This site wouldn’t exist if not for my father, Papa WWTW.
He passed along a fever for movies that has yet to break in me. So it seems only fair to check in with him for the site’s latest Top 5 list – Papa WWTW’s favorite flicks.
Yes, the list skews toward older movies – did you expect a senior citizen to name check “Crash” or “Million Dollar Baby?”
But it’s a great Top 5 all the same and required viewing for everyone out there.
You gotta respect your elders, right?
- “Shane” – A legend in the Toto household. Honor. Sacrifice. Slam-bang action and a tear or two at the end. What more can a movie deliver?
- “Ben Hur” – The chariot race hasn’t aged a day … nor has the movie. Tough to argue with 11 Oscars.
- “Judgment at Nuremburg” – The essential post-World War II drama. Heck, it co-starred a very young William Shatner!
- “Laurence of Arabia” – Peter O’Toole’s masterful performance is only one of countless reasons to revisit this 1962 classic.
- “Giant” – The sweeping epic is a warts and all look at Texas, a grand saga that helped burnish James Dean’s enduring legacy.
Honorable mentions: “West Side Story,” “Samson & Delilah,” “Gladiator,” “Paths of Glory” and “How the West Was Won.”
(Photo: Alan Ladd, right, stars as an enigmatic gunslinger in “Shane”)
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
As a Texan, I’m kinda conflicted about “Giant”. But I am told that the film is treats its subject much better than the book it’s based on.
Personally I’d put “Fort Apache” in there, but there’s nothing wrong with your list, fine movies all.
I understand Texans have issues with the book … but my pappy hails from The Bronx so he didn’t have an emotional investment in the subject matter. I need to watch “Giant” again with fresh eyes …. has been so long since my first viewing.
I lost my Dad in 2001 but I know he loved these films.
Singing in the Rain
On the Waterfront (he actually watched this being made from the roof of the old Maxwell House building in Hoboken, NJ where he worked)
Guys & Dolls
The Godfather
Its a Wonderful Life
Hard to argue with that list, and great that he was able to pass along to you a love of movies.
Thanks superdave! I feel lucky that both he and my Mom loved movies. My Mom is 78 and she’s up on everything. I took her to see Slumdog and The Wrestler. And, she visits this site too.
Is there a pattern to his likes? It is interesting that four of the five were “big” films, but including Shane they all seem to share one thing in common: They are values films; films that stress the importance not of the world without, but the world within. To one who did not know him that seems to say a lot about your Dad.
What a great idea. Top Five from Pops. My dad would probably put The Godfather (I and II), Field of Dreams, Cool Hand Luke, The Great Escape and American Graffiti on his list. Turns out, my list begins basically the same way. Funny how influential parents can be on your tastes… keep that in mind with Toto 2.0.