My Favorite Movies

Remains the best religious epic ever produced. First viewed age 12 on ABC television. I know the lines in this film perfectly! (and usually frustrate people quoting parts before they're spoken....)

I was 10yso when I saw this on PBS. Ely Landau won the 1970 Oscar for documentary film. After watching THIS I knew the significance of Martin Luther King in full.
Have only seen the full 3 hour version once. I believe its so powerful that they refuse to air the unedited version anywhere.

I was 13 when I watched this movie. After that day in August, I became forever hooked on the documentary genre. This film is clearly a thorough art-documentary about the 1936 Olympic Games. Were it a Nazi propaganda movie, they would have deleted the scenes of Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalf dominating Track and Field against the 'master' race. Leni Riefenstahl was a cinematography genius and the best female director of all time. Period.
No way does this film glorify the evil Hitler.

13 when I first watched this on PBS. The scenes are dramatically shot in B/W, with angles I really never seen before nor since. Equally as interesting is the background of how this movie was made during WW II but not really finished until the Sputnik era.
Only rival to this is Potemkin, also shot in Eisenstein style.

13 when I first watched this on PBS. The scenes are dramatically shot in B/W, with angles I really never seen before nor since. Equally as interesting is the background of how this movie was made during WW II but not really finished until the Sputnik era.
Only rival to this is Potemkin, also shot in Eisenstein style.

Vidor's story of the optimism that overcomes hard times, is the theme of this Depression-era film which speaks in head-on agreement to Roosevelt's New Deal.

Must watch in:
-chronological order
-uninterrupted attention
-afternoon before 2:00 PM
The entire saga is Part I, Part II, Part III.
Try to watch the version with uncut scenes/director's unedited version.
I remember the scene where the dying man begs Godfather to stay with him so death will see him and flee.
Most versions DON'T include that clip.

Must watch in: -chronological order -uninterrupted attention -afternoon before 2:00 PM The entire saga is Part I, Part II, Part III. Try to watch the version with uncut scenes/director's unedited version. John Cazale almost steals this one as Fredo.
I remember the version at the theater which shows Kay as a nun in later life

Hugo Friedhofer's score makes this picture the tearjerker it is indeed!
Theresa Wright and Harold Russell give the most stellar performances. Virginia Mayo takes the movie as the insensitive uncaring wife of Dana Andrews character. This is a movie I can watch again and again and still get emotional at the end. First viewed in the 1990s.

Murphy's best. Everything else from here was downhill. Great action, great humor, great acting.
This is highlighted by the performers who do soundtrack throughout the film, like the Pointer Sisters and Patti LaBelle. A true movie of the Reagan 80s!!

Wanna know the 70s (if you missed it)?
Watch this!!
Totally classic with stars together, some just this once, who were cameos and main characters in this film.
Extremely funny look at Black culture in America.
First viewed age 16.

Why Cagney didn't secure Oscar #2 here, I'll never know. If ever a man played a Manson-sicko, he did. Virginia Mayo does it again as an evil and selfish moll.
Ending here is one of the best in cinema. The prison mess hall scene is classic.
First seen age 12 on WGN late movie Chicago.

Women rule here as the men are wimpy, spineless, indecisive punks. Ripley triumphs and kicks all the aliens *$@@#. So why do I love this film? The rescue.
Aliens III sucks.........

Stone makes you hate her in this one.
DeNiro and Pesci are memorable as usual.
James Woods is funny and makes you feel a little sorry for him.
Surprises by Dick Smothers, Don Rickles, Alan King, and great performances by the Scorsese 'usuals' in the mafia flick tradition.

Unintentionally funny I swear!
Best laughs at 'malfunction scene' of all robots. Yul Brynner says "He needs his mama" with a funny accent.
This whole movie is just plain funny till the last half.

Butterfly McQueen is on par with Eve Arden, though racially cast as the inferior domestic. Nevertheless, this is one of only two Crawford flicks I appreciate. She clearly deserved the Oscar for this one!

James Dean is the star here!
He does what he never did in reality.....and becomes old.
And so much backdrop history:
Dean's moodiness; Hudson's marriage; Taylor's loves; ...
Its a lengthy saga but WHAT A STORY about racism. Kudos to George Stevens!

Stephen Boyd steals this movie as evil Masala. This film contains the best action scene EVER shot in the famous chariot race. While NOT a Bible movie, the theme is very religious and portrays the power of forgiveness. First viewed when 12yso on CBS.

This chronology takes you back to the 1500s (even as a Black man) into the court of Henry VIII. This movie shows there are some things worth dying for....like morals.
Always remember...SILENCE MEANS CONSENT!

At age seven, I was playing the record of the soundtrack over and over at my aunts home. Shirley Bassey tears it up! My cousins had seen this at the theater. We couldn't cause of the racy scenes. All the kids wanted to be Oddjob with his rock-cutting 'blade' top hat. I finally saw the made-for-television version when I was about 10. This is Connery's best. I still hate the part when they crush that Kennedy-esque 1963 Lincoln Continental!

First viewed when 10yso in a CBS Evening Movie, this film is pieced together on actual events and real scenarios. Not a bit of fiction here, which makes it seem as YOU ARE THERE on the ship!

Deke O'Malley was soooo cool in this flick. Redd Foxx provides the humor as Raymond St.Jacques and Godfrey Cambridge take crap off no one. I first watched this film at age 13. There is NO SUCH THING as a 'blaxploitation' movie!!

Age 10, Capitol Treater, Springfield, IL.. I lost in a three-way to spend a family evening at the show. I was mad. Everyone including my father went to sleep before this 3-hour movie was over. I watched it ALL and liked it!
Next day I told them all about it.
George C. Scott was a man's man in this film like Brando as The Godfather.

The real Patton let Blacks drive tanks in Europe when do one else would think of it. That's something he largely goes uncredited for...

Seen at the show in NYC w/a near wife. NOT the Godfather but stands on its own as the 2nd best mob flick after that one. Pesci cussed his way to a well deserved Oscar.
I believe Ray Liota is cray for real.....
Two mistakes in film:
1. shows 747 at Idelwild Airport, and
2. shows 1965/66 Chevy in 1963 scene.
The Scorsese score has all the classics as usual for his movies.

Puts pity in your heart for a bad guy. This film and Casablanca established Bogart as a leading man and star in his own right, not supporting cast wimpy crook.
Seen at age 12 and first film where I liked Bogart.

Thought this was a 'dirty' movie when I was a kid. Watched for the first time when I was about 10. It's an American classic with stellar performances by Beatty and especially Dunaway, but Hackman and Oscar winner Parsons steal many scenes!
Its a movie I can watch again and again......
Great cinematography on the hill scene when Bonnie visits her mom for the last time.

Everyone fantasizes they are escaping the end of the world, hopefully traveling with the lucky few.
The special effects are the best!
Only when I was older did I note there were no Blacks picked among prospective survivors.......
hmmmmm

Denzel BECOMES Malcolm.
That's it, that's all.

This is his best!
Al Freeman BECOMES the Hon. Elijah Muhammad.
That's it, that's all!
Denzel was OSCAR by-passed on this one.

Saw at the theater in November 1992.

Check it out, the movie has no OPENING.
Yet, is pulls you in for the next 2hrs & 20min. The chronology is acurate. To me this is one of Nicholson's best. I've never seen DeVito better!

Why Depp wasn't awarded here I don't know, but Landau sure deserved his Oscar for playing Lugosi.
Great acting also by G.D. and Murray. G.D. was Sen. Pat Geary in the Godfather II.

First watched age 12. This was one of the first movies I learned the script word-for-word, after I taped the movie on audio cassettes. Our Seventh Grade teacher took us to see this after we'd read the book. She cried, right there in the theater, during the ending credits. I was grown before I learned Natalie Wood can't sing like that.

Yes, when I first saw this classic, at the age of 11, I cried when Pee Wee got hit. Rooney deserved an OSCAR for this one. Tracy got one.
Cross yourself and get out the tissue.