Nightglow Window

My Favorite 58 Movies

1. The Lord of the Rings - The Motion Picture Trilogy (2004)
A very uncool top choice, but Peter Jackson’s trilogy is a total triumph. A movie they said couldn’t be made was handled with incredible skill and caring—and kept me coming back for the midnight showing each time a new segment was released.

2. Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969)
Who are those guys? Saw this one with my parents when I was about five and it captivated. Burt Bacharach’s soundtrack still best evokes my early childhood.

3. Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Poet/physician Zhivago loves two women through the events of World War I and the Russian Revolution. A David Lean epic that’s as sweeping and as vast as the Russian steppes.

4. Lawrence Of Arabia (1962)
Another David Lean epic that defines the term cinematic. A journey into the madness and the weight of leadership.

5. Stand By Me (1986)
The movie Christy and I saw on our first date, it remains Stephen King’s most nuanced novella and reminds us just what a tragedy it was to lose River Phoenix so soon.

6. Shawshank Redemption (1994)
“I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.”

7. Love Actually (2003)
The Jamie and Aurelia plot arc is a classic on its own.

8. Lost In Translation (2003)
An atmospheric movie about two lonely souls finding each other and navigating the disorientation and confusion that is life. Haunting and tender and very real. "Everyone wants to be found."

9. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Nothing was done by chance in this Kubrick masterpiece, including the languid pace that captures the scale and loneliness of space travel. The final 15 minutes is still unlike anything else.

10. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
The best film of 2005 hands down. A quiet, heartbreaking love story, and a portrait of an emotionally repressed man both undone and liberated by his feelings.

11. Contact (1997)
A Guilty Pleasure. A movie that always leaves me slackjawed, whispering, “Wouldn’t it be cool?” Good on ya, Carl.

12. The Good, the Bad & the Ugly (1967)
“There are two kinds of people in the world, my friend: Those with a rope around the neck, and the people who have the job of doing the cutting.”

13. Breakfast Club (1985)
The early riffs of Simple Minds’ “Don’t You Forget About Me” is the absolute anthem of my high school years.

14. Band of Brothers (2001)
Okay, not a real movie, but the HBO miniseries is genius. After all Easy Company experiences, watching Major Winters go for that swim in the Konigsee near the end of the series is absolutely cathartic.

15. Blade Runner (1982)
A look into the future that still looks fresh 25 years after it first debuted.

16. Breaking Away (1979)
One of the best movies about small town life ever, and the confusion that comes part and parcel of growing up.

17. Casablanca (1942)
No list would be complete without it, right?

18. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
How many nights did I sit up on my shed, watching the sky, hoping, after seeing this movie?

19. Dr. Strangelove (1964)
“Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!”

20. Garden State (2004)
For the soundtrack alone, this one is hard to beat. Add in super-hottie Natalie Portman, who plays Sam, a girl absolutely brimming with life, and this movie sits comfortably in my top twenty. Open your heart to the joy and pain of the infinite abyss that is life.

Other Great Films

21. L.A. Confidential (1997)
22. Logan's Run (1976)
23. Out of Africa (1985)
24. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
25. Star Wars (1977)
26. The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957)
27. The English Patient (1996)
28. The Princess Bride (1987)
29. When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
30. Wizard Of Oz (1939)
31. Empire Strikes Back (1980)
32. Dangerous Liasons (1988)
33. A Christmas Story (1983)
34. A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
35. Almost Famous (2000)
36. Amélie (2001)
37. Brazil (1985)
38. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)
39. Forrest Gump (1994)
40. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
41. Goodfellas (1990)
42. La Femme Nikita (1991)
43. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
44. Pulp Fiction (1994)
45. Schindler's List (1993)
46. The Right Stuff (1983)
47. The Road Warrior (1982)
48. The Sand Pebbles (1966)
49. The Usual Suspects (1995)
50. Time Bandits (1981)
51. Young Frankenstein (1974)
52. Sixteen Candles (1984)
53. All The President's Men (1976)
54. Romeo & Juliet (1968)
55. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
56. Spirited Away (2001)
57. The Sixth Sense (1999)
58. Reds (1981)