My 100 Favorite Movies
(Listed Chronologically)
 Title: E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
Year: 1982
Director: Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg again. Told you you'd see his name repeatedly. I've seen this movie probably a dozen times -- perhaps more -- and it makes me cry every single time. Basically, the story is that an alien gets accidentally left behind by his buddies, and gets found by some kids who try to protect him as he tries to find a way home. It's a story of an outsider, lost, looking for love. I'm a sucker for that.
I remember seeing E.T. at the drive-in in Powell, WY, the summer I was 12. My brother and I were visiting our father for the summer, so we'd already seen E.T. here in California, but convinced our dad to take us to the drive-in when it showed up in Powell. I don't remember if Dad liked it -- I suppose when you're 12 you don't really care -- but I do remember watching it at the drive-in, just because drive-ins were something of an oddity, even by 1982.
Shannon took me to see E.T. -- in its re-release in theatres in 2002 -- for my 32nd birthday. It was a wonderful way to celebrate.
Quotes:
E.T.: E.T. phone home.
Elliot: He's a man from outer space and we're taking him to his spaceship.
Greg: Well, can't he just beam up?
Elliot: This is REALITY, Greg. - Title: The Big Chill
Year: 1983
Stars: Glenn Close, Kevin Kline, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, etc.
The Big Chill is, on the surface, a story of a group of college friends getting back together for a few days many years later, on the occasion of a funeral. It's about reconnecting with people you once knew and remembering who you were in your youth. But it's also about "the big chill", the process of growing older and becoming colder, more rigid, less open-minded. In particular, it's about the aging of the youths of the '60s as they went into business and found themselves abandoning -- to greater and lesser degrees -- the ideals of their youth.
Given the subject matter, it could be really depressing, especially considering the fact that it begins with a funeral. But it's one of the most joyful -- and frequently hilarious -- movies in my collection of DVDs. They accomplished this through a fabulous soundtrack, fabulously clever writing and directing, and fabulous acting (Glenn Close and Kevin Kline, in particular, awe me). Every time I watch this, I wish these people were MY friends.
Quote:
Sam Weber: Hey, Nick? You know, we go back a long way, and I'm not gonna piss that away 'cause you're higher than a kite.
Nick: Wrong, a long time ago we knew each other for a short period of time. You don't know anything about me. It was easy back then. No one had a cushier berth than we did. It's not surprising our friendship could survive that. It's only out there in the real world that it gets tough!
 Title: Risky Business
Year: 1983
Stars: Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay
Tom Cruise dancing in his underwear. I don't know what else to say. Everyone has seen it, so why should I need to summarize or anything? Oh, okay, fine, just in case there are some culturally-deprived among you. Simple story: boy's parents leave him alone for a while (days? weeks?) and he gets into very very big trouble while they're gone.
This isn't the most intellectual movie on my list, but it has quite a bit of nostalgic value, because it reminds me of high school.
Quote:
Joel: Sometimes you've just gotta say, "What the fuck." - Title: Amadeus
Year: 1984
Stars: Tom Hulce and F. Murray Abraham
A portrait of Mozart, through the eyes of Salieri, one of his fellow composers who was always fiercely jealous of Mozart's gift for music. This movie is very difficult for me to describe, but it is often very funny, while also being often very sad. Mozart's music throughout is sublime, and the acting (especially by the two leads) amazes me.
Quotes:
Emperor Joseph II: Your work is ingenious. It's quality work. And there are simply too many notes, that's all. Just cut a few and it will be perfect.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Which few did you have in mind, Majesty?
Salieri: From now on we are enemies, you [God] and I. Because you choose for your instrument a boastful, lustful, smutty, infantile boy and give me only the ability to recognize the incarnation. Because you are unjust, unfair, unkind I will block you, I swear it. I will hinder and harm your creature on Earth as far as I am able. I will ruin your incarnation.
Salieri: I speak for all mediocrities in the world. I am their champion. I am their patron saint.
- Title: Real Genius
Year: 1985
Stars: Val Kilmer and Gabriel Jarret
Smart people! didn't see them very often in movies, so this has been one of my favorites since I first saw it. It's just a wildly exaggerated story of smart kids in the science department at a prestigious college (supposed to be MIT?), and much of the humor comes from taking things literally instead of figuratively, which I adore.
Quotes:
Professor Hathaway: When you first started at Pacific Tech you were well on your way to becoming another Einstein and then you know what happened?
Chris Knight: I got a haircut?
Professor Hathaway: I want to see more of you around the lab.
Chris Knight: Fine. I'll gain weight.
Chris Knight: You see, Mitch, I used to be you. Lately I've been missing me, so I asked Dr. Hathaway if I could room with me again and he said sure.
- Title: Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Year: 1986
Stars: Matthew Broderick, Mia Sara, and Alan Ruck
Three kids ditch school and run all over town having various adventures, culminating in Ferris Bueller (the coolest of the three and, in fact, probably the coolest kid in their entire school) dancing on top of a parade float and singing "Twist and Shout".
I recently saw a mini-documentary about that, and apparently the scenes on the float were shot during an actual parade, and so very little of it was scripted. They just shot footage of all kinds of people in the crowd and around the area and used a lot of it in the actual movie. I thought that was really interesting!
Ferris Bueller is every nerd's fantasy of who they would like to be. He's clever, attractive, charming, and he gets away with pretty much anything he wants to do. He's certainly nothing like I was as a teenager.
Quotes:
Ferris: Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.
Ferris: I do have a test today. That wasn't bullshit. It's on European socialism. I mean, really, what's the point? I'm not European. I don't plan on being European. So who gives a crap if they're socialists? They could be fascist anarchists. It still wouldn't change the fact that I don't own a car.
Boring Economics Teacher: Anyone? Anyone?
Boring Economics Teacher: Bueller? Bueller?
Cameron: Ferris Bueller, you're my hero.
- Title: A Room with a View
Year: 1986
Country: U.K.
Stars: Helena Bonham Carter and Julian Sands
 This was my absolute favorite movie for about 15 years, from the time that I first saw it in the theatres when I was 16 until I saw Spirited Away earlier this year. Now, I think they are most likely tied for favorite.
A young Victorian English girl and her chaperone go on a trip to Florence, where she encounters two men -- a father and son -- of lower class than her own family. Once back in England, she encounters them again just as she is planning her marriage to a man she does not love.
This Victorian love story is intensely passionate, largely because of its repression. And it is also quite funny. And the stunning beauty of the costumes, the landscapes, the sets, the hairstyles ... everything is mesmerizing.
The film is, of course, based on E.M. Forster's novel of the same name, which is also one of my favorites. As an undergrad, in a Lit Crit class, I wrote an (apparently quite impressive) paper comparing the novel and the film. My teacher gushed all over the place and encouraged me to go into grad school in the field. Ha! As if! I hated Lit Crit. I think I would enjoy it more now than I did all those years ago, but it still most likely wouldn't be my top choice of field.
- Title: Stand By Me
Year: 1986
Stars: Wil Wheaton and River Phoenix
In the 1950s, four pre-teen boys go on a trek to see a dead body. Along the way, they talk and sing and fight and get leeches on them and just generally have adventures. There's a lot of really funny stuff, and a fair amount of really sad stuff, and all the stuff in between. Plus, a great 1950s soundtrack.
The film is based, of course, on the short story "The Body", by Stephen King, but I would never have guessed that Stephen King had anything remotely to do with it if I hadn't been told. But, then, I wouldn't have guessed that he had anything to do with The Shawshank Redemption, either, as I'll discuss here later.
The young actors playing the boys are remarkable. I initially saw the film with my mom, and I remember us being completely blown away by River Phoenix and saying afterward, "He'll go places." It still makes me sad that his life went the way it did. He had incredible talent.
Quotes:
Vern: Come on you guys, let's get moving.
Teddy: Yeah, by the time we get there the kid won't even be dead anymore.
Grown Gordie: I never had any friends later on like those I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?
- Title: Empire of the Sun
Year: 1987
Director: Steven Spielberg
Stars: Christian Bale and John Malkovich
A Chinese-born British kid gets separated from his parents in Japanese-occupied Shanghai during World War II, and ends up doing his best to survive in a POW camp. Well, not exactly POW camp ... more like an internment camp. But bad.
Considering the subject matter, the film is surprisingly optimistic and upbeat ... but not so surprising when you consider the director. Yes, it's my buddy Steven again. I warned you, right?
I think in some ways this film is an interesting compare/contrast to The Bridge on the River Kwai (which nearly made it onto my list) because of its toying with the idea of "them" and "us" and "theirs" and "ours".
The film also brings up interesting issues of how we see other people, as the kid begins to objectify sick people in the camp (callously asking if he can have their shoes when they're dead, for example), but feels increasing respect for the bravery and honor of the Japanese pilots.
Quotes:
Jim: I can't remember what my parents look like.
Jim: If the Americans land, the Japanese will fight.
Dr. Rawlins: You admire the Japanese?
Jim: Well, they're brave, aren't they?
Dr. Rawlins: That's important, is it, Jim?
Jim: It's a good thing if you want to win a war.
Dr. Rawlins: But we don't want them to win, do we? Remember, we're British.
Jim: Yes. I've never been there.
Jim: Dr. Rawlins, do you remember how we helped build the runway? If we die like the others, our bones would be IN the runway. In a way, it's OUR runway...
Dr. Rawlins: No it's THEIR runway, Jim! Try not to think so much! Try not to THINK so much!
Jim: Learned a new word today. Atom bomb. It was like God taking a photograph.
- Title: The Princess Bride
Year: 1987
Stars: Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Andre the Giant, etc.
A pretty basic fairy tale story about a beautiful girl, a handsome guy, a villainous prince, and some guys who end up switching sides. It's based on the book by William Goldman, which is much better than the film, due to its format. The novel has too many authorial (not to mention fake authorial) asides to be truly translatable to the screen. The film is much more innocent and less sarcastic, but it's still very enjoyable for many reasons ... not the least of which is Cary Elwes's striking good looks. Holy bejeebus!
 In addition, this is one of the most quotable movies ever. I have been known to quote sections of the Impressive Clergyman's speech (see below) spontaneously and for no apparent reason. Okay, for a very slight reason: if "true love" or "marriage" are mentioned.
Quotes:
Inigo: Allo. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
Vizzini: No more rhymes, now! I mean it!
Fezzik: Anybody want a peanut?
Vizzini: INCONCEIVABLE!
Inigo: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Westley: As you wish.
Grandpa: [voice-over] That day, she was amazed to discover that when he was saying "As you wish", what he meant was, "I love you." And even more amazing was the day she realized she truly loved him back.
Westley: This is true love -- you think this happens every day?
Westley: Death cannot stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.
Valerie: Bye bye, boys!
Miracle Max: Have fun stormin' da castle!
The Impressive Clergymen: Mawage. Mawage is what bwings us togevvah today. Mawage, dat bwessed awangement, dat dweam wivvin a dweam ... wuv, twue wuv, will fowwow you, fowevvah ... so chewish your wuv ...
Vizzini: You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is "Never get involved in a land war in Asia," but only slightly less well known is this: "Never go in against a Sicilian, when death is on the line!" Hahahahahah! [Dies]
Westley: I don't envy you the headache you'll have when you awake. But in the meantime, rest well, and dream of large women.
- Title: Wings of Desire
Year: 1987
Countries: France/Germany
 I'm having a lot of difficulty thinking of what to say about this movie, because I find it difficult to describe. Angels invisibly watch over Berlin, and one of them falls in love with a mortal woman. Those are the basics of the plot, but plot in this film is really secondary to idea, mood, and emotion. That's why the U.S. remake -- City of Angels -- destroyed the heart of the movie ... because all it took was the basic plot. It left out everything that makes this movie great. Everything that is indescribable, and therefore impossible to pitch to a studio executive. Thank god there are people around the world making films outside the Hollywood studio system. Hollywood would never have made this absolutely wondrous film, because it resembles a symphony more than it does a traditional movie.
Quote:
Driver: Are there still borders? More than ever! Every street has its borderline. Between each plot, there's a strip of no-man's-land disguised as a hedge or a ditch. Whoever dares, will fall into booby traps or be hit by laser rays. The trout are really torpedoes. Every home owner, or even every tenant nails his name plate on the door, like a coat of arms and studies the morning paper as if he were a world leader. Germany has crumbled into as many small states as there are individuals. And these small states are mobile. Everyone carries his own state with him, and demands a toll when another wants to enter. A fly caught in amber, or a leather bottle. So much for the border. But one can only enter each state with a password. The German soul of today can only be conquered and governed by one who arrives at each small state with the password. Fortunately, no one is currently in a position to do this. So... everyone migrates, and waves his one-man-state flag in all earthly directions. Their children already shake their rattles and drag their filth around them in circles.
- Title: Bull Durham
Year: 1988
Stars: Kevin Costner, Tim Robbins, and Susan Sarandon
 I grew up watching baseball. I grew up in Anaheim, home of the California Angels, and we went to baseball games every summer. I remember when my dad told me that Wyoming didn't have a major league baseball team, and I thought it must be like Siberia.
Anyway, that's the lead-in to explain why I love baseball movies. Not all baseball movies, but a lot of them. This is one of my favorites (obviously ... otherwise it wouldn't be on my list of favorite movies). Kevin Costner is a past-his-prime catcher, and Tim Robbins is an up-and-coming pitcher. The minor league coach asks the old pro to mentor the rookie ... and there you have most of the plot. Introduce a freaky woman who practices some sort of wacked "religion of baseball", stir, and you've got a love triangle.
That's too simplistic a description, though, because the characters in this movie are eccentric in dryly humorous ways ... and Kevin Costner's character (Crash Davis) is probably my favorite baseball movie character ever.
Quotes:
Crash Davis: Well, I believe in the soul, the cock, the pussy, the small of a woman's back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days.
- Title: Dangerous Liaisons
Year: 1988
Countries: U.S.A./U.K.
Stars: Glenn Close and John Malkovich
Another movie based on a novel of the same name ... this time it's the 18th-century novel by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos. Two members of the French aristocracy debauche themselves, take advantage of innocence, scheme to injure their enemies, and lie to everyone ... all while maintaining a perfect outward appearance of good manners, civility, and respectability.
It's a sumptuous period film, full of Baroque architecture and outlandish costumes and wigs. It's also an intensely emotional film, as the two primary characters often focus on causing emotional damage to each other or others.
Quotes:
Vicomte De Valmont: I thought betrayal was your favorite word.
Marquise De Merteuil: No, no... "cruelty". I always think that has a nobler ring to it.
 Title: A Fish Called Wanda
Year: 1988
Country: U.K.
Stars: John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Kevin Kline
Hee. Hee hee. Okay, this is probably the funniest movie on my list of favorite films. I'm not a Monty Python fan, and so I was initially dubious about A Fish Called Wanda ... but in fact it's hysterical to the point of nearly making me hyperventilate upon occasion. I guess you'd call it a caper comedy. In this film, John Cleese and Kevin Kline are the funniest I've ever seen them.
Quotes:
Otto: It's K-K-K-Ken c-c-c-coming to k-k-k-kill me!
Archie: Wanda, do you have any idea what it's like being English? Being so correct all the time, being so stifled by this dread of, of doing the wrong thing, of saying to someone "Are you married?" and hearing "My wife left me this morning," or saying, uh, "Do you have children?" and being told they all burned to death on Wednesday. You see, Wanda, we're all terrified of embarrassment.
Otto: Ok ... Ok ... DISAPPOINTED!  Title: My Neighbor Totoro
Year: 1988
Country: Japan
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
This was the first Miyazaki film I ever saw, and so it retains some magic for me purely due to that fact. Miyazaki is a master of animation, and his films often focus on the relationship between humans and the natural world. That is definitely true here, in which two little girls move out into the country with their father and end up discovering a creature -- Totoro -- who is the spirit of a huge nearby tree. There's an entire spirit world going on around them (and us) all the time, but it's invisible unless we somehow acquire the ability to see it. - Title: The Abyss (director's cut)
Year: 1989
Stars: Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and all those cool special effects
I first saw this in the early '90s at the U.C. Theatre with my friend Jay, who was still my boyfriend at the time. He had previously seen the movie as it was originally released in theatres, which was very different from the director's cut. He seemed flabbergasted by some of the differences, and turned to me as we were leaving the theatre and said, "Well, it all actually makes sense now."
Just having seen it at the U.C. Theatre is a nostalgic thing for me, because the U.C. Theatre closed down since then, and it was my favorite movie theatre in Berkeley.
The movie itself is about a bunch of oil rigging divers who end up encountering an alien lifeform deep at the bottom of the ocean. Unfortunately, they also have to deal with some Navy S.E.A.L.S. sent to investigate, one of whom is more than a little bit insane.
Why is this movie one of my favorites? Well, for one thing, it has phenomenal special effects. Truly extraordinary. But it also has surprisingly in-depth characterization and beautifully portrayed camaraderie between the members of the crew. The relationships are complex, and I'm a sucker for that.
- Title: Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure
Year: 1989
Stars: Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter
Did I just say that the relationships are complex in The Abyss? Well, I'll never make that accusation about Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. I initially flatly refused to see this movie when it first came out, because I insisted that it looked "stupid". My then boyfriend, Tim, eventually convinced me to give it a try, and so I went.
 Oh. My. God. I laughed so hard! The basic premise didn't impress me: two idiotic Valley guys go traveling through time in an effort to do a history report. But what did crack me up entirely was their interactions with various historical figures, and the interactions between those historical figures. Billy the Kid and Socrates, for example. And even though they were stupid, the guys' stupidity was of a sort which allows the audience to laugh with a feeling of superiority. Ha! You don't know who Freud is? Well, I do! Therefore, I am not dumb! I think that was actually sort of comforting when I was an undergrad surrounded by pretentious English majors who each seemed to think that they were Derrida.
Quotes:
Bill: Be excellent to each other.
Ted: Party on, dudes.
Ted: Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.
- Title: Do the Right Thing
Year: 1989
Director: Spike Lee
I first saw this film while I was on a summer fellowship at Stanford, working on a multi-cultural program with their teacher education program (in the summer of 1990). This movie explores tense racial relations between blacks and whites in a New York neighborhood on the hottest day of the year. MLK's passifism or Malcom X's militance: which is right? Sometimes it's honestly hard to tell, and this movie really portrays that struggle vividly and with passion.
Quotes:
Da Mayor: Doctor...
Mookie: C'mon, what. What?
Da Mayor: Always do the right thing.
Mookie: That's it?
Da Mayor: That's it.
Mookie: I got it, I'm gone.
Mister Senor Love Daddy: My people, my people, what can I say, say what I can. I saw it but didn't believe it, I didn't believe what I saw. Are we gonna live together, together are we gonna live?
- Title: Field of Dreams
Year: 1989
Stars: Kevin Costner, James Earl Jones, and Amy Madigan
I love watching movies with James Earl Jones in them, because I just listen to his voice and want to breath deeply into my fist, "Luke! I am your father!" Heh. In this one, Darth Vader learns to appreciate baseball.
So, anyway, this movie is about a guy whose Iowa corn field starts whispering to him to build a baseball field, and he tries to convince everyone he isn't crazy. It's a hard sell.
I actually (for once) like the movie better than the book, because the book has a lot of religious stuff in it that doesn't work for me, and the movie manages to minimize that element.
Quotes:
The Voice: If you build it, he will come.
Shoeless Joe Jackson: Is this heaven?
Ray Kinsella: No, it's Iowa.
Terence Mann: They'll walk out to the bleachers ... sit in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes. And they'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. And the memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come, Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game ... it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and that could be again. Oh, people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.
- Title: Henry V
Year: 1989
Country: U.K.
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Star: Kenneth Branagh
I first saw this amazing movie in the film club on the Stirling University campus (late 1991) with a bunch of Brits (primarily Scottish and English). When we left the auditorium, I was so moved by the St. Crispin's Day speech (see excerpt below) that I asked my friend Sharon (who is from Manchester), "When is St. Crispin's Day?" and she didn't know. She didn't know. I asked around, and no one else knew, either. I was aghast. Here I was, so moved to want to remember St. Crispin's Day, and I wasn't even British, and none of them even cared. Sigh.
 Basically, the film is Kenneth Branagh's excellent adaptation of Shakespeare's play about King Henry V, who went to war with France and somehow managed to defeat them with an inferior army. Branagh has made a strongly anti-war film which shows an ugly battlefield, rather than the shining noble clashes that are common for such filmed Shakespearean battle scenes.
Oh ... and for those who wonder, St. Crispin's Day is October 25th. I usually write it on my calendar, so that I can remember the Battle of Agincourt. And for those who still wonder, St. Crispin was the patron saint of shoemakers.
Quotes:
King Henry V: Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; or close up the wall with our English dead!
King Henry V: And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by from this day until the ending of the world but we in it shall be remembered. We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today who sheds his blood with me shall be my brother. Be he ne'er so vile, this day shall gentle his condition, and gentlemen in England now abed shall think themselves acursed they were not here, and hold their manhoods cheap whilst any speaks, that fought with us upon St. Crispin's day!
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