Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis are The Defiant Ones (1958) with director Stanley Kramer. Stanley’s entry among my best 1,001 movies is It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World. He is best known for Judgment at Nuremburg and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.
@callioope tagged me for this one (thanks, these tumblr tag games are turning out to be fun and a great distraction on bad weather days when we're all grounded!)
However, “skitzofreak” was too long and “Mel” felt like a bit of a cheat, so I decided to use my callsign (funny story how I got it, maybe I’ll get a few vodkas in me and tell it sometime).
SO JUMP BACK, THIS LIST IS PRETTY HOT
P - Pacific Rim. (Giant monsters from another dimension invade the planet. Humanity's solution? Giant psychic robots punch them in the face with swords. Also the female lead has her own narrative that does not revolve around romance, she never has to do that thing where she wraps her thighs around some dude's head to subdue him, and she gets to hit the male lead with a big stick. Amen.*)
E - Empire Strikes Back** (This was my introduction to space opera - I saw this first of the OT, and I adored the space wizard and the rogue and the giant screaming bear-man, but the Princess who took no shit and the fighter pilots (in space) were something I had never seen on tv or in movies and somehow they both melded in my brain, and I don't remember precisely how old I was when someone finally showed me those movies but right there I decided I was going to be a fighter pilot princess. "In Space" optional, but preferred.)
D - The Defiant Ones (Okay, this is an old one, made in 1958, but it had a formative influence on me when my grandpa showed it to me. A black prisoner and a white prisoner are chained together while being transported because "the warden had a sense of humor." But the truck crashes and they escape, and remain chained together for most of the movie as they run for freedom. Look, it has a painful ending but it forces you to look at a lot of things that are sadly still very relevant today. It isn't perfect and I don't really know if I can explain why I like it. But it's a movie that stares you in the eye and dares you to blink.)
A - Amelie (If Wes Anderson was a French woman, this is the movie he would make. I mean, it's still directed by a man, but it's almost hard to tell that. It's weird and funny and clever, and I love how it takes all this care and time to mention major world events that are occurring at the time of the movie...and then firmly plants them in the background. And it has a male love interest who is not broody or tough or Benignly Tolerant of her "manic pixie" weirdness, but genuinely jives with her quirky-but-kind (and kinda petty) personality.)
L – The Last Unicorn (This is my favorite book ever written. I could quote most of it from memory. I can quote the entire movie from memory. It combines philosophy with poetry with pragmatism with pretty art, and every single character is engaging and unique. And while as a child I did not fully appreciate the incredible cast they put together (Christopher Lee, Angela Lansbury, Mia Farrow, among many others***), I love absolutely everything about the story and the message and the lines and the songs and....)
S – Spartacus ("I am Spartacus!" - I wrote a 10,000 word dissertation and a twenty minute formal presentation to a board of nationally ranked literary critics on this movie and the influence it had on western film and literature while I was at the Academy, and when you spend that much time with a film, it becomes a part of you whether you like it or not.)****
So that was fun. Thanks! I guess I'll tag @crazy-fruit, @sleepykalena, @ladytharen, and @moonprincess92nz, if you haven't done this sort of thing already. Feel free to use whatever name you like, or if I didn't tag you and you want to do it, tag me in your response, because I'm always interested in finding new movies to watch.
*However, that bit in the beginning where a kaiju knocks fighter jets out of the sky because they are flying literally two feet away from it drives me crazy because seriously? Fly at 20,000 feet like a normal person, you complete idiot. Missiles are long range weapons. How did any of you ever get your fucking wings? Is this what the Air Force is teaching them these days? Somebody call the goddamn Navy.
**although shout out to Enter the Dragon because that is a movie I put on when I want to drink and be merry, and I love martial arts movies in general, especially the Shaolin brothers.
***Only gripe: at one point Jeff Bridges sings a love song. Can Jeff Bridges sing? No. No, he cannot.
****I double majored in mechanical engineering and English, because the Academy was four years of pure misery anyway so why not add a few extra whips?
Don’t confuse the Compliant Ones with the Defiant Ones...counterfeit with the real funds, water with the real guns...These dumb conundrums will leave you more than stunned…numb, mentally done when the real problems come
