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Loew's Capitol, New York City, September 1968

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My Choices for Best Picture of the Year

1930: "All Quiet on the Western Front"

1931: "Frankenstein"

1932: "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang"

1933: "King Kong"

1934: "It Happened One Night"

1935: "Bride of Frankenstein"

1936: "A Tale of Two Cities"

1937: "The Good Earth"

1938: "Angels With Dirty Faces"

1939: "The Wizard of Oz"

1940: "The Thief of Bagdad"

1941: "Citizen Kane"

1942: "Mrs. Miniver"

1943: "Casablanca"

1944: "Lifeboat"

1945: "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"

1946: "It's a Wonderful Life"

1947: "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir"

1948: "The Search"

1949: "The Heiress"

1950: "All About Eve"

1951: "The Day the Earth Stood Still"

1952: "Singin' in the Rain"

1953: "Shane"

1954: "On the Waterfront"

1955: "Marty"

1956: "The Ten Commandments"

1957: "Nights of Cabiria"

1958: "Vertigo"

1959: "The Nun's Story"

1960: "Psycho"

1961: "West Side Story"

1962: "Lawrence of Arabia"

1963: "The Birds"

1964: "Dr. Strangelove"

1965: "Doctor Zhivago"

1966: "A Man for All Seasons"

1967: "The Graduate"

1968: "2001: A Space Odyssey"

1969: "Midnight Cowboy"

1970: "Ryan's Daughter"

1971: "Fiddler on the Roof"

1972: "The Godfather"

1973: "The Exorcist"

1974: "The Godfather Part II"

1975: "Nashville"

1976: "Rocky"

1977: "Star Wars"

1978: "Days of Heaven"

1979: "Breaking Away"

1980: "The Elephant Man"

1981: "Atlantic City"

1982: "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial"

1983: "Terms of Endearment"

1984: "A Passage to India"

1985: "Kiss of the Spider Woman"

1986: "Hannah and Her Sisters"

1987: "The Last Emperor"

1988: "The Last Temptation of Christ"

1989: "Field of Dreams"

1990: "Dances with Wolves"

1991: "Beauty and the Beast"

1992: "Malcolm X"

1993: "Schindler's List"

1994: "Pulp Fiction"

1995: "Babe"

1996: "Secrets and Lies"

1997: "Contact"

1998: "Gods and Monsters"

1999: "The Straight Story"

2000: "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"

2001: "Mulholland Dr."

2002: "The Pianist" 

2003: "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" 

2004: "Vera Drake"

2005: "Brokeback Mountain"

2006: "The Departed"

2007: "Michael Clayton"

2008: "Slumdog Millionaire"

2009: "Avatar"

2010: "Another Year"

2011: "Hugo"

2012: "Zero Dark Thirty"

2013: "Nebraska"

2014: "Birdman"

2015: “Room”

2016: “Manchester by the Sea”

2017: "Lady Bird"

2018: "Roma"

2019: "Joker"

2020: "The Trial of the Chicago 7"

2021: "Nomadland"

2022: "Tar"

2023: "Oppenheimer"

2024: "Anora"

2025:

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Closing Lines

It's probably easier to send audiences out with a bang using a startling image than just a line of dialogue. I guess that's why I only came up with 9 memorable lines. If anyone reading this can come up with some more, please let me know. Scarlett in "Gone With the Wind", contemplating her future: "After all, tomorrow is another day." Rick in "Casablanca", at the airport: "Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship." Denham in "King Kong": "Oh no. It wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the beast." Otto in "The Diary of Anne Frank", considering his daughter's belief that people are really good at heart: "She puts me to shame." Scout in "To Kill a Mockingbird", now grown up and reminiscing: "He would be in Jem's room all night. And he would be there when Jem waked up in the morning." Jim in "I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang", when asked how he will survive: "I steal!" Osgood in "Some Like It Hot", on finding out that his bride-to-be is a man: "Well, nobody's perfect." Fran in "The Apartment": "Shut up and deal." Norma in "Sunset Boulevard": "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up." (Billy Wilder was really good at these. He wrote or co-wrote the last 3 lines.) Just thought of another one: "Forget it, Jake, it's "Chinatown"."

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Final Shots and Scenes

These films tried to leave something behind for us to ponder before we raced to the parking lot or the bus stop. James Stewart on the edge, literally, in "Vertigo" Peter O'Toole behind a dirty windshield in "Lawrence of Arabia" The bus going down the road toward an uncertain future in "The Graduate" The kids playing the guitar and dancing in "Black Orpheus" Burning some junk in a furnace in "Citizen Kane" Anthony Quinn alone on the beach in "La Strada" A most unhappy Giulietta Masina surrounded by a bunch of happy teenagers in "Nights of Cabiria" The Star Child coming home to Earth in "2001" Dorothy surrounded by her family and friends in "The Wizard of Oz" Alan Ladd riding through the graveyard in "Shane" Alex telling us he is cured in "A Clockwork Orange" Audrey Hepburn walking down a path and turning a corner in "The Nun's Story" (has to be seen in context) The Brenner family abandoning their home in "The Birds" The little boy left alone in the circus ring as the lights go out in "8 1/2" The ballet company proving the show must go on in "The Red Shoes" Walter Huston checking his little black book in "The Devil and Daniel Webster" War planes flying in formation over the roof of a bombed-out church in "Mrs. Miniver" Beautiful Florida hotels reflected in a bus window in "Midnight Cowboy" James Cagney as George M. Cohan singing one of his own songs in "Yankee Doodle Dandy" Katharine Hepburn waving goodbye from the train in "Summertime" The little homesick girl turns to stare at us for just a moment in "La Dolce Vita" Merrick's mother speaks in "The Elephant Man" An extreme high overhead shot of the oil rig in "Breaking the Waves" The ultimate visual expression of the concept of forgiveness - the last shot of "Places in the Heart" Boarding the Vietnam-bound troop plane/Arlington Cemetery/Anti-war demonstration in front of the Nixon White House in "Hair" Amy Irving lays flowers at the foot of a For Sale sign in "Carrie" Charlton Heston visits a national monument in "Planet of the Apes"

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Opening Shots and Scenes to Remember

As a character in a David Lynch film once said, "A beginning is a very delicate time." In fact it was the first line in the movie "Dune", spoken by Virginia Madsen (makes sense to me). Here are some other beginnings that effectively set the stage for a terrific movie experience. The NO TRESPASSING sign and the tour of Xanadu in "Citizen Kane" The entire first 15 minutes of "West Side Story"  The motorcycle ride in "Lawrence of Arabia" Vito's last day in Sicily/first day in America in "The Godfather Part II" The speech to the troops in "Patton" Martin Sheen going nuts in Saigon in "Apocalypse Now" A lunar eclipse as seen from behind the moon, and those first 5 notes to what is now called the theme from "2001" The flight over the Alps in "The Sound of Music" Chrissie going swimming in "Jaws" The traffic jam in "8 1/2" The rooftop chase in "Vertigo" The auditions in "All That Jazz" The birth of "The Elephant Man" Our first view of 21st century Los Angeles in "Blade Runner" 15th century Transylvania: how the great vampire came to be in "Bram Stoker's Dracula" An Imperial Star Destroyer flying over our heads in "Star Wars" The longest pullback in cinema history, with the sounds of humanity gradually fading into infinite silence, in "Contact"  Almost any James Bond movie. 

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Seattle Cinerama, October 2011

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Seattle Cinerama, October 2011

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Lafayette Theatre, Suffern NY, February 2003

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Memorable Movie Music

The following scores would make even a terrible movie sound good. In reality these composers provided the final touch in making sure these movies will always be remembered.

Max Steiner ("King Kong", "Gone With the Wind")

Miklos Rozsa ("The Thief of Bagdad", "Ben-Hur") 

Alfred Newman ("The Song of Bernadette", "How the West Was Won")

Franz Waxman ("Bride of Frankenstein", "Peyton Place", "The Nun's Story")

Victor Young ("Shane", "The Quiet Man", "Around the World in 80 Days")

Erich Wolfgang Korngold ("The Adventures of Robin Hood")

Dimitri Tiomkin ("The Thing from Another World", "The High and the Mighty", "Giant")

Elmer Bernstein ("The Ten Commandments", "To Kill a Mockingbird", "The Great Escape", "Hawaii")

Alex North ("Spartacus", "Cleopatra")

Jerome Moross ("The Big Country", "The Cardinal")

Maurice Jarre ("Lawrence of Arabia", "Doctor Zhivago", "Ryan's Daughter")

Jerry Goldsmith ("A Patch of Blue", "Planet of the Apes", "Patton", "Star Trek: The Motion Picture", "Alien")

Nino Rota ("La Strada", "La Dolce Vita", "The Godfather", "8 1/2")

John Williams ("Jaws", "Star Wars", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "Superman", "E.T.")

Ennio Morricone ("The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly", "Days of Heaven")

John Barry ("Goldfinger", "Thunderball", "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", "Somewhere in Time", "Dances with Wolves")

Philip Glass ("Koyaanisqatsi", "The Hours")

SPECIAL SHRINE TO BERNARD HERRMANN (1911-1975)

I first got to know Bernard Herrmann's music when I saw "Journey to the Center of the Earth" at age 10. I would have gotten a good head start if my parents had allowed me to see "Psycho" when I was 5 like I'd wanted to. For me he is simply the greatest. Maybe it's because he scored so many science fiction and fantasy movies, which are the kind I'd always liked best anyway. But then his Westerns and love stories are equally exciting and beautiful. It got to the point where I would try to see a movie just because he wrote the score.

His main title themes were knockouts, but what must have been much harder to do effectively was the way he underscored dialogue scenes. I'm thinking of two in particular: the scene in "The Devil and Daniel Webster" where Mary asks Daniel to help her husband, and the conversation in front of the fireplace in "Vertigo". Every time I'd finish watching those movies back in the old VHS days, I'd go back to those scenes on the rewind, just to hear them one more time. 

Out of Herrmann's 50 feature film scores, I've picked 10 of my special favorites. They demonstrate the full range of his talent and versatility.

"Citizen Kane" (1941) His first movie assignment - talk about starting out at the top.

"The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1941) His Academy Award winner - a musical poem of early America.

"The Ghost and Mrs. Muir" (1947) His most romantic and beautiful work.

"The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951) His first science fiction score, and endlessly copied. Probably the first Hollywood score to feature an electric guitar.

"The Kentuckian" (1955) Without the music, it would be just another good Burt Lancaster Western. Herrmann's lovely score makes it a memorable one.

"Vertigo" (1958) Everyone who worked on this film was at their very best, especially Herrmann and Hitchcock. Nothing else to say.

"Journey to the Center of the Earth" (1959) Herrmann's deepest score (bad pun intended). The music fits the title perfectly.

"Psycho" (1960) By far the most frightening, and imitated, film score in history. Just remember Herrmann did it first.

"The 3 Worlds of Gulliver" (1960) A literary classic gets the classic treatment from Herrmann, too.

"Fahrenheit 451" (1966) Herrmann, at a terrible time in his personal life, gives us his most emotionally moving score.

If you'd like to know more about Bernard Herrmann, there's an excellent biography of him called "A Heart at Fire's Center" by Steven C. Smith. His story would make a fine movie all by itself.

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Favorite Directors

Alfred Hitchcock ("Vertigo", "Psycho", "Shadow of a Doubt", "Lifeboat", "Strangers on a Train", "Rear Window", "North by Northwest", "The Birds", "Marnie") Stanley Kubrick ("2001", "Lolita", "Dr. Strangelove", "Paths of Glory", "A Clockwork Orange", "Spartacus") Federico Fellini ("La Dolce Vita", "La Strada", "Nights of Cabiria", "8 1/2") David Lean ("Lawrence of Arabia", "Doctor Zhivago", "The Bridge on the River Kwai", "Summertime", "Great Expectations", "Ryan's Daughter") Billy Wilder ("Sunset Blvd.", "Some Like it Hot", "The Apartment", "One, Two, Three") Robert Wise ("The Day the Earth Stood Still", "West Side Story", "The Haunting", "The Sound of Music", "The Andromeda Strain") Fred Zinnemann ("The Search", "The Nun's Story", "A Man for All Seasons") George Stevens ("I Remember Mama", "Shane", "Giant", "The Diary of Anne Frank") Orson Welles ("Citizen Kane", "The Magnificent Ambersons") John Ford ("Stagecoach", "The Grapes of Wrath", "How Green Was My Valley", "The Quiet Man") Francis Ford Coppola ("The Godfather", "The Godfather Part II", "Apocalypse Now") David Lynch ("Eraserhead", "The Elephant Man", "The Straight Story", "Mulholland Dr.") Mike Leigh ("Secrets and Lies", "Vera Drake", "Another Year") Steven Spielberg ("Jaws", "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", "E.T.", "Schindler's List") William Wyler ("Mrs. Miniver", "The Best Years of Our Lives", "The Heiress", "Ben-Hur") Frank Capra ("Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", "It's a Wonderful Life") Martin Scorsese ("Raging Bull", "The Last Temptation of Christ", "Goodfellas", "Hugo") George Lucas ("Star Wars", "American Graffiti") Roman Polanski ("Rosemary's Baby", "Repulsion", "Chinatown", "The Tenant", "The Pianist") Francois Truffaut ("The 400 Blows", "Fahrenheit 451") Woody Allen ("Annie Hall", "Manhattan", "Hannah and Her Sisters") William Castle ("House on Haunted Hill", "13 Ghosts", "Homicidal") (I couldn't resist.   I grew up with this guy's movies.) 

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Top 10 Favorite Films

In chronological order:

"King Kong" (1933) 

It's to fantasy adventure films what the Empire State Building is to skyscrapers.

"The Wizard of Oz" (1939)

I remember watching it every year on its annual TV showing, just staring at it in amazement. Just like every other kid in the country, I'll bet. 

"Citizen Kane" (1941)

Ambitious, controversial, beautiful to see and hear, fun to watch. Any other words of praise you can think of will apply to it. 

"Marty" (1955)

Sometimes the simplest of stories, about the most ordinary people, can just about say it all. 

"Vertigo" (1958)

Alfred Hitchcock's most beautiful and moving film. There can be no higher recommendation than that. 

"West Side Story" (1961)

The ultimate movie musical. Or maybe I just think so after having played the soundtrack album a couple of hundred times before I actually saw the movie at age 8. 

"Lawrence of Arabia" (1962)

Has any other movie taken so many chances (it couldn't have been easy to put this one together) and then succeeded so spectacularly? 

"2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968)

I've always been a big fan of science fiction, and this is the best science fiction movie ever made, or that probably ever will be made. If I had to pick only one, it would be my favorite movie of all time. 116 theatrical viewings so far. 

"The Godfather Part II" (1974)

When a sequel to a great movie surpasses it in almost every way, the word "sequel" isn't good enough for it somehow. 

"Star Wars" (1977)

I saw it once, and wanted to see it again.  Right away.  Those were the first two of my 31 theatrical viewings.

I realize I could easily add another 10, but this is a very good group to be stranded on a desert island with. 

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The Double Digit Club

The Guinness Book of World Records tells of a woman who's seen "The Sound of Music" over 900 times. Howard Hughes was said to be obsessed with "Ice Station Zebra" and watched it every day for a number of months. I'll never reach either of those extremes, but real movie lovers know there's nothing like seeing an all-time favorite in a big theater on a big screen. And if the movie is really special, once is not enough. Once a week maybe, but not just once. Having said that, here are the movies I've gone to see in a theater 10 times or more. Yeah I know - I keep track of stuff like that. An obsession is an obsession ...

"2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968) (116 times)

"Star Wars" (1977) (32 times)

"West Side Story" (1961) (30 times)

"Vertigo" (1958) (23 times)

"Lawrence of Arabia" (1962) (22 times)

"Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977) (19 times)

"Fantasia" (1940) (15 times)

"Jaws" (1975) (15 times)

"The Exorcist" (1973) (12 times)

"Return of the Jedi" (1983) (12 times)

“Psycho” (1960) (11 times)

"The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) (11 times)

"Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" (1999) (11 times)

"E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" (1982) (10 times)

"Jurassic Park" (1993) (10 times)

I hope it's not too long before another movie comes along that I'll want to see at least 10 times.