Clinton, South Carolina, Sunday, March 18, 2018, 10:08 a.m.

My favorite movie hasn’t changed since I saw it. I vaguely remember seeing it at the Broadway Theatre when I was very young. It occurred to me that I should make a decision on my top 10 movies of all-time. Most have been in place for decades. I’m fonder of old movies than young ones. Many of my new favorites have gotten old.

1. Lawrence of Arabia. To understand it’s brilliance, one much watch it on a large screen that captures the sweep of the desert. Peter O’Toole’s performance is as breathtaking as the scenery. Director David Lean taps into the passion of an extraordinary, complex man.

2. Patton. The real Patton was less physically imposing and had a squeaky voice. George C. Scott is so powerful that he becomes the real Patton.

3. Giant. My father’s favorite movie. I had family contacts in Texas growing up. Elizabeth Taylor was never more lovely. As a kid, I loathed James Dean’s role and admired the traditionalist Rock Hudson.

4. Little Big Man. To me, this is Dustin Hoffman’s tour de force. He is a fictitious survivor of Custer’s Last Stand. Richard Mulligan portrays Custer as deeply neurotic and egotistical.

5. Pulp Fiction. I saw it first in Daytona Beach, when a friend and I slipped away from the race track for a matinee. When John Travolta plunged the syringe into Uma Thurman’s chest, it was the highest I’ve jumped in the past 20 years.

6. Crazy Heart. I read Thomas Cobb’s novel twenty years before the film’s release. Bad Blake reminds me of my father, who died in 1993. I love country music. The novel was loosely based on the late, great Hank Thompson.

7. True Grit. The original. They’re both brilliant. I prefer the John Wayne version for one silly reason. Glen Campbell is so bad it amuses me. He is the only flaw in an otherwise perfect movie, and somehow I enjoy it more as a result.

8. Casablanca. It has everything — mystery, evil, humor, unexpected twists – and Humphrey Bogart, who made lots of great movies, was at his very best best. Claude Rains is probably my favorite character actor.

9. The Bridge on the River Kwai. Another Lean classic, though Lean’s movies were hardly lean. Two of my favorite lines are at the end. Alec Guinness’s “My God, what have I done?” and James Donald’s “Madness! … Madness!”

10. Citizen Kane. Orson Welles went after William Randolph Hearst in a manner so brilliant, ruthless and wickedly satirical that the result in real life was the ruination of both men. Sometimes a movie can be entirely too passionate.

It didn’t take that long to come up with a top 10. The honorable mentions were hell, and I’m sure I’ll be thinking of others that should also be included for the next week if not the rest of my life.

Advise and Consent

All the President’s Men

Animal House

The Apostle

Bad Day at Black Rock

Bang the Drum Slowly

Being There

The Best Years of Our Lives

Big

The Big Sleep

Blazing Saddles

Caddy Shack

The Candidate

Cat Ballou

Coal Miner’s Daughter

Cool Hand Luke

The China Syndrome

Dazed and Confused

Dial M for Murder

Duck Soup

The Electric Horseman

Elmer Gantry

A Face in the Crowd

Fever Pitch

Field of Dreams

Forrest Gump

Gandhi

The Godfather

Goodfellas

The Graduate

Grand Prix

The Great Escape

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?

High Noon

His Girl Friday

It’s a Wonderful Life

Judgment at Nuremberg

The Last American Hero

The Last Picture Show

Le Mans

The Lion in Winter

The Maltese Falcon

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance

Mister Roberts

Mister Smith Goes to Washington

My Favorite Year

Network

No Country for Old Men

On Golden Pond

The Outlaw Josey Wales

A Passage to India

Rear Window

Red River

The Right Stuff

Rio Bravo

Save the Tiger

Schindler’s List

Tender Mercies

Titanic

Walk the Line

Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Yankee Doodle Dandy

Young Frankenstein

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