I love movies. As a child, they were my refuge from the torments of bullies and my own exquisite shyness. I would stay up late at night watching the old films that a local Kansas City TV station (KCMO) would show after 10:30 PM, mesmerized by flickering images of Errol Flynn, Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Ingrid Bergman, Jimmy Stewart and all of the other legends from yesteryear. As I grew into adulthood, my shyness lessened, and I was no longer bullied (my 6'5" frame probably had something to do with that) but my love for film has never diminished. And I love all kinds of films. My top ten? (in aproximate order)
1. VERTIGO!!!!!!--One final thing I must do . . . and then I'll be free of the past.
2. CASABLANCA--I remember every detail. The Germans wore [black]gray[/black], you wore blue.
3. THE WIZARD OF OZ--Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!
These three films have maintained a firm grip on the top three rungs of my list for over 15 years, and I see little over the horizon that threatens to dislodge them from their perch. The films that follow are only listed in aproximate order, with their placings less sure the further one travels down the list. On any given day, I might rank them in a considerably different way. 4. THE SEARCHERS--That'll be the day!
5. GONE WITH THE WIND--Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn!
6. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT--[laugh]Oh this? Well, I like privacy when I retire. Yes, I'm very delicate in that respect. Prying eyes annoy me. Behold the walls of Jericho!
7. MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY--I'll live to see you--all of you--hung from the highest yardarm in the British fleet!
8. CITIZEN KANE--That's all he ever wanted out of life . . . was love. That's the tragedy of Charles Foster Kane. You see, he just didn't have any to give.
9. BEN HUR--We keep you alive to serve this ship. So row well, and live.
10. MY DARLING CLEMENTINE--Sure is a hard town for a fella to have a quiet game o' poker in.
11. NORTH BY NORTHWEST--That's funny. That plane's dustin' crops where there ain't no crops.
12. SOME LIKE IT HOT
--[laugh]--Real diamonds! They must be worth their weight in gold!
13. ON THE WATERFRONT--You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody, instead of a bum, which is what I am, let's face it. It was you, Charley.
14. PATHS OF GLORY--I apologize... for not being entirely honest with you. I apologize for not revealing my true feelings. I apologize, sir, for not telling you sooner that you're a degenerate, sadistic old man. And you can go to hell before I apologize to you now or ever again!
15. IKIRU
--Life is so short / Fall in love, dear maiden / While your lips are still red / And before you are cold, / For there will be no tomorrow.16. THE BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWI--Madness! . . . Madness! . . . Madness!
17. THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL---Gort: Klaatu, Barada, nikto
18. THE THIRD MAN--Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.
19. SWING TIME--A fine romance, you won't nestle\A fine romance, you won't even wrestle\You've never mussed the crease in my blue serge pants\You never take a chance, this is a fine romance.
20. DR. STRANGELOVE: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb--[laugh]--God willing, we will prevail, in peace and freedom from fear, and in true health, through the purity and essence of our natural . . . fluids.
21. 8½ (AKA--Frederico Fellini's 8½)
--When did I go wrong? I really have nothing to say, but I want to say it all the same.22. EAST OF EDEN----Mr. Trask, it's awful not to be loved. It's the worst thing in the world . . . It makes you mean, and violent, and cruel. And that's the way Cal has always felt, Mr. Trask. All his life! Maybe you didn't mean it that way - but it's true. You never gave him your love. You never asked for his. You never asked him for one thing.
23. (Tie) SCROOGE (1951)--BUSINESS!!? Mankind was my business! Their welfare was my business!
23. (Tie) IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE--Now you listen to me! [Fiercly--shaking Mary with each phrase] I don't want any plastics and I don't want any ground floors. And I don't want to get married EVER to anyone! You understand that? I want to do what I want to do! I . . .Oh, Mary! [and embraces her passionately]
25. WUTHERING HEIGHTS----may you not rest so long as I live on! I killed you. Haunt me, then! Haunt your murderer! I know that ghosts have wandered on the Earth. Be with me always. Take any form, drive me mad, only do not leave me in this dark alone where I cannot find you. I cannot live without my life! I cannot die without my soul.
26. THE RIGHT STUFF--Request permission to relieve bladder!
You probably noticed that my top ten contain 26 films. Hey! It's my list, I can do what I want! My entire vote history can be seen at
http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=7820956 and my entire list of "Favorite Films" (those I gave a rating of either a "9" or "10") can be found at
http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=9175440 but if you want to see just the "10's" isolated from the rest, you can find them here:
http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=24151966. Finally, I'm putting together a list of the "Most Beautiful Films" found at:
http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=17530852You can get a fair glimmering of my movie preferences from the above list. For instance, my favorite era regarding cinema is the 50's, with fully 13 of the 26 films being representatives of that decade. You might also surmise that I have a rather low opinion of the films that have been released in the last 40 years, as only one film--1980's
The Right Stuff--was released after 1964. This view would only be partially true, as you will find numerous films made since 1964 on my inclusive "Favorite Films" list. Still, there is no denying that in general, I feel the films made before the 70's were of a higher quality.
My favorite directors?---John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, and Kubrick all have two films in the list above, and Kurosawa and Billy Wilder, also among my favorites, each have a representative. Frank Capra, Elia Kazan, and William Wyler also each are represented by 2 films. Still other great directors one finds represented here: George Stevens, Robert Wise, Orson Welles, and Frederico Fellini.
Concerning actors, the above list doesn't do a very good job of illuminating these preferences--for instance, Spencer Tracy is not to be found in any of these films, neither is Gary Cooper, Paul Newman, Gene Kelly, or Jean Harlow; while some of my absolute favorites are only represented once, like Humphrey Bogart, Fred Astaire, Cary Grant, John Wayne and Ingrid Bergman. On the other hand, Clark Gable is present in fully three of my top "ten" (in fact three of the top seven!)--a situation somewhat anomalous as though he is among my favorite stars, he hardly dominates as my list might suggest. You can also see that even though English Language films provide most of the titles, I am not adverse to foreign films with a Japanese and an Italien representative. One final note, there are 4 films in the above that qualify as anti-war films, and this is definitely no anomaly.
And now, the rest of my provisional top hundred:
Psycho
Once Upon a Time in the West
Glory
Chinatown
The Graduate
Amadeus--The original theatrical release
Midnight Cowboy
The Court Jester
A Man for All Seasons
On the Town
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Becket
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The 39 Steps
The Front
Jaws
The Magnificent Ambersons
The Silence of the Lambs
Unforgiven
Tootsie
The Yearling
The Wild Bunch
Notorious
Lawrence of Arabia
Giant
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
All About EVE
Annie Hall
Back to the Future
Life Is Beautiful
The Exorcist
Pulp Fiction
The Philadelphia Story
Roman Holiday
The Purple Rose of Cairo
The Quiet Man
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)
Singin' in the Rain
To Kill a Mockingbird
The African Queen
Being John Malkovich
The Caine Mutiny
Cool Hand Luke
The French Connection
Babe
Breaking Away
The Lost Weekend
Star Wars
Shadow of a Doubt
The Sweet Hereafter
Raging Bull
Libeled Lady
A Night at the Opera
The Hustler
High Noon
A Star Is Born (1954)
Shane
Witness
Young Frankenstein
Chariots of Fire
Superman
The Misfits
Hud
For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Caine Mutiny
On the Beach
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Ordinary People
The Seven year itch
In the Name of the Father
Dances With Wolves
Aliens
Groundhog Day
Shall We Dance (1937)
As to me, in brief, I'm a psychiatric RN who loves children, movies (natch), hiking, travel, the beach, good food, women, the beach, the mountains, books, great music (Beethoven is my favorite, though my favorite piece above all others is Mahler's
Das Lied von der Erde, i.e., The Song of the Earth--absolutely magnificent), oh yes! and the beach. I support human rights causes, and am especially active as an advocate against child-abuse, and the death penalty (and recently--for the impeachment of George W. Bush), and I've spent a little time in jail as a result of some civil disobedience.
Remember, striking a child is a violent act--from which the child learns that he
deserves to be hit, that his feelings do not matter, and so he will bury his feelings of anger and humiliation, and there they will fester, to pollute the life of this child through his adulthood--causing any number of possible symptoms, from depression, to feeling unsure of who he really is, to looking for outlets to pour out his repressed anger--usually upon HIS children . . . who will pass this on to their children. Violence begats violence. Hitting is NEVER love. It is my contention that many of the greatest ills facing mankind are the result, directly or indirectly, of child-abuse--whether it be war, poverty, racism, hatred, and the assault on human rights that we see taking place in the world, and in our own country, today. If you wish to know more, please engage me in discussion about these topics.
Peace.The 'sign-offs' or signatures I've used in the past include:
"THE SPOTS!"--
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek"I'm a lover of beauty, and a
Beauty of a lover."--
The Court Jester [joker]
"One final thing I have to do . . . and then I'll be free of the past."--
Vertigo"Nothing in this world is more surprising than the attack without mercy!"--
Little Big Man[bigeek]
