Movies worth watching again and again

Movies worth watching again and again….

 

Lately I've been thinking about how movies are a big part of my life and have often helped influence my thinking. To that end, I've come up with a list of movies that made me cry, terrified me, gave me something to think about or had an impact on my life…so far!! This list is only a snapshot of the pivotal films in my life. For example, there is no Foreign or English film on this list, yet I love them and thought I watched them in preference to the American Genre. Also I stopped at American Psycho, not because there haven’t been great movies since 2000, but I had to stop somewhere! Otherwise this list would be endless!

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13 Favourite Movies
Gone with the Wind (1940)– The best movie of the best book ever written. Clarke Gable as Rhett Butler spoilt me forever. I can’t believe Scarlett let him slip through her fingers. I’ve watched this movie at least 7 times and read the book three times, and never tired of either. I now have it on DVD.

The Wizard of Oz (1939) – The Wicked Witch of the West scared me witless! My brother took me to see it and I can remember him having to put his hand over my eyes because I was too terrified to move! In those days we paid sixpence and got a ticket to the movies and a milky iceblock. Judy Garland singing “Somewhere over the Rainbow” has stayed with me forever.

Scream of Fear (1961)– Another brother took me to this one (is there a message here?). It whetted my appetite for psychological dramas.  After narrowly surviving an accident in which she nearly drowned, wheelchair bound Penny Appleby returns home.....

Giant (1956) – Rock Hudson, James Dean and Elizabeth Taylor – need I say more? Sprawling epic covering the life of a Texas cattle rancher and his family and associates. The first saga movie for me.

Easy Rider (1969) – Two counterculture bikers (Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda) travel from Los Angeles to New Orleans in search of America.  I remember going camping with three friends after seeing this movie and we were all convinced we would be beaten up and left for dead by bikies! I watched it on TV recently and it was just as good. Jack Nicholson showed even then what a great actor he is. Even more poignant with Dennis Hopper passing over last week.  RIP Dennis.

Doctor Zhivago (1965) -- Omar Shariff ... need I say more? Except that this one set the bar for my taste in romance films: heartbreak, heartbreak and more heartbreak. Lara's Theme still rings in my ears today.

Kramer vs Kramer (1979) Meryl Streep won her first Oscar for her performance. There are three sides to this love story. A just divorced man must learn to care for his son on his own, and then must fight in court to keep custody of him. Perfect timing! Came out not long after my first marriage broke up. Gave me the big guilts about the effect on my three year old son and gave my ex husband the idea that he should have custody!

One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)– If he's crazy, what does that make you?Upon arrival at a mental institution, a brash rebel rallies the patients together to take on the oppressive Nurse Ratched, a woman more a dictator than a nurse.  Class scene when the inmates escape for the day and going fishing. A sad and scarey inditement to the often barbaric practices in mental asylums.

Terms of Endearment (1983) -- Shirley MacLaine begging for pain meds for Debra Winger ... Debra Winger saying goodbye to her sons ... . Oh. My. Gosh! Motherhood at its most heart wrenching. And of course there is Jack Nicholson as the sleezy ex astronaut.

Out of Africa (1985) – Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. Based on the true story of Karen Blixen. Set in 20th century colonial Kenya, a Danish baroness/plantation owner (Blixen) has a passionate but ultimately doomed love affair with a free-sprited big-game hunter.

The English Patient (1996) - Affected me much like Doctor Zhivago, only this time I was an adult - and still a fan of heartbreak, heartbreak, and more heartbreak. Plus, Ralph Fiennes ... need I say more?

Boys Don't Cry (1999) - This absolutely broke my heart, so much so that I was impelled to make my girls watch it. They really probably weren't old enough for its graphic violence and theme but I wanted them to see what sheer hate can do in hopes of warning them against ever associating with anyone carrying -  and acting upon  -  such hate.

American Psycho (2000) - A wealthy New York investment banking executive hides his alternate psychopathic ego from his co-workers and friends as he escalates deeper into his illogical, gratuitous fantasies. Having to sit through the group sex scene with my 16 year old daughter was mortifying. I thought it would never end. I only went because she wanted to go and I had no idea what was in it, except that it was about a serial killer.