Rocks that Move

Ooooh... the top 10! Wowee!!! I'll bet a whole two of you out there are really excited now!!

10. A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (1964)
directed by Richard Lester
starring John, Paul, George, and Ringo

"Tell me why-y-y-y you cried, and why you li-aye-ied to me!" Actually, I cannot tell a lie. My being a big Beatles fan definitely affects the positioning of this movie. That said, it does NOT likely affect the fact that this is on my list. The fact is that it is a brilliant movie. It is smart. It is hilarious. It is innovative. It was even featured in one of the only film classes I ever took. It does something that is very hard to do in a movie: it captures the perfect snapshot of a cultural phenomenon in a precise moment in time. The viewer gets a fictional, humorous, but legitimate glimpse of what is was like to be The Beatles in 1964.

It is easy to forget that the Beatles were NOT a sure-thing in 1964. There was no "Revolver." There was no "Sgt. Pepper." No "Abbey Road." No Yoko Ono. No famous breakup. No long solo careers. No murder or cancer. As far as anyone knew, they would be a flash in the pan. "A Hard Day's Night" was simply supposed to be "Spice World," just as "Spice World" was meant to be "A Hard Day's Night." In other words, the movie was just a quickly thrown together thing to capitalize on their popularity before they quickly fizzled out. It was not originally planned to be any good. That said, it is ingenius, light, and hilarious.

It is fascinating how such a movie came to be under these circumstances, because it is nearly perfect. My only complaint is that they did not use a wider variety of songs. The director, writers, and crew were forced to work with what they could scrape up; and this lead to a movie that is rough and has the look of a documentary. The dialogue is trendy, original, and very funny. The Beatles were certainly not professional actors, either, and as a result their true personalities come out, even if they are (except for John most of the time) just reading their lines. You feel like you're really getting to know them, even though you really are not. They are practically caricatures of themselves, but this distorted view simply adds to the effect of viewing a specific moment in the past through a special lens.

"There you go, hiding behind a smokescreen of bourgeois cliches."

Sorry, Ringo. I didn't mean to. I just really like the movie.

9. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)
directed by Frank Capra
starring Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert

There are not a lot of romantic comedies on my list. The ones that do appear are only secondarily romantic comedies. It is not because I don't like them, generally speaking. It is that they tend to be so formulaic, and sometimes the comedy gets left in the dust as a result. Or sometimes the movie is funny, but the two people who end up together shouldn't. Or else it is the same ol', same ol' boring puff. The fact is, however, when they get it right, romantic comedies are perhaps my FAVORITE kind of movie. And this one is my all-time favorite. "It Happened One Night" is arguably the beginning of several trends in the genre. A lot of people go back, and unable to put it in context, are bored by it because they have seen it all before. The fact is that almost every romantic comedy out has robbed this film the past 70 years. That is not a complaint, but rather a compliment to this film.

It has been copied in other genres as well. Ever watch cartoons and see Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck stick their "sexy" leg out in the street to stop a car? It has been done a hundred times, but Claudette Colbert did it first. Nice gams! Woo! In fact, one of Bugs Bunny's creators, Friz Freleng, claims that part of Bugs' personality comes from the Oscar Shapely character in "It Happened One Night," and that Bug's gnawing of carrots came from Clark Gable's character. Even the name comes from the imaginary "Bugs Dooley" used to scare Oscar in the film. We owe this movie a lot for creating one of animations most endearing characters.

Like many Oscar-winning films over the years, this film was great by accident. Myrna Loy turned down the lead role because she thought it would be a bomb. Clark Gable was practically forced to do it. Poor guy. All he got out of it was stardom and an Oscar. Legend has it that his lack of an undershirt in the film cost the underwear industry a lot of money. Hmm. What makes this film so good, beside the fact that it is very funny, is the context. This film came out during the height of the Great Depression. People were poor and out of work, and it was all they could afford to come out and get away from it all at the theater. What a better story than the poor journalist winning the rich woman's love, and all by sticking to his Depression-era principles, along with the help of his Depression-era experience and know-how? The Depression Era everyday "Joe" is the hero of the film, and in the end he gets the dame... although I am not sure why he even wants her. I love the scene where Gable tells Colbert's father that he loves Ellie. "But don't hold that against me," he explains, "I'm a little screwy myself!" It is arguably a sexist film, but put in context, it really isn't. It is only magical.

8 CASABLANCA (1942)
directed by Michael Curtiz
starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman, Dooley Wilson, Claude Rains, Paul Heinreid, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, S.Z. Sakall

"You must remember this. A kiss is still a kiss..."

There appears to be a trend in recent years where movies are written for the stars, and the secondary actors tend to be ordinary. This may work in a film where the stars are bigger than life, but movies are generally not like that anymore. It is true that this is a generalization, but I think it is a generalization based on a lot of evidence. In any case, even if I am wrong, one thing I have noticed about my movie list is that almost all the films that made it have really unique and interesting supporting characters. Good supporting characters make a movie better, and the supporting characters make this particular movie one of the all-time best. It is like if someone made a movie today starring John Travolta and Uma Thurman, but also cast Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Eric Stoltz, Ving Rhames, Harvey Keitel, and Christopher Walken.

Samuel L. Jackson as "Sam?" Hmm...

"Play it Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By.'"

"Play it your goddamn self, muthafucka!"

Well... maybe not Samuel L. Jackson.

It is difficult for some people without some experience in watching old movies to "get" what the big deal is about this film. It exists in a context (uh-oh, there he goes talking about context again), and without that context it is cute and dated. But then you factor in the fact that it was filmed and released during a time when World War II was not settled. It came out only shortly after the United States entered the world. It was a time of confusion, fear, and uncertainty. No one knew what was going to happen. Britain had been driven into the sea and had barely survived the first sustained arial bombings on civilian targets in history. Japan had annihilated Pearl Harbor. France was under the control of the Nazis. People were fleeing Europe in terror. In the middle of it all was "Casablanca." Understanding what was going on, I still get a tear in my eye when the band plays "La Marseilles."

This film has everything in it. It has the character actors. It has the big stars. It has comedy. It has great dialogue. It has one-liners. It has action. It has intrigue. It has betrayal. It has booze. It has people with foreign accents. It has drama. It has romance. It has music. It has meaning. You've heard many of its most famous lines over and over again, even if you haven't watched the film. "Here's looking at you, kid." "We'll always have Paris." "Round up the usual suspects." "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." But NOT "Play it again, Sam." They never said that.

7. NOTORIOUS (1946)
directed by Alfred Hitchcock
starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains

Pardon me while I rant... but you can't get this film on DVD right now, unless you want to pay $80 for a used copy somewhere. Criterion owns the rights and had it out for awhile (for $40). I decided to wait and see if it came out cheaper, and they pulled it. No news on if and when it will be re-released. Suck. All of Alfred Hitchcock's films are out on DVD, and most of them you can get for $15 or less. But not the one I love. It is not the most popular. It is not the most rare or obscure. I just don't get it. It is the only movie in my top 10 that I don't own. Ugh!

Sorry about that! I had to get that off my chest.

So why do I love this film so much? It is almost the opposite of "Casablanca" in that it is a movie run by star power. It has my all-time favorite actress. It has one of my all-time favorite actors. It has my all-time favorite supporting actor. And Alfred Hitchcock gets perhaps the all-time best performances out of all three. Cary Grant did not like doing parts like this, because he had a positive "image" to hold up. Too bad. I love him in this film. He is of dubious intentions, and he expresses a painful past in the most subtle way. He was an amazing actor when he wanted to be. Ingrid Bergman is equally as good, and despite her shadiness in the film, you feel deeply for her and her predicament. I fall in love with her every time I see it. Unless my wife is around. Then I don't. Honest!

This movie is about intrigue and mystery, at their most classy best. It is about suspense. I love suspense, moreso than horror, and this film is one of the best. It is a classic film noir in spirit, though it gets little credit for it in relation to some others of the time. The plot is slightly choppy, which turns some people off, but I love the ambiguity. It creates even more suspense by leaving events open to interpretation. Hitchcock weaves the suspense and drama like an artist. To me, this is his masterpiece. The famous shot from the ceiling to the key in Bergman's hand during the party is classic. The shot of the poisoned tea cup is classic. The scene where Grant and Bergman are caught in the cellar is classic. The 180 second kiss that beat the censors' "three second rule" is sexy and wonderful.

A funny story is always told when discussing this film. This film was made in 1945, and released in 1946. This is the atomic bomb era, and the Soviets had yet to steal the secret. The "MacGuffin" of the film is uranium, the secret ingredient that the Nazis in the film are trying to hide. We all know now that this is a key ingredient to making atomic weapons, but this was top secret information at the time. Hitchcock guessed the importance of uranium and used it as a plot ploy, only to arouse the suspicions of the FBI, who tracked him during the making of the film! Lucky for us he was cleared and the film was allowed to be released. Now if only the FBI would investigate the mystery of why Criterion won't release this thing on DVD again!

6 PULP FICTION (1994)
directed by Quentin Tarantino
starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Eric Stoltz, Ving Rhames, Harvey Keitel, Christopher Walken

It is already so easy to forget how unique and original this movie is, what with all the copies and rip-offs and pop cultural references over the past 13 years. I will never forget the first time I saw it. I had no idea what I was getting into. From the very first scene, perhaps the best first scene in movie history, I was captivated. When that awesome opening music starts, you are already at the edge of your seat. I would kill to have that moment back; that first time I saw this film. At one point, I actually and literally fell out of my seat laughing. I have never seen anything like it, and never will again.

"Pulp Fiction" is hard to categorize. It is an action film. It is a drama. But it is also a comedy. A very dark comedy. Its subject is the underworld of society; a place of drug overdoses, hitmen, and extreme violence and profanity. The film has a male-on-male rape scene. Someone gets shot in the face, their brain and skull plastered all over the back of a car. A man explains to a child in graphic detail how he hid the boy's father's heirloom watch up his ass in a prison camp in Vietnam. And I swear to God, it is fun and exciting and hilarious. I am not exactly sure how, except that the characters are all so unique and interesting. It is as if someone had made a film sixty years before starring Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, but also cast Dooley Wilson, Claude Rains, Paul Heinreid, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, and S.Z. Sakall.

I would say that this film should be required viewing in any film class... but most everyone has already seen it. So maybe it is not necessary. The dialogue of the film is what ultimately puts it over the top. Like Woody Allen before him, Tarantino developed his own style of dialogue, and it creates unique and exciting conversations that sustain the movie throughout the crazy antics. Like Woody Allen before him, he has robbed his own style so many times that it has become dull and uninteresting in other films, but nothing can rob "Pulp Fiction" of its original glory. The climax of the film is one of movie history's greatest scenes. Samuel L. Jackson, as was Tarantino and the movie itself, was robbed of a well-deserved Oscar that year. That a film like this could even have been nominated is probably a miracle. "Whether or not what we experienced was an According to Hoyle miracle is insignificant."