If
you've been following along here (of course you have), or have ever
met me in person, you have probably guessed what my all-time favorite
movie is. You may have been curious what the other members of the top
9 are. Now's you're chance to learn!
To
heighten the “interest” or “excitement”, I've decided to
“build up” to the “climax”.
10. Cars
The
newest movie on this list, Pixar's “Cars” hit the theaters in the
summer of 2006. I remember going with a group from our adult Sunday
school class to see a flick that (like all Pixar movies), had been
advertised with a trailer that told us nothing as to what the movie
would be about. So I went because friends had invited me and … the
next day I took my sons to see it. And then I think I saw it at least
one more time in the theater and bought it the day it came out on
DVD. The visuals were (and still are) amazing, there were a slew of
quotable lines (of both the pithy and humorous variety) but it was
the story that really won me over. Self-centered Lightning McQueen
gets stuck on Route 66 in Hillbilly Hell and finds humility,
friendship and—except that they're all cars—humanity.
“I'm
a pre-cision instrument of speed and aeromatics.”
Am I
saying there hasn't been a movie this good in the last 11 years? Yes.
Yes I am.
9. The Great Waldo Pepper
Directed,
produced and co-written by George Roy Hill (who actually has another
movie on this list: “Funny Farm” [#50]), it's the story of the
second-best pilot to come out of World War One. When the movie
starts, we find Waldo hopping from town to town in his bi-plane,
giving rides to locals (for cash) and telling stories of what it was
like to fly in the great war. He especially likes to tell about the
time he had Ernst Kessler—the greatest German pilot—in his
sights, but his guns jammed. Meanwhile, Waldo and his friends (and
competitors) are determined to be the first pilot to complete an
outside loop—if the newly formed FAA will let them stay up in the
air.
Look for a very unconvincing mannequin to make a cameo appearance as a young Susan Sarandon.
“Go
get 'im Waldo!”
8. Jeremiah Johnson
This
movie only has about fifty lines, but almost every one of them is
quotable. “March is a muddy month down below.” “Winter's a long
time goin' this high up.” “Elk don't know how many feet a horse
have!” and “Some say you're dead because of this. Some say you
never will die, because of this.” I could go on and on. “I told my
mam and pap I was gonna be a mountain man. They acted like they was
gut shot!” See? Once started, I can't stop. Another one of those
movies where there's hardly a wasted shot. And so much beautiful
scenery it's like taking a 2 hour vacation just to watch it.
“Hawk,
headin' for the Musselshell. It'd take me two weeks ridin' to get
there and he'll be there in … hell, he's there already.”
7. Star Wars – The Empire
Strikes Back
Very
few sequels live up to their progenitor, but “Empire” came closer
than any other sequel in movie history. From the snow-covered plains
of Hoth to the snake-infested swamp of Dagobah and the wispy clouds
of Bespin, this one picked up right where the first one left off
stylistically and action-wise (give or take a few years, not like the
fifteen minute gap between “Rogue One” [#15] and “A New Hope”
[#4]). Rather than just recreating the characters, “Empire”
allowed the characters to grow and change.
Now,
why was Luke any competition at all to Vader in their lightsabre
duel? Did the light side of the force exude some kind of dampening
field that slowed Vader down? Was Vader just getting old? Or maybe,
deep down, Vader didn't actually want to kill his son?
“I
know.”
6. Snowball Express
My
favorite Disney movie ever! Dean Jones plays Johnny Baxter, a New
York insurance guy who inherits a hotel in Silver Hills, Colorado
(portrayed by Crested Butte, CO) so he quits everything in NY and
heads west, reluctant family in tow. Once in Silver Hills, they find
that the hotel is just above a shambles and the local banker
would—for reasons unknown—like to get the hotel from Baxter. Even
though this movie was made after Walt himself passed away, it's
filled with the humor he was famous for. A chase scene, a couple
tear-up scenes, a family that sticks together. You could call it
formulaic, but this is one of those cases where the formula comes out
just right, like that one “cake from a box mix” that turned out
better than all the others.
“I
need a bank loan.”
“You
caught me at a bad time.”
5. The Natural
Robert
Redford's third movie in my top ten and my second-favorite baseball
movie of all time. Roy Hobbs, “the best there ever was”, gets
sidetracked on the way to greatness by a crazy lady with a gun. Years
later, before he's too old (a marker he has already passed in the
minds of the coaches) Roy shows up in the dugout for the New York
Knights, a “dead from the neck up ball team”. It takes a while,
but eventually the coach is reluctantly forced to put Roy in the
lineup and history is made. Loosely based on the Bernard Malamud book
by the same name, but with a way
more upbeat ending, my wife and I watch this movie every year,
usually near World Series time.
Randy
Newman (“Short People”) composed the score for two of the movies
in my top 10: this and “Cars”. Both are soundtracks I listen to
frequently—especially while driving.
“Don't
look back, Max! You should never look back!”
“I
think we all have two lives: the one we learn with, and the one we
live with after that.”
4. The Lord of the Rings – The
Fellowship of the Ring
When
this movie came out, I was 36 years old and had read The
Lord of the Rings
probably ten times. I didn't think any movie could do justice to the
books, but I decided to give it a try. The only actor in the movie
who looks anything like how I pictured him in the books is Sean Astin
as Samwise Gamgee, and Frodo is no
where near
what I pictured, but THIS MOVIE BLEW ME AWAY!! I still love it and I
still watch it at least once a year (as well as read the books
approximately every other year)—which then leads to watching the
other 5 movies, usually within the next 5 weeks.
There
are some changes from the books, but it's also amazing how much of
the books Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Philippa Boyens included. So
much of the dialogue in this movie (and the other two in the LOTR
trilogy) is directly from the books—even if sometimes it's lifted
from a different part of the book from where it appears in the
movie(s).
“I
don't suppose we'll ever see them again, Sam.”
“We
may, Mister Frodo, we may.”
3. Star Wars – A New Hope
1977
and I went to see this movie I had never heard of on the first day it
appeared in Abilene, TX, because my sister and her husband had seen
it a couple days before in California and told my parents they
thought I would like it. Like it? I was enthralled! I ate it, slept
it, breathed it. I've read most of the “Star Wars” novels, all
of the making of books, hundreds of the comic books, watch the other
movies (and TV shows) regularly … but the first one is still the
best.
For
better and worse, this movie changed the movie-going experience in a
myriad of ways. The special effects, the toys, the first run that
stayed in the theater for a year in some places. All things we're
used to now (except for lasting that
long in the theater), but were a new phenomena back then. And it all
comes down, really, to the story: Young man makes his way into the
world, meets some unlikely friends, and deals the decisive blow in
the battle against evil.
I
would also like to point out something Lucas and company did here
(that I should have mentioned in conjunction with “Return of the
Jedi”) that so many other sci-fi franchises have never caught on
to: Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher) was presented as smart first and
pretty second. Didn't even get around to sexy until the third movie.
A standard (and annoying, to me) trope of almost all other sci-fi
franchises is to establish the females as sexy first, then surprise
us later with smart. Kudos to George and Carrie for doing it right.
“I
think you overestimate their chances.”
2. Field of Dreams
When
I heard that a movie was coming out based on the book Shoeless
Joe
by WP Kinsella, I called my then-fiance and said we ought to go see
it. She had never heard of either the movie or the book, and when I
described it to her she was pretty dubious. “A guy builds a
baseball diamond in his corn field and dead ball players come back to
play on it?” But she went (probably just because she loved me) and
we both fell in love with the 2nd-greatest movie of all time. I would
see it several more times in the theater (at least once more with
her, and once with my best man on the night before my wedding) and I
couldn't wait to buy the VHS tape, and then the DVD.
I
think of movies in terms of color palates somewhere in the back of my
mind, and “Field of Dreams” moreso than most: green. But not just
any green. The green of an outfield on a summer's day. The green of
cornstalks taking the place of an outfield fence. The green of spring
and renewal itself.
An
almost perfect movie that some have tried to read deep spiritual
meaning into, I think it clicks for me because it's really just about
fathers and sons playing catch. All else—what's in the corn? Is it
heaven?—is subsumed to the simple picture of a father playing catch
with his kids.
“You
guys are guests in my corn!!”
1. It’s a Wonderful Life
THE greatest movie ever made and the only item that deserves
consideration if a new Council of Nicea ever convenes to discuss
adding to the canon, “It's a Wonderful Life” is Frank Capra's and
Jimmy Stewart's masterpiece (heck, it's cinema's masterpiece). What can I tell you about it that you
don't already know? George Bailey (Stewart) is the brightest young
man in Bedford Falls, but it looks like he'll never get out of
his hometown. Every time he tries, he gets sucked back in. He's got
a great (and beautiful) wife (Donna Reed), four sweet kids, and a
house that barely leaks anymore, but he feels like a failure.
Intervention of the divine nature comes George's way one Christmas
Eve and George finally realizes just how much his life—and any
life—is worth.
Back in the 1970s and 80s, this movie had fallen through the cracks
as far as copyright renewal so any channel could show it any time
they wanted. This led to its being broadcast almost 24 hours a day
from Thanksgiving to Christmas. This was not good for me because I
could hardly stumble across it but what I would stop and watch to the
end. I still watch it at least once a year—usually in the week
before Christmas, but sometimes elsewhere in the year as well—and
the ending still makes me mist up.
“To my big brother George: the richest man in town!”
To see what movies show up in slots 11-20, click
here.
To slog through the whole list, go
here.
