'Kippur'

The most poignant moment in this film is about an hour and a half into the film where the rescue guys are dragging this poor casaulty through this mire of thick mud.

What an excruciating 15 or so minutes. Just realizing that you're up against a time limit and you're muscles are aching as it saps the ever-loving oxygen out of your body.

Then the one guy goes crazy and screams, "What are we doing here?"

If I had to bet on one thing that's screamed the most during a war, that's it. Just watch a majority of modern war films and that's a running theme.

"What are we doing here?"

I'm sure it's been screamed many a-time in the Middle East along with Yugoslavia, Africa, Europe, the Far East and even the United States. Really, it's universal.

"What are we doing here?"

'Philadelphia'

This is OK movie. Let's face it: It was a movie that had to be made.

By the early 1990s, there was no escaping the shadow of HIV and AIDS in our country or the world. With the hysteria was a cavalcade of misinformation and prejudice. Mixed with the truth were a bevy of mistruthes that seemingly overshadow what was real.

"Philadelphia," for all intents and purposes, is an after school special for the United States so we don't act all disgusted with AIDS patients.

The interesting part of AIDS (how insensitive that sounds!) is how the disease is not just about life, death, medicine and healthcare, but about a lifestyle. Understanding AIDS is understanding homosexuality even though you could contract HIV through blood transfusions, sharing needles or heterosexual intercourse.

However, for better or for worse, AIDS and homosexuality are linked. And I think it's for the better. I think that as AIDS has become more understood and "tolerated" (we'd like to think we're accepting of all people ... and their diseases) so has alternative lifestyles.

With all that said, Denzel Washington's mustache should've been nominated for best supporting actor. I'm glad we can finally laugh at AIDS.

'Today!"

My first ever recorded and packaged album I ever owned was the second volume of The Beach Boys' greatest hits.

I wore that tape out. I still love the Beach Boys as much as I did in the late-1980s. On that tape was a song titled "When I Grow Up," which I always kinda liked but I never gave it a ton of attention. It was never quite my favorite and considering the tape itself was volume II of their hits, it didn't include the obvious songs like "God Only Knows," "I Get Around" and "Good Vibrations."

Having listened to "Today!" featuring "When I Grow Up," I realize now how great of a song it really is. The lyrics are great as Brian Wilson thinks about the future and even takes time to how he behaves today. Mike Love's California dude verses are bookended sweetly with Wilson's falsetto through the pre-chorus and chorus.

It's a very beautiful arrangement with typical rock band set-up plus a harpischord. Playing live, Carl Wilson replicated the harpsichord with a 12-string Rickenbacker.

The rest of the album, I can take it or leave it.

'Steamboat Bill Jr.'

Again, Buster Keaton is amazing. His physical prowess coming from such a runt of a guy is extraordinary to watch, especially considering I don't know how many (if at all) stunt men they had back in the early days of film.

Also, you have to consider probably the lack of insurance, healthcare and how much of his own health and career did Keaton take into his own hands. If he broke a leg, was the production company footing the bill or insurance? All of this so people can be entertained for 70 minutes.

'Odelay' & "Ill Communication'

I checked these two albums out from my local library. Right afterwards, I told a friend what I'd done commenting that I was going back to my high school days of listening to music. The irony of me listening to "Sabotage" and "New Pollution" a billion times each during high school is that I had never truly listened the the entire albums those songs came off of.

Beck is especially odd since I really do like him and some of my favorite all-time Beck songs are "New Pollution" and "Devil's Haircut."

Other than being released in the same decade, both albums, I think, could be considered each group's best ever.

I would argue "Midnite Vultures" for Beck, but "Odelay" is really, really good. I think it speaks more to what Beck is trying to do and has done over a decade or so of making music.

"Ill Communication" for the Beastie Boys is more about maturation. Nothing against "License to Ill" or even the great "Paul's Boutique" but there is a clear aging process that the Beasties took on between those albums and this album. This not only shows itself in their lyrics and deliver, but more so in the music and beats, which are entirely more smooth, funky and fresh sounding coming out of the speakers.

'JFK'

I was a kid when this movie came out. I don't remember all the controversy, but watching it now, I realize where folks might get riled up.

Forget all the seemingly forged, exaggerated and implied "facts" that Oliver Stone throws out, he essentially claims that Lyndon Baines Johnson orchestrated a coup and overthrew the president.

That's serious accusations to throw at a dead man. But I digress.

This is a fun movie. I can almost guarantee that there were thousands of Americans pissed off at the government convinced that JFK's murder was a vast series of webs and conspiracy.

While I don't doubt that his murder was bigger than Lee Harvey Oswald, creating propaganda to somehow question the establishment and to create a molehill out of flat ground seems silly.

I also love how Stone insinuates that JFK was damn-near perfect and despite his mistake with the Bay of Pigs, he was going to not make that mistake again and go into Cuba or Vietnam. Ah, it's refreshing to take someone and totally rewrite what they felt about things. There is no way Kennedy was going to stay out of Vietnam or any other country to fight communism. Also, making Oswald the victim wasn't the coolest thing to do. Oswald wasn't minding his own business. He played his part as either the lone or one of five gunmen, all of whom were able to roll into downtown Dallas with rifles and get shots off that only a handful of people noticed.

'The Usual Suspects'

For whatever reason, I never got around to watching this film. I mean, if you made a list of the films that I've had the intentions on watching for the past 10 years, "The Usual Suspects" is probably No. 1.

I did have a good discussion with a big movie fan friend of mine about the element of the big twist. It seems like in the mid-1990s, having the big, nobody-knew-it-was-coming twist in the thriller/drama was a big deal.

Think back to "Silence of the Lambs," "Seven," "Primal Fear" and later with "Sixth Sense." You just couldn't have a good ol' thriller, you had to twist it up on the movie watcher.

But now, aren't we all desensitized with the big twist. Not that "The Usual Suspects" would not have gotten me with Kevin Spacey being the big bad dude, but after 10 years of being twisted, I knew about halfway through that this was indeed the case, that Spacey was the big bad dude.

No real proof. No idea how they would explain it or pull it off. I just knew.

Hollywood is going to have to shake things up. Or just revert to doing a plain ordinary film. Now that would mess with some heads.

'Black Dogs'

OK, that's enough Ian McEwan for a while. I think it's going to be at least another 10 years before I pick up another McEwan after knocking out three of his books in about nine months.

I don't know this for a fact, but I get the feeling that he's really into himself. So much that he paints himself into his work. Of course, tons of writers do this, but not with the audacity that McEwan does. And also, other people are interesting. McEwan isn't.

In "Black Dogs," there's a 15-page narrative about finding a flashlight.

In fact, the entire middle section where the focus goes on the son-in-law instead of the father- or mother-in-law is the worst part of the story and I get the aching feeling that the son-in-law is a sketch of McEwan himself.

I've paid my dues. No more McEwan.

'Strictly Ballroom'

I thought this film was a documentary about ballroom dancing ... something I'm interested in.

Instead, it's a quirky film that takes a mad leap into being a gay dance-a-thon.

The thing is, I like dancing, but I think I like the process more and not the inherent romantic overtone that the activity undertakes.

Take "Dancing with the Stars" for example. Or even being paired with a hot piece of ass in film.

I'm never surprised when people in these situations do not fall in love or, at least, have sex. You get very close and physical with someone who is probably pretty good looking. It happens.

In fact, I'm more surprised when they don't hook up. I think it happens more than we could possibly know.

'Ali Zaoua: Prince of the Streets'

I always wonder if I lived in a third-world country if I would know how to survive. I assume learning how to survive is as natural as actually surviving.

It's like an elephant knowing it had to find a tree with leaves to eat, but also knowing how to use your trunk to get the nourishing leaves. Seems like two different things but maybe it's not.

Do street urchins in Morocco get hungry and they automatically know to dig in trash or to steal in order to eat?

This film reminds me a lot of "Slumdog Millionaire" and similarly eye-opening in terms of how many kids live and the hardships they not only face, but embrace to a point.

'Persepolis'

Probably one of the best films I've seen all year. Probably one of the best films I've seen the last 10 years.

There is very little wrong with it. It's funny, charming, it builds characters and connects these small twists and plot lines into a very complete and interesting story.

Furthermore, it's about something. Unlike most animated films, it doesn't beat around the bush. It's a very different animation in that the filmmaking helps with simplifying a very tragic and unsimple country during a very unsimple time.

The filmmaker took a very tense subject and essentially dumbed it down and made it incredibly accessible for everyone, and yet it comes off entirely more poignant by not casting a bunch of Hollywood actors or Iranian nobodies to fill the parts.

'Mr. Smith Goes To Washington'

One aspect that makes older movies so enjoyable is that the directors and producers had no problem with just cutting a movie off and rolling the "The End" screen out.

These days, the filmmakers (and I guess the viewer) needs a nice, neat, lovely bow tied around their cinema package.

That means we get "where are they now?" montages, brief wrap-ups or a continuance from the crux of the movie.

In "Mr. Smith ..." it ends with the star role (Jimmy Stewart) passed out and off screen. This would never happen in modern Hollywood. Even if Johnny Depp's character dies in a film, the last frame is of a dead Johnny Depp.

"Mr. Smith ..." if remade would be given a shot of Smith and Clarissa embracing as fireworks exploded over the capitol building or in front of the Washington Monument. And then it would have a montage of stills of Senator Paine, Jim Taylor and the newspaper guy explaining their whereabouts following the scandal.

'Bringing Up Baby'

Katharine Hepburn, again, is super awesome and comes off as being super sexy in this film. Some of those outfits are amazing on her, despite her probably not weighing more than 100 pounds.

Anyway, I would've given my right arm to have been Cary Grant walking behind her at the party when it was discovered her dress didn't have a back.

Grant, on the other hand, comes off very poorly in this role. Grant is too good looking, suave and cool to pull off being the everyman dunce who's clumsy, kinda dumb, lame and uncool. Some guys simply can't pull this off and Grant is one of them.

'Bringing It All Back Home'

I was listening to this album in my car when I picked up a friend from the mechanic's shop.

My friend picked up the case for the album and noticed that they had categorized the album (and I guess Dylan, in general) as "rock."

My friend found this curious and noted that he would not have considered Dylan or this album as rock.

Having listened to quite a bit of Dylan in the last year, the supposition that he is some folk hero is greatly exaggerated. A vast majority of Dylan is rock music. The beat, the rhythm, the feel, the song structure -- all bases for rock music.

Which brings up the idea of genre. Especially "folk." We like to consider "folk" music as being rootsy, acoustic music like Peter, Paul and Mary, The Kingston Trio and Pete Seeger.

There is also the insinuation of folk music actually saying something about society, politics, war and whatnot. This is probably because of its association with civil rights, the Vietnam War and all that jazz.

But I think folk music is not so much about subject matter or the sound, but about the roots. The fact is, folk music can vary greatly from country to country. Irish folk music is much different than folk music from Tanzania or Russia. With that said, isn't folk music based on nationality? Where as other genres are based on song structure, instruments, beat and style?

Dylan ain't folk. I dare you to listen to "Subterranean Homesick Blues" and disagree.

'OG: Original Gangster'

I don't understand how fans of Ice-T still champion his music and lifestyle.

I had a friend burn me a copy of this album saying how its one of his favorite rap albums of all time. And this is a guy who doesn't like modern rap because it's all about boats and hos.

For one, consider that Ice-T's been relatively disconnected with the streets and that entire lifestyle for a long, long time. Plus, he's married a white woman.

Then consider that Ice-T portrays a police officer on NBC, the network that famously took criticism for the lack of diversity in its hit shows like "Friends" and "Seinfeld."

That, friends, is the definition of a sell out. And, yet, there are folks out there that think Ice-T is this legit rap artist.

Doesn't an artist's entire life and career still matter when you consider their art?

Doesn't Ice-T's post-rap career and lifestyle discredit him, whereas Dave Chappelle marrying an Asian woman help his credibility as a comic that plays the race card? This stuff matters.

'Worstward Ho'

How Samuel Beckett got away with this tripe and actually made a career of a bunch of incoherent ramblins is insane.

I feel like he's just making fun of me.

'The Lover'

I believe this is the first time I've sample the work of one person in two different media.

Marguerite Duras not only wrote the apparently autobiographical "The Lover" and she also wrote the film "Hiroshima, Mon Amour," a French film already reviewed on this very blog.

This has to be relatively rare for the 1,001 lists. It's not like Jimmy Buffett's albums and books are on the list. John Lennon wrote some books, but they're not included. Not many screenwriters get the chance to necessarily write books or sing in bands.

'Face to Face' & 'Something Else ...' & 'Village Green' & 'Arthur'

I was a 13-year-old kid in a small southern country town that was madly in love with British music from the 1960s when I first purchased a double-disc greatest hits collection of The Kinks.

Most of this interest was based on previous affairs with The Beatles and Rolling Stones. The natural path was through the Kinks, Zombies and others.

And it failed. I maybe gave the two discs two listens and I never went back. For one reason or another they didn't hook me and I didn't give the Kinks, oddly enough, another thought until far into college and even then I didn't care that much.

Until about a year ago. More and more I would hear Kinks songs used in commercials and movies (mostly Wes Anderson, I suspect) and they clicked with me. Actually, I didn't know it was the Kinks 'til you jumped online and searched for it.

I'm the same way with food. There are things I'll eat today that I wouldn't even consider if I were starving as a kid or teenager. I guess I was picky. Both with food and music.

I don't know why certain things taste differently or sound better with age. It has to be scientific. Maybe there's some college or think tank that's done research about the chemistry behind changing tastes -- whether it's food or a book or record.

Right now, I can't get enough of the Kinks.

The most fascinating aspect of these four albums: They were released in four consecutive years, 1966-1969. They don't have the catalogue of the Beatles or Stones, but not a lot of bands have that kind of output in a four-year period.

'Princess Mononoke'

My threshold for the animated Japanese films is not very high. I can probably handle the top three percent of the genre and no more.

"Spirited Away" was fantastic. "Grave of the Fireflies" was really, really good. And "Princess Mononoke" was pretty good. But I feel I've reached my limit.

The final film was not as visually stunning, the characters weren't nearly as well developed and, thus, I never truly connected with them as much as I did the other films.

Even in animation, you need some sort of buy-in or connection or the audience is lost.

'Tongues Untied'

For some odd reason, I've always been interested in the sub-culture of the African American gay male.

I think there's a twofold reason: One, I've read about this sub-culture as being called on the "down low" and that random straight guys dabble in it far more than, say, a white straight male dabbles in homesexuality.

On the flip side, as it appears, there's a stringent attitude in the African American culture against homosexuality more so than in other demographics.

None of this may be true, but it's certainly not discussed in "Tongues Untied," which comes off as a community theatre's attempt at an art-house film while spending no money and borrowing somebody's mother's 8mm camera.

Nonetheless, some of the andecdotes and characters are entertaining. But never do they delve too deep into themselves or their culture. Which is all very easy to do: To show your cover, but to never reveal your true self.

'Strait is the Gate' & 'The Violent Bear It Away'

There's something about religion that inspires so much.
Whether we'd like to admit it or not (many atheists would like to think they're immune), there is an allure to faith and religion.

For artists, it's inspired generation after generation of writers, painters, sculptors and musicians. Frankly, without religion, Flannery O'Connor might have become a bus driver.

Instead, she became a pretty devout Catholic, but still wrestled with some inner questions and doubt that oozes out of her characters and stories.

To me, that's what religion is all about: Not necessarily believing, but questioning. The acceptance of the idea that there's some form of higher power, that there's something behind this universe is just as much doubt and question than it is belief. Without one, you don't have the other. I enjoy O'Connor's stories immensely due to her awareness that there's a dark side to everything and the minute there isn't question, there won't be a belief.

Ironically, Andre Gide's books -- including the incredibly sweet "Strait is the Gate" -- was placed on the Roman Catholic Church's List of Prohibited Books.

'Black Water'

I thought Joyce Carol Oates wrote romancy-dramatic books in the vein of Mary Higgins Clark or Nora Roberts.

I guess she still kinda does. I don't know. I've read one JCO book and this is it. "Black Water" reads more like a failed attempt by Mary Higgins Clark to be edgy and to seem like their not trying. I can't believe it was nominated for a Pulitzer.

Furthermore, there's really nothing here. There's no real story. You get tricked into thinking that there's character development when at the end you barely know anyone at all. If you had to write an obituary about Kelly, you really couldn't. Frankly, she seems boring and kind of a slut and probably really pretentious so you probably don't want to know about her anyway.

'The Little Prince'

Knocking out a couple of the shorties on this list real quick during the doldrums of summer.

I initially picked up "The Little Prince" after my buddy Skidmark Steve put it as one of his three books at Good Reads (if you're going to join a social network, why not keep up with it?).

I mostly enjoyed it. Children's books, no matter how good, are like cartoons. If they're funny, I can hang with them. If they're not, then my threshold shortens. Life is already too depressing. Kids don't need to be confronted with such heady things at such a young age.

'Heat'

A brilliant movie. I could watch it over and over again despite being three hours long.

It was not only a feat in filmmaking and a really cool story, but it was a once-in-a-decade casting job that reaped bigger dividends down the road. DeNiro and Pacino are just the tip. Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Ashley Judd, Diane Venora (who has been in four different TV-film adaptations of Shakespeare including playing Gertrude and Ophelia in two different versions of "Hamlet"), Amy Brenneman, Natalie Portman (between "Beautiful Girls," "The Professional" and "Heat" is she the best kid actor ever?), Dennis Haysbert, William Fichtner, Hank Azaria and the great Danny Trejo. What a cast! Nowadays you couldn't pull that off unless you're doing "Ocean's 15" and you've got George Clooney hoodwinking everyone to do it for nothing.

The theme I loved the most is not unlike one of the themes that drives the HBO series "The Wire." That would be the egocentricity of the police officer. That threshold that detectives reach when solving a crime isn't about helping the community or humanity by taking a monster off the street, but about proving you're better, smarter.

Once Al Pacino cased the first armored car robbery, it wasn't entirely about helping ease the suffering of the guards that were murdered, but about going mano y mano against a worthy adversary, in this case DeNiro.

'Wild Strawberries'

"Wild Strawberries" was Swedish actor Victor Sjostrom's finaly movie before dying in 1960.

He was in six movies total and despite being best remembered as the old professor in Ingmar Bergman's film, he was a better known director himself, doing about 40 films, some of which do not even exist anymore.

I don't know what's more introspective in terms of one's life choices and mortality: the film "Wild Strawberries" or Sjostrom's life.

To have your best and last performance in the final several years of your life on film and distributed to anyone in the world that wants to see. I guess Brad Pitt could die tomorrow and maybe we all look at "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" differently. Chances are, Pitt will live to 90 and we'll forget about that movie and a dozen other ding-dongs he puts out.

Much in the same way Sjostrom is best known as a dying old professor in a film despite being an accomplished film director and having some of that work lost forever. That work that was meant to last forever. That could've lasted forever. Now it's history like history itself.

If I'm forced to watch Swedish females the rest of my days, I'll die a happy man.

'The Third Man'

If you want a good old murder-mystery, check out the previously reviewed "The Thin Man." This one's a lot more serious and it sadly only features the great Orson Welles for about 10 minutes, but for 10 minutes, the dude completely captures the lens of the camera and never lets go.

Although there's little similarity on the "asshole" scale between hooking up with your dead friend's girlfriend and selling bad medicine to kids, I did enjoy the fact that the main guy was so pissed that Welles' character was doing the latter and yet he was trying to hook up with the girl that was not only still grieving (the funeral being days before), but still in love with the other guy.

I also enjoyed the 20-minute chase scene through the sewers as a billion police try to track down the portly Welles. Umm, he's the fat guy that's breathing hard, casting a gigantic shadow and slopping through the water. I know, it's tough catching the guy.