Movie Classics

New movies are constantly coming out of the theaters, but only the ones that are considered timeless can really get labeled as classics.

According to Rotten Tomatoes top 100 Classic List, Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window takes number nineteen. Rear Window was released in 1954 and starred James Stewart and Grace Kelley. In the movie, Stewart plays L.B. ‘Jeff’ Jefferies, a photographer for a magazine. His leg is broken and throughout the entire movie, he is stuck in his room. Since the film is centered around him, the camera never actually leaves his room. This aspect of the film was very rare and gained a lot of attention in the film world. To pass the time, Jefferies looks out the back window in his apartment. The apartments are set up in a way where Jefferies is able to see into almost all his neighbors’ apartments. After a while, the neighbor right across from him begins to gain his attention. The story evolves into a murder mystery and ends in an intense close call with this neighbor.

It’s a Wonderful Life is another movie that has been labeled as a classic and it takes spot number fifty-four on the Rotten Tomatoes list. Released in 1946, director Frank Capra creates a film that centers around George Bailey (James Stewart). Bailey has always dreamed of traveling to far off places but he is stuck in the small town of Bedford Falls running his father’s loan business. On Christmas Eve, some money is misplaced and George realizes that he will be held responsible for the money and will be sent to jail. He starts thinking that everyone’s lives would be better without him and he thinks about committing suicide. Prayers from tons of his loved ones get noticed and he is sent an angel named Clarence to help him realize just how important he is. It’s a Wonderful Life is a great movie that can help everyone realize that each and every one of us really does have an influence on the world.

According to IMDb, the quote, “ There’s no place like home” was voted #11 out of 100 Greatest Movie Lines in 2007. This line is from the one and only, Wizard of Oz, which first hit the theaters in 1939. The Wizard of Oz is a magical tale of a girl named Dorothy who wishes she could explore places beyond her home in Kansas. A tornado hits and she magically ends up in the land of “Oz”. There she meets a scarecrow, a tin man and a lion all in search of something; courage, a heart, and a brain. Together they go on an adventure to find the legendary Wizard of Oz to help Dorothy to get back home. Thus, producing the ever famous movie line, “There’s no place like home.” Every story has a villain and in this one, it is the wicked witch of the west. She is a ruthless, creepy, green-faced witch that has an obsession with Dorothy’s ruby slippers. Margaret Hamilton, the actress for the Wicked Witch of the West, was so good at being the witch that some of her scenes got cut because they were thought to be “too frightening for audiences.” Hadley Goff, a senior, said, “As a little kid the witch always scared me, but I loved her monkey minions so I would watch it anyway!” The Wizard of Oz is a timeless classic about searching until you finally find what you have been looking for, in Dorothy’s case she finally got home.

Another classic is Mary Poppins, starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. The story is about a wealthy family in London is looking for a nanny and they are very pleased when Mary Poppins comes and shows them what she can do. The misbehaving children don’t know what to do with her because they have scared all of their other nannies away, but Mary Poppins changes them forever. She straightens them up by giving them a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down and takes them on daily outings to different magical places. They ride on carousel horses and sing with dancing penguins with Bert the chimney sweep. One not so magical place was Mr. Bank’s bank that was next to the Saint Paul’s Cathedral, where the children ran into a woman “feeding the birds.” In the 21st century, this act of feeding the birds was became forbidden by law because it was increasing the bird population too much. According to IMDb, Walt Disney believed that Mary Poppins was one of the crowning achievements of his career.

Classic movies are memorable because they make people feel a certain way, whether that is surprised, excited or sad. This makes the movies easy to connect and fall in love with, back when they came out and even now.