My Top Ten Favorite Movies

Hello readers. My name is Ethan and I am a Freshman at Chapman University pursuing a major in Business Administration and a minor in Film Studies. For the topic of this blog my minor will be much more relevant than my major. This blog will analyze, with the techniques I am currently learning in my film studies courses, a list of my top ten favorite movies. Other people’s lists leave out certain genres (such as comedy and animation) or only focus on critically acclaimed films. That is not the purpose of this blog. My purpose with each and every post will be to show you, the reader, that teenagers are capable of appreciating films other than just the typical Hollywood action film. Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good shoot-em-up movie just as much as the next guy, but I also enjoy just as much and often more so, a movie with a captivating story and intriguing characters.

Because each blog post will feature a different movie I will start the post with a list of facts about the movie. These facts will include the year it was made, the director, the stars, what Oscars it won and was nominated for, and my favorite character/aspect of the film. The list of facts has been compiled from the Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com). Some might assume that the movies that won the most Oscars are the best movies. Although many of the movies on my list have won many of these awards, two of them were not even nominated for any, and my #1 movie only won one Oscar. Despite this, most of the films are well know and some even considered among the greatest movies ever made. Following is my list.

1. The Third Man(1949)

2. The Godfather(1972)

3. The Dark Knight(2008)

4. Blazing Saddles(1974)

5. The Untouchables(1987)

6. The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly(1966)

7. Caddyshack(1980)

8. Star Wars: A New Hope(1977)

9. Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring(2001)

10. Aladdin(1992)

My favorite movie of all time.

As you read through my list you may be experiencing many different emotions: puzzlement, shock, agreement, or disbelief. Puzzlement because you are not familiar with a particular film, shock and disbelief at what I did or did not include, and (for the purpose of my own self flattery) agreement with some or even possibly many of the movies. This is good, I want my list to invoke emotions in you, I want it to be controversial, because without controversy there can be no discussion. Before you enter this discussion and tell me what I missed or what your list would be let me tell you about some of the parameters that I gave myself to work within. As I am a huge Star Wars and Lord of the Rings nerd I could have filled the list with them, so I limited myself to one each and chose my favorite from each series. I also required myself to include a variety of genres (this wasn’t a problem anyway but it was good to keep in the back of my head). I also required myself to include an animated Disney movie from the 1990s (again I probably would have anyway, but I wanted to make sure I did). Again I would like to clarify that this list is not a “Greatest Movies of All Time” list but a “My Favorite Movies to Watch” list. I would love to hear your suggestions and your favorite movies. What movies are on your list?