The 10 most ironic films ever
Irony. Saying one thing and meaning another. It's a great entertainment device, and in the best cases very realistic. There are more than ten, of course, but just picking from major films made throughout History, these are the ten definitive ones.
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- DirectorLeslie NormanStarsRichard ToddLaurence HarveyRichard HarrisIn 1942, a group of British soldiers is sent on a mission in the Malaysian jungle and gets lost into the Japanese controlled zone.The ultimate in irony. Seven Allied soldiers and a Japanese prisoner in World War II, and each of them finds an ironic fate in the Ox Bow Incident of war time.
- DirectorWalter HillStarsBill PaxtonIce-TWilliam SadlerTwo firemen in a burning building get a treasure map - stolen gold church items are hidden in a closed down factory in St. Louis. Once there, they're trapped in by a black gang considering it their territory.While we have a hunch that Lucky isn't lucky, and that the gold will ultimately go to an unlikely place, there is even more irony here, as the search for a snitch never materializes, although it is almost surely Savon.
- DirectorJohn HustonStarsHumphrey BogartWalter HustonTim HoltTwo down-on-their-luck Americans searching for work in 1920s Mexico convince an old prospector to help them mine for gold in the Sierra Madre Mountains.Fitting that the mother of Trespass makes the list. Again, Element number 79 goes to an unlikely place. The three prospectors find their entire existence full of irony, as they try to be ruthless, yet clearly don't want to be.
- DirectorBob FosseStarsLiza MinnelliMichael YorkHelmut GriemA female girlie club entertainer in Weimar Republic era Berlin romances two men while the Nazi Party rises to power around them.A musical that is the ultimate horror film, with the greatest horror scene ever produced (Tomorrow Belongs to Me). Horror against the glitz and carefree stage show back drop.
- DirectorCedric GibbonsJames C. McKayJack ConwayStarsJohnny WeissmullerMaureen O'SullivanNeil HamiltonThe idyllic life of Tarzan and Jane is challenged by men on safari who come seeking ivory, and come seeking Jane as well.We have four main characters. Of these, only Tarzan is the same throughout, never yielding, while in contrast the three civilized characters undergo many changes, and even two of the servants play important parts. What makes it stand out in irony is the villain, one of the most three dimensional ones ever, as hemakes his changes.
- DirectorPaul Thomas AndersonStarsDaniel Day-LewisPaul DanoCiarán HindsA story of family, religion, hatred, oil and madness, focusing on a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.This is not a movie I gave a good review to, but it fits in here, and has good points, basically making a great job out of what inferior movie makers turned into a cliche. A raving lunatic, self righteous and transparent, has an irrational hatred for the character who is most like him.
- DirectorJean-Pierre JeunetStarsSigourney WeaverWinona RyderDominique PinonTwo centuries after her death, a powerful human/alien hybrid clone of Ellen Ripley aids a crew of space pirates in stopping the aliens from reaching Earth.Not a great film, but made purely for irony. The entire basis of this movie is to be "no respector of persons". The survivors are the very people who would be killed in any other action movie, and vice versa. We get the ultimate reverse contrived writing. It's as though someone took a formula script and made it the exact opposite. A different sort of irony.
- DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsJohn TravoltaUma ThurmanSamuel L. JacksonThe lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.If one looks at this as action, it won't look very interesting or ironic, but if one looks at it as a dark comedy, it is extremely ironic. Where is the irony? The title should tell you, and the clues are there, as we see and hear all the background of the seventies-rotary phones, few billboards, clothes lines, the Statler Brothers on the radio, mixed with the nineties. It is the irony of how a kid in the seventies envisions the nineties to be, everyone is a super thief or hit man carrying a gun.
- DirectorMilos FormanStarsJohn SavageTreat WilliamsBeverly D'AngeloClaude Bukowski leaves the family ranch in Oklahoma for New York where he is rapidly embraced into the hippie group of youngsters led by Berger, yet he's already been drafted. He soon falls in love with Sheila Franklin, a rich girl but still a rebel inside.I hate to spoil the outcome, but since the title of this list is "irony", you may as well know. The leader of a group of hippie draft dodgers winds up where you least expect, as does the boy who wants to fight for his country, as does a rich girl. The two heroes chase after the homeliest girl in the film. And then there's the more interesting supporting characters, and the ultimate irony song in the most dramatic film entrance ever with "Easy to be Hard".
- DirectorHenry KingStarsTyrone PowerOrson WellesWanda HendrixAn unscrupulous agent for the Borgias suffers a change of heart when asked to betray a noble count and his much younger, very beautiful wife.The story of the cruel Borgia prince is the story of Machiavellism, which had been clung to ever since as an ideal. Tyrone Power is in the greatest role of his life, ironically as Orsini, which was one of the cruel family names of cardinals who contested the papacy, and Orsini thinks he is true Machiavelli, evil designs under a facade of beauty, but he is the exact opposite, purity under the dissguise of evil.
- DirectorRudolph MatéStarsEdmond O'BrienPamela BrittonLuther AdlerFrank Bigelow, told he's been poisoned and has only a few days to live, tries to find out who killed him and why.HONORABLE MENTION: Bigelow is as mortal as they come. Lost in the drama of life and death as he dies of luminous poisoning for which there is no cure, is thedrama of his life. His roving eye and desire for other women, pitted against his genuine care for Paula. In fact, the character probably sets a record for the number of times he mentions a woman's name (Paula) in the film. The irony of wanting other women, yet wanting the stable life with one woman you care for.