The 10 Day Movie Challenge

The 10-Day Movie Challenge:


On Facebook, my friend Rachel (Hamlette) challenged me to this cool little project:

I have been nominated for the 10-day Movie Challenge. Every day I must select an image from a film that has impacted me in some way, present it without a single explanation, and nominate somebody to take the challenge.

As stated above I wasn't allowed to make an comments (or even reference what movie it was...)  However, as I told her when she did this same thing on her blog, it only said I couldn't comment on Facebook, at least as I read it.  It may be against the rules to even do it here, but then I've never been one to follow the rules...

Day 1: Turk 182.

The ultimate in one man against the system.  Timothy Hutton battles City Hall to get benefits for his brother Robert Urich, who was injured trying to do his firefighting job while he was off duty (and drunk, but that's not really the point.  OK, so it is with the City Hall).  Hutton becomes a one-man vigilante, wreaking havoc by leaving "Turk 182" stenciled over the landscape.  ("Turk" is his brother's nickname and "182" was his badge number as a firefighter.)

Day 2: El Dorado

Couldn't possibly do this without at least one John Wayne movie.  I chose El Dorado, which  is basically a remake of an earlier movie, Rio Bravo. And it is also my all-time favorite Wayne movie.   I like this one better, mainly because I think his co-star, Robert Mitchum, is a better actor than Dean Martin.  Besides which, how do we know if Dino was just acting or if he really was drunk?  John Wayne was the epitome of good guys in white hats (although many times his hat wasn't white...)

Day 3: The Warriors

This was the second feature in the first drive-in movie trip I ever made on my own (as opposed to with my parents).  I no longer remember what the primary feature was that evening (which just goes to show how memorable that one was...), but I definitely remember this one.  The outfits the gangs wore stayed with me.  Compared to the head bad guy pictured above, which is pretty sedate, some of those gang threads were pretty cool.

Day 4: The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

This one, if I were tied down to it, would probably be my favorite movie of all time.  The movie itself, if you read the review linked above, is a trip in itself.  John Lithgow (pictured above) is over the top as the villain of the piece.  I watch this one at least once a year, and every time I see stuff I missed before. 

Day 5: A Clockwork Orange

As a film, A Clockwork Orange is somewhat of an acquired taste, especially if you are not into violence.  The movie ranks as one of only two movies that were originally rated X that got Oscar nominations for Best Picture (the other was Midnight Cowboy, which actually won the award).  Depending on your political and moral views, you may find the ending a bit flawed.  My love for the movie has a lot to do with the ending, however, because of my love for movies of one man fighting the system and eventually winning.

Day 6: They Live

I can't say enough about director John Carpenter.  He is my favorite director.  And although I could have included any one of the 5 movies Carpenter directed with Kurt Russell, this one stands out in the theme I gravitated towards in this series I picked (that of one man, or sometimes a group of men, fighting against the system).  I wish I had a pair of those sunglasses.

Day 7: Star Wars

Did you really think I was going to leave this one out?I was 15 when it came out, and I was enamored with the story.  Star Wars is the epitome of one of those "movies that define a generation" that some highbrow critics refer to as being the big picture for a certain age group.  And yet, it manages to rope in new converts even now, some 40+ years later.  Not that's staying power. 

Day 8: Pleasantville

Gee, the whole idea of bringing a modern-day sensibility to one of those happy-go-lucky TV shows of the 50's just rings a bell with me.  Tobey Maguire, whom I have only seen as SpiderMan in any other movie is the best part of this, but Reese Witherspoon is the girl I wish i'd known in high school...

Day 9: An American Werewolf in London

How much did this one have an effect on me?  Well, I saw it once a week for every week it was out in the theater.  And probably would have watched it even more if work and school hadn't interfered...  This one is one of the first to combine both comedy and horror into one movie, and it deserves a place in both genres Hall of Fame.

Day 10:Patton

This one had more of a peripheral effect on me than a direct effect, at least as far as my childhood goes.  Somewhere back in the dawn of this blog I mentioned that my family went to see Patton at the drive-in.  I don't remember much of that outing, but because of the language in the movie, my father refused to allow us kids to go to another PG movie.  I actually had to beg and argue to get to see Star Wars.  And if you've seen Star Wars, you already know there wasn't a filthy word one in it.  I appreciate Patton even more today than I probably would have at age 8 or 9, which is how old I was when we went to see it at the drive-in. Patton is my hero because he is such an individualist.  BTW, I got to finally see this in it's full form on the big screen just yesterday, and it is as phenomenal as it is on a TV screen.

Quiggy