MIGHTY JOE YOUNG, FIGHTING DEVIL DOGS, SCROOGE (A CHRISTMAS CAROL, 1950).
Blast of Silence DIR Allen Baron
Last Tango in Paris DIR Bernardo Bertolucci
A Christmas Story. I remember I first saw it when I was seven and it still never ceases to delight me. If anything I enjoy it more now because my sense of humor has changed, obviously, as I’ve gotten older.
The Great Escape (1963), This was shown every Christmas for years in the UK and I still find it absolutely magnificent, a fantastic cast, gripping story, and great direction from Sturges who is a legend. Oh and Steve McQueen is stilla hero.
Carol Reed’s Oliver! (1968) is still a corker; Beautiful costumes, wonderful cinematography from Oswald Morris, fantastic acting – Oliver Reed, Ron Moody & Shani Wallis, and Jack Wild is still mesmerising as the Artful Dodger. Top banana.
The Asterix films
THE MUPPET MOVIE floored me as a 9-year old and really still does. Besides where else will you find Mel Brooks, Steve Martin, Richard Pryor and Orson Welles in the same movie.
Best Line:
Kermit – (giving directions) “Bear left”
Fozzie – “Frog right”
Great songs too.
I dont think I have ever been as wowed by effects brad
as I was with Kermit riding his bike
Labyrinth is still one of my favorite films.
The Black Stallion, Ice Castles (ha ha, seriously), and The Shining.
The Black Stallion, Ice Castles (ha ha, seriously), and The Shining.
Original Star Wars Trilogy, especially episode 2 and 3 (I can start calling them 5-6).
Back to the Future
The Jurassic Park films
Alien and Aliens
It’s a Wonderful Life
monster squad
dawn of the dead (1978)
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure!
The Nightmare Before Christmas
pretty much all of the cartoon movies I liked (Disney pictures included)
Marry Poppins (1964)
:)
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure
The Wizard of Oz
Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Ghostbusters
wizard or Oz
Pinochio
Gone with the Wind
the 10 commandments with Charlton Heston.
Musicals figure large:
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – Somewhat elephantine, but a wonderfully scored and jolly adventure peppered with bright and sunny sequences
The Sound of Music – not a children’s film, but one that was seen as a family ‘treat’ usually on public holidays. A well mounted film with a nice edge of threat (Nazism) to undercut the sweetness. It still stands up if you leave your cynicism at the door.
Oliver! – Surprisingly dark moments in a wonderfully colourful musical
Star Wars – A tight, straightforward adventure. Having recently caught most of it on television for the first time in many years, I was surprised how effectively structured the film is with little in the way of distracting special effects compared to the more recent cash-ins.
Carry on Camping – A very British choice, but when I was growing up about the only opportunity for pre-pubescent boys to catch a glimpse of naked flesh in a family film. Cinematically ramshackle but silly fun (not an obvious Auteurs choice!)
@Richmondhill
Nice choice with Carry On Camping, (1969) but for me the there was only one choice as a pre-pubescent boy and that was Carry On Screaming,(1966) I mean, there is nothing that can match the raw sexuality of Fenella Fielding. Jesus, many an erotic dream was fuelled by the feline sensuality of this gorgeous woman.
And maybe it is not such a strange Auteur’s choice. I think you could argue that Gerald Thomas covers most bases when it comes to the definition of an auteur. Maybe not one of the greatest, but definitely a “B-, must try harder!”
Slightly off topic, but I guess Thomas was a minor auteur of sorts – very much in own back garden – and partly responsible for a sub-genere (actually his auteur credentials are growing!). I did catch one of his earlier pre-Carry On films – Time Lock – a few years and it wasn’t bad in a B picture kind of way. Sub Hitchcockian I seem to remember.
Time Lock sounds interesting as does The Vicious Circle starring John Mills which I see is available as part of the John MIlls Centenary Collection. It would be interesting to see a Gerald Thomas Retrospective at some point offering a glimpse into his non-carry on films. Maybe something the BFI may consider in the future when Carry On films occupy their rightful position as British cultural artifacts, although I can’t see this happening sometime soon.
@Robert
Your parents let you watch Last Tango in Paris as a kid? Lucky bastard!
Guns of Navarone is the first that springs to mind. It was one of my Mum’s favourites so I saw it when ever it was on the telly, at first begrudringly as it was probably too young to realise just how damn cool it was.
(I recenlty showed it to the GF and was happy as sin that she dug it too.)
On a slightly more shloky note is Krull. Growing up, Krull was one of the few VHS tapes we had and my brothers watched it over and over. Watching it now I can see the huge flaws in the film, but it still retains a hell of a lot of charm, at least for me.
Guns of Navarone is the first that springs to mind. It was one of my Mum’s favourites so I saw it when ever it was on the telly, at first begrudringly as it was probably too young to realise just how damn cool it was.
(I recenlty showed it to the GF and was happy as sin that she dug it too.)
On a slightly more shloky note is Krull. Growing up, Krull was one of the few VHS tapes we had and my brothers watched it over and over. Watching it now I can see the huge flaws in the film, but it still retains a hell of a lot of charm, at least for me.
The Never Ending Story, for sure is a movie if it still came on today i would loose my shit about it and have to watch it again. It was the first movie to blow my mind and as a kid, and the only film to come close to that at the time was the sequel. Loved e very single second of those movies. Dont care what anyone has to say about this movie, its just tied so tight into my childhood.
And i still want a flying dog dragon snake thing.
Space Jam
Alex Towers
Anybody else have especially fond memories of a film from their childhood that they still count as one of their favorites? There are two in particular I’ve always loved since seeing them at an early age: The Jungle Book and Jurassic Park.
Anyone else?