My 100 Favorite Movies with Reviews (85-81)

85. Forrest Gump (1994)

Just about everyone I know loves Forrest Gump, and why wouldn’t they? It’s such a sentimental film but nearly every bit of it works, and it ends up being a great portrait of America in the latter half of the twentieth century.

It has its share of dumb moments, sure, as Gump basically is a part of every major historical event in America, but it’s enjoyable, and that’s really all that matters.

Tom Hanks plays Forrest Gump in his first Academy Award-winning role. He’s a slow-witted young man hopelessly pursuing his childhood friend, Jenny (Robin Wright), and deeply attached to his mother, played by Sally Field. If anyone were to dislike this movie, I guess, it might be because Forrest literally does everything for Jenny and she keeps shoving him off until the very end, but I think that’s one of the film’s strong points actually. It does a good job of showing that love isn’t always requited, and almost never rational.

84. Godzilla (1954)

Like a lot of people, I grew up with Godzilla, Tokyo’s hated-comes-beloved giant lizard monster that has atomic breath and is indestructible. But it wasn’t until recently that I saw the original Godzilla. Yes, Gojira, directed by Ishiro Honda, one of my favorite directors of all time due to his work in the kaiju genre.

It’s easy to look at what Godzilla has become and pass this off as a B-movie but it’s not. It’s a very serious movie. Japan suffered the horrors of the atom bomb in World War II, and less than ten years after that, they are faced with the horrors of the H-bomb in the form of the most destructive creature that has ever lived.

Like many monster movies, this relies on suspense and doesn’t reveal the monster for a good deal of the film. Ships are either sunk or exploded and the only survivors only make it for a matter of minutes. An island of natives tells of their local legend of a horrible creature named Gojira, or Godzilla in the subtitles, and later that night it attacks the village. The film makes excellent use of miniatures. And yes, you will see that they are miniatures, but due to the cinematography when they actually show Godzilla, he looks real. You can’t tell he’s a six foot tall suit; he looks like he’s 100 feet tall. The black and white looks great, with smoke going everywhere.

Like I said earlier, this is a very serious film, and you’ll probably be surprised at how interesting the characters are for a movie of its kind. The scientist with the eyepatch is just awesome, and he raises some interesting moral questions.

This was made in 1956 with a couple new scenes filmed and all of it dubbed in English, but to be honest, I prefer the subtitled version. Check it out.

83. Dances with Wolves (1990)

While it may have stolen the Best Picture Academy Award from Goodfellas, Dances with Wolves is a magnificent movie in its own right. It’s a sweeping western epic of around three hours, but has great characters and a good story. Yes, it’s politically correct, painting the Native Americans as the good guys and the white men as the bad guys, but it works because it isn’t so simplistic.

Kevin Costner plays an accidental Civil War hero who goes out to the plains of South Dakota because he wishes to see the frontier. He is alone there until he bonds with a local tribe of Sioux and a white woman they have had since she was a young girl. Mary McDonnell gives a wonderful performance as said woman, and Graham Greene is very likable as the role of one of the Native American elders.

The cinematography is arguably the best part of this film, as well as the directing by Costner. The plains of South Dakota make for a beautiful backdrop, particularly when there are herds of buffalo. My favorite scene was the buffalo hunt which looks like it must have been damn near impossible to film, first of all. But mostly I love it because it perfectly captures the wonder of seeing those animals out in the plains. I spent a week in South Dakota and I can say that when I finally got to see a buffalo, though I was in a car, it was one of the most exciting moments of my life.

It has moments of action and excitement, but mostly it’s a film to see because of the story and the cinematography. It’s a very well done movie.

82. The Birds (1963)

This is the only Alfred Hitchcock film to not have a human as the villain. The plot is pretty ridiculous, actually, but leave it to the Master to make a film about killer birds that can be called an excellent film and a work of art itself.

Hitchcock once again masters the art of build-up by starting The Birds off as an innocent little romantic comedy that eventually explodes into a full-out bird-induced apocalypse. No, there’s nothing realistic about it and the characters are surprisingly flat for Hitchcock but it manages to be a very suspenseful and frightening film.

The last 45 minutes are some of the most tense minutes ever filmed and the outdated special effects have that old-fashioned charm and are a marvel to look at. The ending, however, is a bit of a disappointment. Still a great film though.

81. Casablanca (1942)

How is Casablanca, one of the pinnacles of American cinema, this low on my list? Well that’s why it’s my list of what I’ve enjoyed most. Casablanca is an enjoyable movie, as perfectly written and acted as any movie I’ve ever seen, probably. The dialogue is all great and there are so many iconic lines.

I’m pretty sure everyone knows the plot but whatever. Nazi-occupied Casablanca. Love triangle. Bogart. Bergman.

The characters and performances are all excellent and the climactic airplane scene is just beautiful. Some of my favorite supporting performances are in this movie: Dooley Wilson, Claude Rains, and Peter Lorre, but they’re all overshadowed by Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in the leads.