I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, the 90s are, without question, the greatest decade of movies ever. 1995 and 1993 are a close run for the greatest year in cinema history. So great that I couldn’t list just 10 movies.
So much was happening this decade it’s difficult to summarize. The biggest thing is the rise of CGI and the overall use of computers (there had been some in the 80s, but minimal). Some of the CGI still holds up today, and is probably better than today (Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, etc.). There is, of course, also the start of computer animated movies (thanks to Pixar) that (unfortunately) has basically replaced hand-drawn animation for the most part today. Basically any genre you want is represented this decade (even Westerns), with the notable exception of musicals (not counting Disney animation).
Before my list (remember this is “best,” not necessarily “favorite”), a few notable movies not mentioned, because I have not seen them: Ghost, Goodfellas, The Crying Game, Howards End, The Piano, The Thin Red Line, Malcolm X. There are also terribly overrated movies like The English Patient, Forrest Gump, Titanic, and Unforgiven.
Honorable
Mentions: The Green Mile, Rounders, As Good As It Gets, Star Trek VI: The
Undiscovery Country, Home Alone, The Rocketeer, A League of Their Own,
Sneakers, Much Ado About Nothing, Shadowlands, The Man Without a Face, Rudy,
Gettysburg, Groundhog Day, Maverick, Stargate, Mr. Holland’s Opus, Looking for
Richard, Misson: Impossible, Amistad, Contact, The Prince of Egypt, Toy Story
2, Galaxy Quest, The Mummy, The Matrix
Top 25
Countdown:
Fargo (1996)
Edward
Scissorhands (1990)
L.A.
Confidential (1997)
Batman: Mask of the Phantasm (1993)
Beauty and the
Beast (1991)
Aladdin (1992)
The Sixth Sense
(1999)
Toy Story (1995)
Tombstone (1993)
Seven (1995)
A Few Good Men
(1992)
The Lion King
(1994)
Dances with
Wolves (1990)
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Braveheart
(1995)
Top 10:
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
It really hurts to leave some of
those out of the top 10. We are getting
into basically perfect movies, with minor differences in ranking. Red October is so immersive, you can’t stop
watching it when it’s on. Personal
issues aside, I would love to have seen Baldwin play Jack Ryan more.
The Fugitive (1993)
A strong case for the greatest
thriller of all time. Perfect cast. Great score.
Great action. Somehow the third
best movie that year.
The Silence of
the Lambs (1991)
If the hairs on the back of your
neck don’t stand on end during the final scene, there’s something wrong with
you. They perfectly build the
tension. Jodie Foster is very good (though
her accent is a bit sketchy). But
Anthony Hopkins, of course, steals the show with one of the greatest villain
performances of all time.
Sense and Sensibility (1995)
I feel this movie gets forgotten,
but it shouldn’t. Emma Thompson did a
remarkable job making this famous novel even better by actually fleshing out
the characters and making their motivations and decisions make sense. Yes, she is a bit old for Elinor, but who
cares? The rest of the cast is perfect,
but Alan Rickman in particular stands out.
And the score is beautiful.
Saving Private
Ryan (1998)
I actually had a hard time ranking
this one, because of the reasons so many others have pointed out. The opening scene is remarkably brutal, one
of the most realistic war scenes ever (and it completely changed how war movies
were filmed). The rest of the film is
good, but there are some flaws. In the
end, it is too good not to have it this high.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Perfect. The greatest science fiction action movie of
all time. Arnold is great. Robert Patrick is incredibly scary. It’s non-stop action, but it flows so well,
unlike other movies. Nothing will ever
beat the sequence from the invasion of the lab, through the chase, to the end
in the furnace. Easily James Cameron’s
best.
Jurassic Park (1993)
Since this is my favorite single
movie (and the #1 reason I had to go to Hawai’i), it pains me to have it at 4,
but the others are just a touch better.
It’s the perfect blend of CGI and real.
The wonder and awe of dinosaurs has never been matched. I still get goosebumps when they first see
the Brachiosaurus. Can’t forget John
Williams’ score.
Apollo 13 (1995)
We all know the story, but Ron
Howard still somehow makes the audience feel the tension. And you know a movie is good when the men who
actually took part in the event herald it.
Again, this was the age of do as much in real life as possible, and use
CGI when necessary. The launch was so
perfect that some NASA guys wondered where they found the footage. And all along, James Horner indulges us with
music to fall in love with spaceflight.
This could have been #1.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Speaking of splitting hairs and
could have been #1. Shawshank is the
perfect movie to bring hope. It is also
a perfect example of male friendships.
Filial love. Morgan Freeman is
fantastic. My only knock on it, and the
reason why it’s #2, is that I cannot stand Tim Robbins. To a certain extent he plays the character
well, but I just can’t stand him.
Otherwise, it’s perfect.
Schindler’s List (1993)
It’s a bit of a cliché to have this
first, and I really debated about ranking it lower. This is especially true if you consider
“replayability”, which is nearly zero.
In fact, a part of me would say that for the year, Jurassic Park was
better. But, it’s a heart-breakingly
perfect movie. Again, outside of how
much you want to rewatch it, there aren’t any flaws.
Extra fun: the
best movie scores of the decade (Like the movies, this decade of film scores
tops them all. It’s the reason why I got
into film scores to begin with. Actual,
full, orchestral scores, with memorable themes.
This time of music is nearly unheard of today. I will choose one to represent each composer,
because it’s impossible to list everything.)
Jurassic Park
(John Williams – Home Alone, The Phantom Menace)
Apollo 13
(James Horner – The Rocketeer, Patriot Games, Sneakers, Legends of the Fall,
Braveheart, The Mask of Zorro)
The Hunt for
Red October (Basil Poledouris – Starship Troopers, For Love of the Game)
The Last of the
Mohicans (Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman)
Waterworld
(James Newtown Howard – The Fugitive, Outbreak, The Postman, The Sixth Sense)
Tombstone
(Bruce Broughton)
Dances with
Wolves (John Barry)
Sense and
Sensibility (Patrick Doyle – Much Ado About Nothing)
Edward
Scissorhands (Danny Elfman – Dick Tracy, Mission: Impossible, Sleepy Hollow)
As Good As It
Gets (Hans Zimmer – Days of Thunder, Backdraft, Crimson Tide, Broken Arrow)
Cutthroat
Island (John Debney)
The Mummy
(Jerry Goldsmith – Total Recall, Rudy, The Shadow, First Knight, Executive
Decision, The Ghost and the Darkness, The 13th Warrior)
Speed (Mark
Mancina – Bad Boys, Twister, Tarzan)
Stargate (David
Arnold – Independence Day, Tomorrow Never Dies, Godzilla)
Contact (Alan
Silvestri – Forrest Gump, Eraser)
Batman: Mask of
the Phantasm (Shirley Walker)
Star Trek VI:
The Undiscovered Country (Cliff Eidelman)
Terminator 2
(Brad Fiedel)
Bram Stoker’s
Dracula (Wojciech Kilar)
Maverick (Randy
Newman – Toy Story)
The Phantom
(David Newman – Galaxy Quest)
The Rock (Hans
Zimmer and others)
Other music from the decade: this is the music of my middle school/high school days. Grunge was king for me. The 90s saw basically the end of real “rock.” It was also the end of real country music. 90s music is a little bit more serious than the 80s, though there’s some fun music to balance it out. What other decade would have given us Lump or Peaches or If I Had $1000000? Then there’s ska. And “swing.” Punk, alternative, rap, etc. One thing you can say about 90s music, it was all over the place, eclectic, much better than the bland generic noise that’s out today where everyone sounds the same.
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