Best Documentaries?

What are your favourite?

Any of the 'Planet Earth' documentaries.

Enjoy a bit of Ray Mears/Bear Gryll's Survival now and again.

Saw one some years ago called Capturing the Friedmans that was excellent about a family accused of child molesting, obviously not the cheeriest of affairs but fascinating none the less.

Like a decent documentary but find a lot of em are a bit dumb, like Supersize me, do we really need a two hour documentary to tell us eating Macdonalds three times a day is probably not too healthy.

Will probably get some stick for this, but I always enjoyed 'Ross Kemp on Gangs.' Some of Louis Theroux's documentaries are fairly interesting from time to time, and my God he doesn't half meet some right freaks.

Refuse to watch anything which follows a so-called (C-list) 'pop star' going about their 'every day life', and can't stand any of the dozens of documentaries following coppers around, either.

Seen every Attenborough, Kemp, and a lot of the Theroux ones. Bruce Parry in the Amazon was good.

Found a website called Documentary Heaven, that's why I wanted some new ones to watch.

Couldn't stand the Kemp ones personally, the subject matter tends to be interesting and the access he gets to them is admirable but he is useless. Lacks the intelligence or insight to do much more than comment on the futility of gang life and also find he gets way too excited when handling guns which I find a little disconcerting.

Anyone seen Shoah? Well recieved but 566! minutes long.

rowley wrote:Couldn't stand the Kemp ones personally, the subject matter tends to be interesting and the access he gets to them is admirable but he is useless. Lacks the intelligence or insight to do much more than comment on the futility of gang life and also find he gets way too excited when handling guns which I find a little disconcerting.

Plus Kemp would get his backside handed to him if Danny Dyer ever lost his rag with the big fat domehead.

I like most WW1 or 2 documentaries. The Second World War in colour was excellent as are many others. Agree that Bruce Parry in the Amazon was good.

There is a very good rugby documentary called The 16th Man which I really enjoyed.

Despite it sounding like something from Truss' Peter North collection, I'm a big fan of "Hoop Dreams". Oscar winning documentary about two young boys plucked from the ghettos of Chicago to play for a rich prep school's basketball team. Very revealing insight into the Amercian sports system and you don't have to like basketball to like the film.

Also like Werner Herzog's documentaries altugh haven't seen the latest one yet (think it's called "The Cave of Forgotten Dreams"). "Grizzly Man" was really good although Grizzly Man was incredibly stupid!

Have seen Grizzly man Superfly, agree it is excellent even though the guy in it is something of a special.

Yeah I've seen Hoop Dreams.

Will take a look at Herzog's, he looks to have a few. His newest, Into the Abyss looks like my sort of thing, but couldn't find it online yesterday.

Damn swear filter.

Best ones I've seen are.
Hoop Dreams, Capturing the Friedmans, Streetfight (about the mayoral elections in New Jersey), Gasland, The Thin Blue Line.

If anyone has Virgin they should check out Current TV which has just run a series called 50 Docs to See Before You Die and have also been showing th films they have listed.

Out of those above StreetFight was the most interesting.

Nearly forgot, the Blue Planet and The World at War are also personal faves.

I tihnk I mentioned it on another thread but Herzog's "Heart of Glass" is the strangest film I've ever seen. Not a documentary but probably defies all classification. Herzog had all of the actors (apart from one) hypnotised during filming and it's pretty distrubing. The film ends with the one non-hypnotised actor fighting an invisible bear!

Jeff, I think "a special" sums up Grizzly Man perfectly. I watched "Into the Wild" recently and I can't help thinking that Alexander Supertramp was also "a special".

Agree with badgerhands - The World at War is brilliant!

New one starting tonight on National Geographic called Nordic Wild looks good. Wild China was good as was Wild Russia, also enjoyed Lost Land of the Volcano, Jaguar and Tiger.

Got Blue Planet on Blu-ray, possibly the best documentary series I've ever seen, though for sentimental reasons I still have a soft spot for childhood favourite - David Attenborough's The Trials of Life, had the whole thing on VHS.

Not technically a documentary but a film telling a real life story - Remember the Titans, love the film and the story is incredibly powerful.

Does Educating Essex count as a documentary?? Been a bit of a guilty pleasure recently.....

Danny Dyer's Dangerous Donuts is about the worst programme on TV, let alone documentaries, really wish one of them would get so wound up with his mockney accent off camera that he'd beat his face to pulp and we'd never be burdoned with him again.

The Galveston Giant wrote:New one starting tonight on National Geographic called Nordic Wild looks good.

TopHat24/7 wrote:

Danny Dyer's Dangerous Donuts is about the worst programme on TV, let alone documentaries, really wish one of them would get so wound up with his mockney accent off camera that he'd beat his face to pulp and we'd never be burdoned with him again.

You're plenty brave on here, mugging Dyer off like a two bob, wouldn't say that to his face, he'd stripe you, you mug.

God Camp is another good one if not a little terrifying.

An absolute blinder that slipped my mind is King of Kong.
About the fight for the world record on Donkey Kong. Sounds dull but had a cast of characters that left me open mouthed in shock.

Like the characters from Bill Murray's Kingpin but real.

Sir. badgerhands wrote:God Camp is another good one if not a little terrifying.

An absolute blinder that slipped my mind is King of Kong.
About the fight for the world record on Donkey Kong. Sounds dull but had a cast of characters that left me open mouthed in shock.

Like the characters from Bill Murray's Kingpin but real.

There is one about a spelling bee that is similar, think it is called Spellbound or something, there are some truly odd folk in the states.

rowley wrote:Saw one some years ago called Capturing the Friedmans that was excellent about a family accused of child molesting, obviously not the cheeriest of affairs but fascinating none the less.

Like a decent documentary but find a lot of em are a bit dumb, like Supersize me, do we really need a two hour documentary to tell us eating Macdonalds three times a day is probably not too healthy.

Capturing the Friedmans is horrific isn't it? It's like watching a slow-motion train wreck. Decent ones I own are Paradise Lost, about the West Memphis Three, Pumping Iron, Auschwitz (the BBC one), Nazis-a Warning from History (BBC), World War 1 in colour, Churchill (narrated by Ian Mckellan, and then there's Blue Planet and Planet Earth.

Others worth a mention are one about Marjoe Gortner, and a couple of geeky ones-Trekkies and The Dungeon Masters, both of which demonstrate just how truly sad and pathetic the fans of those things are.

Oh, and Ross Kemp in Afghanistan is excellent.

Have seen the BBC Nazi ones Balti agree they are excellent, if you are bothered the books that accompany them are worth a read as well.

rowley wrote:

Sir. badgerhands wrote:God Camp is another good one if not a little terrifying.

An absolute blinder that slipped my mind is King of Kong.
About the fight for the world record on Donkey Kong. Sounds dull but had a cast of characters that left me open mouthed in shock.

Like the characters from Bill Murray's Kingpin but real.

There is one about a spelling bee that is similar, think it is called Spellbound or something, there are some truly odd folk in the states.

Spellbound has been on my list for a while.

Kept seeing clips of the kid with no social skills but could spell words that were so cmplicated they looked like they were in Welsh.

Anything by Nick Broomfield is also worth a watch.

Could he spell complicated?

I've not read the books, but that Hitler Book I mentioned a few weeks back is a real cracker. I think I've nearly finished it (I only read on the bus in the mornings and after work), 'cause he's just shot himself. Well worth a read.

Sir. badgerhands wrote:

rowley wrote:

Sir. badgerhands wrote:God Camp is another good one if not a little terrifying.

An absolute blinder that slipped my mind is King of Kong.
About the fight for the world record on Donkey Kong. Sounds dull but had a cast of characters that left me open mouthed in shock.

Like the characters from Bill Murray's Kingpin but real.

There is one about a spelling bee that is similar, think it is called Spellbound or something, there are some truly odd folk in the states.

Spellbound has been on my list for a while.

Kept seeing clips of the kid with no social skills but could spell words that were so cmplicated they looked like they were in Welsh.

Anything by Nick Broomfield is also worth a watch.

Nick Broomfield! I forgot about his Aileen Wuornos documentaries. He's a bit simpering and limp, but the two he did on her are pretty good. She was a real loop-di-loop.

BALTIMORA wrote:I've not read the books, but that Hitler Book I mentioned a few weeks back is a real cracker. I think I've nearly finished it (I only read on the bus in the mornings and after work), 'cause he's just shot himself. Well worth a read.

Well I was considering but since you've just spoilt the end don't think I'll bother Balti.

BALTIMORA wrote:I've not read the books, but that Hitler Book I mentioned a few weeks back is a real cracker. I think I've nearly finished it (I only read on the bus in the mornings and after work), 'cause he's just shot himself. Well worth a read.

Did they leave out the part about him retiring in Argentina and living until the 80s?

Scottrf wrote:Could he spell complicated?

I timed that at 30 seconds for someone to notice that!!

Just not long finished watching the Paradise Lost Documentaries and thought they were excellent, there's a third one due out around January. For even more cheery stuff there's Streetwise, HBO High on Crack Street: Lost Lives in Lowell, HBO America Undercover Junkie Junior, HBO Dope Sick Love which i'll not recommend, or any about the children in Romania, one i watched which i can't remember the name was shocking.

I dunno about the Argentine adventures Scott, Goebbels and his Mrs have yet to poison their kids. It's all happy stuff though!

Jeff-I've not quite finished yet. It could do a Dallas and all turn out to be a dream...

Scottrf wrote:

BALTIMORA wrote:I've not read the books, but that Hitler Book I mentioned a few weeks back is a real cracker. I think I've nearly finished it (I only read on the bus in the mornings and after work), 'cause he's just shot himself. Well worth a read.

Did they leave out the part about him retiring in Argentina and living until the 80s?

Afternoon, ONETWO.

The documentary about that pornstar who lied about her age was pretty interesting, can't remember said pornstar or what the thing was called though

Spellbound is very good (although the Hitchcock film of the same name is better).

I defy anyone watching it to not want to slap the kid that does the robot voice when he's being interviewed.

Complicated, Scott? Can you use it in a sentence please?

coxy0001 wrote:The documentary about that pornstar who lied about her age was pretty interesting, can't remember said pornstar or what the thing was called though

Traci Lords was one, but there was another one too. I'd google it but I'm at work...

The documentary about that pornstar who lied about her age was pretty interesting, can't remember said pornstar or what the thing was called though

Lied how? Was she claiming to be older or younger?

Complicated. C-O-M-P-L-I-C-A-T-E-D. Complicated.

You have just asked me to spell complicated.

superflyweight wrote:

The documentary about that pornstar who lied about her age was pretty interesting, can't remember said pornstar or what the thing was called though

Lied how? Was she claiming to be older or younger?

Older.

superflyweight wrote:

The documentary about that pornstar who lied about her age was pretty interesting, can't remember said pornstar or what the thing was called though

Lied how? Was she claiming to be older or younger?

Younger. Obviously.

coxy0001 wrote:The documentary about that pornstar who lied about her age was pretty interesting, can't remember said pornstar or what the thing was called though

Was that onetwo?

BALTIMORA wrote:

coxy0001 wrote:The documentary about that pornstar who lied about her age was pretty interesting, can't remember said pornstar or what the thing was called though

Traci Lords was one, but there was another one too. I'd google it but I'm at work...

Of Deep Throat fame I believe. EDIT: Just been informed by a workmate that was Linda Lovelace...

And to answer Superfly's question, she was 16 claiming to be 18. Little slut.

She was a horny little devil wasn't she.

Can't remember her name, but Traci Lords rings a bell. Think she got a passport saying she was 18 or something and so started doing pornos even though she was like 15 or something.

Basically every adult/producer etc she'd done films with was liable for being a bad person.

Trust coxy to lower the tone.

Thanks for clearing that up.

Linda Lovelace was the star of Deep Throat. Although, that may not be her real name!!

Scottrf wrote:Trust coxy to lower the tone.

It was a proper documentary!

superflyweight wrote:Thanks for clearing that up.

Linda Lovelace was the star of Deep Throat. Although, that may not be her real name!!

Go on then superfly, enlighten us with your knowledge as you're clearly gagging (ba-dum) to tell us!

I'm here all week!

coxy0001 wrote:
I'm here all week!

Great.