For these movies, we give thanks!

It's Thanksgiving weekend and, needless to say, all three of The Envelope's Oscar bloggers (Pete Hammond, Tom O'Neil, and myself) are very thankful for all the usual things ... family, friends, health, etc. But, hey, this is a website about movies, so we figured that you'd probably be more interested in reading about the movies for which we are most thankful. Therefore, I asked my two friends/colleagues to join me in sharing with you the 10 movies that we love most of all — in other words, not the 10 that we believe are the greatest cinematic achievements, but the 10 that we'd take if we were told that we'd have to spend the rest of our lives on a deserted island with only them, a portable DVD player and a limitless power supply to keep us entertained and happy. (We're listing them alphabetically and reserve the right to change our choices as time goes by!) Perhaps this fun little exercise will tell you a little bit more about our personalities, our tastes and the types of movies we might support if we were voting for the Oscars instead of covering them. We look forward to reading your mockery of our lists, and hopefully to seeing your own, in the comments section!

Scott Feinberg ("The Feinberg Files")

• "Brief Encounter" (1945)
• "Casablanca" (1943)
• "Citizen Kane" (1941)
• "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (2007)
• "Groundhog Day" (1993)
• "Juno" (2007)
• "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975)
• "The Searchers" (1956)
• "Sideways" (2004)
• "To Kill a Mockingbird" (1962)

Pete Hammond ("Notes on a Season")

• "The Apartment" (1960)
• "Being There" (1979)
• "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961)
• "Field of Dreams" (1989)
• "The Great Escape" (1963)
• "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" (1967)
• "The Hustler" (1961)
• "Lady and the Tramp" (1955)
• "North by Northwest" (1959)
• "Two for the Road" (1967)

Tom O'Neil ("Gold Derby")

• "All About Eve" (1950)
• "Back to the Future" (1985)
• "I Could Go On Singing" (1963)
• "The Lion in Winter" (1968)
• "Love! Valour! Compassion!" (1997)
• "Peggy Sue Got Married" (1986)
• "The Shining" (1980)
• "Sunset Boulevard" (1950)
• "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966)
• "The Wizard of Oz" (1939)

Comments

[Anthony]

Casablanca
Charade
Gilda
The Great Escape
Harvey
Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade
Maltese Falcon
North By Northwest
Now Voyager
Sunset Boulevard

With runners up being many, however, notables being:
One, Two, Three
and Some Like It Hot

[mtalman]

I'll admit, most of the movies listed aren't bad (except Back to the Future - which is entirely disposable!) but where are the foreign films, where are the modern classics? No Francis Ford Coppola? No Martin Scorsese? And to pick The Shining as the best of Kubrick is absurd. What a low brow bunch of lists!

[Scott Feinberg]

Brief Encounter (British) and Diving Bell (French) are foreign...

[Mack]

How funny and ironic!

I pitched a feature to my editor in early-November based around this very idea, only mine would have emphasized "25 films made within the past 25 years that you're eternally thankful for whether they were holiday-themed or not."

It was shot down due to "lack of space," an excuse (or justification?) that's being used far too often nowadays.

But, I digress.

Here are the films I would have mentioned if I had gotten the greenlight --

Thelma & Louise
The Accidental Tourist
Bull Durham
Romancing the Stone
The War of the Roses
The Grifters
Passion Fish
Fargo
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Do The Right Thing
What's Love Got To Do With It?
Dead Man Walking
Eve's Bayou
Election (1999)
Prizzi's Honor
Moonstruck
Big
Married to the Mob
Hannah and Her Sisters
The Purple Rose of Cairo
Howards End
The Long Walk Home
Groundhog Day
Miss Evers' Boys
The Piano Lesson: Hallmark Hall of Fame

[rickfromri]

Body Heat
Doctor Zhivago
Out Of Africa
Casablanca
Psycho
To Kill A Mockingbird
Sunset Boulevard
Forrest Gump
Some Like It Hot
E.T.-The Extra Terrestial
The Godfather
Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid
now, if you were to ask for 25 movies, I would add:
The Wizard Of Oz
Gone With The Wind
Now, Voyager
All About Eve
Strangers On A Train
Rear Window
Vertigo
Bridge On The River Kwai
West Side Story
Sophie's Choice
The Color Purple
The Sting
Sleepless In Seattle
and another 25, why not?...
The Way We Were
Citizen Kane
All Of Me
North By Northwest
An Affair To Remember
Rosemary's Baby
Godfather II
Lady & The Tramp
The Women (1938)
Dinner At Eight
Grand Hotel
Victor/Victoria
Funny Girl
The Sound Of Music
Fried Green Tomatoes
The Seven Year Itch
Bus Stop
Picnic
Tootsie
The Big Chill
Gosford Park
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Harold & Maude
Longtime Companion
The Shootist

[ETB]

A little late, but I give thanks for:

The Sting
Ben-Hur
Some Like It Hot
Pulp Fiction
Rocky
Good Will Hunting
Singin' in the Rain
The Godfather
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Gladiator
The Bridge on the River Kwai
The Lord of the Rings
The Hustler
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
To Kill a Mockingbird
Star Wars
Spartacus