Return to Home Page.
In this space I would like to write about some good movies that I have seen over the years. This is not a list of the best movies ever made, or ordered in a way to pick one over the other. It is just some movies that I like, and I am sure I will think of more that I did not list here.
When I want to know something about a movie, old or new, I usually go to IMDb, the Internet Movie Data Base on the Internet at imdb.com. I use it mostly on my smartphone. Just type in the name of a movie and you can find out the year it was made, the cast and information on them, a rating, a plot summary, some odd trivia, and a lot of things about nearly any movie. So here are some that I have liked...
To Kill A Mockingbird - 1962
An excellent book and an excellent movie. This is the only book ever written by Harper Lee, and there is speculation that it was really written by her childhood friend, the outstanding writer Truman Capote. Capote grew up on the East Coast, but as a child he used to visit a relative in Alabama in the summer, and he would play with that relative's neighbor's children (one of whom was Harper Lee). This fictional story is seen through the eyes of one of those children. It is about racial prejudice and courage in the South of the 1930's. Gregory Peck is outstanding in this movie, and the rest of the cast is very good also. To Kill A Mockingbird might get the nod as the best movie I have seen, and as the best book I have read. I love it.
Lilies of the Field - 1963
This is a movie about a group of nuns from Eastern Europe who travel to the western United States in modern times. They pray that somehow they will be able to build a chapel. A kind-hearted construction worker named Homer who travels from place to place looking for work shows up one day, and the nuns try to recruit him to build a chapel for them with almost no money or resources. But Homer is reluctant to do so, even though he has the expertise to be the one who gets the job done. Sidney Portier as Homer. Story based on a passage from the Book of Matthew with a theme that God will provide. A simple, quite entertaining movie from beginning to end, because it is such a nice story and the characters in it are so likable. One of the very best movies ever, if you ask me.
Hombre - 1967
Paul Newman is one of the best actors ever, and it is difficult to pick just one of his many great pictures. But I really like Hombre. It is a story set in the Old West about a man who is humble and unassuming but courageous, who has a strong sense of what is right and what is wrong. He plays the character of John Russell, who grew up on an Indian Reservation and was raised by Native Americans who taught him how to be a good man, despite all the prejudice and evil he sees in the outside world. It is difficult to determine where he is coming from at the beginning of the story, but you grow to really like his character and then you realize that he is the key to the crisis that develops in the plot. Wonderful film, and I can't see how anyone would not like this one.
Animal House - 1978
This is a comedy made in the late 70's about college life in the early sixties. It is as funny a movie as you will see, if you don't mind the sophomoric hijinks that go on throughout. Changes rapidly from one scene to another, most of it revolving around the students who occupy two fraternity houses. One memorable line after another. Many actors/actresses who were not well known at the time it was made but became familiar faces over time. John Belushi is outstanding in this movie as Bluto, whose character exclaims after being expelled "seven years of college down the drain." I never get tired of this terrific movie.
The Shawshank Redemption - 1994
Based on a book written by Stephen King. Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) is a businessman wrongly convicted of murdering his wife. He is sentenced to prison where he becomes friends with "Red" Redding (Morgan Freeman). The warden is the bad guy in this one, aided by some mean unscrupulous guards. Andy quietly goes about his business, all the while plotting a way to make things improve. Stephen King writes a lot of supernatural fiction, but there is none here. It plays out like something that is a true story, although it is complete fiction. It is a story about friendship, about good people in a bad situation. An outstanding story with outstanding performances by the two lead actors. This movie goes to show that you can make an excellent movie with good writing and good acting alone, without all the explosions, car chases, etc. If you have never seen this one, go watch it somewhere soon.
There are so many good movies... I could write forever about this subject. I will list a few more that I have liked, but without comments, so this article doesn't get too long.
Gaslight - 1944
Double Indemnity - 1944
Rear Window - 1954
Rebel Without a Cause - 1955
The Bridge on the River Kwai - 1957
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World - 1963
Dr. Strangelove - 1964
Bonnie and Clyde - 1967
American Graffiti - 1973
Young Frankenstein - 1974
Sling Blade - 1996
There are so, so many that I am leaving off... but I would like to add one more thing. Occasionally you will come across a movie that is not well known to you. You find yourself watching it, or a friend recommends it, or something. Anyway, you start watching it and you realize that hey, this is a pretty darn good movie, I'm glad I am watching it. I could make a long list of those, and I'm sure you could too. But I will only give you one here. It is a movie called Rails and Ties made in 2007. It is about a train engineer who one day sees a car that has pulled on to the tracks and he knows that despite his best efforts he cannot avoid hitting it. A boy jumps out of the car, maybe 11 or 12 years old, but his mother does not; the train hits the car and the mother is killed, but the boy is OK, at least physically. A few days later the boy seeks out the engineer (played by Kevin Bacon) out of anger. The engineer and his wife end up taking the boy in, and the story goes from there. This is not the best movie ever made, but it was one that I just really liked a lot; I heard about it from a radio personality who was talking about it on his radio show one day. Well worth watching, because it is a good story. The first movie directed by Alison Eastwood, the daughter of Clint Eastwood.
How about you? What movies do you like? Do you have a somewhat unknown movie that you could recommend to me? If so, please send a me a note by clicking the mailbox icon at the bottom of this page. I would like to hear from you.
Return to Home Page.
Send email to the author, Tom Simon tsimon@tsimon.com.