Today Alex J. Cavanaugh is hosting the TOP TEN MOVIE COUNTDOWN BLOGFEST. Be sure to visit all of the participants who will be sharing their lists. Many thanks to Alex, and here's my journey through the movies.
The scene begins where Barbra Streisand is singing, "The Way We Were." Robert Redford and James Brolin are in the audience cheering her on, as my life flashes before my eyes.
The first movie I remember seeing with my family was The Sound of Music, and I still get teary eyed every time I watch it. When I was about eight, my parents took my brother and me to see The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie with Maggie Smith. My brother said I made a huge gasp when I was exposed to my first nude scene. It was tastefully done with one of Maggie Smith's students at an all girls school, but I still couldn't believe that I was allowed to watch it. Of course my parents were as surprised as I was, but for different reasons.
As a teenager, not only did I love Funny Girl, but I wanted to sing like Barbra Streisand. Blazing Saddles is still my all time favorite comedy. In the early seventies, the big movie premieres were featured in large historic theaters with balconies in the heart of downtown before they came out to the suburbs. It was a big event going into the city with our parents, and it really made us feel grown up.
Annie Hall symbolized my teenage years. I always loved Woody Allen movies, but I could especially relate to Diane Keaton's funny, awkward character. I even started wearing the same over-sized tortoise shell glasses that she wore in the movie. I thought I was sheik, though my fellow classmates didn't view me the same way in my rose colored glasses.
The best part of the next movie happened off screen. Shortly after my husband and I started dating he took me to see Legal Eagles. It was a cute romantic comedy starring Robert Redford, Debra Winger, and Daryl Hannah. When Robert Redford was trying to decide between his two co-stars my future husband whispered to me, "I have the best of both worlds, because you're pretty like Daryl Hannah, and smart like Debra Winger." Of course the rest of the movie was a blur.
Other movie classics include: The Godfather, the war movie featuring a real double-amputee war veteran The Best Years of Our Lives, and the foreign Holocaust film, Life is Beautiful.
I'll never forget when I took our older son to see his first movie, The Jungle Book. He was about two years old, and we went with my best friend and her little boy. Though the movie came out in 1967, it was re-released in 1990. It was such a special moment when my boy held his hand in mine as the lights went down in the movie theater before the cartoon began. At first he was frightened by the dark, and relieved when the colorful characters appeared on the screen. It was wonderful seeing the movie through his eyes. This proved how sometimes the experience surrounding the movie is as magical as the movie itself.
