MR. SHOOP'S SUMMER SURFIN' QUIZ HONOR ROLL

It seems like it’s been a long time since Mr. Shoop unveiled his Surfin’ Summer School Quiz. And in reality, yes, it has, considering that we’re now just a day or two away from Christmas. But since there’s a new quiz in the can and ready to be posted, I felt, as I always do pre-new quiz time, like returning to some of the best answers from the previous quiz, a Shoopian honor roll of sorts. The thing that I love about revisiting these answers, which I haven’t looked at since they were originally posted six months ago, is not only refamiliarizing myself with responses that made me laugh or think or made me scratch my heads primate-fashion or make a light bulb go off over my head. No, probably the biggest pleasure I get out of looking back over these quizzes, this being the fifth or sixth one, I think, is basking in the level of sharp observation and humor that every one of the respondents brought to the table. I count myself very lucky to be corresponding and interacting with people who can keep me on my toes and make me think the way the folks quoted in this verrrrrrrrrrrrrrylllllllllooooooonnnnnngggggg post do with such consistency. And as you burn through these great quotes you’ll see why. As a Word document, this bastard comes out at around 49 pages, and I don’t want to be responsible for anyone’s retinas exploding, so I’d advise copying it back into Word and printing it out. I can’t think of a better volume of bathroom reading than this, and believe me, I consider that high praise indeed.

Okay, enough of my shenanigans. You got some spelunking to do. Here then, in anticipation of the latest SLIFR quiz, which is just hours away from post time, are my favorites out of the 80-some full responses to Mr. Shoop’s Surfin’ Summer Quiz. Enjoy!

**********************************************************************************

1) Favorite quote from a filmmaker

“Give the people what they want”—Billy Wilder explaining the abnormally large turnout for Harry Cohn’s funeral. (Flickhead)

Woody Allen: [On why he never watches his own movies] "I think I would hate them." (Pacheco)

"If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story." Orson Welles (Jonathan Lapper)

This is a paraphrase, since I don’t have the book with me, and I can’t find the full quote on-line: “I’ve always felt that ‘film is a collaborative process only constituted half of the actual phrase. As a screenwriter working in Hollywood, the full phrase should be, ‘Film is a collaborative process: bend over.’” – David Mamet (Bill)

Sergio Leone: "I can't see America any other way than with a European's eyes. It fascinates me and terrifies me at the same time." (Adam Ross)

"Censors tend to do what only psychotics do: they confuse reality with illusion."- David Cronenberg (Anonymous I)

"I am interested in the relationship between the lower part of the human body and the lower part of the social structure." — Shohei Imamura (Derek)

Orson Welles: “I think the enemy of films is reality. I think films are best when they manage poetry, by reducing the element of reality and introducing something which is the invention of the filmmaker” (Cerb Chaos)

During the making of Lifeboat a stage hand complained to Alfred Hitchcock that Tallulah Bankhead was coming to work without underpants. Because the actors were suspended on a platform several feet above the stage, crotches were about at eye level. Hitchcock stood musing for a moment. "Well, aren't you going to do anything about it?" he was asked. Hitchcock replied, "I'm trying to figure out whether it's a problem for makeup or hairdressing." (Robert Fiore)

"When I was a critic, I thought that a successful film had simultaneously to express an idea of the world and an idea of cinema . . . .Today, I demand that a film either express the joy of making cinema or the agony of making cinema. I am not at all interested in anything in-between; I am not interested in all those films that do not pulse." - François Truffaut (Sean)

This might be cheating, but I'll go with Fritz Lang's line in Contempt, "Oh, [Cinemascope] wasn't meant for human beings, just for funerals and snakes." I just like the contrast with the reclining Brigitte Bardot during the opening shot. (Brian I)

“Most directors make films with their eyes. I make films with my cojones.” – Jodorowsky (Paul C.)

"There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it." - Alfred Hitchcock. "In England, I'm a horror movie director. In Germany, I'm a filmmaker. In the US, I'm a bum." - John Carpenter (Bob Turnbull)

I'm paraphrasing, but I recall a quote from Truffaut that I think was, "It's a beautiful day. Let's go to the movies". (Peter Nellhaus)

Oliver Stone: “Lunch is for wimps.“ (Thomas Mohr)

Werner Herzog is endlessly quotable so I'll toss something rather benign but still hilarious: "I'm not out to win prizes - that's for dogs and horses." or, the classic, "It was an insignificant bullet." (Ryland Walker Knight)

"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work... I want to achieve it by not dying!" -Woody Allen (Brian Darr)

“I want a film I watch to express either the joy of making cinema or the anguish of making cinema. I am not interested in all the films that don’t vibrate.” – Truffaut (Mr. Peel)

"Imagine the whole world wired to Harry Cohn's ass!" - Herman Mankiewicz (Flower)

"A paranoiac ... like a poet, is born, not made." Luis Buñuel (Stoogeking)

Here are two from Werner Herzog in Grizzly Man: “I believe the common character of the universe is not harmony, but hostility, chaos and murder.”
“And what haunts me, is that in all the faces of all the bears that Treadwell ever filmed, I discover no kinship, no understanding, no mercy. I see only the overwhelming indifference of nature. To me, there is no such thing as a secret world of the bears. And this blank stare speaks only of a half-bored interest in food.” (Dan W.)

"If someone vomits watching one of my films, it's like getting a standing ovation."-John Waters (Cameron)

“A good movie is three good scenes and no bad scenes” – Howard Hawks (Gareth)

"It's only a movie.” Alfred Hitchcock to Farley Granger while making Strangers on a Train. Or, the story about Billy Wilder at Lubitch's funeral: a mourner sadly says "No more Lubitsch." To which Billy replied, "And even worse, no more Lubitsch movies." (Stennie)

“Everyone has their own version of the truth and this truth depends on their experience." - Dario Argento (Cinebeats)

I don't know if it's apocryphal or I dreamt it in during a particularly funky and budget-conscious bout of REM sleep but I love these words attributed (I think!) to Joe Dante: "There are people who loves movies and then there are people that loves the movies they love." I guess it's meant as a subtle back-hander to professed buffs whose minds are a bit more closed than they care to admit to certain genres/directors/pictures. (Giles Edwards)

"Make it true, make it seem true. And don't have something, even in a farce like Some Like it Hot that isn't true." -- Billy Wilder (Sheila)

"Nobody cry when Jaws die... when monkey die, everybody cry." - Dino DeLaurentiis Truer words have never been spoken. (Robert)

Ingmar Bergman: "When film is not a document, it is dream. That is why Tarkovsky is the greatest of them all. He moves with such naturalness in the room of dreams. . . . All my life I have hammered on the doors of the rooms in which he moves so naturally. Only a few times have I managed to creep inside. . . . Fellini, Kurosawa and Bunuel move in the same fields as Tarkovsky. Antonioni was on his way, but expired, suffocated by his own tediousness. Melies was always there without having to think about it. He was a magician by profession." (Nobody)

“Seeing a murder on television can help work off one's antagonisms. And if you haven't any antagonisms, the commercials will give you some.”—Alfred Hitchcock (Tim)

"There can be no bright future for those who are ready to explain everything about their own film." – Akira Kurosawa (from “Tarkovsky and Solaris”) (Bemis)

Rainer Werner Fassbinder: “Should you sit around waiting until something’s become a tradition, or shouldn’t you rather roll up your sleeves and get to work developing one?” (Walter)

"The enemy of art is the absence of limitations" by Orson Welles (Edward Copeland)

Hmm. How about two? “Mr. and Mrs. Smith get married, they have problems, they get back together and they live happily ever after. End of the movie. Two weeks later, he kills her, grinds her body up, feeds it to his girlfriend who dies of ptomaine poisoning, and her husband is prosecuted and sent to the electric chair for it–but here’s our own little story with the happy ending. What is an ending? There’s no such thing. Death is the only ending.” — Robert Altman “I don’t think you should feel about a film. You should feel about a woman, not a movie. You can’t kiss a movie.” — Jean-Luc Godard (Karina Longworth)

"It's always nice when the eccentrics show up." Alex Cox (Thom McGregor)

"Someone like Jean-Luc Godard is for me intellectual counterfeit money when compared to a good kung fu film." - Werner Herzog (Chris)

"Just the usual monkey-funeral shot." --Billy Wilder
Second favorite Wilder quote, from a wire he sent from Paris upon being unable to secure his wife Audrey the bidet she wanted: "IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND BIDET STOP. SUGGEST YOU DO HANDSTANDS IN THE SHOWER STOP." Also-- "After all, crime is only a left-handed form of human endeavor." -John Huston. And since I have you here, what the hell. Michael Curtiz, as retold by Peter Ustinov: "The Egyptian was one of the first films in CinemaScope and [Curtiz] was fascinated with the new process. 'In de nex' shot, you coom from house visper in dis ear otter actor secret.' I went up to Purdom and whispered something in his ear. Curtiz yelled, 'Cut!' This was puzzling because I had done exactly as he asked. 'No goot. Dis is Zinemascope, vide shkreen--ven you visper muss be four feet apart.'" (Campaspe)

"I have always perferred the reflection of the life to life itself" -- François Truffaut (Lucas McNelly)

2) A good movie from a bad director

This was harder than I expected. After a lot of thought, I’ll go with Altered States. I can’t stand Ken Russell, but I like that movie. Even so, what I like about it is what survived of Paddy Chayefsky’s script and ideas, and not so much what Russell brought to it. (Bill)

Jacob’s Ladder. Adrian Lyne. Lyne is a complete hack, except for this near-masterpiece. (Cerb Chaos)

Olympia by Leni Riefenstahl. But you didn't mean bad that way, did you? A Chorus of Disapproval, directed by Michael Winner. Or A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races, directed by Sam Wood. (Robert Fiore)

I've always loved Chato's Land, even though I rarely read anything good about Michael Winner (Alonso Moseley)


The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover. Don't get me wrong, I love Greenaway films, but outside of that one and maybe Prospero's Books, it seems like he's just feeling around for something which sometimes works and often does not. Very rarely does he seem to give a film which works in its entirety. But it's still exciting for me to watch. (Brian)

I’m guessing most people would disagree as to this movie’s goodness, but despite not being a Tony Scott fan, I love Domino. Normally his hyperkinetic style is distracting at best, but here it perfectly suits the ambitious, wacked-out screenplay. In addition to being an awesome ride, it’s also a clever satire about the currency of celebrity, in which trash TV is the go-to public venue for the poor and anyone can define himself through popular culture. (Paul C.)

Speed was quite a fine thrill ride. I don't think you could say that for anything else Jan De Bont has directed. (Bob Turnbull)

Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula. (Matthew)

I feel somewhat guilty labeling the late Bob Clark a bad director, but he did have some infamous stinkers on his resume: Baby Geniuses 1 and 2, Rhinestone, Turk 182! and Porky’s 2. However, I think he made two not only good, but great films: A Christmas Story and the original Black Christmas (one I still say is one of the scariest movies ever made, even after the total crap remake ruined the original’s reputation). (Robert Daniel)

…is a gift to savor. (Ryland Walker Knight)

Parenthood by Ron Howard. (Brian Darr)

The Hidden directed by Jack Sholder. He’s not even a Bob Clark-level director that we can find interesting and he comes of as kind of a jerk on the audio commentary but, damn, I still enjoy watching this movie today. (Mr. Peel)

Plan 9 from Outer Space by Ed Wood (Stoogeking)

37°2 le matin (aka Betty Blue) - Jean-Jacques Beineix (Filmbrain)

I have so many problems with Joel Schumacher it's not even funny, but Cousins, his 1989 film with Ted Danson and Isabella Rossellini, is quiet, sweet, and utterly charming. How on EARTH did this happen? (Patrick)

I dislike Anthony Minghella's movies. The English Patient stank up the field, and I thought the entire world had gone crazy for praising that piece of junk. I find him obvious, condescending, and shallow. I don't know - he's obviously skilled, so I can't in all good conscience call him "bad" - let's just say I dislike his sensibility, and I thnk he's crap at telling stories. HOWEVER, Truly Madly Deeply is one of my favorite movies ever. (Sheila)

Keenan Ivory Wayans has given to the world such, ahem, glories as: White Chicks, Little Man, A Low Down Dirty Shame, and the Scary Movie movie. I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, though it is unevenly paced and inexpertly photographed, is a very funny parody of blaxploitation. (Walter)

Parenthood by Ron Howard, which is the last time he really coloured outside of the lines structurally, and that wielded some great and surprising results. I hold out hope that whatever this project that Noah Baumbach is apparently scripting for him will contain some of the same vibes of spontaneity. (Aaron)

There are surely better answers, but the one that springs to mind is Tigerland.... though the shameful secret is I'm not sure I really hate Joel Schumacher as much as I let on... (Weeping Sam)

3) Favorite Laurence Olivier performance


49th Parallel (Jonathan Lapper)

Henry V, but Olivier is one of those Great Actor actors that I could never feel any emotional connection to. I felt more of a connection with Kenneth Branagh, who is obviously a lesser actor. (Robert Fiore)

I've seen so few of them unfortunately...Rebecca as a film was great, but I didn't find he necessarily stood out from anything else in the film. Whereas in Marathon Man as Dr. Szell, he absolutely made an impression. A deep, lingering, painful one.

It is an absolute joy for me to watch the mind games he and Michael Caine play with each other in Sleuth. (Robert Daniel)

Marathon Man. Truthfully, I’m not a huge Oliver fan – I respect his work, but it doesn’t do much for me. The famous “Dear boy, why don’t you try acting?” story is priceless, but I think that Dustin Hoffman is a much more interesting actor, and the clash of methods in Marathon Man creates a wonderful tension and elevates both performances. (Bemis)

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. (Peter Nellhaus)

Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. He was perfect in that role and no matter who else tries to bring Heathcliff to life, their performance always falls short when compared to Oliver’s magnificent turn as Heathcliff. (Cinebeats)

The dog (and Nazi, I guess)-kicking bad-ass in The Boys From Brazil (Giles Edwards)

You know, I saw his King Lear - the one he did in the 80s on PBS, I think - it's remarkable. At least I remember it being remarkable. He sometimes can be a bit actor-y for my taste (and makes me WISH I had seen him live!!) - but his King Lear was truly tragic. (Sheila)

The Divorce of Lady X. I love his stuffed shirt performance and the puncturing it receives. (M. Peachbush)

As Julius the gentleman pickpocket in George Roy Hill’s A Little Romance (Walter)

Brideshead Revisited. Moving. Wuthering Heights. Brutal yet romantic. Boys from Brazil. Funny as hell. (Especially unintentional impersonation of Chewbacca near end of film) (Thom McGregor)

His reputation has really slid over the last couple of decades, hasn't it? 49th Parallel -- although I do love him in Sleuth. (Campaspe)

4) Describe a famous location from a movie that you have visited (Bodega Bay, California, where the action in The Birds took place, for example). Was it anything like the way it was in the film? Why or why not?


I used to live near the Amityville Horror house. I don’t know where that house in the movie was located, but it sure wasn’t in Amityville. (Flickhead)

I can't say I've been to too many famous filming locations. Umm...I've driven through the same road of the traffic jam at the beginning of Office Space.... There were a few locations in Death Proof that I was at (before the film was released, so that doesn't count, I guess). Let's see...I've been on one of the White House sets of JFK. In each case, I felt nothing. (Pacheco)

Well, let’s see. I’ve stayed at the Stratosphere in Vegas, where the climax of Domino takes place. It was different from the film in that I enjoyed my stay there. Also, I visited a very lovely spot in Ireland where David Lean filmed important parts of Ryan’s Daughter, but I haven’t seen that movie yet. I grew up in Northern Virginia, near Washington, DC, so I guess the best example is the Exorcist steps, which I’ve visited many times. They’re different, because they aren’t overlooked by apartments, and they lead up to something to do with cars…a mechanic? Just a parking lot? I can’t remember, because I never really paid much attention to that part. They are similar to the film in that they are just as steep as you think they are, and fairly creepy (though their association with the movie no doubt has everything to do with that creepiness). But I’ve felt strange, and sort of off-balance, every time I’ve gone up and down those steps. I always felt like I really needed to pay attention to how I walked, or I’d pull a Karras. (Bill)

I just went to New York and while flipping through a guide for New York discovered that Manhattan was playing at a little theatre. Me, my dad and my brother rushed to the theatre, the smallest one I’ve ever been to, and it was completely packed. There were no two empty seats that were next to each other so everyone had to spread out. And then we watched the movie, man what a perfect movie to see in New York. (Cerb Chaos)

I used to live in the apartment building in Hollywood in and around which a chase scene in the Robert Blake/Elliot Gould vehicle Busting was shot. (The Lido Apartments, where the gatefold photo of The Eagles' Hotel California was also shot.) It was every bit as seedy as it looked, and got worse. I could swear I've lived in every apartment in Pulp Fiction, or at least every kind of apartment. What you notice in any movie set in L.A. if you live there, and which must be meaningless if you don't, are the liberties they take in mashing locations together. For instance, in Busting, the chase (on foot) that ends in Hollywood begins at the Grand Central Market downtown, which is portrayed as being open at night. I always wondered why Michael Mann is congratulated for having such a great feel for L.A. when he takes such absurd liberties with location (and why he hardly ever exploits the feel for costume pictures he showed in The Last of the Mohicans). No movie has ever captured L.A. the way it actually looks like The Long Goodbye.

The Whispering Gallery in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, which was where the climax of Hands of the Ripper occurs. I was a 12-year-old kid on a trip to England and Scotland with my parents and I watched Hands of the Ripper on TV in our hotel late at night while we were there (Scared the hell out of me). When we visited the cathedral it was a bit surreal to be in the place that I had just watched on television, especially with the drama that the end of that Hammer flick delivered. It looked the same as it did in the film, but there was no one there in period costume (Well, people were in 70’s period costume, but not Jack the Ripper period costume). (Dave)

Prague was exactly like The Golem. (Derek)

The Riesenrad in Vienna (the ferris wheel scene from The Third Man). I rode on it only because it appears in the movie, empty during the daytime, just like in the movie, and I'm sure I'll always be happy I did. (Brian)


The Ferris wheel in the Prater, Vienna. I actually rode this not long after seeing The Third Man on the big screen, and while the city around it had changed a lot since 1949, the Ferris wheel itself was more or less the same. (Paul C.)

I did think of Vertigo a bit when I visited the Palace of Fine Arts, and wished that it was as empty as when Kim Novak was there. (Peter Nellhaus)

I once had a beer in the Boise, Idaho, bar where Clint Eastwood shot a fight scene for Bronco Billy (in which the camera crew is plainly visible, btw). They must have seriously redecorated the place since then, ‘cause it was hardly recognizable. And I went to Alcatraz twice, an experience that definitely shed some new light on the Siegel picture which, on re-viewing it, seemed to have much more in common with a Bresson film than with an Eastwood actioner. (Thomas Mohr)

I visited the River Kwai in Kanchanaburi, Thailand. Besides containing a river and a forest, it was not anything like in the David Lean film, which was shot in Sri Lanka. Maybe that doesn't count as a location then. In that case, I pick Lone Pine, California, and yes, it was exactly like it was in Gunga Din, Comanche Station, Star Trek VII and Gladiator. As you well know.

I went to Union Station in Chicago to see where the baby carriage careened down the steps in The Untouchables. Two items of note: in 1995, heads were covered by baseball caps, and on the whole those responsible for baby carriages seemed to prefer the elevator, since everyone had probably seen the damn movie. (Gareth)

Last time we were in NYC, we rode the Roosevelt Island tram in honor of Deke DaSilva and Wulfgar in Nighthawks. (Bandit)


I’ve visited many bay area film locations and one that sticks out is Alcatraz prison where movies like Escape from Alcatraz and The Birdman of Alcatraz were filmed. Besides the beautiful location, the prison is undoubetedly one of the creepiest and most depressing places I’ve ever spent time at. It seems to have the weight of a thousand miserable souls haunting it. I don’t think I’d be too eager to make a movie there myself. (Cinebeats)

The bridge that Tom Hanks ran over in the inexplicable cross-country running sequence of Forrest Gump. I heard great things about it beforehand, and it wasn’t anything all that special, so yeah, it was a lot like the movie. (Daniel L.)

A buddy and I roadtripped to Vegas and stopped at the Hoover Dam. Nothing like the movies. I don't think any place such as the Hoover Dam (or Niagra Falls etc.) can prepare one for the feelings you get seeing it up close. And, to make things even more indelible in my mind, I walked up to the rail and was looking over when an Islamic girl walked up next to me. This was about 6 months after September 11 and I remember looking over at her, and she glanced at me for just a second, then glanced down, afraid to look me in the eye. She was probably one of the most beautiful girls I'd ever seen, with stunning green eyes. I smiled at her and after she realized I wasn't going to throw daggers with my stare, she looked back up and smiled and walked away. It was one of those moments that stays with you forever. So, no, nothing can ever compare to the textures of real life versus a movie screen. (Joseph B.)

When I was 17, I was briefly employed as a hostess at Dupar’s, a been-there-forever diner in Studio City, CA that was used as a location for Boogie Nights. Dupar’s is the setting of that post-disco scene where Burt Reynolds explains his directorial vision to budding porn star Dirk Diggler. I haven’t read the Boogie Nights script, but I wouldn’t be surprised if sometime-Studio City resident Paul Thomas Anderson had written Dupar’s in by name–it’s a perfectly preserved monument to the Valley’s mid-70s glory, and I’m sure it required minimal set dressing. In my brief time there, I didn’t ID any porn stars (unless Dweezil and Ahmet Zappa have gone X-rated? They were in there a lot), but it was a fairly sleezy place. We were ordered to lie about our failing grade from the health department, and I actually quit after three weeks due to very low-level sexual harassment from my manager: one day he told me I’d “look good in a potato sack,” and in my teenage feminist brain, that was, like, cause for a lawsuit. (Karina Longworth)

Grew up in Hollywood, constantly seeing filming-- Hitchcock directed part of his last film around the block from my parents' house, etc. I thought all TV shows and films took place in L.A. since I constantly saw streets and landmarks I recognized so I've never sought out a film location. However, Dennis taking me to Cannon Beach in Oregon in a storm, and having it look so much as it did in Point Break was a giddy high. (Thom McGregor)

I don't know that I've been to any really iconic places. My experience is usually the reverse where places I'm really familiar with end up on the big screen and it's always surreal. Boring trivia: I grew up around where they shot In the Bedroom. There's a scene where Tom Wilkinson is in traffic behind a driver's ed car. You guessed it. That's the car of the guy who taught me to drive. See what I mean? (Lucas McNelly)

5) Carlo Ponti or Dino De Laurentiis (Producer)?

Hey, Carlo married Sophia…and she chose him over Cary Grant. That makes him God. (Flickhead)
Dino, without him there would be no Army of Darkness or Danger: Diabolik (Adam Ross)

Ponti and De Laurentiis both made loads of schlock, but only Ponti movies for Godard, Antonioni, Melville, Rosellini, Polanski, Forman, Varda, and Demy, all in the prime of their careers. Plus he married Sophia Loren. Twice. By contrast, De Laurentiis gave the world a handful of classics, a whole lot of junk, and a gigantic, turned-on ape, which might fit into either group, depending on your tastes. (Paul C.)

De Laurentiis because he produced the '76 version of King Kong. (Damian)

Laurentiis, because I first associated him with his late 70s scholck, and then I got to know his earlier productions, and then I began to like him because anyone who willingly took on both those extremes of quality must have been a fascinating guy. (Matthew)

De Laurentiis, for producing the underrated Manhunter, as well as enjoyable trash such as Army of Darkness, Conan the Barbarian, Death Wish and Barbarella (plus his niece Giada is a hottie who can cook). (Robert Daniel)

Ponti in a walk- I just saw the trailer for Le Doulos at the Castro theatre and I'm on pins and needles. (Brian Darr)

They both receive demerits for inflicting La Strada on the world, but I'll go with Dino because, although he always struck me as slightly trashy, he somehow had a hand in getting both Dune and Blue Velvet released. (Schuyler Chapman)
Ponti. For Le Mepris, Zabriskie Point and The Passenger alone. (Filmbrain)

Hard to say, but I was inexplicably fond of The Cassandra Crossing, so I’ll say Ponti. :) (Weigard)

Close call... Ponti has the class, as well as Sophia Loren, plus you gotta love it when an exploitation film (Torso) is marketed as "From the producer of Dr. Zhivago"... But I gotta give it to Dino. Why? Barbarella. Danger: Diabolik! Flash Gordon. Plus, the aformentioned "monkey die - everybody cry" quote. (Robert)

Ponti thought with his head, while De Laurentiis thinks with his gut, and I greatly admire that much more (and without him, we’d not have those oddball productions, like Barbarella and Mandingo). (Aaron)

Dino! Anybody who can produce Serpico,Three Days of the Condor and Orca deserves some kind of crazy credit. Besides, Carlo married Sophia Loren. He needs no further accolades. (The Shamus)

6) Best movie about baseball


I like baseball too much to like the movies very much. No one ever pitches correctly, the stances don't look right and damn big game ends with a home run. And they do things like cast Ray Liotta as Shoeless Joe Jackson. You might as well cast Brian Dennehy as Oliver Twist. So for history I'll go with Eight Men Out though I'm not thrilled with it. For fiction I'll go with The Naked Gun - Reggie Jackson as an assassin... what more needs to be said? (Jonathan Lapper)

Eight Men Out. And why is it that, while I’m not much of a fan of the actual sport, I think that baseball movies (and boxing movies) tend to be the best sports films? I’m a football guy, and most of those movies really eat it. Rollerball has been pretty poorly served by Hollywood, as well. (Bill)

The one where they make baseball more interesting by introducing dynamite bats, booby-trap outfields and bases that are placed at random around the ball park. Have they made that movie yet? Needless to say, Bob Uecker would be involved in some way. (Adam Ross)

The HBO documentaries. Hollywood baseball movies pretty much suck, don't they? Bull Durham is okay, I guess. (Do you ever ask yourself, What was that baseball movie that Kevin Costner was in? Not Field of Dreams, the good one?) (Robert Fiore)

I can't believe I'm writing this, but Major League has some scenes that I'll always think are funny. (Brian)

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned The Natural yet. That movie is magic. Pure magic. (Damian)

Take Me Out to the Ballgame, a forgotten gem featuring the Sinatra-Kelly-Munshin trio from On the Town. Plus Esther Williams. (Matthew)

Pride of the Yankees. I dare even Yankee haters not to get emotional at the end. Plus it has the real Babe Ruth! (Robert Daniel)

Fuck, that would have to be Cobb. (Thomas Mohr)

Arturo Ripstein's pitch-black comedy about a pair of murderous creosote-leaguers, La Perdición de los hombres. (Brian Darr)

As a recovering Orioles fan, I deny that baseball exists. (Dan W.)

The Bad News Bears (The original!) (Filmbrain)

Without a doubt it has to be the original Bad News Bears (1976). (Cinebeats)


John Sayles’ Eight Men Out. It’s always nice to see a sports picture that has drama based on something other than “will they win the big game at the end?” (Surprise! They will! At the last second, too!) I also read an interview once with Sayles where he said that if he had made The Natural, he would’ve had the hero strike out at the end, just like in the novel it was based on. Hooray for John Sayles. (Daniel L.)

I'm not a huge fan of sports movies... for me it's a toss-up - The Bad News Bears (the Ritchie/Matthau version) and Cobb, which technically isn't about baseball per se, but it's good enough for me. (Robert)

The Bad News Bears. Growing up geeky and, on top of that, a fan of the cursed Red Sox, the Bears provided very real catharsis. Stick it up your ass, Yankees. (Bemis)

Charles Stone III’s Mr. 3000. Bernie Mac gives the finest performance of his career, and the movie’s revelations about masculinity, aging gracefully, the enduring aura of baseball in the American mind are funnier and subtler than similar achievements in Bull Durham—which is not, by the way, a criticism of Bull Durham. (Walter)

I'm kind of partial to The Jackie Robinson Story, but I think that's just because of nostalgia for the first time I saw it as a kid. (Dustin)

I don’t like sports, much less baseball; but I love Field of Dreams. That’s probably a baseball movie in the sense that it’s perhaps the most religious secular film or the most secular religious film I’ve ever seen and baseball is sort of the stand-in for God. (Alex Jackson)

John Sayles' Eight Men Out -- It tells a great story (better than Eliot Asinof's poorly written book does) of historical importance, it's paced and edited so skillfully, and most important of all it captures the joy and heartbreak that players and devoted fans routinely feel about the game (and about this event in its history). That said, Fear Strikes Out, Bingo Long's Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings, and Kevin Costner's triple play (well, technically a hat trick, but that's another sport entirely) in Bull Durham, Field of Dreams and For Love of the Game are all nearly perfect. If only automobile racing -- one of Hemingway's "true sports" -- could be half as well represented on screen as the great American pastime. (Dan Aloi)

Ah, the wonders of baseball movies. I grew up on Field of Dreams, so it's gotta be that, but let me throw in a plug for the criminally underrated Mr. Baseball, where Tom Selleck gets traded from the Yankees to some team in Japan...good stuff. Plus, it has the great quote, "LAST SEASON, I led this team in ninth-inning doubles in the month of August!" (Lucas McNelly)

7) Favorite Barbara Stanwyck performance


The Lady Eve. I haven’t seen a lot, I’m afraid. I think I first saw her in Double Indemnity, a movie I don’t hold in as high regard as most people. I saw The Lady Eve more recently, and felt deeply jealous of Henry Fonda throughout. She was truly brilliant in that movie. (Bill)

Christmas in Connecticut, still one of the funniest holiday movies because of her performance. (Adam Ross)

Sigh...Everything she's done...I might have said the comedic performance of Christmas In Connecticut or the obvious Double Indemnity (just her entry at the top of the balcony enough). But I just saw Baby Face the other night and I think that might be my favourite - she owns every man she meets in the film and you can absolutely believe it...

I don't know how you can top Ball of Fire. Straight whiskey on legs. (Matthew)

Given her incredible range and talent, I can’t possibly single out one of her countless fine performances, so here’s my top five BS movies: Double Indemnity, Ball of Fire, Remember the Night, All I Desire and, ahem, Crime of Passion. (Honorable mentions go to The Lady Eve, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers and Forty Guns.)

Right now, it’s a tie between one seen many times, in The Lady Eve, and another seen earlier this year for the first time, in Baby Face, where she wipes the floor with the rest of the cast. (Gareth)

Ball of Fire. Tough, sexy, funny, and in that scene where Gary Cooper confronts her near the end -- heartbreaking. Stanwyck has never given a bad performance, that I have seen. She's been in some lousy movies, but her acting is always 100%. (Stennie)

My personal favorite is Martha Ivers in The Strange Love of Martha Ivers. Stanwyck is the perfect victim/villain in this role which seems tailor-made for her. She also looks rather stunning in her Edith Head designed costumes. (Cinebeats)

Double Indemnity, although every time I watch The Lady Eve it creeps closer to first place. (Tina)

Double Indemnity, of course. Bad wig, bad make-up, and she looks downright feral in some scenes, but I still believe Fred MacMurray would kill a man to tap that. (Eric)

Sorry, Wrong Number. My apologies for being so conventional. (xterminal)

Shit! I’ve never seen a Barbara Stanwyck performance! Double Indemnity has been on my list for a while. I have a “film noir” collection with The Strange Loves of Martha Ivers so I’ll probably see that one some fine day. (Alex Jackson)

8) Fast Times at Ridgemont High or Dazed and Confused?

Phoebe in a bikini is a wonder, and the dynamic between Ray Walston and Sean Penn is fascinating, but Fast Times is limited by its sitcom trappings, whereas Dazed… effectively captures a time and place—perhaps conveniently, ala American Graffiti, but the mood and character profiling are generally right on the money. (Flickhead)

Dazed is more critically accepted but Fast Times was all over cable when I was in high school so I have more associated memories with it. I can't here “Moving in Stereo” without thinking of the pool scene now. (Jonathan Lapper)

I’m not a huge Fast Times fan, but even if I was, Dazed and Confused would still be tough to beat. Linklater pulls off something tricky in Dazed, mining a fondly-remembered period in his past without romanticizing or whitewashing it. He paints the world of the film warts and all, while at the same time showing love for each of the characters (yes, even O’Bannion). It’s so rich and detailed that you can imagine living there and, more importantly, you’d want to, although maybe not so much as an incoming freshman. (Paul C.)

Dazed and Confused has to be one of the best films of the 1990s. And I don't smoke weed anymore. In fact, I didn't come to love it until AFTER I stopped smoking weed. (Ryland Walker Knight)

Can you believe I've still never seen Dazed and Confused? It'll have to live up to its reputation and then some to overcome my fondness for Amy Heckerling's film. By the way, the latter shares with Summer School the fine distinction of a place for its soundtrack in my CD collection, under the category, "soundtracks with an Oingo Boingo song on them." (Brian Darr)

I was 17 when Fast Times came out. AND I was working at the same mall the film takes place in. Nuff said. (Filmbrain)


Sean Penn’s Spicoli is one of the great comic performances, which often makes me wonder why he’s so dour these days, but Dazed and Confused nails a particular atmosphere so well, without being overly sentimental, that it has to win out. (Gareth)

I still don't understand how people can watch Dazed and Confused without retching. Ridgemont High would have won by default, even without Judge Reinhold jerkin' the gherkin. (xterminal)

Fast Times. It has real heart, not to mention being one of the only teen movies with an honest approach to sex, and sex's consequences. If you only knew how tired I am of the "miracle miscarriage." (Campaspe)

I don’t like either of them. They‘re painful without being particularly cathartic, falsely inflated with pathos so they don‘t appear to be the usual teenage shenanigans. Both films are frauds in my view. Between the two though, I prefer Fast Times at Ridgemont High though. It’s just stupid and sloppy, whereas Dazed and Confused is smug, like they should know better. Compare how the two films use music for example. In Fast Times at Ridgemont High, it’s usually very arbitrary and meaningless. A snippet of “American Girl” appears when we enter the high school, for example. In Dazed and Confused, the music is used to comment on the action in a perfunctory smug kind of way. During the hazing sequence, “Why Can’t We Be Friends” comes on the soundtrack. It wants me to throw my shoe at the screen. (Alex Jackson)

I love these "Choose!" type of poll questions -- they're the "Qui es muy macho?" of SLIFR -- mostly because there is no right or wrong answer, they are wonderful taking-off points for criticism. I'm a longtime fan of both Cameron Crowe and Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Fast Times is full of memorable lines and moments, iconic for the '80s teen movie it ultimately is and always will be. But having recently devoured Dazed a few more times, I gotta give it up for Linklater, his story, thelook of his film and his amazing ensemble. (Dan A.)

9) What was the last movie you saw, and why? (We’ve used this one before, but your answer is presumably always going to be different, so…)


After being locked away in the Wayne Family Vault for decades, Wild Bill Wellman’s The High and the Mighty recently resurfaced. Having now seen it, I can honestly say that it can return to the Wayne Family Vault. Forever. (Flickhead)

Videodrome, and I watched it because I had just picked up the Criterion edition. My opinion of Cronenberg has changed considerably over the years. His stuff can be so clumsy that I used to think the people who were so in love with his work were kidding themselves. But after a while I started to think, well, clumsy or not, who else is making movies like this? More recently, as a horror fan who thinks almost all horror movies are lousy, I began to truly appreciate that his films in the genre are some of the very few films in the last thirty years that matter. And even when he’s clumsy (see Rabid, which I also watched again recently) he’s never, ever stupid. (Bill)

I watched Herzog's Cobra Verde this morning, making my way through my Herzog-Kinski box set. Still trying to wrap my head around it. (Adam Ross)

Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, because I’ve long had an interest in the Algonquin Round Table, and Jennifer Jason Leigh excels at those tough broad roles (The Hudsucker Proxy). (Nate Dredge)

In a theater: Spiderman 3 (was on a date and her kid came along; I also wanted to see it anyway). Netflix: The Changeling (1979) with George C Scott. I’m a sucker for 70s horror and this is a well done, spooky little ghost story. (Robert Daniel)

Clash By Night at the Castro Theatre, because Barbara Stanwyck would have turned 100 the day before the screening, and because I'd never seen it before. I loved the way it shows off Monterrey's fishing industry in an almost documentary style, and it's great to see Stanwyck acting against the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Robert Ryan. (Brian Darr)

Thanks for catching me at my proudest moviegoing moment. Yes,