13 Films To Get To Know Jim Geschke
Jim Geschke from the Quoth The Maven substack swings by to share his bakers' dozen list of films to get to know him a bit better.
I’m a literary guy, so I’ve always appreciated great storytelling. I’ll submit, however, that I know precious little about writing screenplays, so I’ve always relied on a director’s vision, the cinematographer’s eye and the actors’ skills to take me on the journey.
And so it is true with movies. Tell a story with celluloid, and make it engaging, scary, intriguing, emotional, sentimental, or funny. All of the films that have “made me” carry these qualities. Most are well-known, and some land on “best” lists. However, a few are considered quirky cult classics, mainly Reservoir Dogs and The Big Lebowski.
The genres vary – comedy/satire, horror, sci-fi, gangster and war films, a western, a baseball reverie, plus two prison movies. But no superheroes, romantic comedies, adventures (OK, maybe Gladiator), or sweeping fantasies (a la Lord of the Rings trilogy). Not my jam.
In retrospect, almost all are “guy” movies with typically masculine themes. ((shrug)) No apologies. It is just who I am.
Here is a short bio from the Marquis’ Who’s Who in America …
2001: A Space Odyssey (1969)
“Daisy, daisy … give me your answer do.” – HAL-9000
When I first saw Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s groundbreaking novel I was prepared for an absorbing, futuristic sci-fi adventure. I wasn’t ready to be totally spooked. Who knew that dead silence and a soft-spoken computer with an unblinking red eye (HAL-9000) could be so terrifying?
Imagine poor Dave Bowman (Kier Dullea), marooned and helpless millions of miles from home with one desperate chance at escape …
Bowman: “Open the pod bay door, Hal!”
HAL-9000: “I hear you, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
Chills.
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Coppola spent $30 million of his own money on making this twisted, psycho-war drama. The entire length of the film – and it is lengthy, the Redux cut is 3 hours and 22 minutes – is like touring a surrealistic hallucination on steroids. The story follows a military assassin Capt. Willard (Martin Sheen) as he slowly descends into insanity while pursuing the mysterious Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a commander who has gone rogue and already is insane.Got it?
Coppola adapted Joseph Conrad’s Byzantine novel Heart of Darkness and reset it to the Vietnam War. Willard’s journey down the misty Mekong River places him in one bizarre scene after another – combat zones with an assortment of freaky characters, and lots and lots of corpses.
Some find it depressing. I found it a fascinating look into the darkest recesses of the human soul.
The Big Lebowski (1998)
“The Dude Abides”
Men love to quote their favorite movies. A total “guy thing.” And there is no movie more quotable than the quirky, idiosyncratic Coen brothers’ masterwork.
This is another story of mistaken identity as a slovenly and unrepentant slacker Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) wrongly gets caught up in a gangster’s extortion scheme. Coming along for “The Dude’s” hilarious ride are his bowling buddies – the brutish Walter Sobchuk (John Goodman) and fall guy Donny (Steve Buscemi).
The Big Lebowski has become legendary as a cult classic. Bridges’ irreverent character has spun off hundreds of cult fan clubs (self-styled “Achievers”), many of which hold annual conventions in cities across the country.
Cool Hand Luke (1967)
Back in the day, nobody played a scoundrel better than Paul Newman. And nobody was cooler at doing it. (OK, maybe Steve McQueen).
Luke Jackson (Newman) is a small-time loser who lands in a Southern chain gang for petty theft. Luke is a charming lout, however, a free bird with a winning smile and piercing blue eyes who simply refuses to be caged. You can’t help but root for him.
So many great scenes: The “bet,” as Luke claims he can eat 50 hard-boiled eggs in 10 minutes … and the poker game in which Luke bluffs his way to a big pot: “Sometimes nothin’ can be a real cool hand.”
A special bow to veteran actor George Kennedy, who won a Best Supporting Oscar for his portrayal of “Dragline,” Luke’s tag-along prison buddy.
Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Speaking of Stanley Kubrick ……
Maximizing the comic genius of countryman Peter Sellers, the British film master struck mankind’s greatest existential threat with a satirical haymaker. The farcical events and unhinged behavior in Dr. Strangelove speak unequivocally to the insanity of nuclear annihilation. Heady stuff, especially for the agita of Cold War 1964.
Sellers plays three roles brilliantly – the milqetoast President Merkin Muffley, a hapless RAF Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake, and the maniacal ex-Nazi science advisor, Dr. Strangelove.
Kubrick spins a dark and fiendishly funny screenplay. (“Gentlemen, you can’t fight here … this is the War Room!”) The stellar supporting cast – Sterling Hayden (Gen. Jack D. Ripper), George C. Scott (Maj. General “Buck” Turgidson), and Slim Pickens (Maj. “King” Kong) – makes Dr. Strangelove the defining film satire of the 20th century.
Field of Dreams (1989)
This ethereal 1989 film spins a dewy-eyed story of forgiveness, born in a cathedral -- a fantastical baseball diamond -- carved out of a rural Iowa cornfield.
Mystical figures from baseball's past emerge from Ray Kinsella’s (Kevin Costner) fields, including disgraced hero Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta), and Ray’s father, John Kinsella (Dwire Brown).
Ultimately, this isn’t a baseball movie but rather a tale of redemption – for Shoeless Joe, both Kinsellas, radical 60s author Terrance Mann (James Earl Jones) and long-forgotten Archie “Moonlight’' Graham (Burt Lancaster).
There is so much magic in this sweet little film. The final scene between the father-and-son Kinsella (“Hey dad, wanna have a catch?”) hits me at the deepest, most personal level.
Gladiator (2000)
A strange question bounced around social media a few months ago: How often do today’s men think about the Romans? Judging from tens of thousands of responses, quite a lot, it turns out.
My go-to for ancient Rome is Gladiator, featuring Russell Crowe as Maximus Decimus Meridius, the baddest ass ever to wear lorica segmentata (Roman armor). Crowe strikes a perfect balance between integrity, humility, and ferocity. But when he “unleashes hell,” it is best to duck your head before he removes it.
I’ve put to memory Maximus’ “reveal” – the menacing monologue that causes his foe, Emperor Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), wet his toga.
“My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the TRUE emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.”
Strength and Honor. And an Oscar for Crowe. Legendary stuff.
The Godfather (1972)
More than a half-century has passed since Francis Ford Coppola’s tour de force of American cinema. To my mind, there were none better before and nothing better since. It’s hard to believe that “whacking” could be so aesthetically pleasing and sentimentally romantic.
From Nino Rota’s gorgeous film score to Gordon Willis’ low-lit but color-rich cinematography, The Godfather was the first movie that made me aware that filmmaking was an art form.
Marlon Brando (Don Corleone) shuffled and mumbled his way to an Oscar, and Al Pacino’s (Michael) transformation from war hero to stone-cold killer launched him to superstardom.
The Killing Fields (1984)
The true story of Dith Pran, a Cambodian journalist/interpreter who gets swept up in the chaos of the takeover of his country by the Khmer Rouge Communists in 1975. Pran’s family escapes with the help of New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg (Sam Waterston), but he is detained and forced to live under dictator Pol Pot’s bloody regime.
It is a heart-wrenching journey as Pran (played with beautiful sensitivity by first-time actor Haing Ngor) is exposed to the horrors of the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror (it is estimated that more than 2 million Cambodians were executed between 1975 and 1979).
No spoiler alert, but if you aren’t crying over the last 3 ½ minutes of this memorable film, you aren’t human.
Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)
With all due respect and love for Comicus Emeritus Mel Brooks, the Pythons’ Biblical farce made me laugh the longest and hardest, all the while holding my hand over my mouth. Still does 45 years later.
The story centers around Brian (Graham Chapman), a hapless Judean activist mistaken at birth as the Son of God. Brian bumbles through life trying to escape his fate but is forced to contend with the inept Romans, kooky religious fanatics, and other clownish denizens from antiquity.
Life of Brian is outrageous and wickedly smart, the Pythons’ masterpiece. Nothing better defines its audacity (and breathtakingly bad taste) than the outro featuring the jaunty singalong to “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
The Tarantino movie before Tarantino became Tarantino.
Include me as one in the legions of Mr. Pinks (Steve Buscemi) who passes off observational quotes as a personal philosophy. This is a neo-noir heist film that weirdly doesn’t show the actual heist, but we know it all went wrong in the bloody aftermath.
Everything is driven by tense conversations among its ensemble cast of gangsters with colorful aliases – Mr. Brown (Tarantino himself), Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen), Mr. Pink (Buscemi) and Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) – and the subsequent Mexican standoff-style confrontations. It foreshadows the Tarantino classic Pulp Fiction, released two years later.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
This is a near-perfect film. Anything with Morgan Freeman as the narrator is great.
The story, based on Stephen King’s 1982 novel, loosely parallels Alexander Dumas’ classic novel The Count of Monte Cristo written nearly 150 years earlier. Like Dumas’ protagonist, Edmond Dantès, banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) is falsely imprisoned and spends the prime of his life behind bars.
While at Shawshank, Dufresne is befriended by fellow lifer Ellis (“Red”) Redding (Freeman). The friendship between Andy and Red is at the heart of the film, though Red can never really get inside Andy’s head. In the end, like Edmond Dantès, both earn the redemption they so richly deserve.
Tombstone (1993)
“I’ll be your Huckleberry!” – Val Kilmer (Doc Holliday)
Tombstone could have stood on its own as a Western classic, with Kurt Russell (Wyatt), Sam Elliot (Virgil) and Bill Paxton (Morgan) as the combative Earp brothers tumbling toward destiny in a small lot adjacent to the OK Corral.
But what makes Tombstone an “epic’ is the stunning performance by Val Kilmer as the genteel Georgia-born dentist-turned-cutthroat John Henry “Doc” Holliday. Kilmer “kills” it here. His Holliday casually strolls through the film as a man walking between the raindrops – he is the deadly calm amid the storm. His tension-laced duel with Cowboy pistoleer Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn) is one for the ages.
A respectful tip-o-the-Steson to the late Powers Boothe, who deftly plays Cowboy scumbag Curly Bill Brocious.
Just missing the cut: Casablanca (1942), Fargo (1996), Network (1976), The Outsiders (1983), Oppenheimer (2023), Interstellar (2014), Forrest Gump (1994), Young Frankenstein (1977), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Terminator (1984), The Graduate (1968)