Favorite Movies List revised at last
Until Serenity my personal top three movies hadn't changed in 21 years - as of Sept. 29, 2005, the list was ...1. It's A Wonderful Life
2. The Wizard of Oz
3. Casablanca
4. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
5. To Kill a Mockingbird
I knew before Serenity premiered that things were gonna change, but those top movies have had such a profound effect on my life that, even after seeing it for the first time was the most fun I've had in a movie theater since my first Casablanca experience with a roomful of fellow college kids in the '70s, I haven't been able to decide where the Malcolm Reynolds saga fits in my brain.
So Nathan Fillion and friends nudge Bogie and Bergman aside, but can they nudge aside the enduring fun of Oz or the spirit-lifting punch in the gut that Capra gave me in Bedford Falls?
After careful review, I think not.
1. It's A Wonderful Life
2. The Wizard of Oz
3. Serenity
4. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
5. Casablanca
6. To Kill A Mockingbird
7. A Christmas Story
8. V for Vendetta
9. Shakespeare in Love
10. Glory
The revised Top 10 bumps Raiders of the Lost Ark and As Good As It Gets. Don't worry, they're never far away.
posted by B.W. Richardson at
8:36 AM
5 Comments:
Serenity and V is for Vendetta have jostled my list as well. I still hang on to The Best Years of Our Lives, A Face in the Crowd, and The Big Liebowski.
Every time I watch Serenity I like it more and more ... This may be heresy to the really hardcore Buffy buffs, but I think it's easily Joss Whedon's finest ork thus far
I don't know that I could make a ten favorite films list, but I like yours. I'd need to have some other qualifier to pare a list down to ten.
Though I enjoyed ET it wouldn't be on any of my short lists and I probably would rate Gods and Generals over Glory.
In a recent episode of "The Colbert Report", Stephen Colbert denounced It's A Wonderful Life as being anti-market (or something like that). I've heard that point of view propounded seriously from a few libertarians. They seem to forget that Mr. Potter was on the draft board (and seemed quite close to the local government) while George Bailey was a grass roots style businessman.
I love both Frank Capra and Preston Sturges films. Both have DVD collections either out or coming soon.
Vache, oh yeah, Best Years of Our Lives! That puppy was in my top 10 before some of the more recent movies came along.
I'll have to see Gods and Generals, Tom, it's one of many great movies I've yet to see. Finally saw Seven Samurai this summer - wow!!
Preston Sturges, yeah! Where was he all my life? I never heard of him and then I couldn't get enough - Palm Beach Story, Miracle of Morgan Creek and especially Sullivan's Travels - WOW!!!
Yes, I particularly like Sullivan's Travels too. However, even that doesn't rate as highly with me as The Lady Eve or The Great McGinty. Of course, since I'm a huge Stanwyck fan that adds to the Sturges influence with The Lady Eve. Plus, Henry Fonda in a comic role? You bet, at least in The Lady Eve. The great supporting cast with William Demarest (one of my favorite character actors -- Sturges used him a lot), Eugene Palette (another favorite) and Eric Blore (yet another) really make it stand out. Criterion has it on DVD so Netflix should offer it. HBO has it coming in December too.
I could also rave about The Great McGinty and Hail the Conquering Hero -- both just recently out on DVD in a new Sturges collection -- but this comment is already pretty long.
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