52 Pick-Up

15. Rebecca De Mornay

(actress, Guilty as Sin)

"If I had to choose just one movie, it would be Gone With the Wind. I saw it when I was 10 years old and, basically, it changed my life. I saw expressed in the character of Scarlett O'Hara everything I'd come to feel about how you were perceived if you were a strong woman. I saw her as a strong woman who was very misunderstood. She did things that caused people to say, 'Oh, she's a liar,' or, 'Oh, she's a bitch,' but in fact she felt more passionately than anyone. She was the strength, the backbone, that everyone relied on when things were the hardest."

16. Jean-Claude Van Damme

(actor, Hard Target)

"Star Wars, definitely. I was just a teenager when I saw the movie. I remember watching Luke Skywalker, who left his home to go traveling through space on these incredible adventures. It inspired me to, eventually, leave my home in Brussels to pursue my dreams of adventures in Hollywood."

17. & 18. Steven Spielberg and Holly Hunter Duke It Out

Holly Hunter: "What film made the biggest impact on me? Oh, The Best Years of Our Lives. I just loved that film. It seemed so real, and Fredric March was simply marvelous."

Steven Spielberg: "For me, it would have to be It's a Wonderful Life."

Hunter: "Oh, It's a Wonderful Life sucks. I liked The Best Years of Our Lives much better."

Spielberg: "Yes, that's a fine film, too. It had so much meaning, not only after World War II, but after Vietnam as well."

Hunter: "And that scene where Fredric March comes home, and surprises his wife that he's back from the war..."

Spielberg: "Yes, that was marvelous. The look on Myrna Loy's face in the kitchen when she knows by instinct that her husband is back! But I still like It's a Wonderful Life better."

19. Sophia Loren

(actress, A Special Day)

"When I was a little girl in my little town in Italy, I liked to see musicals with Judy Garland, especially The Magician of Oz [sic]. That film brought me into a magic world, a world of dreams--for two hours I was able to forget the anguish, to forget for a moment the desperation for food."

20. Robert Downey Jr.

(actor, Heart & Souls)

"King of Hearts made a big impression on me, as did my father's films, but the biggest impact of all was seeing A Clockwork Orange. It's such a surreal film that maybe someone underage shouldn't have seen it."

21. Don Bluth

(filmmaker, Thumbelina)

"I loved seeing movies as a kid, but Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first time I took real notice and said, 'There's something different here.' The colors were subtle, the story was frightening yet triumphant--it's the movie that got me interested in animation."

22. Emilio Estevez

(actor, The Mighty Ducks)

"I'd have to say Badlands. Why? My father played the Charlie Starkweather character, and he's great in it--in fact, it's a great movie."

23. Alek Keshishian

(director, Truth or Dare)

"Oh, Lawrence of Arabia made a huge impression because it transported me to another world I knew nothing about."

24. Moira Kelly

(actress, With Honors)

"I loved The Quiet Man with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, because I'm Irish and it made me proud. I used to watch it every Saint Patrick's Day."

25. Carol Burnett

(actress, Annie)

"Though I know people call it 'Capra-corn,' I have to say I loved It's a Wonderful Life because of Jimmy Stewart's performance. I was a kid when it came out, and though the movie was not subtle by any means, I think Stewart's scene in the bar-- before he decides to throw himself off the bridge--is one of the most beauti¬ful acting jobs I have ever seen."

26. Stephen Dorff

(actor, BackBeat)

"I was taken by movies made in the late '60s and early '70s like Midnight Cowboy and A Clockwork Orange. Why? They're movies that shook people and actually made connections. That's lacking in movies today--there's almost a distance put up between the audience and the screen."

27. John Schlesinger

(director, The Innocent)

"Despite the hatred of the Nazis in the '30s, there was a great interest [in England] in all things German. I suppose the first time I really became conscious of the style in movies was when I was 11 or so at school, and I saw The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. No other film ever looked like that, and I never forgot it."

28. Nancy Travis

(actress, So I Married an Axe Murderer)

"Gone With the Wind made a huge impression on me when I was young. When they rereleased it, my mother took me to see it on the huge screen. I'd read the book beforehand, but nothing prepared me for how much I loved Vivien Leigh. I had to know everything about her."

Pages: 1 2 3