Twenty Movies I Like More Than Anyone Else, Part 2

The first half of the list (previously posted) was as follows: Robin Hood, Carlito's Way, The Caine Mutiny, Rope, The Age of Innocence, Holiday Inn, Moulin Rouge!, To Catch a Thief, The Fog of War, and Unforgiven.

Minority Report (2002) Spielberg may not be at his best in science fiction, but sci-fi is at its best with Spielberg. In 2054 Washington DC has a “Pre-Crime” unit headed by Tom Cruise that can predict crimes and make arrests before they happen through the use of three “pre-cogs”. The chase sequences are classic Spielberg, and the robot “Spiders” that search a seedy hotel are worth the price of admission. Still, Spielberg has bigger fish to fry. Namely, free-will and the foreknowledge of God. The religious imagery is ubiquitous, the most important being the “trinity” of pre-cogs that may know the future or may only know possible futures. If you know all future murders, are you doomed to live them all constantly? If so, doesn’t that make God’s job a particularly sucky one?

The Maltese Falcon (1941) Directed by the great John Huston, I almost pulled this one because of it’s inclusion in the (original) AFI list. But I couldn’t. In much the same way Casablanca feels like a movie of cliché’s until you realize the clichés are based on the movie, The Maltese Falcon is the blueprint for every hard-boiled private dick pic(Bogey at his greatest) to follow. Also co-starring Casablanca players Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, The Falcon twists lies on top of lies on top of half-truths on top of lies. But forget the plot, it’s Bogart’s ice cold Sam Spade that makes this one dynamite to watch.

Munich (2005) While many people want to lump Munich with the Clooney duo of Syriana and Goodnight and Good Luck to form a trifecta of political films from 2005, I think they miss the point. Spielberg’s real interest here isn’t politics. It’s religion. “I thought we were suppose to be the righteous ones,” says Eric Bana as the spiral of retribution and violence begins to spin out of control. Righteousness isn’t a political category, it’s a theological one, but nowhere is the overlap as thorough or in such need of analysis as the Middle East. Plus, the bombing-as-triggered-by-a-phone-call scene has tension you can cut with a knife.

Rio Bravo (1959) Directed by Howard Hawkes, this would be worth watching if only for the seemingly unrelated 50’s icons that star: John Wayne, Dean Martin, Rick Nielson, and Angie Dickenson. John Wayne plays a sheriff with Dean Martin, the alcoholic with girl problems as his number two. They’ve locked up an outlaw who’s friends are coming. Rick Nielson is a young hired gun they pick-up, and a smokin’ hot and unbearably sexy Angie Dickenson’s the showgirl who falls for the sheriff. Dean, Rick, and John have a sing-a-long in prison that is pop-culture Zen.

In America (2002) is the true story of an Irish immigrant family of four (mom, dad, and two girls) who illegally move to New York City to chase the father’s (Jim Sheridan) dream of working in American theatre and to run from the memory of the tragic death of their son. Making a home in an old tenement housing vagrants, addicts, and prostitutes, the family seems to be just holding on for the summer. The startling thing about this film is how much it makes you feel. The heat of the summer. The frustration of a father who couldn’t save his son and can’t feed his family. The pain of an undesired wife. Loss. And hope. Directed, produced and co-written (with his daughters) by Jim Sheridan (In the Name of the Father, The Boxer), it is a love letter to America. Something we could all use about now.

A Place in the Sun (1951) Based on the play “An American Tragedy” (the studio was concerned the original title wasn’t upbeat enough). Similar to Gatsby, this movie showcases the defunct side of the American dream. Montgomery Clift’s character comes from poverty to work his way up from the mailroom. Elizabeth Taylor (proving why she’s famous in the first place) is the boss’s daughter who falls for Clift. Unfortunately, his hag of a girlfriend’s got one in the oven, leaving him trapped between marrying a woman he now hates or killing her to join the good life he’s worked so hard to attain.

Out of Sight (1998) (Steven Soderbergh) based on the Leonard Elmore novel, this stars Clooney before he was Clooney and Jennifer Lopez before she was J. Lo. George is a prototype of the suave con man he (and Soderbergh) rode to a much larger payday in Ocean’s 11. Lopez is the federal agent who is sent to capture him, and Steve Zahn has me rolling as the dumb-as-a-sack-of-batteries sidekick. But it’s a scene between Lopez and Clooney (with George wearing a rip-off of the grey flannel suit Cary Grant made famous in North by Northwest) in the lobby of a hotel where they pretend, for a night, to be two strangers that pushes this one over the top. Smokey and subtle, it’s grown-up love and grown-up desire at its best.

Collateral (2004) The most accessible Michael Mann film is also one of my favorites. Jamie Foxx served notice he was for real here just months before everyone believed him (and he became insufferable) in Ray. Foxx is a taxi driver saving for someday when he picks up hit man Tom Cruise, in town to take out five targets in a night. When a body falls several stories onto his taxi, Foxx’s unwittingly pulled in. But when he realizes that the last name on Cruise’s list was an earlier fare (Jada Pinkett Smith) he’s in a dilemma. Cruise is great as the cold-blooded murderer who doesn’t flinch, just reacts; but it’s the City of Angels shot at night that steals this picture. I love the image of a dead Cruise, sitting on a subway forever circling.

Blade Runner (1982) Recently named to the new AFI top 100 (I compiled this list previously), this is Ridley Scott’s first great film. Taken from a Philip K. Dick (Minority Report, In a Scanner Darkly, Total Recall) short story, Harrison Ford stars as a blade runner, a man sent to hunt down and destroy rogue cyborgs made to be so human they sometimes don’t know they aren’t. Every science fiction film since has ripped off the dystopic visuals (see especially The Fifth Element and AI), but what makes this great is that the issues it deals with (what makes us human, do ethics apply to artificial intelligence, the nature of the soul) continue to fuel movies such as IRobot and The Island and are the major issues among bio-ethicists today.

Sabrina (1954) Directed by Billy Wilder, this Audrey Hepburn film is probably my favorite love story. A Chauffer’s daughter (the exquisite Hepburn) has forever loved her father’s employer’s lothario of a son, (a great William Holden), but he finally notices her upon her return from a couple years in France. Humphrey Bogart is the older, more business-savvy brother who steps in to head-off the inappropriate love by making Hepburn fall for him instead (the plan is to break her heart). The scene where Bogart lets Audrey down easy, and she decides she best ought to pack and return to Paris is one of my favorites. The point of any romance is really to fall in love for an hour or two, and no one is easier to fall for than Audrey.