#7 LAWRENCE OF ARABIA (1962)

"I pray that I may never see the desert again. Hear me God!"

---T.E. Lawrence

   Lawrence of Arabia is known for its beautiful photography of desert landscapes and for its long shots of seemingly nothingness followed by a revelation of some remarkable person just beyond the horizon.  Most critics are impressed by the magnitude and epicness of the film, not to mention the classic story of an underdog rising to power in an unexpected way.  For some, this movie seems to drag on and on, with endless scenes of desert terrain with little or no action for long periods of time.  I think this is part of director David Lean’s brilliance in creating the atmosphere of the story: the characters themselves are experiencing long stretches of desert with little or no action.  The audience relates to the characters' disparity and sense of endless journey.  

   There are no romantic relationships in Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia, but the film is still about love.  The love in this case is the love of one man for himself.  Real-life British officer T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) is portrayed in this film as an egotistical, eccentric, and brash young man who gains the admiration and respect from the Arabian people while denied it from his own British countrymen.  He literally rises above the people who chant his name as he stands on top of train and does a victory dance to proclaim his role as a pseudo-savior of the Middle East.  Lawrence is successful in uniting various Arabian tribes against the Turks who have invaded their land, and for that he is rewarded with respect and honor.  He is even proclaimed to be more Arab than British by Sherif Ali (Omar Sharif), a leader of one of the desert tribes, and is revered by opposing desert tribe leader Auda Abu Tayi (Anthony Quinn).

   At the beginning of the film, the first thing we learn about Lawrence is that he died in a motorcycle accident.  At his funeral, a reporter asking the attendees is startled to find that no one really knew him that well, despite supposedly working with him.  We learn throughout the film that the reason for this is because he gave more of himself to the Arab people than to the British army he represented.  In return he becomes almost like a god to these people, an honor he laps up like a cat drinking milk.  His arrogance is best shown in the scenes where the American reporter is taking photographs of him during the war: Lawrence is posing for the supposedly candid shots.  The most interesting part of his character is when Lawrence is overwhelmed by his power and tries to turn away from it by re-joining the British army camp in the desert.  His inner conflict of self-preservation versus leadership is what holds the audience until the end.  Although Lawrence would have loved the fact that he was the center of this story because of his huge ego, he did actually make for a pretty interesting character study.

FUN FACT: Prince Feisal is played by Sir Alec Guinness, the future Obi Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars!

FAVORITE QUOTE: "A man who tells lies, like me, merely hides the truth. But a man who tells half-lies has forgotten where he put it." 

---Mr. Dryden (Claude Rains)

#6 GONE WITH THE WIND (1939)

"In spite of you and me and the whole silly world going to pieces around us, I love you."

--- Rhett Butler

   Scarlett O'Hara is the biggest bitch in cinema history.  And it is hard not to love her.  Maybe it is her enduring spirit, her refusal to let anything or anyone stand in her way, or maybe it is the power she wields despite being a woman in wartime.  Maybe it is the way she attracts men with one glance, yet refuses to fall in love with anyone save the one she cannot have.  Maybe it is her loyalty to her family and family home that makes her such a relatable character.  Whatever it is, Vivien Leigh plays her with such conviction that it is difficult to think of the two women as separate people, one real and one imagined by author Margaret Mead.

   Gone With the Wind is not a typical love story, in fact, it is about one woman's pathetic attempts to get the man she thinks she loves to leave his wife and take her away from the battle-wounded South.  In her mind, everything she does is for her unrequited love, Ashley Wilkes (Leslie Howard).  She takes care of his wife Melanie (Olivia de Havilland) and their baby while he is away fighting in the Civil War.  She marries three men not for love but in an effort to make him jealous (and to provide financial security for herself).  Yet there is something likable about the fact that she will not let something like sudden poverty get her down.  She knows she has to find someone to take care of herself and her family.  It is not until she allows Rhett Butler into her life that she learns what love is, though it is too late.  

   Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) is the most lovable character in Gone With the Wind.  He is bold, brash, sarcastic, charming, self-deprecating, and relentless in his pursuit of vixen Scarlett O’Hara.  When he finally does catch Scarlett, he does not receive the amount of love he puts out.  Though he can excuse her coldness to a point, he can only take so much heartache before he decides to end the torture.  His scenes in the latter half of the film are the most endearing and the saddest to watch but well worth making it through the almost four hour long movie.  Sometimes Gone With the Wind is referred to as “the greatest love story ever told”, but it is not about love at its core: it is about one woman’s journey through life avoiding love until she is all alone, regretting that she wasted all her time without love.

FUN FACT: Southern belle Scarlett is actually played by the then relatively-unknown British actress Vivien Leigh!  Hundreds of actresses were considered for the part but Leigh was not considered and cast until primary filming had already begun on the film.

FAVORITE QUOTE: “As God is my witness, as God is my witness they’re not going to lick me. I’m going to live through this and when it’s all over, I’ll never be hungry again. No, nor any of my folk. If I have to lie, steal, cheat or kill. As God is my witness, I’ll never be hungry again!”

---Scarlett O’Hara, Gone With the Wind

“As long as there was Bonnie, there was a chance that we might be happy. I liked to think that Bonnie was you, a little girl again, before the war, and poverty had done things to you. She was so like you, and I could pet her, and spoil her, as I wanted to spoil you. But when she went, she took everything.”

---Rhett Butler, Gone With the Wind

#5 SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (1952)

"People think we lead lives of glamour and romance, but we're really lonely, terribly lonely."
--- Don Lockwood


   Gene Kelly was the king of great musicals at MGM.  He danced, sang, acted, choreographed and even directed some of MGM's best known musical numbers.  His most famous performance is arguably his solo act in the title number of the Kelly-directed musical Singin' in the Rain.  What makes this such a great number is not just the singing and dancing, although they are wonderful, but also the emotion behind the song.  Gene Kelly's character Don Lockwood is a dancing fool in the rain because he's in love with the young and lovely Kathy Selden, played by an eighteen year old Debbie Reynolds.  His new feeling of love is so forceful that it propels him into the wet streets where he can proclaim his love both vocally and physically, even if no one is there to hear him.
   Although the main plot in this movie is the awkward and hilarious transition the film industry made from silent movies to talkies, romantic love is the undercurrent that carries the two main characters through this unique situation.  Don helps Kathy in her entertainment career by suggesting she become the voice of well-known star Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), an irritating woman with an equally irritating and non-screenworthy voice.  His motivation for this suggestion is more about his growing love for Kathy than for the need to replace Lina's voice (he admits that he has been searching for Kathy for months prior in an effort to court).
   Directed by both Gene Kelly and his former assistant Stanley Donen, Singin' in the Rain is a wonderful reminder of how much fun new love is.  When you first fall in love with someone new, all you want to do is shout it from the rooftops, proclaiming to everyone that you are incredibly happy and thankful for your new fortune.  When you are in love, things like rainy nights do not stop you from enjoying life; in fact, rainy nights might prove to be the stage for your most joyous proclamation, as it is for Don Lockwood in this movie.  There are many fantastic musical numbers in Singin' in the Rain, but the title number is a favorite not just for its inventiveness but for the sheer joy Gene Kelly looks like he is experiencing as he sings and dances in the downpour.  For that, and for so much more, it is easy to see why Singin' in the Rain is one of the best musicals ever made.


FUN FACT: In the scene where Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) sings for Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen) in the Dancing Cavalier, the voice singing is actually actress Jean Hagen herself!


FAVORITE QUOTE: "I'm laughin' at clouds, so dark up above, the sun's in my heart, and I'm ready for love."
---Don Lockwood, Singin' in the Rain

#4 RAGING BULL (1980)

"I don't trust you when it comes to her. I don't trust nobody." 
---Jake La Motta




   Martin Scorsese's classic Raging Bull is a lesson to us all about how the power of love and possession can destroy a person's entire life, everything they have earned and everything they have learned.  The story is about real-life boxer Jake La Motta (Robert De Niro) and his self-destruction motivated by his intense jealousy and possession over his second wife Vickie (Cathy Moriarty).  While he achieves success and notoriety in the ring, we learn that his motivation is controlled by his constant paranoia about his wife's alleged infidelity.  Every time she kisses someone as a greeting, slow motion is used to emphasize that Jake is watching intently to see if he can catch any kind of flirtation on either party's part.  His accusations are backed by non-existent evidence, just a strange assumption on his part that his wife is sleeping around.  Jake's paranoia escalates to the point where he accuses his own brother of sleeping with his wife and subsequently ends their brotherhood for the next few decades.
   The modern saying "bros before hoes" does not hold true for Jake La Motta. When he questions his married brother about whether or not he slept with Vickie, Joey La Motta (Joe Pesci) is so offended by this question that he refuses to answer him directly and instead suggests that Jake is messed up in the head and insecure about his growing weight.  However this only furthers Jake's fears that his brother has betrayed him and he beats him up in retaliation.  Jake then goes to Vickie and attacks her, which ends their relationship for good.  Flash forward a few years and Jake has neither wife nor brother to love him in his middle age.  Though he eventually makes peace with his brother, his relationship with Vickie is forever broken.  His suspicions and beatings were just too much for her.  His paranoia destroyed everything he built around him after he stepped out of the ring.
   Jealous is a real emotion that exists in many relationships, not just with aggressive boxers or narcissistic people.  A little jealousy might be okay for some relationships as long as both parties know that each will never act out on those feelings.  However, when a person lets jealousy consume them, to the point where they are imagining things that are not true, this is unhealthy and will lead to destruction, heartbreak and loneliness.  Raging Bull lives on as the best cautionary tale about the green-eyed monster Jealousy.


FUN FACT: Animal sounds such as monkeys screaming and elephants trumpeting were used during the boxing sequences!


FAVORITE QUOTE: "She don't go with nobody, she's fifteen years old. Where the fuck she gonna go? Where you take her, the Copacabana?" --- Joey La Motta

#3 CASABLANCA (1942)

 "Here's looking at you, kid."
---Rick Blaine



   Casablanca is a heart-breaking story about sacrificing love to do what is right or what is right for the situation at hand.  Bar owner Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) is the person in Casablanca making that ultimate sacrifice, losing the love of his life for a second time in order to make things right.  His lady love is Ilsa Lund (Ingrid Bergman), a woman whom he romanced in Paris before the German occupation and who, in fact, was already married to someone she feared dead at the time.  Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), Ilsa's husband, is an outspoken Czech man who is the leader of the French underground resistance against Nazi control taking over Europe.  When Rick meets Laszlo for the first time in his Casablanca bar, he is unaware that the woman who loved him and left him in Paris is Laszlo's wife; when he discovers the truth he must make the difficult decision of whether to flee from Casablanca with Ilsa or help her escape with her husband, a man who is hunted by the Germans and will ultimately be put in a concentration camp if he does not escape Casablanca soon.
   Through flashbacks shown during the film's theme song "As Time Goes By", the audience learns that Rick and Ilsa had a short but powerful romance in Paris, one that would change their lives forever.  While the Nazis are approaching France, Rick and Ilsa decide to flee together by train to the the nearest safe city.  Unfortunately for Rick, Ilsa does not show up at the train station, leaving him heartbroken and unable to love again.  Love is such a powerful entity that when discovers it for the first time, it is difficult to imagine ever feeling that way again with someone else.  Although Ilsa later explains to Rick that she had learned her husband was alive on the same day she was supposed to leave with Rick, it is an unacceptable excuse for Rick's heart to accept.  While he admits he still feels passion for Ilsa, he knows he has to give her up for good in order to do what is right for the situation: Ilsa must leave with her husband Laszlo to save both their lives.
   The reason why Casablanca resonates with so many film viewers is because everyone can relate to loving something so much and then losing it, often unfairly.  Whether it is the loss of one's first love, the estrangement or death of a family member or close friend, or the betrayal of someone you trust, everyone experiences heartache and devastation at some point in their lives.  That pain hurts so much that it affects everything a person does for the rest of their life, whether they realize it or not.  Casablanca is the embodiment of that sacrifice we all make at some point, willingly or unwillingly, of our greatest loves.  I believe that it is why it is #3 on AFI's 100 Greatest Movies of All Time, and #1 on their list of the 100 Greatest Passions of All Time.



FUN FACT: Humphrey Bogart was actually two inches shorter than costar Ingrid Bergman and had to sit on pillows or stand on crates to seem taller during their scenes together!



FAVORITE QUOTE: "Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine."
---Rick Blaine, Casablanca

#2 THE GODFATHER (1972)

 "Look how they massacred my boy..."
--- Don Vito Corleone


   The dominant love theme in The Godfather is between the members of the Corleone family, not between the couples in the story.  Women are not only secondary to the male characters but more importantly, they are insignificant to the greater meaning of the film.  Instead, the love between the three brothers and the patriarch Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando) is the catalyst for most of the crimes committed and the actions taken against those who try to mess with the family.  When an assassination attempt is made on Don Corleone's life, sons Santino (James Caan) and Michael (Al Pacino) take violent action against those presumed responsible.
   This tight bond between the members of the Corleone family is the reason why this film resonates with so many people.  If you grew up in a close family, especially with a big extended family, you can relate to wanting to protect your family members and feeling a natural instinct to defend them if someone or something threatens them.  Director Francis Ford Coppola and author Mario Puzo are so masterful at creating this world around the family, and justifying the lengths they will go to protect and honor each other, that their crimes and wrongdoings are overlooked by the audience.  Michael Corleone murders a police captain but the audience is so with him that we are more concerned with how he's going to execute the murder, and then escape without being caught, than we are with the fact that he killed an officer of the law.  The murder is justified to us because we understand that he is trying to avenge his father's bullet injuries (as well as get back at the police captain for punching him in the face).  If Coppola had not crafted this tight-knit world of the Corleones so well, this plot line would never have worked for the audience.
   I think the reason why The Godfather is #2 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest Movies of All Time is not only due to the engaging storyline but mostly to the fact that almost everyone can relate this film because everyone has a family, and just about everyone feels and understands the loyalty these characters feel towards their own.  Though the measures they take are extreme (most people do not go around killing in the name of the family) the love they feel for one another is universal.




FUN FACT: The horse head found in the movie producer's bed was an actual horse's head!  Coppola's team went to a dog food company and requested that the company ship them the head of a horse the team had picked out when it was time for that horse to be killed for food.


FAVORITE QUOTE: "I work my whole life, I don't apologize, to take care of my family.  And I refused to be a fool dancing on the strings held by all of those big shots.  That's my life, I don't apologize for that."
---Don Vito Corleone, The Godfather

#1 CITIZEN KANE (1941)

"All he really wanted out of life was love.  That's Charlie's story---how he lost it.  You see, he just didn't have any to give."
---Jed Leland

   To me, Citizen Kane is one of the saddest movies ever made.  It is the story of an enormously successful man who is surrounded by wealthy, luxury, and people who obey his ever demand.  The one thing he does not have is love.  And Citizen Kane is really about this man's search for love, and the ultimate failure he suffers when he cannot demand love from the people around him (his wives, friends, coworkers, the American public).  From his failed marriages to his unsuccessful bid for political office, Kane (Orson Welles) is forever searching for ways to get people to love him.  He builds an opera house for his second wife (Dorothy Comingore) because he thinks it will please her to become a famous opera singer.  What he does not realize (until she leaves him) is that what she really wants is just him.  She wants attention and affection from Kane; all he gives her is solitude in his palatial home Xanadu, completing jigsaw puzzle after jigsaw puzzle alone as the two grow older and less social.  Whether or not he actually feels love for his wife is debatable.  
   The big mystery to solve in Citizen Kane, for the characters and for the audience, is to figure out the significance of the word "rosebud", the last word Charles Foster Kane uttered as he took his last breaths.  Although the meaning is ultimately left to the audience's interpretation, the actual object is the key to why Kane lacks the ability to give love and in turn receive it.  He was given away as a young boy by his mother in order to live a life full of wealth and opportunities.  Consequently, Kane learned at an early age that money and success are the things a person should dedicate their lives to obtaining, not the intangible qualities of humanity like compassion and kindness.  In Kane's mind, the way a person shows another that they love them is by showering them with money or decadence.  As a result, the sad truth is that Kane does not know how to love and therefore his character is one that is incomplete.  He is an incomplete human longing for something he cannot obtain, no matter how monetarily successful he becomes, and that is one of the saddest ways for a person to be.
   Perhaps this is why Citizen Kane is one of the most highly-acclaimed movies of all time, and is, in fact, counted as number one on AFI's "100 Greatest Movies of All Time".  Much is said about how Citizen Kane revolutionized film-making at the time of film's release with its specialized lighting, creative camera angles, and the extensive depth perception of each shot.  Though I agree that this is part of what makes the film so great, more importantly I think Citizen Kane serves as a warning to us about what a pathetic life we might be burdened with if we do not revere love as we should.

FUN FACT: Orson Welles was just 24 when he wrote, directed, and starred in Citizen Kane!  Quite a lot to accomplish at such a young age! 

FAVORITE QUOTE: "Five years ago, he wrote from that place down there in the south - what's it called ... uh ... Shangri-La, El Dorado ... oh, Sloppy Joe's - what, what is the name of that place? *laughs* Oh, alright - Xanadu."
— Jedediah Leland, Citizen Kane