Awesome Movies that hardly anyone saw...

I'm going to champion "The Conversation" by Francis Ford Coppola. Gene Hackman is awesome as surveillance expert Harry Caul. This is one of the five movies John Cazale made before dying of cancer (Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfathter II, Dog Day Afternoon, and The Deer Hunter). A very young Harrison Ford is also in the movie.

The movie, while always a critics favorite, gets lost by being the movie made between Godfather and Godfather II during Coppola ascent in the 70's. A movie very much of its time, but still relevant today. Although filmed before Watergate, it was not released until Nixon's resignation and dealt with the themes of paranoia, invasion of privacy, the role of technology in reducing civil liberties, big brother is watching us, etc.
 
I second The Conversation...rightfully nominated for a best pic Oscar back in the day though hardly anyone saw it. A jewel.
 
Completely agree on the last two movies--The Conversation and Local Hero. Cazale had an amazing run and I have always enjoyed the Forsyth movies.

My recommendations are

Patti Rocks -- here is an excerpt of a fair movie review by Edwin Jahiel.

It goes without saying that "Patti Rocks" is not for all audiences, or even for most. Billy's disgusting language and "philosophy" ("it's a man's world, baby" is the mildest thing he says) make it a turn-off. But if an amply forewarned viewer does watch this film and does not walk out prematurely, a great deal of truth surfaces: about men, women and male-female relations; about loneliness, incommunicability; above all the violent reaction of men scared by women as equals.

and

Le Grand Chemin - a French movie from late eighties starring an actor who could be a dead ringer for Bill Murray. The movie is about a 9 year old city boy dumped for the summer to family friends. The acting is superb and the movie understatedly connects the viewer with the characters with its common themes and scenes. There are revelations and growth for all characters in this terrific movie.
 
The Horsemen - 1971

Starred Omar Sharif, Leigh Taylor-Young and Jack Palance. Directed by John Frankenheimmer. Set in Afghanistan, it shows their tribal horse culture before the wars that tore the country apart. Shows an ancient sport called buskashi (imagine polo on a boundary-less field using a balled-up dead calf instead of a ball.

If you haven't seen this movie you've missed a good one.
 
Miller's Crossing is the ****. There's a third-level plot twist that I don't think much of anyone catches; I only did about the 10th time I watched it.

Lonestar = teh awes0me.

Back around 1999, Universal was chugging out a bunch of crap (Patch Adams! Bruce Willis running out the string of his 4 movie contract!), but they managed to put out October Sky... and supported their best movie that year with a marketing campaign that relied on word of mouth. Jake Gyllenhaal, Laura Dern, Chris Cooper... and the dude who played Sherminator in American Pie! Based on a true story, this flick never gets the credit it deserves because not enough people know it exists.
 
Good call on One False Move. Just the other day I went to imdb.com because I haven't heard from the lead actress in a long time. I really though that the movie was going to propel Cynda Williams, but it didn't.
 
"Gone Baby Gone" is a great movie. Great ending that will have you discussing with your spouse for some time after.
 
92 in the Shade; directed by Tom McGuane from his novel, it starred Peter Fonda in the only role I ever saw him in where he was believable. Also Warren Oates, Harry Dean Stanton, Burgess Meredith. The female leads were Elizabeth Ashley and Margot Kidder, one of whom McGuane was married to and the other of whom he was bonking and both of whom were hating each other's guts in real life.

Great chemistry between the various actors and it did squat at the box office.

May be Stanton's oiliest best
 
The lives of others is seconded....unbelievable how people managed under communism/totalitarianism...
 
The Long Hot Summer. Not the one with Don Johnson. The one with Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward (his eventual wife), Orson Welles, Lee Remick, Angela Lansbury, Anthony Franciosa (sp? on all of them). Kicks the living **** out of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
 
Lives of Others is awesome. Before the Devil Knows You're Dead is some of the best acting you will see, but the story is so black you will have to hide all of the sharp instruments before cueing it up.
 
No mention yet of Three Burials of Melquides Estrada.

Great flick that was Tommy Lee Jones directorial debut starring himself, Barry Pepper, Dwight Yoakum and January Jones.
Filmed in/around Van Horn and Big Bend that does a great job portraying the remote nature, rugged beauty and desolation of west texas big bend country.

the film also took home a few awards from the 2005 Cannes film festival: Actor and screenplay
 
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