With hatred, gunfire and explosions scarring the world, this may be the wrong time to begin this particular series of columns.
But the more I think about it, this may be the exact right time.
Two weeks ago, I asked you a deceptively simple question:
If you were stranded on a desert island for the rest of your life, and you could choose five — and only five — movies to watch forever, what would they be?
Not necessarily the best five movies ever made — but the five movies you would select to watch again and again, for sustenance and companionship. Movies as buddies; movies as friends.
Your response has been astonishing. It has come from all over the world — so many responses that I have not even attempted to start counting them. I have never had more fun reading about movies than I’ve had reading your selections, and your reasons. It’s like the best word-of-mouth movie guide a person could ever have.
And if it’s been fun for me to read your five-movies-on-a-desert-island lists, you’ve told me how much fun you’ve had writing them — what nice mental recreation it has been. I had considered delaying this series of columns with your movies until the planet we live on calms down and becomes peaceful again — but who knows when, or if, that will be? Somehow, to at least start the series today seems not such a bad idea — a secluded desert island with movies you love sounds pretty good right about now.
If news events — say, the Third World War — make it necessary to interrupt the series, then we will. But today we begin.
As promised, the first list — today’s — will be my own: the five movies I would want with me on a desert island.
“Hoosiers.” Filmed on a modest budget entirely in the state of Indiana, released in 1986, “Hoosiers” is the story of a small-town high school basketball team that wins the state championship in the early 1950s. On a desert island, you’d want something that feels solid and centered and full of hope. The fictional Hickory, Ind., is that place.
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Gene Hackman as the coach with a troubled past, Dennis Hopper as the alcoholic parent of one of the players, Barbara Hershey as the teacher who falls in love with the coach . . . and especially the unknown actors who portray the basketball team . . . all join to create a place you’d cherish. In a sideline huddle during the state finals, when the reluctant star player looks Hackman in the eye and in a flat Midwestern accent says three words — “I’ll make it” — well, if you ever needed a shot of fortitude on your island, that’s the moment.
“High Noon.” Every American boy should be required to see “High Noon” — since its release in 1952, it has been (or at least should be) the irreplaceable training film on how to be a man. Not everyone can go through life looking like Gary Cooper (in the role of the town marshal, Will Kane) — but everyone can learn from this story of what it means to be the one person to stand up for what is right, even while everyone around you is vacillating and backtracking.
Asked why he is staying in Hadleyville to fight the good fight, when he has a convenient way out, Gary Cooper says in that Gary Cooper voice: “I’ve got to, that’s the whole thing.” “High Noon” reminds you of how life should be led.
“The Last Picture Show.” This black-and-white 1971 film is why movies were invented — to tell small stories so magnificently that they become huge. A tiny Texas town between World War II and Korea, the young people who can’t imagine life beyond its borders, the glorious heartbreak, or heartbreaking glory, of their circumscribed world. . . .
Timothy Bottoms playing Sonny Crawford is perfection on celluloid — but if anything can be even better than perfect, Ben Johnson as Sam the Lion is just that. His soliloquy out by the water tank at the edge of town will sound in your head forever.
“The Natural.” Life — and movies — can be physically gorgeous. Director Barry Levinson took such care with the visual details of this 1984 film that each time you watch it, you are moved by something new that you see.
The story, starring Robert Redford as a mysterious baseball player, is wonderful enough; “I guess some mistakes you never stop paying for,” Redford, as Roy Hobbs, says. Randy Newman’s soundtrack can make you cry. But the way the movie looks — on an island, that would be its value. The beauty of the world’s dailiness.
“That Thing You Do!” On the island alone, you’d want something to put you to sleep at night with a smile on your face and music in your heart. This 1996 directorial debut of Tom Hanks will do that, no matter how long you live.
Sunny, happy, full of friendship and dreams, “That Thing You Do!” is a companion for life. As is the one-hit-wonder 1964 rock band the movie is about. And if I know you you’re doing that thing. . . .
Monday: Your desert island selections begin.
– Bob Greene comments on the news of the day Thursdays on the “WGN News at Nine.”