Friends, MY favorite movies, not in specific order. I have not seen many old movies and so not many show up here.
1. The Shawshank Redemption:
A great combination of excellent screenplay, superb direction and wonderful on screen performances. It?s not just an escape story, it?s a story of hope and friendship.
Excellent performance not only by Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, but also by Bob Gunton as the warden. A must see film. Some of the scenes are very powerful ones, worth listing in all time great scenes in movie history. The entire escape scene, the warden?s suicide and the end of the movie, all great scenes. Tim Robins has given his most powerful performance here. His character development, facial expressions, air and everything about him was truly spectacular.
2. Godfather:
Flawless!!
The Godfather is one of the few films in which I personally did not find any significant weakness even after many viewings. From the direction, to the cast, to the acting, to the storyline, to the music.... Best example of a movie based on very good very popular novel. If you have read the book, you will love this movie. There are scenes that manage to create incredible tension, various twists, and yet Godfather can be watched knowing the whole story beforehand and still be a phenomenal experience!
This is a movie where there are so many characters and you remember most of them. It is said that it?s the best cast to ever appear in a movie.
And needless to mention, the legendary performances by both Brando and Al Pacino.
Many say the sequel, The Godfather II is better than the original, a very rare thing in movie history. Hey but this one started it all!!
3. Papillon:
I like movies based on great novels/books that I have read already, it?s an altogether different feeling to see the character on screen that you’ve been painting within your mind while reading the books. However this is a great challenge to make movies on great books, books can provide very very minute details and can be stretched any longer.
Secondly writer can tell you what the characters are ’thinking’ which is very hard in movies. Very few moviemakers were successful to recreate the story on the screen with equal effectiveness. Some were better than the books. Papillon in one such movie.
This is a long movie but that was necessary for character development as well the plot itself needed an elongated setting. It shows the terrible life in a French prison colony. It cab be easily considered one of the ’’godfathers’’ of prison life movies.
Apart from story and direction, the most important aspect of the movie is acting. Both Steve McQueen (as Henri Charriere aka ’Papillon’) and Dustin Hoffman (as Louis Dega- with very very heavy glasses) are simply at their best. I can not forget Dega by Hoffman, whenever we talk about Hoffman, I remember him as Dega, even though he has given many great performances later. All others in supporting casts match their roles very very well.
The best escape story so far.... There is one scene in this movie, the prisoners are served some soup in bowls as their meal, Pappi and friends are sitting together on wooden plank. One of the inmates with them is dead but they make him sit as if he is sick and get his share of food as well. Once the person distributing the food leaves, they let this guy’s body fall down and share his soup among themselves.....
4. A Beautiful Mind
A Beautiful Movie!! Inspired by a true life story of a great mathematician. Once in a while you watch such a movie that totally knocks you down. That leaves you speechless. That completely occupies your mind.
Russell Crowe is fantastic here. We can virtually see the fog covering his mind, in the shaking of his hands, in the way, in which he avoids eye contact, in his body moves... He’s totally true.
Oscar for the Best Actor went to Denzel Washington in ’Training Day’ which was good; though many say not nearly as deserved as Russell Crowe.
5. Remember the Titans
Not really a sports movie, but with American Football in the background, this movie portrays 70’s America with the school recently forced to integrate, racial tensions are on peak not only among students, but across the town. It?s about a black man (Washington) taking over as coach from a white man (Patton) of a High School. The whites do not take too friendly to this, especially when Patton’s character is a championship coach. Denzel Washington is in his usual best, very very well supported by Will Patton and all the players in the football team.
6. Philadelphia
Philadelphia is a truly amazing movie and a touching story.
Tom Hanks is stunningly impressive in his performance as an AIDS effected homosexual who has lost his job simply because of his condition.
Although this is Hanks’s best performance of his career, he is very closely followed by Denzel Washington who puts a perfect show as Hanks’s lawyer.
I always compare Tom’s performance in this movie with Russell Crowe in ’’A Beautiful Mind’’ and can’t tell which one is better.
7. Scent of a Woman
This is the story of a lonely blind man, a retired Colonel, and his young recruit. The story and screenplay is very different and really wonderful, but it is a movie one MUST see for a splendid show by Al Pacino. Al Pacino’s character play is absolutely stunning. The Tango scene in the movie is simply unforgettable, but the School committee meeting in the end is indeed a treat, one of the greatest scenes in all the movies I have seen.
8. Training Day
Training Day is full of surprises and there is never a dull moment. The film is fast, furious and full of action.
Powerful- Oscar winning- performance by Denzel Washington, very well supported by Hawk in the role of trainee cop.
9. The Bridge on the River Kwai:
I am big fan of War movies, especially the ones where the actual battle/was is in the background. This is no doubt; one of the greatest war movies yet. Set in a Japanese P.O.W camp in Burma, the story concerns British P.O.W.s building a bridge for their captors, and the team of Commandos who plot to destroy it.
Alec Guinness gives a remarkable performance as a bold British general (reminds me of Balraj Sahni) whose pride and principles are, at the same time, his best quality as well as his greatest fault. The Japanese commander as well as the American Navy soldier are also superb. The direction and photography in this movie provide another reason to watch it.
10. Goodfellas, Full Metal Jacket (War), Scarface, Erin Brockovich, The Deer Hunter (War), Ronin (Action/Best Car chase), Ocean’s Eleven, Notting Hill, Donnie Brasco, Dances with Wolves, Bull Durham, Phone Booth, And Justice for All, When Harry Met Sally, Disclosure, My Cousin Vinny, Legally Blonde, Rounders, A Painted House, Dead Man Walking, The Usual Suspects, Courage under Fire, Fight Club, Saving Private Ryan, Ice Age, Monsters’ Inc., Mystic River, Road Trip, The Good Earth,