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The Films That Mean The Most To Me

REPOSTED FROM MYSPACE BLOG EARLIER TODAY



"I believe your name will be a household word when you'll have to go to the War Museum to find who Allenby was. You're the most extraordinary man I've ever met!"
-- Major Allenby from Lawrence Of Arabia

"Let's go."
-- Pike Bishop from The Wild Bunch

"I have often thought that in the hereafter of our lives, when I owe no more to the future and can be just a man, that we may meet, and you will come to me and claim me as yours, and know that I am your husband. It is a dream I have..."
-- King Arthur from Excalibur


The things I will do for Dr. Royce Clemens. I really must like him a great deal because I am not that fond of most people. He is my kind of son of bitch. He and Miss Movie Fan did their top ten favorite films list. He tagged ten of us.

I do not have a top ten or even a top fifty favorite films, but I do have a group of films I keep going back to again and again. I see something new in them every time I watch them. Why is not the Star Wars Saga or The Godfather Trilogy chosen here? Those are a give! Like Indiana Jones, James Bond and Jaws-- those films make up a permanent cinematic DNA that exists forever. There are many more films I could have picked, but these are special to me and the major reasons I do what I do. It is hard to narrow it down to ten, even a hundred films is hard because so many films mean so much to me. Ask me to do this list tomorrow and I promise you it will be different. This is why we are all here in the first place-- a real love for films, all kinds of films. I can tell you that I am not here to buy and sell my friends as Tom believes we should. Here are the films that mean the most to me in no order at all…

1. Excalibur-- John Boorman's 1981 epic is more Wagnerian than Arthurian. It may be the best use of Richard Wagner's music ever (besides the helicopter attack in Coppola's Apocalypse Now.) My parents took me to see this film at the Mercado in the fifth grade. Why do I still like it-- everyone gets what they deserve! It plays like The Godfather set in medieval times. Helen Mirren gives one of her best performances as the evil Morgana and Nicol Williamson is divine as Merlin. Nigel Terry is the definitive King Arthur. John Boorman is one of my favorite directors. As much as I like Point Blank, The Emerald Forest, Deliverance, The Tailor Of Panama, Hope And Glory and Hell In The Pacific, I always come back to this one.

2. The Road Warrior-- Max Rockatansky will always be Mel Gibson's best role. The Road Warrior is one of those cases where the sequel is better than the original. George Miller's post-apocalyptic masterpiece is the ultimate action film. The Mad Max films hit all the right notes. I had never seen anything like The Road Warrior in the summer of 1982. From the opening 16mm prologue to the tanker chase at the end, it was and remains a hypnotic rush. It was on cable last year; it holds up very well. Kevin Costner needs to stay away from this genre. After seeing it, I told a friend I liked it more than Star Wars. He thought I was nuts. I knew I watched something special. For a kid frightened by the threat of nuclear war, this had a strange, calming effect on me.

3. The Wild Bunch-- There is a reason they called Sam Peckinpah "Bloody Sam." This is one of the main reasons. According to David Weddle's biography, If They Move..Kill 'Em, it was the only film that Peckinpah made clean and sober. That says something right there. William Holden's Pike Bishop was playing against type as the ultimate anti-hero. Bishop is like an older and jaded Shears from The Bridge On The River Kwai. The film is quite simply about men who have outlived their times. The loyalty and friendship among this group of aging outlaws says it best. The chemistry between Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Ben Johnson and Warren Oates is priceless. Robert Ryan was never better. Ryan is playing against type here too. The climatic shootout at the end is the very definition of wargasm. The climatic bloodbath makes Brian De Palma's Scarface look like Mickey Cohen's Bar-Mitzvah. Peckinpah is my favorite director. I like his sons too-- Quentin Tarantino, John Woo and Johnny To.

4. National Lampoon's Animal House--
"Miss, do you know this is an R-rated film?"
"We love John Belushi, I really don't care."
That was the exchange on the opening day of Animal House between my Mom and the lady at the ticket counter. I was seven years old at the time, but Belushi was an early comedic idol of mine. My Mom loved SNL as well. She took me and my older brother Saul to see it. We couldn't stop laughing. It is the original subversive comedy. Stripes is right up there with it. When Belushi died, a lot went with him. Still, this film has aged very well-- not just the food fight but the Death Mobile and even the Toga party. Bluto's speech remains one of the best:

"Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!"
I wish John Landis still made films like this one. One of college's great disappointments was that it was never as much fun as this film… not even close.

5. Lawrence Of Arabia-- David Lean's 1962 epic. Why? I tried to watch this on home video in 1984. I was bored. My parents took me to see the restored version in 1989 at the Uptown theater. WOW!!! This is why movies were meant to be seen in the theaters. Every time I watch this film, I find something new. It works on every level. The direction, the acting, Maurice Jarre's score, the script, the cinematography and everything else works in this film. This was Peter O'Toole's first starring movie role. He had done some television work and lots of theater before this iconic role. Thank goodness Marlon Brando was doing Mutiny On The Bounty and Albert Finney was too short. For O'Toole, a blessing and curse-- how do you top this role? Given the subject matter, it will not be dated anytime soon. It is the ultimate cinematic adventure. You can have your CGI wastelands. I miss these kinds of films. I saw this in the theater the same week I saw a re-release of Gone With The Wind in the theater. That was a great week.

6. Where The Buffalo Roam-- This is where I fell in love with Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Long before Wes Anderson and Jim Jarmusch rediscovered Bill Murray, he played Dr. Hunter S. Thompson in Art Linson's Where The Buffalo Roam. It may feel dated and lack the visual daring of Terry Gilliam's Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, but in the summer of 1984, this was the equivalent of discovering gold. I love Bill Murray in Stripes, Meatballs, Ghostbusters and Caddyshack, but he is perfect in this film. It had Peter Boyle as Carl Lazlo who stole the film. This is my favorite Peter Boyle role. He and Murray have such great chemistry. This film made me seek out all of Hunter S. Thompson's books for the rest of my life. The film made me want to become a writer eventually. Johnny Depp is the only other actor who could inhabit the good doctor. It is my favorite Bill Murray film.

7. The Wind And The Lion-- I make no secret of my love for this John Milius film. He was in full John Huston/David Lean mode when he made this film. I think he always lived in Lean and Huston's shadow, just as Walter Hill always lived in Peckinpah's shadow. Sidney Lumet managed to break Sean Connery out of the James Bond mode with films like The Hill and The Anderson Tapes. Milius gave Sean Connery his greatest part as El Raisuli, a Berber chieftain in Morocco who kidnaps Candice Bergen and her children in 1904. Forget Murphy Brown, Bergen was never better than as Eden Perdicaris. Connery and Bergen have great chemistry together in the tradition of The African Queen and Heaven Knows Mr. Allison. Brian Keith is awesome as Teddy Roosevelt and John Huston is great as John Hay. It has one of my favorite Jerry Goldsmith scores of all time. I saw this the same time as The Man Who Would Be King which is another excellent film and would be on this list if I wanted to do more than ten. It always saddens me when people talk about Sean Connery; they have never heard of these films that truly proved he was a great actor. Everything that made Connery a great James Bond is on full display in this film.

8. The Night Of The Generals-- Peter O'Toole is at his most sadistic and crazed best as the Nazi General Tanz with a passion for killing prostitutes. What a cast: Omar Sharif, Tom Courtenay, Donald Pleasance, Charles Gray and Philippe Noiret are in the film as well. I could have easily picked Cross Of Iron and everyone knows I would, but this film is one of the great rematches of Sharif and O'Toole. It was the Heat of its day. Sharif's Major Grau is an obsessive Wehrmacht intelligence officer on the trail of a serial killer during World War II. He narrows it down to a group of Nazi Generals. The final showdown between O'Toole and Sharif is classic. The supporting cast is great. Jarre's score is out of this world.

9. Apocalypse Now-- Francis Ford Coppola still talks about making On The Road into a film. He already did it with Apocalypse Now which is really just an updated version of Homer's Odyssey set during the Vietnam War. Like Kubrick's Paths Of Glory, it shows us the insanity of war throughout the film. It holds up better than the two other Vietnam films of its era-- Coming Home and The Deer Hunter. It is more than just a war film and that is why it holds up so well. The film is a series of happy accidents that truly made the film a masterpiece. Watching Coppola's Youth Without Youth the other night was a painful reminder that the Coppola who made Apocalypse Now is no longer making great films. Martin Sheen's voice over narration is perfect and I quote from it too much. Willard was his best role without a doubt—even more so than Badlands or The Dead Zone. Was Redux necessary? Yes, if only to see it on the big screen again, but the French Plantation sequence does not need to be there. As Kurtz, Brando's weight has never been more an asset than in this film. He does not have to move at all. His voice is all we need in the film. Apocalypse Now never gets old. Like Lawrence Of Arabia, it feels as fresh as when it first opened. Human nature never changes.


10. Once Upon A Time In The West-- It is not just a western, but a mythological epic about America. Just watch Gangs Of New York to see how much of an influence Sergio Leone's epic was on Martin Scorsese. It is not just Ennio Morricone's beautiful score or Charles Bronson's greatest role. It is not because Henry Fonda plays against type and shoots a kid. It is not just because Claudia Cardinale is the most beautiful screen goddess since Julie Christie in Doctor Zhivago. It is not just because Jason Robards seems to be having the time of his life. It is not just because of the fantastic opening credits sequence. It is all of those reasons and many more. It is between this film and The Wild Bunch as my all time favorites. Sergio Leone, like Kubrick and Lean, did not make enough films, but like those other giants, he left us jewels. Once Upon A Time In The West is his jewel in the crown. Leone managed to take all the things that made The Man With No Name trilogy work and expand on them further with this film. The film is chock full of precious moments. Another reason I like it so much; Gabriele Ferzetti as Morton. He was perfect in the film and knows how the world works. Even Fonda's sadistic Frank knows he is most powerful man in the room. Bronson gives a once in a lifetime performance as Harmonica. This film is another reason films were meant to be seen in the theater.

These are ten films that mean a a great deal to me. This list is only the beginning. You have been warned.

You Go To Find Your Maker In The Blizzard: Flashbacks To Another Age

Special Note: This is a repost from a MySpace blog I wrote on January 21, 2007. I wanted to repost it on this site as well. I believe this is where the Quentin Tarantino obsession begins. Thank you.



Sometime yesterday morning as I was waking up, I could not stop thinking about that Babel film. Not the usual stuff, why did it win a Golden Globe or any awards season crap like that. It will get a lot of nominations this Tuesday and it does not really matter in the long or short run of things. So many people seem to like the film that really is Crash's sleeker and hipper younger brother. I was really just thinking of Brad Pitt's performance and why I deleted my review I was writing on October 8th. I was forcing myself to like a film that may be 21 Grams lite at best. It is Pitt's performance that stands out and the one thing I take away from the film. So thinking about that and dreading a morning run against the cold winds-- my mind wondered off back to the Blizzard of 1993. My last year of college, I moved back home and it turned out to be the best decision I could make. I must be the only person in the history of the University Of Maryland who preferred home to dorm or apartment life. Sometime in 1992, I finally fell in love with reading on my own again. Sadly, I dumbed myself down during the first couple of years of college. I knew I was on the right track while reading Tom Robbins Skinny Legs And All before class one time and someone came over and thought it was for class. They were relieved it was not required reading. English majors were not to keen to do outside reading-- at least this was one observation. I just kind of had to read again and catch up. My Dad always said I would be playing catch up. He is still so right.

During Spring Break of 1993, we got hit with a major blizzard for these parts. It was very cool. I just stayed home watching films and writing a lot of poetry for class and just for myself. Than I looked at the show times in the paper. Reservoir Dogs was back in circulation. It opened in October of 1992 and closed after a week at the Outer Circle. I told someone we should go see the film and they looked at me as though I was nuts. For an indie film, it did get a write up for its poor box office performance in Variety the following week. I always thought that was odd. All I knew at that time was Wes Craven walked out of a screening of the film. My brother, Saul, was lucky enough to have seen it in New York and said it was the best film of 1992 besides Howard's End. Tarantino's film would come back to the Foundry or the Cerebus-- old Georgetown theaters that no longer exist. But it didn't stay long there either. So when I saw it playing at the Janus-- I knew we had to see it. Loyal friend and fellow movie partner, Scott a.k.a. Skippy was game for it. Although he would not do the original double feature of Reservoir Dogs and Bad Lieutenant. It was so cool to see Harvey Keitel enjoying a second wind. Mortal Thoughts and Thelma And Louise brought him back and this was the reward. I would have done the double feature with no problem. But Skippy was not sure about either film. So we got into the good old Red Jeep Cherokee that 10 years later would take me to and from California. Lots of snow, but very little traffic and parking was not that bad. Come on it's the aftermath of blizzard in Washington DC-- this place closes down for flurries.

The Janus like the Outer Circle, the Key, the Biograph, the Embassy and countless others is no longer around. My Mom and I were counting the theaters that have closed around over the last twenty years and it is staggering. I think the first film I saw at the Janus was Watership Down and we saw Das Boot there too. Watching Reservoir Dogs was meaningful. I would come back here to see Stalingrad, Trees Lounge, Boys Don't Cry and countless others. So how was watching Reservoir Dogs? It was perfect. This Tarantino guy was like one of us. The geek that triumphed and got his vision to the screen. The dialogue was so razor sharp and the references were kept telling me-- he gets it. He loves the art form so much. The violence was so refreshing-- at the time Steven Seagal passed for action and that was unacceptable. It was only the summer before that I saw John Woo's The Killer-- how could I ever go back to the generic shit after seeing John Woo or Ringo Lam or later on Johhny To. I felt vindicated watching this heist film. I felt good. It was refreshing and would set everything up. True Romance and Natural Born Killers became things to look out for sooner than later. Killing Zoe was a film to see no matter where it was playing. Pulp Fiction needed to be seen opening day at all costs. I devoured everything about him after watching the film. It was a revelation. Hell, Tarantino owned War Of the Gargantuas on laserdisc-- how could you not love this guy?

Before this blizzard, actually during winter break. We went to go see The Crying Game at Dupont Circle and then went to The Palm for dinner afterwards. I miss those days and times. Those family outings and going to our favorite restaurant will live with me for the rest of my days. While watching the trailers before hand. My brother, Michael, turned to me and mentioned that I had seen all the films already. One of them was for Peter's Friends which my Mom and I saw earlier that week. I never get bored of this thing. The best is when we went to The Usual Suspects at the same theater back in 1995 and we were all pretty blown away by that one too. Those days seem like a distant era. Another time that seems like it never existed in the first place. I really miss the times my brothers and I would walk up to the Mercado-- a great theater that is no longer with us. We saw The Man Who Would Be King and The Wind And The Lion there. We saw everything there and yes that is where I watch Excalibur for the first time. That film is one of my favorites. Just go check out Shaun's Blog for more on that.

A normal person would not make the jump from Babel to Tarantino, but that is just how my mind works. I think for many people my age and younger, Quentin Tarantino represents to us many things. Sure, he is one of hundreds of directors I worship. And I am very grateful that I went with my gut that day and witnessed the birth of something special in my life. Tarantino made me love film making again. The freshness of things came back. The following week, the film came out on video. My parents watched it and were enthralled and years later I loaned the film to my friend, Dave. I decided to buy another copy; the thought of Reservoir Dogs not in the house freaked me out, but I wanted him to see it. We had a blast watching Pulp Fiction. And my friend Skippy is a good guy. He moved to Seattle and I visited him out back in 1997. It was a weird time I was going through back then, but he made it worthwhile. 1997 was a a cluster fuck of a year for me-- but that is another blog. And for those of you who have been reading since July. Skippy is a lot like Jay Liebenow. Are they my Tyler Durdens? I miss them, but we all have to go our own ways. But I would be a liar, if I did not say that they added a lot of value to my life.