My Favorite Movies

My favorite all-time film. Thank you Norman Maclean and Robert Redford. If this movie is on TV, I can't flip by it without watching it. If you think that this film is about fly-fishing you weren't paying attention. Go watch it again. It is about three men who want to connect with each other, who need help, but don't know how to communicate with the men in their lives that they love. Fly-fishing is as close as they come, but they don't quite make it.

A beautiful story by Karen Blixen (aka Isak Dinesen) and Sydney Pollack.

Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, a good team with heart.

A great script by Peter Stone and Marc Behm, and great collaboration with director Stanley Donen, and starring Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn.

John Ford and John Wayne at their very best. Noir Western?

Redford and Newman with director George Roy Hill are really clicking here.

Alfred Hitchcock and Cary Grant at their very best.

WATCH THIS FILM! This is Kirk Douglas at his best with great direction from Vincente Minnelli. If you want to see what a true artist FEELS, this is it.

Boyhood dreams and baseball, novelist W. P. Kinsella hits this story out of the park.

Take a great novel by Harper Lee (maybe the best Southern novel ever), mix in director Robert Mulligan and Gregory Peck, you have a great film!

I never liked Paul Newman more than right here. Mix in Director Sidney Lumet, David Mamet on the screenplay from the novel by Barry Reed, shake well and serve with popcorn.

Take the fantastic true life story of T. E. Lawrence, then add David Lean and Peter O'Toole at their best. This is one film that MUST be remade someday! T. E. Lawrence was right about the Middle East 100 years ago.

What can you say? Steven Spielberg puts all of his heart into this subject. His feelings for World War II and what happened to the Jews. As good as it gets.

Who doesn't like this movie? I like movie where he doesn't "get the girl." And this is right there. World War II, spies, and giving up the love of your life. Thanks Michael Curtiz and Bogart.

This film is mythology and the Bible, if you are actually looking for it. Watch it again, and don't think just "Western," but "fable."

A short story by Stephen King, and Frank Darabont (director) and Morgan Freeman. Good stuff Chuck.

Take a true story that goes all the way to the White House. Add good investigative journalism from two writers (Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein) that didn't really like each other, but knew to check their egos for a good story. Add Alan J. Pakula, Redford, and one of the best actors of his generation Dustin Hoffman.

A great story from Larry McMurtry about his hometown and growing up there, add an unknown Peter Bogdanovich, and mostly unknown cast, sans Ben Johnson (thanks Ben), and out comes a super character study of a small and dusty Texas town and what life was like in the early 1950s. My kind of film.

"Move your bloomin' ass!" Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison, with director George Cukor. I am so in love with Audrey to this day (I'll always be). Rex is great and so is Wilfrid Hyde-White.

This man (George S. Patton) was more complex than most anyone could image. If you believe at all in destiny, that some people are destined to be in a certain place at a certain time, this proves it. Patton was borderline crazy but perfect for the job he got in WWII. And George C. Scott put his heart into this role. With Franklin Schaffner directing, you can't write fiction like the real thing.

There are a lot of films that just miss being the greatest films of all-time. This is one of them. It comes very close. directory George Stevens is pretty darn good. James Dean is right there. Taylor and Carroll Baker just miss. The story from Edna Ferber's novel is probably to big to be made into one film. The story should have been part one and part two.

Robert Duvall always shows up. Based on the novel The Open Range Men by Lauran Paine, Kevin Costner put his heart into this film, both directing and starring. As time goes by, I'll think people will look back and say he did a pretty good job (after some films that were not that good: The Postman and Waterworld), I think he really cared about this material. And the Stoney Reservation scenery, shot by cinematographer James Michael Muro, in southwestern Alberta, Canada isn't bad either!