Inspired by the 2001 thread - Which movies have best passed the test of time?

I think they call it "holding up" with time.
Some are able to do this better than others. Some are able to do it exceptionally better than others.

Until a couple weeks ago, I would probably have cited Alien as my choice for this thread.

But coincidentally, the 2001 thread which brought this "test of time" thing to mind, went up at about the same time as I watched John Carpenter's The Thing for the first time in almost 15 or 20 years.
The last time I saw it would have been whatever year it first made it to television.

And all I can say is this. If there is anyone else who has not watched this movie since back when it was in theatrical first release or thereabouts, for gods sake run, not walk, to wherever you rent DVD's and make this one your next choice.
I don't know why I was not as blown away by this flick back then. But let me tell you I cannot stop watching it this time. I bought the DVD in a garage sale recently.
I've now watched the movie three times. This is only the 2nd time I've ever watched a movie three times within a span of one week. And I was just as blown away by it on the third viewing as on the first.
This movie hits the bullseye on so many different levels that it's almost a crime.
Suffice to say that this movie makes for the one really glaring flaw in Roger Ebert's record of movie reviewing. With this one he dropped the ball.

But the topic of this thread is the "test of time". And I do believe if ever there was a timeless motion picture this is it. At least that's the case a quarter century later.
How much longer that will still be the case I do not know.

Haha we must have had a Vulcan mind meld.
If you go back into this forum's archives there is a thread which discusses both "Thing" movies and you will find me telling everyone how good the first "Thing" was.
I didn't come right out and pooh pooh the Carpenter movie because I knew how much others held it in such high regard. But building up the 1951 movie was actually my way of saying the remake sucked.
I had exactly the same feeling about the 1982 flick then as when I was watching it in 82. That Carpenter had taken what was a great movie story and thrown a bunch of over the top special effects at it.

Guess what happens when I watched in 2007. Some leprechauns must have gotten into the film cans. Because all of a sudden there aren't a bunch of over the top special effects. There are just exactly the right amount of special effects. And those are as good as the best of special effects we see in movies made in 2007.
AND, once that leprechaun got ahold of it, every other aspect of this movie is now just about perfection.

The moral of this story, lonwolf, is: go watch it in 2007. I think you will be amazed how you will view it differently.

One thing to concentrate on. The soundtrack. It is the most awesome sound accompaning any horror movie ever. Maybe any suspense movie of any kind.

p.s. also the ensemble of great character actors in this flick is another one of it's superlatives.
They all add their own distinctive personalities to the humanity of the movie (helped by the strength of the dialogue they're given which is as good as it gets).
I hated Wilford Brimley until I saw him again in this. And now I'm a Wilford Brimley fanboy.

Lonwolf and Fred,

Yes, I'm wanting to apply this criteria (test of time) to any film from every period.
Because in my opinion there really aren't that many movies which really and truly excel at this.
I think my aforementiond choice is one of the few.

If I didn't take so much ribbing for it here whenever I say it, I would have not used this "test of time" deal to post about The Thing, JBL.
I would have had the cajones to do the thread I really wanted to do...
"I have just seen what may be my favorite film of all time".

But nobody except you woulda believed me anyway.

I'll tell you something else too.
I wish instead of so much cinema being devoted to that other fricking John Carpenter monster, Michael Myers, that the film world would instead have seen fit to tell me one more good story about what happened to the Thing after that camp blew up.
Talk about a cliff-hanger. That's a cliff-hanger on steroids.

I honestly don't know how to explain it. It's a strange sensation. I've experienced this before with music, when I listen to a song which didn't do much for me at first but then blows me away decades later. But if memory serves me correctly, until now I've never had an about face on a movie like this.