In terms of conventions, film noir can be recognised by the darker shades of grey and blue which differ from the more clear cut black and white images. The colours aim to convey a despondant, eery, dark and decaying feel which is a direct result of the moral state of post world war 2 society. Typically, film noir was applied to the edgy "hard-boiled" sub-genre of crime fiction which separated it from its counterpart within the crime fiction genre known as "cosy" or "intuitionist" crime fiction (think of Agatha Christie novels or Gosford Park) However, other films such as Sunset Blvd. have been recognised as film noir whilst not belonging to the detective film category.

The protagonist is usually an anti-hero, a tough, hard-living, hard-talking but morally untouchable guy whose goal is to survive in his corrupt world without being corrupted himself. The presence of a femme fatale to tempt the protagonist is another common convention of the style of filmaking.

Another convention of film noir is the inclusion of a voice over. Whilst, strictly speaking, it is not essential (The Big Sleep is a typical example of film noir but does not use a voice over) they are often needed to help explain and unravel the often labrythine plots of the classic detective films.

I would definately classify The Gunfighter as film noir.

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Oh it burns it burns!

Horror:
1. Wrong Turn
2. Signs
3. Cabin Fever
4. Saw
5. Ravenous
6. 28 Days Later
7. Hellraiser (Original...all others after sucked)
8. and 9. Blair Witch 1+2 (Most people will find this funny Im guessing)
10. Jeepers Creepers (Another most will snub their nose at. I think its great)

Comedy:
1. A Night At The Roxbury
2. Half Baked
3. Big Daddy
4. Harold+Kumar Go To White Castle
5. Super Troopers
6. Happy Gilmore
7. What About Bob?
8. Head Of State
9. Malibu's Most Wanted
10. Detroit Rock City

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www.myspace.com/sinistergnj

Adventure Top 10:

Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Last Crusade
Temple of Doom
Cutthroat Island
The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Mask of Zorro
The Three Musketeers (1993)
The Count of Monte Cristo (2002)
The African Queen
The Goonies

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Oh it burns it burns!

War:

Schindler's List
Saving Private Ryan
Apocalypse Now
Glory
Platoon

Thriller:

Seven
Red Dragon
Enemy of the State
The Fugutive
The Bourne Identity

Sci/fi:

Star Wars
The Matrix
Minority Report
Terminator
Predator

Horror:

Alien
The Shining
Scream
The Excorist
Evil Dead

Drama:

The Green Mile
Cold Mountain
Mystic River
21 Gram
American History X

Comedy:

Forrest Gump
The Garden State
Meet the Parents
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
I Heart Huckabees

Fantasy:

The Lord of the Rings
Spiderman
The Wizard from Oz
Donnie Darko
King Kong

Action:

Face/Off
Die Hard
Gladiator
The Rock
Beverly Hills Cop

Adventure:

Indiana Jones
Jurrasic Park
The Mummy
Robin Hood:Prince of Thieves

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Epics (not technically a genre but anywho...)

Gone With the Wind
Giant
Lawrence of Arabia
LOTR
The Ten Commandments
Braveheart
The Godfather
Once Upon a Time in America
Star Wars
Titanic

Drama (this was a hard one, even though Gone With the Wind and Giant are two of my all time favourite dramas I’ve omitted them from this list because I already put them in my top ten for epics)

The Shawshank Redemption
A Streetcar Named Desire
Sunset Blvd.
American Beauty
Girl, Interrupted
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To Kill A Mockingbird
Million Dollar Baby
Little Women
Forrest Gump
Good Will Hunting

(I know that’s 11 but seriously I couldn’t pick which one not to include…don’t make me do it!)

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Oh it burns it burns!

How could you leave out High Noon and The Wild Bunch?
Mine would go ...

High Noon
Unforgiven
The Wild Bunch
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
For a Few Dollars More
A Fistful of Dollars
Open Range
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Dances With Wolves

and.... I havn't seen enough westerns to really fill it out any more.
But damnit, The Wild Bunch and High Noon should be on it.

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Recommended.

I, Claudius
Tiberius: "Rome deserves you. I'm going to nurse you like a viper in her bosum."
Caligula: "Is that a joke, uncle?"
Tiberius: "Not yet, but it will be."

I'll start with my top 10 in Horror:

The Bride of Frankenstein
The Black Cat (1934)
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
The Haunting (1963)
Eyes Without A Face
Isle of the Dead
The Thing
Black Christmas (1974)
The Others
An American Werewolf in London

Great! You are clearly a man of taste.

There's not one of your choices I wouldn't endorse. I'm especially delighted to see I'm not the only fan of Black Christmas.

If you look down the page you'll see we held a poll to decide on best horror movie some months back. I fought hard for Theatre of Blood myself.

Oh. I'm assuming you mean the Kenneth Tobey Thing, not the John Carpenter remake.

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I'm guessing he means the Carpenter version

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I'm not usually a betting man, but . . .

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