One of the most interesting jobs I had growing up was working as a ticket taker, concession attendant, projectionist and assistant manager at the Village Theater in SE Portland. I can still smell the popcorn. 

Working in the movie business came with the side benefit of having access to other theaters in the Luxury Theater chain to watch movies pretty much anytime I wanted. This became my go to free time activity because it was 1) Free and 2) An awesome period for movies! The Godfather, Animal House, Saturday Night Fever, The French Connection, Dirty Harry, all those disaster movies “Earthquake, Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure, Jaws, Airport 1975…

And this doesn’t even take into account the other more controversial movies that were coming out at the time during the tail end of the so-called sexual revolution. As a 17 year old junior in high school, let me just say, I had a strong dose of curiosity about these things. Suddenly they are in my purview.

I still remember dancing out in front of the old Broadway Theater in downtown Portland after seeing Saturday Night Fever with some co-worker friends. The Blazers were winning, the free movies were flowing and I was almost 18 and a free man. The 70’s were great. It was a very memorable time.

Disclaimer

My lists are undoubtedly biased towards movies from the 1970’s. As I reviewed various lists like “IMDB Top 250”, “Rotten Tomatoes”, “Top 100 from Rolling Stone” and various other sources, I realized I had not even seen many movies on these lists. That alone should disqualify me from being a credible movie critic, however, that’s not going to stop me from making a list of my own preferences based on what I’ve seen over the years. People can judge for themselves. I’m hoping it’ll make it entertaining to compare notes with anyone else who has bothered to make such a list.

I have titled the list “Favorite 100 Movies” as opposed to “Best 100 Movies” because these are based on attributes of movies that I identified with in some way, or tickled my funny bone or had a storyline that gripped me from the start. That’s all it takes to get on the list. 

LOTR? Star Wars? Not my jam, didn’t make the list. Gone with the Wind? Casablanca? Great movies long ago but didn’t make the list.  You won’t see a ton of romcom’s or horror movies either. Romcoms can be well done like When Harry Met Sally but for the most part, meh. Horror Films, apart from the I Know What You Did Last Summer, Exorcist and maybe The Omen, I wouldn’t recommend spending 2 hours of your life on. 

I’m more into movies with trickery and double crossing, and about how the good guys eventually trick the bad guys and win the day (see The Fugitive, The Sting). Count me in on movies about mobs and Cosa Nostra, prison breakouts and capers where the poor guys outsmart the rich guys. When one unsuspecting tough guy meets up with a guy who knows martial arts (whoops!). Suspense movies where I’m on the edge of my seat but without gratuitous violence. Anything that can make me laugh is a possible contender and I’ll throw in a movie or three with strong sexual tension just because I left the theater going “wow! Did I just see that?

I’ve added comments in a few places that hint at the reason why a certain movie made my list in case you’re interested. Note: You may need to scroll to the right to see comments.

As I was going through this exercise I began to wonder if it wouldn’t be productive and informational to first list all of my favorite actors and from there I could more or less go top down. I’ve taken a stab at those lists as well. 

Just as important as knowing a person’s favorites is being provided with a list of absolute duds. I will throw in a few of those because I think that says just as much about the writer as the favorites do. See the “Head Scratchers” Table

[Note: Scroll to the right in tables to read comments]