Top 10 Favorite Movies ... then and now.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/4/13 at 7:20pm

I wonder if any of you care to do this or think about this.

I'm "of a certain age" now, where I can remember what my favorite films were 15 years ago. And they have changed a bit. Some are perennials, and some were "of the moment." I wonder ... can any of you compare lists?

Here are mine (don't judge):

From 1998:

The Wizard of Oz
Gone With the Wind
The Sound of Music
West Side Story
It Happened One Night
Oliver!
Reds
Singin' In the Rain
It's a Wonderful Life
Mary Poppins


Today:

The Wizard of Oz ( this will likely never change)
Field of Dreams
Titanic
The Sound of Music
Gone With the Wind
Scrooge (1970)
Grey Gardens
Hello, Dolly! (yes, really)
Lost Horizon (1973) - I am embracing that this flop will always be "beloved" in my eyes.
Mary Poppins

I may be conventional in many respects, but I don't care. These are the movies I can see any day and every day. I love them. I can watch them and enjoy them every single time. I find new things to think about and love. Every time.

That's how I know they are my "favorite."

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 8/4/13 at 7:55pm

I love that Scrooge is on your list. That was the version of A Christmas Carol that I grew up on and I adore that score and Albert Finney's performance. He is one of the few Scrooges that I have seen to look as miserable as the character acts. It's especially interesting when you look at the Christmas Past scenes and see him playing the younger version and how handsome and virile he looks there, compared to the stooped over, unhealthy looking miser (with a very unfortunate balding pattern) that he becomes.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/4/13 at 8:10pm

This just reminds me I should have kept a journal.

[nmartin]

Posted: 8/4/13 at 8:14pm

Fifteen Years Ago I would have listed Citizen Kane, The Godfather, Touch of Evil, North by Northwest, Gone with the Wind.

Now I would list Touch of Evil, The Godfather, The Night of the Iguana, Casablanca, and To Kill a Mockingbird.
Mockingbird may be in the top 5 because I was in Monroeville, AL early last week. I was walking downtown and suddenly realized that I was walking the same streets Harper Lee and Truman Capote did as children. It was a little overwhelming.

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 8/4/13 at 8:39pm

My favorite movies approximately 10 years ago

Splendor in the Grass
The Wizard of Oz
West Side Story
The Godfather
Love with the Proper Stranger
Grease
Scarface
Mary Poppins
Do The Right Thing
To Kill A Mockingbird

My Top 10 Favorite Films today:

Splendor in the Grass
The Wizard of Oz
West Side Story
The Godfather
Love with the Proper Stranger
Scarface
Far from Heaven
Mary Poppins
Do The Right Thing
Butterflies are Free

[Marianne2]

Posted: 8/4/13 at 8:39pm

I will have to think about this for a little. But, I definitely will get back to you. I know my list will probably look a bit lame though because I was only 14 at the time.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 8/4/13 at 8:48pm

Me too! Give or take.

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/4/13 at 9:12pm

LOL

Thanks for the laugh, Namo.

I'm sure you were probably 13. No, seriously.

I love to see how perspectives change. It's easier to do with film than it is with theatre, because the film is constant. Nothing has changed (unless you count the odd remastering or "director's cut").

But my views of what is/was important to me at the time definitely play into my choices.

I love some of the others mentioned already ...

To Kill a Mockingbird and Far From Heaven are also films I could watch repeatedly and discover new things about them (or myself?) with each viewing.

And Carlos, I recently watched Butterflies Are Free for the first time as an adult. I remember seeing it as a child when it came out (my parents let me see and/or took me to see very "adult" films when I was 5 or 6 or 7, including Amaccord, The Exorcist, Ryan's Daughter, The Wild Child, etc.).

I was very moved by Butterflies Are Free. A "comedy" with many layers. And Eileen Heckert was magnificent. Hawn and Albert were equally good. As a child, I mostly remembered Goldie Hawn and how "fun" she was. I also remembered feeling very sorry for the very handsome Edward Albert, who was blind.

[Jay Lerner-Z]

Posted: 8/4/13 at 9:34pm

Fifteen years ago, I was probably just discovering my childhood favorites for the first time - Mary Poppins, The Wizard of Oz, Labyrinth, Hocus Pocus, The Little Mermaid (and most of the other Disney animated classics). They'd still be on my list today.

Those movies today bring back all kinds of warm fuzzy nostalgic childhood memories, and any movie I see nowadays I find hard to put in the same "favorite" category, no matter how much I like them. They can't compete. I don't think I find the same "magic" now that I'm all grown.

Updated On: 8/4/13 at 09:34 PM

[CarlosAlberto]

Posted: 8/4/13 at 10:55pm

Butterflies are Free moves me every time I watch it. Hawn, Albert and especially Heckart give such honest, heartfelt performances. It's a new favorite of mine and just recently made my top 10.

I especially love the scenes between Hawn and Heckart with all their verbal sparring. I think Hawn deserved an Oscar nod for this (and maybe even a win) for this film, more so than for "Cactus Flower".

God I love that scene where she tells Heckart off:

You're always dwelling on the negative. Always what he needs, never what he wants. Always what he can't do, never what he can. What about his music? Have you heard the songs he wrote? I'll bet you didn't even know he could write songs. Well, you might be dead right about me. I'm not the ideal girl for Don. But I know one thing: neither are you! And if I'm going to tell anybody to go home, it's gonna be you, Mrs. Baker! You! Go home!



Updated On: 8/4/13 at 10:55 PM

[Marianne2]

Posted: 8/4/13 at 11:15pm

1998 favorites:
Now and Then
Scream
I Know What You Did Last Summer
Grease
Titanic
Dumbo
Romeo and Juliet (Leonardo DiCaprio version)
Ice Castles
Dirty Dancing
Beauty and the Beast

Now:
The Sound of Music (Did not see this until 2003, shamefully.)
Hairspray (2007 version)
Catch Me If You Can
Dumbo
Breakfast at Tiffany's
The Breakfast Club
Beauty and the Beast
Singin' in the Rain
West Side Story (Another one I saw too late.)
Enchanted

[strummergirl]

Posted: 8/4/13 at 11:44pm

Not to get too technical but film critic Ignatiy Vishnevetsky (he was one of the two panelists on the sadly short-lived Ebert Presents) was one of the voters for the most recent 2012 Sight & Sound poll for greatest movies ever, he presented his method. His method was list all of the movies he considered great, mix of canon, universally regarded movies that did well in the poll and also his favorites. Take that list by putting each movie on a piece of paper and put it in a fish bowl. Take ten out and put that as his top ten list. All I remember was his #1 movie ended up being RoboCop which kind of made me respect him more. Anyway, it is becoming hard for me to make up a list of just 10 among all-time favorites and I actually have considered using that method more than once.

In 1998, it was way easier:

Toy Story
Pinocchio
Beauty and the Beast
The Great Mouse Detective
It's a Wonderful Life
Titanic
The Wizard of Oz
E.T.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Face/Off (There is a really funny story as to how 8 y/o me got to see it)

Now (First 10 I thought):
The Battle of Algiers
A Brighter Summer Day
Rosemary's Baby
RoboCop
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Hot Fuzz
The Godfather Part II
Ballad of A Soldier
Brazil
The Third Man

[all that jazz]

Posted: 8/4/13 at 11:50pm

Very interesting thread! I wish I could contribute but I was only 2 at the time...