Kurt Russell names the single greatest movie ever made: “You just can’t improve”
Is there such a thing as a perfect movie? It’s a loaded question, but one that’s remarkably easy to answer: it depends on who you ask. Kurt Russell may not have used those words exactly, but he didn’t need to, since he spoke about a film with such reverence that any more superlatives would be overkill.
Some cinephiles are adamant that perfection is an unattainable goal, and that no matter how hard anyone tries, or how good the results are, it’s impossible for a picture to be flawless. On the other side of the coin, there may well be somebody out there who thinks Sex Lives of the Potato Men is the bees’ knees. Hopefully not, but you never know.
Has Kurt Russell ever been in a perfect movie? Again, it’s different strokes for different folks. For those who worship at the altar of John Carpenter, you’d say so, with The Thing, Escape from New York, and Big Trouble in Little China worthy of consideration, even if anyone could argue that they’re more cult classics than masterpieces.
Back in the late 1960s, a few nippers probably thought The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes was the greatest thing they’d ever seen, and some of them might have even grown out of it by now. Russell isn’t usually associated with perfect cinema, although he’s been in his fair share of phenomenal flicks, but he’ll die on the hill that an unadulterated classic is the pinnacle of the art form, setting a bar no other film can reach.
“Casablanca is my favourite film,” he declared. “It’s the most emotionally satisfying film ever made, and has the best dialogue in any movie ever. It’s also the greatest romantic film. I love it because it’s about something, too. In my mind, the message is about people facing their moment of truth. We’ve all been there, or will be there in our real lives.”
His all-time favourite? Check. The most emotionally satisfying he’s ever seen? Check. The greatest screenplay ever written? Check. Thematic meat on its narrative bones? Check. It doesn’t look as though Russell can find any flaws in Casablanca‘s game, and he wasn’t even finished.
“By the way, the people starring in the best movie of all time are as good as it gets,” he continued. “The words they said have never been rivalled by any other film. You just can’t improve on them. Any time I see Casablanca on TV, I’m stuck. I’m going to watch the entire thing.”
The best performances in any movie ever made? Check. An unimprovable picture in every way? Check. A film that he’s unable to avoid and finds himself drawn into every time it catches his eye? Check. Casablanca is ticking an awful lot of boxes, so it’s easy to see why Russell thinks it’s the one and only production that will never be bettered.
Is he right? Michael Caine and many others would say that he is, but that lies in the eye of the beholder. Even if you disagree and don’t think Michael Curtiz’s Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman-starring Academy Award winner for ‘Best Picture’ isn’t the be-all and end-all of cinema, it’s not too far away.
