Movies of My Life: Updated 2015

I posted this earlier on this blog, but now I have an update for 2015:


I usually don't participate in Facebook lists (especially since I am not on Facebook), but this one intrigued me.

The challenge is to go through your life and list the best movie from each year of your life.  You can have a tie once per decade.

I found this idea challenging and interesting.  What I found the most interesting is how little interest I had in most of the movies that came out just before I was born, but I have a strong affection for movies from my early childhood.  I wonder if that is common to most people who do this?

Anyway, here is my list.  For the sake of anonymity, I have started my list with the decade of my birth rather than my birth year (maybe).

1970	Julius Caesar	Heston as Marc Antony is cinematic gold.
1971	The Big Boss	Bruce Lee's first starring feature.  A bit violent, but you can see the star power
1972	The Godfather	An unquestionable masterpiece that changed cinema.
1973	American Graffiti	The influence of this movie is unnoticed but powerful, especially on television
	Enter the Dragon	The gold standard of modern martial arts movies
1974	The Godfather Part II	Darker and a bit overly long, but the best movie of this year
1975	Jaws	A nearly perfect film
1976	Rocky	Despite being sequalized repeatedly, it is still raw and strong
1977	Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope	Movie magic.
1978	Superman	The best superhero movie ever.
1979	Time After Time	A tense and clever thriller. Malcolm McDowall's best performance
1980	Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back	Even better than the original Star Wars
1981	Raiders of the Lost Ark	For the sword fight alone
1982	ET: Extra-Terrestrial	One of the most transcendentally child-like films
1983	Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi	The best of the Star Wars Saga
1984	Ghostbusters	Unrepeatable comedy/action/adventure/horror
1985	Back to the Future	Extreme laughs, thrills, and nostalgia all at the same time
1986	Aliens	The greatest action movie ever made.
1987	The Untouchables	Brian DePalma's best film. Powerful.
	Predator	Manliest movie of the 1980's.
1988	Young Guns	It has one of the strongest last lines of any film
1989	Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade	The greatest adventure movie off all time.
1990	Presumed Innocent	The best legal drama of all time.
1991	Dead Again	The best thriller of all time.
1992	Noises Off!	One of the funniest films I have ever seen.
1993	Schindler's List	Every frame, every angle, every cut is genius.
1994	The Shawshank Redemption	Overlooked when released, it has stood the test of time.
1995	Braveheart	Epic in scope, action, and human spirit
1996	Hamlet	Visually stunning and enveloping
	Swingers	A small, indie comedy with confidence and cool
1997	Titanic	Despite the haters, this is actually a fantastic, moving film.
1998	Life is Beautiful	A unique film that uplifts with laughs and tears
1999	The Green Mile	Sad and profound. It sticks with you long after its over
2000	Memento	One of the best films ever made. Unlike anything else.
2001	The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring	A fantasy with some real gravitas
2002	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	Improves upon the first
2003	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	One of the most emotionally satisfying movies.
2004	The Passion of the Christ	The greatest film ever made.
2005	Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith	The best of the prequels.
2006	Casino Royale	The bond reboot works on so many levels. Best of the Bond films.
2007	Juno	Simple premise with lots of heart. Sneaks into your heart like a child's laugh.
	Lars and the Real Girl	A strange movie that should be filthy but is richly innocent
2008	The Dark Knight	The best Batman movie ever.
2009	Up	Devastating, hilarious, and uplifting.
2010	Inception	A puzzle wrapped in an enigma
2011	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2	The best of this franchise
2012	Les Miserables	Pure emotional power
2013	Man of Steel	Visually and thematically mature take on Superman
2014	Captain America: The Winter Soldier	Taught political thriller and action film
	Interstellar	Amazingly bold in concept and emotion
2015	Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens	A worth successor to the series that is full for fun and heart.

A few observations on my own list (updates in bold):

-5 movies directed by Steven Spielberg

-4 movies directed by Christopher Nolan

-3 movies directed by Peter Jackson

-3 movies directed by George Lucas

-3 movies directed by Kenneth Brannagh

-only 4 movies are comedies (not to be confused with drama-dies)

-only 6 are tragedies (in the sense that they do not have a "happy ending")

-5 of the 7 Star Wars movies are represented

-4 of the movies are superhero films 

-2 movies based on Shakespeare plays

-2 movies not in English

-only 1 Western

-only 1 Musical

-3 movies involve time travel

-only 5 of the movies have a woman as the lead.

-7 Harrison Ford movies
-13 are sequels
-7 won the Oscar for best picture
-14 were nominated for best picture but did not win

Thoughts?