Movies That Blew My Particular Mind

Because they struck a highly personal chord in some inexplicable way, or moved me beyond reason or taste or artistry, or shocked me with theme or image or story-telling.

This list numbers about 200 now but it will be cut to 100.

2001: A Space Odessy
8 1/2
A Night at the Opera
A Night to Remember
A Room With a View
A Streetcar Named Desire
Airplane
Alfie
Alien
All About Eve
American Beauty
Annie Hall
Apartment, The
Apocalypse Now
Apu Trilogy
Assault on Precinct 13
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
Auntie Mame
Babette’s Feast
Back to the Future
Baghdad Café
Battleship Potemkin, The
Being John Malkovich
Betty Blue
Bicycle Thief, The
Black Sunday
Blackboard Jungle
Blade Runner
Blood and Roses
Blood Feast
Bonnie and Clyde
Breakfast Club, The
Brewster McCloud
Broadcast News
Cabaret
Casablanca
Chinatown
Chinese Fire Drill
Chocolat
Choose Me
Cinderella
Cinema Paradiso
Citizen Kane
City of Lost Children
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Compulsion
Cries and Whispers
Crimes and Misdemeanors
David and Bathsheba
Deep Throat
Dirty Harry
Dog Day Afternoon
Dr. Strangelove
Dumbo
E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial
Easy Rider
Egyptian, The
El Topo
Enchanted April
Eraserhead
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Faces
Fantasia
Fargo
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
Five Easy Pieces
Flamenco
Fog, The
Forbidden Games
Forbidden Planet
Forbidden Zone
Frankenstein
Freaks
Ghost Busters
Gone with the Wind
Graduate, The
Grapes of Wrath, The
Gray Gardens
Groundhog Day
Gypsy
Hairspray
Hannah and Her Sisters
Harder They Come, The
Harold and Maude
History of the World
Hunger, The
Interiors
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
It Happened One Night
Ivan the Terrible
Jerk, The
Jesus of Montreal
Fly, The
Kentucky Fried Movie
King Kong
L’Avventura
La Dolce Vita
La Grand Illusion
La Verite
Lady Eve, The
Last Year at Marienbad
Late Show, The
Lawrence of Arabia
Life of Brian
Looking For Mr. Goodbar
Los Olvidados
Maltese Falcon, The
Man Who Fell to Earth, The
Manhattan
Mars Attacks
MASH
Men Don’t Leave
Metropolis
Mondo Cane
Monsieur Verdoux
Moonstruck
Motorcyle Diaries, The
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House
Mr. Hulot’s Holiday
Myra Breckenridge
Mysteries of the Organism
Mystery Train
Nashville
Network
Never on Sunday
New Year’s Day
Night and Fog
Night of the Living Dead
Night of the Shooting Stars, The
Night on Earth
Ninotchka
North by Northwest
Notorious
On the Beach
On the Waterfront
Panic in Needle Park
Peewee’s Big Adventure
Phaedra
Philadelphia Story, The
Pink Flamingos
Platoon
Play It As It Lays
Predator
Producers, The
Psycho
Pulp Fiction
Pygmalion
Road Warrior
Rocco and his Brothers
Rocky
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Room at the Top
Rosalie Goes Shopping
Roshomon
Run, Lola Run
Saturday Night Fever
Scarface
Serial Mom
Seven Days in May
Shall We Dance?
Shaun of the Dead
Sid and Nancy
Singin’ in the Rain
Sixteen Candles
Sixth Sense, The
Slaves of New York
Snow White
Star Wars
Sullivan’s Travels
Summer and Smoke
Sunday, Bloody Sunday
Sunset Boulevard
Sweet Bird of Youth
Taxi Driver
The African Queen
Thelma and Louise
Thing, The
To Kill A Mockingbird
Tom Jones
Tootsie
Trainspotting
Trash
Treasure of Sierra Madre, The
Two Women
Un Chien Andalou
Unforgiven
Up the Down Staircase
Usual Suspects, The
Victim, The
Viridiana
Voyage Surprise
Wedding Banquet, The
Welcome to LA
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
When Harry Met Sally
Wild Bunch, The
Wild Strawberries
Witness
Wizard of Oz, The
Woman In the Dunes
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Woodstock
Year of Living Dangerously, The
Young Frankenstein
Zorba the Greek

Come Out to Play

Too serious and sensitive for abandon to play when young, in their dotage Capricorns can have a first childhood, at a time when their contemporaries are having their second.

It's easier when you are retired, and encouraged by others, for the propriety learned at the man's knee is hard to shake. And, too, there is nothing sillier-looking than old geezers kicking up their heels--except possibly for penises.

At first I thought the blog would be some kind of mystical bulletin board for a karass of the like-minded. Now I like the efficiency. Instead of forwarding cyberwisdom I can put the links here. Check out Bikini Science and Soulforce.

Instead of weblog think e-log--a neopostmodern bastard. Now that's some fun. I’d like to get e-mails instead of comments, which remind me of chat rooms.

I started a list of movies that blew me away. Send me some of your favorites. I’m sure I can bump something off my list with a film that left you breathless for whatever reason.

I still don't know what I want to do here, except have fun. For sure, 200 words or less is fun.

Simper Fi

Look at their faces. Some look like offspring of the Pillsbury Dough Boy and a pedophile priest. The rest look like a cross between a praying mantis and a rabid weasel.

These are our leaders. They lie, and equivocate, and somehow manage to ignore the wishes of the people.

Most of us wanted to stay away from the awful problems of a brain-dead women. None of our business.

Most of us believe that religion should stay out of government, and vice versa. We think our tax money should not go to groups antagonistic to faiths other than their own.

Most Americans believe that no minority should be persecuted or penalized for its ethnic background, sexual orientation or religious affiliation.

They may not approve of abortion or same-sex marriage or the right to death, but they know these things are private issues, not public ones.

Not our leaders. With simpering smiles they tell us what the ends are, and that their secret means need not be justified.

Were physiognomy still accredited, these persona-snatching aliens would be oficially labeled as cunning and mean. If only CNN had a consulting physiognomist in their stable of talking heads.