My Best List

I've been talking about it for a while and now here is where I lay it all out and explain- by way of a list- the sort of movie viewing experiences that meant a lot to me. This is a group of pictures that helped make or further reinforced my love of going to the movies. Mind you, I may not love each of these movies but the experience of seeing them the theater in some way made me more aware of how and why I value the cinematic experience. In some cases the big screen helped me more clearly see the artistry of these specific movies and the magic of the cinema in general. Whenever possible I have included dates of the events for reference purposes.

#1 ET: The Extra Terrestrial (1982) The first movie I remember seeing in the theater starring "real people." It is not that I hadn't been to the theater prior to this, but E.T. is the first movie I remember seeing that was not animated. I had seen and loved several re-released classic Disney animated features already, but E.T. was real! The people were not cartoons. They looked and talked like people I saw everywhere. The boy, Elliot, played with Star Wars figures just like the ones I had at home (this, perhaps more than any other fact, linked the diagetic world of E.T. with the world in which 5 1/2 year old me lived in). But somehow I quickly came to relate and understand the very frightened-but friendly- alien creature. Somehow I still knew that the alien was a product of movie magic as much as I knew that the little boy and his family were not. But I didn't disbelieve anything the story showed me. I rooted for E.T. to get home, to feel better and find his people. I rooted for Elliot's pain to hurt, for him and his brother and sister to comfort their Mom in her tough time as a single parent. And still, and perhaps most importantly, E.T. scared the crap out of me. When Elliot first encountered the alien behind the house I yelped with shock and horror. Maybe it was that my own house had a field out back; Maybe the scene was just filmed perfectly by Spielberg, but I did then and still do jump every time Elliot and ET first meet. This scare is also one of the first things I looked forward to seeing when I saw E.T. the second time.*
*This occurred several weeks after I first saw the movie. I begged my parents to take me back, despite and because of the joys and horrors of my first viewing. Why would a young child want to expose himself again to that emotional roller coaster? I felt deep down that E.T. was more than just an afternoon of fun. I just knew that there was something there that Ihad to see again. Suffice it to say I went eagerly to the 2002 20th anniversary re-release. Frankly, I think kids are strong enough creatures not to be scared, worried or scarred by a few federal agents holding guns when you consider this movie's emotional toll on a person, especially a young person. Hooray for tough and determined kids. Future filmmakers and members of the Ratings Board, please take note.

#2Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan (1982) The second "real" person movie I remember. Again, real actors. My Dad and I watched reruns of the original Star Trek each Saturday night so I was a little bit familiar with the series' characters by this point. But I wasn't prepared for what could happen on the big screen.
Wow! I can't describe the excitement that a young boy feels when he has seen his first glimpse of the worlds beyond our own. Not to mention getting a full screen view of some of his greatest heroes. James T. Kirk was one of the greatest heroes I had seen in 1982. With little understanding of military procedure, damn, did I know that Kirk was the man to follow. He wasn't perfect but that clearly made him better than those that were. Despite his troubles his exciting and loyal crew/friends braved anything to save everybody from a really neat guy, a mean guy with cool long grey hair and a weird leather vest. That guy was bad but I couldn't take my eyes off of him. But, I still knew that Kirk from night Saturday TV should, and would win.
-Important dramatic lesson: Evil is bad, but villains can have lots of fun. In fact, they can have more fun than the heroes. Part of this is that villains are often conflicted less than the heroes, and this was long before the days of emo. I sort of knew that what I was seeing was beyond the ultra-coolness of watching the Space Shuttles launch from Cape Canaveral, but it was obvious to me that it was connected to things like the Sinbad the Sailor stories tI loved hearing at bedtime.
To this day, I still get chills from the words "Botany Bay". And earwigs.

#3 Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) Caught between a rock and a hard place: One fateful summer Saturday afternoon I was given a choice between going to my Little League picnic or a matinee of this movie. Over two decades later I realize this choice existed only because that afternoon presented my Dad with his best opportunity to see the movie. Also, having already seen Raiders of the Lost Ark on tv or, possibly, home video, I realized a valuable lesson: There will be another Little League picnic next summer but the movie is now.
I don't think either Dad or I regret my choice.
And while it didn't happen to us, I think this movie gave parents more nightmares than it did children. Despite the hype of the horrors of the Temple of Doom's bug eating, heart pulling and monkey brains not only did I play baseball the following summer, but so did all of my friends who also saw the picture. Though I wouldn't begrudge a Thuggee if they served it when I was a guest at their palace...

#4 Raiders of the Lost Ark (released 1981, theater ca. 2000 and several times since) Finally. Remember your first kiss? Now remember the first kiss that was better than your first. Like making out with that high school crush at a friend's wedding and thinking "Finally! Everything is as it was supposed to be!!"
What can I say. Pure escapist and fun that could only be created in America because it is truly an American adventure. So pure and fun, so dangerous, so exotic and yet after a whirlwind around the globe in record time before winding up back in the the States where you started and just as much in love as you were when you left an instant before.
Since then and forever. This movie made it work. This movie will always work. The electricity will never fade.

#5 Chinatown (ca. 2001, 2003, and ca. 2005) I first saw this on home video on the recommendation of my parents who, appealing to the budding film major in me, rented the tape and said, "You should watch this if you like movies." I watched it. I liked it. Or I thought I did. I just didn't fully understand it.
Later, in college, I saw the movie for a class. The subsequent lecture went into detail about the symbolism, the layering, the performances and so much else. This was when I started to realize that the term 'art film' did not need to mean black and white silent or foreign language pieces involving jarring cuts jumping to shots of eyeballs, waves, knitting needles, razor blades, hooded figures, llamas, or whatever else punctuated by only jarring chords of violin or major chords on piano.
This reminds me of a documentary or interview or DVD bonus feature where Spike Lee was asked to name his favorite or most influential movie. After moments of pause he said something like, "I don't know. I always have to say... Chinatown. (pause and then breathlessly adds) Chinatown!" Like Spike, I remain awestruck every time I see this movie. Especially on the big screen. The larger the screen the more the movie highlights how everything about it is designed to show how limited vision can be. Odd that this can lead us to see more.

#6 Goldeneye (1995) My first James Bond movie in the theater. Movie is just ok. Opening sequence: Bond infiltrates enemy espionage center inside a giant dam. Bond blows it up and escapes. Bond flees for his life. Bond skydives after a runaway airplane, catches up to plane and climbs in. Bond pulls plane out of nosedive an instant before the plane smashes into mountain. Audience GOES WILD. I GO WILD. Not yet having seen Raiders on screen as an adult my adrenaline flows and I remember why screen heroes exist.

#7 Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999) Months of anticipation. The day draws near. My friend Mad Jack waits practically overnight in line to get tickets for a group of us. We can't wait. We couldn't because we all had finals. This is our senior year of college. We have waited an entire lifetime to see this movie. A plan is made and the dream becomes reality. We'll see the movie and then go to Buzzy's Roast Beef, a 24 hour Boston food landmark. The screen light up! The fanfare blares! The crowd cheers!! The movie exists! The movie plays. The movie happens. It ends. People leave. It ends up just Mad Jack and I go to Buzzys, talking about the movie the whole time. We have roast beef sandwiches. We go home. In all cases the anticipation was better than the result. I wouldn't have it any other way.

#8 Jaws 3-D (1983) Giant shark. Eats people. Blows up. All in 3-D. I was almost seven years old and loved it. What can I say? I haven't yet seen some of the new wave 3-D stuff since Captain Eo in 1987 so I'll reserve judgment. I have since 1983 seen the original Creature From the Black Lagoon and It Came From Outer Space in 3-D, as well as the original House of Wax, so I'll wait before I talk about how the past has transferred to the present.

#9 There Will Be Blood (2008) Early January I go to the theater. The movie ends after about two and a half hours. It seems like instants since it began. I didn't expect it to stop. I've seen the proof that masterpieces still exist. I call Mad Jack. I tell him to see it as soon as he can. I float home on a movie high. I've watched it again since I bought the dvd. I feel that my initial impression is still right.

#10 Black Book (2007) A rainy day in spring. Badelaire and I see this at our local independent Art Deco theater. We realize that Paul Verhoeven is not dead. Like Chuck Norris, he was just waiting. Drama, intrigue, war, sleaze, violence and something close to perfection. Finally, just like TWBB, a movie made by somebody who cares about delivering a movie and not a product. This movie was made to be seen and made to be felt. In the gut as well as in the mind. It works brilliantly. Puzzles, wonders, horrors, and grotesques. Everything that cinema could possibly be.

#11 Undisputed (2003) Amazing! A great B movie. I didn't know they still made them this good. I'd see it again in a heartbeat. You'll like it more than you think you will, you snob!

#12 Pulp Fiction (1994) I was one of probably ten people in the hometown theater. None of my friends save a few wanted to see it and none of those who did could go that day. I went alone. I may not have had a better time in the theater for the next five years because suddenly, I felt I was in on something hip and new and fresh and exciting. I chuckled here and there, I grimaced then and again, I burst out laughing more times than I can count. I seemed to be the only person in the theater who was having those reactions. At one point, one of the more grisly moments, actually, I was jolted to silence when I realized that not only was I the only person laughing, but the other patrons were looking at me. Chagrined, I sat back silently and cursed them for not being in on the joke and yet I was smugly glad they were not. If they did not want the movie I would embrace it. And I did. A week later I saw it again with my pal Mark and not only did I laugh and wince and sit on the edge of my seat as I did the first time, but Mark did as well.
In your face, other folks!!*

*A year and a half later when I went to college and found that everybody there loved Pulp Fiction as much as I did. I felt less special and I begrudged myself for buying what I thought was a way cool John Travolta as Vincent Vega poster for my dorm room wall. Oh, youth. I saw it again in the theater this past fall. I was overjoyed- the movie holds up.

#13 Robocop (1997) First semester of my junior year of college I was passing through a hallway on campus and ran into several classmates. We got to talking and, as we were all in film classes, got to talking about movies. These guys, they were what I considered the cool kids. They seemed to eat, sleep, eat and talk movies. And they knew their stuff. I looked up to them. It felt great to talk with them. As it turned out two of them were going to see Robocop out at the Harvard Film Archive. I didn't know the place was but psyched when they invited me along. I jumped at the chance because Robocop was a movie I knew and loved. And now I could see it with the real movie crowd!
We trucked out there, me, Cat, and Mad Jack. The movie began. Early in, when newscaster Casey Wong pumped his fist and said "Good luck, Frank!" I mirrored the motion out of habit. As I did out of the corner of my eye I saw Mad Jack do the same. Wow! I was with the right crew!
After the movie, in between bursts of laughter, Cat recounted his amusement seeing MJ and I do that (Cat was sitting between us) and while we all laughed I realized that art can not only bring people together but it can lead people to do silly things. Thus, great friendships were born and I gained a great memory.

#14 Cape Fear- the 1962 version (1998) I'd seen this movie on video and wanting to see it again, I enticed my pals Mad Jack and D to see this with me. MJ and I, as described above, had found we shared many similar tastes in movies. D did as well and is still one of my great friends. However, his tastes also included pictures that were more heartfelt and emotionally wrenching, like Hud, Jules et Jim, and anything with James Dean. Anyhow, we went to see Cape Fear because I somehow convinced them it was a good idea.
Gregory Peck was never a bad actor. To boot, he was always commanding and nothing if not respectable. How was it then that Robert Mitchum could play a reprehensible, oily- no, that's too good- base villain and still steal the show?
Because Robert Mitchum was one of the most believable actors of all time. Good, bad, drunk, sober, virtuous, base, kind, cruel, you always got Robert Mitchum. The man played it all without coming across as anything less than a real human. Even as a villain he could be comical, but you knew that he was only daring you to laugh at him. Nobody was fool enough to take that dare.
The movie plays. We were silent and taken by it. I didn't realize how much until we left and D says this to the best of my memory and paraphrasing:
"He was completely outmatched. Peck."
MJ and I: "Huh?"
D: Mitchum just...outdid him. By doing nothing. Peck'd talk...and... (D is one of the best Good Guys I've ever known. I don't think he rooted for the bad guy but here I know he knew why people sometimes could.)
Us: He just let him.
D: YES! You, he, Peck tried so hard and there was nothing he could do. He shouldn't have won..."
I think that that movie ended as it did only because in those days the good guys had to win. But I think they wanted to show what we all come to know. That is, the bad guys often have not only the charm, the smarts, the strength and the tools to win, but the most dangerous of them have the ability to make us think they'll win. And what's worse, we start thinking that we not only can't stop them, but that we want them to win.
To this day I hope D has seen Mitchum in Out of the Past and The Yakuza, playing noir heroes who we root for and yet know will never win. I still sometimes feel bad for taking him to see something so evil and so wonderful.

#15 7 #16 The Sixth Sense (1999) and Fellowship of the Ring (2001) I saw each of these movies with a group of friends. Each movie contains a scene that made me leap out of my seat in fright. Each time I was laughed at, I laughed at myself, and still realized that the movie had so perfectly pulled me into its world that I reacted as I was inside it. Wonderful times.

#17 Matinee (1992) Siskel and Ebert recommended this movie and I dragged my Dad and brother. Best movie nobody ever saw. My Dad is a harsh critic as well. I was entranced when I left the theater. I asked Dad what he thought (and he was my ride home as well!) Suddenly I was shocked to hear Dad say "That was a GREAT movie!" Whaa? What did I miss? I caught everything and yet it wasn't until repeat viewing after repeat viewing that I saw the movie for what it was. This was my taste of symbolism before I got to appreciate Chinatown. To this day Matinee's final shot of the helicopters sends chills down my spine.

#18 The Mummy (1999) The film stuck in the gate and melted. The only time, to date, that this has happened. In the middle of the climactic sword fight. I was shocked because until this point, this was only something I'd seen happen in the movies. But there, before the eyes of me and my friends and the rest of the audience, the film discolored and then melted into an orange molten goop that suddenly vaporized. Jolted out of the moment by the flickering white light I realized that my shock was shared by two hundred other people. Suddenly we all wanted our movie back! Feed us! we cried to the projectionist. Within ten minutes the film was spliced back together and the movie ended. We got free passes to another show. I enjoyed seeing The Mummy but I enjoyed more how completely it had sucked all of us in until the film on which it was printed literally died.



#2 Pinocchio ....whatever size screen the emotions can't be contained...too big to be contains