films ever in Boyhood (2014), writer/director Richard Linklater gave us one of the most ambitious trilogies ever.  The Before Trilogy centers around an American named Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and a French woman named Céline (Julie Delpy) and their relationship over 18 years.  In Sunrise, they randomly meet on a train in Europe and during a layover in Vienna, spend an entire day together getting to know each other by talking about life, art, and politics, and they eventually growing feelings for each other during this day.  They reluctantly go their separate ways and we meet them again nine years later in Sunset, where Jesse and Céline, in another single day, discuss life over the last nine years and rekindle all of there previous feelings, which leads to a pitch perfect open ending.  The trilogy concludes with Midnight, where Jesse and Céline are now married and vacationing together, only to be going through some serious marriage issues that boils over on one fateful day.  Linklater does a masterful job of letting us into Jesse and Céline’s lives.  We are completely engrossed when they’re on screen, and when the movies are over, we wonder where they are going and what their lives are until they meet again.  Hawke and Delpy give career-defining performances and become these characters.  This trilogy is compelling, funny, sweet, moving, grand in scale, yet as intimate in its story.  Linklater is true master of of cinema and this trilogy is his crowning achievement and the cinema’s finest trilogy.

  • BEST MOVIE – BEFORE SUNSET 

 

 

 

 

 

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