Douglas Howe: December 2008 Archives

The American Film Institute recently named its Top 100 Most Inspiring Films of All Time. I wish there was an Academy Award for the Most Inspiring Film of each year.

Here are 14 of my favorite inspiring films of all time, in order of release date. (See here also for my list of Top 10 Most Inspiring Films of 2008.)

1. Casablanca (1942) - The best kind of inspiring film: it didn't seem like it was trying to be one. That is, until the tragic hero becomes the pathetic anti-hero and then becomes the redemptive hero!

2. It's a Wonderful Life (1946) - Hard to top this classic. I'm glad it only plays around Christmastime--I can't help but get misty at every viewing.

3. The Sting (1973) - Okay, to some it's a gentle comedy about con men in a prior time, but to me it was a buddy flick that showed the power of being buddies, loyalty, doing what you're good at, and the stakes of getting caught. It kept me out of a lot of trouble, too!

A few weeks ago I received an invitation from Beliefnet co-founder and editor-in-chief teve Waldman to make note of my "Best Spiritual Read of 2008."  One book clearly came to mind. It's a pretty simple, straightforward book, though I've tried to remember a better or more challenging, more sublime, or more esoteric book to put forward.

Alas, though, there's no getting around it: the one that was the best, the most challenging, the most sublime, and certainly the most spiritually powerful was so profoundly simple that it was simply profound: "The Purpose of Christmas" by Rick Warren. The book has joined Handel's "Messiah" and "A Charlie Brown Christmas" as the media that inspire me most at this time of the year outside of, of course, the Bible itself.

Moviephone.com has made the confident pronouncement that Brad Pitt's turn in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" is not only excellent, but it is his best role ever. That's saying something--and it's an interesting question for us to ask about any actor we follow. .

"Pitt plays Benjamin at each stage of his life-- from naive wrinkly old man to wizened smooth-faced youth, nailing the emotional journey every step of the way," says Moviephone.com. "It's a virtuoso performance in a heartbreaking film." He's certainly come a long way from "The Mexican," perhaps the most over-expected and under-received film of the decade (with Julia Roberts).

In this upcoming award season, there will be much talk about the major categories but not nearly enough about, what I like to call, The Forgotten Category, the one that should exist: "Most Inspiring."

Movies, after all, exist not only to entertain and to provide a break from reality, but also to inspire us to make a more positive contribution in our lives. To that end, here are my Top 10 Most Inspiring Films of 2008.

1. Seven Pounds - This one is getting hammered by the critics, but I found it to be the most inspiring film of the year. It takes work to watch it, and even more once you understand it. It messes with the biblical themes of grace, mercy, sacrifice, and redemption--themes that should compel our own lives.

2. The Dark Knight - I was a fan of Adam West's "Batman" as a kid and of Michael Keaton's "Batman" as a young man. Having said that, I still found "The Dark Knight" to be the most inspiring glimpse into the mind of the caped crusader.

3. Slumdog Millionaire - Like "Rocky," the dénouement and tidy ending of this movie makes the sum of its lethargy forgivable. Also like "Rocky," it may steal the Best Picture category.

Kris Rasmussen is certainly one of Idol Chatter's best bloggers, and her "Best Holiday Moments in Film" article is worth reading if you're a fan of Christmas movies, blogs, and/or blogs about Christmas movies. We all of have own tastes, and I hope her article triggered thoughts about your own favorites.

Her "Moments" are compelling but only 2 of my own Top Ten were in her list ("A Christmas Carol" and "It's a Wonderful Life.") Here are my other eight:

"Miracle on 34th Street": The Closing Argument

Who can deny the magic of when the post office workers drag hundreds and hundreds of mailed letters and deliver them to Kris Kringle. I think we all always wondered where our letters went, and now we knew! They went towards "proving" to the courts that Kris the real Santa!

In a scene straight out of the spirit of "National Treasure" or "The Da Vinci Code," a curator at the Louvre in Paris has discovered secret drawings on the back of a Da Vinci painting. "The extraordinary find was made...

Several years ago, a pastor's son planted a church in a tough-to-reach upper middle class suburb in Southern California. For years--even decades--he shunned the spotlight to focus on his ministry. His church grew. It spun off other churches. He coached...

America Online recently reported its annual list of Top Ten Quotes of the Year, as named by Fred R. Shapiro. I found the list to be somewhat entertaining, partially nostalgic but, most of all, quite less than inspiring. Tops on...

While it doesn't open in wide release until Friday, I had a chance to see "Frost/Nixon" out in Los Angeles last week and I can't recommend it enough--for adults who remember the time but who can now reflect on history...