70 movies I’m glad I saw

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

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