Bob Sanders: Top 10 movies hard to choose

Bob Sanders
Columnist
Published: November 24, 2008

Again, if they’d only ask me before they make these ridiculous assertions ... Empire Magazine asked 10,000 moviegoers, 150 Hollywood directors, and 50 critics, and came up with a list of the 10 best movies of all time.

First, it is preposterous to even think about narrowing a “best” list to 10. But they tried, and here’s the list they came up with:

1. The Godfather
2 Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. The Empire Strikes Back
4. The Shawshank Redemption
5. Jaws
6. Goodfellas
7. Apocalypse Now
8. Singin’ in the Rain
9. Pulp Fiction
10. Fight Club

OK. All of these, you understand, are excellent movies. But all-time best?

Hmm ... I’ll keep two of them as top-tenners: The Shawshank Redemption, which gets better with each viewing, especially because of Morgan Freeman; and Jaws, which perfectly captures a frolicsome beach suddenly turned into a place of terror.

Then I’d stick in two John Waynes, even though I am not a huge John Wayne fan. The Searchers, with its immense sweep and beauty has to be there. Also, Fort Apache — part of John Ford’s cavalry trilogy — with Henry Fonda out of character as a martinet, along with the wonderful Victor McLaglen and his buddies.

You often see Out of the Past called a sleeper by critics, which means it is an excellent movie that doesn’t get the recognition it deserves. It set Robert Mitchum’s screen persona, and Jane Greer was one more mean woman. Perfect example of what they call film noir.

Laura was perfect, with Gene Tierney in the title role and Dana Andrews, and Clifton Webb as a real scene-stealer. I love you, Gene/Laura, wherever you are.

The movie version of Hemingway’s Spanish Civil War story, For Whom the Bell Tolls, is exceptional partly because of its perfect casting, from Gary Cooper to Anselmo and the Gypsy. Leave out Sunset Boulevard? Unthinkable.

Another William Holden movie must be included: The Wild Bunch. Violent? Yes. But a beautiful character study of some end-of-the-line outlaws.

The Wizard of Oz, of course. Thank you, Miss Hamil, for taking our third grade class to see it in our neighboring town. It gets better every time.

And I have no defense for my last pick, State Fair. It is totally unrealistic—a picture-book farm where nobody ever seems to work, a couple of college-age kids who sit around and mope, and who wear suits and dress-up dresses to a fair?

Yet the beautiful Rodgers and Hammerstein songs fit perfectly. If that ain’t the way farm life is, it’s the way it ought to be. Even though I have a copy, if I run across it while surfing, I’m hooked, there ‘til the end. And we’ll never forget, those of us left, the trip to and from, in the (literally) wired and taped together old Ford. Willa, Wynell, Virginia Dale, Nell, James and me. Truly “a grand night for singing.”

So many. Next week I’d probably have a different list.

Bob Sanders is a longtime radio personality with WAUD in Auburn and writes a weekly column for the Opelika-Auburn News.