My 100 Favorite Movies

(Listed Chronologically)

81. Title: The Truman Show
    Year: 1998
    Star: Jim Carrey

    Jim Carrey at his most non-annoying! Normally he bugs the shit out of me, but not here. It's a film about the tension between naivete and knowledge, protection and independence, but if you just want to know about the plot, it's about a guy who begins to slowly realize that his life has been filmed since birth and that he is surrounded by actors and sets.

    It's Jim Carrey, so of course it's funny, but it isn't his usual slapstick style. It's much more subtle than that. I also love his 2004 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which appears later on this list.

    Quote:

    Christof: Cue the sun!

82. Title: The Wedding Singer
    Year: 1998
    Stars: Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore

    Adam Sandler at his most non-annoying! Normally he bugs the shit out of me, but in this movie he's actually funny!

    Okay, bear in mind that this movie is set during the 1980s, and is full of music. Okay. Do I need to say anything else? Okay, fine. Well, it obviously has a great soundtrack, but the movie is also hysterically funny. Much of the humor comes from either poking fun at '80s nostalgia or humorous performance of the music. For example, there is a wedding reception performance of "Love Stinks" with audience participation that kills me every time.

    If you want to know about the plot, I guess I can oblige. It's just a basic boy-meets-girl, boy-likes-girl, girl-is-going-to-marry-somebody-else sort of movie. The main character is a twenty-something guy who has ended up in the career of "wedding singer", much to his girlfriend's dismay, since she apparently wants a guy like Steven Tyler. But he's just sweet and dorky and vulnerable, and he meets a girl who's much the same.

    If you don't like '80s music, stay away. Stay very far away.

83. Title: American Beauty
    Year: 1999
    Writer: Alan Ball
    Star: Kevin Spacey

    I'm not going to try to summarize the "plot" of this movie, but I'll just attest that the plot is not the movie. The movie is much much more. Created by Alan Ball (later creator of "Six Feet Under"), this film is one of the very best I've ever seen.

    I deeply admire the basic premises of the film, the basic philosophies: It's never too late to live your life. It's never too late to open your eyes and recognize the beauty in everything around you. There's something very Taoist about the whole thing (see the last quote listed below, for example). Just reading these quotes and writing this description, I want to go watch the film again. If you have an IQ over 110 and you haven't seen American Beauty yet, go watch it ASAP. Even if you don't like it, it will inspire interesting thoughts and discussion.

    Quotes:

    Lester Burnham: [voice-over] Both my wife and daughter think I'm this gigantic loser and they're right, I have lost something. I'm not exactly sure what it is but I know I didn't always feel this ... sedated. But you know what? It's never too late to get it back.
    
    Lester Burnham: I feel like I've been in a coma for the past twenty years. And I'm just now waking up.
    
    Lester Burnham: It's okay. I wouldn't remember me either.
    
    Ricky Fitts: Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, like my heart's going to cave in.
    
    Lester Burnham: You don't think it's kinda weird and fascist?
    Carolyn Burnham: Possibly, but you don't want to be unemployed.
    Lester Burnham: Oh well, alright, let's all sell our souls and work for Satan because it's more convenient that way!
    
    Lester Burnham: [voice-over] It's hard to be angry when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes, I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and I can't take it. My heart swells up like a balloon that's about to burst. But then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold onto it. And then, it flows through me like rain and I feel nothing but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life.

84. Title: Go
    Year: 1999
    Stars: Desmond Askew (Simon), Sarah Polley (Ronna), Timothy Olyphant (Todd), etc.

    Here we have a member of new breed of teen movies (and/or early twenties movies, which isn't a real genre with a name) that is much edgier than John Hughes could ever have dreamed of being: drug dealers, raves, hit-and-run manslaughter, strip bars, guns, group sex, etc.

    Timothy Olyphant is hot as hell in the role of the drug dealer ... how does he do it? I would never have thought that I could want to jump a drug dealer's bones, but in this movie, I do.

    Oh, and this movie includes my favorite car chase ever, set to the tune of "Magic Carpet Ride". It's hilarious.

    Quotes:

    Simon Baines: They can't evict you on Christmas! Then you'd be ho-ho-homeless!
    
    Ronna: I need a favor.
    Todd: Wow, I didn't know we'd become such good friends! Because if we had, you'd know that I give head before I give favors, and I don't even give my best friends head ... so your chances of getting a favor are pretty slim.
    
    Victor Sr.: You know what wakes me up in the middle of the night covered in a cold sweat? Knowing that you aren't any worse than anyone else in your whole screwed up generation.
    
    Simon Baines: He's a good guy.
    Marcus: Oh, he's the good drug dealer.

85. Title: Magnolia
    Year: 1999
    Writer/Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
    Stars: Tom Cruise, William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, etc.

    I love movies that contain multiple stories that all come together and intertwine, and this film does the best job at that I've ever seen. It's an ensemble cast, with about a dozen different characters interacting in various ways I can't describe without giving away more than I would like to. But I'll list some quotes below that should give a feel for the film.

    William H. Macy and Philip Seymour Hoffman stunned me in their roles in this film, and Tom Cruise is delightfully despicable. Some people thought he overacted, but I've seen infomercials, and I fully believe that someone who did infomercials long-term as his primary source of income would become a little over-the-top. I thought Tom Cruise did a wonderful job in a role that is different from any I've seen him play before. And, aside from the actors, Aimee Mann's music is used throughout the film very movingly.

    Oh, and lastly, Paul Thomas Anderson (the film's writer/director) is 2 months older than I am, and he also wrote/directed Boogie Nights. Don't you just hate it when you realize some people your age are simply brilliant?

    Quotes:

    Narrator: There are stories of coincidence and chance, of intersections and strange things told, and which is which and nobody knows; and we generally say, "Well, if that was in a movie, I wouldn't believe it."
    
    Claudia Gator: I'll tell you everything, and you tell me everything, and maybe we can get through all the piss and shit and lies that kill other people.
    
    Jim Kurring: Let me tell you something, this is not an easy job. I get a call on the radio, dispatch, it's bad news. And it stinks. But this is my job and I love it. Because I want to do well -- in this life and in this world, I want to do well. And I want to help people. And I might get twenty bad calls a day. But one time I can help someone and make a save -- correct a wrong or right a situation -- then I'm a happy cop. And as we move through this life we should try and do good. Do good... And if we can do that, and not hurt anyone else, well... then...
    
    Jim Kurring: Sometimes people need a little help. Sometimes people need to be forgiven. And sometimes they need to go to jail.
    
    Frank T.J. Mackey: I will not apologize for who I am.

86. Title: The Matrix
    Year: 1999
    Star: Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne

    When I first saw this movie, I did so because I wanted to see snazzy special effects, but I was shocked to discover that the film is so much more than that. It actually has a really good concept and plot, with well-fleshed out background, gorgeous cinematography, and directing. Yes, the special effects are dazzling, but they aren't the sum total of the film.

    A young man discovers that the world around him is not what it seems, and he enters an alternative world of guerrilla warfare against computers that run the planet and harvest humans for fuel. It's more complicated than that, but I'll stop there to avoid giving away anything that isn't given in the first 10 minutes or so.

    Once again, I found much of the philosophy underlying the film fascinating. Morpheus (the main character's guide, his Yoda-like figure) is very Taoist (as is Yoda), but much of the film is also very Cartesian ("I think, therefore I am."), questioning how we can trust the reality of anything that occurs outside our own minds.

    Plus ... Keanu Reeves is way hot.

    Quotes:

    Neo: What is the Matrix?
    Trinity: The answer is out there, Neo, and it's looking for you, and it will find you if you want it to.
    
    Spoon boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead... only try to realize the truth.
    Neo: What truth?
    Spoon boy: There is no spoon.
    Neo: There is no spoon? Spoon boy: Then you'll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself.
    
    Neo: What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge bullets?
    Morpheus: No, Neo. I'm trying to tell you that when you're ready, you won't have to.
    
    Rhineheart: You have a problem with authority, Mr. Anderson.

87. Title: October Sky
    Year: 1999
    Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, and Laura Dern

    Based on true story of Homer Hickam, Jr. -- who made it out of coal-mining poverty and into NASA -- this movie focuses on the struggle of a young man to better himself and learn rocket science with little support or encouragement. His father, a coal miner, clashes with him about his future repeatedly. Both the actor playing the son (Jake Gyllenhaal, who also stars in Donnie Darko) and the actor playing the father (Chris Cooper, who also stars in Lone Star) give spectacular performances, making you empathize with both of them in different ways.

    Because of the excellent directing by somebody named Joe Johnston (who seems to do primarily kids' movies), most of my favorite bits in this movie are visual, rather than dialogue.

    Quotes:

    O'Dell: God's honest truth, Homer. What are the chances ... a bunch of kids from Coalwood ... actually winning the national science fair?
    Homer: A million to one, O'Dell.
    O'Dell: That good? Well, why didn't you say so?
    
    Principal Turner: Miss Riley, our job is to give these kids an education.
    Miss Riley: Mmm-hmm.
    Principal Turner: Not false hopes.
    Miss Riley: False hopes? Do you want me to sit quiet, let 'em breathe in coal dust the rest of their life?
    Principal Turner: Miss Riley, once in a while ... a lucky one ... will get out on a football scholarship. The rest of 'em work in the mines.
    Miss Riley: How 'bout I believe in the unlucky ones? Hmm? I have to, Mister Turner, I'd go out of my mind.
    
    Homer: No. Coal mining may be your life, but it's not mine. I'm never going down there again. I wanna go into space.

88. Title: The Sixth Sense
    Year: 1999
    Stars: Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment

    A child psychologist tries to help a disturbed young boy. But nothing is as it seems to be. I wanted to watch it again as soon as it finished the first time. Great acting, great writing, great plot twists, great directing, ... just plain great.

    Those with low IQs should probably watch it with someone who can explain it to them, because as Shannon and I walked out of the theatre we heard quite a few people expressing considerable confusion.

    Quote:

    Cole Sear: I see dead people.

89. Title: Memento
    Year: 2000
    Star: Guy Pearce

    Okay, you've probably figured out that I like interesting narrative structures, right? Well, Memento is probably the most innovatively structured film I've ever seen. Unlike some films, this innovation isn't a gimmick ... the structure tries to mimic the human experience of short-term memory, to awe-inspiring success. The main character cannot create new memories, and so he lives always in the present moment ... and with the memories of the distant past. This makes it rather difficult for him to seek vengeance for his wife's murder.

    Again, like The Matrix, this film is philosophically Cartesian in many ways, since the main character relies on post-it notes and other people to fill him in on the things he can't remember anymore. He has difficulty trusting anything that exists outside of his own mind, and yet his mind is faulty. He then tries to rely on notes written in his own handwriting, but that is merely an extension of his mind.

    It's a fascinating, complex story. Don't watch it when you're tired, because it does require paying attention.

    Quotes:

    Leonard Shelby: I have to believe in a world outside my own mind. I have to believe that my actions still have meaning... even if I can't remember them. I have to believe that when my eyes are closed, the world's still there.
    
    Teddy: You don't want the truth. You make up your own truth.

90. Title: The Princess and the Warrior
    Year: 2000
    Country: Germany
    Director: Tom Tykwer
    Stars: Franka Potente and Benno Fürmann

    Tom Tykwer also directed Winter Sleepers (which Shannon liked more than I did) and Run Lola Run (which is also on this list).

    While I think I may love this film as much as Run Lola Run, and while they are clearly products of the same bizarre brain, they are also extremely different movies. Franka Potente (the brash punk heroine in Lola) here is almost unrecognizable, playing Sissi ... an innocent, naive, and yet idealistically strong-willed young nurse in a psychiatric hospital. Sissi's simple, narrowly-defined life suddenly changes one day when she gets literally hit by a truck ... and meets the mysteriously comforting Bodo, who saves her life.

    Compared to Run Lola Run, The Princess and the Warrior is a relatively linear story. (Of course, that's not saying much, since almost anything is more linear than Run Lola Run's deliriously, deliciously spiralling action.) Visually, the film is simply gorgeous, sometimes breathtakingly so. The cinematography, the lighting, the sets ... everything works together to create a world of bright and dark, color and shadow, shape and movement that creates a dream-like world where anything seems possible, even the collision and connection of these two seemingly disparate characters.

    I don't want to say very much about the plot of The Princess and the Warrior, but I will definitely say that it's not a movie I would have enjoyed 10 years ago ... too much is communicated through implication alone, without ever being explicitly stated. I would have found it frustrating and confusing when I was younger, but today I find it hauntingly beautiful and evocative ... true in a way that few movies are in this era of Hollywood formula. Of course, I was bound to like it, because it's a redemption tale. Whether the characters choose to pursue redemption, whether they succeed at redemption, is not the point ... the point is the chance for redemption, and this movie is about that chance.

91. Title: Waking the Dead
    Year: 2000
    Stars: Billy Crudup and Jennifer Connelly

    A small independent film about a young politician who has lost his ethics and now finds himself revisited by visions of the lost love of his youth, a passionate young woman who brought out a less ruthless, more ethical side of his own personality.

    Billy Crudup is amazing here, very different from his performance in Almost Famous (which should also probably be on this list, but isn't).

    A favorite quote:

    Fielding Pierce: I never saw Sarah again. I think I've managed to help some people in Congress - do some good. Less than I'd have liked, but more than I feared. To this day I still don't know if Sarah was real that night or just a product of my broken heart. But Sarah, if you are alive, and it was you that night, here for one last moment of sweetness before going back out to try and make things better in the world... I can only say, keep fighting. God be with you. I love you. And if it wasn't really you - if your visit was only the you that still lives in my heart, the you that never gave up, that taught me what being brave was all about - if it was only the you that I will carry with me, in my soul, until the day I die... I can only say, keep fighting. And God be with you. I love you.

92. Title: Amélie
    Year: 2001
    Country: France

    For those of you who haven't seen it, "Amélie" is a film (er, a French film, to be specific) about a painfully shy young woman with a very active imagination and a love of stratagems, intrigue, mystery, etc. She sort of decides to start making the world better for various people, but without anyone knowing it's her ('cause she's so shy). It's just this young woman and the people around her, and how they all interact, and how she tries to give everyone what will make them happy.

    I really appreciated many of the film's messages, though some I was less sure about. In one case, the message seems to be that some people can only be happy if you tell them lies. In another case, the message seems to be that some people can only be happy by debasing others, and/or that some people really don't deserve compassion. But in general the film is about kindness, about really taking a moment to see other people and how they feel ... and about the simultaneous need to find your own happiness, too.

    Simply lovely film. Just beautiful.

    A Favorite Quote:

    Narrator: Some Fridays Amélie sees a movie.
    Amélie: I like looking back at people's faces in the dark. I like noticing details that no one else sees. But I hate it in old movies when drivers don't watch the road.
    Narrator: Amélie has no boyfriend. She tried once or twice, but the results were a letdown. Instead, she cultivates a taste for small pleasures: dipping her hand into sacks of grain, cracking créme brulée with a teaspoon, and skipping stones at St. Martin's canal.

93. Title: Donnie Darko
    Year: 2001
    Star: Jake Gyllenhaal

    I found this movie completely mesmerizing. I'm not sure if I looked away from the tv for more than a few seconds at a time. Jake Gyllenhaal is incredibly talented in the lead role, managing to be sweet, sympathetic, funny, and horribly creepy all at the same time.

    I'm not fond of scary movies, but I do enjoy an intelligent thriller (which is the classification Netflix used for "Donnie Darko".) Though this movie had a couple of moments that made me jump slightly, it's really more of a deep psychological character exploration than a classic example of any specific genre. It's quite unique, in my opinion. And I was still thinking about it days after I saw it for the first time, still amazed ... and enthusiastically looking forward to a second film by the talented writer/director Richard Kelly.

    Quotes:

    Frank: Twenty-eight days ... six hours ... forty-two minutes ... twelve seconds. That ... is when the world ... will end.
    
    Donnie: Why do you wear that stupid rabbit suit?
    Frank: Why do you wear that stupid man suit?

94. Title: Lord of the Rings Trilogy (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King)
    Years: 2001, 2002, 2003
    Country: New Zealand / U.S.A.

    The visuals throughout stunned and awed me; the actors without exception immensely impressed me; and the entire experience -- despite the changes from the books -- just gave me chills.

    One of the changes from the books is that Frodo is ... well ... less annoying in the movies. In the films, he's clearly afraid, but he's portrayed as selfless, stalwart, and almost stoic in the face of this understandable fear ... we admire the bravery within him that allows someone so small to stand up to a task so large. But in the book (at least in the early part of The Fellowship of the Ring), Frodo whines and angsts and broods almost constantly. I like him much better in the movies.

    Quotes:

    Galadriel: Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.
    
    Frodo: I am Frodo Baggins, and this is Samwise Gamgee.
    Faramir: Your bodyguard?
    Sam: His gardener.
    
    Sam: It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why.
    
    Frodo: I need you on my side.
    Sam: I'm on your side Mr Frodo.
    Frodo: I know you are Sam.

95. Title: Moulin Rouge
    Year: 2001
    Director: Baz Luhrmann
    Stars: Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman

    I think this movie is basically a visually complex but ideologically symplistic live-action comic book illustrating the basic "bohemian" concepts of truth, beauty, freedom, and love. The film is undeniably visibly beautiful, with sets that are heavily stylized but also frequently almost mind-bendingly elaborate, and Nicole Kidman (whom I have always thought vaguely pretty) looks mesmerizingly gorgeous in a series of incredible costumes. The film's visual beauty alone makes it worth a look, in my opinion.

    The plot, the characters, and much of the underlying ideology are overly simplistic, but I see the film as similar to commedia dell'arte, with types instead of true characters. The entire film -- visuals, characterization, plot, and music -- is highly stylistic, but in a way I very much enjoyed.

    Quotes:

    Christian: Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months. And then, one not-so-very special day, I sat down at my typewriter and wrote our story. A story about a time, a story about a place, a story about the people. But above all these things, a story about love. A love that will live forever. The End.
    
    Christian: The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.

96. Title: Spirited Away
    Year: 2001
    Country: U.S.A. / Japan
    Director: Hayao Miyazaki

    Miyazaki weaves such incredible tapestries of folk tale and mythology and modern life and what looks to me like Toaist philosophy. Chihiro, the young heroine of "Spirited Away," is not a Hollywood character. She is kind and afraid and brave and generous and compassionate. She is quietly, gently, lovingly strong.

    She is the person I try to be, every day of my life. And I'm so grateful to Hayao Miyazaki for showing her as a heroine.

    Quote:

    Zeniba: Now, try to remember as much as you can about your old life.
    Chihiro: For some reason, I can remember Haku ... from a long time ago ... but I thought I never met him before!
    Zeniba: Oh, that's a wonderful place to start! Once you meet someone, you never really forget them.

97. Title: The Bourne Trilogy (The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum)
    Years: 2002, 2004, 2007
    Star: Matt Damon

    I love this trilogy, though I'm not usually much of a fan of action flicks. Jason Bourne is an amnesiac assassin who is in search of his true identity. He's supremely capable, surviving situation after situation that looks 100% deadly. He can do almost anything, survive almost anything, and yet he is also a good person. A good person who doesn't hesitate to kill anyone coming after him, but still a basically good person who finds himself in a very dangerous situation. One reason I like the Bourne movies is that I like rooting for the underdog and seeing him win. Almost everyone is against Jason Bourne, but he always manages to come out on top.

    Quote:

    Jason Bourne: Who has a safety deposit box full of ... money and six passports and a gun? Who has a bank account number in their hip? I come in here, and the first thing I'm doing is I'm catching the sightlines and looking for an exit.
    Marie: I see the exit sign, too, I'm not worried. I mean, you were shot. People do all kinds of weird and amazing stuff when they are scared.
    Jason Bourne: I can tell you the license plate numbers of all six cars outside. I can tell you that our waitress is left-handed and the guy sitting up at the counter weighs two hundred fifteen pounds and knows how to handle himself. I know the best place to look for a gun is the cab of the gray truck outside, and at this altitude, I can run flat out for a half mile before my hands start shaking. Now why would I know that? How can I know that and not know who I am?
    
    Pamela Landy: Listen, people - do you have any idea who you're dealing with? This is Jason Bourne. You are nine hours behind the toughest target you have ever tracked. Now I want everyone to sit down, strap in, and turn on all you've got. That would mean now.
    
    Noah Vosen: [in car, on cell phone] Perhaps we can arrange a meet.
    Jason Bourne: Where are you now?
    Noah Vosen: I'm sitting in my office.
    Jason Bourne: I doubt that.
    Noah Vosen: Why do you doubt that?
    Jason Bourne: Because if you were in your office right now we'd be having this conversation face-to-face.
    [Bourne hangs up]

98. Title: Lost in Translation
    Year: 2003
    Stars: Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson

    This film reminds me a bit of American Beauty, in that they are both about existential questions moreso than plot. Lost in Translation is the tale of an aging film actor visiting Japan to appear in a commercial, where he meets a lonely young American woman with whom he connects culturally and emotionally. Both of them are asea in Japanese culture, very isolated, and so they come together for shelter.

    The film explores interesting questions about what life is, what it's meaning is, what it's about, what our place in it is, and how to find our own true direction through it. Shannon didn't like the movie much, because it has so little plot, but I enjoyed watching these two characters explore themselves and each other.

    Quotes:

    Bob: Can you keep a secret? I'm trying to organize a prison break. I'm looking for, like, an accomplice. We have to first get out of this bar, then the hotel, then the city, and then the country. Are you in or you out?
    Charlotte: I'm in. I'll go pack my stuff.
    Bob: I hope that you've had enough to drink. It's going to take courage.
    
    Charlotte: I just don't know what I'm supposed to be.
    Bob: You'll figure that out. The more you know who you are, and what you want, the less you let things upset you.

99. Title: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
    Year: 2004
    Stars: Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet

    A vaguely science-fictiony story (but only because of the basic premise) about two lovers who choose to have their memories of each other erased. Their relationship doesn't end so easily, however, and they find each other again. What I like best about this film is the narrative structure, as the story moves largely backwards through time.

    Quotes:

    Joel: Sand is overrated. It's just tiny, little rocks.
    
    Clementine: You're not a stalker, or anything, right?
    Joel: I'm not a stalker. YOU'RE the one that talked to me, remember?
    Clementine: That is the oldest trick in the stalker book.
    Joel: Really? There's a stalker book? Great, I gotta read that one.

100. Title: Milk
     Year: 2008
     Star: Sean Penn

     This film -- the true story of Harvey Milk's political life -- was made more meaningful to me by the fact that it came out right around the California Prop. 8 win that eliminated same-sex couples' right to marry in the state. I was very disappointed at the election results, as I firmly believe that all consenting adults should have the same rights, including the right to marry any other consenting adult they choose. It was something of a relief, therefore, to watch this movie about gays being triumphant. Yes, Harvey Milk is killed at the end (sorry to spoil you if you are the one person on earth who didn't know that's how the story ends), but before that happens he achieves such great and inspiring things. He was the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, and he inspired so many other people to follow their dreams and not let prejudice frighten them. I may not be gay, but I too find him inspiring.

     Quotes:

     Harvey Milk: My name is Harvey Milk and I'm here to recruit you!
     
     Harvey Milk: [voiceover, last lines] I ask this ... If there should be an assassination, I would hope that five, ten, one hundred, a thousand would rise. I would like to see every gay lawyer, every gay architect come out. If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door ... And that's all. I ask for the movement to continue. Because it's not about personal gain, not about ego, not about power ... it's about the "us's" out there. Not only gays, but the Blacks, the Asians, the disabled, the seniors, the us's. Without hope, the us's give up - I know you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living. So you, and you, and you ... You gotta give em' hope ... you gotta give em' hope.