In the kaleidoscopic realm of pop culture, I freely admit I am completely clueless, out of touch and mired in the past.
I am also old enough not to care about that anymore.
Nowhere is this more true than the movies. I have loved the cinema from my youth and hold fond memories of going to the theater with family and friends. I got hooked on the James Bond films after seeing the first two, “Dr. No” and “From Russia With Love,” in a double feature when I was 8 or 9. (Whatever happened to double features, by the way? Long gone, like doubleheaders in baseball; insert sad emoji here.)
Earlier this year we gathered the family to watch “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” this year’s Academy Award winner for Best Picture. Like most folks these days, we saw it on a streaming service rather than in a movie theater. That in itself can affect the appeal of a film; I think great movies are meant for the big screen.
Anyway, we sat through all 139 minutes of this hyperactive flick and I was glad when it ended. The extended scenes of ninja/kung fu fighting – two or three times too long – wore me out and the plot got lost in the blizzard of special effects and rapid-fire editing.
I give the makers of the film credit for imagination, but I’ve seen much more enjoyable creativity in other recent movies like “Don’t Look Up” (2021) or “The Midnight Sky” (2020), both on Netflix.
Just to prove what an old fogy I am, I present my top 10 favorite movies list, in inverse order and all released between 1935 and 1984. I challenge you, dear readers, to watch any of these (if you haven’t already) and tell me you didn’t enjoy them.
10. “The Day the Earth Stood Still” (1951) One of the best science fiction movies of all time, its lessons still resonate today. Michael Rennie is perfectly cast as Klaatu, the alien visitor with a stern warning for Earth. It turned out to be the signature role of his career and formed the template for the character of Mr. Spock on “Star Trek.”
9. “Chariots of Fire” (1981) This won an Oscar for Best Picture, portraying athletic intensity and religious and ethnic tension on the biggest stage in sports, the Olympic Games. The opening sequence on the beach, with an Oscar-winning music theme, is one of the most memorable ever. The two main characters, runners Harold Abrahams and Eric Liddell, were genuine heroes in real life.
8. “The Natural” (1984) The best baseball movie ever. Period. Based on the Bernard Malamud novel, it features superb period sets and Randy Newman music, a believable slugger in Robert Redford (age 48 when they filmed it!) and great supporting performances from Robert Duvall, Darren McGavin, Wilford Brimley, Richard Farnsworth and Glenn Close. The only flaw is it’s a little long at 144 minutes.
7. “A Night at the Opera” (1935) You have to love the Marx Brothers to rank this movie so high but it is irresistibly funny from start to finish. The stateroom scene is as crazy-funny as it gets. In the midst of the Great Depression, this gave audiences a much-needed laugh break from reality.
6. “Twelve Angry Men” (1957) The acting and direction are incredible in this taut drama, set in the jury room of a murder trial. This is the only film Henry Fonda ever produced and he and the rest of the stellar cast deliver a masterpiece.
5. “The Flim-Flam Man” (1967) This is my highest-ranked comedy and I could watch it again and again for the bravura performance by George C. Scott. This movie is loaded with every great 1960s character-actor you can name (like Slim Pickens, Alice Ghostley, Harry Morgan as the sheriff, Albert Salmi as the hapless deputy and Strother Martin), who help weave a tale of con-man friendship and fleecing.
4. “The Great Escape” (1963) Based on a true story of escaping Allied POWs in World War II, this has an all-star cast, a great script and a rousing music score by Elmer Bernstein. This is the movie that catapulted Steve McQueen into superstardom.
3. “The Magnificent Seven” (1960) Another terrific ensemble cast in an action-packed tale adapted from the Japanese classic “The Seven Samurai.” Yul Brynner cooly recruits six other gunfighters (including Steve McQueen and James Coburn in their early star days) to rid a Mexican village of a terrorizing gang of bandits led with delicious evil by Calverra (Eli Wallach). And the music score, also by Elmer Bernstein, is one of the best ever.
2. “The Best Man” (1964) Henry Fonda stars in this adaptation of a 1960 stage play. He’s a politician running for president who sacrifices his campaign to stop a relentless, ruthless demagogue (played with intensity by Cliff Robertson). One of the best political dramas ever.
1. “A Man for All Seasons” (1966) The other Best Picture winner on this list and also based on a stage play. Paul Scofield won the Best Actor Oscar as Sir Thomas More, whom history remembers for courageously opposing English King Henry the Eighth’s illicit attempt to produce an heir. Every aspect of this movie is exceptional. Robert Shaw gives an Oscar-nominated performance as the king, although he’s only in one extended scene.
HONORABLE MENTIONS...in no particular order:
“Goldfinger” (1964), for my money still the best James Bond flick of the series; three war movies: “Saving Private Ryan” (1999, should have won Best Picture!),”The Train” (1965) my favorite Burt Lancaster movie; and “Paths of Glory,” (1957) probably the best anti-war movie ever made; two Cold War thrillers, “Fail Safe” (1964) and “The Bedford Incident” (1965); another two courtroom dramas both starring Spencer Tracy, “Inherit the Wind” (1960) and “Judgment at Nuremberg” (1961); two political-action thrillers, “Seven Days in May” (1964) and “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962), both directed by John Frankenheimer and based on best-selling novels; “To Kill a Mockingbird” (1962), a movie almost as good as the landmark novel it was based on; two more sports movies, “Field of Dreams” (1989) and “Hoosiers” (1986); my favorite Alfred Hitchcock film, “North by Northwest” (1959); “The Court Jester” (1956), another of the great comedies of all time and a Bess family favorite; and finally, “The Last Starfighter” (1984), sort of a comic book story but very entertaining with memorable performances by two great movie veterans, Robert Preston and Dan O’Herlihy.
