Images That Thrill

Ever thoughtful critic Joel “MovieMan0283” Bocko recently celebrated the end of his second full year of blogging at The Dancing Image by cosponsoring a meme with Stephen of Checking On My Sausages. The directive is to come up with a collection of similarly themed images that celebrate the “thrill of cinema.” I’m a big fan of screen-capture posts, and even though they seem easy (compared to writing), perhaps I should be doing more of them. (Cinema is a visual medium, after all!) In recent weeks, unrelated to this meme, I’ve tremendously enjoyed Joel’s gallery tracking the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker (oh, if only those Star Wars prequels didn’t have dialogue!) and Sheila O’Malley’s terrific ode to doorway shots in The Searchers.

So, here’s my contribution to the meme. See if you can spot the (somewhat loose) theme. I’ll eventually list it at the end.

By the way, the rules of the meme demand that I tag five people. Consider this an open tag. If you haven't taken part, do so. Just be sure to read Joel's post and give appropriate links to his site and Stephen's.

Note: One could argue that the image at the top of this post is exactly the opposite of this gallery's theme.

Let’s Get Kreativ

After a painfully long layoff – largely due to a painfully overloaded work schedule – I’m pleased to report that The Cooler will spring back to action here in the near future. I have reviews to write, rants to share, an event to announce and various other posts that need to find their way out of my brain and onto the page, er, screen. Before we return to business as usual, however, I wanted to give thanks to three bloggers who acknowledged The Cooler with a Kreativ Award. Oh, sure, it’s a meme, but I’m flattered just the same and, even more, I’m eager to share some love with my fellow bloggers because, wow, I can't express how much fun it is to be a movie fan thanks to the blogosphere.

So, here goes …

First, to recognize those who recognized me. Thanks to Tony Dayoub, who writes with notable clarity and honesty at Cinema Viewfinder. Thanks to Edward Copeland, whose blog, Edward Copeland on Film, is back to life after health complications forced a layoff. (Can you write horizontally? I don’t think I could. Way to go, Ed!) And thanks to Jake, a talented (and young) writer whose Not Just Movies was the best blog I discovered in 2009. Keep it up, fellas.

Second, for reasons that don’t make a whole lot of sense to me, I’m supposed to now tell you some things about myself that you might find interesting. OK. I’m game. Here goes …

1. I’ve never seen It’s a Wonderful Life. Sure, the list of movies I haven’t seen is long. Why point out this one? Because when I tell people I’ve never seen this movie they tend to look at me with horror-struck faces as if I’ve admitted I like burning the American flag while hosting dog-fighting parties in my backyard.

2. I’ve lived in five states plus the District of Columbia. For someone who isn’t from a military family or in the witness relocation program, that’s quite a few.

3. I’m still a little confused about who John Conner’s original father was, assuming that his latter father was someone he sent from the future and that they couldn't be the same guy – or am I remembering The Terminator incorrectly? The Terminator, by the way, was the first R-rated movie I was allowed to see. (And is it me, or has Linda Hamilton not had a memorable role since she played the clueless, supportive wife on Titanic’s big Oscar night all those years ago?)

4. After my utter disappointment with the majority of the films I saw in 2009, I fear I’m becoming a curmudgeon. By the time Invictus and Nine rolled around, I didn’t have the energy to write another disgruntled review. (I still might write something about The Lovely Bones, though.)

5. I grew up playing sports. In the past, I’ve made a living writing about sports and I’ve worked in sports public relations at two major universities. Currently, I play in two very casual fantasy football leagues and one very competitive National League-only fantasy baseball league (which I won last year, by the way). And yet I couldn’t tell you when ESPN’s SportsCenter airs and never watch it.

6. I do a fairly decent Andy Rooney impersonation.

7. I always get asked for directions, including when I’m visiting from out of town. Two weeks ago, I gave my easiest directions ever. Wandering through D.C. after seeing a movie, a tourist came up to me at a traffic light and asked for directions to the National Portrait Gallery. I turned 45 degrees and pointed to the large freestone building directly next to us. “That way?” he asked. “No,” I replied. “That’s it.”

Finally, I now get to spread the love to seven more bloggers. Many of them have already been honored, but I’m including them anyway. In no specific order …

Craig of The Man From Porlock

Kevin J. Olson of Hugo Stiglitz Makes Movies

Troy Olson of Elusive as Robert Denby

Jermaine Olson of ... wait, never mind.

Fox of Tractor Facts (don’t stay away altogether, buddy)

FilmDr of The Film Doctor

Hokahey of Little Worlds

Steven Santos of The Fine Cut

Thanks for all the great blog reading!

(Some of) My Favorite Movie Periods/Places

“During which movies have I thought, ‘Wow, I would really love to be there and experience that place at that time?’” This is the final question posed by Daniel Getahun in the process of creating his Favorite Movie Periods/Places Meme (or whatever we want to call it) over at Getafilm. Daniel tagged me to take part in this fun little challenge, and I’m happy to oblige. At least, I think I am. The hard part here isn’t to come up with a list but to narrow it down.

Though Daniel kept the rules open, I tried to select places/periods that, for one reason or another, would be difficult to access in the real world today. For example, I thought of naming the Ferris wheel in Vienna where Holly Martins and Harry Lime have their famous confrontation in The Third Man. But I nixed it because I could easily go there and, in my own mind, recreate the magic. Likewise, I also avoided naming locations that I find fascinating first and foremost because of their historical significance. Otherwise I’d be listing JFK to be in Dealey Plaza, or The Passion to witness, um, The Passion, or, heck, even National Treasure 2 to be in Ford’s Theatre on April 14, 1865. I think Daniel’s intent was to celebrate movie moments, and so, in that spirit, here are six of my favorite movie places/periods:



1607 Virginia, from The New World
It’s not just that I want to know what it was like to see our country when it was “new,” it’s that I want to witness the moment above: the moment when Native Americans saw European ships – structures unlike anything they’d ever seen – approaching in the distance. What a moment that would be to experience – from both sides!



Early 1900s America, from The Natural
This is a film with a tremendous sense of place, from the attire, to the baseball uniforms, to the stadiums. More than anything else, I want to step into the scene above – a place where a train pulls into town and an unknown hayseed pitcher strikes out Babe Ruth (er, The Whammer) while steam drifts from the train engine, and people look on from bicycles and a carnival Ferris wheel spins in the background.



Early 1950s, Hickory High (Indiana), from Hoosiers
“Welcome to Indiana basketball.” I want to watch a high school basketball game in a place where the basketball game is the only thing to do in town. I want to watch it in a gym packed with screaming fans (“We’ve got spirit, yes we do. We’ve got spirit, how ‘bout you?”) – a gym so small that two lines are needed to define “half court.” I want to go to Hickory High.



1972 Virginia, Rosslyn Parking Garage, from All The President’s Men
Yes, I know. It’s just a parking garage. Yes, I know, it’s a historical event. Kind of. See, there’s no way that Bob Woodward’s real secret meetings with anonymous source Mark Felt were as thrilling as they are in this film, when Robert Redford’s Woodward meets Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook) in a creepy garage, amidst wafting cigarette smoke and under the intense pressure of the Watergate investigation.



Turn of 21st Century New York, Tenenbaum Game Closet, from The Royal Tenenbaums
I just love that game closet, okay?



2700 New York, WALL-E’s Trailer, from WALL-E
In a world without life but full of trash, WALL-E’s trailer is a cozy, lived-in, loved home – a sanctuary. I want to go there.


Where do you want to go? Fill in some favorite movie places or periods in the comments section, or keep Daniel’s meme going.

My Favorite Movie Books

It’s embarrassing to admit, but in many respects I didn’t become aware of film criticism until I went to college. By that time, I’d long been a passionate movie fan. And I’d already started writing about movies myself – in letters to my film fanatic uncle, if nothing else. But I was – and to some degree remain – terribly underexposed to the world of print criticism. I would read the reviews of my local newspaper’s film critic, and I knew that there were versions of him writing for other outlets across the country. (Let me pause for the obligatory moment of silence as we remember those paid criticism positions that have left us in recent years …) But what was that awareness worth? I was in Oregon. Those other critics were everywhere else.

Then came college. More importantly, then came the Internet. More specifically, then came the Internet via an Ethernet connection instead of crummy dial-up, which was still acceptable at the time. Suddenly I could read any town’s newspaper critic just-like-that. Suddenly my awareness of criticism went beyond my local reviewer, Siskel & Ebert on TV and the stuff I’d find on the magazine rack. Thus, when I think of my most cherished source of film literature, it’s the Internet. No question about it. That was true before the blog movement, and so it’s certainly true today. Still, there’s something to be said for holding a piece of movie writing in your hands. And, so, as inspired by a terrific post at The Dancing Image, here’s a tribute to some of my favorite movie books.

I’ll list five, in no specific order:


Roger Ebert’s Video Companion (1997 Edition)
Over the years, I have grabbed this tome off the bookshelf more than any other, which is saying something, because technically the book belongs on my mom’s bookshelf. See, I gave it to her as a birthday gift. Or maybe it was Mother’s Day. In any case, I bought it because I was away at college, which meant my mom didn’t have me coming home with something from the video store a few nights a week. I figured Ebert’s book could be helpful in that regard. I thumbed through the book at the store, noticed that it provided full-length reviews and easy star ratings, and I bought it. My mom thanked me, and then it sat on the shelf mostly untouched for about a year. The following summer, I grabbed it from the shelf and – gasp – started to read it. Then I kept reading it, regularly. A summer later, I stole the book for my own. (Sorry, Mom.)

At that point I’d already discovered Ebert’s written reviews online, but this was the first time I really enjoyed Ebert’s essays as a collection of criticism. Previously, I’d used Ebert’s reviews to help me relate to movies I’d just seen. Thus, I typically focused on all the ways we agreed or disagreed, and I overlooked the larger artistic merits of film criticism itself. Thanks to the Video Companion, however, now I was reading about a 1970 film on one page and a 1995 film on the next. Some of the films I cherished. Some I’d forgotten. Some I had no plans to see until Ebert’s review piqued my interest.

Today I can get (almost) any Ebert review online, but if the film predates 1997, I always hope I’ll find it in the Video Companion. Once there, I tend to read more than I’d planned. Even today, it’s a book I struggle to put down.



Easy Riders, Raging Bulls
I love this book because it’s full of legends about a period in which cinema was transitioning into a new era – an era of auteurs, an era of blockbusters. Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls is the story of Bonnie & Clyde, Star Wars, Apocalypse Now, Chinatown, Taxi Driver, M*A*S*H and more. It’s the story of the American Graffiti preview that thrilled the audience and turned off the studio execs. It’s the story of Pauline Kael raving about Nashville based on a private screening with Robert Altman. It’s the story of the Charles Manson murders rocking Hollywood, and Steve Spielberg finding ways not to get laid and Martin Scorsese losing his mind. Do I take all these stories as absolute fact? Of course not. But it’s a hell of a story.



For Keeps
Pauline Kael was the kind of critic the blogosphere often tries to imitate: provocative, tough, argumentative. If sometimes she was guilty of being a cheap bomb-thrower, for the most part Kael seemed to write from the heart. That’s why her criticism soars above that of her imitators. That, and the fact that she was a hell of a writer. There’s not much to say about For Keeps beyond this: it’s 1,250 pages of Kael! (Teaser: More on Kael tomorrow at The Cooler.)



The Conversations
Yes, the title for my series of exchanges with Ed Howard is (for me, at least) a tribute to this book, the title of which is of course a tribute to The Conversation. This book is a series of discussions between Michael Ondaatje and Walter Murch, the film and/or sound editor of Apocalypse Now, American Graffiti, The Conversation and others. Throughout the book, Murch provides interesting observations on those films, plus The Godfather, Touch Of Evil and others. One of my favorite anecdotes is provided in the introduction, describing how Murch added a beat and a line repetition to Caravaggio’s interrogation scene in The English Patient to make it more dramatic. Murch isn’t looking to pat himself on the back. Instead he plays the role of instructor, demonstrating how editing can be used to subtly yet significantly alter a film’s impact. If I had to recommend one book that would make anyone a smarter movie watcher, this would be the one.



Conversations With The Great Moviemakers Of Hollywood’s Golden Age
This is the book I’m going through currently, so I suppose it’s too soon to call it a favorite. But I’m a sucker for interview transcripts, as they have a way of cutting through the bullshit, so it might be a favorite before too long. More than 30 filmmaker interviews (originally conducted at the American Film Institute) are provided here, featuring names like Fritz Lang, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, John Huston and Elia Kazan. As a sampling, here’s David Lean discussing the challenges of adapting a novel: “I think the thing is to not try to do a little bit of every scene in a novel, because it’s going to end up a mess. Choose what you want to do in the novel and do it proud. If necessary, cut characters. Don’t keep every character and just take a sniff of each one.” Amen to that!

What are your favorite film books? Bloggers: Make your list and link them back to The Dancing Image.

Top 10 Favorite Characters

There’s a new meme taking the blogosphere by storm, and I’ve been tagged by Cooler pal Fox of Tractor Facts to participate. The charge? To name my 10 favorite movie characters of all time. That’s characters, take note. Not performances. As meme originator Squish puts it: “Hamlet, Sherlock Holmes or Bond may be your favorite filmic sight on screen but you may hate the Mel Gibsons, Basil Rathbones or George Lazenbys who've played them.”

OK. Easy task, right? Or incredibly difficult. I’m still not sure. There are a number of ways to approach this. The first thing I did was to attempt to look beyond performances. For example, Terry Malloy in On The Waterfront is a favorite character of mine, but he’s made interesting in large part because of the brilliance of Marlon Brando. Put a lesser actor in that role and Terry is just a meathead working the docks, not a cinema treasure. Thus, Terry is out. In his place I tried to pick characters I thought were written or implemented in such a way that they were can’t-miss. That said, you don’t get to be a top-10 cherished character without being powered by tremendous acting (of some kind), and I’m sure some great-on-paper characters have been overlooked entirely or forgotten too quickly due to lackluster performances. So you can never completely remove the performance aspect, but I tried. To a point.

I also excluded characters based real people and characters I thought were established in print before they became creatures of the movie screen. Then I really concentrated on the word “favorite” (not “best”) and went with my gut. I scribbled down about 16 names and cut it to 10.

Give me another hour, I could give you an entirely different list. But, for better or worse ...

My 10 favorite characters in the movies (today, at least) ...


Max (Sunset Boulevard, 1950)
You’re thinking I picked the wrong character, right? I hear you. Norma Desmond is a classic character, no doubt. But do you know what’s more interesting than a monkey-loving suicidal forgotten silent film star with delusions of grandeur? It’s a guy who used to be her director and her husband who now lives with her as her butler and is dedicated to her happiness. That’s Max. (Quote: “If madam will pardon me, the shadow over the left eye is not quite balanced.”)



Scottie Ferguson (Vertigo, 1958)
Homeboy falls in love with a woman, witnesses her fall to her death, finds a woman who looks like her and then painstakingly recreates this woman to look like the now dead woman he was in love with. Need I say more? Didn’t think so. (Quote: “Judy, please, it can’t matter to you.”)



Mrs. Robinson (The Graduate, 1967)
Anne Bancroft’s performance here is one of the greatest of all time. There’s not a stone of Mrs. Robinson’s psyche that goes unturned. That said, even on paper the character is fascinating: a grown woman and mother who seduces her friends' son while trying to run from the misery of her shattered dreams. Forty years later, female characters this well-imagined are still hard to find. (Quote: “Would you like me to seduce you?”)



Thomas Crown (The Thomas Crown Affair, 1968)
This isn’t my favorite Steve McQueen performance, but it has to be his most compelling role. Thomas Crown is a rich dude who plays polo, beds women and, oh yeah, orchestrates bank robberies for the pure fun of it. Brilliant! I think somewhere between McQueen’s performance and Pierce Brosnan’s take on the character from the 1999 remake is the best Thomas Crown. If a third version of this film gets made, I’ll watch. (Quote: “Let’s play something else.”)



Percy Garris (Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid, 1969)
Ah, Percy. He spends his days in the most out-of-the-way place in all of Bolivia and doesn’t bat an eye when two Americans show up looking for work. He spits tobacco, he sings, he answers his own questions. Strother Martin provides a colorful scene-stealing performance, but Percy was always going to upstage Butch and Sundance in their limited time together on screen. (Quote: “Morons. I’ve got morons on my team.”)



Darth Vader (Star Wars, 1977)
Why? Because he’s the ultimate figure of evil, and I’m from the Star Wars generation. To me, Darth Vader will always be the gold standard of cinema villains. (Quote: “I find your lack of faith disturbing.”)



John McClane (Die Hard, 1988)
OK, so this one owes a lot to the performance of Bruce Willis. A lot. But, like I said above, I discounted the acting only up to a point. That said, dated though the 1980s dialogue is, John McClane’s lines have swagger even on the printed page. (Quote: “Yippee-ki-yay!”)



Catherine Tramell (Basic Instinct, 1992)
Let’s see: She writes books, fucks men, fucks with cops and kills guys … with an ice pick. Did I mention she doesn’t wear underwear? (Quote: “Have you ever fucked on cocaine, Nick? It’s nice.”)



Winston “The Wolf” Wolfe (Pulp Fiction, 1994)
With all due respect to Harvey Keitel, here’s a character so well written that even Nicolas Cage couldn’t screw it up. No other character in cinema history casually jots notes like: “One body. No head.” No other character would show up at a suburban home that’s hiding a bloody corpse and introduce himself with the professional dullness of an electrician. No one else would kill time during bloody-body clean-up by talking about oak furniture. The Wolf is a can’t-miss character. (Quote: “Now when it comes to upholstery, it don’t need to be spick and span. You don’t need to eat off it. Just give it a good once over.”)



Captain Jack Sparrow (The Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl, 2003)
Captain Jack's greatness is all due to Johnny Depp’s Pepe Le Pew meets Keith Richards portrayal, right? Well, sort of. Depp makes him classic, sure, but this is a pirate with black teeth who thinks he can bed any woman. He’s a pirate who makes his entrance on a tiny sinking boat who thinks he can take control of any ship at sea. And, well, he’s a pirate. Gotta like that, right? I do, and it's my list. (Quote: “Commandeer. We’re going to commandeer that ship. Nautical term.”)

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Oh, almost forgot: I tag Hokahey, Craig, MovieMan0283, FilmDr and Daniel Getahun, and anyone else who wants to play along in the comments or at your own blog.

Nine Resolutions for Oh-Nine

As tagged by Fox of Tractor Facts, continuing the meme created at DVD Panache, here are nine movie-related resolutions for 2009:

(In no specific order.)

1. Quit teasing people and write at least one post about or related to Steve McQueen, for crying out loud.

2. Be more dedicated about watching items in my Netflix queue. (Finally seeing Raising Arizona in 2008 was fine and good, but I’m not sure it was worth the $30 or so that I paid to have that little red envelope sit untouched for months.)

3. Be more dedicated about watching DVDs from my own collection, which would happen more often if I could learn to stop worrying and not be so anal about needing to watch movies uninterrupted from start to finish. (Like most people, there are dozens of movies that I’ve seen dozens of times that I let play in the background as I’m doing things around the apartment. But if I purchase a movie after seeing it only once in the theater, I have a nasty habit of wanting that precious second-ever viewing to be entirely disruption-free. Which would explain, for example, why I still haven’t watched There Will Be Blood, despite excitedly buying the DVD within a week of its release.)

4. Find another movie poster that through a combination of its graphic artistry and subject matter is worthy of being professionally matted and framed for display alongside my current collection, which includes The Thin Red Line, The New World, Bullitt, The Great Escape, Amelie … Wait a minute. Maybe my resolution should be to find more wall space.

5. At least investigate the technology purchases that would be required in order for me to be able to create some video-based analyses and celebrations here at The Cooler from time to time. I’ve been writing about movies for more than a decade now. I need to write. Always will. But I’m interested in exploring new forms of criticism, too.

6. Let this be the year that I come to the terms with the fact that this actor ...

and this actor ...

are actually the same person.

7. Find one new-to-me engaging voice on film from around the blogosphere each month, and continue use the “Sharin’ the Love” feature to highlight interesting reads, so that there’s always something new to read at The Cooler (even when I don’t have a new post), and so that others can discover new, engaging voices, too. (On that note, I’d like to give a plug to FilmDr, who this week has provided some very entertaining dispatches from the frontlines of his two-week video production class for high schoolers. Check it out.)

8. Somehow come to terms with the fact that there aren’t enough hours in the day for me to do as much reading (not skimming, reading) and commenting at other blogs as I’d like. Alas, I’m going to miss some great commentary. I need to be OK with that.

9. Seize the opportunity created by a thriving newspaper industry and a booming economy to quit my day job and begin a long, lucrative career writing about film. (OK, so it’s eight resolutions and one Dumbo-esque hallucination.)

Happy 2009, everybody! What are your movie-related resolutions?

20 Favorite Film Femmes (Right Now)

I just had to get in on the 20 all-time favorite actresses meme that originated at The Film Experience. Trouble was, narrowing an all-time list proved to be too difficult. So instead I cheated and decided to name my favorite actresses working right now. That means no Grace Kelly, obviously. It also means that someone like Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio doesn’t make the list either, because it’s been too long since she’s delivered a performance worth getting excited about.

So here’s a list of actresses who get me excited to go to the theater right now. Favorite performances listed in parenthesis.


Amy Adams (Junebug)
Having not yet seen Doubt, which arrived in town today, Adams is still more promise than proven. But Junebug alone is reason enough to be excited for what’s to come.

Cate Blanchett (Notes On A Scandal)
In the parenthesis above, I could have put “Just About Everything.”

Helena Bonham Carter (Conversations With Other Women)
See Blanchett comments. Ditto.

Rose Byrne (Sunshine)
Sleeper pick! Byrne’s most robust work is in the otherwise mediocre Wicker Park. But in a tiny role in Sunshine I can’t take my eyes off her. I’m convinced she has a classic performance in her. It’s only a matter of time.

Eva Green (Casino Royale)
Think The Dreamers is memorable? Green is unforgettable in Casino Royale. The strength of Quantum Of Solace is the way Vesper’s spirit hangs in the shadows, serving as Bond’s Rosebud. We never see Vesper, sadly, but she’s always there.

Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married)
An accomplished career already, and her best days are ahead. Versatile. Fearless.

Diane Lane (Unfaithful)
Her Unfaithful performance is one of my all-time favorites. Oh, and she’s sexy as hell!

Q’orianka Kilcher (The New World)
Yep, she makes the list on the strength of one performance – a performance that happens to be another of my all-time favorites. When Kilcher finally shows up in another film, I’m there.

Julianne Moore (Boogie Nights)
Even when she’s just average, she’s fantastic. Tremendous range!

Samantha Morton (In America)
Perhaps my favorite actress working today. She’s the highlight of Synecdoche, New York, and her Mary Stuart was the best part of Elizabeth: The Golden Age (take that, Cate!). Not to be overlooked? Code 46.

Michelle Pfieffer (Dangerous Liaisons)
If not for the magic she generated in Stardust, one of my all-time darlings wouldn’t have made the cut. But her Catwoman in Batman Returns remains one of the sexiest cinema creations ever. And then there’s Dangerous Liaisons, The Age Of Innocence …

Natalie Portman (Beautiful Girls)
She’s been turning in memorable performances all her life. I’m not sure she’ll ever get a better part than in Beautiful Girls, but I’m hopeful that her best work is ahead. Best performance no one ever talks about? Cold Mountain.

Susan Sarandon (Bull Durham)
She’s still got it.

Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient)
I’ve Loved You So Long is a reminder of great talent that I hadn’t begun to forget. Must see her more!

Tilda Swinton (The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe)
An actress we’re starting to see more of here in the States, to my great delight.

Audrey Tautou (Amelie)
She makes me grin like a garden gnome.

Uma Thurman (Kill Bill: Volume 1 and 2)
Maybe the most underrated actress working today. The physicality of the Kill Bill films tends to overshadow the memory of her emotional vulnerability.

Rachel Weisz (My Blueberry Nights)
She’s enchanting in The Fountain. She’s heartbreakingly tragic in My Blueberry Nights.

Kate Winslet (Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind)
Has she ever turned in a poor performance?

Robin Wright Penn (Unbreakable)
Lucky to be on this list, per the Mastrantonio rule. But she actually made me consider seeing Beowulf. That’s saying a lot!

So, Cooler readers, let’s see some favorite actress lists – all-time or of-the-moment. Who did I overlook?

Favorite Films A-Z

Last week, Fletch over at Blog Cabins created a meme that has been spreading through the movie-loving blogosphere like an Angelina Jolie-Jennifer Aniston catfight rumor. I’ve been tagged to participate at least twice, by The Film Doctor and He Shot Cyrus. So, here we go …

The meme: List your favorite films alphabetically – picking one film for each letter of the alphabet. Simple, right? Until you start making decisions. To make it less maddening, some bloggers have tried to reduce the pool of available films, like Larry Aydlette at Welcome to L.A., who selected from noirs, thrillers and detective movies only.

Me? I approached it with a desert-island-list mentality. In other words, I wanted the films to be watchable more than classic (you know what I mean), and I wanted the collection of 26 films to cover the genres as much as possible. Thus, the movies had to be from my DVD collection, because otherwise they aren’t favorites.

Here’s how it played out:

All The President’s Men
Bull Durham
Chinatown
Die Hard
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind
Field Of Dreams
The Great Escape
Heat
Indian Summer
JFK
To Kill A Mockingbird
Lawrence Of Arabia
The Magnificent Seven
The New World
On The Waterfront
Parenthood
Quiz Show
Rear Window
Star Wars
The Thin Red Line
Unbreakable
Vertigo
When We Were Kings
X (no entry)
Y (no entry)
Zodiac

I’m pleased with my list. It includes some of my all-time favorites (All The President’s Men, The Great Escape, On The Waterfront, Star Wars), two Hitchcocks (Rear Window and Vertigo), two Malicks (The New World and The Thin Red Line), a sports movie (Bull Durham), a Western (The Magnificent Seven), a noir (Chinatown), a super-hero movie (Unbreakable), a documentary (When We Were Kings), an epic (Lawrence Of Arabia), an action classic (Die Hard), a love story (Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind), a Steve Martin comedy with heart (Parenthood) and a mostly-unknown-movie-I-never-grow-tired-of-that-happens-to-include-Diane-Lane (Indian Summer). It’s a good list. I could stay quite happy on my desert island with that collection.

Painful omissions? Letter M was the hardest because it pitted my favorite Western with my favorite King of Cool (The Magnificent Seven) against The Muppet Movie, an overwhelming childhood favorite. Leaving out Kermit & Co feels wrong, but I decided I could live without The Muppet Movie so long as I had episodes of TV’s The Muppet Show, and the meme doesn’t exclude that. So that’s how I got around that one. Beyond that, it was most difficult to leave out those ‘little movies’ that aren’t all that great but that never fail to deliver. We all have ‘em. Beautiful Girls, Diner and Elf are three of mine. And while picking The Great Escape for G was a no-brainer, it was a punch to the gut to see The Godfather, The Graduate and Groundhog Day fall by the wayside.

Now, as part of the meme process, I’m supposed to tag at least five people to participate and keep this thing going. Instead, I’d like to encourage anyone and everyone to take part.

If you’re a blogger, fill out your list and link back to Blog Cabins. Cooler readers, leave your lists in the comments section below, as a link or as text.

Do it! Now! Especially you “lurkers” (regular readers but infrequent commenters) like Brew, T-mouse and others. You know who you are. Join in!