Class Note 1967

For this issue we asked you, our erudite cinephiles and movie buffs, for your favorite films and received about 80 great titles. For example, Ed Arnold loves Pavarotti, The Human Element, and Woodstock (PBS documentary), while Ethan Braunstein likes Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, and Lost Horizon (1937). As a climate warrior, Jock Gill recommends An Inconvenient Truth and Chinatown, among several other films that fit the “climate” genre (many of you had Chinatown on your lists for other cinematic reasons). Ed Gray places Animal House among the great documentaries, and as a feature cites Once Upon a Time In the West. Meanwhile, the eclectic John Isaacs loves Around the World in 80 Days, ET, Hacksaw Ridge, and Slumdog Millionaire. In the midst of his medical boards John Lobitz saw the first Star Wars movie, A New Hope, and still loves it. Bill Bogardus is insanely passionate about Mister Roberts (more than 20 viewings is passionate). David Lowenstein says either Fargo or The Big Lebowski is the best. Bob Smith concurs with David on Fargo (but prefers the the TV series, The Wire). Gary Atkins, who likes it when the good guys win, says for him it’s The Hunt for Red October. Dan Rabovsky proposes the film Forbidden Planet (the 1956 sci-fi classic that “turned out to be a prescient parable of what has happened in social media and the wider Internet”) and Saving Private Ryan, while George Wood loved the film, Yesterday. Richard Chu says The Third Man (unforgettable zither playing) is the only DVD he owns. John Meck lists L’Avventura (1960), MASH (1970), The Go Between (1971), Nashville (1975), Local Hero (1983), Cinema Paradiso (1988), and Waking Ned Devine (1998). Favorites of film fanatic John Manopoli include Harper (1966), The Conformist, Annie Hall, Bad Day at Black Rock (1955), Bad Education (2004), Barbershop (2002), Black Robe (1991), Breaker Morant (1980), Casablanca (on several lists), He Got Game (1998), High Noon, Korda, Paths of Glory (1957), The Four Feathers (1939), The Naked Prey (1965), They Were Expendable (1945), True Believer (1989), and Wind River (2017). Tom Maremaa sent a list of “all movies that I’ve seen more than twice (some, yes, many times more),” which off the top of his head includes 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Separation, Apocalypse Now, Barry Lyndon, Birdman, Blade Runner, Citizen Kane, Desperado, Dirty Harry, Dr. Strangelove, Easy Rider, Gladiator, Last Tango in Paris, Lawrence of Arabia, Magnum Force, No Country for Old Men, North by Northwest, Pulp Fiction, the Red, White & Blue trilogy, Rules of the Game, Shawshank Redemption, Sunset Boulevard, The Conformist, The Godfather (I & II), The Matrix, The Seventh Seal, The Shining, Unforgiven, and Weekend.

Thanks to all who submitted these film classics. For added commentary explaining each selection, along with priceless back stories behind each one, go to 1967.dartmouth.org on the newly created film section of the “’67 Book Club.” It’s worth the effort.

—Larry Langford, P.O. Box 71, Buckland, MA 01339; larrylangford@mac.com