By the early 1960s, Alfred Hitchcock had become something almost unprecedented in cinema. He was no longer simply one of Hollywood’s great directors. He had become a language. The previous decade had produced an astonishing succession of masterpieces. Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, The Wrong Man, Vertigo, North by Northwest, Psycho. And then, in 1963, The Birds. Few filmmakers have ever dominated a decade so completely or so consistently reinvented themselves while doing it. The result was that Hitchcock’s influence escaped the confines of his own films. Directors no longer needed to imitate individual scenes. They had begun to
- Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier), in In the Heat of the Night (1967)
- Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman), in The French Connection (1971)
- Frank Serpico (Al Pacino), in Serpico (1973)
- John McClane (Bruce Willis), in Die Hard (1988)
- Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand), in Fargo (1996)
In chronological order.
Most animals vanish from history without leaving a trace. A few are remembered because they belonged to powerful people. Fewer still become legends in their own right. This list includes both real and fictional horses. At first glance, that may seem like an odd combination. What does a horse that carried Alexander the Great have in common with one invented by Cervantes? More than one might think. Both have survived their own time. Both are remembered long after the people who knew them are gone. And, in at least one case, the fictional horse feels more real than the historical
- Hoosiers (David Anspaugh, 1986)
- White Men Can’t Jump (Ron Shelton, 1992)
- Blue Chips (William Friedkin, 1994)
- He Got Game (Spike Lee, 1998)
- Coach Carter (Thomas Carter, 2005)
In chronological order.
Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air (2009) is a quietly devastating, sharply intelligent film that blends timely social commentary with an intimate portrait of loneliness and disconnection in the modern world. Adapted loosely from Walter Kirn’s 2001 novel of the same name, the film takes the broad premise of the book (a corporate downsizer addicted to life in airports and hotels) and refines it into a more focused and emotionally resonant exploration of what it means to be untethered in a world that values efficiency over connection. George Clooney delivers one of the most nuanced performances of his career as
- Body and Soul (Robert Rossen, 1947)
- The Set-Up (Robert Wise, 1949)
- Champion (Mark Robson, 1949)
- The Harder They Fall (Mark Robson, 1956)
- Fat City (John Huston, 1972)
- Rocky (John G. Avildsen, 1976)
In chronological order.
Few literary friendships have been as influential as that between J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. Both were Oxford scholars. Both were devoted Christians. Both loved mythology, fairy tales, and medieval literature. Both helped shape modern fantasy. Yet when one compares their major works, The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia, the differences are so striking that it is difficult to believe they emerged from the same intellectual circle. The contrast begins with the most obvious question: how does Christian belief appear in the fiction? For Lewis, the answer is straightforward. Christianity appears directly, almost openly. Narnia is
- The Longest Yard (Robert Aldrich, 1974)
- Everybody’s All American (Taylor Hackford, 1988)
- Any Given Sunday (Oliver Stone, 1999)
- Remember the Titans (Boaz Yakin, 2000)
- Friday Night Lights (Peter Berg, 2004)
In chronological order.
David Hare’s Worricker Trilogy, consisting of Page Eight (2011), Turks & Caicos (2014), and Salting the Battlefield (2014), occupies a curious place in modern British espionage fiction. Produced for television by the BBC but filmed and performed with the sophistication of high-end cinema, the trilogy feels like a deliberate attempt to create a contemporary counterpart to the moral and political spy stories associated with John le Carré. It succeeds not by imitating George Smiley, but by asking what a Smiley-like figure would look like in the twenty-first century. The answer is Johnny Worricker, played magnificently by Bill Nighy. The trilogy
- The Natural (Barry Levinson, 1984)
- Bull Durham (Ron Shelton, 1988)
- Eight Men Out (John Sayles, 1988)
- Field of Dreams (Phil Alden Robinson, 1989)
- For Love of the Game (Sam Raimi, 1999)
- Moneyball (Bennett Miller, 2011)
In chronological order.