I found out from a friend that it can be a pain if you want to post a comment. So please send your Book and Movie List to booknmovielist@yahoo.com
Below are the comments a couple of people gave for why certain movies made their list:
Clerks – This is a movie about what my life could have been. I had a friend that worked in a comic shop who was a lot like Dante and there is always a “Randle” at a comic store. Another buddy and I used to hang out there. I was the Silent Bob to his Jay. Hell I used to date girls who lived in that town in New Jersey. Scary how much it got right.
The Passion of the Christ - Haven't seen it but read the book. I have noticed it's effect upon people and add it to this list based on that. A lesson in love that has a greater impact upon one's thinking than the common viewer recognizes.
The Greatest Story Ever Told - The story of Christ; done well for film. (Trivia: John Wayne plays the Centurion. He has one line: "Truly this was the Son of God." You recognize that voice instantly.)
Dune - The movie is not as good as the book but is worthy in its own right. The Mentat mantra spoken upon taking the Juice of Sapho is original to the movie and not in the books; "It is by will alone I set my mind in motion...". It was that mantra that inspired my writing of the cocaine mantra: "It is by will alone I set my lust in motion...".
The Thin Man – Nick and Nora Charles are one of the great underrated screen couples. Nick’s desire to not get involved vs. Nora’s desire to get involved. Nick’s bumbling drunk investigating is in many ways a pre-curser to Columbo’s style of investigation. Plus it’s really funny.
Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back – Went to see this a few days after September 11th. We were living in the West Village at the time off 6th Avenue and used to see The World Trade Center every day. My wife had lost friends in the attack and we had both over the last few months been offered jobs down there. Fortunately we had turned them down. We could not watch the news on TV any more. It was too much. We lived below 14th street so we could not even take our car out of the garage and get out of town. So we decided to go to the movies. And we laughed. A lot. If a movie can make you laugh with all that going on - it is funny. And will always hold a special place for me.
Dogma – One of the great funny movies about religion and the end of the world. Very clearly it sets out various themes or schools of religious thought while at the same time remaining light and funny. Ben Affleck doesn’t suck in it, which is an achievement in and of itself. And Salma Hayek as a stripper in a Catholic Schoolgirl outfit, is worth the price of admission alone. Kevin Smith does have knack for getting hot girls in cool outfits. Have you seen Eliza Dushku and Shannon Elizabeth in the cat suits in Jay and Silent Bob?
Abbot & Costello meet Frankenstein – What made the Abbot & Costello movies so great is that everyone else in the movie would play the film straight. All the comedy was left to them. This is style is even more evident in this movie. Bela Ligousi and Lon Channy Jr. play Dracula and the Wolfman absolutely straight, like it was any other horror film. This makes the comedy so much more funny.
Empire Strikes Back – Why Empire Strikes Back instead of Star Wars – Finding out Darth Vader is Luke’s farther is a major event in movie history. It’s Huge. Plus better directing and more exciting. It has everything right.
Here are why some books made the list:
Illuminatus! - Robert Anton Wilson & Robert Shae – “Illuminatus! is important on several levels. Some of the elements of import are the inculcation of non-linear thinking in the reader and the entering into and out of paranoia that the book deliberately brings to the reader. Illuminatus! helps to develop a more powerful, more resilient, mind. It brings the reader to a heightened state. It explores "What is reality?".”
Dune – “Dune is one of the greatest books ever written. It delves into the human condition and forces the reader to ask "what is human?". It shows the reader that human potential is limitless. That the limits we impose upon ourselves are often arbitrary and that the limits of what we can do are yet to be discovered. It directs, if subtly, the reader to explore the concept of multi-dimensional existence; that we do in fact exist on more planes of consciousness and dimension than perhaps are formally recognized today. Not all can be explained in terms of mathematics. Some things can be known, but not taught. Mathematically describe the flapping of a flag or hold a cloth in the wind? Which imparts the lesson of movement? Learned but not taught. So it is with Dune. The forces and motions of a society as a whole are greater than the sum of the individual parts. You cannot give a simpleton diagnosis to a society at large. There are forces of great power and limitless (apparent) energy. The drive to procreate. The need for love. The dangers of indulgence. As we act so do we become. The myriad slippery slopes we face in our daily choices. Dune makes one think and in thinking, in being aware of a life as a system, a system that impacts and echoes through other systems, one is awake. This is a lesson of the Kwisatz Haderach: One man is always the difference. Everything we do or don't do every day counts. It affects all of mankind. The echo of one can change the thought of all. Dune is required reading because it is essential to the development of the species in getting on with its growth that the Sleeper Must Awaken.”
Good Omens - Neil Gaimen and Terry Pratchet – The funniest book I have ever read. I was laughing so hard I had to put the book down. If I thought about the book while riding the subway on my way to work, I would just burst out laughing.
Einstein’s Dreams - Alan Lightman – The most poetic non-poetry book I have ever read. Deals with the fairly complicated concept of time in a beautiful and simple way. One of those books that gets you to pause and really think about important concepts and issues, yet remains light.
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 72, - Hunter Thompson – Best book on politics ever. Glimpse into, what has turned out to be a simpler time. Plus the Nixon discussing football section shows a different light on a president whose positive accomplishments have been forgotten in the light of his crimes. Seems like now presidential crimes are forgotten far to quickly.
As Told at the Explorers Club – Great stories by real people who lived the lives most of us read about in books or go to movies to see. I found it hard to go back to reading fiction after reading about some of the things these people have seen and done.
The Collected Star Man comics – James Robinson – First of all the art is amazing. If you like stuff from the Golden Age of comics, it does it well. Written with a lot of respect, thought and intelligence. It has real emotion. One part always makes me want to cry. Three characters go into Hell and are tested. It’s the most emotionally real comic I have ever read. Striking at the core of you in that it’s relationship between the characters are real. More so than any other comic or book that I have ever read.
Tom Sawyer - is a book which I probably read three times and would recommend to every young American. It is part history, adventure and life. I could have closed my eyes and I was Tom.
posted by GD @ 12:43 PM
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