Oh, movies … I’ve seen thousands of movies in 70 years of being a human. How do you stop at 70? The only one of these lists that was harder to limit is the one about songs.
This is an area where Red and I have different attitudes. We both love watching movies, but they rarely linger with her. I might say, “That was so cool in the climax of Contact where they call back to the line, ‘Small moves, Ellie’ — I choked up,” and Red will say, “Which one was Contact again?”
So here are the 70 movies I would select from if I needed a list of my absolute favorite favorite films, the ones where I probably got goosebumps one or more times along the way. As usual, I only numbered them to make sure I hit 70, but unlike those other lists, the first eight are ranked and appear on every list of my favorite movies.
1. It’s A Wonderful Life
2. The Wizard of Oz
3. Casablanca
4. E.T. The Extraterrestrial
5. Arrival
6. Serenity (2005)
7. Raiders of the Lost Ark
8. A Christmas Story
9. Joyeaux Noel
10. The Lives of Others
11. Field of Dreams
12. Dances With Wolves
13. To Kill A Mockingbird
14. Star Wars
15. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
16. Contact
17. Gojira
18. Ikiru
19. The Seven Samarai
20. The Empire Strikes Back
21. The Last Jedi
22. 2001: A Space Odyssey
23. 2010: The Year We Make Contact
24. The Third Man
25. Singing in the Rain
26. Laura
27. North By Northwest
28. It Happened One Night
29. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
30. Meet John Doe
31. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
32. Back to the Future III
33. Spider-Man
34. Avengers: Endgame
35. Spider-Man 2
36. Fiddler On the Roof
37. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
38. Roxanne
39. Metropolis
40. The Best Years of Our Lives
41. The Sound of Music
42. Lawrence of Arabia
43. The Day The Earth Stood Still (1950)
44. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
45. Invaders From Mars (1953)
46. Forbidden Planet
47. Rodan
48. Shin Godzilla
49. His Girl Friday
50. Bringing Up Baby
51. Up
52. Toy Story 2
53. Babes in Toyland (1934)
54. Scrooge (1951)
55. Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
56. The Time of Their Lives
57. Gunga Din
58. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919)
59. Blade Runner
60. The Wind
61. Silver Streak
62. Blazing Saddles
63. Shenandoah
64. Blade Runner
65. Young Frankenstein
66. The Cat and the Canary (1927)
67. Spider-Man: Homecoming
68. The Rains Came
69. The Women
70. Everything Everywhere All At Once