Monday, January 5, 2009

Stanley Fish beat me to it...

...in today's New York Times. He reveals his list of the Top Ten movies of all time and includes "The Best Years of Our Lives" as number one. I had been meaning to recommend this movie as part of a diatribe against movies in general. Although I didn't have a top ten list per se, I was going to mention this movie and Woody Allen's "Another Woman" as antidotes to the mediocrity I find rampant on the Big Screen.

"The Best Years of Our Lives" is about three returning servicemen from World War II and the challenges they face re-entering civilian life. The actor that played the double amputee actually did lose his two hands in the war and this was the only movie he ever made. "Another Woman" is about a 50-ish woman played by Gina Rowlands who examines her life for the first time and doesn't necessarily like everything she sees.

I realize that a lot of the people I know would rather not watch a Woody Allen movie. He drives a lot of people nuts and I won't go into the reasons why. But Allen is not even in this movie and it occurred to me that he doesn't appear in two other excellent, but often overlooked movies of his, "Interiors" and "The Purple Rose of Cairo." The first is serious and the second is a really clever comedy. If you think you know Woody Allen and don't like him, you may want to see these three movies anyway.

1 comment:

John said...

Wow, this is quite a blog! I think you should spend more time making chicken and tilapia and stop writing so much.