But I was inspired to attempt an answer to a frequent question, "What is your favorite movie?"
My answer is simple. It's 2001: A Space Odyssey. During college I saw it 10 times, once with my Senior Philosophy Symposium Class with our instructor that explained Thus Spake Zarathustra to us and what the movie was really about. I still find the special effects the best of any science fiction movie, including Star Wars.
Below is MY list, in alphabetical order. I tried to cut it down to 25, then to 50, but I couldn't. I think there are 67. I enjoyed all of these too much to eliminate them from the list, even though some did not do well at the box office for some Moral Premise reason, and thus I would claim have flaws. There is really no such thing as a flawless movie, especially since movies (at least the good ones) are works of art and thus subject to subjective judgements. Nonetheless...
What are some of your favorite movies? Please add them to the comments.
10
2001: A Space Odyssey (all time favorite)
A Man and a Woman
Aliens I
Amadeus
Amistad
Annie Hall
As Good As It Gets
Babel
Birdman
Blazing Saddles
Blind Side
Braveheart
Bruce Almighty
Casablanca
Chinatown
City Slickers I
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Exorcism of Emily Rose
Die Hard
Dr. Zhivago
George Lucas in Love (short)
Gone With the Wind
Grand Torino
Green Mile
Ground Hog Day
Hail Caesar!
Hancock
Help, The
Hurt Locker
Incredibles, The
Inception
In the Bedroom
Jaws
Karate Kid V (2010)
Kite Runner
Lawrence of Arabia
Liar! Liar!
Lord of the Rings: (all three)
Momento
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Noah (Aronofsky)
Notorious!
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Passage to India
Passion of the Christ
Precious
Pride and Glory (Gavin O'Conner)
Purpose Rose of Cairo
Pursuit of Happyness
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Ratatouille
Revenant
Saving Private Ryan
Searchers
Secretariat
Signs
Silence
Silver Linings Playbook
Slumdog Millionaire
St. Vincent
Taken
Warrior (Gavin O'Conner)
What Women Want
Where Do We Go Now
Where the Heart Is
This makes me feel insecure about my discernment - I have tried so many times to watch 2001 and never been able to go beyond 10 minutes. Now I have to try yet again.....
ReplyDeleteYvonne, You must tell me what about the first 10 minutes of 2001 turned you off. Too many monkeys killing other monkeys? I guess it's a very different kind of movie. It is Stanley Kubrick, of course, who was a very unconventional but talented filmmaker, who left his audiences to figure out myriad of narrative threads. I can tell you what fascinated me, but I'm an outlier on this. I was in college majoring in physics and philosophy. I loved both. I also wanted to be an astronaut. I really wasn't smart enough to be a member of NASA's select crew. But within a year of graduating college I was training astronauts on the use and malfunction diagnosis of electronic equipment on board our first space staton SKYLAB. Of course, when I was watching 2001 repeated my senior year I had not idea I'd be at NASA sooner than later. But that tells you of my mindset. I had also written a major paper senior year for an honors Philosophy Symposium class about humanity's first contact with extraterrestrial life. So, 2001 was totally my thing: Physics, Philosophy (Friedrich Nietzsche), and science fiction of which I had been a buff since junior hight. I still have a large hard-back library of Science Fiction Book of the Month Club volumes from high school (now collecting dust). So, I'm sure many people didn't get it and didn't want to get it. (LOL!) I'm just curious why. Blessings. Stan
ReplyDeleteDr. Williams, thanks so much for your response. I didn't know these details about your career with the NASA. My admiration soars. Later today I am going to give the 2001 another much deserved shot.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, I am going to watch every single one of these films prescribed here in the list that I haven't done already. I habe just finished Pride and Glory. A very good one. I can't agree with the general critique of the film as being bland.
By the way, I couldn't get the moral premisis of the Dr. Zhivago. Ｉtry not to let my disgust of a unfaithful husband 's obsession with younger beauty skew my judgement but other than that, I don' t see much merit in the whole story. Without the morally worse communists, the so-called love of Dr. Zhivago would not very appetizing nor his fate very much worth pitying.
Yvonne, thanks for your thoughts and comment. Dr. Zhivago is a tragedy. In it Pasternak, the author of the Nobel Prize winning book, paints a realistic commentary on Communist Marxism in the USSR at the time. The movie, as you might expect, lusciously illustrates (as only David Lean could manage) the richness of the book. Pasternak's says of his novels: "reality has been for me like a sudden, unexpected arrival that is intensely welcome. I have always tried to reproduce this sense of being sent, of being launched...as if reality itself had freedom of choice. Hence the reproach that my characters were insufficiently realized." [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Zhivago_(novel)].
ReplyDeleteThe long-form true moral premise statement for the movie might be stated like this:
Gracious freedom leads to meaning, beauty, and life; but capricious conscription leads to poverty and death.
Really interesting list! I agree with some of them since I still haven't watched much of the pre-2000s films. I've been rewatching some movies that were too dense by the age I had when I watched them. Babel was one of those, and I can truly see what there was. Your blog did have some interesting takes regarding the spine of the movie.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm trying to read philosophy and learn by myself, and I'm just taking physics (which is truly kicking my ass), it truly breaks and scatters the initial perspective you have. Any recommendation regarding how to improve and learn better from philosophy.
Lastly, I'm quite impressed to not see the movie "Biutiful" from Iñárritu, after all, it has a strong narrative!
Saludos!
R. R.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment.
I have a longer blog specifically on Babel. https://moralpremise.blogspot.com/2007/02/babel.html
I have not seen Biutiful.
I’m not sure if you have read that or not. I have an undergraduate degree in physics. I’m curious how you think physics shatters some of my perspective, or were you saying that it is shatters YOUR perspective? Yes, there are very difficult aspects of physics. I was an average student but loved the study of science from that perspective, worked in the space industry for a while because of it, and still read physics lay books yet today. But the higher math is beyond me.
I am much better at philosophy, which was a minor of mine when I was majoring in physics. If you have read my book, The Moral Premise, the philosophy comes through there with lay terms fairly clearly. The other two topics that I would suggest you study in terms of philosophy is the Christian Bible, and Catholicism. Concepts of Natural Law, Evil, Righteousness, Condemnation, Redemption, Justification, and Propitiation are ubiquitous in successful story structure, Philosophy, Catholicism, and the human condition.
Oh, I guess I should try to watch Babel again which on second view I had forgotten that I had watched before. Totally didn't get it at all. Suspect of wokeism turned me off at about half of it and the Japanese actress looking like a woman at late 30s playing a teenage girl is not helpful either. I stopped watching when she exposes herself to stranger young men.
ReplyDeleteI feel as if the movie ties to diminish true evil or cruelty and instead focusing on misunderstanding or lack of empathy as the real source of tragedy, which is not entirely untrue, but not profund enough.
But I am not at all sure if my perception is correct. I shall read your blog on the movie.
Thanks Yvonne. I'll be interested in your thoughts after reading my blog and perhaps watching Babel again. (stan)
ReplyDeleteHi, again Stan!
ReplyDeleteYes, I read your post regarding Babel's moral premise. That's how I met your blog. It was enjoyable! Also, yes, I meant that physics broke the way I used to see the world.
I truly recommend you to watch Biutiful, a movie that immerses you in death, life, hope, and the future. The less I say the better, Iñárritu made a great work. The only thing is that the movie is in Spanish, so you might need subtitles (keeping you from seeing some details...). One might see the movie as gritty and dark, but I do think that they are required to see the small shiny things from the movie.
Thank you for your recommendations, I'll keep an eye around here :).
R.R.
ReplyDeleteWe will watch Biutiful. Iñárritu is a great filmmaker. We don't mind the subtitles. Thanks for the recommendations.