MY FAVORITE MOVIES
Nothing better than a good comedy
There aren't many things I have enjoyed in my life as much as watching movies. I once had more than 600 of them taped off cable television -- on Beta cassetes. Now I've got a couple hundred of my favorites on DVD, and I've probably seen some of them a dozen times.
The list below is fairly arbitrary, and it's by no means the movies I consider the best ever made. Films like "Citizen Kane" and "Grand Illusion," films like Yasujiro Ozu's "Tokyo Monogatari" (Tokyo Story) are classics that are part of my collection; they're not the ones I watch again and again.
I'll try to list a top 20. I think you'll see a definite preference for comedy. There's nothing more difficult than making people laugh, and some great filmmakers -- Spielberg for one -- don't do it well.
Anyway, here goes:
20. Best in Show (2000) -- I could easily have listed "Spinal Tap," "Waiting for Guffman" or "A Mighty Wind." They're all wonderful, but this one is the most consistently funny of Christopher Guest's oeuvre. Fred Willard is absolutely hilarious as a clueless sports announcer.
19. Grand Canyon (1992) -- I have friends who absolutely hate this Lawrence Kasdan film. They call it preachy and soap-operaish, but I think it has a lot to say about the growing gap between those who have and those who don't in Los Angeles, California and the United States. There is a grand canyon between us, and it isn't healthy.
18. American Beauty (1999) -- It's possible this Best Picture winner may not hold up well, but I enjoyed it tremendously. Maybe part of it had to do with the fact that I met and interviewed Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening, Mena Suvari and Thora Birch during the film's publicity junkets.
17. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) -- Another Best Picture winner. Veterans returning home from World War II. I love the movies from this era, and I particularly enjoy homefront movies. "Mrs. Miniver," "Since You Went Away" and "The Human Comedy" are all films I can watch again and again. Plus, I think I was a little in love with the young Teresa Wright.
16. Dead Again (1991) -- One of my favorite noir-type mysteries, and one with a very unusual twist. Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson were both amazing in dual roles. This is a terrific movie.
15. Little Big Man (1970) -- Probably not the best western ever made, but it might have been the funniest that also had a real plot. Arthur Penn directed, Dustin Hoffman starred and Chief Dan George was wonderful as the Cheyenne chief. Sometimes the magic works, sometimes the magic doesn't work.
14. Field of Dreams (1989) -- If you build it, they will come. A wonderful, mystical movie about why baseball means so much to America. I'm not a big Kevin Costner fan, but he's on this list twice in baseball movies.
13. The Godfather, Part II (1974) -- The first one was more popular, but this one was more artistic and had more depth. Certainly the only sequel to follow the original in winning Best Picture. This was probably the film that made Robert DeNiro a star. The first one is great too, and even the third one is underrated.
12. The Graduate (1967) -- For a long time, this was my favorite movie. But I'm not 17 and alienated anymore, and it doesn't hold up as well as some other films of its era. It was the film that made Hoffman a star, and I always wondered why the lovely Katherine Ross didn't have a bigger career.
11. Smile (1975) -- Michael Ritchie satirized American middle-class life by satirizing beauty pageants in this all-but-forgotten film. Annette O'Toole and Melanie Griffith were both lovely, and Bruce Dern and Barbara Feldon were great in the leads. Ritchie is remembered more for "Bad News Bears," but this was his masterpiece. This is the only one on this list that isn't out yet in DVD.
10. The Man Who Would Be King (1975) -- One of John Huston's lifetime projects. He wanted to make it with Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart, but he wound up using Sean Connery and Michael Caine a generation later. A great, great adventure movie.
9. Time After Time (1979) -- H.G. Wells chasing Jack the Ripper through time to modern-day San Francisco and realizing that there will be no utopia in the future. "All times are the same, it's only love that makes any of them bearable." My favorite time-travel movie, although I also love "Somewhere in Time" and the "Back to the Future" trilogy.
8. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) -- My favorite western, and basically another comedy. Robert Redford became a star with Paul Newman, and yes, Katherine Ross was lovely again. Probably the best William Goldman script ever.
7. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) -- My favorite Spielberg movie, with two sequels I also enjoyed a lot. Harrison Ford is a great Indiana Jones, and he plays well against Karen Allen's Marion Ravenwood. A thrill a minute. "Baby, it's not the years, it's the mileage."
6. American Graffiti (1973) -- This movie created so many stars, and was one of the first to use rock and roll oldies as its soundtrack. Where were you in '62. A regrettable sequel and regrettable imitators, although I have to admit to loving "The Hollywood Knights" despite its horrible production values.
5. Bedazzled (1967) -- Not the execrable remake, although wouldn't it have been great to see Liz Hurley with Peter Cook and Dudley Moore? This variation on the Faust legend was so irreverent, but so funny. It's really too bad Cook and Moore -- both gone now -- didn't act together more as a team.
4. Casablanca (1942) -- The ultimate old movie. I don't know many people who don't like this movie. My friend Bill Madden loves it so much and has seen it so many times he recites the dialogue along with the characters. "I came to Casablanca for the waters." "But we're in a desert." "I was misinformed." An amazing movie.
3. Bang the Drum Slowly (1973) -- Robert DeNiro and Michael Moriarty in a great baseball movie about a dying catcher. Mark Harris wrote a terrific book. I saw this movie five or six times in theaters, so I was thrilled when it finally came out on DVD. "From here on in, I rag nobody."
2. Bull Durham (1988) -- So that's three baseball movies in the top 20. Oh well, this one is my favorite. It's a wonderful comedy, a great love story and a terrific movie about life in the low minor leagues. Costner and Susan Sarandon are marvelous and Tim Robbins is every bit as good. I love this movie so much.
1. Animal House (1978) -- Yeah, I know. This isn't what you were expecting to see at the top of the list, although if you know me, it probably won't surprise you. I loved my fraternity days, and just as some people say the meaning of life can be found in "The Godfather," I'm not sure the misfits of Delta House don't have all the answers themselves. "I advise you to begin drinking heavily." "Better listen to him, Flounder. He's pre-med."
