Some Favorite Movies

A Highly Personal, Decidedly Idiosyncratic, List

There’s so much awful news in the world that I thought we could take a break and think about some of our favorite movies. When I think about my all-time favorite movies, what they have in common is that they spoke to me when I first saw them. They were memorable. They touched me emotionally and intellectually.

Movies like “Little Big Man,” “Blade Runner,” “Witness,” “Pale Rider,” “The Best Years of Our Lives,” “Casablanca.”

It might be a character or characters; certain scenes; music. “Blade Runner,” for example, is unimaginable to me without the Vangelis soundtrack -- same with “The Bounty.”

“Gallipoli” has stayed with me. “Room with a View.” I saw these films at an impressionable time in my life.

My favorite film remains “Little Big Man” for the nobility of Chief Dan George’s character and his inspirational embrace of life. My favorite love story is “Pride & Prejudice” with Keira Knightley, which is pitch perfect for romantics. For action films, I never tire of “The Bourne Identity” and “The Matrix.” For a trilogy, it’s hard to beat “The Lord of the Rings” (I read all the Tolkien books as a teen).

All these movies aren’t classics. Some are just good, e.g. “Pale Rider.” But in “Pale Rider” there is one scene that stays with me, plus Clint Eastwood in Westerns is hard to beat. Watch below.

There will be movies I forget, but here’s a “Top 25” off the top of my head.

1. Little Big Man

2. Witness

3. The Best Years of Our Lives

4. Casablanca

5. Bladerunner

6. Pride and Prejudice (2005)

7. Castaway (Tom Hanks has never been better)

8. A Christmas Carol (1951)

9. The Bourne Identity

10. The Matrix

11. The Lives of Others

12. Dr Strangelove

13. Close Encounters of the Third Kind

14. Many good James Bond movies, but if I must pick one: From Russia with Love

15. Testament of Youth

16. It’s A Wonderful Life (brilliant performance by Jimmy Stewart)

17. The Terminator and Terminator II

18. Alien and Aliens

19. Airplane (need more comedies on my list!)

20. Grease (I remember seeing this at the theater as a teenager and leaving happy and energized)

21. Groundhog Day (another movie that energized me; feel-good)

22. Kelly’s Heroes (not your typical World War II movie)

23. Planet of the Apes (with Charlton Heston). Rarely has a movie had a better ending.

24. Seven Days in May (Burt Lancaster is brilliant)

25. Little Women (with Winona Ryder)

Special mention for Room with a View, Pale Rider and The Outlaw Josey Wales, Gone with the Wind, White Heat, Key Largo, The Godfather Saga, Jaws, The Empire Strikes Back, Solaris (Russian edition), Gattaca, The Sweet Smell of Success, Dirty Harry.

I should also mention Gallipoli again, which had a big impact on me when I saw it. And Mad Max and The Road Warrior. Three good films with Mel Gibson.

Also, Master and Commander and Gladiator -- two fine action films.

Oh, and how could I forget: “Starman.” And “Dead Zone.” The ending of “Dead Zone” haunts me to this day. And Jeff Bridges in “Starman” is a revelation. Also brilliant in “Fearless.”

One of my favorite Eastwood films is “Coogan’s Bluff.” Check it out if you haven’t seen it.

I really like Viggo Mortensen. He is brilliant in “A History of Violence” and “Eastern Promises.” (The knife fight naked in a bathhouse is memorable.)

“Solaris” (Russian): I’ve never seen a film that made alien life seem so, well, alien. Different. Not a lovable ET or a monstrous humanoid. And I must mention the original “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”

I must also mention “Slapshot” and “Rollerball,” two movies from the 1970s about sports, but from a very different direction.

Another film I really like from the 1970s: “Three Days of the Condor.”

Another good film: “Contact” with Jodie Foster. I suppose there’s continuity in my “likes”: I go for idealistic films, but sometimes also for caustic ones. “Bob Roberts” is one of the latter and is prescient about the 2016 and 2024 elections.

Office Space (hilarious comedy). Not quite as funny but even more telling: Thank You For Smoking.

I’m not a musician, but I like movies about music. “Whiplash” is terrific. And “Begin Again” will make you feel good about music and friendship.

Field of Dreams

Let the Right One In (2008) — my favorite vampire movie.

Resurrection (1980) Some unforgettable scenes in this movie

Reversal of Fortune

The Right Stuff (perhaps the one movie that best captures flight and the early excitement of the space program).

Sadly, there hasn’t been a “Star Trek” movie that makes my top fifty. Of the “Star Wars” films, only “The Empire Strikes Back” qualifies.

Donnie Darko

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (I love this quirky film)

The Pianist

The Maltese Falcon

There are so many good and meaningful movies.

Readers, what are some of your favorites, maybe ones I’ve forgotten to include?

One unforgettable movie I saw as a kid: The Wizard of Oz. The man behind the curtain has much to teach us, as do Dorothy, the lion, the tin man, and the scarecrow.

And the scariest movie I’ve ever seen: The Exorcist. (Seeing this as a teenager and a Roman Catholic, i.e. when I was a believer, well, it made an impression.)

Lesser known war films I haven’t forgotten: The Boys in Company C, The Big Red One, Come and See. The latter film is maybe the most harrowing war film I’ve seen. Gardens of Stone is an understated film set during the Vietnam War. Go Tell the Spartans is also good. Birdy.

And the original Rambo (First Blood). Before the Rambo mystique and all the sequels, the original First Blood had something valuable to say about PTSD and the difficulties of veterans trained to kill adjusting to “normal” civilian life.

Speaking of Sylvester Stallone, Rocky was a favorite film as a teen.

OK, that’s enough! And I know I’m forgetting some. Readers, please share your favs as well.