KT Update-Essential Movies

I’m sure it happens in every relationship, the moment you look at your spouse and think, I married you? Don’t get me wrong, I love Jay, but something happened the other day that made me wonder what I had gotten myself into. What could happen, 7 months in, that would make me think this way? Well, it was when my beloved told me he had never seen Star Wars !!!! Now, I know you think I’m overreacting, but Star Wars is my favorite movie of all time. I’m obsessed with it! How can you be a 28 year old American male and never seen Star Wars? That is a completely foreign concept to me. I mean, I know Jay is serious lacking in the movie watching department, but never seen Star Wars?

So that got me thinking. Of course, there are some movies that I haven’t seen that people gasp at (most often Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jaws, The Godfather & Pulp Fiction) but for the most part, I’ve seen the movies that defined a time, have changed the landscape of moviemaking or live in on forever in pop culture.

I asked a few friends about the movies that thought everyone should see and I received a few interesting answers. Everything ranging from Top Gun to The Shawshank Redemption. I myself am amazed that there are people who haven’t seen movies that I have revered, like Say Anything, The Goonies and Real Genius. So here, I present to you, my list of the 6 (sorry, I couldn’t get it to 5) movies that everyone should see. Now, I’m not suggesting that my 80 year old grandfather would enjoy these flicks, but as far as I’m concerned, if you are between the ages of 21-45 there is no excuse for not seeing these movies. For the record, I’m not suggesting that these are the greatest of American movies classics (Lord knows I love The Sound of Music & West Side Story, but these are not movies that everyone can watch) but these are the films that when someone says to me (Yes, you Marianne) that she hasn’t seen them, my jaw drops and I run home immediately to get said movies so this person can be a part of the Americana they have been ignorant of for so long!!! (Yes, I know I’m a loser because I think about these things entirely too long). Therefore I present to you:


KT’s Six Essential Movies:

Star Wars-No matter how anyone tries no trilogy will ever grip the masses as Star Wars. I admit, I did have high hopes for the Matrix, and LOTR was stellar, but they are just in a different league from the saga of the Skywalkers. Darth Vader is one of the scariest and most badass villains (still) ever to grace a movie screen and you don’t see any facial expressions until the last 5 minutes of the 3rd movies. Han Solo was my very first bad boy crush, and I believe that Return of the Jedi is one of my very first movie theater memories (plus I think it was the only movie my father ever took me to). I can still remember the excitement of seeing that film on the big screen for the very first time. And more than 10 years later, I felt that emotion again when Lucas re-released the films in the theater and I got to see all 3 on the big screen. That’s what makes this a classic, a movie that everyone should see, because the story is soo good, it pulls you right inside. I’ve seen Empire like 100 times and I’m still heartbroken when they put Han in the carbonite! If you need anymore proof, go to your local post office and check out the new Star Wars stamps.

The Wizard of Oz-It is astonishing to me that Michael just saw this movie a few years back. The Wizard of Oz was a family event every year on CBS. I’ve seen this film countless times and I’m still terrified of the Wicked Witch of the West. If you weren’t completely taken with OZ then you at least had to check out the movie to find the suicidal munchkin. This, more than the others, is the movie that everyone should see in their lifetime, it was a childhood right of passage.

Grease-Ahhh Grease. How I love thee. Another movie that is more than 30 years old and continues to spur extreme devotion by its fans. I know every single word in this movie and every time it is on the television, I stop and watch it. Come on! Olivia Newton John & John Travolta, singing and dancing their way through Rydell High? I love it, I love every single syllable spoken, I love every note sung. Grease is a musical even a guy can love!

The Breakfast Club- A brain, an athlete, a princess, a basket case and a criminal. This is the quintessential 80’s movie. John Hughes made a number of outstanding 80’s movies (Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, Weird Science, and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off—all of which, in truth should be seen) but the Breakfast Club has an element of complete truth to it that the other Hughes films lack. It is almost as if his other movies were teen fairy tales, while this fundamentally captured the feelings of being a teenager (of course with some amazing dialogue thrown in). “Does Barry Manilow know you raided his closet?”

Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory-Gene Wilder is a genius and you can see it in every scene he is in. Besides Wilder’s stellar acting you’ve also got obnoxious children who get what’s coming to them, you’ve got life lesson singing Oompa-Loompas, you’ve got Veruca Salt, you’ve got schnozzberries & you’ve got chocolate. This was a movie I loved as a child, but in college it was a late night staple as well. Sometimes when you get older, you find that a movie once cherished as a child doesn’t hold up anymore. This will never be the case with Wonka.

E.T.-I don’t know if E.T. holds up on the small screen. I think it is an entirely different experience in the theater, still it is an emotional journey that everyone should take. E.T. is not a movie that you can watch over & over (at least I can’t) but when I watch it, I feel like I’m six years old again (which was Speilberg’s intention). Actually, since it was 1982, I’m betting that either this or Annie was the first movie I ever saw in the theater, which may explain my love for both films. Funny story. My cousin took me to see this in the theater and in a particular scene (which I won’t ruin for those of you that haven’t seen it) Eliott starts screaming and I became so upset that I started screaming too. I was so distraught that they had to actually take me out of the theater (sobbing) until I could control myself. See, even then, I became emotionally attached to characters & stories.


So there it is. My top six essential movies. Now of course I could go on and on. As I mentioned, how could you skip an 80’s John Hughes film? Or Dirty Dancing? Or Top Gun? I do believe that Raiders of the Lost Ark should be on that list too (making it 7) but since I haven’t seen it, I can’t really throw stones. But! I will put that movie on the top of my netflix queue right now and report back after I see it!

So, kiddies, what movies do you deem classics? What movie pulls at your heartstrings, made you sob, scream or get up and dance?