Favorite Movies & the Great Influences

My Top 10 are numbered (1-10):
updated as of Jan 7th, 2014

Blade Runner (1)
Citizen Kane (2)
The Seven Samurai (3)
Star Wars (4)
Lord of the Rings (5)
The Maltese Falcon (6)
Alien (7)
The Empire Strikes Back (8)
Aliens (9)
Raiders of the Lost Arc (10)

I realize that some people might say "what is The Seven Samurai?" but this just means you might need to brush up on your film watching in the evening and thats fun for everyone! I recently changed some of these rankings based on recent re-watchings. The talent shows on screen in the storytelling, but ultimately it shows in your memory of that film years later! Some things just stay with you and others fade away. It isn't always something you can understand, but if you end up with a good feeling after you've seen it and it's made an impression on you for years, well, you should think about the fact that many movies can't achieve that kind of influence.

What I love about "Blade Runner" is that (among other things) it achieves a cohesion between eastern & western cultures in the art direction & writing that is so rich that I am still amazed at it! It doesn't stop there though, the characters & story have a depth unparalleled in most films. There is so much there... people still discuss it in forums & the like (just like I am here). It was based on "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick who wrote a few very influential sci-fi stories back in the day. Of course I am a major sci-fi lover but rarely do I feel that what I am seeing in sci-fi films is believable. I can almost see the exposed set & boom mics peeking out between takes in my imagination. "Blade Runner," in contrast, actually achieves believability. I also am a lover of film noir, so "Blade Runner" achieves a synthesis of everything I love in film, period. Another thing that is oft overlooked in films is the soundtrack and this film, utilizing one of my favorite musical genres, New Age music, is used in a way no other film has done before or since.

"The Maltese Falcon," "Citizen Kane," and "The Seven Samurai" all express my love of older b&w cinema. "The Maltese..." for my admiration of crime-story writing translated to the screen as it was done in noir films. "Citizen..." for the technical artistry, ingenuity & talent used to make the film. "Seven Samurai" for , well… everything utilized to achieve putting such a story of tragedy and human commitment on the silver screen. The writing is pure, classic, perfect gold.

"Lord of the Rings" is there for obvious reasons (and yes, I mean ALL of the three movies together as one product). "LotR" is simply the very best fantasy films ever made and they can be judged together because they were all filmed at the same time and they all, then, very easily achieved the same look & feel to them. Incredible VFX and acting. It is hard to say that films do books justice, but I would say that this one does! And I am a major Tolkien fan!

I suppose "Alien" is on this list for some similar reasons that I love "Blade Runner" but obviously not all. It does have a noirish feel to it. The art direction is quite good, showing my love for that era in sci-fi filmmaking. But its the creature design, acting & cinematography that make this a sci-fi thriller most worthy of distinction in my book. I almost listed "Aliens" higher but it isnt as raw in it's artistry & acting. "Aliens," however, is tons of fun to watch & is more descriptive in it's art direction & storytelling.

If you don't know who Akira Kurosawa was, you'd better get cracking! It was a close vote for me between "Yojimbo" and "The Seven Samurai" to list here. They are both incredible films as well as monumentally influential to filmmakers worldwide just as Hitchcock is influential. But there is no Hitchcock film (this is really hard for me to say) that achieves the enormous artistry on screen as a Kurosawa film (& I LOVE Hitchcock!). Hitchcock is a technical genius and a serious student of the human psyche (and it shows in his films) but I consider his work... awkward as it comes to the point of the storytelling. I suppose if I was a major suspense fan, he'd be on the top of my list... so that is saying something I suppose. Kurosawa, in contrast, uses a very organic set of tools to his disposal... to tell a powerfully impactful story & he achieves it almost every time. His very human stories are also great stories. I think the "Samurai..." affected me the most because of all the factors involved to tell such a big story. Each character (each of the seven samurai in the story) affect the viewer in very different ways and each character is also, like the main character. This is rarely if ever achieved in a film. Look at "Oceans 11," or "12," or "13" to compare (which all attempt to achieve this)... Ha ha! There is no comparison!

"Raiders..." is on this list for obvious reasons. For awhile I didn't list this film or the "Empire Strikes Back" film because I considered those choices too obvious and I hadn't seen them in awhile. They were not as fresh in my mind as some other films I had seen more recently. Well, since then, these films come back and back into my memory, pushing the others out of the list. These films are both a ton of fun to watch and the characters are as rich as someone in your own family. You seem to know exactly who they are and you want them to succeed at whatever they do, even if it is to restore the balance to the Force or to restore the prized artifacts to their rightful place. We like to think that Spielberg and Lucas aren't as influential as they are for some reason, but the proof is in the pudding, as they say… They just make darned good films.


Here's the entire list (A-Z) of influences that didn't make the list:
12 Monkeys, 1984, Airplane, Akira, Alphaville, Apocalypse Now, Batman Begins, The Big Lebowski, The Big Sleep, Braveheart, Brazil, The Breakfast Club, Brick, Buffalo 66, Casablanca, Casino Royale, Dark City, The Dark Crystal, Detour (1946), Donnie Darko, Dr. Strangelove, The Elephantman, Faust, The Fifth Element, The Fountain, Gaslight, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Interview with a Vampire, The Island, Ivanhoe, Kill Bill, Krull, The Labyrinth, Ladyhawk, Laura, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (All of Wes Anderson's work), Logan's Run, The Lost Boys, Lost in Translation, The Machinist, The Man Who Wasn't There, The Matrix, Moulin Rogue, Napoleon Dynamite, North by Northwest, Nosferatu, Notorious, Pi, Pulp Fiction, Renaissance, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Baz Lehrmann's Romeo + Juliet, The Royal Tennenbaums, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Signs, Sixth Sense, Soilent Green, Superbad, The Third Man, The Truman Show, Unbreakable, Vanilla Sky, Vertigo, We Are The Strange, Wings of Desire, Yojimbo (really- all of Akira Kurosawa's work), all James Bond movies, ANYTHING with Humphrey Bogart...

Well this must be why I'm wanting to go to film school! I love studying the process & the translation of good storytelling to the screen... It makes me happy! I hope reading this has helped you make some selections at your local video store (which doesn't exist anymore so go to amazon or ebay and pick out some previously watched DVD's or BD's at greatly reduced prices), and brought peace into the home & to all the world... but maybe we can just settle for the home.

Peace-out folks!
Jon