Friday night, anyone in the mood for top ten movies for a desert island? I expect my list will not match yours.
1. Casablanca - Perfect movie. Bogart. Bergman. Raines, Greenstreet, Lorre, Henreid, Veidt, counter that with a better cast. And the inimitable Dooley Wilson. You played it for her, you can play it for me. The Germans wore Grey, you wore blue. We'll always have Paris. Round up the usual suspects!
2. North by Northwest - Cary Grant. Eva Marie Saint. Trains, crop dusters. Hitchcock. The UN building. James Mason. Did I mention Hitchcock?
3. Ice Station Zebra - Howard Hughes' favorite move. Cold war. Submarine. Sound track. Rock Hudson (not Gregory Peck) as Captain Kirk. Patrick McGoohan, greatest spy in cinema. The electric boat division is gonna get a very nasty letter. The Russians put our camera made by our German scientists and your film made by your German scientists into their satellite made by their German scientists, and, up she went.
4. The Godfather (I & II) Those that say II was the best sequel don't know that it was one movie delivered in two parts. Would be best movie ever made if not for Casablanca. Brando, the best there ever was.
5. 2001, A Space Odyssey - Genius collaboration, Kubrick and Clarke, with a little help from Joseph Campbell. Allegorical in the extreme, watch it as many times as you like and you will always find something new.
6. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Tarantino's love letter to the place where he was formed. Epic. Woefully underrated. Margot Robbie brings Sharon Tate back to life, which alone is superlative beyond measure. This movie made me respect DiCaprio and Pitt as actors.
7. You Only Live Twice - Personal favorite Bond move. Epic, but must be seen and felt in it's time. Nancy Sinatra, best theme song. Only allegorical Bond movie. Pay attention to the submarine scenes.
8. Forbidden Planet - Defined the science fiction genre and inspired everything that came after, so much that it is still paid homage in current classics. Walter Pidgeon. Robbie the Robot. The Krell.
9. Saving Private Ryan - Spielberg's defining movie, where he brought all of his considerable skills to bear. The best movie of its decade, an absolute travesty that it was not best picture, because of guess who? Harvey Weinstein.
10. Diamonds are Forever - Doesn't really belong, because a third of it is just crap. But I'm still taking it for the island, because the first half is the most fun Bond ever, the ending isn't awful., and Jill St. John is just, wow. Lana Wood ain't bad as Plenty O'Toole. Named for your farther, perhaps? I didn't know there was a pool down there. But what were they thinking with Jimmy Dean as Howard Hughes?
So many to leave on the boat. Would like for find room for Peter Sellers, Robert Redford, Johnny Depp, other Kubrick and Hitchcock movies, the young Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, so many others.
