TOP FIVE | Movies That Defined My Childhood Love of Film
After reading and watching Nick Hornby's High Fidelity as a teen, my passions have long been measured in Top 5 and occasionally Top 10 lists. The films below aren't in order of preference, but rather the order I saw them growing up. I am a quirky girl with a rich imagination, some anger and hurt, and a lot of heart, and I was lonely growing up (often still am). Films became friends, works that kept me company and understood what others couldn't. And some movies go beyond that, and remind me why film is the most powerful storytelling medium of all.
These films are what I discovered as a child and young teenager, and that went on to shape everything I adore about the cinematic world:
1: Star Wars - A New Hope (1977):
Written, Directed and Produced by George Lucas
Editor: Richard Chew et al.
"I felt a great disturbance in the force... as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced".
I was four years old when I first saw this, and it captured my imagination then as much as it does now. It's a beautiful and exciting world, and this film introduces it with perfection. While the mysterious force operates within a very black and white code (dark and light), the characters on both sides display complexity. Darth Vader would become the very first "villain" whom I not only liked, but who engaged my empathy. It also connected with my child-like wonder (a wonder that remains with me through Marvel films, too). Most of the cast and crew believed they were making a B grade movie that would never see the light of day, reflected in A New Hope's budget. Considering the behemoth that the Star Wars franchise would go on to become, there is a reticence in the storytelling of A New Hope that is precious. That scene of Luke longing for adventure as he gazes across the desert at the binary sunset on Tatooine (combined with that exquisite score by John Williams) hits me right in the heart on every viewing. It remains my favourite of the entire franchise.
2: Aliens (1986)
Directed by: James Cameron
Written by: James Cameron, David Giler, Walter Hill
Produced by: David Giler, Walter Hill, Gale Ann Hurd, Gordon Carroll
Rarely is a sequel even better than the first. During the 90's as kids, my best friend and I took advantage of a local Video Easy store with very relaxed managers, hiring every M.A and R rated horror/ sci-fi VHS we could lay our hands on. At age 8 we had seen Alien, so we followed it up with Aliens. It blew my tiny god damn mind. Fuck The Baby Sitters Club, THIS was where it was at. It was everything brilliant about the first one, dialled up to 11. The story moves at an amazing pace, tension is built at a perfect fever pitch, and the action scenes are flawlessly done ("can't be, that's inside the room" - the most terrifying line ever uttered in any movie, ever). Of course it also had this incredibly strong, badass female lead Ripley, played brilliantly by Sigourney Weaver. Little me wanted to be saved by her. Teenage me wanted to hook up with her. Adult me will always want to be her. Additionally, the Aliens themselves make riveting villains. It's brutal and entertaining from start to finish.
3: Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Written and Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
Produced by: Lawrence Beder, Richard Gladstein, Harvey Keitel, Monte Hellman, Ronne B. Wallace
"All right ramblers, let's get ramblin'".
I first saw Reservoir Dogs when I was 13 years old. Tarantino, when he makes films, borrows from that which has came before and re-imagines it. There is a rawness to Reservoir Dogs that had taken a back seat when he made Pulp Fiction, at which point he was a slightly more confident film-maker and writer. The thing about his stories is they rely equally on dialogue and violence to tell us who these characters are, where their morality lies (whether they are refusing to tip a waitress or slicing off an ear), and these things are employed to different effect, depending on the story he is trying to tell. He also effectively uses non-linear story-telling, switching between timelines flawlessly. We aren't told what happened at the heist, only that something went very, very wrong. The film never loses pace and the soundtrack is one of the best - Tarantino shares Scorsese's gift in knowing how to use music to enhance his story. While Reservoir Dogs is Tarantino discovering his strengths as a filmmaker for the first time, there are also signs of the gifted storyteller he would go on to become. For example, the final scene with Mr Orange and Mr White, as truths are revealed and everything falls apart, carries emotional weight. He doesn't rely on music to drive emotion home, instead just letting the moment be. It points to an aspect of his film-making he doesn't get enough credit for, knowing when to pull back and allow a scene play out with a whisper instead of a bang.
4: Casino (1995)
Written and Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Produced by: Barbara De Fina, Alain Goldman, Joseph P. Reidy
"At night, you couldn't see the desert that surrounds Las Vegas. But its in the desert where a lot of the town's problems are solved..."
My favourite Martin Scorsese film, ever (though Goodfellas is a very close second). I first saw it at 14 years old. It took everything he had achieved in Mean Streets and in the body of his work with DeNiro, and was a fitting tribute to a world whose violence he so perfectly captured in its ruthless brutality. Drawn from true events with the help of Nicholas Pileggi (as Goodfellas was also), the movie is almost like this symphony. Theatrical, detail oriented, unforgiving and gives time to the story of each character in a way that makes you feel something for their fates, as awful and flawed as they are. As the case with Goodfellas, we again see the steadicam employed to excellent use and scope via a one-shot that takes us through the Tangiers, as Ace (DeNiro) and Nicky (Pesci) walk us through its mechanisms and players. In the role of Ginger, Sharon Stone not only gives the best performance of her career, but one of the best performances of the decade. We see a woman trapped by the toxic men around her, as she fights, claws and yearns for a way out, eventually succumbing to demons along the way. Woven among the narrative is a sense of dread, as control slips through the fingers of the Sam and Nicky. Scorsese's ability to capture the downward spiral of not only a character, but the world they occupy, is what makes him so perfectly able to explore the chaos of the underworld. Throughout Casino there is no clear line between good and evil, no guiding morality, we are simply observers to a ruthless code that places profit and loyalty over all else. Goodfellas went after my nerves, its third act unrelenting. The final act of Casino instead hits my heart like a freight train, yet I don't want it to end. I adore this movie.
5: Wings of Desire (1987)
Directed by: Wim Wenders
Written by: Wim Wenders and Peter Handke
Produced by: Wim Wenders, Ingrid Windisch, Anatole Dauman
"My heroes are no longer warriors and kings, but the things of peace, one equal to the other.... What is wrong with peace that its inspiration doesn't endure... and that its story is hardly told?"
Wim Wenders isn't well known in the West, but is the most beautifully poetic filmmaker to emerge in the last three decades. Wings of Desire is set on the streets of Berlin, before the wall came down. It is filmed in black and white, is ethereal and connects to the soul in a way films don't often achieve. Two angels watch eternity unfold, occasionally lending a whisper of support for the lost souls they encounter. Invisible, they are eternal observers. One of them however, falls in love with a circus performer named Marion, and wants to become mortal for her. We are subject to her internal monologues, where she dreams of a free life, full of love. Meanwhile, in a great library, an elderly man named Homer is the self-appointed scribe of our history, documenting our universal story, unable to give into old age lest mankind "lose it's storyteller". Henri Alekan's work as cinematographer deserved an Oscar, for every scene feels like a painting, like we are seeing the streets of Berlin through mists of the otherworld. Melancholy permeates each scene but at no point is it hopeless, there is love in every shot. It's an exquisite film mostly filmed black and white, and features a phenomenal performance by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds at the end.
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What I have observed is that all these films commonly redefined cinematic storytelling in some way, raising the bar for what was possible. They each employ certain methods that filmmakers are advised to steer away from, because they rarely find success with audiences or are considered a cliche. For example, inner conflicts (Wings of Desire), expository dialogue (Casino), not having "good vs evil" clearly defined (Reservoir Dogs), taking time to world-build, detracting from the "climax" (Star Wars), and using antagonists to create a "star vehicle" (Aliens). In the hands of these writers and directors, these "mistakes" are transformed into a device that makes the stories truly original and even stronger cinematically. It's ultimately proof that the very best movies rewrite the rules.
💜 Lady Mayhem xox
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