I Love Movies and I Love Love
So, for Valentine’s Day I thought to give you my recommendations for a great movie to watch tonight. Please bear in mind these are my choices based on what I’ve seen, but I think I’ve seen just about every movie ever made. Still, I may have missed your personal favorite. If so, let me know, and if I haven’t seen it, I will.
I’ve narrowed down the list to my top 11, which wasn’t easy. Here’s the criteria.
First, it had to be a pure love story as opposed to a love story subplot around a bigger plot “Australia” is an example. The big story was the lost generation of aboriginal children while the Englishwoman and the drover were a love subplot.
Second, I only wanted to offer great endings. “Dr Zhivago” for instance, is a great love story, but the ending is bittersweet.
Finally, I hesitate to name any one movie over another so I’ve listed these in order of year produced.
Here is the list:
- It Happened One Night, 1934. Clark Gable and Myrna Loy. The walls of Jericho came tumbling down, and you smile and you cry. Perfect.
- Casablanca, 1942 Humphrey Bogard and Ingrid Bergman. They will always have Paris and the grand gesture ending leaves you in tears.
- An Affair to Remember, 1957. Cary Grant and Deborah Carr. “If you can paint, I can walk” Number one cry movie of all time. Sleepless in Seattle was just a spin off.
- Somewhere in Time, 1981. Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. Suspend your disbelief but keep your tissue handy.
- Officer and A Gentlemen, 1982. Debra Winger and Richard Gere. They actually filmed a whole other ending but when Debra Winger put his hat on her head they froze the frame and that was that.
- Moonstruck, 1987. Cher and Nicholas Cage. Mother “Do you love ‘em, Loretta?” Cher “I love him awful” Mother “That’s too bad” Ti Amo.
- Pretty Woman, 1990. Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. The most quotable movie of all time. Say any line and whoever you are with will say Pretty Woman. The Perfect Hollywood ending.
- White Palace, 1990. Susan Sarandon and James Spader. Warning: Some scenes may be too graphic but the ending is one of the best ever.
- For the Love of the Game, 1999. Kevin Costner and Kelly Preston. Is it a Baseball movie or is it a love movie? It’s both and the embrace at the end is spectacular.
- Serendipity, 2001. John Cusack and Kate Beckensdale. Contrived or manipulated? It’s serendipity. If you don’t root for these characters, you have no heart.
- Love Actually, 2003. Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Colin Firth and many more. You get 10 love stories intertwined into a beautiful movie that you’ll want to watch again and again. They tie it all together at the airport. Hugely satisfying.
– Joseph Callaway