ROTTEN TOMATOES: Uwe Boll's Five Favorite Films

Uwe Boll's Five Favorite Films

The Postal director has some surprising classics to share.

by Jen Yamato | May 13, 2008

Sure, he's confronted his critics -- and Michael Bay -- in the most unusual ways. And yes, he's turned a some of your most beloved video game titles into big-screen clunkers (none of which have yet broken 11 percent on the Tomatometer*). Heck, the man who gave us such stinkers as Alone in the Dark, BloodRayne, and Dungeon Siege: In the Name of the King has even agreed to retire if an online petition asking him to simply "stop" reaches one million signatures. But we bet you never expected Uwe Boll to pick veritable classics of cinema as his favorite films of all time...

Read on for Dr. Uwe Boll's five favorite films, as told to RT.

*Boll's latest film, the political satire Postal, currently has a career-high 29 percent Tomatometer.

Apocalypse Now

One of my all-time favorites is Apocalypse Now, because it shows the craziness of war, and you have the feeling that the shooting also was a big adventure. And this is what I like.

What is lost, if you see war movies today -- not like Pearl Harbor, that's one of the worst movies of all time -- but like Mel Gibson's Once We Were Warriors or Soldiers or whatever (2002's We Were Soldiers), all that stuff, you feel it's all fake. You feel they go in the evenings to their hotel rooms and it's all good.

But in Apocalypse Now, you feel like these guys were f---ed!

Dances with Wolves

I love a big adventure; it's one of the reasons I like Dances with Wolves, also on the list. Because I feel that this was also a big adventure [to film] and I like the very realistic feeling, what Kevin Costner did with that movie. I love that movie. It's emotional, and it's real, in a way. I really like it.

[Editor's note: check back for next week's full interview with Uwe Boll as he tells us how he almost got Kevin Costner to join the cast of Dungeon Siege: In the Name of the King!]

A Clockwork Orange

A Clockwork Orange would be [on the list]. Clockwork Orange and Citizen Kane, because they're both all-time favorites, and I think Orson Welles did with Citizen Kane so much interesting stuff for the year that he did it, what nobody else did before. The same with Kubrick for Clockwork Orange. They broke a lot of filmmaking rules and the subject matter is, for me, very interesting.

Citizen Kane

Citizen Kane is, like you see now, P.T. Anderson's There Will Be Blood. It's a good movie; it's the same kind of thing. You follow a crazy character who gets really successful, and in a very bitter way. So I really love those two movies.

It's still one of the biggest crimes of Hollywood that they didn't finance Orson Welles' movies after a while. To have a genius like him, sitting there and trying to get his last 5,000 bucks together to make another movie after he did a movie like this... (Welles' follow-up to Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, was notoriously completed and re-cut without his input.)

The Searchers

Number five...like I said, it always changes. There are a lot of good movies out there [that are] from time to time favorites. I would do The Searchers, from John Ford, with John Wayne. I'm a big Western fan, and this was a great Western.

John Ford is interesting; if you are younger, you don't appreciate John Ford so much. I liked more Howard Hawks and William Wyler Westerns when I was younger, and now, later, if you get a little older, you like John Ford more and more. It's the same with some writers. There are some writers you love when you're 20, and when you're 30 or 35 you think it's completely silly bulls--t what the guys wrote (laughs), but you appreciate other writers.

Tune in next week for our full interview with Uwe Boll, in which the Postal director shares the secret of how exactly he makes money on flicks like Alone in the Dark and Dungeon Siege: In the Name of the King, and answers your submitted questions!

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Celeb:	Uwe Boll

(1-20 of 88 posts) | Reply

N720MF writes:
on May 13 2008 04:38 PM

I didn't know this guy had even seen a movie before.

(Reply to this)

thereign writes:
on May 13 2008 04:39 PM

So obviously, Uwe is from the Bizarro World. It all makes sense now! "These am best films me ever see! Therefore, me try real hard to make movies real BAD just like them!"

I can't even believe he'd comprehend the subtleties found within most of these films, but at least he's got some...SOME...taste.

(Reply to this)

GriffyMurphy writes:
on May 13 2008 04:46 PM

Uwe Boll is one of the largest psychological experiments ever perpetuated. The question of whether people would see a movie that was intentionally designed to lose money has been answered. Unfortunately the mass of animated flesh known as Uwe Boll that was once controlled by a puppetmaster has gained self-awareness and is now unstoppable. Mankind is doomed.

(Reply to this)

jimtrots writes:
on May 13 2008 04:49 PM

Once again, people think that just because someone makes **** movies they can't appreciate good movies. While people like Christopher Nolan, Quenitin Tarantino, and Alfonso Cuaron make it look easy it is hard to make a really great movie. I have to admit though that I have never even heard of Blackwoods or In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Seige Tale.

(Reply to this)

ZiGyStRdUsT writes:
on May 13 2008 04:49 PM

you'd think that if he really liked these movies he would strive to make good movies. How are any of the movies he has listed as his top five any inspiration for his own debauchery?

(Reply to this)

Bartimaeus writes:
on May 13 2008 04:57 PM

I Love Uwe Boll, his character,I think he's really funny and he should try documentaries/mockumentaries I think He'd be good at that

(Reply to this)

Brad 3000 writes:
on May 13 2008 04:58 PM

Ewe Boll ROCKS! Seriously I have to admire the heck out of him. His end product may well be terrible but he has tenacity in spades and he gets things done. Screw all the film geeks in their parents basements whining about this guy. Do you know how bloody hard it is to get a movie made? Do you have any idea how complex and daunting the process of film making is? Sure he's not actually any good, but he's figured out a way to get it done. I haven't figured that out yet and he has, so really, how can I diss him? He's doing better than me. And he's doing better than most of you too.

(Reply to this)

Jen Yamato writes:
on May 13 2008 05:05 PM

In reply to this comment (#1734116)
I'm with you, Bartimaeus. Even if his movies are not so good, you can't help but admire his sheer ballsiness. And, having met him twice now, I can attest that Uwe Boll is a smart dude - and a fascinating conversation partner.

(Reply to this)

eldudarino writes:
on May 13 2008 05:14 PM

im sure im not the first to mention it but uwe boll reminds me of ed wood. somebody so in love with movies but can't manage to direct anything even remotely similar to a descent film.

btw the searchers is a racist pos.

(Reply to this)

Bruce Campbell writes:
on May 13 2008 05:20 PM

The scariest thing is that Ed Wood was a huge Orson Welles fan.

40 years from now Tim Burton is going to make a biopic about him. Who c/w/should play Uwe Boll?

(Reply to this)

jokerboy1991 writes:
on May 13 2008 05:22 PM

In reply to this comment (#1734149)
Lol that would be ausome. For someone who makes shi.tty movies he sure likes the best movies.

(Reply to this)

Jen Yamato writes:
on May 13 2008 05:24 PM

In reply to this comment (#1734116)
Bruce, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think Stephen Dorff (in many, many years) might look kind of like Uwe. Although Uwe's not as filled with rage as Dorff.

(Reply to this)

Jimbo93 writes:
on May 13 2008 05:25 PM

What does it say about modern filmmaking that your favorite movies can be great and your own movies can be so terrible?

(Reply to this)

jerseycajun writes:
on May 13 2008 05:28 PM

All this proves is that one can appreciate good art while being completely incapable of producing it yourself.

I like the line about "Pearl Harbor" though.

Perfect byline we'll never see: "Even Ewe Boll thinks it's crap!"

(Reply to this)

bat-fink writes:
on May 13 2008 06:12 PM

Anyone else think that the photo above of Uwe Boll looks like Terry Gilliam?

Ahh thats it! It is Terry Gilliam! And Uwe Boll is a python character he is pretending to be, and all his Uwe Boll films are just a big gag. Its a social experiment he is conducting on us to see if we find it funny or something. Well Gilliam, I love your usual films, bot sure about this stunt though.

Make Jabberwocky 2 instead!

(Reply to this)

witherwings writes:
on May 13 2008 06:12 PM

I don't think he really likes these movies. I think he thinks he likes them because the greats do. If he grew up in a cave and was shown 100 random movies, I don't think he would've picked these five.

(Reply to this)

idontgetit writes:
on May 13 2008 06:18 PM

In reply to this comment (#1734092)
yeah, now there is no excuse.

(Reply to this)

Project2501 writes:
on May 13 2008 06:35 PM

I'd been meaning to sign that petition... I want to do my part to make sure that his future films never see the light of day, so that my unborn children can grow up in a Boll free world.

(Reply to this)

Hamboner writes:
on May 13 2008 06:45 PM

Yeah, these are kind of generic answers to the "what's your favorite movie" question and for most of them his rationale is "It looks like they had a hard time making it, so its good."

I like the guy, but I don't think this proves anything about having taste in movies. If anything, someone who shoots out standards like this without any odd or random entries is just trying to sound smarter than they are.

It's like if I said: the Godfather, Metropolis, Dr. Strangelove, or any other of the standard "best film ever" contenders. You'd think I was a pretentious tool. Anyone's real list of favorites will have some odd ones thrown in there. I like movies that have people with superpowers.

And breasts.

(Reply to this)

omelette writes:
on May 13 2008 06:53 PM

I have yet to see a Uwe Boll film. Maybe that's why I don't hate him, I actually think he's really funny. It's amusing to watch everyone bash him to death, he doesn't even seem to care that he gets so much hate.

(Reply to this)

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