This article first appeared in part at InContention.com in 2009. It seemed like a good time to re-purpose it for new readers here at HitFix and to give the usual list-making shenanigans a rest for a week.
In case you”re like me and you happen to forget these things throughout the year, let today”s edition of The Lists serve as a reminder: Father”s Day is this weekend!
With that in mind, and as a personal tribute of sorts to my pops, who turns 59 this weekend in addition to celebrating his 31st Father”s Day on Sunday, I thought I”d offer up a rundown of the films that remind me of those days in front of the big console television growing up back east.
My personal movie awakening came in the mid-1990s, when films like Michael Mann”s “Heat” and Bryan Singer”s “The Usual Suspects” made me realize I wanted to have a hand in this business. But I can”t ignore the impact decades of film product had on my youth in the form of my father”s viewing habits. I didn”t like every film my Dad loved, but somehow, his taste frequently seemed to either correspond with my own or correspond with how it would eventually evolve.
There are a number of films that didn”t make the collective that deserve some measure of notice, despite not having a particular impact. Peter Hyams”s “Capricorn One” comes to mind, or horror flicks like William Girdler”s “The Manitou” and Stan Winston”s “Pumpkinhead.” Not to mention more recent efforts like George Tillman Jr.”s “Men of Honor.” And even though I remember watching “The Godfather” with Dad (and Mom, actually) as a kid, I don”t immediately connect the two when I consider that film today.
The order of the list is a mish-mash of criteria. I wouldn”t say it”s tiered by quality so much as by how much the films remind me of the old man (though quality certainly figures in here and there). Mostly, this is just a tip of the hat to one guy”s movie tastes that galvanized his son in some way. I hope you enjoy.