Does your favorite movie list really have your favorite movies?
Rachel claims this is her favorite movie? Dangerous Liasons. Her actual favorite movie is? Weekend at Bernies!
Last week I'm perusing Twitter. Someone started a thread with the question, "What are your five favorite movies?" Normally I scroll past this kind of stuff, but for some reason I decided that I wanna play.
Casablanca Shawshank Redemption To Kill A Mockingbird A League of Their Own Trading Places
The first two were easy. Casablanca has always been my favorite movie. In college, I took a history of film class. There were fifteen students in the class. One night, the professor showed Casablanca. One hundred kids showed up to watch. Bogie and Bergman, Nazis, French, Sam...why isn't this everyone's favorite movie? It's universally loved.
My ex once bought me the bonus version of Casablanca. It had all the extra features that you think are cool, but rarely watch. I watched! Over and over and over! I loved this tape. I'd still have it, but it's in parts unknown now, along with the Beta VCR it was played on.
Shawshank seems to be on every guy's best movie list. Red and Andy! A buddy film. It's The Odd Couple set in a prison. What's not to love?! You can find it often on some cable channel.
The ones at the bottom of the list are tougher choices. I'm a big fan of A League of Their Own. Gina Davis. Lori Petty. Tom Hanks. Baseball! Did Dottie drop the ball on purpose so her sister would win and be the hero. The sibling reunion at the Hall of Fame always makes me tear up. I never realized it was in my top five until I made the list. I'm a little surprised I made the choice so quickly, but I'm good with the decision.
Trading Places made the list because of timing. I had just seen the movie the night before...or at least the end of the movie. "It was the Dukes", "One dollar", "Lobster and cracked crab for everyone." I can go on and on with quotes from this movie. Plus, I felt the need for a comedy on my list. Maybe on another day I'd pick Tootsie, Caddyshack or Lost in America, but for that day it's Trading Places. "Looking good, Billy Ray....feeling good, Lewis."
That leaves us with To Kill A Mockingbird. It's my favorite book. I read it every few years. It always lives up to that ranking. I always consider it as one of my favorite movies and didn't think twice about putting it in the number three slot. But, I was trying to figure out the last time I saw the film. Had I even seen it more than one time? I wasn't sure about either of those questions.
I remember seeing To Kill A Mockingbird in the theater. It was in the summer of 1962. I was heading into fifth grade. My family was spending the summer in Wisconsin. We rented a cabin in a sleepy town called Honey Lake. Lots of woods and trails. A huge, or what seemed like a huge. body of water where you could swim out to a raft.
Every Tuesday night, we took a field trip into the big city. Burlington! They had an old fashioned movie theater. Fifty seven years ago, that's what all the movie theaters were like. No multiplexes back then. We go see whatever movie was playing and then go for ice cream. The ice cream store was called The Carousel, I think..at least that's what it's called in my memory. You'd walk in and immediately smell freshly made ice cream. That scent has been stored in my brain for more than five decades.
I've been wondering if it's the movie or the idea of the night out in the big city that I loved. Because, honestly, To Kill A Mockingbird is not a film that a ten year old boy should totally understand, much less fall in love with. I decided I needed to see this movie again.
On Sunday and Wednesday of this week, To Kill A Mockingbird has been playing in theaters around the country. I found a different way to watch the film. I rented the DVD from my local library. Two hours of Gregory Peck, Alice Ghostly and a very young Robert Duvall. Atticus, Scout and Jem. BOOOOO!!
It's two hours of being glued to your seat. Lots of little stories within the main plot to keep your interest. It turns out I was right. The movie I thought was great during the Kennedy administration is still great five decades later.
That's my favorite movie list and I'm sticking with it. It works for me. It could be much worse. At least my favorite film isn't Weekend at Bernies.
Related Post: 10 favorite musical movies
Type your email address in the box and click the "create subscription" button. My list is completely spam free, and you can opt out at any time.