Here are my favorite 10. Each is special in its own way and I cannot really compare one as better than the other.
1.Lawrence of Arabia: I wish the historical content were less ’’western biased’’, but for the most part the story of T E Lawrence drama aside is pretty accurate. David Lean’s direction and the photograhy in the desert is unbeleivable. At times you feel your feet on the sand. Both Omar Sharif and Peter O Toole have given a sterling performance. Remember it was made in 1962 and think of the technology
2.North By Northwest: I confess I am a Hitchcock fan. I can put each one of his movies on this list. However this movie walks away with the honors. My favorite scene is the cropduster plane chasing Cary Grant. It is amazing how much suspense a director can maintain in a chase and how long he can carry this chase. That by itself makes it one of the best directed and gripping movies of all times
The Producers: I lied when I told you that all movies in my top 10 are equally good. My special Bias is for this masterpiece of Mel Brooks and his directorial debut. Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder have given the performance of their lives in this movie...which makes fall on the floor laughing 20 times later. It is an epic of disrespect...a complete farce. Amazing flick and folks the play was every bit the movie...Dont miss it if it comes to anyplace near you. Its Springtime for hitler and Germany.
Schindlers List: You know I read Oscar Schindler’s story when I was obsessed with the Holocaust. I was reading the story and telling myself that I wished someone made it into a movie. There came Steven Spielberg and made what I consider a masterpiece and it rightly deserved an Oscar.
5.The Apartment: I think this movie won the Oscar prior to the year Lawrence of Arabia did. It is again a masterpiece
of a movie and buddy boy(Jack Lemmon) shifting his key around to get a key to the executive washroom makes me roll in laughter even when I think about it today. This also was Jack Lemon’s career best performance as a sleep deprived insurance company worker.
6.Modern Times: This Charlie Chaplin movie is a no brainer as a pick. It is hard to keep Charlie out of a top 10 ever list and I had to decide which of the two(City lights or Modern times) would make it. Modern times has charlie chaplin as actor, director and Music director all in one and to each role he has done a superb job.
7.To Kill a Mockingbird: Gregory Peck just died. The day he died I kept thinking about how great a movie To Kill a Mockingbird was. It is one of the most inspiring movies of our times and something that through some superb acting and direction reminds us of how important it is to stand up and do what is right.
- Inherit the Wind: This is the story of the monkey trial
(evolution vs creationism) and is a very powerful courtroom drama again set in the deeply relegious southern United states. It is very similar in Genre to the previous pick of mine ’’To Kill a mockingbird’’ and it showcases society as it was in a time different from now. An amazing movie and a very powerful message.
- My cousin Vinny: Sometimes acting makes a movie. This is one such case. I can still visualize Marisa Tomei with her biological clock dialog and even better the hillarious courtroom scenes with Joe Pesci. This movie is a real slapknee commedy of the highest caliber.
10.Casablanca: How could I leave this to the end. A masterly performance by Bogard and Ingrid, superb direction. This movie set in World war 2 Casablanca in what was then called ’’Unoccupied france’’ is probably one of the truest reflections of the prevailing mood just before America entered the big war. A must see as on the greatest love stories ever seen on the silver screen.