Top Movies of the 1970s

Okay, this was one of the hardest lists to come up with for two reasons. One is that I wasn’t alive in the 1970s and I had to play catch up with everything that came out, so most of my viewing has been restricted to my film lover sensibilities of “this is the movie you have to see” just so I could see what the movies were that changed the game. And there were a LOT of movies that changed so much. In fact, going back and looking at everything, I know I’ve caught the major movies and a few cult classics, but I haven’t gotten through everything. I haven’t seen a lot of John Cassavettes movies and I know he was hugely influential on that decade. There were tons of fantastic foreign films that came out that year and I’ve only seen a handful of Bergman and Fellini films. So while I know this may seem like a pretty generic list, it’s only because I haven’t been able to immerse myself in the decade as if I was living in it when they first opened the way I have for the 1990s or the 2000s. For that reason, I felt I needed to include another list and that was a list of the movies I felt that I needed to see. There are a few filmmakers that I need to see their filmography of this decade also, but I’ll just stick with individual films for now.

The other aspect that made making this list so difficult is that while I still have seen a lot of movies from the 1970s, there were a LOT of movies that I had to grudgingly keep off. For example, four of the greatest comedies ever made came out in the 1970s Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, National Lampoon’s Animal House and Monty Python and the Holy Grail...and I couldn’t find a place for them on the ten best list which REALLY pained me because I like to get as many of the genres in as I can. Hell, I even had to leave off movies like Dog Day Afternoon, The Deer Hunter, Patton, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The French Connection and that’s just naming a few. I had to leave off Star Wars. Star Wars, people. THAT hurt. Annie Hall I hated the first time I saw, but I feel like I should give another chance after falling in love with Midnight in Paris and realizing that 80s and 90s Woody Allen movies were, for the most part, really terrible with a few glimpses of hope here and there. So I felt that I had to make a third list and that would be my ten personal favorites of the 1970s. Movies that I still go back to over and over again and get a huge level of enjoyment out of.

But in the end, the movies that made the list were the ones that not only had the greatest influence on the decade, but also best represented the new style of filmmaking that was taking place at that time, which seemed to be a darker, more personal look at disillusionment that embraced a grittier and more realistic tone of storytelling outside of the grand studio driven spectacle.

So let’s dive in, for better or for worse, and look at the movies I felt were the ten best, my ten favorite and the ten movies of the 1970s that I want to see the most.

Ten Best

10. Jaws: Now, there were a handful of really successful movies. Hell, before this came out, The Godfather, The Exorcist and The Sting had already done tremendous business. But when Jaws came out, it opened up a whole new world of filmmaking: the summer blockbuster way. It also introduced us to a young up and coming auteur named Steven Spielberg, who would go on to being the most successful director of all time. And from Jaws, how could you expect anything less. This movie is a masterpiece of terror and tension, but it never loses sight of its characters or how the menace influences the crowd mentality in the small New England town of Amity. Sure, Jaws is light entertainment amidst the seemingly endless amount of “important movies” that came out this decade like All the President’s Men or Serpico, but Jaws embodies both the spirit of the entertaining movies of the years before it as well as the realism of the decade it existed in. And to this day, it is still enjoyed by many people, so it has become an ageless film.

9. The Exorcist: While Jaws was an expert work of tension, there was another movie that came out only two years before that I remember seeing old news reports of people leaving the theater crying because the movie scared something so deep in them. That movie was William Friedken’s The Exorcist, based on the hit book by William Peter Blatty. What this movie did was take a supernatural plot device and portray it in the most realistic manner possible. The result is quite possible the most terrifying use of subliminal editing, sound, lighting and camera work of the decade. It was realistic but felt otherworldly. It was grounded in science but had religious tones all throughout. It existed as such a contradiction that you weren’t sure what to believe or not. This would go on to be one of the most influential horror movies of all time and remains a fantastically told story about faith.

- Every time I talk about this movie, I like to note as to how the movie takes a whole other turn when you find out that William Peter Blatty and Shirley MacLaine were best friends and about the time that she had to leave set and go into retreat, a year later, Blatty releases the book of The Exorcist. Not only that, but if you really watch Ellen Burstyn’s performance as well as how her make-up/costumes are done, she was clearly made to look like MacLaine. That’s when the movie REALLY begins to feel unsettling.

8. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: You want a movie that embodies the fight the power anti-establishment mentality of the 70s, look no further than this brilliantly crafted movie. This is arguably Jack Nicholson’s best performance and quite possibly the best performance of the entire cast, which includes Brad Douriff, Louise Fletcher, Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd and Scatman Crothers. Nicholson is sentenced to be committed to a mental institution for psych evaluation and instantly begins to butt heads with the floor nurse, played by Louise Fletcher. This is a movie that was flawlessly executed by everyone involved, cast and crew, and also managed to embody the rebellious attitude of the late 60s/early 70s and it also asks the question: who gets to define what crazy is? When do we stop trying to get people to conform to normal and let the weird people celebrate their individuality? Besides, if being normal means that you have to be like Nurse Ratchett, then why bother?

7. Nashville: Sure, M*A*S*H* is the more enjoyable film and probably the more recognized of Robert Altman’s movies, but the definition of what an Altman movie wasn’t fully on display until Nashville. This movie broke new ground with its overlapping dialog and its multi-character storyline and movies haven’t been the same since. As this movie captured the entire setting for the Nashville music scene, it also captured a political setting as well, showing how the two worlds of entertainment and politics are so intertwined. Then tie the whole thing together at the end with the performance of one song? This is truly one of the best films ever made and should be used by anyone as THE reference material for making an ensemble piece. Not to mention, this is the film that Robert Altman truly defined his style as a filmmaker and would forever influence the way movies were made.

6. Chinatown: You ever see a movie that is just flawless? I mean, every shot is perfectly blocked, performed, lit, designed, scored and executed? Well, that’s Chinatown. Everything from the ground up about this movie is perfect. From Robert Towne’s incredibly original story and witty screenplay to Roman Polanski’s perfect direction of every scene, from the flawless capturing of 1930s Los Angeles to the hauntingly memorable score by Jerry Goldsmith. And that’s even before mentioning the cast. Jack Nicholson’s at his most charismatic (and surprisingly, most mentally well balanced), Faye Dunaway is unforgettably enigmatic and tragic and John Huston oozes into one of the best screen villains of all time. What Chinatown also captures brilliantly is a perfect blend of filmmaking generations: the tough and captivating detective stories of the 1940s, the unflinching and grim moral setting of the 1970s and setting a new tone of style that would prove influential for the following generations. Again, Chinatown is just flat out perfect.

5. A Clockwork Orange: Now this was a hard one to digest at first. No good or even redeemable characters, horrific depictions of depravity and a sense of morality that is incredibly warped. It wouldn’t be until repeat viewings that I would be able to shake off the initial sense of shock and this film’s message of a morally bankrupt society and the people it produces. Is it pleasant, not in any sense of the word, but it definitely stands as a fantastic science fiction tale of a dystopian society, the type of people it produces and what happens when a person from that world is made moral. Would we accept someone that was a monster before, but is reformed? And is he truly reformed or is it a personality change that is against his will? There are some pretty rough questions here and it presents them in a very rough manner, but when truly looked at again, there is no other way this kind of story could be told and writer/director Stanley Kubrick crafts the perfect movie for the story it’s telling.

4. Taxi Driver: This is a movie that has just gotten better every new time I watch it. At first, I really enjoyed it, especially the now iconic “You talkin’ to me” scene, but repeat viewings have opened my eyes to just how intricately woven this story truly is. On the surface, it’s a story about a man who is slowly going out of his mind due to no sleep and a constant exposure to the seedy side of New York City. He tries going about it the normal route, getting involved with politics, but he’s not the kind of man who fits in with normal society. So he decides to become a renegade soldier of the underworld, being the “real rain that will come to wash the filth from the streets”. But the movie takes on more metaphysical interpretations from scenes where we briefly glimpse his persona early on in the film as he walks the streets to the ending, which can be open for interpretation as to what level of existence it takes place on. Details like these that elevate a good story to greatness and Taxi Driver is definitely more than a great movie. On top of that, you have incredibly memorable performances from Robert DeNiro as the lead character, Travis Bickle as well as an incredibly daring performance by a teen Jodie Foster as a teen prostitute. Taxi Driver is a movie you won’t be able to shake but when it’s over, you won’t want to.

3. Network: “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.” A rallying cry from one generation that more than echoes in all generations since, Network tells the tale of a news reporter that snaps under the insanity of what the broadcasting world has become and the producers who look to exploit his on air breakdown. Network goes far beyond being a biting satire of exploitation and sensationalism and actually becomes a tale of disconnection. Furthermore, it ends with a scene where you are left to question who is really pulling the strings in the world and just how far up does it go? Network is brilliantly crafted filmmaking with razor sharp dialog, flawless directing and stellar performances from the entire cast. Network may have been set in the modern world during the 1970s, but it’s story is one that has seemed to transcend time.

2. Apocalypse Now: Filmmaking was forever changed with this movie. Editing, sound, cinematography, nearly every aspect of filmmaking to this day is influenced in some way by Apocalypse Now, a movie, which by all rights, should have been a disaster. Adapted from the Joseph Conrad novel Hearts of Darkness, which is set in a South American river during the late 1800s, Coppola adapts the story to a Vietnam era story to tell this tale of madness. The sets were destroyed by a hurricane, Marlon Brando showed up to the set nearly 50 pounds heavier than expected and Martin Sheen had a heart attack during filming. Instead, Coppola turned out a hallucinatory experience that thrusts the viewer into a world where everything is as lawless and mad as the person the main character is ordered to terminate. If you’re looking for a movie that can stand alone as a film school, Apocalypse Now is definitely required viewing.

1. The Godfather I & II: Okay, maybe I have a weakness for lumping stories together (see my best of the 2000s list where all three Lord of the Rings movies were listed as the best of the decade), but Mario Puzo’s book The Godfather was so rich in detail and story that it took two movies to tell the entire story. So, to me, these two movies are essentially the same story, just broken up so it can remain incredibly loyal to the source material. Crime movies had never been portrayed like this. Before The Godfather, mobsters were all trench coat wearing, Thompson gun toting thugs, but Francis Ford Coppola decided to tell this kind of story in an amazing new way: from the perspective of the mafia family. And the result is quite possibly one of the best acting ensembles ever assembled in one film. The first one is a tremendous story about a family that is invested in the organized crime business, except for one son, Michael, who wanted nothing to do with his family’s career path, but through his care for his father grows to become the patriarch figure in the end. Then comes the second part which shows the fallout of Michael’s decisions after becoming the Don by brilliantly paralleling it with the story of his father’s rise to power. While his father made the decisions that he did for the better of his family, Michael’s decisions left him isolated from his family. Watching The Godfather I and II together is such a powerful experience that it’s hard for me to imagine one without the other. The second part just compliments the first part so well that it’s a flawless experience either watching both parts separately or joined together. I could go on forever about the details, the subtext, the underlying source material, everything is just executed so perfectly and it became so influential that it is the true embodiment of perfect filmmaking in the 1970s.

Ten Favorite Movies from the 1970s

10. Superman: The first major studio superhero film and still one of the best of all time. Sure, the current summer movie market is flooded with superhero movies now, but Superman is the one that started it all…and managed to make Superman an interesting character to watch which is a common complaint among most comic book fans. But Richard Donner found a way to not only make the character of Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superman so interesting, but also make a very exciting movie in the process with some of the most state of the art special effects for its time that still manage to hold up well by today’s standards.

9. Halloween: Okay, I’m a sucker for horror movies and this is still one of the best ever made. When I was a teenager, this was so easy to get lost in the fever pitch momentum of terror this movie built up to with its climax that it terrified me to my core. As I got older, yes, it still terrifies me, but now I appreciate the craft that went into this movie. This is the work of a true artist that was breaking new ground when most horror movies were content to simply have their screaming naked co-eds. Or did this pave the way for the movies that followed? Either way, I think it has a place to be remembered from this decade and it still casts an amazing spell to this day.

8. The Godfather I & II: Okay, I’ve already praised this movie for how spectacularly it tells its story and how it was made, so now I’m going to get personal as to why it’s a favorite. I first saw this movie when I was fifteen and going through my high school phase of learning my identity. About halfway through this movie, when Michael goes to Italy and that fantastic Italian guitar theme starts playing, I looked back at my mom and asked, “So, we’re Italian, right?” She nodded and just said, “Awesome” as I turned back to the TV and kept watching with a smile on my face. This movie helped me embrace my heritage, not because of the crime, but because everything was finally starting to connect for me. It still gives me a sense of heritage pride whenever I watch it. As The Dude would say, “I dig your style”.

7. Star Wars: Yeah, I had to give this one a shout out. I grew up on these movies, they grew with me and they are still really fun to watch (even if the prequels nearly destroyed their ability to be enjoyed). But this is one that is endlessly fun, a really good send up of all genres from science fiction to Westerns and a brilliant homage to the films of Akira Kurosawa. If you want pure escapist fun, it is one of the best even to this day. If you want a movie that has a light-hearted philosophical sense about it, it works in that aspect also. People still take the philosophies of this movie to heart because it’s a great movie to grow up with and use like a fairy tale morality. I watched it again a few days back and I still get hooked on it whenever it’s on.

6. Suspiria: This is one of those undiscovered gems that a friend of mine introduced me to and I fell in love with the moment I saw it. Like Star Wars, Suspiria creates a fantasy-dream like setting, but the fairy tale aspect of this is more terrifying like a Grimm fairy tale. The colors are brilliant and beautiful, which makes for a wonderful parallel of the horrific scenes that are playing out in the film. And the death scenes, wow! The death scenes are so graphic and so brutal that they hold up well, even by today’s standards of Saw and House of 1000 Corpses. It’s one of those underground discoveries that you’re amazed you found it and you hope that others have seen also.

5. The Muppet Movie: This is one that just speaks to the child in me. You better believe that I grew up on The Muppets and this movie is one that the older I became, the more transcendent it became. While I enjoyed watching the antics of the Muppets as a child, the story of chasing your dreams, being true to your friends and staying positive in a world that keeps throwing obstacles at you is one that seems to ring more and more profoundly the older I get. Plus, it’s still funny and the music is so heartwarming.

4. Jaws: This movie is just pure fun on every level. If I want to watch how Avant Garde techniques can be used in a popcorn film, I go to Jaws. If I want to see a fun white knuckle experience, I go to Jaws. If I want to watch one of the best examples of what Hollywood entertainment can be, I go to Jaws. It is one of the most perfect blockbusters of all time and also one of the best crafted.

3. Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Hell yeah, I’m a Monty Python fan! From their insanely off the wall sketch comedy show to all of their movies, I am always rolling on the ground with hysterical laughter. What introduced me to this wonderful world was none other than some weird low budget movie about King Arthur and his quest for the Holy Grail. It took me a while to comprehend just what madness I was seeing on the screen, but when I finally let the madness win, I never went back. This is probably one of the most quotable movies of all time and also one of the most fun.

2. The Exorcist: I am a sucker for horror movies and I still consider The Exorcist to be the best horror movie ever made. Sorry if this disappoints anyone, but it’s my choice. This movie affects me to the very underlying roots of my subconscious, on my levels of faith and fear of the dark forces in this world that we can’t see. The images conjured up by this movie still give me chills, the pure suggestion of what this story embodies, I’m still hesitant to revisit it, but when I do, it’s one of the most pleasant unpleasant experiences I take.

1. Chinatown: This is just flat out one of my favorite movies ever, even top ten of all time. I love detective stories, I love noir films, I love mysteries, I just love everything about this movie. Every scene is perfection, the dialog is so incredible and watching the story unravel is still a thrill. I even know exactly what is going to happen in every scene, but no matter how many times I watch it, it still feels fresh. Even if it’s just me wanting to relive the excitement of seeing it a first time, that is still the mark of incredible storytelling when you can want to relive a mystery again and again and always knowing the outcome. Chinatown is one of the most perfect movies I’ve ever seen and it has influenced so much of what I enjoy writing and watching.

Ten I Still Need to See That I Want to See the Most from the 1970s

10. Manhattan: Okay, to clarify, I really didn’t like Woody Allen when I first saw his movies. My introduction to him was that he would get his ass kissed by every critic and would always have a screenplay nomination reserved for him every friggin’ year, regardless of how pretentious and self-serving they come across. Maybe what repulsed me away from them are the ones where he’s the main star and his really co-stars drop their pants for him because “he’s so smart” (Believable). But after seeing Midnight in Paris, I began to re-evaluate my opinion of Allen, even wanting to go back and watch Annie Hall again. In fact, I want to check out the ones that I missed because of my horrendous onslaught of mediocre 80s and 90s Allen movies. (To be fair, Crimes and Misdemeanors and Bullets over Broadway are actually pretty good.) But topping that list is Allen’s love letter to New York City itself: Manhattan. So, yeah, after Midnight in Paris has me excited to checking out his other films. Just so long as I don’t have to see him on screen that much.

9. Aguirre, the Wrath of God: This is one that kept coming up on so many best of lists that I would read throughout college. Best of the year, best of the 70s, best of all time and so forth…and I have no idea what it’s about or why I have to see it so much. But I usually liked to be surprised by movies, so I think I’ve intentionally went out of my way not to know much more about it. I’ll let the surprise of the movie come to me. But, yeah, I know it’s supposed to be amazing, so I’ll go in knowing only that much about it.

8. Husbands: When I was in the New York Film Academy and taking my crash course in screenwriting, we watched different scenes of movies and how they opened. When the opening for this scene came up, it was a series of still photos of guys being guys by the pool during a party. And it was captivating. Afterwards, I learned more about John Cassavettes and how he played such a pivotal role in the early years of independent filmmaking. Putting together what I saw from the beginning of the film and what I know about Cassavettes, I instantly stored this one away in the back of my mind to see.

7. Day for Night: Just the title alone is enough to attract any filmmaker and to top it off, it’s directed by Francois Truffaut? Count me in!

6. Last Tango in Paris: Go ahead and imagine what I’ve heard about this movie. Don’t know about it? Well, it’s an NC-17 film from the director of The Last Emperor and starring Marlon Brando. Prestige filmmakers and actors? Check. Lurid subject material that the uptight scoff at? Double check! So, this is a must see for me!

5. Coming Home: Perhaps my first introduction to what this movie’s about was a bit souring. The only thing I saw of it was during a montage during the Oscars where Jon Voight talked about how “there’s no reason for killing, man”. Yeah, when I hear a guy from the 60s with a long beard end a sentence with “man”, I cringe. Needless to say, I wasn’t a big fan of 60s war protesters probably because of the stories I heard about from my mom and dad during dad’s time in the military which kind of soured me to the hippie movement. However, a very good friend of mine that worked with me during my previous job subcontracting for the VA gave this one of her highest recommendations. So perhaps there’s more to it that I may have overlooked. I mean, three out of the four acting awards that year went to this movie, so there may be more to this movie that I don’t know. Heck, she’s never steered me wrong before and our tastes tend to be VERY close together, so this instantly became a higher priority.

4. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore/ Mean Streets: Okay, I am a huge fan of Martin Scorsese and there are some movies of his that I really regret not seeing, which include his earliest works (and The Last Temptation of Christ). That being said, I keep hearing fantastic stuff about Mean Streets as his first breakout movie (and first collaboration with Robert DeNiro) and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, which earned Ellen Burstyn her only Oscar and I think she was one of the best actresses of the 1970s. Like Aguirre, the Wrath of God, I’ve been able to avoid knowing too much about these movies and I do have them, so one day. One day…

3. Breaking Away: This is a movie that keeps picking up momentum the more I hear about it (while trying to avoid hearing too much about it). I know it’s about bicycle racing and it’s a coming of age story as well as a sort of sports film, so there’s nothing about this movie that I don’t find incredibly intriguing. Not to mention how many lists I’ve been seeing this pop up on lately, including 1979’s Best Picture race. So, yeah, this one is quickly becoming one of my most anticipated movies to see.

2. Five Easy Pieces: Jack Nicholson orders a sandwich. I keep hearing that one of the best scenes in movie history is Jack Nicholson ordering a sandwich. Not to mention this is one of the most revered movies from the decade of the 1970s, the selling point is Jack Nicholson ordering a sandwich? I can’t begin to tell you how much this makes me wish my old Hollywood Video was still around so I could look for this in their classics section.

1. The Last Picture Show: Speaking of movies that are considered some of the most revered movies of the 1970s, if I had to pick one movie that I consider to be one of the biggest crimes that I haven’t seen of this decade, it would be this one. Every review I’ve read is a four star review, it popped up on the AFI’s 100 best movies of all time, it’s a Best Picture nominee, its reputation is one of the most pristine I’ve seen of a movie’s. And considered the best movie by Peter Bogdonovich? There isn’t anything about this movie that makes me not want to grab all of my filmmaker friends and have a popcorn screening of this movie tonight. The only thing stopping me…is the busy schedule of a man in his 30s trying to get a career started for himself. But, oh, to relive those marathon nights again…

My Top 25 Movies of the Past Decade (2000 - 2009)

25. Mulholland Drive: What a trip this movie was. My journey to get to the only theater that was playing this movie led me through a maze of neighborhood streets for about 15 minutes until I came to a mall out of nowhere that was playing the movie. And let me tell you, that was the least confusing moment of the journey. The story is about an aspiring actress who comes to Los Angeles with dreams of making it big and gets caught up in a dark noir mystery with another woman who lost her memory in a car accident. And where it goes from there you can’t even begin to imagine and that is what is so charming about Mulholland Drive. Its story is one of labyrinthine complexity that takes turns that will leave a casual movie viewer in a confused state, but let me recommend giving it a second view and really take the time to give the movie’s symbols a deeper glance, you will definitely be rewarded.

24. A.I. – Artificial Intelligence: This is a movie I love hearing people talk about because it typically leaves people cold. The people used to Spielberg films were put off by the dark themes and the cold aesthetic of the story and Kubrick purists hate the emotionality and the showmanship of the film’s style. Yet, I took it as both a tribute piece from one filmmaker employing another filmmaker’s traits to his own as well as a wonderful story that comes pretty close to defining what it means to love unconditionally by asking some pretty difficult questions. The story is about the first robot that was programmed to be able to love and goes in search of a way to regain his adopted mother’s love. In the end, audiences seem to react to this movie much like the human characters in the movie reacted to David and I respected Spielberg’s boldness for telling the story the way it needed to be told. There’s so much to respect about this movie, but two of the biggest joys I took out of A.I. were the visual grandeur and the boldness of the story in its attempt to define love.

23. The Hurt Locker: For anyone who has known people in the armed services and know that what an addiction to getting adrenaline rush can do to those around you, this is a movie that hit pretty close to home for me. The movie is a portrayal of a Middle Eastern bomb diffusing squad and the new hotshot that joins the company with a couple days left before his rotation is over. However, the hotshot is someone who thrives on the tension that his job creates, which becomes dangerous for the other people in his company. Intensely constructed and fascinating to watch, The Hurt Locker is a movie that wisely steps away from being a “what does war mean” war film and simply focuses on the characters of the soldiers, which is a welcome change of pace from other movies trying to define war. Sometimes, the story is simply in the people who are there, not from outsiders.

22. Kill Bill: Volume 1 & 2: I love Tarantino as do most people who are passionate about movies. I love his endless references to other movies, I love his soundtracks, I love his style, I love how he refuses to bow to conventionality and with Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2, we get to see his love letter to the kung fu films of the 60s and 70s. A bride is attacked by her former crime circle and left for dead on her wedding day and she seeks revenge on them. Simple story, but oh, what a fun ride it is. If it’s one thing Tarantino does well, it’s create a universe and relish in every aspect of it and you can tell that he really loves being in this nostalgic kung fu universe he’s created. This is a wet dream of a kung fu film with flashy, pristine camera work and stylized visual effects to embody the mythology it’s creating for itself. And, of course, that Tarantino sense of humor and dialog, which just helps make both Kill Bill movies so much damn fun to watch.

21. High Fidelity: Speaking of referencing, this is a movie that I have a sentimental attachment to because of how it reminds me of hanging out with my friends. Quoting movies, referencing music, endlessly making lists (as you can definitely tell) because we think we need to do these things to help us define and understand ourselves. The story is about a man who, after a bad break-up with his girlfriend, relives his “top five most painful break-ups” and realizes that there are things with himself that he hasn’t completely come to terms with. I can’t begin to tell you how much I identify with this movie and how, as I’ve gotten older, my identification with the movie has grown. Cleverly written story about adult relationship angst and how pop culture cross references help these characters to understand their angst.

20. Synecdoche, New York: I really think I need to see this movie again. I’ve only seen it once and I already knew that this was one of the most intricately constructed movies that I’ve ever seen and it almost demands a second viewing. A playwright is granted an exclusive fellowship award, which would allow him to pursue his latest artistic endeavor, which he decides to make something that is truly honest to mirror his own life. What follows is something that truly blurs the lines of where the story begins and the main character’s life ends. The movie weaves in and out of reality and fiction in such a richly nuanced manner that has never been done before to allow the viewer into the mindset of the main character. Much like Mulholland Drive, this is a complexly structured movie that demands a high degree of attention to be paid to it, but the payoff is so poignant that the trip is worth it as well as the lengthy discussion you may have about it afterwards.

19. Finding Nemo: Simple premise, father embarks on a journey to find missing son (well, not so simple as the film’s main characters are all fish and the entire journey takes place in the ocean), but in the hands of Pixar, the movie becomes a touching and wholly entertaining movie that can be re-watched again and again. Endlessly quotable, beautiful to look at in every frame, filled with some of the most creative cast of characters in a movie, live action or animated, Nemo began the moment where audiences looked at Pixar films and began to see that they were making more than just excellent family movies, they were making excellent movies period. This is a perfect example of great writing that can be enjoyed across generations.

18. Batman Begins: Okay, let me summarize my experience seeing this for the first time: I had been in the New York Film Academy for three weeks, the man who made Memento was making his first large budget feature and the Batman franchise was considered dead by this point (thank you, Joel Schumacher). So, when I sat down to watch this film about the retelling of Batman’s origins, I saw a movie that wasn’t the brooding anti-hero Tim Burton versions or the campy and cartoony Joel Schumacher versions. This was a movie that treated its character and setting with a mature realism that had never been approached in a comic book hero film. The origin was so much closer to the comic books, the characters were well thought out and complex and the action was top notch. Batman and Gotham had been reborn in a glorious street light sepia glow. As I left the theater in New York City, I stepped out into the night and saw the exact same type of setting surrounding me and all I wanted at that point was a base jumping outfit to soar off of the skylines.

17. Sideways: Sideways was one of the first times that I watched a movie and saw how the subject of a film could be used to be symbolic of the story and characters themselves. Two middle aged men go on a bachelor party in California’s wine country and have their own respective relationship situations. In the hands of lesser talented filmmakers, this could have easily been a low brow drinking sex comedy. Thankfully, it turns out to be a wonderful reflective piece about two men at stages of their life that have to come to terms with the fact that their lives haven’t turned out the way they wanted. Sound sad? It is. Sound funny? It is. It’s a wonderful hybrid of both genres that never feels forced. Also, watching this movie one of the earliest experiences I can remember of actually seeing how symbolism can be perfectly worked into a story. The way the characters treat their tastes in wine is very representative of their personalities. One person enjoys drinking it simply to get drunk, the other scrutinizes it to an exhaustively high standard. Watching it stirred the writer in me and taught me so much about how to use symbols in stories.

16. Requiem for a Dream: Sound sad? That’s putting it lightly. Sound funny? …only if you’re severely clinically depressed. This is a movie that is one of the most unsettling experiences you’ll ever go through, but it is one of the most innovative and probably the most hauntingly realistic portrayals of drug addiction in movies. Four people have their own stories of addiction to both drugs as well as addictions to their own dreams. At the time, the movie was slapped with an NC-17 rating because of...well, the ending..., but it was released unrated so it could be released in some theatrical chains. The end result was a movie that forever influenced the way movies were shot and the way that movies were edited. This was the first movie that left me feeling drained and exhausted by the time it was over because of how much I wanted the characters to recover and get better, but then I realized that was the movie world I was used to. We’re used to seeing things work out in the end for the characters in the movies, but this time, the realism of what happens to people afflicted with addiction. So while the filmmaking techniques are revolutionary, the subject matter and resolution make it so difficult to revisit for me.

15. Spider-Man 2: I’ve always said that I think it’s a more remarkable achievement for a large budget studio film to become a profoundly well made movie than it is for an independent film because there is so much less red tape and focus groups that independent films have to go through. Spider-Man 2 is such a film that succeeds in having a strongly complex in the main character and raises some very serious stakes for him. Spider-Man 2 is a brilliantly made superhero movie that has thrilling action scenes, state of the art special effects and an actual story that relies on the interaction of the characters and their choices. In fact, that is the biggest special effect in this film is its attention to its characters and story instead of relying on the effects to be the center point of the film. Not only that, but watching it, I was juggling two jobs, working on sets for the first time and…a pretty tumultuous relationship time. So the movie hit pretty close to home, though having those cool spider powers would have been a pretty sweet compensation.

14. There will be Blood: You ever see a movie with a main character that is just so engaging to watch, you don’t care how evil he is? There will be Blood is just such a movie and a large part of what makes this movie work is the sheer magnetism that Daniel Day-Lewis exudes throughout the entire movie. We see him start his from humble beginnings and quickly spiral into a narcissistic sociopath. Or was he always that way to begin with? At the center, that is the main appeal to this movie is watching the character of Daniel Plainview (played to perfection by Day-Lewis) to see what he does next. With writer director Paul Thomas Anderson’s uncanny gift for stunning visual imagery and a towering performance by Daniel Day Lewis, this is one volcanic movie that is hard to shake when it’s over and also contains one of the best leading performances in recent history. Day-Lewis’ performance is so powerful and so magnetic that he takes a great movie and makes it unforgettable.

13. Children of Men: My love for this film goes beyond simply appreciating it on a filmmaking level: it is one that I love on a deeply emotional level. Set in a dystopian future where no new children have been born for 18 years, a former political radical is sought out to help his former wife’s cause, which is to help a pregnant woman get to a safe haven and avoid all of the groups that would use her for their own selfish political gain. What Children of Men does with this story is nothing short of perfection. For starters, this is one of the greatest achievements of Cinematography of all time with its gorgeously choreographed long takes and its fantastic use of monochromatic lighting. But what really puts this film above being merely a technical achievement are the emotional turns it takes. There is one moment in the film, which I don’t want to spoil, but was one of the most emotionally stirring moments I’ve ever seen in a film. It comes seemingly out of nowhere, but feels like it was building up to it the entire film. To put it simply, this is one of the most perfectly constructed movies that I’ve ever seen. I can’t recommend Children of Men enough.

12. United 93: Where Requiem for a Dream is one of those movies that is hard to watch more than once, the same can be said for United 93. A real-time, documentary-style recreation of the events that took place on September 11, 2001 from the point of view from Air Traffic Control Centers, Air Force Control Office and from the flight itself. Casting some of the real people that went through the events helps to add to the effect of the movie’s realism, where the true power of the film lies. Watching the movie was honestly like reliving the events all over again, which is what makes this movie so difficult to watch again. Having missed the movie in the theater, I watched it on TV, making the documentary look feel all the more familiar. Then came the ending, where the passengers of flight United 93 band together to fight back against the hijackers, which had me completely on edge, even knowing full well how it was going to end. The movie reveals itself to be the perfect kind of tribute a film could make to people who lost their lives in a tragedy. Unflinching, reverent and endlessly powerful, United 93 is as rewarding as it is difficult to watch, but it remains an incredibly important film to watch, even if you do only see it once.

11. Spirited Away: Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki weaves a tale that can only be described as pure magic, the way that Walt Disney himself used to make them and few other films are made today. A young girl gets trapped in the spirit world and makes her way by working in a bath house for the gods and spirits of the other side. Through the journey, the girl goes from being a self-absorbed adolescent to mature young woman, all the while, inhabiting a world of unique creatures whose intentions are anyone’s guess. Watching this movie rekindled that feeling when I was a kid and movies really felt like watching magic wash over me. From the hauntingly beautiful music in the opening scene to the stunning images of the spirit world, the movie plays out like pure magic that is a welcome place to revisit many times over.

 10. The Departed: Make no mistake: this is probably the lightest of all of Scorsese’s films. It’s not as rough to digest as Taxi Driver or Raging Bull or as brilliantly fun as Goodfellas or Hugo. What The Departed turns out to be is a mix of all of Scorsese’s abilities as a director thrown into one tale of what it takes to go as far deep undercover as possible, on both the sides of the law and crime. And it is one hell of a ride. Here, you get a wonderful cast of characters, snappy dialog and Scorsese’s trademark brilliant camerawork to help pepper this tale of hidden identities. Some may argue that this isn’t the best work Scorsese’s ever done and…they’re right, but even when he isn’t at his best, Scorsese is still light years ahead of most filmmakers and that is what The Departed is proof of. Besides, I was getting tired of his period Oscar bait films that just felt too bloated (Gangs of New York and The Aviator, I’m looking at you), so when this came out, I was happy Scorsese decided to return to his world of underground crime and intrigue. Why, because it’s the world he’s most comfortable in and his films don’t seem like they’re out of place. Here, Scorsese is back doing what he does best: giving us a world where nobody’s hands are clean and everybody is so much fun to watch.

9. Inglorious Basterds: Speaking of wonderful cast of characters, snappy dialog and brilliant camerawork, Quentin Tarantino rounded out the decade with his most ambitious piece of filmmaking, the World War II set Inglorious Basterds. Now, when I heard that Tarantino was taking on a period film, I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out. Yes, Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill are masterpieces, but he has never done a film that wasn’t modern. I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out. By the time the movie was over, I realized just how wrong I went about it. I went in expecting Tarantino to make a period film, but this turns out to be a film where Tarantino re-writes the period. Now, if you’re one of those people who enjoy going to period films for accuracy, this is not your movie because this is so far from being historically accurate and therein lays the charm. If you’re somebody who loves incredibly witty dialog and crazy characters, then this is your film. Tarantino, with this film, proves that he isn’t just a flash in the pan fanboy; he is a true auteur in his medium. If you want proof, just look at the opening scene, which shows you that he can not only hold an audience’s attention for a scene that’s primarily over six minutes long of primarily dialog, but that he can create some incredible tension out of it also. That is the sign of a writer/director who is at the top of his game.

8. Munich: Munich is a movie that came out at a time when the subject matter may have been too much to digest, but also it came out at a time when it was necessary. Taking place after the Palestinians attacked the Israeli Olympians in the 1970s, the Israeli community dispatches a group of underground soldiers to seek retribution for the attacks. The group is given a list of men to kill and, as the story unfolds, becomes a story that transcends being simply a portrayal of a time period. Watching this movie at the end of 2005, four years after the September 11^th tragedy, the movie rings so close to home, wanting to extract revenge on the people who attacked us and what would the fallout for such revenge be. Would it really bring us justice or would it simply create more people that are worse than the people we attack? There are few answers Munich gives us and the answers that is does aren’t easy to take and that’s exactly the way it should be. Violence is something that has to be dealt with in a thoughtful manner and not a simply “We cannot appear weak” mindset because who knows what new monsters would be created. Powerful, intense, timely and transcendent, Munich is a movie that I highly recommend, if only to help make sense of the times we’re living in by seeing the events of the past.

7. The Passion of the Christ: Let’s address the white elephant that gets brought into the room whenever this movie is brought up: Mel Gibson is probably as crazy as he’s portrayed in the media, I’m not going to dance around that. If he’s homophobic/anti-sematic/abusive, I can’t say, but what I can say is this: there probably wasn’t a more personal and more moving film that I’ve seen in the past decade than The Passion of the Christ. Being raised Catholic and being a Christian probably makes me see it more profoundly than others do, but this movie did for the crucifixion of Jesus what Saving Private Ryan did for World War II and that is take away the filtered images many people had. As for the arguments that it’s anti-sematic, I can’t begin to say what the intentions of the filmmaker were. Even if they were, all I can say is what I got out of it and that was a very intense portrayal of faith and courage and that, as a Christian, I should be mindful to accept and love others (which is what I believe to be the real foundation of Christianity to be). Jim Caveizel gives a strong performance and the cinematography is one of the best jobs in recent years. So, controversy aside, I really admired this film on a spiritual level as well as a technical level and didn’t get any sense of theological superiority from it.

6. Wall-E: You know how some movies are just pure poetry on every level? Well, that’s Wall-E. I can’t think of a single moment in this movie that isn’t incredibly moving or profound and the real magic of it is that it’s done with the slightest amount of dialog. The movie starts out as a cute tale about the last robot on earth left to clean up the mess the humans left before taking off to space which becomes a heartfelt love story which then becomes cautionary tale of what happens when we humans get too comfortable with our lives. There wasn’t a single moment of this movie that didn’t either tug at your heartstrings or make you self-aware from the satirical fate of the evolved humans and that is what brilliant moviemaking should do. On top of that, it was a movie that was intended for kids and families, which is even more of a miracle. Wall-E is probably one of the best examples in recent years in how to make a big budget movie: never lose heart, always have something to say and relish in the beauty that exists in the world you created.

5. Memento: Much like Pulp Fiction when it first came out, Memento takes the concept of linear storytelling and gave it a complete remodeling. How so? Well, how many movies do you know that are told backwards? And that’s where the fun of the movie is for the audience is in discovering every scene new much like the main protagonist of the story who himself can’t make any new memories. What better way to put the audience in that mindset than to tell the story backwards. This was the movie that introduced the world to Christopher Nolan and his unique style of storytelling and, from this movie alone, no career is more deserved. Nolan enjoys telling high concept stories and in the independent film world, he gave us a doozy of a tale. Memento demands repeat viewings because there is so much to take in that can’t be recognized the first time around. Sometimes, even watching it the umpteenth time, you still see something new and that is the sign of a truly gifted filmmaker.

4. No Country for Old Men: Like most movies lovers, I dig Coen Brothers movies. I dig their stories, I dig their style of dialog, I dig how they let their characters (and actors) be as odd and natural as the story needs, I dig how they can completely embody a setting as if they were natives of that area their entire lives and I dig their artistic sense of aesthetics in their directing. Pretty soon, like with all great artists, you begin to sense a pattern in their themes. With the Coen Brothers, they enjoy telling stories about people who try to steal their way into the American dream only end up on the tragic end (see Fargo, Blood Simple, The Big Lebowski, etc.) With No Country for Old Men, they have made what could very well be their opus magnus, their Watership Down, the apex movie that could be used by any master class to define their style and influence as filmmakers. Stellar performances from the entire cast, including one of the best screen villains of all time in Javier Bardem’s methodical hitman, Anton. And that ending. Most people hate the ambiguous ending of it, but to me, it encapsulated the entire story of what it means to be an older generation watching the growing evils of the world and not being able to keep up with the absurdity of it all. Plus, it ends the same way the book ends too, so quit complaining! No Country is truly a flawless piece of filmmaking that any ambitious filmmaker needs to see before they even start thinking about making movies.

3. The Dark Knight: Okay, by the time this movie came out, I loved Christopher Nolan and I loved Batman. I loved what he did with Batman Begins and how he portrayed Batman. Now I was excited to see how he would portray The Joker…and I can safely say that I was not prepared for what is probably one of the best movie villains I have ever seen. Previously, the other Jokers we’d seen (Jack Nicholson, Caeser Romero, even Mark Hamill) were Jokers that you could tell had malicious jokes planned in advance. But Ledger’s Joker was just so unhinged and had no loyalty to anyone or anything other than the notion of chaos. If he has any plans, it’s to destroy plans. He is the embodiment of terrorism, a person who wants to create nothing but chaos…and he gleefully revels in it. When you first see this character, he’s so unrelentingly terrifying, but on repeat viewings, you begin to see the motivations behind his actions…then you start to get scared because he’s making sense. But a movie has to be more than one character alone, right? Well, The Dark Knight is no exception as its story centers around what it takes to defeat men like The Joker. Do we keep playing by the rules? Do we bend them? If so, how far? This came out right after the time that government wiretaps and Guantanamo Bay methods were coming into question, so The Dark Knight exceeds being a mere comic book movie. It is a dark reflection on the world we were living in at the time and it even ends on a morally ambiguous note about what it takes to be a hero in such a dark world. Blockbuster movies have never been this complex or morally philosophical and, frankly, The Dark Knight also asks the question: Why haven’t they been?

2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: How can I begin to describe my love for this movie? Well, it combines two of my biggest passions: art house films and martial arts. Set against the backdrop of ancient China, the movie centers around two love stories, one between two seasoned warriors who cannot allow themselves to express their feelings towards each other and the other about two young lovers that can’t be together because of their place in society. Their stories connect through society’s standards of expressing love and their longing to be true to their feelings. Besides being a flawless piece of filmmaking, this movie is also an embodiment of my id: Swift and fluid martial arts action scenes, people soaring through the air with a single leap and a yearning to express one’s deep passions. I left the theater wanting to jump off of everything around me, hoping to catch some air time to feel that breezy sensation of freedom that is gloriously portrayed. This movie inspires me in so many ways, both as a filmmaker that appreciates the complexity of every frame of this movie and as someone who wants to exist in a word of realistic fantasy. To summarize: this movie is the closest expression of my innermost dreamscapes.

1. The Lord of the Rings trilogy: Okay, let me be clear, I didn’t grow up reading the Tolkien books. In fact, I didn’t start reading them until I heard this movie was being released and all of my friends said I should read it because it was going to be the most impossible thing to adapt. You know what, as the books stand alone, I imagine they would be impossible to compress into a script because there are so many storylines, so many characters, so many events that to try and even make the first part a seven hour film, you’d still be leaving stuff out. However, Peter Jackson and his co-writers Fran Walsh and Phillip Boyens did what any good loyal fan adapter should do: keep the themes, keep the major events and make everything else cinematic. And the result was a cinematic experience that forever changed the way that movies were made. This is probably the last great epic movie ever made. What Star Wars was to people my age growing up, I imagine Lord of the Rings is to this generation. It is grand scale storytelling with state of the art visual effects, a game changing cinematography job and re-defined what made for big screen entertainment. It has a strong philosophical sensibility about itself while never losing its audience accessible entertainment and, to me, that is the true accomplishment of filmmaking, when you can create something that can be enjoyed across the board from the film scholars to the popcorn crowd. Not only that, but it helped to show the industry that fantasy movies can be taken seriously while remaining fun. I can’t sing enough praises about the Lord of the Rings trilogy and how it opened my eyes to different possibilities of filmmaking and storytelling. I went to see each movie about four times at least and, yes, I know that calculates to about 36 hours sitting in the theater (maybe more), but I for one don’t think a single second was wasted time. Peter Jackson has created the series of movies that is the single movie this decade that changed practically everything we know about filmmaking and there isn’t a single movie being made today that doesn’t have some influence of the Lord of the Rings movies in them. But why lump them all together as one? Why not let each individual one stand out on its own? Well, because they were all shot together over a 14 month stretch, so in my book, Jackson made one 11 and a half hour movie that was able to be broken up (and edited down) into three equally fulfilling chapters. They topped my list each year they came out as the best of that year and they remain the most fulfilling movie I saw the entire decade. In fact, just thinking about it makes me want to go watch it again.

Rise

"Why do we fall, sir? So we can learn to pick ourselves back up." - Michael Caine, Batman Begins

As someone who has spent a good portion of his life in a movie theater, I can honestly say how much the tragedy in the Aurora theater during the midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises struck close to home for me. I was also one of the people that went to my local theater at midnight to see the first showing of the movie, being a long time fan of Nolan's vision of Batman. Not only that, but I like to imagine the cinema is being a place where people can gather to experience dreams and share experiences together such as going for a bike ride across a moonlit sky or standing on the bow of a fantastic luxury liner. Sadly, for that theater in Aurora, they had their experience robbed from them and replaced with horrific tragedy. For me, the act of depriving someone of their joy is one of the most horrific acts one human being can do to another. So right now, I want answers from James Holmes as to what would possess a human being to commit such a horrendous act. However, no matter what his answer will be, it will not be enough for me.

As horrific as the tragedy was, I keep trying to reflect on The Dark Knight Rises, but find it difficult to do so without thinking of the event in Colorado. Yet, when I do think about the movie, one thing came to my mind that makes me grateful for The Dark Knight Rises: it's message about coming back from tragedy. I keep thinking about how fitting it is that the movie on the screen was probably one that had the best message for people trying to come to terms with it. (If you don't want to know too much about the story, stop reading now.) Without giving too much away, the story takes a really dark turn that really ups the stakes for the hero. A horrifically brutal act prevents Batman from helping Gotham during one of the darkest times that any city has ever had to endure. Yet, he builds himself back up to return to the city during it's darkest time to return as their hero.

And that is the power of movies that I hope people can still hold on to and the power that I think this story has that can help people endure in the wake of this senseless act. No matter what terror a nightmarish figure can create, it is ultimately the human spirit that will triumph and survive. We have to hold on to these themes that can be found in The Dark Knight Rises and other movies to help us remember the good that exists in humanity, even when times seem completely hopeless and without reason. That is the power that movies have and that is why I think there can be solace found in the very movie this tragedy took place in.

I don't write this as a means to get people to see this movie, but only as a means for myself to make sense out of this act and find that glimmer of hope that always exists in tragedy. I like to think that the themes that exist in the movie are themes that can help people endure some of the darkest tragedies. While there is still a need to have a time for mourning and I share that time with the victims and their families, I also like to think that the movie itself can be cathartic as most movies have the power to. If you do decide to see the movie, you will see a movie that has themes about rising up from the most insurmountable of tragedies. When the dust has settled and we do start to try and make sense out of what happened, before we resort to TSA tactics for movie theaters, let's stop and think of the good that exists in humanity also and how we can rise up from tragedies like the heroes we idolize on the screen.

My Personal Connection to Batman Begins

It's a well known fact that Christopher Nolan revived the Batman franchise from near extinction after the debacle that was Batman and Robin. Nolan's take was a more grounded and realistic portrayal of the dark knight and frankly, that's probably the best way to have approached it. Considering nearly every hero and villain in the DC universe has near God like abilities, Batman is the only one who is human and, in many of their eyes, that is his only weakness is that he is simply a man. That is, those that haven't yet gotten to know him really well. They soon learn not to mess with him after that. If anything, that's what always made Bruce Wayne/Batman such a compelling character to me is that very reason. Here is a guy who pushes the limits of what a human being can do, both physically as well as technology wise. He really is a knight, with a suit of armor and armed with weapons of choice of his own design. In a world surrounded by Gods,

Enter myself. Batman Begins opened at the time I was going to the New York Film Academy's six week summer program. It was great because I was honing all of the techniques that would help me to discover my voice and, for the first time, I was working with actual cameras. 16mm black and white cameras, yes, but still, I was behind a camera and I was getting to block all of the scenes and plan out the shots. It was a dream come true and in the city that never sleeps? Oh, yeah, I had inspiration all around me. I grew up fantasizing about giant cityscapes like I'd seen in Blade Runner and The Fifth Element and I was finally in my element (Star Wars prequels don't count, that was animated CG crap, I want models, dammit!!). Everything they say about how cool New York is was true, I couldn't turn a corner without seeing something I'd seen in a movie somewhere. You wanted some kind of special food at 3 AM, there was a restaurant open somewhere. You wanted a store that specialized in some obscure past time? There was about ten of them.

Oh yeah, and remember how I said you couldn't turn around any block and not see something you saw in a movie? Well, when you grow up watching Ghostbusters and your first two days there, you walk through Central Park and come right out in front of Dana Barrett's apartment building? You better believe I had just become five years old again. I even found their headquarters, too, which, after a couple of weeks, became my mission to find. Spent the whole trip tracking it down.

The reason I'm going on and on so much about my first trip to New York is because of how much of an impact it had on me. I was in a filmmaker's paradise, I was making short films in one of the greatest cities and every day was a new adventure, be it a creative one or whether or not I had to get between a drunk guy and some girls in the hostel I was staying at. (Yeah, ask me about that one some time.) While I was there, I took in a few movies here and there and let me tell you, this was an experience that I wasn't used to. I was used to getting in your car, driving down the street to your local cineplex, parking and going into a building dedicated simply to the theater itself. The theaters in New York, however, are like any other business in that they are part of the building, so for me, it was like those theaters that used to be part of a mall. Still pretty cool, though.

I'd taken in a couple movies while I was there: Land of the Dead, War of the Worlds, Howl's Moving Castle, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Crash, Fantastic Four...yeah, gotta take the good with the bad, I guess. But then our class decided to wait in line for the new Batman movie. At this time, the only good Batman movie to compare it to was the Tim Burton version from 1989 (die hard Batman fans will make a good case for Batman: Mask of the Phantasm...and I am one of them). So we went in, not expecting too much. Yeah, Christopher Nolan made Memento which was brilliant and Insomnia was pretty good, too, but how would he do with his first big budget franchise film? And Christian Bale? I mean, yeah, he was amazing in American Psycho and Equilibrium was pretty cool, but could he carry an entire film?

Needless to say, I was blown away from scene one. This was the Batman I grew up with! The Batman that didn't kill, the Batman that hated guns, the Batman where the person who killed his parents was some random street thug...AND NOT THE JOKER!!!! (Even when I was nine, I thought it was too convenient that Tim Burton made The Joker kill Bruce Wayne's parents.) Yeah, there were a few liberties taken, Ra's Al Ghul training Bruce Wayne,  Rachel Dawes...existing, but they made as much sense as the liberties taken with the Lord of the Rings trilogy: some sacrifices needed to be made to make it translatable to the big screen. So, yeah, I was on a high when I came out of the movie. This wasn't just a great superhero movie, this was a great movie. Nolan downplayed the comic book aspects just enough to make it feel like a real movie. I had just seen probably the best superhero origin story ever made. Forget Superman, forget Spider-Man and DEFINITELY forget Tim Burton's Batman. (I have so many issues with that movie.)

But I wasn't prepared for what I felt next. Leaving the theater, it was about 10:45, 11 PM at night and if you've ever been in a city late at night, you know the sepia glow the street lights give off. So I had just come out of a movie where Gotham looked like a real city blanketed in sepia street lights and here I was leaving the theater into as real city blanketed in sepia street lights. Holy shit, I had just stepped out into Gotham! It was a surreal experience! I remember looking up at the skylines and imagining, what would it be like to base jump off of them. Seriously, I wanted to go buy a basejumping suit right then and there. There was probably a store open for it, too. Still, I walked the city streets, riding high off of my Batman Begins trip and still continuing it in the real world.

That would be one of the many memorable moments that I had in New York City while I was there for those six weeks. I had seen a movie that had blown my mind and I was able to leave the theater and still feel it surround me as if it were real. I will never forget that experience and from that moment on, I was a die hard devotee of Nolan's version of Batman.

Oh, and I would go on to see it two more times while I was in New York, too. Making my movie tally nine movies seen in the theater in New York City. Nine movies in six weeks. Man, I miss my youth.