Filed under: Uncategorized
While cleaning out some old piles of notebooks today, I came across this list of my favorite movies ever. I made it in April 27, 1997, which would have been about two weeks before I turned sixteen. At that point, I had never gone on a date, had sex*, worked, been to a city without my parents, or, um, done much of anything else. But I sure liked movies! I’d usually rent one or two a day, leading to all sorts of parental drama because the nearest video store wasn’t in walking distance and I always ignored my homework in favor of watching Merchant Ivory productions and the important Hollywood social dramas of the sixties and seventies.
In my typical overwrought fashion, it was, of course, a top 100, almost entirely comprised of movies that won lots of Oscars. It was very neatly written, for some reason with the title, year of origin, first-billed actor (!!), and genre. In the margin I wrote the rating and, later on, I guess, the director’s name. Probably because I was really bored all the time. I won’t replicate all that here. But here’s the list:
100. Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte
99. Angels and Insects
98. Oklahoma!
97. The Enchanted April
96. The Secret of Roan Inish
95. GoodFellas [This one's crossed out, for some reason, but later, or at least in a different color pen.]
94. Once Were Warriors
93. The Wizard of Oz [I thought this was a very boring movie as a child, and think it's a very boring movie now. This must have just been a phase I was going through.]
92. Hairspray
91. Fatal Attraction
90. Rain Man
89. Breakfast At Tiffany’s
88. JFK
87. Anastasia
86. The Madness of King George
85. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie [Because that movie surely means a lot to a tenth-grader.]
84. Psycho [I don't particularly think this is one of Hitchcock's better movies, btw.]
83. Heathers
82. 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould
81. Avalon
80. Malcolm X
79. Gigi
78. Tootsie
77. Pee Wee’s Big Adventure [This should have been much higher!]
76. Beetlejuice
75. How Green Was My Valley [Oh, really now.]
74. Hannah and Her Sisters
73. Pulp Fiction
72. The Producers
71. South Pacific
70. The Tall Blond Man With One Black Shoe [The French one, not the one with Tom Hanks.]
69. Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
68. All The King’s Men
67. In The Heat of the Night
66. Network [I'd put this much higher, later on, but I was probably too scared by it to like it too much.]
65. Fantasia
64. The Dresser
63. The Crying Game [See Network above.]
62. Beauty and the Beast
61. Lost Horizon [I have no recollection of ever having seen this movie.]
60. The Gods Must Be Crazy [I didn't know better!]
59. Crossfire
58. Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam
57. Raising Arizona
56. Foreign Correspondent [My favorite Hitchcock movie now, probably. Top 3, anyway.]
55. Glory [Look forward to a post in the near future talking about this movie...]
54. An American In Paris [I don't remember liking this. Doesn't it take an hour to end?]
53. Witness For The Prosecution
52. A Room With A View
51. Terms of Endearment [Shut up.]
50. Dead Man Walking
49. Platoon [My family made me see this in the movie theater when I was five. True story!]
48. Short Cuts [But after I watched this with my family, I wasn't allowed to see R-rated movies anymore.]
47. To Kill A Mockingbird
46. Young Frankenstein
45. My Left Foot
44. Gone With The Wind [If you had asked me yesterday, I'd have told you that I never watched this all the way through.]
43. 2001: A Space Odyssey [This either, actually.]
42. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
41. Howard’s End [I'm surprised this isn't higher, based on how many times I remember watching it.]
40. Goldfinger
39. Rear Window [Again, not one of my favorite Hitchcock movies.]
38. Fargo
37. The Graduate [I was this again and was bored to pieces, incidentally.]
36. Tom Jones
35. Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner
34. The Bridge on the River Kwai [Good choice, actually.]
33. Blow-Up
32. You Can’t Take It With You [I just had to look this up to see what it was. I still don't remember it.]
31.5 Adam’s Rib [This is handwritten in with an arrow, which I guess is why GoodFellas was crossed out?]
31. Annie Hall
30. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
29. A Man for All Seasons
28. Casablanca
27. Schindler’s List
26. All About Eve [I should see this again.]
25. Top Hat
24. Mrs Miniver
23. The Philadelphia Story
22. My Fair Lady
21. A Hard Day’s Night
20. The Player
19. Singin’ In The Rain
18. Strangers On A Train
17. The Thin Man
16. M*A*S*H
15. The Day The Earth Stood Still
14. On The Waterfront
13. Citizen Kane
12. All Quiet On The Western Front
11. Vertigo
10. Bonnie and Clyde
9. A Streetcar Named Desire
8. Roman Holiday
7. West Side Story
6. Star Wars
5. North By Northwest
4. Dr. Strangelove
3. The Last Picture Show
2. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
1. Nashville
(*I mention that too because those two happened, when they did happen, in more or less in reverse order than most other people do it.)
